Blue Moon

Chapter 32

Luke finished off the last guard on the second skiff. He saw the deck gun blasting away at his helpless companions. Luke leaped from the skiff, across a chasm of air, to the sheer metallic side of the Sail Barge. Barely able to get a fingerhold, he began a painful climb up the hull, when suddenly an ax smashed through a window an inch from his head. With Jedi agility, Luke grasped the wrist holding the ax and yanked the helpless guard through the broken window and into the deadly pit.

Mary and the injured Chewie were reaching over the rail for the dangling Han, who was in turn blindly reaching down toward the desperate Lando. The Baron had stopped his slippage down the sandy slope of the Sarlacc pit by lying very still. Every time he tried to reach for Han, the loose sand moved him closer to his final reward.

"Grab it! Almost... You almost got it!"
Another blast hit the front of the tilted skiff, causing Lando to let go of the spear.
"Hold it! Whoa!"
Again Han extended the spear toward Lando, "Gently now. All... all right. Now easy. Hold me, Chewie. Mary."

Lando screamed. One of the Sarlacc's tentacles had wrapped tightly around his ankle, dragging him down the side of the pit.
"Chewie! Chewie, give me the gun. Don't move, Lando." Han yelled.
"No, wait! I thought you were blind!"
"It's all right. Trust me. Don't move."
"All right! A little higher! Just a little higher!" Lando yelled.

Han adjusted his aim as Lando lowered his head and the fuzzy-eyed pirate fired at the tentacle. Direct hit. The tentacle released Lando and Chewie and Mary started to pull them on board the skiff.
"Chewie, Mary! Pull us up! Come on! Okay... up!" Han exclaimed.
"What do you think we're doing?!" Mary added.

Luke was warding off laser blasts with his lightsaber, surrounded by guards and fighting like a demon. Leia emerged onto the deck as Luke turned to face another guard.
"Get the gun! Point it at the deck!" Luke said to Leia.
Leia turned toward the barge cannon, climbed on the platform and swivelled the gun around.
"Point it at the deck!"
A laser blast hit Luke's mechanical hand and he bended over in pain, but managed to swing his lightsaber upward and took out the last of the guards. He looked at the wounded hand, which revealed the mechanism. He flexed the hand; it still worked.

Near the rail of the upper deck, R2 and 3PO steady themselves as 3PO got ready to jump. R2 beeped wildly.
"R2, where are we going? I couldn't possibly jump."
R2 butted the golden droid over the edge and stepped off himself, tumbling toward the sand.

Luke ran along the empty deck toward Leia and the barge gun, which she had brought around to point down at the deck.
"Come on!"
Luke had hold on one of the rigging ropes from the mast. He gathered Leia in his other arm and kicked the trigger of the deck gun. The gun exploded into the deck as Luke and Leia swinged out toward the skiff.
Han leaned panting against the rail as Chewie and Mary helped Lando onto the deck. Luke and Leia landed on the skiff with flair.
"Let's go! And don't forget the droids."
"We're on our way."

The Sail Barge was exploding in stages in the distance. Half of the huge craft was on fire.
3PO's legs sticked straight up from the dune where he landed. Next to it, R2's periscope was the only thing above the sand. The skiff floated above them and two large electromagnets dangled down on a wire. With a loud clang, both droids were pulled from the sand.
The little skiff skipped around the burning Sail Barge, which continued its chain of explosions. As the skiff sailed off across the desert, the barge settled to the sand and disappeared in one final conflagration.

☾☼

As soon as the group huddled under the bulk of the Falcon, the wind died down to something more describable as a severe weather condition. 3PO hit a switch, and the gang-plank lowered with a hum.