Narska tapped Rick on the shoulder. The youngster had been balled up, covering his head with his arms. The shooting had continued for a few seconds more, then stopped.
“I think they gave up,” Narska said.
“Or they could just be waiting for us to pop up, then take off our heads,” Rick suggested.
A siren suddenly became audible and got louder by the second.
“Great,” Narska said. “Police. Police on these kinds of planets do only one thing. They line up people like us and shoot them.”
“Hey, police on these kinds of planets take bribes,” Rick countered. He indicated the other side of the table. “Even for manslaughter.”
“Idiot,” Narska said. “The cops may be working with whoever tried to kill us. Like you said, they can be bribed.”
“Well, let’s get the hell out of here, then,” Rick said. “Fox, can you walk?”
The little furred alien growled, clutching his shoulder. “Yeah, as long as I don’t do a handstand and walk on my arms.”
“Smart ass,” Rick said.
“Must be the Bothan coming out in him,” Narska said. “Here’s the plan. Any second now, those cops are going to come through that door. Rick and me will lift the table and we will run with it to the fat guy’s snack bar. Fox, you will stay with us and get the door open. When we’re almost there, we will throw the table and all three of us will push it with TK towards the cops. Got it?”
Rick and Fox nodded.
“Now!” Narksa shouted.
Rick grabbed his side of the metal table, which was heavier than it looked, and it looked plenty heavy. As they stepped out of the conversation pit, he saw the expired human female and her equally expired Herglic boss. Brings a whole new meaning to dead end negotiations, Rick thought. He almost put the thought to words for Narska and Fox’s benefits, but thought better of it. Now was not the time nor place for such repartee.
They ran sideways and backwards towards the establishment’s refreshment station that they had visited earlier. They made it halfway before the main entrance to the game hall bust open. Without hesitation, Narska gave the order and Rick threw the table with all his strength. Using the Force, he pushed and guided it across the room towards the raiding police officers. With Narska and Fox’s help, it made a tremendous impact on both the cops and the situation. As Rick tore through the snack bar’s door, which Fox had no trouble at all getting open as it was a swinging door with a round window near eye level, he heard some of the cops shriek in pain.
As the three Siths ran through the small and filthy food prep area, the overly adiposed chef looked up from a seat that defied physics by supporting him. The cigar fell from his mouth as he pointed and shouted, but Rick grabbed an overly ripe tomato and pitched it, landing it square in the man’s mouth, shutting him up and sending him flailing back into the chair.
With Narska in the lead, they broke through the back door and emerged into an alley. Archaic waste receptacles stood outside the half dozen doors that were spread out along the walls. Narska pointed to them and Rick knew his plan. Again using telekinesis, they moved two of the dumpsters in front of the door they had just exited, one long ways against the door, the other perpendicular. If the cops somehow managed to budge the heavy trash bins, they would only be able to open the door a few centimeters. Rick and his two comrades had three more of the dumpsters zigzagged down the alley just in time to block the police van that screeched around the corner.
Rick knew that the other end of the alley would soon show a similar picture, but with only one dumpster for protection. Even if there had been ten, they couldn’t stay in the alley forever. They had to get out of there. Not wanting to be outdone by Narska, he came up with an idea. He shouted for Narska and Fox to follow, then charged the last dumpster, which was graciously barely half full of garbage, none of it food or anything else with the potential to be slimy and rank. Removing his lightsaber from its concealment, he leapt into the air and landed inside the bin. Jamming the flash suppressor against the metal, he ignited the blade and cut a twenty centimeter long gash in the dumpster. By then his furry companions had joined him, neither none too happy from the sound of it.
“Great plan,” Narska said. “I am sure they will never find us in this covert little cubby hole of yours.”
“You got it all wrong, Narska,” Rick said, with more than a hint of arrogance in his tone. “Let’s roll this sucker!”
“Roll it?”
“It provides the wheels, we provide the propulsion,” Rick said, looking through his makeshift peephole. “You guys push, I will steer.”
“This is crazy,” the Bothan said.
“Just do it!” Rick said. “And now that we have time, we’d better put our breath masks on. I’m already feeling sort of wheezy.”
Rick strapped his breathing apparatus to his face and took another look out of the peephole. Still nothing from the open end of the alley, but blaster shots began hitting the dumpster from the other end as the police were climbing around the makeshift barricades. Finally, Narska and Fox had the dumpster moving. It tore out of the alley and onto the street, narrowly avoiding a collision with a small ground car.
Rick used the Force to nudge the dumpster to the right, and merged with the sparse traffic. Confident that they were out of danger for the moment, he stuck his head up over the edge of the bin. Looking over at the car beside him, he found its occupants staring at him. The two human females and human male were obviously offworld spacers. The female sitting alone in back was smiling like she was in anticipation of the punch line of a joke. Rick gave her a Kool-aid smile and the thumbs up. The three people burst into laughter and Rick slumped back down into the dumpster.
“We can’t keep this up much longer,” Narska said, his eyes shut.
“Don’t worry, we’re about to go downhill,” Rick assured him. “That should give you a break.”
“Downhill?” Narska and Fox both cried out.
Rick held up a hand. “Not that steep. Relax.”
Sirens began ringing from behind them.
“That sound isn’t very conducive to relaxation,” Narska said.
“Why did we get stuck with this job?” Rick asked while burying his face in his hands.
“Because we’re the new guys,” Narska said. “We’ve got to earn our stripes, so to speak. Every fraternal organization has a system like this.”
“I didn’t know we were a fraternal organization.”
“We have parties with lots of liquor and loud music that end up with us all engaging in violent acts,” Narska pointed out. “Close enough.”
“Damn it!” Rick cursed while looking through his makeshift viewport. “They’re trying to cut us off ahead. Coming down a cross street.”
“Turn!”
Without thinking, Rick nudged the dumpster to the right and cut down an alley, this one much wider and clearer than the one they had escaped from. A few pedestrians jumped out of the way of the runaway trash bin as it sped through. Rick oriented the dumpster to exit the alley straight down the middle so that he would have more time to make a left or right turn once he determined which was best. As the dumpster flew out of the alley, it rolled off the curb and landed on one of the forward wheels, ripping it clean off. The forward momentum was killed by the dumpster’s wheelless corner scraping against the ground. It stopped in the middle of the street, sitting there like a wild Cracian thumper that had been hit with a tranquilizer dart.
The police vehicle that had tried to cut them off roared around the corner of the next cross street. Tires screeching, it came to a halt and four armed men debarked. They raised their blaster rifles and opened fire on the dumpster. Their shots were joined by the blaster cannon mounted on the patrol van. Shot after shot hit the dumpster, shattering and melting it to slag.
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