Razor's Edge: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) (14 page)

Leia ducked and suddenly found the remote barely a meter away. She lunged for it, gritting her teeth as its searing blast grazed her right arm. At the last moment she flipped and used the pads on her feet to slam it toward the nearest crusher.

The Twi'lek yelled and swooped in to intercept her. But the droid's drilling arm flailed and slammed into the Twi'lek. One of the woman's foot pads flew off, sending her into a spin right toward the crusher's maw. Leia reacted by pure instinct and surged forward with her foot pads to grab the woman's leg. She twisted around and used her pads to yank the Twi'lek to a stop, barely a meter from the crusher. There was no doubt the crusher's deadly field was operating; the ozone it generated filled Leia's lungs. The droid loomed over them, reached for them with four sets of arms, all tipped with cutters or spinning drills.
Got to get close,
Leia thought, and propelled herself and the Twi'lek toward it.

They shot past its reaching arms and struck its metal body. Leia had time to realize that her hurried theory had been correct. The way the droid was constructed, it couldn't bend its limbs back far enough to reach them with its pincers and drills and cutters when they were this close to it.

Confused, the droid shrieked and clawed for them as they scrambled away around the curve of its torso. Leia felt a glancing blow, and a line of pain opened up across her back. One of its claws had grazed her; she gasped but kept scrabbling. The droid's head rotated down to glare at them, and two arms slammed down around them like a cage.

The Twi'lek grabbed the base of one arm, but couldn't wrestle past it. Leia gripped the dented metal body behind her and lifted her feet to try to use the repulsors to force the arms open.

The droid jerked and emitted that high-pitched metallic scream. Under the ear-piercing noise, Leia heard a
thunk
and a grinding sound. She exchanged a startled glance with the Twi'lek, then looked wildly around. The arch of the containment field's dome wasn't far above the droid's head, which meant they must be close to the edge of the field … “It backed into the crusher!” Leia said aloud.

Another
thunk
vibrated through the droid's body, and the grinding became louder. Not only was the droid caught in the crusher, it was being pulled farther in.
Oh, no,
Leia thought.

The Twi'lek must have realized the same thing at the same moment, because moving as one, they both flung themselves at the droid's nearest arm, using all their strength to try to push past. The Twi'lek had lost both her foot pads and didn't have much leverage. Leia didn't think they had a chance, but then she saw Metara, the Twi'lek's crewmate, and even the remaining Ishori closing in on them, all grabbing for the arms.

Then the droid wrenched itself out of the crusher, scattering the other players, and lurched sideways and then back. Dragging Leia and the Twi'lek with it, it spun into the containment field. The field sizzled and Leia braced herself against the metal, ready to fight her way free when the droid stopped moving. A flare of energy blinded her. She winced, and suddenly the droid jerked again and plunged down and away from the arena.

It had shorted out the containment field, Leia realized as the droid plunged downward into the dark of the cavern.
And where is it taking us?
The light failed as they dropped away from the arena. With all her strength, Leia shoved at the arms that were pinning them, the Twi'lek with her, but the droid just tightened its hold.

Blasterfire sounded somewhere nearby. Leia hoped that meant someone was firing at the droid and not at them or the other players, but it was too close to be coming from the arena. A loud metal bang rang out and the droid jerked and spun.
What the
—Leia had time to think. Then it happened again. And again.

A grinding noise inside the droid deepened in pitch until it made Leia's bones vibrate. Something rattled inside it, then wheezed. Its grip on them relaxed and the arms fell away. Still wary, Leia pushed herself off with her pads, and drew the Twi'lek with her.

The droid rolled, the last of its momentum carrying it away. As its head passed them, she saw it was partly slagged from several blaster bolt impacts, but it must have been the last hit that had finally taken it out. Its eyes sparked and went dark, and it drifted slowly away … giving Leia a clear view of what had struck it.

A flatbed repulsor lifter had rammed the droid. No, Leia corrected herself, staring downward in amazement. Han Solo had rammed the droid with a flatbed repulsor lifter.

The lifter hung just below them, the whole front end dented in with the force of the multiple impacts on the droid's metal carapace. Han was holding on to the railing with one hand to keep from drifting off; the other gripped the lifter's small control unit. He looked up at her and said, “Next time, I want to go somewhere else on vacation.”

“Me, too,” Leia agreed. She was torn between blank surprise, deep relief that she wasn't about to be ripped apart by a giant droid, and annoyance that Han wasn't where she had meant him to stay until she got back. This storm of conflicting emotion had happened to her before, always coinciding with Han's sudden appearances, so maybe she should just stop being surprised, at least. “And what are you doing here, by the way?”

“I'm scouting,” Han said, eyeing the dead droid warily. “What are
you
doing here?”

“The pirates—” Leia realized there was no time to give even a brief summary. “It's a long story.”

The Twi'lek had kept her gaze on the arena above and now hissed, “They're coming! Send your man away before they see him!”

“We're just friends,” Leia snapped by habit. She hesitated, but Metara was still up there, and the
Aegis
was still trapped in dock. If she bolted off with Han, Viest would hunt them down through the mine, and she would have no doubt that Leia had something to hide. No, the Twi'lek was right, it was better to stay here and not let Viest know anything had happened except the accidental death of her pet killer droid. Leia pulled one of the repulsor pads off her feet and handed it down to Han. “There, get back to the ship! Or whatever you were doing.”

At least Han trusted her enough not to argue. He took the pad and slid it onto his arm. “See you later.” He propelled himself in a backward flip over the flatbed lifter and vanished into the darkness of the lower part of the chamber.

Leia looked up and saw figures appear over the edge of the platform. To the Twi'lek, she said, “Tell them the droid fell onto the lifter.”

The Twi'lek nodded. “I owe you a debt. My name is Anakaret and I pledge to pay it.”

“I accept your debt. I'm Leia, and I'm with the
Aegis.
”

Anakaret glanced at her. “If they let us live, I'll try to come speak to you.”

The technician, the Quara, and several guards with repulsor pads came to survey the damage. While the technician propelled himself around the drifting droid carcass, angrily assessing its injuries, the Quara handed Anakaret a couple of new pads so she could steer herself back up to the ledge. He said to Leia, “Viest isn't going to like this. It took a lot of time to program that droid to be this crazy.”

Leia didn't try to keep the acid out of her voice. “We tried to be careful, but I suppose it was just too old for this kind of thing.” The technician glared at her over the droid's dented carapace, but the Quara didn't seem displeased.

As they lifted back up toward the arena, Leia saw Metara and Anakaret's teammate waiting on the ledge, their repulsor pads off. The Ishori who had been hit by the droid lay on the floor, unmoving; one side of his body was mottled with dark green bruises. His companion sat mournfully beside him. The human man ran to Anakaret as soon as she landed and threw himself into her arms. She patted his head reassuringly.

“Leia!” Metara rushed forward. “Leia, are you all right?”

Leia wasn't in the mood for Metara's concern. She nodded toward the Ishori. “Will he recover?”

Metara looked back, wincing. “He's dead.”

So this idiotic game had claimed a life for Viest's amusement. “At least the droid is out of commission. I'm assuming Viest won't try to force the survivors to play a rematch.”

“But you won,” Metara said. Anakaret's human seconded her, pointing emphatically at one of the crushers while speaking in a language Leia didn't understand.

“I did?” Leia frowned, startled. “When?”

“Right before the droid grabbed you,” Metara told her. “You knocked the remote toward the crusher with your foot pads and the field caught it and pulled it in.”

“Oh.” Leia knew she had knocked the remote toward the crusher, but hadn't thought it had gone all the way in. “So we won.” All it had taken was one death and her and Anakaret almost being torn to pieces.

But she didn't have time to contemplate the victory. From above them, Viest said, “Oh, I'm calling it a forfeit.”

The flightmaster stood on the steps to the balcony, surveying the players with a tight smile. “You damaged the arena. Those containment fields aren't cheap, and the generators are burned out.”

“You can't be serious!” Metara blurted.

Her eyes narrowed, Viest said, “Oh, I'm serious.”

Anakaret swore, and her crewman threw his remaining repulsor pad down. Leia set her jaw. She knew it was useless to protest. Fortunately, there was no way the cutthroat, pirate-backing woman she was supposed to be would let it go, either. Not bothering to hide her anger, she said, “Your droid damaged the containment field after I destroyed the remote.”

Viest moved deliberately down the steps, watching her closely. Leia knew she was being read, and she knew there was nothing the flightmaster was going to see at the moment but a strong desire to blast her head off. Viest said, “What, no protest that releasing the droid into the arena was unfair? I'm surprised.”

“I'm not,” Leia said. “I knew something like that would happen. But I didn't think you'd cheat the winner out of the prize, like a child tipping over a game because she doesn't want to lose.”

Viest went still for a moment. Then she bared her teeth in something that wasn't a smile. “You need time to cool down.”

I need a lot of things at the moment,
Leia thought,
and that isn't one of them.
“How about a rematch?” she said. “Just you and me. Have you got another droid?”

There was a startled and uneasy stir among the pirate spectators. Viest laughed. “You'd like that. No, you and Metara go back to her ship and wait. Maybe we'll talk about your offer again. When I feel like it. Oh, and don't try to leave. I'll broadcast a bounty on the
Aegis
and you'll be blown to pieces before you make it out of dock.” Her smiled was pointed. “Maybe I'll do that anyway.”

The remaining Ishori muttered something in its own language. Anakaret's expression was so cynical that it rivaled Han at his worst. Leia wasn't surprised. At least now they had the threat out in the open. On the other hand, Metara was rigid with anger.

“Viest, this wasn't our deal. We had an agreement. You promised us—”

Viest turned and strode away to the lift tube, her entourage following. Furious, Metara started after her, but Leia caught her arm and pulled her back. “There's no point,” she said.. “She's right, we'll talk later.” In one way she was glad Viest had tried to kill them and threatened the ship, that their situation here was now clear, that there was no reason to pin their hopes on further negotiation.

It meant Leia could stop playing nice with pirates and slavers, and start playing for real.

As Viest and her followers cleared out, the Quara arrived, with guard backup, to shepherd Leia and Metara back to the
Aegis.
“See, I told you,” the Quara said.

“You did,” Leia replied. “I should have listened to you.”

Metara gave her an odd look, but the Quara just grunted and led them away.

Han hid, waiting until Leia, the Twi'lek, and the pirates had gone back to the upper part of the chamber. Then he followed, using the beamdrills, tunnel borers, and other equipment moored to the cavern wall for cover. He found a spot where he could see everyone gathered on the ledge and watch the confrontation, though he was too far away to hear what they were saying.

He wasn't sure what had happened up there, but the way the crushers were tethered in a big circle below what was obviously a spectators' gallery on the balcony gave him a few ideas, and the droid's attack clearly hadn't been an accident. Whatever it was, somebody hadn't survived it. An amphibian sentient lay limp on the ledge, another huddled over him.

It could have been an elaborately staged execution, but in that case he was pretty sure Leia and the Twi'lek would have taken the opportunity to bolt with him. And people didn't usually stand around after failed executions arguing about the process, which was what it looked like they were doing here.

He watched the conversation until everyone started to leave. People came out to help the amphibian carry his dead friend away, and Leia and Metara and the others walked to the end of the ledge and disappeared into a couple of lift tubes. There were still pirates milling about on the ledge; others zoomed around the arena on repulsor pads, powered down the crushers, and collected debris from the dead droid, most of which they just pushed off to the sides of the cavern with the rest of the abandoned equipment. After a while, Han reluctantly conceded that he wasn't going to have a chance to follow Leia. Better to get back to the
Aegis
and hope that was where she was being taken.

If she wasn't … He would just have to figure something out.

When Degoren brought his light corvette out of hyperspace at the rendezvous coordinates, the
Darsumae
had already arrived.