Trouble on Cloud City

17

When Lando went straight to the Wing Guard on Cloud City and demanded a high-level investigation into the assassination attempt on Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowie, he held back his suspicions about Black Sun… for now. When the appropriate Exex and Wing Guard commanders responded, they summoned the three “alleged victims” to a private debriefing at an unfamiliar address high in Cloud City.

Lando, Jaina, Zekk, and Anja intended to accompany the others to add their observations on the story, but as they prepared to leave their VIP rooms in the extravagant Yerith Bespin, Lando received an urgent message. He read the screen, then turned away from the comm system, frowning.

“We’ve got trouble at the construction site,” he said. “There’s something strange going on, and I have to attend to it.” He looked over at Jacen. “Do you three think you can handle the interview alone?”

“Hey, no problem,” Jacen said. “Blaster bolts, if we lived through the incident itself, I guess we can handle talking about it.”

“All right,” Lando said, grabbing his burgundy cape and preparing to deal with whatever troubles he might encounter down at SkyCenter Galleria.

“We’ll come with you, Lando,” Jaina said. “You might need some … Jedi backup.”

“I know better than to turn down help. Sounds like this is some kind of labor dispute.”

Anja looked from one group to the other, and offered to join Jaina, Zekk, and Lando. The four of them ran to a lift tube as Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca headed off to their own meeting.

After dropping down several levels, then transiting to the outer walls of the city, Lando took his group to the site of the soon-to-be-completed SkyCenter Galleria. Using his passwords, he escorted them into the barricaded construction area. Jaina stood next to Zekk, looking around. Anja fidgeted, feeling very out of place. The four of them stayed close together as the sheer silence and oppressive tension in the air struck them.

“What’s going on?” Lando said. “There was supposed to be a riot happening here.”

“Looks like everybody went home early,” Zekk said.

Anja snorted. “False alarm, then.”

They moved farther inside, under the tall, skeletal structure of the primary hovercoaster. Bright glowpanels dangled from exposed wires high in the girders and catwalks overhead. The temporary fabric walls blocked most of the high breezes, but still let drafts whistle in. There were no other sounds. The shadows were thick.

“Hello!” Lando called out. “Uh, what seems to be the problem here?” His words echoed from the equipment and construction shacks, but no one answered.

“Where is everyone? We’ve got a completion schedule to meet,” he said with a huff, turning to Zekk, Anja, and Jaina. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t let Cojahn’s work go to waste. We’ll open this galleria on time.”

Zekk frowned. “Not if all your workers are gone.”

“There must be some explanation for this,” Lando said. They ventured deeper in. Doors of construction shacks hung open, loose. Computer terminals glowed with inventory records, unattended.

“It’s like they all got up and ran away,” Jaina said.

“Yeah, maybe somebody sounded an evacuation alarm,” Anja suggested.

As the four continued into the construction site, exploring and passing under overhangs, Jaina mumbled, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Suddenly, from under some debris hidden behind stacks of crates, a small brown Ugnaught dashed out. Ducking past the startled Jaina and Lando, he ran, squealing and cluttering.

“Hey, wait!” Jaina said.

Zekk leapt to intercept the small creature, but the Ugnaught shrieked in terror, split to one side, and dove headfirst down an open air-ventilation duct. He disappeared with a thud of tumbling limbs.

Zekk peered into the darkened shaft. “He certainly was in a hurry to leave.”

“Maybe he knows something we don’t,” Jaina said, looking around with wary apprehension. Cautiously she drew her lightsaber and ignited it. The blaze of violet rippled and flickered against the naked structural metal of the tall entertainment machinery. “Just to be safe,” she explained, though she knew its brilliant glow might draw attention to their hiding place. Anja made no move to draw her own antique Jedi weapon.

Suddenly all the garish glowpanels overhead winked out, plunging the enclosed construction area into deep shadows that were alleviated only by the glow of Jaina’s weapon and by scores of tiny emergency lights that reminded her of the phosfleas the Wookiees used in their forest cities on Kashyyyk.

“Great,” Zekk said. “Now I’ve got a bad feeling about this, too.”

Two doors opened up on either side of the construction area and in the blaze of light from the exterior corridors, Jaina could see burly silhouettes of heavily armed men wearing padded bodysuits. The ominous figures stepped forward.

Lando heaved a sigh of relief. “Ah, those are uniformed Wing Guards,” he said. “Man, are we glad to see you!”

Then, in unison, the guards opened fire—directly at them.

“Look out!” Jaina tackled Lando to the ground, while Zekk moved fast enough of his own accord, dropping and rolling under a low girder. Anja staggered back and fumbled for her lightsaber. Deadly blaster bolts ricocheted and spanged from girders, sending out sparks with every impact.

“Get down,” Jaina warned the older girl, deflecting one of the bolts with her weapon.

“Seal the other exits!” one of the traitorous Wing Guards said.

“Hey, you’re supposed to be the good guys!” Lando bellowed. “What are you doing?” More blaster fire cut off further discussion.

“It was a setup,” Zekk said through gritted teeth. “We were lured here. These must be hit men, paid off by Black Sun.”

Lando grumbled, “There’s something rotten in Cloud City.”

They ducked into the shadows, taking shelter behind crates. “At least we’ve got plenty of places to hide,” Jaina said.

“They didn’t think very well before they planned this ambush,” Anja said, crouching beside her.

Lando shook his head and frowned. “Maybe not, but if they’ve got the exits covered, we have no place else to go. They can take their time.”

They heard the marching of booted feet as more turncoat security forces entered the construction area and barricaded the doors. Jaina wiped perspiration from her hand and gripped her lightsaber more securely, ready for hand-to-hand battle.

“Maybe we could climb up,” Zekk suggested, “find some way out the top to a higher level.”

Jaina looked up toward the nest of girders and hover-scaffolding, trying to scout out an escape hatch—but she suddenly realized that the thick building frames were moving, as if alive. She saw the flickering shadow of a humanoid shape as something scuttled down, crawling like an insect.

“More of those chameleon creatures!” Jaina said, remembering the murderous henchmen that had attacked them in the docking bay on Ord Mantell. Though foiled in their assassination attempt, the chameleon creatures had stolen the evidence of the space mines that had nearly destroyed the Millennium Falcon. Jaina drew a deep breath as it hit her: even that must have been part of a complicated Black Sun plot.

“Now I know what Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowie felt like when the assassins cornered them down in Port Town,” Jaina said. “This time we get all the excitement while they attend their little meeting.”

“Well,” Lando said. “With these traitorous Wing Guards here, I don’t believe anything is as it seems. I hope they’re safe.”

Another volley of blaster bolts erupted, and Lando ducked as sparks flew overhead. The deadly chameleon creatures scrambled closer, surrounding their prey, closing the trap.

“Right now, let’s just worry about ourselves,” he said.

When Jacen arrived with Tenel Ka and Lowie at the address for the supposed debriefing facility, they found only an empty hangar dock filled with old-model cloud cars and other small sky vehicles waiting for repair.

“There’s nobody here,” Jacen said.

Tenel Ka looked around. “Are you certain this is the correct location?”

Jacen checked again. “This is where they told us to come.”

“Indeed, I can verify that,” Em Teedee added, though no one had asked him.

Lowie sniffed the air. His black Wookiee nose wrinkled, and he let out a low, uneasy groan.

“Something is not right here,” Tenel Ka said.

“Hey—this is a fact,” Jacen agreed with forced humor. Tenel Ka and Lowie unconsciously moved closer to him, as if preparing for battle.

The outer bay doors were open wide, and clouds stretched out in a vast empty skyscape, tall gray thunderheads rising above the white mists far below. Judging from the weather patterns, Jacen suspected that heavy storms would strike the floating city before the day was out.

The three went deeper into the docking bay, looking around, growing more uncertain by the moment. “We’d better check with someone,” Jacen said.

Lowie stopped by two of the cloud cars, bent over, and touched their control panels. One was painted a rich blue, the other a bright scarlet. Both were typical recreational vehicles, cloud cars that had been souped up and probably used for races or sky patrols.

Lowie grumbled something, and Em Teedee scolded him. “Master Lowbacca, these are not our vehicles. It’s of no concern to us that they are still functional. We’re going to be late for our debriefing.”

“We are here,” Tenel Ka pointed out. “The others are not.”

Jacen glanced at Lowie. “Hey, maybe you and Jaina could tinker with some of those things later. Lando could probably get them for us cheap, if they’re just sitting here, decommissioned.”

Tenel Ka, her reflexes coiled like an overwound spring, suddenly whirled about. In the only entrance to the cloud-car bay were the hairy-faced bounty hunter and the slime-dripping alien from the first attempt on their lives. Beside them stood two Wing Guard security policemen.

“Hey, you caught them,” Jacen said to the Wing Guards, thinking that this was part of the debriefing: identifying two of the hit men who had attacked them. “Those are the ones who tried to kill us.”

“I say! If those men have been arrested, why are they all carrying their own weapons?” Em Teedee said, as the Wing Guards and the two hit men hauled out their blaster rifles.

Lowie roared in outrage.

“We have been betrayed,” Tenel Ka said.

Jacen backed up, holding his hands in front of him to prove he had no weapons. Only a few meters behind them stretched the open entrance to the cloud-car bay and another immense drop.

“Just keep backing up until you’re over the edge,” the slime-dripping killer said with a chuckle. “Save us some energy in our blaster packs.”

“Not again,” Jacen said with a groan. Lowie snarled. Tenel Ka reached for her lightsaber.

“Don’t make us shoot you down right where you stand,” said one of the Wing Guards. “That would leave us with quite a mess to clean up.”

Thinking quickly, Lowbacca swept out with one ginger-furred arm and knocked Jacen into the nearest cloud car. He roared and pointed for Tenel Ka to leap into the scarlet vessel beside Jacen, while the Wookiee scrambled into the blue cloud car.

“Duck!” Jacen called, squirming to right himself inside the cramped pilot seat. Tenel Ka bent down and fired up the engines as she wriggled into her own seat beside him. Lowie roared his blue vehicle into motion while the surprised security men cried out and rushed into the room after them.

Blaster bolts rang out, one sizzling and ricocheting off the scarlet paint near Jacen’s head. He fumbled with the cloud-car controls and adjusted the dials to their maximum output.

“Punch it, Lowie!” he called to his Wookiee friend as the four killers ran toward them, howling and firing indiscriminately.

With a lurch, Jacen’s cloud car blasted out into the open sky and spun in a full circle. He and Tenel Ka nearly tumbled out of their seats, but they managed to bring the car under control and fasten their crash restraints in time.

With a bestial roar, Lowie careened out of the hangar bay in the second cloud car, a blue streak across the sky. Jacen wrestled with the controls and soared onward at full speed. He breathed a great sigh of relief.

“I guess they didn’t count on our alternatives,” Jacen said.

Tenel Ka twisted around to look behind her at the gleaming white metropolis in the clouds. “It does not appear that we are safe just yet, Jacen, my friend,” she said.

Not far behind them, they could see that the thugs had helped themselves to a pair of cloud cars, newer and brighter than the ones the young Jedi Knights had found. The killers raced after them in hot pursuit.