[Dark Nest] - 1(49)
“I know… stick close to Nanna,” Ben said. “I know.”
“Right,” Luke said, smiling. “Nanna, get Ben aboard either ship as quickly as you can.”
“But don’t try anything pushy,” Han advised. “You’ll only get a brain-melt.”
“I am not programmed to be pushy, Captain Solo,” Nanna said.
“Will we get to shoot that blaster cannon in your arm again?” Ben asked enthusiastically.
“Only if someone threatens your life,” Nanna said. “You know all my routines are strictly defensive, Ben.”
Mara threaded the hoversled through the tangle of fueling lines, but had to stop ten meters from the Shadow because a rocket shuttle blocked their way. Nanna immediately took Ben and headed for the boarding ramp, which was still down because of the bugs’ mistrust of closed doors. Everyone else remained on the hoversled, their hands out of sight and grasping their weapons, their gazes fixed on Raynar and his entourage.
Han felt as though he were aging a week for each second it took Ben to reach the Shadow. By comparison, Luke and Mara seemed downright calm. And why shouldn’t they? Having seen all the times Han and Leia’s kids had been kidnapped or threatened when they were supposedly hidden safely away, Luke and Mara had decided that-short of an actual battle-Ben would always be safer if they kept him close. So they had repeatedly rehearsed with Ben exactly what to do in circumstances like these, and weekly “protect-the- kid” drills were standard procedure for all traveling companions. Given whom they usually traveled with-Jedi Knights and veteran soldiers-Han thought they had probably made the right decision.
When Mara failed to start the hoversled toward the Falcon, Raynar cocked his earless head in bewilderment, then started across the hangar floor.
“That’s my signal,” Mara said. “I’m out of here.”
She stepped out of the pilot’s station and, still moving casually, started up the Shadow’s boarding ramp. Raynar’s eyes followed her progress, but he made no attempt to stop her. That was good, since it meant Han didn’t have to blast him yet.
Han slipped into Mara’s place at the pilot’s station, then frowned as he tried to pick out a path to the Falcon. This was going to be difficult, at least until Mara distracted them with her blaster cannon-provided Raynar didn’t twist that around as he had the Falcon’s turrets. Han’s palms started to sweat, and he began to wish he hadn’t left their thermal detonators aboard the ship. Nothing distracted a big, bad, all-powerful enemy like one of those little silver balls rolling around at his feet.
Raynar stopped two paces from the hoversled. “Was anyone injured?”
“No,” Han answered. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Disappoint us?” Raynar’s eyes grew confused. “When you left Yoggoy to be crushed, we thought someone must have been-“
“Yeah, well, sorry about the guide, but that’s what happens when you start dropping buildings on people,” Han said. Daring to hope that Raynar would actually make this easy, he gestured toward the Falcon. “Do you mind? We need to clean up.”
Raynar lowered his melted brow, then shifted his gaze to Luke and Saba, who were waiting at opposite ends of the hoversled with their hands hidden behind the durasteel sides. His scarred lips twitched in a mockery of a smile.
“Of course.” Raynar gave no discernible command, but a path opened through the soldier bugs at his back. He stepped onto the hoversled beside Han. “You believe the building collapse was an attack?”
“It wasn’t exactly friendly.” Trying to hide his uneasiness, Han started the hoversled toward the Falcon. “And we saw your killer bugs.”
“Killer bugs?” Raynar asked.
“They were solid blue-dark blue,” Saba said from the back of the sled. “They blasted the wallz just before we passed beneath.”
“You’re mistaken,” Raynar said. “If any of our nests had attacked you, we would have known.”
Saba rose and came forward, and Han was a little unnerved to realize that she was not large enough to loom over Raynar the way she did most beings. “This one saw the ambusherz with her own eyez. Ben’s Defender droid killed two.”
“The Kind did not lose anyone in the accident,” Raynar said.
“It was no accident,” Han snapped, beginning to grow angry. “Someone tried to kill us. You, I’m thinking.”
“If we wanted to kill you, we would not make it look like an accident, ” Raynar said. “We would just do it.”
They reached the Falcon. Han stopped the hoversled, then faced Raynar and found himself staring at the underside of a white-blotched chin.