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pistol tossed to him, as did Leia, while the two aliens armed themselves.
Kee promptly assumed a listening pose, turned and dashed toward a far doorway. "No, not now!" Luke
protested. Reaching out, he came away with two handfuls of brown hair. This did not seem to affect the
big alien in the least.
"I was afraid of this," he groaned. It took only seconds for Kee to flatten the door and burst inside. They
followed.
The large room was a communications center, possibly the central one for the whole temple complex.
Kee was rushing about, firing wildly with a rifle held in one massive hand while using the other to
demolish both instrumentation and operators with casual indifference as to whether the target was
inorganic or protesting.
Luke charged in behind, yelling in Yuzz: "We've got to get out of here, Kee! Listen to me!"
No use. The creature was beyond reason. Luke left the room. As he did so an energy bolt smashed into
the wall just above him. Dropping to one knee, he whirled and fired his pistol, dropping an Imperial
trooper down a secondary corridor. Leia caught another in the midsection and the remaining pair dove
for cover, firing as they did.
"Regulars are beginning to show up, Luke!" she shouted. "We can't stay... we've got to get out."
"I can see that," Luke shot back nervously. He pressed back against the wall, pushed and shoved at Hin
to get his attention. "Come on, Hin, use your head instead of your back for a change!"
The big Yuzzem growled dangerously at him. Luke didn't let that intimidate him, "I know this whole
place stinks. I'd like to blow it to hell and be gone myself, but we're just a little outnumbered."
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Hin bared sharp canines, grabbed Luke by the neck. Luke stared resolutely at his furry visage. Abruptly,
the hand moved away and Hin nodded slowly, giving out with an apologetic grunt.
"Okay then," Luke sighed. "Go get Kee." Another bolt broke stone above them and he turned to return
the fire. The hallway was starting to fill with Imperial troops. Luke retreated up the hall, called, "Come
on, Leia!" Under his covering fire, she ran to join him. Then the two of them covered the alien's retreat.
As Kee emerged from the communications room, a tremendous explosion shattered the door frame
behind him. Smoke and flame gushed from the ruined portal, singeing back fur, but that helped screen
them from the massing troops.
Hin had a surprise for Luke and handed it to him expectantly. "My lightsaber! Where'd you find it?" The
Yuzzem explained that the soldier who'd appropriated it wouldn't need it anymore.
Luke refastened the heirloom at his belt as the four of them ran for the front of the building, leaving
confusion and blood in equal amounts behind them....
VII
GRAMMEL rushed into the corridor, several troops at his heels. The Captain-Supervisor finished
buckling on his pants and screamed at the assembled mass of troops.
"What the double moons is happening here?"
"Get down, get down, sir!" one of the subofficers yelled frantically to him.
"What for, you idiot!" Grammel roared. "Can't you see they're interested in escaping, not in killing you?"
Pulling a pistol from its holster, he grabbed at the sergeant next to him. "Get in there," he instructed the
noncom as he gestured toward the communications room with the pistol, "and tell them to secure every
exit. No one goes in or out of the complex until I give my personal okay."
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"Yes, Captain-Supervisor!" As the sergeant rushed for the room, Grammel led the by now enormous
body of armed troops up the smoking hallway.
Very soon the sergeant exited from the room, shouted after them that communications were out and
everyone inside was dead or dying. But Grammel was already out of earshot. The sergeant rushed after
him.
Luke threw up a warning hand and the four would-be escapees slowed to a halt. "There's the exit," he
informed them, pointing around the corner.
Ahead lay double transparent doors leading to the now-attractive damp ground outside. An unarmored
soldier sat scribbling at a desk to one side of the doorway.
"They haven't gotten the alarm here yet," Luke muttered.
"That won't last long," the Princess declared knowingly. "He's not alone." She indicated the two guards
flanking the exit. Each was armed with assorted devices in addition to a brace of heavy rifles.
Luke leaned against the wall, thinking furiously. It was a long way across an open floor to the doorway.
"We could cover the Yuzzem," the Princess suggested. "If they can take out the man at the desk before
he can sound an alarm..."
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