Agents Of Chaos_ Hero's Trial - Agents of Chaos_ Hero's Trial Part 30
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Agents of Chaos_ Hero's Trial Part 30

"No sign of them. Unless they're in cargo."

Han took one last look at Reck. "Down you go," he said, mostly to himself.

He walked back through the passenger compartment to the rear hold and hit the hatch release. "Found them," he told Droma, even before the hatch had pocketed itself.

On a large square of deck grating lay Elan and Vergere, unconscious but otherwise unharmed. The hold was free of black husks. Han put his arm under Elan's narrow shoulders and gently lifted her. Her intense blue eyes blinked open, then went wide in fright. She flailed in his arms, her sudden movements causing Vergere to stir, as well.

"It's me - Han!" he said through the EVA suit's external speaker.

Elan began to relax. "They drugged us," she said groggily, then glanced around in confused apprehension. "Where are they? What happened?

Why are you wearing a space suit?"

He helped her to her feet and slowly led her into the passenger compartment. Her foot had scarcely touched the black grit when she gasped and stood petrified.

"Bo'tous!" she said, in what Han assumed was Yuuzhan Vong. "A bioweapon - an airborne blood agent!"

"This black stuff is bo-whatever?"

Elan shook her head. "What you see is the aftermath of bo'tous - a harmless residue." She gestured to the forward seats. "What they inhaled killed them."

Vergere stepped from the cargo hold and stifled a scream.

"Everyone but you two are dead," Han said.

Elan stared at him in bewilderment. "But who did this?"

"That's what I'd like to know. Could the Peace Brigade have been carrying some of that ... stuff?"

"Yes, possibly. They had a dovin basal and an unmasker. They might have had bo'tous, as well." She looked at Han. "Perhaps they planned to use it on passengers aboard the starliner."

"Why didn't it affect you?"

"On launch from the Queen of Empire, they sealed us into the compartment where you found us." She held his gaze. "We Yuuzhan Vong are immune, in any case."

Han nodded noncommittally and activated the comlink. "Droma, meet me in the docking arm. I'm bringing them aboard."

"You'd better be quick about it," Droma replied rapidly. "That warship's headed right for us!"

TWENTY-SIX.

With missiles from the Yuuzhan Vong frigate slamming against her shields and detonating to all sides, the Millennium Falcon raced back toward the still-immobile starliner. Beams from the Thurse's main batteries lashed blue light at the frigate, but to no apparent effect.

"You're telling me it jumped that far in a second?"

Han yelled at Droma while he fought to stabilize his ship.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you! One second it was there, the next it was practically right on top of us!"

Han's hands flew across the cockpit console. "Angle the rear deflectors! If we can't outrun them, we can at least try to stay in one piece!" He looked over his shoulder at Elan and Vergere. "Get to the acceleration couch in the forward hold!"

Droma waited until they had disappeared to say, "Vergere's not an extragalactic, Han. I don't know the species, but I have seen her type before."

Han glanced at him. "What are you telling me? That she's an impostor?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe only that those two don't add up."

"You don't trust them?"

"Do you?"

Han considered his answer, then shook his head. "Something's been nagging at me. Why would the Yuuzhan Vong send a warship to back up the Peace Brigade? If they knew Elan was aboard the Queen, they would have done the job themselves. And another thing: even if some Yuuzhan Vong bioweapon escaped aboard the shuttle, that doesn't explain the shuttle's decelerating the way it did."

"Unless the Yuuzhan Vong deliberately slowed it down."

Han made his lips a thin line. "Exactly what I was thinking. You remember Reck's man reporting that the corvette was glitched - that they couldn't disengage from the Queen?"

Droma nodded. "The corvette pulled the Queen from hyperspace, but suddenly was unable to break away from her."

"Which could happen if the Yuuzhan Vong tasked the dovin basal aboard the corvette to hold fast to the Queen."

The Falcon shook as a projectile caught up with her. Han and Droma flinched, but dozens more missiles streaked past the ship to port and starboard.

"I'm tempted to see what happens if we stop taking evasive action."

"Not too tempted, I hope," Droma said worriedly. Han growled. "I've gone up against the Yuuzhan Vong ships before. They just don't miss this often. It's like they're doing everything they can to convince us they want their property back -"

"When they actually want Elan and Vergere to remain where they are."

Han rubbed his jaw. "But why the ruse?"

"Something unrevealed," Droma said leadingly. "The Queen of Air and Darkness."

Han scowled. "I don't put any stock in card games."

Droma shrugged. "Watching you play sabacc, I would have thought otherwise."

Han fell silent for a moment, then reached for his pack and located his bolstered blaster. Getting to his feet, he buckled the holster around his hips and fastened the thigh grip.

"Take over," he told Droma.

He hurried to the forward hold, where Elan and Vergere were seated side by side on the acceleration couch.

"Can you outspeed the warship?" Elan asked in a way that was meant to sound guileless.

"Probably not," he told her. "But I think your people will make us think we did."

She looked at him questioningly.

"I mean that I'm beginning to think they don't want you back. That this whole thing - your defection, maybe even this battle - is part of some elaborate scheme your superiors cooked up."

"You don't care that I have important information for the Jedi?"

she said in a scurrilous but composed voice.

Wrestling with uncertainty, Han paced the hold. "I don't know what to think." He came to a halt and regarded the two of them. "I suppose I could take you back to the Queen and let Jedi Master Skywalker decide."

"Yes," Elan said hurriedly, "you must at least do that."

Han heard her. But what struck him was the look of shocked recognition that played briefly over Vergere's exotic features.

"You're right," he said at last. "I guess I'm just being overly suspicious."

He turned, as if to head to the cockpit, then stopped and said, "That creature that shredded your ooglith masquer aboard the Queen - does it respond only to a Yuuzhan Vong handler or will it adapt to anyone?"

"Only a Yuuzhan Vong," Elan said.

Han saw her stiffen, if ever so slightly. "You said the Yuuzhan Vong are immune to that bioweapon that got loose aboard the shuttle."

Face tightened with hatred, she nodded.

And Han grinned.

"You just remembered that I found the handler dead in the cockpit - a Yuuzhan Vong handler. You loosed that bioweapon from the safety of the cargo hold. When the toxin had dispersed enough, you came out and tipped over the handler's carry case, knowing it would draw my attention. You were never drugged. That was all part of the act."

Han's smile straightened and he cocked his head toward the Falcon's starboard ring corridor. "Droma! Take us about. Steer a course for the Yuuzhan Vong ship!"

Though muted by distance, Droma's "What?" teemed with disbelief.

"You heard me. Unless I'm seriously mistaken, they won't fire on us." Drawing his blaster, he ordered Elan and Vergere to rise from the couch. "I'm not taking any chances with you two."

"You're making a big mistake," Elan said.

"It wouldn't be the first time, sister. Stand up and get moving."

He gestured them into the portside ring corridor and marched them aft to the Falcon's noisy rear compartment. Scrunched between the deck and the exhaust conduits of the bellowing power core, and to either side of an access shaft that had once contained a freight elevator, were the ship's escape pods.

Roomy, state-of-the-art spheroids in keeping with the Falcon's status as a family vehicle, the pods were launched through ventral hatches by explosive separator charges, and featured such amenities as padded g-couches; a sophisticated sensor, communications, and flight-control suite; an automatically activated distress beacon; maneuvering jets; soft-landing coils; and enough rations and survival gear to keep two or three people equipped for a good while.

Han considered confining the bogus defectors in one of the pods, but quickly changed his mind. For all he knew, they had some way of poisoning the Falcon the way they had Reck's shuttle.

He approached one of the portside pods and slammed his hand on the hatch release stud. When the broad, circular hatch had irised open, Han motioned to it. "You're going back where you belong, ladies, marked 'returned to sender.'"

He waved the blaster, and Elan climbed nimbly into the pod. Vergere was about to follow when Elan suddenly brushed her aside, grabbed hold of Han, and tugged him headfirst into the sphere. Slamming him into the curved hull, she backed toward the still-open hatch, her mouth an intentional rictus of retaliation.

Han shook his head in an attempt to uncross his eyes. He raised the blaster and squeezed the trigger, only to realize that it was depleted.

Staring at the useless thing, he felt his jaw drop.

"Careless," Elan said as she continued to sidle toward the hatch.

"But don't worry, I'll gladly put you out of your misery."

"Huh?" he asked dizzily.

She grinned malevolently. "One breath for you, one left for the Jedi. Breathe deeply, Han."

Crouched to spring through the hatch, she forced an interminable exhale.

Then, whirling about, she leapt for the hatch. But the Falcon, dodging fire, slewed acutely to starboard and the hatch irised shut. Dumped onto his back, Han again got the wind knocked out of him. At the same time, Elan hit the closing hatch and rebounded.

Bug-eyed with fear, she scrambled to her feet and tried desperately to force the hatch open. She balled her hands and pounded on the porthole with all her might. Expertly, she side-kicked it, then threw her weight against the hatch repeatedly, but it refused to budge.

Dumbfounded and still unable to catch his breath, Han heard a voice say, Poisoned air - though he couldn't be sure just whose voice he was hearing, or indeed if it was actually a voice or a thought that had come to him in response to what he'd observed on the shuttle.

As if on its own, his hand seized the survival tool clipped to his belt. Fumbling frantically with the compressed oxygen feature, he finally managed to shove the twin-tanked device to his lips and bite down on the spatulate mouthpiece to start the oxygen flowing. Through the pod porthole, he caught a brief glimpse of Vergere, but he couldn't tell if she was attempting to open the hatch or secure it further.

Elan swung away from the hatch in dread, her lips pressed tightly together and her face a blotchy red. Staring at Han, she made a grab for him, but he sidestepped and tripped her in the process. Collapsing to her hands and knees, she threw a baleful look over her shoulder, cursing Han with every cell in her body, then inhaled hoarsely.

Her body went rigid. A sudden cough sent blood fountaining from her mouth. From eyes, ears, and nose it poured as she lifted her head and howled in anguish. Mouth twisted around the lifesaving inhaler, Han backed away, pressing himself to the curved wall and averting his gaze.

Spots formed before his eyes, and he thought he might pass out. Then the spots began to precipitate and scurry madly around the pod.

The black residue of Elan's toxic exhalation crawling all over him, he staggered for the hatch and hammered the release stud with the heel of his hand. Wild-eyed he hastened to the pod's comlink, only to find it dead, owing perhaps to a Yuuzhan Vong projectile that had penetrated the Falcon's weakened shields. He brushed frantically at the tiny life-forms and crushed dozens at a time with stomps of his feet.

A warning tone sounded from the survival tool. He was fast running out of air. Eyes bulging from his head, he slammed his fists against the padded hatch and porthole. He was down to recycling his last breath when the hatch suddenly irised open, and he pitched headfirst to the floor of the rear hold.

Gulping air, he looked up to see Droma standing over him.

"What made you come back here?" Han asked between breaths.

"A feeling," Droma told him.

Han gestured weakly to the pod. "The bugs ..."

Droma caught sight of Elan's bloodied corpse and momentarily froze.

Then he quickly resealed the hatch and began killing escapees with his hands and feet. Shortly, some of the few remaining critters began to expire on their own, transforming into featherweight husks.

Han propped himself against the bulkhead and wiped sweat from his forehead. "That's two I owe you."

"I'll add it to your tab," Droma said, panting.