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Chapter Fifteen: The Charge of the Wookiees

Marney took to the stage nervously and began to strum the sonic star guitar experimentally, before launching into a full-voiced rendition of the song that Lyna and he had written many years ago, a nonsensical ditty they called "Sea-Snake". It had been written simply to entertain soldiers at taverns, so that they could build up a rapport with them and hopefully gain their cooperation in smuggling orphans out of their facilities.

Han sat down with his drum nearby, but did not touch it. He seemed to be waiting for the proper moment to begin the beat.

Qualle stood behind the dancers, serenely warbling quarren love calls. He seemed to be not the least bit perturbed by the prospect of ending up on the Emperor's dinner plate, but unfortunately Marney could not say the same of himself. He pushed the thought of Tarkin's chilling order concerning his fate to the back of his mind so that he could concentrate on his song.

He performed the song as if he were playing it not for Tarkin and Mokk, but for Lyna and all of the kids—Sal, Rixxi, Woolonn, Chakreech, and the three ewok kits who were thankfully being cared for in relative safety back on Mon Cala by his mother Rallen Marne. Passionately, he belted out the chorus:

Sea-Snake, Sea-Snake, your fangs are sharp

oh-so-sharp, oh-so-sharp

you rip apart the carp, the carp,

the Ice-Fish Polar Carp!

Marney swung into the next few verses as Lyna and Oola began to perform a dance that was both serpent-like in its twists and turns and seductive enough to capture the audience's attention. He knew that Tarkin was not attending the show to listen to his silly little sea-shanties, but he put his mind and heart into the weird song anyways:

Sea-Snake, ocean quake!

Rumble-tumble waves

never anger Water-Snake

her slither-mind it raves!

Singing, Sea-Snake sails

sailing, Sea-Snake sings

songs of sunset she impales

setting fire to its wings!

He finished it off with a couple of repetitions of the chorus, accompanied by TT2. The "extra-programmed" droid had apparently decided that she needed to get in on the act and was supplying harmonious background music that complimented his song. Marney had no idea what number he would perform next, and so he began to sing the song all over again in Lyna's soft Rylothian version of the tune. As he sang, Qualle warbled in the background with TT2's musical accompaniment. Han finally joined in with a heavy pounding of the cavernous wookiee mating drum, which produced a far-ranging echo.

Lyna and Oola were still managing to hold the audience captive with their intricate movements in spite of the odd background music. Tarkin and Mokk appeared to be entranced, as were all the soldiers, the half-dressed mercenaries and intricately armored stormtroopers alike. It was as if they were all starved for music and entertainment of any kind.

Then, just as the group was finishing its act, there was a great crashing noise and the ground shook.

"That's our cue," Han said to Marney, "Grab your people and run."

The doors to the atrium gave way and hundreds upon hundreds of huge, furry beings charged into the room madly. Tarkin began to shout out orders, and Marney knew that they had an escape window of only a few minutes at most.

He took Lyna's hand and jumped off the stage.

"Shoot them, you idiots!" Tarkin yelled at the dazed soldiers, but unfortunately for them the wookiees were armed and had the element of surprise on their side.

A huge, brown-furred wookiee wearing a sash full of ammunition was leading the charge. He growled to the others to open fire at the stormtroopers; but the troopers were quick to recover, and returned the favor.

Han and Oola took refuge behind a pillar while Marney, Lyna, and Qualle grabbed chairs and used them as shields. Marney covered Lyna while she ducked behind the pillar with Han and Oola. As Marney was moving in the same direction, however, he felt a painful blast hit his right shoulder.

"Marney!" Lyna cried, pulling him towards her.

Lyna tore a strip off of her dancing costume and with Qualle's help dressed the wound as best she could. Before long, they were joined by Rixxi and Sal, both of whom were armed. Rixxi gave her laser rifle to her half-sister Oola and knelt by Marney in order to apply pressure to his wound.

"It was an old-fashioned bullet pistol that did it," Lyna observed, "probably from the one of the mercenaries' guns. He should be all right, but we need to get him some medical attention...infected wounds can be especially fatal for mon calamari people."

TT2 joined them presently, after having dodged the gun-fire in order to bring the two wookiee younglings, Woolonn and Chakreech, to the relative safety of the spot behind the stone pillar. Qualle called his droid over to aid him while Han Solo convinced Sal to give him his rifle.

"Papa!" Sal cried, crouching beside Marney after having been freed of his weapon by the Smug, "I'm here, and so is Rixxi. We're all right, and you will be too...we're here to rescue you."

"TT2!" Qualle commanded the droid crisply, "Consult your medical program and use your extraction instrument to get the bullet out."

TT2 did as she was told, and inserted a metal tool of some kind into Marney's wound. The bullet was pulled out with great efficiency, causing Marney a jolt of fiery pain. Along with the pain, he felt a great sense of relief descend upon him; for he knew now that Sal and Rixxi were still free, even if they were in terrible danger at present. He felt that if he died here and now he would at least be surrounded by his family and not slaughtered like an animal in order to feed the Empire's insatiable appetite for blood.

Rixxi took some antiseptics out of TT2's compact "medicine chest" and applied it in and around the wound before applying stronger bandages than the make-shift one that Lyna had provided.

Han and Oola, meanwhile, were doing an excellent job holding off the soldiers with their newly acquired weapons. They were aided in their efforts by a rag-tag group of half-dressed mercenary soldiers, who to everyone's shock joined Han and Oola and began to shoot at the stormtroopers.

"Are the mercenaries fighting for the Empire or the Alliance?" Sal shouted, confused.

"Some of them have switched to the Alliance, or whatever we are," Han shouted back as he shot at the advancing stormtroopers, "a buddy of mine started a rumor that the Empire will be laying them off soon and that the Rebel Alliance will pay them double what the Empire did."

"We need you to cover us while we take Papa back to the ship," Sal called to the fighting troop, just as Yabecca thundered into their midst.

She picked Marney up without a word and called to her younglings to follow her.

"Lyna, you and Rixxi and your boy—go now!" Oola yelled at her over the sound of the gun-fire, "Han and I will keep the enemies occupied."

Lyna did not argue with her friend, but instead ordered the two teens to come with her as they followed after Yabecca.