[Black Fleet Crisis(81)

Again there was no response, even when Lando’s suit thrusters exerted themselves.

“We must have misread the instructions, ” said Threepio. “Artoo, could you possibly have turned everything upside down? “

The little droid’s response was indignantly terse.

“I can’t get any real pressure on it, ” Lando fumed.

“Maybe these Qella were stronger than we are, at least under these conditions. “

“Strength hasn’t opened any Qella doors yet, ” ‘said Lobot.

Lando twisted around to look at Lobot. “No, it hasn’t, has it? “

Grasping his right wrist joint, Lando squeezed the release and twisted.

“What are you doing? ” Hammax protested.

“A spacesuit and a droid probably register about the same, wouldn’t you say? ” With a sharp yank, Lando tugged the glove off his right hand.

The air in the chamber was bitterly cold, and his hand begun to ache almost at once. Tucking the glove under his left elbow, Lando spun back to face the corner and reached out to touch the bulkhead.

It retreated under his touch, the surface folding back on all sides until there was a hole in the corner almost as large as a bubble helmet and deep enough that Lando was uncertain whether he could reach the farthest recesses.

“He did it! ” Threepio exulted.

“There’s some sort of handle back here, ” Lando said, peering into the opening. “At least, that’s what it looks like to me. Artoo, get over here and get a picture for the’ folks at home. “

“General, suggest you reglove, ” Hammax said while Artoo attended to that duty. “The handle might be keyed to Qellan biology. “

“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? ” Lando said.

“That’s enough, Artoo. Anyone want to retreat back intoLady Luck before I knock on the door? Counting one, two, three-“

“We’re ready here, Lando, ” said Lobot.

“Okay, then. ” Drawing a deep breath, Lando reached with his bare hand for the handle deep inside the hole. His shoulder was pressed against the opening before his fingertips brushed it. He had to slip his shoulder inside the hole and press his helmet against the bulkhead to close his fingers around the handle.

“Got it, ” he said. “What do you think, Lobot? Push, pull, twist, lift-” But Lobot never had a chance to answer.

There was a flash of brilliant blue light outside the portal, and when it was gone, so was the tunnel toLady Luck’s airlock. In the next instant the atmosphere in the chamber began boiling out into space, sweeping everything and everyone toward the open portal.

Lando clung desperately to the handle inside the hole, though he lost his grip on the glove and watched it being whisked away beyond his reach. But both Artoo and Lobot were being swept toward the opening, their thrusters unequal to the sudden windstorm.

The equipment sled, with Threepio perched atop it, spun crazily toward the opening as well.

The glove, far lighter and moving faster than any of the party, struck the outer bulkhead, rebounded, and tumbled out into space. But bare moments before Artoo reached the opening, there suddenly was no opening. As neatly as the smaller hole had opened under Lando’s touch, the portal knitted itself closed from edge to center.

Artoo , Threepio, Lobot, and the sled all struck an unbroken chamber wall-and then began sliding aft along it.

“The ship’s moving! ” Lando cried, feeling the acceleration pressing him more firmly against the aft bulkhead. “Hammax! Colonel! What’s going on? “

There was no answer-not even static. “Anyone on theGlorious , respond! “

“Lando! ” Lobot called. “All of my links are gone. We’re not just moving. This ship just jumped into hyperspace. “

It all happened so quickly that no one witness was certain of all the details.

Without warning, one of the Qella’s beam weapons slicedLady Luck free from the vagabond.

Another pierced the

hull of the

interdiction picketKauriand left it in flames.

As the interdiction field collapsed, the vagabond swung about with surprising swiftness and accelerated away from its previous course.

The captain of theMarauder screamed for permission to fire-just as the Qella vessel seemed to suddenly stretch to twice its true length and then vanish into a blinding white pinch of spacetime.

Lady Luckwas left drifting, the remnants of the cofferdam trailing from its airlock.

“Do we have a good track? ” Pakkpekatt demanded.

“Yes, sir. “

“That’s something to work with, ” he said.

“Sir, she jumped toward the Core. “

Pakkpekatt’s expression did not change. “Dispatch a crew to recover the yacht. BringLightning around to the target’s last heading and jump her out ten. We’ll go out twenty, Marauder thirty, and then walk it out at intervals of one light-year till we get to the border. She’s got to be out there somewhere. “