Razor's Edge: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) (31 page)

Leia pushed to her feet and saw that the Imperials below had scattered, some running toward a blast door in the lower part of the dock and others running for the lift tube. She said, “Chewie, throw long to port.”

Han hit the door release and as it slid up he crouched and pitched his grenade. It landed among the men nearest the lift tube, who scattered back. As the door lifted out of the way, Chewbacca flung his grenade so hard and fast Leia couldn't see it, but she heard the muted crack as it hit the port wall of the bay. The Imperials must have thought these were concussion grenades, too, because the scramble to get away was violent. Han and Chewie ducked back, and the double thud of the muted explosions bounced off the viewport. Han straightened up, took a cautious look, and snapped, “Come on.”

Leia grabbed Sian's uninjured arm and stood up with her. Han and Chewbacca dropped and climbed down the ladder next to the lift platform. They spread out, moved cautiously toward the shuttle past the unconscious or groaning bodies, watching the lower-level blast door in the far wall. With Chewbacca to cover him, Han shut it and shot the control panel. Helping Sian, Leia rode the lift platform down and staggered hurriedly toward the shuttle. The ship's security alarm wailed, louder in the docking station than it had been in the corridor. “Luke,” she called out. “Is that you in there?”

“Leia?” Luke poked his head out, then stepped onto the ramp. His hands were in binders and he had a developing black eye but he was holding a blaster. “Good to see you guys!”

Dragging an Imperial out of the launch area, Han told him, “You better not have shot up the inside of that shuttle, junior, because that's our only way out of here.”

“No, it's fine,” Luke assured him, “Help me get rid of these guys in here. We've got to hurry—Degoren said there was a cruiser on the way.”

Leia waited with Sian while Han hauled out an unconscious Duros and dumped him onto the deck. He told Leia, “Itran's in here, wounded. We're spacing him, right?”

Luke leaned out again. “You knew he was an Imperial agent?”

Leia said, “We figured it out, a little late. And no, Han, though it's a tempting thought.” Sian slumped more heavily against her, slowly losing her grip on consciousness. Leia half helped, half hauled her forward, and Han caught Sian around the waist and carried her up into the shuttle.

Leia climbed in after him and saw Kifar Itran lying on the floor toward the back of the shuttle. He was wounded in the leg, and Han and Luke must have found a couple of spare sets of binders because both his hands and feet were cuffed. Luke was struggling with a code-lock key, trying to get his binders off. Leia helped Han settle Sian into a seat and then strapped her in as Han headed for the cockpit.

Itran said, “Princess, it's a mistake—”

“Don't be an idiot,” Leia told him. “You have until we reach the fleet to come up with a better story than that, and I recommend that you use the time wisely.” She forgot Itran as Chewbacca climbed into the shuttle and she smelled burned fur. “Chewie, are you hurt?” she demanded.

He woofed a denial at her and hit the sequence to raise the ramp and seal the hatch. Then he dropped heavily into the first seat. There was blackened and singed fur all along his left arm, and the patches of skin she could now see looked raw and abraded. “You
are
hurt!”

Chewie shook his head vigorously.

Leia didn't have time to argue with him. She heard a muted clank against the hull as the docking clamps released and stepped forward through the cockpit hatch. Han's hands moved swiftly over the control board as the shuttle's systems came to life. He said, “They're gonna try to stop us. We need covering fire from the
Aegis.
”

Leia dropped into the copilot's seat, strapped in, and brought up the comm board. “Chewie took a near miss but won't admit it.”

“Yeah, but once we get out of here, he'll admit it plenty. He just doesn't like sympathy while he's busy.”

Leia didn't comment. The only thing more dubious than Han's catalog of Chewbacca's odd habits and behaviors was Chewie's catalog of Han's odd habits and behaviors. She hailed the
Aegis
and said, “We've taken Degoren's shuttle and we're about to leave the corvette in it. Be advised there is an Imperial cruiser in route.” A crash out in the docking station interrupted her as the blast door Han had slagged blew open in a shower of sparks and smoke. Leia winced. “We need covering fire—”

The comm crackled and Kelvan's voice, desperate and urgent, said, “Your Highness, we have multiple comm ID contacts! We can't see them on the sensors yet—we're just at the edge of the sensor disruption zone—but at least a dozen ships must have come out of hyperspace!”

Han didn't glance away from the console but he grimaced. “Uh-oh.”

“Imperial IDs?” Leia demanded.

Voices in the background gave conflicting reports, then Leia heard Terae swear. “It's the pirates!”

It can't be.
Leia snapped, “Confirm that. These are ships from the clearinghouse?”

“They couldn't have followed us to this system. We didn't even know we were coming here,” Han said, his jaw set in a grim line. “Unless somebody from the
Aegis
got to the comm and called them after we set our course here.”

Leia shook her head. “No.” Over the comm, she told Kelvan, “They must have put a tracer on the
Aegis
when Viest paid for your repairs. She wanted to make sure you kept your end of her bargain. Whoever took over for her either suspects we killed her and wants revenge, or just wants the
Aegis.
”

There was a moment of shocked chagrin that Leia could sense right through the comm. The corvette couldn't see the pirate ships on its sensors from its position in the sensor disruption cloud, but it had to be picking up those ID contacts. The corvette's captain would think it was an elaborate trap, and they might cut and run for hyperspace.

Stormtroopers, the rest of the squad that they had met in the upper corridor, appeared out of the smoke. Most had only blasters, but one had something bigger. Han said, “We can't wait, sweetheart.”

“Kelvan, we're launching now,” Leia said, ending on a strangled gasp as Han fired the bow thrusters and the sudden jolt shoved her forward in her seat.

The shuttle fell back through the containment field and between the corvette's modules, down and away. The starfield wheeled as Han brought the little ship around. “I'm heading deeper into the sensor disruption field. If we can land and get to the
Falcon,
we'll have a chance.”

Leia didn't argue. The corvette wouldn't be able to target them, and hopefully it would be too busy to turn back and try to pick them up on visual. The shuttle's sensors were showing nothing but error codes and Leia doubted they could find the
Aegis
without being hit, either by the corvette or the pirates.

Luke stepped into the cockpit hatch and said, “How's it going?” He had managed to get the cuffs off and retrieved his lightsaber.

“It's been better,” Han said.

“How is Sian—” Leia started to ask, then the port dimmed and a too-near blast impact shuddered through the hull.

Han swore, sent the shuttle into an evasive flip that was better suited to a snubfighter and made the metal hull groan. Leia got a confused view of the
Aegis
falling past their port. On the comm, Kelvan said calmly, “A pirate fired on you, Your Highness. We're engaging now.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Leia managed.

Han sent the shuttle hurtling away from the battle. “You're right, Your Worship, they got a tracer on the
Aegis.
That's the only way they found it and us so fast.”

“She's breathing okay,” Luke told Leia, answering her question. “But we need to get her some help fast. I couldn't find a medkit anywhere on board.”

Leia could still hear the
Aegis
's bridge. Someone reported that the corvette had engaged the other pirates, unintentionally teaming up with the
Aegis
and confusing the situation further. Listening, Luke said, “The Imperials must think the pirates are Alliance ships.”

The shuttle fell toward the planet's gravity well, shuddering as it hit the upper atmosphere. They were close enough to make out the gray plains and the ridges that marked the ruined city. Luke leaned forward to type a course into the shuttle's nav screen. “This is where the
Falcon
is, if it's still there.”

“If?”
Han managed to get a world of appalled recrimination into that one word.

From the back, Chewbacca groaned.

“Hey, I was stunned,” Luke protested. “I don't know what happened. But I code-locked the hatch, and C-3PO was in there, so Itran couldn't get back inside.”

“Why didn't he call the
Aegis
?” Leia asked, over some expressive cursing from Han that they didn't have time for.

Luke shook his head. “I was having trouble with the comm after I landed. I think the field is stronger on the surface; he probably couldn't get a signal through.”

Following Luke's directions, Han brought the shuttle down over the empty stone city, past shattered towers and circular streets covered by sand drifts and vegetation. As the
Millennium Falcon
came into sight, still parked on the plaza where Luke had left it, there was a collective sigh of relief. Leia felt her heart unclench for Han and Chewie's sake, and for Sian. The
Falcon
had enough medical supplies on board to treat a blaster burn and stabilize her, at least until they could get her to the fleet.

Han landed the shuttle nearby and they hurriedly disembarked. Sian was conscious but in pain, and Luke carried her into the
Falcon
while Han ran ahead to start prepping the ship for a fast launch. The hatch slid open as he reached the ramp, revealing the gold droid. C-3PO said, “Oh, you're back! I was so worried! And I think Master Itran has been behaving very suspiciously.”

Han shouldered past them and Leia said, “Thank you, C-3PO. Please get the emergency medical station ready, we have wounded.”

“At once, Your Highness. Oh, but where is R2?”

“He's fine. He's with General Willard, heading back to the fleet,” Leia told him. Relieved, C-3PO hurried away as Chewbacca dragged Itran out of the shuttle. Once they were all safely inside the ship, Leia left Luke getting Sian settled on a bunk and went to the cockpit.

Han could get the
Falcon
ready to launch in three minutes, and this time she thought he did it in two. As the ship lifted out of the plaza, Leia dropped into the comm station. Chewbacca stepped into the cockpit and sank into his oversized copilot's chair.

She tried to hail the
Aegis
immediately but Luke was right, the signal was weak until they lifted into the upper atmosphere. As the
Aegis
's comm station acknowledged her she could hear Kelvan giving orders in the background, Terae's urgent voice. “What's your situation?” she demanded.

The crewman monitoring the comm answered, “We're out of the sensor disruption area. The corvette's destroyed one ship and damaged two others. We've been engaged by three.” His voice was young and he sounded tense, at the edge of fear.
It's bad,
Leia thought.

Finally, Kelvan's voice said, “Your Highness, are you safe?”

“Yes, we're on the
Falcon.
” Leia hesitated, and thought,
You have to do this. They could be destroyed at any moment.
She didn't want to lose them. But she had to let them go. “Kelvan, get out of there. Take the
Aegis
into hyperspace.”

There was a hesitation. “Princess, we can't leave you—”

“We're about to enter hyperspace ourselves. You need to get out of here, and get rid of that tracer. If you—I gave Terae a list of message drop sites. If you change your mind about the Alliance, come to the first one on the list a month from now. I'll meet you.”

“Your Highness, I can't promise you—I don't know what the others will want—I don't know what I want—” A blast that must have rocked the bridge interrupted him.

“Kelvan, please, go!” Leia said, and cut the connection.

The
Falcon
circled the planet and blasted into space.

As they shot away from the disruption field, contacts sprang up all over the sensors. But Han had chosen their escape route well, and none of the incoming pirate ships was close enough to reach them. The corvette was drawing most of the fire, and Leia saw the
Aegis
disable a persistent opponent with a pair of concussion missiles and then power away from the battle.

The coordinates for the nearest fleet rendezvous point were already programmed in, and Leia set the navicomp to calculate the jump. Most of his attention on the console, Han said, “They'll be all right.”

Leia shook her head. She hoped … She just hoped. The
Aegis
's ID vanished from the contact screen as it disappeared into hyperspace. A few moments later, the
Falcon
followed it.

Leia was anxious about the
Aegis,
though there were plenty of emergencies with the fleet to keep her occupied while she waited until it was time to go to the message drop point. Still, she found herself counting the days.

By the end of the month, Sian had recovered from her wound, Luke had been sent off on another mission, and Itran had been questioned extensively by Madine. One of the things that had kept Leia busy had been tracing Itran's progress through the Alliance, changing any codes or procedures or bolt-holes he might have had access to, checking heretofore unexplained mechanical failures and losses of supply sources that he might have engineered. Fortunately, Itran hadn't wanted to do anything that would have caused suspicion or drawn attention; he had been biding his time, waiting until he was transferred to the
Independence.

Leia knew they had been lucky to uncover him when they did. He could have continued to lie low and collect information and perform small acts of sabotage until he learned the location of Echo Base. But he had decided to risk it all with an attempt to hand Leia and General Willard over to Commander Degoren. Leia knew that was why Itran had volunteered to go with her to the
Aegis;
it must have been a spur-of-the-moment decision, caused by fear of losing one of his prizes. “He could have done much more damage to us, if he hadn't been so ambitious,” Madine had told Leia at one point.

“Perhaps we should take that as a lesson,” Leia had said. They had just come out of a meeting with Mon Mothma and several members of the High Command and Leia felt like she would have rather gone another round with Viest's mad mining droid. That she had dealt as much damage as she had taken wasn't much of a consolation.

“We should,” Madine had admitted. “But we won't.”

At least the whole episode of the clearinghouse hadn't been for nothing. Not long before the month was up, Han had taken the opportunity to find Kearn-sa'Davit at the trading port he was operating out of and get an update on the situation for the merchant consortium. With Viest out of the picture, things had gotten drastically better for shipping around Arnot Station and its trading partners. Davit wasn't certain, but he figured that many pirates had been frightened away from the clearinghouse permanently and wouldn't be coming back to the sector. The word through the black markets was that at least one, maybe two, of Viest's would-be successors had died at Rethel Point during the battle with the
Aegis
and the customs corvette.

But there hadn't been any noticeable gains for the Alliance out of the situation, no new supply source for Echo Base, and that had been made clear to Leia. So she was glad for more than one reason to slip away from the fleet on the
Millennium Falcon,
with no one but Mon Mothma and Madine's knowledge, to spend the time in Han and Chewbacca's occasionally irascible but undemanding company. She had brought C-3PO with her, and had more than enough work to keep her occupied while they waited for the
Aegis
to arrive.

When they reached the message drop point, the
Aegis
wasn't there, but Leia wasn't too worried. Depending on where its travels had taken it, and what repairs it had needed, it might take a while for the gunship to make its way here.

“Here” was a small trading port on a world at the edge of the Inner Rim, a long way from the clearinghouse and Arnot Station. The port was built out on raised platforms above a shallow freshwater sea, with docking pads, supply depots, cargo factors, shipwrights, and the usual clusters of drink and food service establishments. Everything was accessed by bridges, with small fishing boats sailing beneath, and several causeways connected the structures to the small city spread out across the nearest archipelago. It wasn't a bad spot to bide some time, even with the humidity and the morning mists—though Chewie frequently ended up being the one to go out to get food, and he had made it clear that he didn't take requests and they would eat what he brought back and like it. Leia settled in to wait, and to read the reports she had collected on her datapad.

After the second day with no sign of the
Aegis,
she was too anxious to relax. Waiting was becoming nerve racking rather than a pleasure.

The pointed absence of the
Aegis
was so painful to her that Chewbacca just watched her sympathetically, and even Han didn't mention the ship's failure to appear.

But finally, after four days, he said reluctantly, “If we stay here any longer, we're going to have to get jobs, or grow crops, or something.”

“I know.” Leia rubbed her eyes. They were sitting in the cockpit, where they had a good view of the other landing pads. The
Falcon
's platform was a little higher than the others, and they could see the other ships, mostly freighters and small local transports, in between the stretches of water and the tall, green fern-reeds that grew between the pilings. “I just hoped they would change their minds.”

It hadn't been just a hope—it had been almost a certainty. At the last, she had really thought Kelvan and even Terae had become open to the possibility of joining the Alliance. They had had every chance to betray Leia for profit, yet they hadn't done it. They had been honest with her, and trusted her.
They were honest with you, they wanted to help you, they trusted you. You, not the Alliance,
she thought.
And in the end, you failed them.
“I pushed too hard. I should have tried to set up another meeting just to talk. There was an implied commitment in coming here—that was a mistake.”

Han swung the pilot's chair back and forth. “I don't know what else you were supposed to say. They know the situation. They needed to make a decision.”

Leia looked away, at the busy crews and droids loading and unloading cargo. “And they must have made it.”

“Hey,” Han said softly. She turned back to look at him. “Let's give it one more day.”

Leia got to her feet. She wanted to nurse her disappointment in private. “One more night,” she said. She appreciated Han's generosity, but she knew there wasn't any point to remaining longer. “We can leave tomorrow morning.”

Then she woke at dawn the next morning to Han banging on her cabin door. Leia had already drawn her blaster, thinking the ship was being attacked, when she realized he was saying, “Get out here, Your Worship, there's something you need to see.”

She threw her clothes on hastily, and ran up to the cockpit just in time to watch something very like an Alderaanian gunship landing on the next platform over.