[Dark Nest] - 3(34)

Then Cakhmaim and Meewalh came leaping in, hacking and gasping as they slammed into the writhing pile. An instant later the two Noghri went flying in the other direction, riding the surviving Flakax as Leia used the Force to send it tumbling across the hold.

“Han!” Leia’s voice sounded as raw and burning as Han’s felt. “Are you-“

“Fine.” He reached down and pulled her to her feet. “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”

“Hard to concentrate with those … mouthparts snapping in your face.” She deactivated her lightsaber and led Han after the Noghri and the Flakax. “Why didn’t you blast them?”

“I did,” Han said. “Someone ought to make armor out of those bugs.”

“Han!” Leia coughed. “They’re sentient beings!”

“Fair is fair,” Han countered. “If they get to wear it, so should we.”

They stepped out of stink cloud to hear Cakhmaim and Meewalh snarling as they continued to wrestle with the second Flakax. Han wiped the tears from his eyes and found the bug lying facedown on the deck with the two Noghri sitting astride it, still in their Ewok disguises. Cakhmaim had the insect’s arms pinned together behind its back at the elbow, while Meewalh was holding its ankles, pulling its legs back against the hip joints every time it tried to open the gas duct in its abdomen.

Leaving Leia to deal with the fray, Han secured the unconscious Verpine and stowed the impressive array of weaponry the insects had brought aboard. By the time he had finished, Leia and the Noghri had the Flakax kneeling with its arms bound behind its back and its abdominal gas duct plugged with a piece of cloth.

Leia waved the tip of her lightsaber in front of the insect’s head, causing the facets of its compound eyes to quiver and rustle as they followed the glow.

“Which one are you?” she asked. “Tito or Yugi?”

“Tito!” The Flakax sounded insulted. “I’m the handsome one. Everyone knows.”

“Yeah, those eyes of yours are really something,” Han said. “Now, why don’t you explain why you were going to kill us?”

Tito spread his mandibles in the buggish equivalent of a shrug. “Thought it would be fun.”

“Obviously,” Leia said. “We’re talking about the other reasons.”

“We know the Squibs put you up to this,” Han pressed.

Tito cocked his head to the side, turning one bulbous eye toward Han. “You know that, you know why.”

“Stop playing dumb,” Han said. “You understand what we’re asking. The Squibs want us dead for a reason. What are they trying to hide?”

The Flakax’s mandibles spread wide, and a yellow mass of regurgitated something shot out and covered Han’s chest. “Kill me now. Better than what the Directors will do, if I break my quiet swear.”

“Quiet swear?” Han repeated. “You mean like a vow of silence?”

Tito tried to raise his abdomen, straining to clear the plugged gas duct. Cakhmaim drove the point of his elbow down on the nerve bundle where the thorax connected, and the abdomen dropped to the deck again.

Leia turned to Han. “I thought those crime vows were supposed to be reciprocal?”

“They are,” Han said, seeing where Leia was headed. “But you know the Squibs.”

Tito’s head swung from Han to Leia and back again, and finally he could no longer resist asking, “The Directors?”

Han and Leia exchanged looks, then Han asked, “Should we tell him?”

Leia shook her head. “It would just be cruel, since we’re going to have to kill him anyway.”

“What would be cruel?” Tito asked.

Meewalh pressed her blaster to his head, but Tito seemed a lot more concerned about what they were keeping from him than the likelihood of being killed.

“Tell!”

Han frowned. “You’re sure you want to know? No one likes to die knowing they’ve been set up.”

Tito began to work his mandibles. “How?”

“You don’t want to know,” Leia said. She turned to Meewalh. “Go-“

“Wait!” Tito said. “You tell me, I tell you.”

Meewalh asked if she should fire.

“Not yet.” Leia frowned down at the prisoner. “You’re sure you want to know? It’ll just make you angry.”

“Really angry,” Han said. “You just can’t trust Squibs.”

“Flakax never get angry,” Tito said. “Never get anything. Have no useless feelings like humans.”

“Okay,” Han said. “I’ll give you a hint. Aren’t you curious about how we knew you were coming?”