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here. The very thought is enough to make my sensors go to overload."
Luke smiled grimly. "Mine too, Threepio."
The two other chiefs joined the third member of the Coway triumvirate, started
babbling at it. Their chatter was punctuated by innumerable gestures and much
waving of hands. Luke had the impression many of the gestures and a good deal
of the talk concerned the three humans standing nearby.
Finally the chiefs turned and stared expectantly at Luke. Baffled, he looked
to Halla for an explanation. He didn't much like the one she gave him.
"They say that since you defeated their champion, you are the greatest warrior
present."
"I was lucky," Luke told her honestly.
"They don't understand luck," Halla replied. "Only results." Luke shifted from
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one position to another.
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Splinter Of The Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster
The unswerving stares of the three chiefs were making him acutely
uncomfortable.
"Well, what do they expect me to do? They're not thinking of fighting, are
they? Axes and spears against power rifles?"
"The differences may be great technologically," the Princess countered, eying
him hard, "but I
wouldn't sell these people short anywhere else. They caught two
full-grown-Yuzzem without any sophisticated devices. I doubt a group of humans
could have done better.
"And they know these passageways and tunnels, Luke! They know where the
sinkholes are as opposed to solid ground. The Force isn't a geological
phenomenon....Maybe we have a chance."
"The Coway'd be better off negotiating," Luke mumbled, unconvinced.
"Sorry, Luke boy," Halla apologized, after a brief exchange with one of the
chiefs. "An invasion in force is different from a couple of wanderers showing
up. They want to fight. Canu," she smiled, "will judge."
"I wish I had your confidence in aboriginal jurisprudence, Halla."
"Don't fight it, boy. Old Canu did okay by you, didn't he?"
"Luke," the Princess pleaded, "we have no place to run to. You just said so
yourself. If Vader knows you're here, then he probably knows I'm with you. He
won't stop until he..." She hesitated, cleared her throat and went on. "He
won't stop, Luke. Even if he has to follow us to the center of Mimban. You
know that.
"We've no choice. We have to fight."
"Maybe we do," he admitted, "but the Coway don't."
"They will whether you do or not, Luke," Halla assured him, "We've already
claimed we're against what the mining consortium here stands for. The chiefs
want us to show them we mean it."
Luke's thoughts raced crazily through his brain. Occasionally two or three
would run into each other, creating further head havoc and making him wish
only for a nice, quiet place to hide.
But...
He was tired of running.
Now that he reflected on it, they'd been running, Leia and he, ever since
they'd touched the soil of this planet. He grew aware that Halla, Leia and the
three Coway leaders were all anxiously awaiting some response from him. The
Princess' expression was unreadable.
Naturally, he made the only decision he could....
In the frenzy of preparation that ensued, Luke discovered that the Coway were
not as helpless as he'd feared. So it was not too surprising to learn that the
natives had experienced previous attacks from above before now, both from
predatory carnivores and from other primitive tribes.
Most of the time Luke found himself looking on in admiration as the Coway
readied themselves to counter the human invasion, rather than proposing
suggestions of his own. They went about their
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Splinter Of The Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster preparations with enthusiasm
and a grim delight.
Luke was thankful for both their competence and attitude. It alleviated a
little of his principal concern:
the fear that hundreds of Coway might die in defense of the Princess and
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himself. It was a good feeling to learn that they shared his anger at the
shiny-suited figures descending from above.
Thanks to the tactics being employed by the Imperials, Luke discovered that
the Princess was too furious to be really frightened. He tried to encourage
her anger. Anything that kept her from thinking of Vader was worthwhile.
"Using energy weapons on primitive sentients," she muttered in outrage.
"Another gross violation of the original Imperial charter. Another reason for
the Alliance to fight on."
"The Coway wouldn't think much of your emoting, young lady," Halla called out
from nearby, "since they consider us the primitives. And judging by the way
Grammel and his toadies have behaved toward the local races, sociologically
I'd have to side with our subsurface friends...."
As the defenders polished their strategy for the coming assault, Luke and the
Princess found themselves reduced to explaining the capabilities and
limitations of the weapons all were likely to face.
At least, he mused, it wasn't to be all axes and spears. He hefted his pistol
and luxuriated in its lethal weight. It had been one of the weapons taken from
Halla and the Yuzzem on their capture, now returned to them.
Hin had promptly turned and handed his energy rifle to the Princess. He
explained to Luke that he felt more comfortable with the enormous axe the
Coway had provided for him. Kee's attitude was more civilized, and he elected
to hang onto his rifle. Or perhaps "civilized" wasn't the right word.
He was helping with the emplacement of a net when a reverberating crackle
echoed like a thunderbolt down the winding approach tunnel. According to
Halla, the invaders were at present about halfway between the cavern city and
the surface exit.
"E-eleven trooper rifle," the Princess commented expertly, as the last echoes
of the shot died away, "quarter-centimeter aperture, continuous fire on
low-power only." She fought to shift the heavy weapon Hin had given her to a
more comfortable ready position.
While their identification of the source of that roar was somewhat less
precise than the Princess', the
Coway recognized its ominousness. They embarked on a final frenzy of
preparation.
A call came from a series of spread-out forward scouts. Coway started to
vanish before Luke's eyes, moving, jumping, secreting themselves where no
hiding place seemed possible. They disappeared into crevices and cracks, into
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