“Where is Tol Ado?” Luke asks.
“Then you will rescue the Erling Tredway?”
Luke nods in response. “I shouldn’t, but I will.” General Dodonna will no doubt disapprove of the decision, and Luke will be hard-pressed to argue its merits rationally. But an undefinable and mysterious feeling buried deep within his breast urges him to rescue the stranger. Perhaps the feeling is no more than the vague kinship he feels for another son of a Jedi, or perhaps it is something much stronger and more important. Whatever the reason, it does not matter. Luke only knows he must rescue Erling Tredway.
“We’d best get along, then,” Gideon says, tugging a confused, yellow-furred biped toward the exit.
“‘We’?” Luke asks.
“Yeah, ‘we,'” Gideon answers. “If you’re a big enough fool to break into an Imperial prison planet and think you can get out, then you’re a big enough fool to get yourself killed. I ain’t about to let that happen – it’s been too many years since I fought alongside a ‘saber carrier.” The prospector’s decisive stride carries him toward a definite destination.
“But I cannot!” objects the short-muzzled biped, trying to shake free of Gideon’s hand.
“Sure you can, Sidney,” answers Gideon cheerfully, tightening his grip.
“But there may be killing! The Pada cannot kill – it is wrong!”
“So?” Gideon demands. “What’s the difference whether this young fellow and I do it, or whether you lend a paw? Killin’s killing.”
Sidney’s round ears flop forward in frustration. “But if someone dies -“
“Too late,” Gideon presses. “Young Erling’s your hero, Sidney. You can’t ask somebody to fight for your freedom, your cause, if you won’t.”
Sidney cannot argue. “Very well. Let us go.” He shakes free of Gideon’s grip and starts toward the exit.
Luke hesitates to follow. Although Gideon and Sidney seem trustworthy enough, he knows nothing about their combat skills. They could easily be more of a hindrance than a help. “Maybe I should go alone,” Luke says. “I have a one-man ship.”
Gideon smiles broadly at Luke. “You’re afraid we can’t fight, ain’t you?” Gideon waits a moment, but Luke does not know how to state his reservations politely. “Maybe we can’t and maybe we can. It don’t matter – this is our sector, and it would be wrong to keep us out of the fight. If somebody wins our freedom for us, it ain’t really ours.”
Luke nods. He feels a certain respect for the prospector. He follows the miners into a winding flexi-corridor leading to the airlock. As they don their vacsuits, Luke stands near the massive airlock transwall and studies the asteroid upon which the hospice sits.
The hospice itself is a collection of white plasfoam bubbles connected by long, twisting flexi-corridors. Sturdy durasteel cables anchor the bubbles and flexi-corridors. Sturdy durasteel cables ancor the bubbles and flexi-corridors to outcroppings of bedrock protruding from the dusty, crater-riddled surface. The cables are needed because the tiny planetoid’s gravitational field is so weak a child can throw a rock into space. Asteroid hoppers and prospecting scows rest in a disarrayed radius around the hospice, tehtered to hospice buildings, handy rocks, or each other.
Formally known as 400,324 Henryson, the planetoid is little more than a kilometer in length, and half that in width and thickness. The designation number preceding the name indicates Henryson was the 400,324th planetoid in the Sil’Lume Belt catalogued as a sentient being’s property. The name refers to the original owner. When Luke was investigating the sector records, Artoo reported that the catalogue numbers run as high as 895,256, but nobody knows how many asteroids have never been claimed.
Henryson rotates so quickly that Luke grows dizzy when he looks away from the ground. The stars actually fly across the horizon like meteors. To make matters worse, the sun never sets on Henryson. It’s grape-sized disc flashes across the sky as if fired from a slingshot. As the most prominent reference point in the heavens, it serves as a constant reminder that Luke stands on nothing more than a giant merry-go-round.
“Tol Ado is planet three in this system,” Gideon says, fastening the last seal on his vacsuit.
“Great,” Luke says. “Let’s get going.”
Gideon hesitates. “Not so fast, young fellow. It might be worth our time to visit 24 Tredway first. Tol Ado’s might big; Erling’s family might have some ideas about how to find him. Besides, they ought to be warned; Parnell might not be satisfied with just arresting Erling.”
Sidney’s muzzle wrinkles into a yellow wad, and his ears twitch impatiently. “The Parnell may destroy the Erling at any moment,” he insists. “We dare not waste the minute.”
If Luke goes directly to Tol Ado, Click Here
If Luke goes to 24 Tredway first, Click Here