An astromech droid shimmered in silver light, bleeped fifteen times with fifteen different tones, and then stopped, going completely dead. 3PO had seen that before. No amount of resetting would bring it back. Its microprocessors would have to be cleansed. Any personality the astromech droid had was gone.
R2 had stopped moving. His head swiveled.
Brakiss finally had R2"s attention.
Brakiss smiled. He leveled the scrambler at 3PO. "Give me any more trouble, and your golden friend will be wiped." 3PO held himself up as best he could. Begging would do no good now. 3PO was on his own.
R2 bleeped softly, sadly.
3PO wrapped his arms around his head, and awaited a fate worse than death.
Kueller reached inside his robe and brought out the remote that Brakiss had given him so long ago. With his thumb, he shut off all the protections. Every droid made by Brakiss in the last two years would explode when Kueller punched in his identification code.
With both hands, Skywalker swung his lightsaber.
Kueller dodged, cursing his suddenly slow body. He needed just a moment to do the recognition. He held the remote up to his eye, hit the scan function, and a beam of light stabbed him as it identified his retina.
"Luke!" Leia shouted. "He"s got a new weapon!" But Skywalker said nothing. He was moving as slowly as Kueller, coming forward, holding his lightsaber as if it were made of steel instead of light.
The remote shut off the scan light and a tiny panel went up, revealing the number pad. A five-number sequence for all of them. Very simple, Brakiss had said, to destroy them all. It was the small units that were hard. Kueller had to specify the unit-batch numbers. This one would be easy.
He stepped out of the light as he punched in the first number.
Leia was shouting.
Skywalker was moving.
Neither of them would reach him.
He punched in the second, and the third, wishing the dizziness would go away.
Leia raised her hand. A white creature appeared behind Luke. Kueller punched in the fourth number, and then the fifth. The remote beeped its acceptance, and relayed the commands all over the galaxy.
FIFTY-FOUR.
Artoo bleeped again, this time with force.
"Nooooooo," 3PO said, his eyes hidden.
A loud, long, sustained crash made him bring his hands down. Astromech droids were breaking through the one-way gla.s.s. It coated Brakiss. He was screaming and pulling gla.s.s shards from his hair. The scrambler was on the floor. Droids were converging on him, and without hesitating, he turned and ran through a side door. Droids followed, as his screams echoed through the hallway.
R2 beeped in satisfaction, then went to the computer array and jacked in.
3PO went around the deactivated astromech droid, and watched R2"s jack rotate. "Whatever are you doing?" R2 bleebled.
"How can you deactivate so many detonators from such a distance?" 3PO said. "Delusions of grandeur, that"s what you have. Delusions. We have to get out of here before Brakiss comes back. We have to find Master Cole."
R2 blapped at him, shushing him.
3PO watched.
Then R2 squealed.
"What? What?" R2 screamed, and 3PO waved his hands in distress. "What do you mean they"re being activated? Every new droid will explode! We"ll die here a thousand times over. They"ll never even find pieces of us!" R2 whistled, then bleeped commands.
"What panel? How can I push a command b.u.t.ton if I don"t even know what panel?" Still, 3PO hurried over to the computer panel, looking for the small b.u.t.ton that R2 had described.
R2 shrilled his response as 3PO found the b.u.t.ton. R2 would send the deactivation code, but 3PO had to press the emergency frequency. It would, they hoped, intercept any other message. It would prevent explosions from happening.
R2"s jack stopped rotating. As he pulled the jack from the socket, he bleeped.
Now.
3PO jammed his golden finger on the b.u.t.ton once, twice, three times.
Nothing happened.
R2 was staring at a display screen.
3PO looked up.
R2 started rocking back and forth. Then he shrilled a victory cry.
"We did it?" 3PO said.
R2 bleeped happily.
"We really did it!" 3PO put his arm around his small friend. "We"re saved! Oh, R2, you"re a genius!" R2 burbled modestly.
"Well, I"m a genius too. After all, I did help you. I did listen to you, and you couldn"t have done it alone. Why, if Master Cole and I hadn"t come here-" 3PO interrupted himself. "Oh, dear. Master Cole! He"s missing! We have to find him, R2, before something dreadful happens to him." R2 moaned softly.
"Oh, dear," 3PO said. "I suppose that means it already has."
Leia couldn"t feel Luke anymore. It was as if his personality completely disappeared, even though she could still see him, outlined against the tower in the growing twilight. Behind him, the Thernbee appeared, its huge face turning quizzically toward Kueller. His presence was gone too.
But she sensed someone else close, someone precious. She turned. Han was at the mouth of the alley, his blaster out, his face hidden in shadow.
Chewbacca was behind him. She wanted to run to Han, but she couldn"t. Not yet.
Something was happening to Luke.
At first she had thought he was going to die, as Obi-Wan did, but he didn"t. Kueller didn"t hit him. Instead, Kueller backed away and pulled out a small device. It was scanning his face.
She had a bad feeling about this.
"Luke!" she shouted, but Luke seemed to be ignoring her. He was trying to hold his lightsaber.
He was missing his chance. Kueller was going to do something awful and then get away.
The light stopped scanning Kueller"s face.
Leia raised her hand, and called Han"s blaster to her. It left his hands and zoomed toward her.
The Thernbee saw her, and its tail started to wag. It changed direction and came toward her.
The blaster dipped in the air. She was losing her mental grip on it. She pulled it to her faster. It hit her hand as a blanket dropped across her mind. She stumbled backward, then pulled the blaster aloft.
Kueller was still holding the device up. She saw his fingers move against the light the device gave off.
Even without feeling him through the Force, she knew what he was going to do. He had told her when he arrived. It didn"t matter that some of the droids had been turned off.
So many hadn"t.
Those waves of cold...
The concussion of the instant bomb...
The laughter of her children...
Leia raised the blaster, closed one eye, and lined the weapon up with Kueller. He didn"t see her. He couldn"t even feel her.
But Luke could.
"Leia!" he shouted.
Kueller turned, and Leia didn"t hesitate. The shot went directly for his head.
He raised a hand to ward it off, but the hand did no good. The blaster shot knocked him backward.
"Leia!" Luke shouted again.
The Thernbee was coming toward her, a giant furry ghost in the darkness.
Kueller sat up, and Leia shot him one more time. He fell back, the device falling out of his hand. She crossed the tile, the heavy feeling growing stronger with each movement.
"Leia!" Luke was beside her now. He took the blaster from her. She could feel his concern. Had she shot Kueller out of hatred and anger? Probably.
Would she be going to the dark side now?
She didn"t know.
She couldn"t feel the Force at all anymore.
Maybe it didn"t count if she couldn"t feel the Force.
She stepped over Kueller"s body. He looked smaller now, his arms raised above his head. Luke reached for her, but she moved out of his way, and bent over Kueller. She slipped her fingers under his mask and ripped it away.
He was a boy, his features only beginning to show the signs of wear that Palpatine"s had at the end. His dark eyes were open and lifeless, his mouth slack, but his features still had the roundness of youth, a sort of chubby charm that should have radiated joy instead of hatred.
No wonder he had used the mask. A face like that would have terrified no one.
"He was just a child," she whispered.
Luke crouched beside her. He took the mask from her hand. "No, Leia. He lost his childhood before he came to Yavin 4. He knew what he was doing, what he had become." He set the mask on Kueller"s destroyed chest, stood, and helped Leia up. The Thernbee was right beside them, its tongue out.
"There"s that blasted thing!" Han said from behind them. "I"d have been able to help if it hadn"t eaten my ysalamiri."
"So that"s what that feeling is." Luke brought a hand to his face and laughed shakily. "You helped, Han, old buddy. Let"s just hope the Thernbee here starts to digest the ysalamiri quickly."
"I wouldn"t count on it," Han said. "It swallowed the cages too."
"The Thernbee has eaten stranger things in the recent past," Luke said.
Leia didn"t care about the Thernbee. She took one last look at the man who had threatened her entire family. Then she turned around. Han was behind her, watching her.
"I love you, Princess," he said softly.
She launched herself into his arms, and pulled him close. "I know," she whispered. "I know."
FIFTY-FIVE.
R2"s handiwork had shut off all the droids in the facility, except for those without the detonator chip. Only the astromech units and 3PO apparently were without. The astromech units chased Brakiss to his ship, and watched as he took off to parts unknown.
The computer held no clues as to Master Cole"s whereabouts, so 3PO and R2 had to search the nearby compounds. They found him in a droid torture chamber that made the one in Jabba"s palace look like a luxurious oil-ma.s.sage parlor. Master Cole was strapped to a bench, and was partially unconscious.
R2 determined that Master Cole was in no condition to fly the freighter.
So 3PO sent messages to everyone he could think of, requesting a transport.
He managed to raise Lando Calrissian, who chuckled and said that the Lady Luck was turning into a pa.s.senger liner. He promised to arrive shortly and pick them up.
3PO waited beside Master Cole. R2 had insisted on freeing the tortured droids, and he sent them to a repair area, hoping that they could help each other. R2 was puttering around the room, deactivating all its horrible equipment. He had already removed the torture devices on the Eve-Ninedeninetwo.
Then Master Cole"s hand moved. 3PO leaned over him, and was rewarded when Master Cole"s eyelids fluttered. His eyes opened, he saw 3PO, and-he screamed.
R2 beeped in response, hurrying toward 3PO"s side.