Corellian Trilogy_ Ambush At Corellia Part 30

"You sure don't ask for much," she said.

"I try to avoid thinking small," Han said. "See you in three hours."

* * * Chewbacca roared his anger as the two PPBs came back for another pa.s.s. The patrol boats had picked him up just alter he cleared the atmosphere, and they had been maintaining the pursuit ever since.

Ordinarily, a pair of PPBs would be no match for the Millennium Falcon, but Chewie was flying with a droid, a Drall, and three children for a crew. The best he could hope for was that they would all stay strapped in. None of them could be any help in a dogfight. With no one on board capable of handling the quad-laser turrets, the s.h.i.+p was without half of its firepower. He had to fly the s.h.i.+p and fight, all on his own.

He swung the nose of the Millennium Falcon about and made ready for another pa.s.s. He fired the forward lasers, and took out one of the PPBs, but the second shot pa.s.sed over the starboard wing, laying down intense fire from close range.

A lucky shot managed to get in through the s.h.i.+elds, and the Falcon shuddered with the force of the hit. Chewbacca brought the s.h.i.+p around one more time and pumped fired into the PPB. He caught it on the last burst, and its s.h.i.+elding gave out. It flared over and exploded in spectacular fas.h.i.+on.

That was good as far as it went, but Chewbacca didn't even need to check the systems board to know that the one lucky shot had blown out part of the hyperdrive.

They were stuck in the Corellian System.

It was an hour short of sunset at Corona House when the next, and biggest, surprise came. The holoscreen and flatview screens tuned to the standard broadcast channels had been showing nothing but static since dawn. Suddenly the static cleared, and an emblem Han had seen before appeared on the screen, to the sound of trumpets blaring and drums pounding a martial beat.

The emblem of a grinning, stylized human skull with a knife in its teeth, and the words HUMAN LEAGUE underneath.

It was suddenly very plain indeed who had the upper hand, at least in the city of Coronet.

The trumpets kept up their fanfare for a few minutes, summoning everyone to come and see, come and hear. Han, Leia, the governorgeneral, and his staff gathered around the largest holovid that was still functioning, and waited to see what would happen next.

It was not what any of them expected.

The skull emblem faded out, and a human male face took its place. A face that brought gasps from half the people in the room, and had all of them turning and looking at Han.

It was Han's face.

Han with black-brown hair that was shot through with gray, Han a few kilos heavier, Han with a heard, Han with a stern expression that did not belong on his face. And yet, even with all the differences between Han and the man in the holovid, the resemblance was close enough to be eerie.

Han stared at the screen, and felt his heart pounding hard, his hands growing clammy with sweat. It was impossible.

Impossible. But there it was.

"Humans of Corellia!" the man in the holovid said, and that was enough to evoke another gasp from everyone in the office. The man had Han's voice as well. "I am the Hidden Leader of the Human League of Corellia, and I do now hereby reveal myself to you. Many of you may well have known there was a Hidden Leader, even if you did not know who had the honor to hold the post. That person is myself. My name is Thrackan Sal-Solo.

Leia looked at the screen in astonishment. "Han-that man. He's-"

"He's my cousin,' Han said, his voice flat, bitter, angry.

Suddenly the past that he thought he had escaped had caught up with him again. "My first cousin, my father's sister's son, he went on. "He is not a nice man, to put it mildly.

I thought he died years ago, before I left Corellia, back when he dropped completely out of sight." Han looked at the screen, at the face that was so like his own. "Of course,' he said thoughtfully, "a few people have thought I was dead myself, now and then."

"At least it explains why that Human League mob grabbed you and then let you go," Leia said. "They must have thought you were someone doing a bad job of pretending to be him. And it was his voice on the recording."

"I should have known then," Han said. "Maybe I did know, and I didn't want to admit it." But Thrackan Sal-Solo was still speaking. "I was once a high official in the Imperial government of this sector," he said, "and I was the designated successor to the last Diktat under the Empire, before the usurpation by the so called New Republic. I am, therefore, the legitimate ruler of this sector, and I do here and now declare myself to be the legally appointed Diktat of Corellia "My trusted comrades and I have worked long and hard for this day. Now, finally, the day of our liberation from the oppressive all-species policy of the traitorous New Republic is at hand. I hereby further declare the secession of the Corellian Sector from the New Republic. From this time forward, we shall be independent, with no Republican master in power over us. "For those of you who doubt that my colleagues and I have the power to back up these p.r.o.nouncements, let me say more. About two weeks ago a supernova explosion occurred on the outskirts of the Corellian Sector.

The de facto Governor-General of the New Republic government has recently been provided with convincing proof that it was the Human League who caused that explosion, and the Human League that stands ready to cause further stellar explosions if our just demands are not met."

"Wait a second!" Han protested. "The message last night told us that we weren't to tell anyone. Why is he telling everyone?"

"Shhh," Leia said. "We need to hear this."

"We hereby demand that the so-called New Republic commence immediate operations to deport all Drall and Selonians and other nonhumans off the planet of Corellia within thirty standard days," Sal-Solo went on. "Otherwise, we will be forced to proceed with plans for our next stellar detonation."

It was Leia's turn to object. "Is he insane?" she asked.

Even if we brought every transport in the galaxy, there wouldn't be time enough to evacuate them all. And where would we put them?"

Thrackan Sal-Solo smiled at the camera, but his eyes remained hard and flinty. "This is a day we have waited for these many years. It is now at hand. Now we can build toward freedom for all humanity in this sector, unfettered and unsullied by a.s.sociation with lesser races. The current disturbances will soon be under control. Your new government will be issuing new p.r.o.nouncements within the next few days. The future is full of promise." He paused a moment, and the smile fell away from his face, leaving behind only hard-edged steel.

"And the future is ours," he said. "Thank you all, and good night.

The holovid went blank, and then filled with static-and then, suddenly, was filled with blindingly bright flares of color, while blaring, deafening sound roared from the speakers. "Jamming!" Han shouted over the noise. Someone shut off the holovid, and silence returned.

"It's all channels," one of the com techs announced.

"Everything is blanketed."

"So that's why they could tell the people and still tell us not to tell the universe," Leia said. "But if all communications are blanked out, how are we supposed to negotiate, or call in transports, for that matter?"

"I have the feeling we'll find out," Han said. "But I'm not playing by his rules, anyway. I'm going to meet Kalenda in a little over an hour, and hand her a copy of the data chip we got last night, together with whatever other information we can get together. I'm going to create as big a diversion as I can and hope she can steal a s.h.i.+p and go for help."

"I can't help noticing that you're not asking permission about all this," Leia said. "But at least you're being straight and telling me about it," she said.

"Then I'll keep on being straight and say that I doubt I'll be coming back anytime soon," he said. "The guy creating the diversion is usually the one who gets caught, and this time I don't think they'll let me go because I look like the boss."' "Then we don't have much time,"

Leia said, putting her arms around him and laying her head on his shoulder.

"We never do, Princess," he said. "We never do."

CHAPTER NINE TEEN Cfrcle Unbroken hat's not going to work," Anakin said, looking over Chewbacca's shoulder. "You'll have to go outside to fix it." The Wookiee let out an irritated burbling noise as he traced out the burned circuit.

"Am not either," Anakin said. "I don't have to guess."

He pointed to a component that Chewbacca hadn't gotten to yet.

"See? This toroidal reflector went pow. Has to be because the starboard ion regenerator misaligned. Nothing else coulll do that."

Chewbacca moaned as he looked at the reflector. It had indeed burned out.

Q9 hovered in, irritatingly close. Chewbacca resisted the urge to throw him against the compartment. "Interestirig," the droid said. "It would appear Anakin is correct. Which means there is no hope of reaching hypers.p.a.ce until we can land and make repairs. As there is not much chance of our returning safely to Corellia, I would sugeest we try to reach Drall. My master's people are there, and we have at least some hope of a peateful reception."

Chewbacca leanod back against the bulkhead and moaned to himself.

He had reached precisely the same conclusion ten minutes before. There was nothing worse than a smartaleck droid except for a smart-aleck droid who was right.

Kalenda watched Solo as he drove the ground car. So far it had all gone well, in fact remarkably well considering the level of chaos in the city. They had pa.s.sed any number of burning buildings, shot-up vehicles, and dead bodies.

But there did not seem to be many people willing to be out after dark, and Solo knew the city well. He could thread them through the back streets, away from the looters and the rioters and the goon squads.

She looked again at the data chip she was to carry back. It contained a copy of the threat message, along with whatever other information the staff of the governor's office could think of to include.

A little blob of black, the size of her thumb. Strange that something so small and unimportant looking could be so vital. If the Human League meant what it said about more supernovas, millions of lives might depend on her getting through. She slipped it back and sealed it into the pocket of her jacket.

"We're almost there," Han said. "You ready?"

"More or less," she said. "As ready as I'm going to be." But there was more she had to say. "Captain Solo, I just wanted to say that-that I'm sorry I got your family into this."

"You didn't," Solo said, his eyes still on the road ahead.

"You tried to give us the clearest warning you could, and we didn't listen to it. I think we would have come here no matter what you said.

All you did was make us a bit more careful. You did right. And you did well."

"Thank you," she said. "That means more coming from you than you can imagine. I hope-" She stopped, knowing she had said too much.

"You hope what?" he asked.

"I hope that your family comes out of this all right. I'm sorry.

That's awfully personal. But I spent so long watching them, keeping an eye on them-"

"It's all right," he said. "Thank you for saying it. I hope they come out of it all right, too."

y0~Th~ you, sir. It's-it's been an honor to serve with Solo took his eyes off the mad for the first time and smiled at her, a kindly, gentle expression. "Likewise, Lieutenant. Likewise." He turned his eyes back toward the road.

"But we're getting close to the s.p.a.ceport. Where's this turnoff of yours?"

"Just up ahead," she said. "It's barely a dirt roadthere it is!"

The groundcar swerved onto the turnoff and bounced along the washed-out road. "Keep going, keep goingokay, slow down," she said.

"Shut off all your lights and stop here for a moment."

Han stopped the engine. Kalenda grabbed her macrobinoculars and got out, gesturing for Han to follow her. She dropped to her knees and crawled up a low rise to her leftand promptly cut her arm on the same old patch of razor growth. "This is the place, all right," she said to Han, who had managed toget to the top of the rise without self-injury.

She laughed quietly to herself.

"What?" Han asked. "What is it?"

"Full circle," she said. "This is where I watched to see you come in, and here you are in the same spot to see me go out."

"It's a bigger circle than that," he replied. "We finally get to use the original plan. I draw all the attention by making a lot of noise, and give you a chance to do your job."

"Well, let's hope it works the second time around," Kalenda said, and then turned back to the business at hand.

"Anyway, this is the closest you can get to the perimeter fence.

See it there, just below us, about a hundred meters forward?"

"Right," he said. "No problem. You picked out a s.h.i.+p yet?" he asked.

"Give me a second." She pulled out her macrobinoculars and put them to her eyes. "These things never were anything much on infrared," she said. "Let's see. No, nothing there but PPBs. No hypeidrive. Wait a second. There. An X-TJE Ugly, about five hundred meters from the fence."

"I hate Uglies," Han said, "but it's your call. You sure it'll have hyperdrive?"

"It ought to," she said. "Besides, there's nothing else out there I'd even have a chance of reaching."

"Guards?"

"One on the X-TIE, none on the PPBs. Maybe they're a little shorthanded."

"Let's hope so," he said. "And if they are, then those PPBs have a very limited future. Off I go. You just be ready to cut that fence when I come over the rise."

Kalenda pulled out her blaster. "All set now," she said.

"Then I'll see you on the other side," said Han. He gave her a jaunty salute, and then crawled backward down the hill to the ground car.

Han got back into the groundcar, and made sure his own blaster was at the ready and the miniature thermal detonators were within easy reach.

He put on the flash goggles, and hoped they worked this time. They were supposed to respond instantaneously to any level of ambient light, but they tended to be a little persnickety. This was going to be interesting. He rechecked his seat belt, switched the lights back on, and gunned the engine hard.

The lumbering old groundcar tore its way over the rise, smas.h.i.+ng down the stand of razor gra.s.s as it went over the top. A series of fast blaster shots flashed out from the right of the car as Kalenda shot up the section of perimeter fence directly in their path. The blaster shots were right on target, but the fence stayed up. It must have been tougher than it looked. Han floored the accelerator and aimed the ground car straight for the fence. The car lunged down the other side of the rise, and smashed into the fence head-on. It slammed its way through, and Han fought to keep control as the car bucked and swayed over the uneven ground.

Finally its wheels. .h.i.t the hard tarmac of the landing field, and Han was back in control. He pointed the ground car at the nearest PPB and floored the engine again.

A blaster shot flared out of the dilkness, and struck the pavement just in front of the ground car. Han jerked the steering wheel sideways, acting on sheer reflex, and then got back on course toward the PPB. He pulled his own blaster out and stuck it out the driver's-side door. He fired wildly in the general direction of the shot, not really expecting to hit anything. But a flare of light exploded in the middle distance as a fuel tank went up, and Han was happy to take the bonus.

He was almost at the first PPB. He dnopped the blaster, juggled his hands to keep one on the wheel while he reached for a minidetonator with the other. He flicked the safety off the little bomb, slowed long enough to toss it in the general direction of the patrol boat, and then accelerated, having no desire to be too close when that thing went off.

Baroom! The detonator went up with a flash of light that the goggles handled perfectly, darkening down in the blink of an eye. The goggles cleared, and Han risked a glance behind him. Yes indeed, the detonator had taken the PPB with it, and judging by the size of the crater, the ground car had come close to joining the party as well.

Han looked back toward the fence, and spotted a small figure, dressed in black, running for all she was worth, straight for the X-TlE.

"Go!" he shouted, though she could not possibly hear him. "Go!"

Bits of flaming PPB were starting to drop out of the sky all around him, and he wove back and forth across the tarmac, struggling to avoid them all.

Fwap! Another blaster bolt. but this one hit his ground car right in the engine. The vehicle instantly burst into flame, and Han decided it was time to be elsewhere. With the ground car still rolling, he let go of the wheel. He grabbed his blaster in one hand, scooped up the rest of the minidetonators and tossed them in his pocket with the other, then undid his seat belt and popped the door.

He rolled out of the groundcar and landed hard on his pocketful of detonators. He got to his feet, and trotted forward as best he could, using the rolling, burning, smoking ground car for cover as he headed for the next PPB. He pulled out the next detonator, set it for a longer delay, and rolled it gently toward the patrol boat.

Shorthanded or not, the s.p.a.ceport guards were starting to respond.