Shadows Of The Empire by Perry Steve

Author:Perry, Steve [Perry, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Leia opened the program. A hologram appeared over the desk.

“Nonholographic mode,” she said. “Flatscreen only.”

The image vanished. She looked down at the desk. The words “Scanner offline” appeared on the screen. It would be invisible from the chair opposite the desk. “Bioscan on,” she said.

The screen lit up with an image of an eye, an ear, and a nose. Oh, how cute.

“Okay, everybody out. Let’s test it.”

Threepio, Lando, and Chewie trooped out into the hall.

“Close the door.”

They did.

“Okay,” Leia yelled. “Lando, you come in first.”

The door opened and Lando sauntered in. He turned around as if modeling the latest fashions. “Here I am. Enjoy.” Leia grinned. He was endearing for a rogue. She looked down at the screen.

The scanner newly inset into the frame of the door picked up Lando’s image, and it appeared on the screen. An infocrawl moved up the side of the image as the sensors examined Lando and fed the result to the computer: Human, male, armed with a blaster and a small vibro-shiv in his pants pocket on the left side, heartbeat, respiration, muscle tone index, height, weight, body temperature. Even a refractive index indicating how old his skin was, plus or minus a standard year.

Lando, according to this device, was a little older than he looked.

No bombs or poison gas or commactive material hidden upon his person.

No hidden holocams or recording devices.

“Seems to be working on you. Chewie, come on in.” Again the device scanned and reported. She didn’t know what the normal readings for a Wookiee were, but the program that came with the scanner apparently did, and it told her that Chewie was within normal limits for one of that species.

She was sure Chewie would be happy to know that.

Finally she called Threepio in. The program had no trouble at all recognizing him as a droid.

“Well. It seems to be working just fine,” she said.

“Why don’t we test it on you?” Lando offered.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” she said. “You were plenty.”

Lando’s comlink bleeped. He pulled it from his belt. Leia looked at him.

“I’ve got an eye at the port,” he said. He lifted the comlink. “Go ahead.”

“A ship has just arrived,” the tinny voice said. “The Outrider, piloted by-”

“-Dash Rendar?” Leia finished. “What is he doing here? He’s supposed to be watching Luke!”

“Thanks,” Lando said into the comlink. He shut it off. To Leia he said,

“Maybe we better go find out.”

They met Dash halfway. He was in a pubtrans cab heading away from the port. Chewie swung their rental vehicle around, and they quickly caught up with the cab and waved it over.

When Dash got out, he looked terrible.

“Is Luke okay?” Leia said in a rush.

“Yeah, he’s fine.”

“Why are you here? You’re supposed to be guarding him.”

Dash stared at her. “He’s fine. He doesn’t need my help.”

“You don’t look so good,” Lando offered. “Trouble?”

“Long story,” Dash said.

“Get into the speeder,” Leia said. “You can tell it to us on the way back to the casino.”

He got into the speeder, and they started off.

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