Nebulous - Han Solo [2]

Chapter 13: Something Isn't Right

Tasha held her blaster out in front of her as she walked down the loading ramp, her finger twitching over the trigger, ready to fire with her deadly accuracy at a moment's notice. Her breathing came out as a ragged noise through the oxygen mask, akin to the noise that Darth Vader made through his mask. Tasha pushed the thought to the back of her mind, trying not to think of yet another similarity between her and that monster.

The boots on her feet squelched slightly as she stepped off the ramp, and her eyebrows knotted together in confusion. That wasn't right. Her green eyes scanned the area carefully, looking for anything else out of the ordinary. A few meters away, Han was doing the same.

"There's an awful lot of moisture in here," he said, the mask changing his voice, almost making it sound mechanical, and Tasha shivered slightly, despite the strange humidity of the air as it clung to the skin on her forehead.

"And this ground sure is strange," said Tasha, bending down as thought to examine it more closely, "it doesn't feel like rock."

"I'm sure it's fine," replied Leia from behind Tasha, her tone less than confident, but the older girl shook her head.

"I don't know," Tasha said, "I have a bad feeling about this." Something about this place was making something twist in her gut telling her it just wasn't right, that they had to get out of here. Han nodded slowly in affirmation of her statement, he, too, realised something wasn't right here.

Tasha whipped her head around. There was something there, just at the edge of her vision, moving; just as she turned around, whatever it was crashed into her head. Whatever it was, it was a worse pilot than those TIE fighter pilots out there. Leia let out a screech as Han fired a shot at what it was that had decided to make Tasha its next meal. The blast sounded through the air of the cave, and the beast dropped dead, Tasha shoving it away from her with a harsh expression.

"You almost shot me," she complained, a slight scowl on her face as she looked at the smuggler. Han just rolled his eyes at her.

"You're welcome," he replied, walking over to look at the creature, "just what I thought: mynocks." Tasha nodded along with his statement as Leia gave them a confused look.

"They feed on the power cables," Tasha said as she stood up, brushing non-existent dirt off her pants almost as a reflex, "you find them in places like this. You can go back inside, we'll clean them off if there's any more of them out here." The younger girl nodded at her sister, still looking rather apprehensively around her as she made her way towards the landing ramp.

"Look out!" Han called out, and Tasha looked over towards where he was looking, as a whole herd of mynocks crashed through the air above her. The raven girl spun around to face them, her blaster raised as a laser bolt flew through the air, knocking out one of the horrendous creatures. They seemed to appear from everywhere, from the very air around them, latching onto the ship as the renegades let off shot after shot at the creatures.

Chewie let out a howl as his shot missed the things, hitting the side of the cave. The whole place seemed to rock and sway, like how a ship pitches on the waves of the sea, throwing the four of them around. Tasha stumbled, reaching out into the air for something, anything to hold onto, to support herself, and finding nothing but empty space.

The floor stilled, but Tasha still felt the world moving, trying to straighten out her head, shaking it slightly. That was not normal.

"What the hell was that?" she demanded, her voce still slightly breathless. Han didn't reply, as distracted as she was.

"Wait a sec," he murmured, raising his blaster again. Tasha's eyes widened as she worked out what he were doing, walking inadvertently towards the loading ramp, pushing Leia with her. The blaster went off; hitting the roof of the cave, and all hell broke loose again. Tasha grabbed hold of the loading ramp supports as the shaking continued, watching as Han wobbled his way over, reaching out and helping to pull him inside, without a second thought, and they both stumbled through the corridors to the cockpit, completely in sync.

"The Empire is still out there," Leia began, "I'm not sure it-"

"I've no time to discuss this in a committee." Han snapped angrily, sliding into his seat in the cockpit, Tasha behind him.

"I am not a committee!" Leia growled back, but both Han and Tasha had stopped listening, powering the ship back up. It groaned slightly in protest as its engines fired, flying back the way they came. Both Tasha and Leia's eyes widened at what they saw. Huge pieces of the came were jutting out towards them, the roof of the cave beginning to crash down towards the floor, but only where they were watching.

"The cave is collapsing!" Leia shrieked in alarm, Threepio (when did he get in there?) making his usual fearful murmurings, Chewie howled, and Tasha had just had enough.

"Everyone just shut up!" she snapped, raising her voice more than she had intended. The whole place fell silent, all of them turning to look at her. "In case your amazing mental capacity hasn't worked this one out yet, this is not a cave. Got it?"

Everyone stayed silent as they had been, Han smirking slightly at Tasha's outburst, almost as though he were proud of her. Her sister glared at Tasha, but the raven girl feigned disinterest. Threepio was silent for once, stood ramrod straight at the back of the compartment. The Wookiee nodded his head in assent, letting out a small, almost apprehensive noise. Not many people could coax that out of a Wookiee.

"Good," Tasha said, turning her eyes back to the transparisteel windshield, "because we're going to have a hell of a lot of trouble real soon."