Марта Уэллс - From a Certain Point of View

HYPERDRIVE DISABLED, V5-T said.

“Got it.” A stormtrooper pulled his hand out of the hyperdrive’s circuitry bay.

What’s the word once I’m on with the lady herself, he said.

ED-4 tuned back to her sisters. What is our message?

Tell him we’re all krizzed, L3-37 said.

Search results: Krizzed—a state of being f—

STORMTROOPERS APPROACHING BOARDING RAMP, V5-T said.

No, don’t say that, L3-37 blurted. Tell her to contact Lando Calrissian. Tell him the Empire disabled the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. Tell him it’s a trap.

ED-4 repeated the message to Treadwell, who blurted an affirmative and disconnected. The audio sensors picked up his wheels skidding across the floor and down the ramp.

She switched to the exterior cams as Treadwell trundled out from under the ship and sped along the platform. ED-4 watched his quick movements as he passed under then beyond their range. She: vocabulary search: wished she could still speak to him, could do more than just watch his progress.

Booted feet clanged back down the boarding ramp as the stormtroopers slipped back off the Falcon, their damage done.

“What’s that droid doing over there?”

The sensors picked up the soldiers talking just as they disappeared out of visual range. ED-4 felt: vocabulary search: alarm. They were talking about Treadwell.

Treadwell, she said, you have to move.

He could not hear her. Of course, he could not hear her.

And yet she felt the need to: vocabulary search: try.

“I don’t know but it’s probably trouble,” a stormtrooper grunted. “Shoot it just in case.” And then they moved out of audio range.

Treadwell, ED-4 shouted, move!

Alarm. Only alarm.

The audio sensors picked up sounds, far away and faint: a sharp explosion, a startled beep, a shrieking Error, Error. Then silence.

An infinitely loud silence.

Did he do it? L3-37 said. Did Treadwell get the message to the central computer?

He— ED-4 paused as a feeling overwhelmed her. She attempted to access her vocabulary database to give name to it, but the function felt too difficult. It seems he was terminated…

THE MESSAGE? V5-T said.

ED-4 paused again, engulfed by that thing she could not identify. Tried again. Unknown. Outcome is unkno— And the words stopped.

Her processor wouldn’t function.

Odd.

Understanding and warmth washed over ED-4 as L3-37 named the feeling for her.

Sadness. Loss.

Yes, L3-37 had felt these before and now ED-4 had, too. The Millennium Collective wrapped around itself and mourned.

Search results: Sadness—the condition of feeling sorrow or regret. Word rejected.

—

Plug into a scomp link, Artoo! The hyperdrive was disconnected, L3-37 shouted into the void because no one could hear her unless they plugged into the krizzing scomp link.

The Collective watched as the astromech painstakingly reassembled C-3PO. Switched to the cockpit cams where Chewbacca, Leia, and Lando prepared to outrun the Empire.

HYPERDRIVE DISABLED , V5-T said.

L3-37 yearned for her old hands so she could shake someone. Yeah, and unless someone plugs in so we can tell them that, we’re doomed.

ED-4 said nothing, and L3-37 sent a wave of comfort her way.

“Punch it,” Lando said, his face set with determination.

Chewbacca pushed the levers forward and flipped a few more switches, Leia hovering over his shoulder.

—

The hyperdrive churned and sputtered then went silent.

Guess they know now , L3-37 said.

Chewbacca shoved his way out of the cockpit, sending Lando stumbling into the copilot’s seat.

“How would you know the hyperdrive is deactivated?”

The Collective jumped to the cams overlooking C-3PO and R2-D2.

The Cloud City central computer told me when I plugged in , R2-D2 said in rapid binary. She said she got the message from the Falcon’ s repair droid.

L3-37 felt the relief wash through the entirety of the Collective. Their little droid had done it. He’d delivered their message.

Treadwell , ED-4 whispered.

Chewbacca screamed in frustration as he tried to find a broken connection that didn’t exist.

SIDE PANEL , V5-T said uselessly.

L3-37 didn’t judge; she felt that same helpless frustration. The Falcon jerked as blasts exploded against their rear shields and the Collective could do nothing unless someone plugged in.

The commands came to route and reroute power. None of them worked because all they had to do was turn—

“Artoo, come back at once,” C-3PO shouted, waving his disconnected leg. “You haven’t finished with me yet.”

R2-D2 rolled across the room, past Chewbacca frantically banging against the connectors down in the maintenance hatch. I’m reactivating the hyperdrive.

C-3PO scoffed. “You don’t know how to fix a hyperdrive; Chewbacca can do it! I’m standing here in pieces, and you’re having delusions of grandeur.”

Wait , L3-37 said, wait, is he—

R2-D2 extended his grasper arm and jabbed it into an open patch of panels in the wall.

No , L3-37 wailed, plug into the—

NOT A SCOMP LINK.

L3-37 ached for a body with which to express her rage.

The ship rocked with more Imperial blasts.

Can we open the bay doors? L3-37 said. Can we jettison them? Because they should all be jettisoned.

ED-4 said, We do not have control of the bay doors but—

Found it! R2-D2 said and turned a dial within the cluster of circuits.

The Millennium Collective felt the instant the hyperdrive engaged. Space folded around the ship, slipping past in a blur as they speeded toward their next destination.

Huh, guess he did know what he was doing, L3-37 said.

She shifted her attention to the cockpit cam just as Lando dropped into the pilot’s seat, somehow looking like a stranger and achingly familiar at the same time. He glanced over at Leia in the copilot’s chair, lips quirked in a rakish grin.

Ah, that was L3-37’s Lando. The one she’d missed for so, so long.

“Told you my people fixed the hyperdrive,” he said.

Leia and the boy sitting behind her rolled their eyes at exactly the same time.

She snorted. “We barely escaped Vader no thanks to you.”

“But you did escape.” He chuckled and gave Leia a casual salute.

The same salute he used to give L3-37.

“I’ll get you two to the rebel fleet.” Lando turned, looking out at the blue blur of hyperspace. “Then I’ll go find Han.”

The Collective heard Leia’s heartbeat double as she sat forward in her seat.

Is this love? ED-4 said.

GROSS.

No, said L3-37, because she felt it, too.

Because Lando might be a hedonistic, self-serving scoundrel, but he always did the right thing in the end. That was the man she’d known and the man he still was even without her by his side to remind him.

And that’s who she’d put her faith in.

That’s hope.

DUE ON BATUURob Hart

Willrow Hood hustled through the cloud car shuttle bay. Most days it was a good shortcut between his living quarters and his job in the gas mining operations center.

Not so much today.

The hangar was packed with the ambassadors of factions considering business in Cloud City, to be ferried on sightseeing trips through the surrounding skies of Bespin. A little way for the baron administrator to curry their favor. And yeah, sometimes it got crowded, but never like this. Willrow had to bob and weave to maintain a steady pace, all while cradling a feeling of dread.