Star Wars: Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina by Kevin J. Anderson Page A

by themselves, but that was it. Anything beyond that—fancy maneuvering, combat, even basic running maintenance—wasout of the question. “We’ll have to ditch the ship,” she told the others. “Someplace close by. Find a way to hide it, then see if we can disassemble the Hammertong into pieces we can put aboard one of our own freighters.”
    “Sounds tricky,” Karoly said. “You got someplace in mind?”
    “We’ve got company,” Sileen cut in before Shada could answer. “Imperial Star Destroyer, coming out of hyperspace aft.”
    “Got it,” Karoly said, swiveling around to the sensor section of the board. “Confirm one Imperial Star Destroyer. Launching TIE fighters.”
    “The base probably called for help,” Shada said, keying the navcomputer. This was it: no second thoughts, no chance of grounding the Strike Cruiser and escaping aboard the fighters. They were committed now. “Cai, Sileen, here comes your course feed-code Bitterness. Make the jump to lightspeed as soon as you can; we’ll be right behind you.”
    There was a brief pause. “You sure this is where you want to go?” Sileen asked.
    “I don’t see us having a lot of choices,” Shada said. “It’s close, it hasn’t got much of an Imperial presence, and the locals don’t ask a lot of questions.” She could imagine Sileen gazing out at the Strike Cruiser and wondering just how far the locals’ indifference was going to stretch. But—
    “All right,” was all Sileen said. “You want both of us to come with you, or should I head out and try to scare up a freighter?”
    “That’s a good idea,” Shada agreed. “Go ahead. Cai and Karoly and I can handle this end.”
    “Okay. Good luck.”
    The
Skyclaw
flickered with pseudomotion and vanished into hyperspace. “Here we go,” Shada muttered, keying in their course and hoping fervently that the Imperials hadn’t torn the hyperdrive apart as part of the ship’s preflight check. Those TIE fighters back there were getting uncomfortably close, and therewasn’t much margin for error here. “Everything set there, Karoly?”
    “Looks like it,” Karoly said, checking over her own board. “You going to let me in on the big secret of where we’re going?”
    “No secret,” Shada said, reaching for the hyperdrive levers. “Just a useless little hole in space. Called Tatooine.”
    It was not so much a landing as it was a marginally controlled crash; and by the time the Strike Cruiser had skidded to a halt against one of the rippling sand dunes, it was clear to Shada that the ship would never leave there again. Not without a great deal of assistance.
    “Terrific landing,” Karoly commented, her breath coming a little heavily as she shut down the drive. “I presume it’s occurred to you that we stick out here like a Wookiee wearing landing lights.”
    “Not for long we won’t,” Shada said, checking the displays. “That cloud to the west is the leading edge of a sandstorm. Another hour and no one’s going to find us. Come on, let’s go take a look at our new toy.”
    They had the wrap-protection off the first couple of meters of the Hammertong by the time Cai joined them. “Any trouble?” Shada asked.
    “Not really,” Cai said, stepping up to the Hammertong and peering closely at it. “I’m not sure they even picked me up coming in. They sure didn’t hail me.”
    “Usually no one bothers with ships that aren’t coming into the spaceport at Mos Eisley,” Shada said. “A lot of contraband comes through Tatooine, and everyone pretty much looks the other way.”
    “I’m glad one of us keeps up with these things,” Cai said dryly. “So this is the Hammertong, huh? Any idea what it is?”
    “Not yet,” Shada said. “How’s your astromech droid doing these days?”
    “Deefour? Erratic but functional. You want me to go get him?”
    Shada nodded. “We’ll want to get a technical readout at the very least. Is the
Mirage
ready for that sandstorm?”
    “As ready as