“You’re probably right, Gideon,” Luke says. “But let’s go to the house anyway. Whatever the Imperials want is in the house, and we only have one chance to beat them to it.”
Gideon nods, then leads the way over the sand-like tailings toward the enormous mill building. The mill is over a kilometer long and rises fifty meters off the surface. From a height of four meters above its base extend twelve wide chutes clogged with inert rivers of silvery sand. They dump into a huge holding trough that runs the entire length of the building. Every fifty meters, a pump feeds the sand into a lengthy hose that carries it out onto the tailings dump. At present, the chutes, pumps, and hoses stand idle, awaiting a resumption of operations that Luke doubts will ever come.
“Are all the Tredways involved in Erling’s resistance efforts?” Luke asks. The Tredway mine is a valuable strategic and economic asset. He does not understand why Parnell is destroying the complex instead of confiscating it. Perhaps the general wishes to make an example of the Tredway family. Or perhaps he suspects the family of harboring strong enough Rebel loyalties to destroy the mine themselves before allowing it to fall into the Empire’s hands.
Sidney raises his long-clawed paws in an alien gesture Luke does not comprehend. “No; the mother Tredway even threatened to disown him for jeopardizing the family’s contracts with Imperial purchasing agents.”
“It doesn’t dound like she shares her late husbands convictions,” Luke observes.
“She’s a business woman,” Gideon says. “After Axton died, she decided to let the galaxy take care of itself. Can’t blame here – Axton left her with a broken-down mine and two kids to raise. She turned it into the most profitable operation in the Belt.”
“That hasn’t protected her from the Empire,” Luke comments. After what Sidney said about Imperial contracts, the destructive attack makes no sense at all. There must be something more going on here. But what?
Gideon leads the way into the holding trough and stops at the base of a tailings chute. “Let’s climb inside. Any survivors still above ground are bound to be hiding inside, and the stormtroopers won’t see us coming.”
Luke studies the steep chutes. “You can climb that?”
“Of course,” Sidney says, scrambling up the chute as if it was a powerwalk.
“Hold on!” Luke says, grasping Sidney’s ankle. “You don’t know what’s waiting on the other side.”
Sidney looks puzzled. “So?”
“Maybe I should go first.”
Sidney bares a row of jagged incisors in what Luke takes to be a grin. “Please, do not misunderstand my hesitation in joining the undertaking. I am happy to die for liberty – but Padas do not kill for any reason.”
“Keep your blaster handy anyway,” growls Gideon. “You may need to scare something.”
“Of course,” Sidney says, crawling up the chute. “I will return when I find some cable to lower for you humans.”
Luke and Gideon wait for several minutes with no sign of Sidney. Finally, Luke says, “Maybe you’d better boost me up. Something must have happened.”
“Not likely,” Gideon says. “Sidney can be quiet as a sandrat when he wants. Just the same, I’m tired of waiting.” He laces his fingers together and offers Luke a step.
Luke holsters his blaster and places a foot in Gideon’s hands. In the light gravity of the asteroid, he might be able to jump all four meters to the mouth of the chute. But jumpting is a lot less accurate than climbing, and he is not anxious to bang his head or rip his vacsuit through carelessness.
The mouth opens into a brightly lit chamber. A pile of silvery tailings rises 20 meters above the chute. Sidney’s tracks run to the top of the tailings pile, then disappear. The only other things Luke sees are a dozen illumination panels mounted into the high ceiling.
Gideon’s hand disappears from beneath his foot. Luke starts failing and curses angrily, flailing his arms wildly to catch some support. But the sand-filled chute offers no hand-holds, and Luke slides back toward the holding trough.
In the asteroid’s weak gravity, he doesn’t actually fall – he drifts downward. The sluggishness of the descent does little to console him, especially when he notices the reason he is falling. Gideon lies sprawled on the holding trough floor at the feet of two stormtroopers in heavy assault armor. One holds a blaster rifle trained on the prospector, and the other follows Luke’s descent as if shooting skeet.
Luke quickly rejects the thought of reaching for his weapons. In addition to the disadvantage of falling, his pistol would be a poor match for the suit-mounted blaster cannons of a zero-g trooper’s assault armor. Although he might fare better with his lightsaber, it is a melee weapon, and melee weapons are most effective when the user has his feet planted firmly on the ground. Luke finally strikes the tailings with much the same lack of dignity he would have displayed in a full-g environment.
“Sorry about that,” Gideon mumbles to Luke. They lie side by side, facing the stormtroopers. The chute leads into the mill building directly behind the Imperial troops.
“Are you the scum that destroyed our shuttle?” the first stormtrooper demands.
He glances over his shoulder. The X-wing sits in plain sight. Luke assumes his most innocent expression and turns his attention back to the stormtroopers. Behind them, a cable begins descending from the chute. “Have you been shooting up assault shuttles again?” Luke asks Gideon.
Gideon grasps his chin and considers the question earnestly. “Not that I remember.”
“Sorry, fellows,” Luke says loudly. “You two stormtroopers have the wrong guys.”
The cable stops descending.
“Very funny,” the trooper answers. “On your feet. General Parnell wants a word with you. Then you’ll pay for stranding us here. I’m due for leave when we get back.”
The cable rises without making a sound.
If Luke rises immediately, Click Here
If Luke reaches for his lightsaber, Click Here
If Luke stalls for a few moments, Click Here