Star Wars: New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy (Star Wars: a New Hope) by Alexandra Bracken

Author:Alexandra Bracken [Bracken, Alexandra]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2015-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

THE MOMENT THE elevator doors slid open on the detention block, Han knew they were in trouble.

“This isn’t going to work,” he muttered.

“Why didn’t you say so before?” Luke hissed back.

“I did say so before!” At least five times since they had left the control room. It wasn’t Han’s fault Luke heard only what he wanted to hear.

The detention block was everything Han didn’t want it to be: well-protected by laser gates and cameras and well-manned by a half dozen security officers. One of those officers looked up from the processing station as Han, Luke, and Chewie approached. His lip peeled back in disgust as he looked the Wookiee over.

“Where are you taking this…thing?”

Han held his breath, fighting to keep his temper in check.

“Prisoner transfer from block one-one-three-eight,” Luke said. Han was proud of how smoothly the lie rolled off the kid’s tongue. Maybe Han was rubbing off on him after all.

“I wasn’t notified.” The security officer’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll have to clear it.”

Blast. Han cast another nervous look around, sizing up the room as the officer walked back to the console. They were two seconds away from having a hole shot right through their story. As Luke stepped forward, Han subtly reached over and unfastened one of Chewie’s binders with a shrug.

Chewbacca wasted no time. He threw his arms up with a roar that frightened even Han. The Wookiee yanked the blaster free from Han’s hands and began to fire.

“Look out!” Han shouted. “He’s loose!”

“He’s going to pull us apart!” Luke cried, overdoing it just a bit.

The security officers gaped at them, confused. It was the opening Han and Luke needed to pull out their own blasters. Luke quickly caught on that while Han was aiming in Chewie’s general direction, all his shots were going wide—hitting cameras, the laser gate controls, and finally the guards themselves.

A silence fell over the detention block as the last of the security officers slumped forward. Han’s ears were ringing too loudly for him to hear the faint alarm chirping from the processing station. When he did, his pulse kicked up a notch.

He pulled off his helmet and rushed over to the console, scanning through the list of prisoners. “Here it is….Your princess is in cell twenty-one eight-seven. Go get her—I’ll hold them off.”

Luke nodded, then scampered up the stairs to the long dark row of cells. Han took a deep breath and cleared his throat, his finger poised above the comlink. One of them must have grazed it with a shot because it was still sparking and smoking as he pushed the button to establish a connection.

“Everything is under control,” he said in his best official, yes-I-belong-here voice. “Situation normal.”

“What happened?” a voice crackled through the still-smoking intercom. Han jumped as a spark shot out of it.

“Uh…we had a slight weapons malfunction.” His voice sounded painfully awkward to his own ears, so he could only imagine what the person on the other end was thinking. “But, um, everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine.

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