27: Carbon Freeze
PLATFORM 326
“Can anyone read me?” he called out for the eleventh time.
And for the eleventh time, no replies.
Kevv massaged his head. Already he was feeling better, if a little woozy, and his ribs ached a bit. Overall, the bacta patches and kolto injections had had a terrific effect. He now stood outside of the Hard Leaf, glancing between it and the T-79, wondering which one he ought to take his chances with. “Mother? Mordenta? Anybody? Does anybody read me?” His commlink came back with nothing but static.
Nervously, he paced. He walked inside the Hard Leaf and found Zumter and the Ugnaught crew still bound up in the cargo hold. Two maintenance droids were working on the life-support. Zumter was asleep, and woke up to see Kevv and started mumbling something about making a deal. He offered Kevv money beyond his wildest dreams if he would just help him escape. Kevv walked out without even commenting.
“Mother?” he called again. “Mordenta? Does anyone copy?” No reply. “Blast!”
A funny feeling came over him. They had been gone too long.
They’ve been taken prisoner.
It was only a feeling, but it felt like a good guess. Something had hemmed them in. At the very least, they would have made some type of contact by now, let him know they were okay and still working on finding Calrissian or Lobot.
But what can I do from here?
If they were taken prisoner, was there a way to find out?
A lonely wind pushed across the landing platform. Kevv sat on the Hard Leaf’s loading ramp watching random litter that had been left by other ships’ crews go skittering across the duracrete. Cloud cars and airspeeders went snoring lazily by. One ship passed overhead, tugging along a banner that read, in crooked Aurebesh, DOWN WITH THE ADMINISTRATORS! BRING THE MINING GUILD TO CLOUD CITY FOR FAIRER PAY! Kevv searched beyond that shuttle, looking for any sign of the Super Star Destroyer that had captured him in its tractor beam. It was nowhere to be seen.
He thought about the Midra’hara and Commander Fera. I hope they’re all okay.
Wracking his brain for something to do, for any way out, for any way to check on Ageless and Mordenta’s safety, Kevv finally stood and started pacing again. He massaged his head again. The headaches came and went. Come on, think! There has to be something you can do. Think about your resources. Think about what you’ve got around you. Just like on Hoth, think about what you have at your disposal.
He looked at the Hard Leaf. Tried to think of all its equipment. The life-support was busted, but there were tools, weapons. Ageless had apparently taken everyone’s weapons and stored them in Zumter’s case full of credits. Kevv had already checked on that—
Credits. I’ve got credits. Lots and lots of credits.
He ran back aboard, to the crew’s quarters, and opened up the case. He took the DL-44 pistol and stuck it in his waistline. He tried to cover it with his shirt, and then thought, But I’m wearing hospital garments. The faded blue shirt and pants were barely more than flimsy plastic. I’ll need clothes. He picked up what looked like a handcrafted ion blaster, excellent for stunning. He walked back into the cargo hold and pointed the ion blaster at Zumter. “Sorry about this.”
Zumter had a moment to issue one plaintive moan before he was stunned into unconsciousness. In minutes, Kevv was wearing the Human’s much more elegant clothes, though they were slightly big on his slim figure, and there was blood around the collar. While he worked on cinching up the pants with the belt, Kevv looked to the four Ugnaughts, all of whom were held in binders that were attached to pipes in the wall. He said, “Sorry about all this. I’m sure you’re all very confused, and probably wondering what you’ve been caught up in. But it’ll be over soon.”
“Let us go!” the Ugnaught in the captain’s uniform shouted. “We’ve done nothing to you! We merely helped Carjukk get this Human off-world! That’s all we were hired to do and we—”
“I know, I know. But you…wait a minute.” Several things suddenly occurred to Kevv at once, like tumbles in a lock, finally falling into place. “You all are connected to tibanna shipping. That’s your entire business, right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” the pilot said eagerly. “And we have lots of credits in several different bank accounts, if that’s what you’re—”
“I don’t want your credits. I just want to know, do you have a business relationship with either Lando Calrissian or his assistant Lobot?”
The Ugnaughts exchanged dubious glances. “What kind of question is that?” the captain said. “Of course, we have a relationship! What person involved with tibanna gas doesn’t have a relationship with Cal—”
“Would you say you know him pretty well? His operations? His protocols?”
The captain shrugged. “I’d say so, yes.”
“If he took someone prisoner, where might he take them?”
The captain thought for a minute, then said, “Most likely the Helikyt Building. It has a holding tower atop it. Like a detention center, but not for the local police to use. It’s for the higher-ups in the city’s administration, wealthy men and women who use their own private security to detain people.”
“How would I get inside?”
“There’s only one way in, and one way out. You have to fly. It’s a hundred meters straight up from the Helikyt Building, a giant spire with no stairs and no turbolift. At the top of the holding tower are fifteen cells. If someone gets in trouble with Calrissian, that’s where they’ll be.”
Kevv ruminated on that. Once again, he had to think about his approach. He had a feeling something had gone terribly wrong. But if Ageless and Namyr were, in fact, in the holding tower, how would he get them out? How could he possibly—
He looked at the captain. “What kind of relationship does Calrissian have with Carjukk the Hutt?”
The Ugnaught shrugged again. “Strained, but respectful. The Hutt cartels have been looking for ways to get into the tibanna-mining business, and would love to oust Calrissian from his position as Baron Administrator. Calrissian tolerates Carjukk’s presence, though, because he doesn’t want to upset the Besadii kajidic. So there are…deals that happen. Under-the-table deals, if you catch my drift.”
Kevv thought he did. And a plan was already forming. A sloppy one, but it might work. “So, say a ship like the Hard Leaf, which is known to operate for Carjukk, were to turn up at the holding tower. What would be the response?”
The captain shrugged again. “Likely, it would be assumed you had either come with an unscheduled prisoner transfer, which happens from time to time, or else you were coming to arrange the release of someone belonging to Carjukk’s outfit.”
Another Ugnaught spoke up. This one was cuffed to the gantry rails used for moving cargo around the bay. “But if you go there in the guise of one of Carjukk’s men,” he said, “you had better go with lots of credits. Credits grease the wheels almost everywhere in Cloud City.”
Kevv nodded. “Pretty sure I’ve got that covered. In fact—” He left the cargo bay to retrieve Zumter’s case of credits, and when he brought it back to the Ugnaughts and plopped it down in front of them, he had the satisfaction of watching their eyes widen. “I haven’t even bothered to count it all, but as you can see, it’s beyond what you would all make in ten years combined. And it’s yours. It’s all yours, if you’ll just help me out with what I’m about to do. And the benefit to you is, it also helps undermine Lando Calrissian, which will help your boss. And I hear Hutts can be very generous with those who demonstrate loyalty and bring them profits.”
The Ugnaughts exchanged another look. “What are you planning, exactly?” the captain said.
* * *
ABOARD THE MIDRA’HARA
ORBITING BESPIN’S NIGHT SIDE
“Our orbit is bringing us around to the dayside in two minutes,” the pilot said.
Fera nodded to herself. “Denzen?”
“The Executor has pulled even farther away from the planet. Not sure why.”
“I think I know,” Mynyra said, and her voice sounded fearful.
“What have you got, Mynyra?” Fera said, moving over to the Bothan’s station.
Mynyra pointed at her screen. “X-wing, coming in fast to Bespin. It popped out of lightspeed far from the planet. My guess is, the Executor is getting ready to pull back so as not to be spotted.”
“A single X-wing? No squadron with them?”
“No, ma’am.”
Fera ran her fingers over her tattoos, slowly, meditatively. “Why would the Executor pull back from a single X-wing?”
“Could be they think it’s another advance scout, like us,” Kajjak said. “Maybe our disinformation worked better than we thought, and they’re afraid this is Ackbar’s opening move in the battle.”
Fera shook her head. “No. This feels like something else. Why hide from a single starfighter when they already think that Ackbar is out there and is aware of the Executor’s presence? Hiding makes no sense…” She trailed off, thinking.
“Ma’am, passive sensors are picking up a scrambled signal,” Mynyra said. “Bespin’s radiation spikes are still causing trouble, but not as much as before. I think I can…yes! The frequency is cleaning up.”
“Put it on speaker.”
A male voice came crackling from the console, “—looking for a landing site. I await your permission, Cloud City Control.” The pilot signed off.
Fera winced. “A single Rebel pilot shows up out of nowhere…and he’s just looking to land?”
“Maybe he’s on a secret mission,” Kajjak offered.
“In an X-wing? Not a chance. If his mission is secret he wouldn’t be flying the Rebellion’s favorite starfighter. No…no, something is—”
“Got a signal from the R2 unit inside the X-wing,” Mynyra said. “Its code is requesting an approach vector…my computer recognizes it. Says the astromech was last registered to an X-wing belonging to—” She looked to Fera. “Commander Luke Skywalker.”
Fera’s heart skipped.
Denzen reported, “Cloud City Control just gave the X-wing permission to land.”
“Only I’ll bet it’s not Cloud City Control granting him permission,” Fera said. “Force save us, Commander Skywalker is walking into a trap.”
“And if we signal to him, we’ll be giving our position away,” said the pilot, as if warning Fera not to order them all to do something that would get everyone killed.
Fera scratched her cheek, thinking. “I’m tired of sitting and waiting. We need to start being proactive here.”
“What are you thinking, Commander?” Kajjak said, his lekku twitching nervously.
She looked to Mynyra. “Are we near any satellites?”
The Bothan performed a quick check, using only the passive sensors to see if the Midra’hara was absorbing any radio signals coming from planetary satellites. “Three,” she said. “A communications satellite, a satellite that tracks beldon migrations, and a weather-monitoring satellite.”
Fera nodded. “Then here’s what we’ll do. Captain, set thrusters to their lowest impulse, just enough to keep us drifting to one of those satellites—whichever’s closest. Mynyra, get a lock on the satellite’s signal. Denzen, Kajjack, you’re going to remote-slice the satellite.”
“If you’re trying to communicate with our people on Bespin,” Denzen said, “it’ll be just as scrambled as before. Bespin’s radiation is at a lull, but it’s still fluctuating.”
“But this time the Imperials won’t be able to trace our signal, because it’ll look like a standard pulse from one of these satellites. And besides,” she said, “it’ll give us a chance to remote-slice the Executor’s comms.”
They all looked at her aghast.
“What?” Fera said. “All major capital ships tap into local satellites as soon as they come in-system. If they’re locked into these local sats, then the sats themselves must be sending signals back. We ought to be able to piggyback on those signals and infiltrate their computers.” She shrugged. “If we’re able to get in, we might be able to create more confusion for them, both in space and on the ground.” She looked at all of them. “Well? Are you up to it?”
Without saying a word, they got to it.
They selected the weather satellite. The first thing to do was jam the frequency of Cloud City’s communications to the satellite, and remote-slice its systems so that its propulsion systems (which were necessary for Cloud City Control to correct the satellite’s orbit whenever necessary) were temporarily offline. That caused the satellite to revert to autopilot. Satellites did this any time there was a break in comms. Once the satellite was no longer under the control of Cloud City officials, Denzen impersonated Cloud City’s user access to secure the valid signal.
After ten minutes, the Rodian looked up from his station proudly and said, “We are now in control of the satellite.”
“Good work, people,” Fera sighed. “Now, let’s find the Executor’s signal, and do what Rebels do best.”
Mynyra chuckled. “Wreak a little havoc?”
“Damn right.”
* * *
THE CLOUD CITY MINING OPERATIONS ANNEX, EPSILON WING [CARBONITE FREEZING]
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Twelve nodes operational. Functioning at 98.745%. Mental note to check on why so low. Tibanna gas was extracted from Bespin’s atmosphere as it rose on updrafts through Cloud City’s unipod. The substance was rare, and sometimes dangerous to process, and, due to complex chemical bonds and energetic properties that few physicists understood, it could produce four times its normal energy output when cohesive light passed through it. Beldons, the rethen gas-filled creatures that unwittingly produced the valuable tibanna, were protected all across Bespin by law. Anyone that caused irreparable damage to a beldon could be jailed for life.
Spin-sealed process showing decrease of volatility in latest crop of tibanna. Set logarithmic identifier to find a cleaner process. Check for scale invariance in reports. Could be Human error.
It was important to freeze tibanna before transporting it. Spin-sealed tibanna—that is, tibanna gas that had been compacted at the atomic level—was used as a conducting agent in blasters, because it gave greater energy yields. Thus, more damage. Spin-sealing the gas was prohibitively expensive everywhere else in the galaxy, but on Bespin, where tibanna gas occurred naturally, it was much easier. Non-spin-sealed tibanna was used as hyperdrive coolant.
New findings show entropy starting at 1.83 seconds of tibanna transfer from secure containers. Mental note to look into possible new thac-sealed containers from manufacturer on Nal Hutta. The stormtrooper on my right overpronates on his left foot.
Tibanna gas was as integral to the way the galaxy worked as hyperdrives themselves, as important to starships as their relativistic shielding. There were a few alternatives, but none as reliable as tibanna, none so guaranteed to get you where you wanted to go. And the power output allows for the very blaster rifles the stormtroopers here are all carrying, Lobot mused, even as he continuously calculated the details of both his business and his immediate environment.
Mixing Pods 1 and 4 need to be cleaned soon. Pod 5 needs to be replaced; a bonding variance of 2.18% is too high for our needs at the moment.
His breath came out in small clouds. It was cold inside the chamber. He had always disliked coming down here. The Ugnaughts were hardier people, rugged and tough and built for difficult work. Most people around the Annex called this area the Tomb. So few ever made the journey down here to this cold, dark chamber. Only the most trusted technicians were allowed. Every Ugnaught worker had been personally selected by Lobot. The Baron Administrator had final say on those people hired, but he never went against Lobot’s gut.
That was what Calrissian called Lobot’s calculations: His gut.
Spectral absorbance of latest crop showing light passing through tibanna molecules at greater rate. I was right to recommend the new light-pulse oscillators. Mental note to order more. The bounty hunter on my left is called Boba Fett, I heard the Baron Administrator call him that, and he has a familiar-sounding voice. A clone? [SUBROUTINE: Search memories on clonetroopers I served with during the Clone Wars, filter for younger clones, because this one sounds younger.]
As the Ugnaughts shuffled around, preparing the freezing pit for a potentially gruesome use, Lobot observed the stormtroopers on his left and right.
There came a clatter of footsteps. Lobot turned and saw Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca being brought down the metal steps. On Chewbacca’s back was their busted protocol droid. It looked like a funeral procession—
Imperial forces in the chamber are greater than the Rebel forces, but the odds are more leavened in simulations where Ageless Void and [NAMELESS COHORT] are added to the mix. Thrawn’s Force-squared Law still shows a ratio of Rebel-to-Imperial loss as 3-to-1. Even with Ageless Void’s help, it still would not be enough. Not in here. Mental note to check the daily schedule for tibanna freezing to see if it can be maximized by starting later in the day.
—and Captain Solo seemed to sense it, as well. His mood was grim. The Wookiee’s eyes were cast all around. The princess looked fearful yet stern, trying to maintain her regal composure. The composure of one born to royalty.
Lobot stepped quietly to one side as Darth Vader came down the stairs, and passed within inches of Lobot without looking at him. The Baron Administrator had already approached the Dark Lord out of mounting concern. He had told Vader that if they put Luke Skywalker into carbon freeze, it could kill him. “I do not want the Emperor’s prize damaged,” Vader had said. “We will test it…on Captain Solo.” Lobot had been there to see that exchange [the mournful look on Lando’s face] and had seen the dismissive way both Vader [respirator is clearest weakness] and the stormtroopers [stories say their battle-readiness dropped significantly since I left] treated Lando.
Now, Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian stood on the opposite side of the chamber. In front of his friends. Vader stood on the opposite side, glaring at them all.
Solo sidled up beside Lando, and muttered sarcastically, “What’s going on, buddy?”
“You’re being put into carbon freeze,” Lando replied.
Solo turned to gaze into the princess’s eyes. Something was communicated then. Despair.
“What if he doesn’t survive?” said Boba Fett. “He’s worth a lot to me.”
“The Empire will compensate you if he dies,” Vader said, as dismissive as he had been of Lando’s concerns. “Put him in!”
Troopers grabbed Solo by his elbows. Lobot did not move. He watched Lando, though, and his boss definitely twitched.
He wants to help. He is trapped. He knows he is outnumbered. We all are.
Suddenly, Chewbacca exploded into a rage, knocking stormtroopers over and now Boba Fett raised his blaster to fire and Vader [strange, he seems concerned of someone getting hurt, but which one of the three is he worried about?] forced the bounty hunter to lower his weapon.
It was a small variant to add to his calculations, but Lobot knew even the smallest variants mattered. And as Solo shouted at Chewbacca to save his strength, that there would be another time, that he had to take care of the princess after he was gone, Lobot watched Vader carefully. Even as Solo and Organa kissed, he watched the Dark Lord. And calculated.
He is watching out of curiosity. Or is it something more? Mental note to order more hazzlo lubricant for the hatch seals.
Solo was pulled away by two stormtroopers and shoved into the center of the freezing pit.
“I love you,” the princess said.
“I know,” Solo replied.
Cha.
Her name and her face suddenly entered into his calculations, displacing everything, decimating all thoughts on tibanna reports and acyclic compounds and covalent bonds and chemical deliquescence. All along his enhanced neural pathways, Lobot’s mind suffered an atypical disruption, one that demanded he create a subroutine in order to produce a damage report of his mental stability. Cha. Potentiation increased all across his brain, synaptic plasticity strengthened.
And then, with no further ceremony, Solo was being pulled down into the pit. Slowly. Chewbacca was screaming and the princess seemed on the verge of tears. But she maintained composure.
Something went wrong with Lobot’s hand. Suddenly it was going for the hidden holdout blaster tucked behind his waist. He looked at it. Tilted his head curiously. Then reestablished calm.
There is no calm. Something has changed. Mental note…
He could not think of work. Not now. Not when the white gases came shooting up out of the freezing pit and Chewbacca was screaming and now the loading claw was descending and lifting a large, dark-gray slab into the air. When it fell over, Lobot saw the look on Princess Leia’s face. The look on Lando’s face.
Cha.
“Well, Calrissian?” Vader said. “Did he survive?”
“Yes, he’s alive,” Lando said flatly, coldly. But Lobot sensed the tension. “And in perfect hibernation.”
Vader turned to Boba Fett. “He’s all yours, bounty hunter.” After Fett bowed, Vader turned to a technician. “Reset the chamber for Skywalker.”
An officer rushed over and told Vader that Skywalker had just landed. Vader said that was good, and commanded the officer to see to it that Skywalker found his way in here.
Lobot looked down at the cold slab, at the face of Solo—
Suddenly, many neural pathways rewrote themselves. They did so inexplicably, and apparently without his input. He saw Cha’s face repeated, like an error in a file where certain figures reappeared with frustrating redundancy, and without motive or cause. Lobot felt his duty to Calrissian pulling him towards irrational violence against Vader and the Imperials, yet could not explain the outburst of emotion. He also felt that something Ageless Void had said was even now finding a home in his amygdala and hypothalamus.
Every man for himself, and yet together we are stronger.
It was a complementarity dilemma, where two contrasted theories were able to explain a set of phenomena, although each separately only accounted for some aspects. A contrast in beliefs that somehow came together to form a conclusion that both theories proved correct. And it was caused by a schism happening in his mind.
Complementarity dilemma. Irreconcilable.
Lando had just grabbed the princess’s arm to guide her away, when she wrenched her arm free.
“Calrissian,” Vader said. “Take the princess and the Wookiee to my ship.”
Lando’s eyes went wide with anger, nostrils flaring. “You said they would be left in the city under my supervision!”
“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” With that, Vader turned and left, his cape snapping behind him.
Perhaps unconsciously, Lando touched his neck, as if remembering all the rumors they had heard about Vader’s strange ability to choke someone from across the room. And as the Dark Lord left, the freezing chamber fell quiet, but for the faint hissing of pipes and the pitter-patter of Ugnaught footsteps. And Lando slowly turned, and faced Lobot.
Lobot looked back at him.
No communication was needed. No words need be vocalized. No secret winks or codes. Lobot understood completely.
Time to speak with Ageless Void. FOREST FIRE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
* * *
HELIKYT BUILDING, THE HOLDING TOWER
Ageless paced his cell. Across from him, Namyr sat on the bed slab that extended from the wall. Their stolen security garb had been taken, and they were left in generic white short-sleeve shirts and gray pants with black boots. Ageless looked around at the sparse prison cell, wondering how soon before Calrissian told the Imperials they were here, and Darth Vader came walking through that door. How long before he finds Kevv and Zumter? How long before we’re all executed?
The Nest had taught him all about surviving torture and interrogation, and the Kingdom had reinforced it. The key was to blank your mind, meditate, go deep inside yourself, and keep your mind occupied, talk to yourself if you have to. There would be loud music playing at all hours soon. And sleep deprivation. Most beings were hallucinating after just three days without sleep. Poor, bland meals would enhance the misery. Sensory deprivation would come next—tied to a chair, unable to touch anything, unable to feel anything, the mind would begin to break down.
After that, they won’t need a truth serum, or whatever powers Darth Vader possesses. We’ll babble while trying to fall asleep, and tell them whatever they want because we’ll think we’re dreaming.
Zumter taught him all about that.
Ageless remembered his days at the Nest, his hands tied behind his back while he was dunked into ice-cold water. He was drowned three times, resuscitated every time by a 2-1B medical droid. Made to face death repeatedly, he started to become disconnected from fear. No longer recognizing himself as an individual, he saw himself as an automaton in service to the Empire. No different than a droid. Only a droid could not feel the fiery purpose within. Ageless’s drive had kept him going. A drive to make the Empire see the patriotic actions of a single Zabrak, and thus come to respect all Zabraks, all non-Humans. He had done it not only for himself, but for his people.
And that won’t matter when the Dark Lord comes.
“When they come,” Namyr said, “do we fight? I’ll fight with you, if that’s what you want. We’ll fight and die together.”
Ageless stopped pacing and looked at her. “Is that what you want?”
“All I know is I don’t want to be interrogated by Darth Vader.”
Ageless nodded. “That settles it, then.”
She nodded. “Okay. So, how do you want to do it?” She added, “Assuming they aren’t listening to us right now. If they are, this is all moot anyway.”
“It’s better if you look like you’re asleep when they come in,” he said. “I’ll sit on the side of my own bed,” he tapped a button on the wall, and the bed slab slid out, “and when they come close, I’ll rush them. I think I can probably take two or three of them on my own. While I’ve got them busy, you rush for the door. Anybody standing there, you deal with as best you can, until I can get there to back you up. We divide their forces like that—”
Suddenly, the door slid open, and Ageless prepared himself for death.
And then he gaped in confusion.
“Hey there,” Kevv said, stepping inside. Before Ageless could say anything, the Duros hauled off and punched him in the jaw. Namyr leapt up and went into a combat stance. Ageless staggered backward, then recovered. Confused, figuring Kevv had betrayed them unexpectedly, he started to attack—
When a Human security guard walked in with a stun gun aimed at Ageless. The guard looked at Kevv and said, “This them?”
“Yeah, this is them, all right.” Kevv smiled. “You two thought you could slip away from Carjukk? After what you did? Tsk. Mistake. Big, big mistake. You should know never to cross a Hutt.” He waved for the other security guards to enter. “Put them in binders. I don’t want them trying anything funny on the way to the ship.”
“Ahem,” the lead security guard said. He looked at Kevv squarely.
“Oh, of course.” Kevv reached into his jacket and pulled out a large sack, which sounded like it was filled with hard credits. “There you go, officer. And Carjukk thanks you for your help. He always remembers those that are willing to do business.”
“Be sure that he does,” the guard said.
Ageless stood there dumbfounded as the guards placed both him and Namyr in binders and handed them over to Kevv, who took out his own blaster and pointed it at them. “Come on. Move.”
They stepped out into the hall and went up a flight of stairs, and were halfway down the next corridor when the security guards broke off to return to their own posts. Now that they were alone, Ageless muttered, “How—in the blazes—did you do this?”
“With a little ingenuity and a whole lotta luck,” Kevv whispered, glancing over his shoulder. “Just keep moving. The Ugnaughts are waiting outside for us.”
“The Ugnaughts?” Namyr said, taken aback. “How did you rope them into this?”
“I paid them, and I told them that doing this would upset Calrissian and make him look like a fool, which the Besadii kajidic wants, so they can stake a claim to the tibanna-mining here.” They came to a door and it slid open and they were facing the same landing platform that Ageless and Namyr had been brought in on. The Hard Leaf was parked on it.
And, standing between them and the YT, was Lando Calrissian, Lobot, and a cadre of security guards.
Ageless’s heart sank.
“Uhhh,” Kevv said.
“It was a bold plan,” said Calrissian, walking over to him. “Very bold. I’ve seen dumber, but not many.” The Baron Administrator swaggered over to them, blue cape flapping in the breeze. The sun was behind him, lowering towards the horizon. The man was limned by that fiery light, looking like some hero stepped out of a story as he stood squarely in front of the three of them. “I was informed the minute you arrived,” he said to Kevv. “I wanted you arrested immediately, but Lobot here suggested I allow you to proceed with your little con, to see where it went.” He gestured to the Hard Leaf. “Did you know your Ugnaught friends were just about to leave you, high and dry? Apparently, you paid them a lot of credits, but they are not so honorable as to stay once you had fully paid them.”
Ageless looked over at Kevv with tired eyes. “You paid them in full? Before the job was done?”
Kevv shrugged as one of the security guards took his blaster from him. “I’m not a spy. I’m a pilot. I did the best I could, guys,” he said dolefully. “Sorry, guys.”
“Where’s Vader?” Namyr said coldly. “He on his way?”
“Vader already got what he came for,” Calrissian said. “And then some.”
The tone of those last three words…Something’s happened, Ageless thought. Something’s changed. He looked over at Lobot and saw that the aide was his same stoic self. And yet.
“Vader altered the deal,” Ageless said. “Didn’t he?”
Calrissian gave a small nod. “He made me help him lure in a friend, and freeze him in carbonite. In carbonite!” he roared. The Baron Administrator was furious, and even Ageless was taken aback back the thought. He had heard that it was possible to freeze people in carbonite, but—
“What do you want us to do about it?” he asked.
“He threatened my people,” Calrissian said. “He and that bounty hunter…they said that if we didn’t help, the people of Cloud City would suffer. Now he’s taking Leia and Chewie as prisoners and…” He put his hands on his hips, shaking his head ruefully. “Now he’s resetting the chamber to capture a friend of Han’s.” He looked at Namyr. “You said you’ve got Rebel friends in the area?”
“We do,” Namyr said.
“How many?”
“How many exactly?” Lobot stressed.
“There is a listening outpost hidden somewhere inside the city, we don’t know where, it’s classified,” Namyr said hurriedly, seeing her opening. “And our ship is in orbit—at least, it was a while ago, and still is, assuming the Empire hasn’t found it yet. It’s a stealth ship, like we told Lobot before.”
Ageless stepped forward, then stepped back when the security guys aimed their weapons at his head. Calrissian waved for them to take it easy. “We can create a diversion. Maybe several of them, I don’t know. And we can get you all out of here, but we need the Millennium Falcon, both for our own transport, and the transport of our prisoner.”
“That the guy bound half-naked inside the Hard Leaf?”
Ageless blinked. Then he suddenly realized Kevv was wearing Zumter’s clothes and chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Calrissian glared at Ageless. “I want guarantees.”
Namyr said, “I can guarantee the Rebel Alliance will reward you with—”
“Not for me,” he said. “Guarantees that your stealth ship will help stall the Imperials any way they can. Because once we do this little insurrection, it’s over for us here, and the miners here…well, half of them already hate me, but I don’t care, I need to ensure they get out safely before more Imperial troops arrive and turn this place upside-down.”
Namyr said, “We will do what we can. I promise. And I can put you in direct contact with our ship if you want. It will help with coordination when the time comes.”
“We just need our commlinks back,” Ageless put in. “And our weapons and gear, especially the slicer rigs.”
Calrissian looked them up and down, reappraising them. Then he glanced at Lobot, who gave an almost imperceptible nod. “All right,” he said. “But first thing’s first. I’ve been ordered to bring Princess Leia and Chewie to Vader’s ship. They are waiting right now with an escort. I’ve delayed them, saying I have to secure a shuttle first.”
Ageless nodded. “Then we need to move fast. The Hard Leaf over there is too damaged, life-support is down. We need the Falcon and I’m sure it’s going to be locked down. Only the Wookiee—Chewie, you said?—only he or the princess will have access. Slicing its controls could take too long.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Calrissian said with a beaming smile that must have stolen more hearts than a Corellian swashbuckler. “Let’s go be heroes.”
Their binders were removed, and they all rushed into the Hard Leaf and prepped her for takeoff. After a brief inspection of Zumter and the Ugnaughts (all of whom had been placed back in binders by Calrissian’s people), Ageless joined Namyr, Kevv, Lobot, and Calrissian in the cockpit. Kevv was in the pilot’s seat, and Calrissian was copilot. Namyr manned a sensor station while Lobot stood behind his boss, hands clasped behind him, watching as the platform fell away below them.
Ageless caught the strained look on Kevv’s face, and said, “You okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just…”
“Just what?”
“With our string of bad luck recently…I don’t know…I guess I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this.”
“Cheer up. We’re almost out.”