Dazed, Luke staggered toward the front of the ship. He barely noticed the sound of

energy bolts, too weak to penetrate the ship's deflectors, exploding harmlessly outside.

His own safety was currently of little concern to him. With misty eyes he stared as

Chewbacca and Solo adjusted controls.

"I hope that old man managed to knock out that tractor beam," the Corellian was

saying, "or this is going to be a very short ride."

Ignoring him, Luke returned to the hold area and slumped into a seat, his head

falling into his hands. Leia Organa regarded him quietly for a while, then removed

her cloak. Moving to him, she placed it gently around his shoulders.

"There wasn't anything you could have done," she whispered comfortingly. "It

was all over in an instant."

"I can't believe he's gone," came Luke's reply, his voice a ghost of a whisper.

"I can't"

Solo shifted a lever, staring nervously ahead. But the massive bay door was

constructed to respond to the approach of any vessel. The safety feature now served

to facilitate their escape as the freighter slipped quickly past the still-opening door and

out into free space.

"Nothing," Solo sighed, studying several readouts with profound satisfaction.

"Not so much as an erg of come-hither. He did it, all right."

Chewbacca rumbled something, and the pilot's attention shifted to another series

of gauges. "Right, Chewie. I forget, for a moment, that there are other ways of

persuading us to return." His teeth flashed in a grin of determination. "But the

only way they'll get us back in that traveling tomb is in pieces. Take over."

Whirling, he ran out of the cockpit. "Come with me, kid," he shouted at Luke

as he entered the hold. "We're not out of this yet."

Luke didn't respond, didn't move, and Leia turned an angry face to Solo.

"Leave him alone. Can't you see what the old man meant to him?"

An explosion jarred the ship, nearly tumbling Solo to the deck.

"So what? The old man gave himself to give us a chance to get away. You

want to waste that, Luke? You want Kenobi to have wasted himself?"

Luke's head came up and he stared with vacant eyes at the Corellian. No, not

quite vacant…There was something too old and unpleasant shining blindly in the back

of them. Without a word, he threw off the cloak and joined Solo.

Giving him a reassuring smile, Solo gestured down a narrow accessway. Luke

looked in the indicted direction, smiled grimly, and rushed down it as Solo started

down the opposing passage.

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