Star Wars_ Allegiance Part 19

With a final drop and thud, the Wookiee slammed them down onto the other s.h.i.+p, locking them solidly together with the Falcon's landing claw.

The pirate's dorsal laser turret was directly aft, no more than three meters away from Han's own gunwell. Point-blank range for both of them, except that Han was ready for the trick and the pirate gunner wasn't. The turret had barely begun to swing around when Han blew it to metal sc.r.a.ps.

"Okay, Chewie."

There was a click as Chewbacca keyed the comm over to him. "First and last chance," Han called into his mike. "Surrender or die."

The flanking pirate s.h.i.+p swung wide in reply, raising itself from its original defensive position where it could bring the entire flank's worth of weaponry to bear on this incredibly impudent hitchhiker. Han swung his quads around, st.i.tching a line across its flank as Luke did the same.

The pirate's turrets were still lining up for their own salvo when the Suwantek coming up from behind blew it to dust.

Han peered out at the other s.h.i.+p. If there'd been any doubt that the Suwantek wasn't with these other pirates, that pretty well ended the question. But they could still be a rival gang ...and with one s.h.i.+p down and the Falcon locked sitting-avian on the other, they'd reached the moment of truth. "Unidentified Suwantek freighter-"

"Hold your fire, Corellian freighter," a voice cut him off. "Do not, repeat do not destroy the patrol boat you're sitting on. We want some of them alive."

"Understood, Suwantek," Han said carefully. The speaker hadn't identified himself, but his tone had sounded awfully military.

The remaining pirates apparently thought so too. There was a lurch as the pirate s.h.i.+p poured power to its sublight engines, clearly trying to shake the Falcon off. There was an answering flash of red, a brilliant explosion from somewhere aft- There," the military voice said again as the pirate's drive shut down.

"Again, Corellian, please hold your fire."

At least this time he'd said please. "No problem," Han a.s.sured him.

"Actually, we want to talk to these guys too."

"Excellent," the other said. "Wait there. We'll go aboard first."

"Sure," Han said. "Be my guest."

Chapter Twelve.

THERE WERE TWO SURVIVORS ON THE REMAINING Pirate s.h.i.+p. Both were young, both were terrified, and both were anxious to cooperate. Unfortunately, they had very little to cooperate with. "I don't know where he came from," the slightly older of the two, Badji, insisted nervously. He started to gesture, but the motion was cut short by the binders fastening his arms to the cargo hold restraint ring. "One day he was just there, telling Captain Andel that the BloodScars wanted to bring all of us together into one big gang."

"What did Andel say?" Bright.w.a.ter asked.

"He told Caaldra we'd think it over," Badji said. "But I don't think he was going to. I heard him say that it would be a cold day on-" He broke off, his eyes going suddenly wide. "Wait a minute. You're not-I mean-?"

"No, we're not the BloodScars," LaRone a.s.sured him. "Did this Caaldra leave Andel any contact information?"

Badji shook his head. "No, nothing."

"You're lying," Bright.w.a.ter accused sharply. "He wouldn't have left without giving you a way to get in touch with him."

"But he didn't-I swear he didn't," Badji said, his whole body starting to shake. "He said he'd be back in couple of weeks for Captain Andel's answer." "And this was when?"

"Maybe a week ago," Badji said. "No, no-it was eight standard days. I remember because-"

"So you're telling me that if we want to talk to Caaldra, we're going to have to sit on you for another week?" Bright.w.a.ter cut in.

"I don't know when he'll be back," Badji said, pleading now. "I'm not trying to pull anything-I swear I'm not."

"Of course not," LaRone said. He caught Bright-water's eye and nodded over his shoulder. Bright.w.a.ter nodded back, and they left.

Marcross and Grave were waiting in the lounge, talking together in low voices. "Anything?" LaRone asked as he and Bright.w.a.ter joined them.

"Nothing useful," Marcross said. "The BloodScars were definitely trying to recruit them, though-some mere type named Caaldra came by about a week ago, ready to lean on their chief."

"That's basically what we got," LaRone confirmed, feeling more than a little disgusted. They'd gone to all this effort hoping to track the Corellian to the BloodScars, and all they had to show for it was a couple of teenagers who'd thought it would be fun to join a gang and play pirate. "What about the Corellian and his friends?" Bright.w.a.ter asked. "Did we ever get anything on them?"

LaRone leaned over to touch the intercom. "Quiller, did anything come up on that team search?" "The human-human-Wookiee one came up negative,"

Quiller's voice came back. "You want me to try human-Wookiee? Could be they picked up a friend."

"Let's hold off on that for now," LaRone said. Dipping into Imperial databases on this had been pus.h.i.+ng it, and he didn't want to risk a second search too soon. "What are they doing?"

"Sitting quietly where we told them to," Quiller said. "The Surronian freighter hasn't tried to run, either." "Cool customers," Bright.w.a.ter commented. "They were the same way back on Drunost," Grave reminded him.

"I just wish I knew what their angle was."

"Maybe they were delivering a message," Bright.w.a.ter suggested. "If this Caaldra character got the impression Andel was going to turn him down, he might have decided to show them why that would be a bad idea."

"Or maybe the Corellian is Caaldra," Marcross said suddenly. "He did tell us he wanted to talk to the survivors."

"Let's see if we can find out," LaRone said. "Quiller, give them a call and invite them aboard."

Han was up to his elbows in hyperdrive guts when the invitation came. "I appreciate the offer," he said as Luke held the headset to his ear. "But we're kind of busy right now-took a little feed-through damage in that last jolt."

"Sorry to hear that," the voice in his ear said. "Need any a.s.sistance?"

Han scowled. If the Suwantek's sensors had been as upgraded as its weapons, odds were they already knew what his hyperdrive was looking like. Not good even at the best of times, and this definitely wasn't one of those. "No, we can handle it," he said. "Just going to take a little time."

"Understood," the other said. "But I believe you expressed some interest in speaking to the pirates. We have two prisoners, but we also have limited time to spend in this system. If you're interested, you need to come over now."

Han looked at Luke. The other shrugged, but nodded. "Fine-we'll be right over," Han said. "You have a transfer tunnel that can lock with any of our hatches?"

"Even better-our ventral hatch has a universal collar," the other said.

"We'll come up over you and lock to your upper hatch."

Han had already noted that the voice that had spoken to him had sounded military. Now, as he and Luke climbed the ladder from the Suwantek's lower hatch, he found that the two men waiting for them looked every bit as military as they had sounded.

"Welcome aboard," one of them said as Luke finished the climb and stepped to Han's side.

Thanks," Han said, looking around. They were in a relatively wide corridor with six doors on either side and one in the forward bulkhead directly behind their two hosts. Crew cabins along the sides, probably, and either the bridge or a crew lounge forward. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the corridor widened briefly toward twin escape pod berths, then narrowed again to doors leading to cargo bays and engineering. "Nice s.h.i.+p."

Thanks," the first man said. "My name's LaRone. This is Grave."

"Solo," Han introduced himself, feeling a twinge as he did so. There were any number of ways, legit and otherwise, for someone to check up on his ident.i.ty, and lying about it would just make him look more suspicious.

Besides, aside from the thing with Jabba and a couple of other minor problems, he wasn't in any particular trouble with anyone at the moment.

At least, not if you didn't count that whole Death Star thing, which n.o.body could prove. "This is Luke."

LaRone nodded a greeting. "Who do you fly for?"

"We're independents," Han told him. "Pick up cargo where we can."

"Anyone else aboard your s.h.i.+p?"

"My first mate, Chewbacca," Han said.

"That's the Wookiee you saw on Drunost," Luke added.

Han threw the kid a warning look. But LaRone merely smiled. "Good-you remember us," he said. "We certainly remember you." He gestured toward the lightsaber hanging from Luke's belt. "You actually know how to use that thing?"

"A little," Luke said. "I'm still learning."

"Where'd you get it?"

"He stole it from a guy named Tooni," Han said impatiently. "What do you care where he got it from? You said we could talk to your prisoners?"

"In a minute," LaRone said. "First, I'd like to know what you were doing in that tapcafe in Conso City."

Han shrugged. "Having a quiet drink."

"Who was the fourth person at the table?"

"A friend," Luke said.

"One of the locals," Han put in before Luke could say anything else. "Is there some problem with him?"

"Could be," LaRone said. "Let me lay it out for you. You were on Drunost when a raider attack went down. The man you were sitting with had also been present at another attack a few days earlier, that one by a swoop gang. And now we find you here at Purnham at the scene of yet another attack."

"We're just doing a friend a favor," Han said, feeling sweat gathering under his collar. There were several directions LaRone could be going with this conversation, none of them good. "He told us a friend of his was having trouble with pirates on the Purnham run. We weren't especially busy, so we said we'd see if we could clear 'em out for him."

"We appreciate your help on that, by the way," Luke added.

"You're welcome," LaRone said. "We don't like pirates much, either. Can you tell us why this friend of yours was also present at both Drunost attacks?"

"For one thing, that's where he lives," Han said. "Besides, the hard part these days is avoiding trouble like that. The locals don't have the resources to chase down these raiders, and the Imperials seem to have dropped out of the fight completely." "So you're saying it was pure coincidence?" "Not entirely," Luke said.

Han twisted his head around, forcing back a curse. What was the kid doing? "Luke-"

"Explain," LaRone said, his eyes still on Han.

Luke flashed Han a slightly guilty look. But his voice was firm enough.

"There's a pirate gang working this sector called the BloodScars," he said. "We understand they're trying to make deals with all the other local pirates and raiders."

"You have any basis for that besides rumors?" LaRone asked.

"The swoop gang you mentioned had shoulder patches with the BloodScar emblem," Luke said. "When we heard about the pirates here at Purnham, we thought we might be able to find out from them what the BloodScars are up to."

"Why do you care what a gang of pirates is doing?"

Grave asked.

"Why do you think?" Han countered. "So we can figure out how to avoid them."

"Not because you want to join them?" LaRone countered, his voice suddenly sharp.

"No, we want to avoid them," Han repeated, a terrible thought icing its way through him. Up to now he'd been a.s.suming LaRone was connected to Purnham law enforcement somehow, possibly a mercenary hired by the locals. But what if he was with the BloodScars? "But you guys seem to be on top of it," he added, taking a casual half step back toward the ladder. "Like Luke said, thanks for the help."

"What's your hurry?" LaRone asked. "I thought you wanted to talk to our prisoners."

"No, that's okay," Han said, taking another step toward the open hatch.

Neither LaRone nor Grave seemed to be armed; if he could get Luke clued in on this, they might be able to duck down the ladder to the lower hatch before the rest of the Suwantek's crew could react.

Only Luke seemed to have missed the cue completely. He was still standing there, his head c.o.c.ked a little to the side like he was listening to voices in his brain.

"I think you ought to hear what they have to say," LaRone persisted. He and Grave hadn't moved, either. Was Han the only one who was picking up on trouble here? He took another half step- And then, abruptly, Luke's hand snaked out to grab his left arm. "It's all right, Han," he said, staring at LaRone. "They're not with the BloodScars."

"Who said they were?" Han protested, stifling another curse. That tore it. Swinging his left arm in a wide movement designed to shake off Luke's hand and simultaneously draw LaRone's and Grave's eyes in that direction, he dropped his right hand to his side- "Don't," a voice advised from behind him.

Han froze, his hand bare centimeters from his blaster, and looked carefully over his shoulder.

Two men stood there, cut from the same ex-military cloth as LaRone and Grave, their blasters leveled at him and Luke.

And Han hadn't even heard any of the doors open. These guys were smooth, all right. "Okay," he said as calmly as he could as he turned back to LaRone. "Now what?"

"That depends," LaRone said, stepping forward and relieving Han of his blaster. With only a slight hesitation, he took Luke's lightsaber, as well. "Let's start with exactly who-and what-you and your friends are."

"Like I said, we're independent s.h.i.+ppers," Han told him.

"With dual quad lasers on your s.h.i.+p?" LaRone asked pointedly. "Try again."

"We need those for protection."

"I'm sure you do," LaRone said. "Tell me, if we searched your holds right now, would we find anything that shouldn't be there?"

"Absolutely not," Han a.s.sured him. For a change, it was even true. "We're not smugglers."