Star Wars_ Shadows Of The Empire Part 41

"A test," she said. "My master pits himself against the deadliest opponents he can find. There is no man who is my equal in hand-to-hand combat. Except perhaps, if the stories are true, a Jedi Knight."

"This building is going to blow to pieces in three minutes," he said.

"And you want to play games?"

"It won't take that long. Are you afraid to die, Skywalker?"

Yes, of course he was-But then, in a moment, he realized that he really wasn't. The Force was with him. Whatever happened, happened.

She leaped at him-She was impossibly fast. On his own, he'd never have dodged, but he was permeated with the Force.

He stepped to his right and kicked at her as she flew past. Hit her on the hip and knocked her sideways, but not off her feet.

"Good," she said.

Glad she thought so. She was supernaturally fast, and it was only by holding to the Force that he could begin to match her.

She circled, looked for an opening-"Luke-!"

Leia's scream distracted him. He flicked his gaze toward the sound of her voice, saw her and the others turn to look at him-It was enough for Guri.

She took a long, sliding step and punched-Luke backpedaled, but even so, her fist hit him in the belly hard.

"Oooff!"

She followed up with an elbow, but he dived away, rolled and turned, came up with his hands lifted as she darted after him - He lost contact with the Force. He was on his own - She slapped him next to the ear and he went down, dazed. If he didn't do something fast, she was going to kill him!

The Force. Let it work for you, Luke.

Luke heard Ben's voice calling as if from a great distance, echoing across time and s.p.a.ce. Yes. He managed a breath as Guri raised her hand, formed now into a blade instead of a fist, a grin of triumph lighting her features-When he blew out his air, he blew his fear out with it.

He had to trust the Force completely-Guri slowed, as if she were suddenly mired in thickened time. He saw her hand descending, saw it moving to smash him, but it was so incredibly slow, why, he could easily just roll aside and stand, before she ever reached him...

He did so. He felt as if he were moving at normal, speed, though there was a crackling feeling to his motion, a sound like a strong wind whistling about his ears.

He came up, pivoted, thrust his open palm against the descending chop, shoved it aside. He used his left leg, a sweep that caught Guri behind the right ankle. Her feet left the floor, still moving in slow motion, and she fell, floated down, hit flat on her back...

Time speeded up.

Leia's yell still echoed down the corridor.

Guri hit the floor. He had never heard anybody fall that hard; it was a thump that shook him where he stood.

It stunned her.

Luke pulled his lightsaber, ignited it. This droid was deadly, too dangerous to remain in existence. He lifted the blade. Lying on her back, stunned, she managed to smile. "You won fairly," she said. "Go ahead."

She would have finished you.

Time stalled again, stretched like plastic melting in a hot fire...

Luke lowered the blade. Shut it off. "Come with us. We can have you reprogrammed."

She sat up. "No. If they can find a way around my brainblock, if somehow my memory is downloaded, it will be fatal for me-and my master. We have much to answer for. Better to kill me now."

"It's not your fault," he said. "You didn't program yourself."

"I am what I am, Jedi. I don't think there can be any salvation for me."

"Luke! Come on!"

He shook his head. "There's been enough killing," he said. "I'm not adding to it today." He nodded at her once, turned and ran.

Leia watched Luke click his lightsaber off, say something to the downed Guri, then turn and jog toward them.

She had lost track of the time, but it had to be getting close.

The five of them made it outside to the landing pad.

There was no sign of the Millennium Falcon.

Xizor's personal s.h.i.+p, the Virago, was on the top level. Since it was always kept fueled and ready to go, it needed no preparation. He reached the s.h.i.+p. With the sounds of the emergency warning system braying over and over, he was somewhat surprised to see the s.h.i.+p guards still in place, albeit they were very nervous.

"The building is going to blow up," he said, as if talking about the weather. "Take one of the airspeeders and get away. You have two minutes to get clear."

The guards bowed and hurried away. Perhaps the failure of one was not the failure of all. These two guards would keep their jobs when this was done, maybe even get promoted. So rare to find loyalty these days.

He hurried onto the Virago and closed the hatch. It would take a minute to bring all the systems online. Thirty seconds later he would be five kilometers away - the Virago was one of the fastest s.h.i.+ps on the planet.

He settled into the control seat, waved his hand over the computer sensors, and watched the screens light up. He would fly to his skyhook.

He had his own navy stationed in and around the s.p.a.ce station, several corvettes, a few frigates, hundreds of rebuilt surplus fight-ers. He a.s.sumed those responsible for destroying his castle had a s.h.i.+p standing by to rescue them.

By the time that s.h.i.+p made it into orbit, his navy would be waiting.

"All systems go," the Virago's computer said.

Good. He reached for the lift controls. More than a minute left.

He paused for a second, looked through the viewscreen at his castle. It was too bad about its destruction. He had spent many good years here, and he would miss it. But he would rebuild, a bigger, better, more majestic place.

Until he could take over the Emperor's castle.

He touched the lift controls. The Virago rose smoothly from the pad and away into the bright suns.h.i.+ne.

He was a few hundred meters away, clear enough to be safe, when he saw a beat-up Corellian freighter coming at him. The s.h.i.+p seemed to be out of control; it corkscrewed on its horizontal axis, pitched and yawed.

Xizor cursed, hit his emergency boosters, and turned. The Virago jagged to port, then jumped as if kicked by a giant boot.

The incoming s.h.i.+p barely missed him.

What kind of idiot was in control of that vessel?

It didn't matter. He was safe. For a moment, he wondered what had happened to Guri. Another loss.

Well. Life was difficult at times. The trick was to survive-and once again, the Dark Prince had done so. Survive, then make your enemies regret that you did.

Dash saw it first. "Mother of Madness!" he yelled, pointing. Luke looked up and saw the Millennium Falcon coming in. Coming in too fast and spinning like a demented toy gyroscope.

As they watched, the wobbly s.h.i.+p straightened; at least it stopped twirling, but it was still coming in too fast-"Duck!" Lando hollered.

The five of them dropped flat.

The s.h.i.+p almost did a touch-and-go. It pulled up no more than a meter from the pad's deck and veered to starboard. The wind of its pa.s.sage tugged at them.

Luke glanced up in the backwash just as the Falcon's port edge hit a Doppler sensor array and shattered it, spraying pieces every which way.

"Threepio, I'm gonna kill you!" Lando roared.

Luke came up with the others and watched the s.h.i.+p circle around. He pulled his comlink. "Threepio, cut your drives! Bring it on the repulsors only! And hurry!"

"I'm trying, Master Luke. The controls are somewhat sensitive."

The s.h.i.+p hopped upward a hundred meters as if hurled from a sling. Artoo was going to blow a circuit, he was whistling so fast and so loud.

The Falcon lurched, canted sideways, and fell. Righted itself just before it would have plowed into the roof, bounced upward on an invisible column of air.

Finally the s.h.i.+p lost speed. Seemed to float like a falling leaf on a gentle breeze, then stopped and hovered in place fifty meters above them.

Luke glanced around. Fifty meters, five thousand meters, it was too far away. They had less than a minute left.

"Bring it down, you fool droid!" Lando yelled. "Too bad Leebo isn't at the controls," Dash said. "He's a pretty good pilot."

"While you're wis.h.i.+ng, wish that we were at the controls," Leia said.

Standing next to the exit were what looked like two sets of folded wings.

Abruptly Luke realized what they were: paragliders. Slip a set of those on and you could sail down to a shorter building's top, or kilometers away to the street. If the s.h.i.+p didn't get here in the next few seconds, he was going to strap Leia into one of those and throw her off the building. The other paraglider would have four pa.s.sengers, one of them a Wookiee. They'd be way. too heavy, but there was a chance it might work-he'd learned while fighting the walkers on Hoth that he could slow a fall considerably using the Force, and Master Yoda had taught him more-"Here she comes!" Dash said.

The Falcon drifted down toward them. They backed up. The s.h.i.+p hovered over the landing pad two meters up, then dropped like a stone. The landing struts groaned but held. The belly hatch's ramp yawned wide.

"Go, go, go!" Luke yelled.

Chewie grabbed Leia, picked her up, and ran. Dash and Lando were right behind, and Luke followed.

By the time Luke made it into the s.h.i.+p, the ramp was already closing.

Luke followed the others toward the c.o.c.kpit.

They had maybe thirty seconds left...

Dash got to the c.o.c.kpit first, Lando and Luke right behind him.

"Move!" Dash yelled at Threepio.

"I'm moving, I'm moving!"

Dash shoved Threepio and slid into the seat. His hands danced over the controls.

Threepio fell into a heap against the copilot's seat. Artoo whistled frantically.

"You don't need to be so rude, Master Dash-"

There came a deep rumble from underneath them. The Falcon shook.

"Come on, Das.h.!.+" Lando yelled.

Luke looked through the screen, and even though they were in grave danger, he noticed something: One of the sets of paragliders was gone.

The s.h.i.+p lurched, tilted, started to slide... lifted...

"Go, go!"

The Millennium Falcon spun away. As it did, Luke saw the building shake and the landing pad fall away, then drop straight down, like a tower of sand with the base kicked out. Smoke rose; a terrible screech like a giant nail being pulled from wet wood came with the smoke. Blasts of fire erupted skyward. Giant electrical conduits sprayed multicolored sparks.

Things exploded and hurled shrapnel at them. The s.h.i.+p rocked under the impacts-Dash hit the thrusters, and the Falcon leaped up-ward-Below, the castle of Xizor, Underlord of Black Sun, collapsed into a heap of flaming, smoking ruin.

For once, even Lando didn't have a funny remark.

Leia joined the others in the crowded c.o.c.kpit.

"Let's get out of here," Luke said. "Nothing fancy, just run as fast as we can."

"I hear you," Dash said.

Threepio got up from where he had fallen. "I thought I flew rather well,"

he said.

Everybody turned to stare at the droid.

"But I don't think I would like to do it again anytime soon," he hurried to add.

Luke shook his head, smiled, and started to chuckle.

It was an unstoppable release of nervous tension. In a few seconds, they were all laughing except Threepio and Artoo.

"What is so funny?" Threepio asked, indignant.