Star Wars - To Fight Another Day by Kathy Tyers

Author:Kathy Tyers [Tyers, Kathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 1995-05-11T00:37:03+00:00

Tinian woke up with an alarm klaxon ringing in her ears. Her leg throbbed the same rhythm. “What is it?” she cried. Then she remembered she’d bunked down on a stranger’s ship. Had she been betrayed?

Not by a Wookiee. If he thought she’d saved his life, the last thing he would ever do was betray her.

She stumbled in the only direction possible and found Chenlambec sitting in front of the Wroshyr’s command console. “What is it?” she asked again.

He bared his teeth and pointed at the viewscreen.

A huge wedge-shaped ship had appeared near Silver Station. “Star Destroyer,” she whispered. Adrenaline washed through her. A swarm of smaller ships, TIE fighters and others, swooped across the narrow distance between the Star Destroyer and the helpless station. Some had already reached it.

A light blinked on Chenlambec’s console. He swatted a control. A cracked voice came over a cabin loudspeaker. “ … now docked, this is Una Poot. We are under attack and outnumbered. Evacuate if you can. All ships now … ”

Chenlambec roared a challenge. Then he pointed at the other viewscreen. A squadron of Imperial fighters ran alongside Silver Station, pouring energy beams into the joint where two of its external corridors met. One long cylinder broke away from its neighbor. Gases spewing out of its cut end jet-powered the cylinder out to an even more desperate angle.

Tinian gulped. “My partners are in there somewhere! We’ve got to help them!”

Chenlambec roared a negative: he couldn’t afford moments, and she couldn’t help her companions by dying with them. He slammed a shaggy fist onto a control, then flicked a row of linked switches.

“Are you powering up?” Tinian clutched an overhead conduit. “Are we going to fight or run for it?”

He didn’t answer. The moment his ready lights glowed, he grasped a throttle momentarily — then flicked off the linked row. The Wroshyr lurched. Tinian assumed they’d just disengaged from the station. The Imperials, he explained, would fire on anything that was escaping under power, and his shields weren’t strong enough to absorb energy at this close range.

“Why not?” she exclaimed. “You’ve got to have shields!”

He barked: full shielding would cost more than the ship was worth. More than he brought home from a good bounty job.

Tinian gaped. People died because they couldn’t afford protection? She’d always taken armor for granted. Now she realized that poverty and peril sometimes traveled together.

Slowly, Silver Station seemed to drift away from the Wroshyr. Tinian caught herself holding her breath. This was just like before, waiting to be spotted and shot. Cheeve, Redd, and Yccakic —

Wait. She’d slept through the afternoon. By now, they should be on board Una Poot’s private tugship. What luck! Cheeve did have a knack for leaving town before trouble arrived.

Chenlambec suggested that if she didn’t want to watch, she hustle aft and strap down.

Tinian sank into his copilot’s chair. “I’d rather help, if I can.”

Chenlambec swept a hand across the row of engine controls: mains, laterals, retros. He would man the ship’s laser cannon if she’d stand ready to fire up all engines simultaneously.

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