Drawing his own pistol, Solo managed to snap off a couple of bursts from the

comparative safety of the hatchway. Seeing that their quarry was neither helpless

nor comatose, the exposed troops dove for cover.

The low throbbing rose to a whine, then to a deafening howl as Solo's hand came

down on the quick-release button. Immediately the overhead hatch-cover slammed

shut.

As the retreating troops raced out of the docking-bay entrance, the ground was

trembling steadily. They ran smack into a second squad, which had just arrived in

response to the rapidly spreading emergency call. One of the soldiers, gesticulating

wildly, tried to explain to the newly arrived ranking officer what had happened back

in the bay.

As soon as the panting trooper had finished, the officer whipped out a compact

communicator and shouted into it, "Flight deck…they're trying to escape! Send

everything you've got after this ship."

All across Mos Eisley, alarms began to sound, spreading out from docking bay

ninety-four in concentric circles of concern.

Several soldiers scouring one alleyway reacted to the citywide alarm at the same

time as they saw the small freighter lift gracefully into the clear blue sky above Mos

Eisley. It shrank to a pinpoint before any of them thought to bring a weapon to bear.

Luke and Ben were already undoing their acceleration straps as Solo walked past

them, moving toward the cockpit with the easy, loose-limbed stride of the experienced

spacer. Once forward, he fell rather than sat in the pilot's seat and immediately

began checking readouts and gauges. In the seat next to him Chewbacca was

growling and grunting like a poorly tuned speeder engine. He turned from studying

his own instruments long enough to jab a massive finger at the tracking screen.

Solo gave it a quick glance, then turned irritably to his own panel. "I know, I

know…looks like two, maybe three destroyers. Somebody certainly dislikes our

passengers. Sure picked ourselves a hot one this time. Try to hold them off

somehow until I can finish the programming for the supralight jump. Angle the

deflectors for maximum shielding."

With those instructions he ceased conversing with the huge Wookie as his hands

flew over the computer-input terminals. Solo did not even turned around when a

small cylindrical shape appeared in the doorway behind him. Artoo Detoo beeped a

few remarks, then scurried away.

Rear scanners showed the baleful lemon eye of Tatooine shrinking rapidly

behind them. It wasn't rapid enough to eliminate the three points of light that

indicated the presence of the pursuing Imperial warships.

Although Solo had ignored Artoo, he turned to acknowledge the entrance of his

human passengers. "We've got two more coming in from different angles," he told

them, scrutinizing the remorseless instrumentation. "They're going to try box up

before we can jump. Five ships…What did you two do to attract that kind of

company?"

"Can't you outrun them?" Luke asked sarcastically, ignoring the pilot's question

the pilot's question. "I thought you said this thing was fast."

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