[Legacy Of The Force] - 07(3)

Waroo stood, his great strength making the move look easy despite the several gravities of acceleration hauling at him, and offered a confused-sounding rumble.

“Alema Rar. She’s aboard.” Leia drew on the Force to augment her physical strength. She stood shakily, took her lightsaber in hand, and ignited it. “Let’s go.”

Stiff-legged, she marched the several meters down the boarding ring corridor, the ramp that was the Solos’ usual means of entering and leaving the Falcon now constituting a grimy wall to her right. She reached the hatchway leading to the freighter’s main corridor, the curved passageway that offered access to all of the Falcon’s compartments.

But stepping into the main corridor would cause her to drop for a considerable distance. Then the curved corridor wall, acting as a steeply angled floor, would cause her to tumble painfully until she reached the gap accessing the freight lift. At that point, she’d fall several more meters and slam into the bulkhead separating internal compartments from the sublight engines. Her gymnastics ability and Force skills would allow her to handle those movements without injury under normal circumstances, but at several gravities she wasn’t as sure.

The freight lift was probably where Alema was now. But Leia couldn’t be sure of that, either. The laughter had ceased, and Leia could not find Alema in the Force.

Leia glanced over her shoulder at Waroo. “Get to the cockpit. That’s where Alema is going to end up. Protect Han. Watch out for poison darts.”

Waroo groaned an assent. He moved past Leia, crouched, and leapt across the main corridor, catching with both hands the corner where a side corridor led to the weapons turret access tubes. Even against the multiple gravities hauling at him, he clambered up until he stood on that side corridor wall, turned to face Leia, and leapt back toward her, this time grabbing the sides of the hatch opening well above her head-the opening that led to the cockpit access corridor.

Han’s voice came over Leia’s comlink. “Hang on, guys.”

Wincing in anticipation, Leia grabbed both sides of the hatch access where she stood. She heard Waroo’s grumble of complaint.

The Falcon snap-rolled, spinning axially and simultaneously changing direction. Straining to hold herself in place, Leia saw nothing change around her, but she heard the sounds of cargo containers, furnishings, and loose wall and floor plates ricocheting around the freighter’s interior, and she felt disoriented.

Then she realized why. Above her, Waroo’s legs were no longer hanging downward; they were splayed across what should have been the corridor’s ceiling. That meant the Falcon was now upside down. As Leia watched, the Wookiee wriggled his way into the cockpit access corridor. He was out of her sight, but she could still hear him complain.

Leia rolled forward, an acrobatic tumble that propelled her into the main access corridor. She landed carefully so as not to crush any of the glow rods, sensors, or other items mounted on what should have been the ceiling but now served her as floor.

She had to find Alema-but that wouldn’t be too difficult, for the mad Twi’lek’s merry laughter reached her again, distinctly from the direction of the Falcon’s stern. Lightsaber lit, she carefully moved in that direction.

Ahead to the left, upside down to her current position, was the freighter’s engineering station, its consoles permitting the monitoring of every system aboard ship. Ahead to the right, the curved wall gave way to the broad opening leading into the engineering bay, with its access to the freight lift, hyperdrives, sublight engines, and other critical systems.

From that direction, there was the sound of a lightsaber humming, but it was a constant tone-a weapon being held still, neither advancing nor maneuvering.

Leia reached out through the Force, looking again for her quarry. She detected first Waroo, then Han, then Waroo again…

Again? She opened her mouth to call a question over her comlink, but the lightsaber ahead of her began snapping and hissing as it contacted a metal surface. Leia swore under her breath and charged forward.

As she rounded the corner into the engineering bay, she spotted her quarry. On the far side of the freight lift, Alema Rar stood beside the broad circular housing of the hyperdrive. She held her lightsaber in two good, steady hands as she drove its point deep into the housing, sending up sparks that illuminated the bay brilliantly.

And she was standing on the floor-the true floor, her feet planted on the surface above Leia’s head, as though gravity didn’t matter.

She looked over as Leia entered. “Princess! Come help us destroy the hyperdrive. Then together we can cut the engines to pieces.”

Wary, Leia advanced. “I’ll cut you to pieces first. That will show me how to do it.”