[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(47)

“Restraining bolt’s off” Luke called down. “Now?”

“Not yet,” Han told him. The Lady Luck was about a quarter of the way to the far wall, blaster bolts still scattering off its armored underside. “I’ll tell him when. You get ready to fly interference.”

“Right.” The X-wing rocked slightly as Luke moved forward and dropped into the cockpit, its own repulsorlifts beginning to whine as Artoo activated them.

A whine that no one else out in all that confusion had a hope of hearing. The Lady Luck was hallway to the wall now:”Okay, Lando, shut down,” Han ordered. “Artoo, your turn. Call it back this way.”

With full access again to the X-wing’s transmitters, it was a simple task for the droid to duplicate the signal from Lando’s beckon call. The Lady Luck shuddered to a halt, reoriented itself to the new call, and started across the landing area again toward the X-wing.

It wasn’t something the Imperials had expected. For a second the blaster fire faltered as the soldiers chasing the yacht skidded to a halt; and by the time the fire resumed in earnest, the Lady Luck was nearly to the X-wing.

“Now?” Luke called.

“Now,” Han called back. “Put her down and clear us a path.”

Artoo twittered, and the Lady Luck again halted in midair, this time dropping smoothly to the ground. There was a shout that sounded like triumph from the Imperials : but if so, it was the shortest triumph on record. The Lady Luck touched down—

And without warning, the X-wing leaped into the air. Pulling a tight curve around the Lady Luck, Luke swooped back down, wingtip lasers spitting a corridor of destruction across the startled soldiers’ line of approach.

Given time, the Imperials would regroup. Han had no intention of giving them that time. “Come on,” he snapped to Irenez, leaping to his feet and making a mad dash for the Lady Luck. He was probably on the ramp before the soldiers even noticed him, and was up and through the hatch before anyone was able to get off a shot. “Stay here and guard the hatch,” he shouted back as Irenez charged in behind him. “I’m going to go pick up Lando.”

Luke was still roaring around creating havoc as Han scrambled into the cockpit and dived into the pilot’s seat, throwing a quick look at the instruments as he did so. All the systems seemed to be ready; and anything that wasn’t was going to have to do so on the way up. “Grab onto something!” he shouted back to Irenez and lifted.

The stormtrooper Lando had mentioned as being near his position was nowhere in sight as Han brought the Lady Luck swinging over to the pile of shipping boxes. Luke was right with him, the X-wing’s lasers making a mess of the landing area floor as he kept the Imperials pinned down. Han dropped the ship to within a half meter of the floor, entrance ramp swiveled toward the boxes. There was a flicker of motion, visible for just a second through the cockpit’s side viewport-

“We’ve got him,” Irenez shouted from the hatch. “Go!”

Han swiveled the ship around, throwing full power to the repulsorlifts and heading upward into one of the huge exit ducts overhead. There was a slight jolt as he cleared the magnetic seal on the end, and then they were out in clear air, screaming hard for space.

Four TIE fighters were skulking around just above the city, waiting for trouble. But they apparently weren’t waiting for it to come this quickly. Luke got three of them on the fly, and Han took out the fourth.

“Nothing like cutting it close to the wire,” Lando panted as he slid into the copilot’s seat and got busy with his board. “What have we got?”

“Looks like a couple more drop ships coming in, Han told him, frowning. “What are you doing?”

“Running a multisensor airflow analysis,” Lando said. “It’ll show up any large irregularities on the hull. Like if someone’s attached a homing beacon to us.

Han thought back to that escape from the first Death Star, and their near-disastrous flight to Yavin with just such a gadget smuggled aboard. “I wish I had a system like that for the Falcon.”

“It’d never work,” Lando commented dryly. “Your hull’s so irregular already the system would go nuts just trying to map it.” He keyed off the display. “Okay; we’re clear.”

“Great.” Han threw a glance out to the left. “We’re clear of those drop ships, too. They don’t have a hope of catching us now.

“Yes, but that might,” Irenez said, pointing at the midrange scope.

Which showed an Imperial Star Destroyer behind them, already leaving orbit and moving into pursuit.