“Oh, you have to be kidding,” Sian muttered. “Why don’t they just run?”
“Because if they had any sense, they wouldn’t be pirates,” Han told her. He felt for his comlink and realized it was back at Viest’s control center. “You got a comlink?” She tossed him one and he tuned it to the Aegis’s frequency. “Aegis, come in, this is Solo.”
“This is Aegis,” Kelvan’s relieved voice said. “Where are you? Fera and Allian and the others said they lost contact with Captain Metara, and we haven’t been able to raise anyone on the comlink.”
“Yeah, we had to take another way out, and we couldn’t get a signal through.” There was no time to update Kelvan on everything that had happened; anyway, there was no way Han was going to be the one to give him the bad news about his captain. “We’re breaking the prisoners out now. What’s the situation in the docking ring?”
“Not good. Some of the ships farther down have taken off, but we can hear fighting out in the corridor. More ships are leaving orbit every moment, so if you can get to us, we should be able to make it out of here.”
That was a pretty big “if” at the moment. These pirates were grabbing anything that wasn’t nailed down and shooting anything that moved. If they tried to make their way through the cargo area, Han thought the chances were good that they would get shot as potential rivals for the goods. “We need a distraction.”
“Like what?” Sian asked worriedly.
They needed something to remind the pirates that they were supposed to be under Imperial attack. “Kelvan,” Han said, “I’m going to get a ship to fire on the bays in the docking ring between the Aegis and the cargo area. Just stay where you are until we call you.”
He cut off Kelvan’s startled “What ship—” and tuned the comlink, searching for the Falcon’s frequency. “Chewie, come in, it’s me.”
The quick response was a relief, and the first thing Chewbacca tried to do was demand to know if Han and Leia were behind the fake Death Star transmission and just what was going on down there? Han managed to get a word in edgewise to tell him, “Listen to me, I need your help right now. We’re stuck here and we need a distraction. This is what I need you to do—”
Leia led the way through a set of smaller chambers and passages that had been torn apart by years of pirate occupation. She had put Kifar and Terae behind the prisoners, to guard their retreat and to make sure the stragglers kept up. The merchants and crew who had been captured on the ship with Davit were in the best shape, able to help the wounded. The ones who had been imprisoned there longer were suspicious, desperate, and not entirely sure they were being rescued and not just being transferred to different captors. They were mostly human, except for a small group of Sullustans and Duros and an Arkanian woman. Leia couldn’t keep an eye on all of them and could only hope that no one decided to pick up a weapon and use it on her or Kifar or Terae. Andevid followed by her side, which helped a little. Leia had no idea if he would actually risk his hide for any of them, but he did look tough, so at least that was something.
She reached the last chamber, where an arched hatchway opened into the loading area, and found Han and Sian. She winced at the sound of blasterfire and fighting; obviously the pirates hadn’t panicked and fled en masse as they had hoped.
“Solo!” Davit greeted Han with relief. “It’s good to see you again, and not through a metal mesh.”
“Yeah, it’s good to be seen,” Han said, leaning to look around the edge of the hatchway.
“What was this idea of yours?” Leia asked Han. She had heard the brief comlink conversation with Kelvan at the Aegis, and the prospect of getting down the docking ring hadn’t sounded promising.
“I called the Falcon,” Han said. “Chewie’s going to—”
An explosion rattled the metal floor plates under Leia’s feet and sent dust and mold raining down from the rocky ceiling. Leia leaned around Han to see the loading area. “What was that?” The three rival groups of pirates holding the entrance docking ring and the cargo area had stopped shooting to stare around. The freed prisoners whispered nervously, and Davit glanced worriedly over his shoulder, as if afraid they would bolt.
“That was Chewie.” Han watched the scene in the loading area intently. “Let’s hope these guys get the message.”
Distant rumbles sounded from the outer corridors, muffled by the layers of rock overhead. “Chewie is strafing the asteroid,” Leia said, not sure whether to be appalled or … “That might actually work,” she finished reluctantly. With the explosion in the interior and Anakaret’s fake transmission, the idea that it was time to flee might finally penetrate some thick pirate skulls.
The crew nearest the ring of docking bays above the loading area gave in first. Someone must have given an order, because they fell back with almost military precision, efficiently covering one another until they could dodge back into their docking bay. That released the other two crews from their standoff, one bolting in a noisy mob to vanish down the curving corridor of the docking ring, the other scrambling to grab what they could of the metal fragments scattered across the loading area. As the docking bay doors shut behind the first crew, the third crew charged up the ramp and headed for the last open bay.
“That’s it,” Han said, and stepped cautiously out of the hatch. “Come on.”
Leia clicked her comlink. “Terae, we’re moving. Make sure they keep up.”
“Yes, Cap—Your High— Leia,” Terae replied.
Leia followed Han and Sian as both kept a wary eye out for pirate stragglers. Andevid, Davit, and the prisoners followed her. They crossed the large open space of the loading area, passing several bloody and blasted bodies of humans, a couple of Bith, and a Rodian. “We’re going to go along the docking ring to our ship,” Leia told Davit, mainly to distract the prisoners near him who were listening nervously. She hoped none of them had gotten a good enough view of the Aegis during the battle to recognize it in dock. She wanted to wait until they disembarked at Arnot Station to explain to them that the pirate ship rescuing them was the same pirate ship that had captured them in the first place. “It’s not far. It’s—”
A yell from Kifar interrupted her. “Security droids!”
Leia spun around. Oh, no. Dark, cylindrical shapes floated out of the hatchway barely twenty meters behind them. Multiple arms ended in gleaming blaster nozzles. They were the security droids that guarded the cargo storage. One of the embattled crews must have summoned them, and it had taken this long for the droids to get around the traverses and junctions collapsed by the tunnel borer. “Run!” she shouted to the prisoners. “Move, now, this way!”
Andevid bolted immediately for the ramp up and out of the loading area. His path showed the prisoners where to run, and they followed in an almost orderly group. Han turned to Leia. “Get them up to the docking ring. We’ll cover you.”
The first droid fired its blasters, and Kifar and Terae returned fire. Their bolts slagged its metal carapace and it wheeled around sideways, but the other droids moved past it to shoot across the loading area. Leia shouted, “Kifar, Terae, fall back!”
Sian ducked behind a pile of cargo pressure crates and popped back up with a blast rifle dropped by one of the dead pirates. She steadied it atop the crate and opened fire. The Arkanian woman broke off from the mass of fleeing prisoners, grabbed a fallen pistol, and took cover beside Sian to pepper the droids with energy bolts.
As Kifar and Terae reached them and skidded around to dive behind the crates, Han gave Leia a push. “Just go! We’ll catch up!”
Leia would have argued, but the next bolt slagged the rock barely a meter in front of them. She ran after the prisoners, throwing a worried glance back to see Han dive for cover and pop up again to return fire.
She caught up with the prisoners and kept going, dodging around them to get in front, since she had no idea where Andevid might lead them. There was no way Han and the others could make it all the way along the docking ring to the Aegis with those droi
ds on their heels, but they might make it to the bays above the loading area. Leia pulled out her comlink. “Chewie, this is Leia, come in.”
“Leia!” It was Luke’s voice. Leia had a moment of heady relief, just glad he was here as well as Chewbacca. “Are you all right? What—”
“Luke, listen.” She threw a glance back. The droids were trying to advance on the cargo containers, their attention focused on the people shooting at them. “We need the Falcon to land and pick up Han and some others. There are empty docking bays right above their position. It’s next to the spot Han had you fire on.”
“We’re on it,” Luke answered firmly. “We’ll be right there.”
Han broke into the conversation. “Stop worrying about us and get out of here, sweetheart!”
Leia could hear blasterfire and Sian cursing in the background. She said, “Shut up and keep shooting droids!”
She reached the top of the ramp just as Davit and Andevid did. Davit had picked up a blaster. Past the hatch, there was a wide bend in the ring corridor, cutting off visibility ahead. It was a good spot for an ambush.
“Wait,” she snapped, and Andevid slid to a halt. Davit flung out his arms to signal the others to stop. Leia explained, “There might be some pirates left behind in this corridor. I’ll go first—”
A rumble shook the floor. Maybe fifty meters down the curve of the corridor, dust and debris rained down from the ceiling above the metal droid track. “What—” Leia had time to say, then cracks opened across the rock and chunks of stone crashed to the floor. “Get back!” she yelled.
They scrambled back to the stone safety barrier at the edge of the ramp, ducking down and huddling against it. The rumble of falling and shifting stone rattled Leia’s teeth and echoed in her bones. A cloud of dust and foul air rolled over them as the sound faded.
Leia lifted her head. The prisoners coughed in the dust; one of the wounded cried out in pain. Beside her, Davit sat up and shook the dust out of his fluffy hair. “We’re still breathing,” he gasped. “That’s good.”
An optimist, Leia thought. She didn’t know if they could get past the collapse. People were shouting on her comlink. One was Luke, and she heard him say, “Leia, we can’t get through the containment fields on those bays.” Chewie’s yowl of frustration sounded in the background. “There’s some kind of force-shield over them. I don’t know: maybe it’s a safety feature.”
Or defensive feature. “That’s very bad news, Luke,” Leia said, thinking frantically. “Take the Falcon out of there and we’ll call you—” When I know what to do. Hopefully before we’re all dead. “We’ll call you later.”
Andevid, crouched close enough to listen, said, “Somebody activated the mine’s defense system. Probably whoever took over the control center. Ships can get out, but nothing can get in.”
Han’s voice on her comlink demanded, “Are you all right? What happened?”
“This part of the docking ring collapsed.” She had to stop to cough as a dust cloud rolled down the corridor. “Next time tell Chewie to strafe more carefully!”
“What now, Leia Durane?” Davit asked her, his face drawn and anxious. “There is another way around?”
“There has to be.” Leia shoved to her feet and looked back at the loading area, hoping for inspiration. They were above the docking ring, with the automated ore-cart tracks running just below. She could see that the six large bays had open roofs to allow the carts to enter for loading. Five of those bays were now empty; one was still occupied, though from this angle she could only get a glimpse of the ship inside. “Andevid, what ship is in that bay?”
“It belongs to Ravin Thiss, one of Viest’s captains. He probably went to the control center when the word came that she was killed.”
“How many crew are likely to be in there?”
“Probably not many—maybe two or three,” Andevid said. “He’s small-time, only got a crew of twenty for boarding parties. If he was trying to take Viest’s place, he would have needed most of them with him.” He stared at her in admiration. “You want to take the ship?”
The possibility of twenty armed pirates didn’t sound small-time to Leia. “No, but that’s what we’re going to do.” She turned back to Davit. “Everyone with a weapon, follow me. The rest of you wait here.” She gestured to the support pillar and the safety barrier the pirates had used to fire down on the loading area. “Take cover over there, and when you see the bay doors open, get inside as fast as you can.”
Leia knew the bay doors were sealed and heavily shielded. If she blasted the lock, it would destroy the mechanism and they would have to try to crank them open manually. It would leave plenty of time for the people guarding the ship to realize what was going on. They were going to have to go in through the top.
She turned to the Quara. “Andevid, why are you still here? Is it because you think I’ll shoot you if you try to leave?”
“Not really. I don’t think you remember you captured me, most of the time.” Andevid scratched his chin below his tusk. “I was going to run away, but my escape route keeps getting cut off.”
“Where were you going to go?”
“I was going to try to steal a ship, but …” He shrugged. “Since you’re doing that, too …”
“All right, I’d like to hire you, as a crewman, until we reach Arnot Station. I’ll pay you five hundred credits.”
“Done.”
Leia handed him the power pack she had taken out of his blaster. “Right.”
She holstered her blaster, took two running steps, and jumped down onto the ore-cart track. She landed in a crouch; the track trembled under her feet but didn’t break. She started along it toward the bay, bracing herself as Andevid, Davit, and four other armed merchants landed behind her. She wished more of them had thought to grab weapons off dead pirates on their flight from the slave pen.
Her comlink beeped, and she answered it. “Yes?”
Kelvan said, “Don’t try to approach our docking ring! Someone’s trying to cut through the bay doors. They must be trying to take the ship—”
Leia opened a connection to both the Falcon and Han’s comlink. “Kelvan, I want you to launch the Aegis and get away from the asteroid. There’s another ship out there that’s with us. ID Millennium Falcon. I want you to rendezvous with it and prepare to jump to lightspeed. Luke, did you copy that?”
Luke replied, “Yes, but Leia—”
Kelvan said, “But what—”
Han cut in, “Leia, what the hell are you doing?”
Leia snapped, “Luke, Kelvan, do as you’re told. We’ll join you as soon as possible. Han, just give me a minute.” Reaching the spot where the ore track extended over the thick bay wall, she motioned to Andevid and Davit and the others to hang back. She eased forward and took a cautious look over the edge. She could see the ship, a freighter about twice the size of the Falcon and in outwardly better condition. Its engines were steaming in the damp air. Good, it was hot and ready to go.
Which meant Thiss might be on his way back and ready to abandon the mine.
An armed Rodian was stationed by the ramp, and a human man stood near the bay doors. The human started to turn to survey the ore-cart track, and Leia ducked out of his line of sight. From this angle she could just see the top of the Rodian’s head. She lowered her voice and said into the comlink, “Han, send someone up here to bang on the doors of this closed docking bay. I need the guard inside distracted.”
Han swore incredulously, but she heard him say, “Itran, get up there!”
“Tell him to say he was sent by Ravin Thiss with a message,” Leia added.
With a few whispers and gestures, she described the guards’ positions to Andevid and Davit. A few moments later, Kifar ran up the ramp, waved to Leia from below, and stopped at the bay entrance. Leia nodded to him and he pounded on the door with his free hand, shouting, “Hey, open up, I’ve got a message from Thiss!”
Leia said, “Now!” and flung herself forward. She hit
the track on her side and fired at the human guard near the doors. Andevid and Davit surged forward and fired at the Rodian near the ship’s ramp. Leia hit her target in the shoulder and the chest, and the man went down. Andevid and Davit both missed, and Leia flattened herself to the filthy metal as the Rodian returned fire. She and Davit had their blasters on stun, but Andevid and the Rodian didn’t and the bolts melted the track over Leia’s head. She rolled over and crawled forward, trying for a better angle. Two meters farther and she could just catch a hint of green under the edge of the ramp where the Rodian had taken cover. She took a deep breath, lifted up on her elbow, and fired.
The Rodian stumbled backward, Davit hit him again, and the guard went down.
“Come on!” Leia shoved upright and ran along the track until she was above the ship’s hull. The track was configured differently from the one in the Aegis’s bay, and it was only a three-meter drop. She holstered her blaster and swung down, then let go.
One of her ankles turned in as she landed and she let her weight go limp, hit the hard metal with her shoulder, and rolled. The landing still hurt, but she didn’t break any bones. Cursing the ship for not having a topside hatch, she hobbled to the ramp and climbed down the support strut. The Rodian lay sprawled unconscious beside the ship’s closed hatch. Leia stepped forward and hit the release. Please, oh, please … The hatch slid open and she let out the breath she was holding.
Andevid dropped to the ground near the ramp, with Davit and the other merchants awkwardly climbing down the struts after him. Leia stepped into the hatch, leaned against the safety sensor that would keep it open if someone tried to close it, and said, “Andevid, open the bay doors.” The Quara might be somewhat trustworthy, but she wasn’t letting him on this ship alone; he was still a pirate.