Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) (33 page)

“What did you do?” Scarlet asked, staring down at the planet's core as it shifted from dull red to a brighter orange.
“What did you do?”

The platform trembled, and a hot wind blew up from below through the grating—a gentle presentiment of worse things to come. Han stood up, but a barrage of fire from the stormtroopers drove him back into cover.

“We can't get out the way we came in,” he said. “Think I could explain to those guys that we should all be leaving?”

Leia didn't answer. “There.” She pointed at a nearby platform where there was a set of irising doorways the twins of the ones on their platform. “We need to get to that one.”

“Long jump, sweetheart,” Han said. It was at least fifteen meters from the edge of their platform to the one she was pointing at.

“Your grapnel,” Leia said to Scarlet. “Would it reach that far?”

Scarlet shifted her gaze between them, struggling to put Leia's question together with the one she'd asked.

“Yes,” Scarlet said, nodding. She was moving her head too fast. The drugs Leia had pumped into her to keep her from going into shock were making her jittery. “But nothing to secure it to on this side. The magnet's only on the grapple end.”

An electronic voice came from the doorway yelling, “Go go go!” and seven stormtroopers rushed into the room, shooting wildly. Han and Leia returned fire from cover, but Scarlet stood up and fired over the top of the control panel. When the troopers were finally driven back to the doorway, they left three of their number behind on the grating. Several blaster bolts had passed close enough to Scarlet to singe her hair and shirt.

“Please stop doing that,” Leia said. “Getting shot three times in one day won't be better.”

The core below shifted from orange to yellow, and the platform shook more vigorously. A gentle rain of dust and pebbles fell toward the core from the rocks above.

“We should leave now,” Han said.

“There!” Leia shouted, pointing up at a bright metal support arm for the platform above them. “Attach it there. We should be able to swing across.”

“Swing across,” Scarlet repeated. “That's crazy.”

“It'll work,” Leia insisted. “Trust me.”

Scarlet shrugged and handed her blaster to Han. She pulled the grapnel rig off her belt and programmed in the length of line she wanted.

“I'll be exposed while I'm doing this,” she said. “And while we're. . . swinging across.”

“I've got you covered. Get it set up,” Han said. When Scarlet moved off to the edge of the ramp to line up her grapnel shot, Han went with her, keeping his back to her and firing into the open doorway with both blasters as fast as he could pull the triggers. When one started to flash a warning at him, he yelled, “Reloading!” and Leia stood up to take over covering fire while he slapped in a new charge.

The grapnel line flew off with a smooth hiss, the magnetic head striking the support beam with a thud. Whatever the beam was made of, magnets stuck to it. Scarlet leaned all her weight back on the line, and it held.

A few brave stormtroopers poked their heads around the corner to take shots, but the blistering return fire from Han and Leia drove them back. One of them caught a blaster shot in the eye of his helmet and dropped, half in and half out of the round doorway.

“Do we go one at a time, or all at once?” Scarlet asked.

“Oh, we're all leaving right now,” Han assured her. “Leia, go, I'm right behind you.”

Leia ran past him, but he was too busy firing at the doorway to watch her attach herself to the line. “Han, go!” she shouted, and a wave of blasterfire flew past him as she opened up on the doorway.

Han turned and ran to the edge of the platform, firing back over his shoulder as he went. Scarlet and Leia had both attached the end of the line to their utility belts, so Han just ran at them at full speed, dove into a bear hug around them, and launched all three of them off the edge of the grating.

Scarlet yelped when Han's arm gripped her injured elbow, and Leia gasped as he squeezed all the air out of her. Han looked down, nothing between him and the almost white-hot planetary core but a few thousand kilometers of empty space. Galassian's tumbling body was too far away to see. A second later they were above the next platform and Scarlet released the line. They crashed to the metal grating in a knot. Han wound up on the bottom, with Leia's elbow in his eye and Scarlet's knee in his stomach.

“Ouch,” he said as they climbed off him. He didn't have time for more complaint, as a few blaster shots hit the grating and nearby wall.

Scarlet raced to open the platform's door, and Leia dived through, chased by incoming fire. Han stood and fired a few shots back at the stormtroopers, but at that range, any hits on either side would be completely up to luck. One of the remaining troopers wasn't firing, just looking across the gap at them, head cocked to the side in an obvious you've-got-to-be-kidding-me pose.

Han fired off a few more shots to keep them off balance, then followed Scarlet and Leia through the door. Scarlet shut it immediately behind him, and the sound of blaster shots hitting it echoed through the wall.

They were in a small chamber with one long, sloping shaft leading up at the end. A platform like the one they'd ridden down sat at the bottom.

“I hope that thing has power,” Han said.

Scarlet limped toward it. “It seems like everything down here is still powered up.”

“I hope you're right,” Han said. “Because there's no other way out of this room, and going back out onto the platform right now seems like a terrible idea. Also, the planet is imploding.”

Scarlet began flipping switches on the control panel, whispering to herself while she worked. Han heard the word “blue” and realized she was repeating the code from their last ride. His first thought was
I hope the same code means up;
his second was
How does she remember it at all?

When the massive metallic clang came and the elevator started to climb, Han said a silent thank-you to whatever force of the universe protected heroes and fools. A new round of tremors hit, shaking the floor hard enough to knock him to his knees. Scarlet held on to the control panel to stay upright, but Leia was knocked onto her backside with a thump. Hot wind rushed past them, blowing Scarlet's dark hair into wings on the sides of her head. Han smelled hot metal and lubricant. He hoped the K'kybak had built their transport as well as they had their control panels.

When the shaking stopped, Leia climbed to her feet with a grunt and a wince. “I'm going to need a very long soak in a very hot bath after this trip.”

“You know,” Scarlet said to Han, eyes narrowing, “I spent two years of my life tracking down the leads that eventually led to this place. Two years of dangerous undercover work. And when we found it, you blew it up on a whim.”

“Wasn't a whim,” he replied. “It was intentional and well thought out.”

“Don't blame yourself,” Leia said to Scarlet. “With Han, it's easy to mistake well thought out for spur of the moment. They look exactly the same.”

“As much as I'd like to argue the point, we don't have time,” Han said, then pulled out his comlink. “Chewie, buddy, you there?”

The only answer was static.

“Chewie, I hope you're not sleeping, because we're all going to die.”

That got a yowling response.

“We seem to be high enough to get through, if you want to call Luke with an update,” Han said to Leia. As she nodded and turned her attention to her comlink, Han went back to Chewbacca. “We need the
Falcon
up right now. Get it over to the temple. Jungle's too thick there to land, so we'll climb up to the top for pickup.”

Chewie rumbled out a reply and closed the connection.

“Again with the climbing to get picked up,” Scarlet said with a sigh.

“No stormtroopers shooting at us this time,” Han replied.

“No, you're right. Instead we get a planet blowing up below us.”

“Just saying it's not
exactly
the same.”

“You done?” Leia said to them. “We're almost at the top.”

The room they found themselves in had a doorway leading out to the narrow, disturbing hallways they'd come in through. The glittering in the strange alloy walls seemed more frenetic now, as if the architecture itself knew it was in danger. Scarlet pulled up her datapad, but the holographic map was as fuzzy and imprecise as a dream. Scarlet closed it out, shut her eyes in concentration, and then a moment later opened them.

“Follow me,” she said, and took off at a fast limp. Han shrugged and followed, Leia right behind.

Scarlet did seem to know where she was going. She took several turns that Han didn't remember from the first time, but at the end they wound up at the glowing metal hatch. The planet cooperated by keeping the shaking to a minimum while they made their way to the upper temple. But the minute they stepped foot on the stone floor, all restraint was lost. The planet shuddered like a bantha with the spurs in its flanks, bucking and shaking as if it were trying to throw them off. After several seconds of tossing them from one side of the corridor to the other, the quaking settled into a sullen but constant low rumble.

“Run,” Scarlet said. Han was already running, Leia's hand in his. He grabbed Scarlet's as he went by. If he lost either of them in the dark of the temple, he'd never have time to track them down.

If there were stormtroopers left at the site, they were hiding or had run off into the jungle. Imperial-issue equipment lay scattered on the ground, much of it knocked over by the quakes, some of it crushed flat by stones falling from the ceiling. As they sprinted, a massive block of stone the size of a landspeeder dropped from above and cut their passage in half.

Scarlet didn't hesitate, turning at the next junction and leading them through a side passage to get around it. Dust was filtering down from the ceiling, thickening the air. A pit in the floor opened a few feet ahead as they ran, and Scarlet yelled, “Jump!”

They didn't break stride as all three leapt across the abyss, then two turns and a long sprint later they were out in the free air of the dying planet.

All around them, the jungle was bucking and rolling like the surface of a stormy ocean. The massive trees cracked and split with the motion. Leaves the size of starships fell out of the sky, crushing anything beneath. Energy fields filled the skies with rainbows where the shear forces were enough to refract the light. The vast planetary mechanism fighting to regain its equilibrium and failing.

Han jumped up, grabbed the edge of the first level of the pyramid-shaped temple, and pulled himself onto it. He reached down to help Scarlet up, then ran to climb the next level while she hauled Leia up. Far to the east, a cloud of dust rose toward the sky. When they'd gone up a dozen levels or so, the layers got smaller, allowing them to run individually and make much better time.

As he jumped from step to step a hundred meters above the rolling jungle floor, Han pulled out his comlink and yelled to Chewbacca, “Where are you?”

The Wookiee roared back.

“What do you mean the start-up cycle keeps shorting out? You better make this work, pal, or we're all gonna die.”

Passing him, Leia pulled herself up onto a square stone block and stopped. They were at the top. Scarlet joined her and bent over at the waist, panting. Han looked around and saw nothing but the pyramid of stone below them and the quivering jungle all around. No ship in sight.

Scarlet gasped. Han followed her gaze. To the east, where the great plume of dust had risen, the ground was crumbling away. Island-sized swaths of jungle fell away, and the white-gold light of the unstable core blazed out. Whatever forces had kept the planet steady until now were failing, and Seymarti V was eating itself.

“Is he going to make it?” Scarlet asked. Han thought she meant Chewbacca, so he started to answer, but Leia cut him off.

“He should be here any second.”

As if summoned by her words, an X-wing screeched out of the sky toward them. It came to a hovering stop a few feet from the top of the temple. Out of Leia's comlink Luke's boyish voice yelled, “Get on!”

Leia climbed onto a wing, and Scarlet followed.

“This is not a permanent solution,” Han said. They couldn't exactly ride off the planet on the wing of a starfighter. But he followed. Buying himself a few extra seconds was what he did when it was all he could do.

“Hold on,” Luke said, and the X-wing pulled up away from the temple.

The planet gave a massive shudder that blew trees the size of office towers into the sky, and the entire temple beneath them fell into the planet in a cloud of dust and stone and scorching hot air.

A black dot on the rapidly eroding horizon turned into a disk and then into the
Falcon,
flying at them at high speed. A cloud of pale yellow dust bloomed up around them, obscuring the ship for a moment. A hot wind stinking of sulfur whipped them, pressing grit into Han's eyes.

“I'm not going to be able to hold on for much longer,” Scarlet said, her voice as calm as if she were talking about getting lunch rather than plunging to her death as the planet below her tore itself apart.

“You won't need to,” Han said, and a dark shadow rose through the dust below them. The
Falcon
edged up a centimeter at a time until all three could drop onto it and scramble through the hatch.

“Punch it, Chewie,” Han yelled as he ran to the cockpit. Chewbacca already had the
Falcon
flying straight up at its fastest atmospheric speed.

“Get belted in!” Han yelled to Scarlet and Leia.

“Hyperdrive working?” he asked as he settled into his seat. The Wookiee growled out an affirmative. “Get us a calculation for the current fleet position. We're going there in a hurry.”