“I think there’s a way to get around their side,” she called.
“Good. You two, keep them occupied,” Leia said. “Scarlet! With me. Let’s find that flank.”
Han and Baasen lifted their blasters as the women headed back toward the dripping chamber. Baasen fired casually toward the bend in the corridor and the barrage came again, louder than a landslide.
“Those boys seem a mite anxious,” Baasen said.
“Wouldn’t you be?”
“Oh, I am, old friend,” Baasen said, firing his blaster again. “I very much am.”
The minutes stretched as Han and Baasen baited the Imperial forces. Han kept expecting them to charge, but the assault didn’t come. Whatever they were guarding, they weren’t being drawn away from it.
Something loud happened around the corner, and a chorus of shouts and screams echoed down the chamber. Han and Baasen exchanged a glance, and then Han poked his head around the corner. Ten white-armored bodies lay on a wide grating in front of a vast, black archway. Scarlet and Leia stood over them, blasters in their hands.
“Good to see you ladies again,” Baasen said. “We were just about to go looking for you.”
“This isn’t it,” Scarlet said. On the far side of the archway stood a wide chamber. Its side was open like a window, and a massive shaft, wide as the whole room and the archway besides, slanted down into the darkness. A stormtrooper lay beside a complicated panel in the wall where a series of glowing switches showed patterns of red, green, yellow, and blue. Someone had taken a sheet of foil and etched the words GREEN GREEN BLUE RED—DOWN. RED BLUE GREEN YELLOW—UP. DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE.
“I take it we’re at ‘up’?” Leia said.
“One way to find out,” Scarlet answered.
“Should we perhaps talk about this a bit first? Come to a meeting of the minds?” Baasen asked, but Scarlet was already flipping the top row of switches, the indicator lights shifting under her fingertips. A deep boom came, like the shooting of a vast metal bolt, and the chamber lurched, sliding down into the slanted shaft. The black archway fell away quickly, leaving behind the bodies of the stormtroopers. They descended deep into the darkness. The chamber picked up speed as it went, the breeze growing stronger. A new smell came to the dark air: something hot and sharp that reminded Han of a ship he’d been on as a boy when its engines failed and melted down. It wasn’t comforting.
“How long do you think this has all been here?” Leia asked, and Han was ready to make a guess when Scarlet answered.
“Galassian’s best guess was a few million years.”
“Still works pretty well, all things considered,” Leia said.
Five times they passed huge, arching chambers, flying by so quickly that Han got nothing more than a fleeting impression of vast metal lattices filled with shadows and flashes of light, and then the shaft swallowed them again, sloping even farther down into the darkness. The air grew warmer and thick without being heavy. Baasen stood at the leading edge of the chamber, arms folded, looking into the depths. Han stepped up beside him. It was easy to imagine that they were standing still, the passage flowing past them.
“A lot like being swallowed, ain’t it?” Baasen commented.
“Now that you say it,” Han said. “How deep do you think we’ve gone?”
“Fifteen, twenty kilometers,” Baasen said. “Not much if you’re flying a ship.”
“A lot if you’re climbing stairs.”
“There’s a truth.”
The floor beneath them shifted. Han grunted.
“What is it?” Leia asked.
“We’ve started braking,” Han said. “Wherever we’re going, we’re almost there.”
Far down the slanting shaft, a glimmer of light appeared, fainter than a star. It grew slowly brighter, stronger. The chamber slowed as it came nearer. Han crouched down, wishing there were more cover. If there were another dozen stormtroopers at the bottom of the shaft, the arrival could be uncomfortable. The others all had the same thought, and as the room slid slowly to a halt they’d all taken what little cover there was.
The chamber butted gently up to a black archway the twin of the one at the top. The deep metallic booming came again as they stopped. Han stepped into the corridor beyond. The sound of tapping footsteps came down the hall. He readied his blaster. Baasen, Scarlet, and Leia all took positions along the wall. The echoes made it hard to tell who was coming or how many, but the sound was sharp and percussive. Not the tramping of combat boots. Han hoped it wasn’t combat boots.
The protocol droid that came around the corner had a deep blue patina on his plating and a permanently surprised expression in his photoreceptors that seemed to suit the occasion. As soon as he saw the four of them, he paused. For a moment, no one spoke.
“Oh!” the droid said, then turned and started to totter off. Han and Baasen were after him in a flash, Scarlet and Leia guarding the rear. At the end of a corridor, a bank of three-meter-wide circles showed where doors would iris open. The droid was hurrying toward the one farthest on the left. Han skidded in front of him, hands up, palms out, the gesture of goodwill spoiled only by the blaster still hanging from his index finger.
“It’s all right,” Han said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“You’re not,” Baasen said.
“Master Essio will not have this! You must not disturb him! I will fight you to the death rather than let you through!”
“All respect,” Baasen growled, stepping forward, “you’re a protocol droid.”
The droid squeaked in alarm, and a thin, sparking wire shot from his chest and struck Baasen’s arm. The bounty hunter convulsed once, staggering, then pulled the tiny dart out, a little knot of blood and skin still on it.
“You see now,” Baasen said, all hint of gentleness gone from him, “you just made my point for me.”
“No! Don’t hurt me!” shouted the droid. “Master Essio! Help! Help! The intruders have—”
“Ell-Three?”
The droid spun, his head clicking side-to-side, searching for the source of the voice. Scarlet and Leia stepped forward, silhouetted by the light from beyond the dark arch.
“Who’s there?” the droid cried. “Who is it?”
“Forgot me already?” Scarlet said.
“The … the artistic tutor? But you’re dead!”