“WATCH OUT!” Lina screamed.

Milo jerked the boat to the right, narrowly avoiding a large barge coming at them from the opposite direction. The Klatooinian crew members shouted curses after them, but that was the least of their worries. He glanced at his sister, who was dripping wet and holding on to her leg. “Did he get you?”

“No,” she replied. “Some of the debris from the wall hit my leg, that’s all.”

CR-8R swung around, a can of bacta-spray in one of his manipulator arms. Lina pushed it away. “Stop, Crater, I’m fine. It didn’t even break the…”

Her voice trailed off.

“What is it?” Milo asked, turning to look over his shoulder. Lina didn’t have to answer. A speeder bike was darting down the path that ran along the left-hand side of the canal, chasing them down.

“Korda!” Milo gasped.

The Imperial captain hunched low over the speeder’s handlebars, pushing the bike’s engines to the limit to catch up. Even from a distance, Milo could see there was something wrong with his face. The left side was twice the size it should have been; the skin was swollen and bright red. One of the wart-hornets must have gotten him. It didn’t seem to be slowing him down though. Didn’t this guy ever give up?

Morq squealed in alarm, and Milo looked ahead just in time to avoid a collision with a small vessel.

“That was too close,” he said. “How far is it to the spaceport?”

Lina pulled out her datapad and activated the map. “I don’t know where we are!”

“Neither do I!” Milo cried.

“You found the bridge, didn’t you?” Lina pointed out.

“Coming from the opposite direction! You’re the one who told us to jump into the boat!” Milo argued.

The datapad beeped as it pinpointed their location. “Left!” Lina shouted. “Turn left.”

“When?”

“NOW!”

“A little warning would be good next time,” Milo said, pulling their stolen boat into another sharp turn. They lurched to the left, spraying foul-smelling water over unfortunate bystanders on the canal’s edge.

There was no time to apologize. Korda had crossed a bridge and was still hot on their trail. He steered the bike with one hand and pulled something from his belt with the other.

“He’s got a blaster!” Lina yelled as the officer aimed and fired. The bolt hit the back of their boat, sending wooden splinters flying everywhere.

Milo weaved around the other boats on the canal—or at least, that was his plan. With a sickening crunch, he clipped the side of a barge, nearly throwing CR-8R overboard.

“Are you trying to sink us?” Lina shouted. Morq jumped up and grabbed her head, his arms around her eyes.

Another blaster bolt struck the boat, dangerously close to the outboard engine propelling them through the water.

“No, but Korda is,” Milo said. “Where do we go now?”

“I can’t see!” Lina complained, trying to pry the terrified monkey-lizard off her face.

Milo looked at them. “Morq, get off her. If you need to hug anyone, go hug Crater.”

Still unable to speak, the droid couldn’t object as Morq sprung from Lina’s head to his!

“That’s better,” Lina said, checking the map. “Take a right, then make an immediate left. Korda will be stuck on the other side of the canal.”

“So?” Milo said.

“His speeder won’t make it over the water.” Lina smiled. “He’ll have to go the long way around.”

“Okay,” Milo replied. “But just remember what you said about me crashing things!”

The boat skidded around a right-hand corner as Korda’s blaster fire hit the water. Then Milo turned the ship left. Both children cried out as the boat nearly capsized before righting itself.

“Is he still there?” Milo asked, keeping his eyes straight ahead.

Lina looked around. There was no sign of Korda’s speeder bike.

“He’s gone, I think,” Lina answered.

“Then let’s get back to the Bird before he finds us again,” Milo suggested.

With Lina reading the directions, Milo did his best to steer the boat. Twice he almost crashed into the canal walls, and he nearly rammed into a barge full of grain. But every near collision took them closer to the spaceport, away from Korda!

Milo grinned behind the wheel. They were going to do this. They were going to get away!

Then he heard a piercing cry that sounded like a screaming animal.

“Oh, no,” Lina groaned.

“What?” Milo said, turning to look over his shoulder.

One of the TIE fighters swooped low in the air above them. It matched their speed, dropping down above the canal. It was so close that they could see the dark armor of the pilot through the viewport.

“Stop the vehicle and surrender!” the pilot commanded over the fighter’s loudspeakers.

“What do we do?” Milo asked.

“We ignore him and keep going,” Lina replied.

“Ignore the big ship with the laser cannons?” Milo asked skeptically.

“It’s not that big,” Lina lied.

“Yeah, when you’re in a Star Destroyer, not a speedboat!”

He pulled the boat around another corner, with the TIE fighter following close behind.

“I repeat,” the pilot boomed. “Stop or I will shoot!”

Milo shot Lina a worried glance. “He won’t,” Lina insisted. “You heard Korda on the bridge. They can’t risk hitting Crater.”

Green energy bolts slammed into the canal on either side of the boat. Large clouds of steam rose into the air as the blaster cannons vaporized the water.

“Want to tell him that?” Milo screamed.

Lina pointed up ahead. “Go down there.”

Milo’s eyes widened when he saw where Lina meant. It was a loading channel for the tall warehouses on either side. And it was a narrow stretch of water, not much wider than the boat!

“I’ll never make it,” Milo said. “It’s coming up too fast!”

“Turn now!” Lina shouted.

“No!” Milo yelled.

The TIE fighter fired again, churning the water. It was trying to scare them into stopping. Instead, Lina leaned forward. She grabbed the steering wheel and yanked it to the right. The boat jack-knifed across the canal and crashed into the loading channel, bouncing off the narrow walls.

Instinctively, the TIE pilot turned to follow them, and he realized his mistake too late. Unable to make it through the gap, the starfighter ran into the warehouse, tearing the solar panels from its sides and exploding into a ball of fire. Burning debris rained down, hissing as it hit the cold water.

Milo grabbed the wheel back from his sister, but the boat stalled, drifting to a halt. “What happened?”

Lina crawled over to the engine. A neat circular hole was burned through the casing. “It’s dead. One of Korda’s shots must have hit it. The fuel’s been leaking out. We’re lucky it didn’t explode.”

“Then what are we going to do? Swim?” Milo asked sarcastically.

Lina turned to CR-8R. “Crater, you’ll have to use your repulsors.”

The droid shook his head in response.

“Look,” she said, shoving the datapad into his face. “We’re only a couple of blocks from the spaceport. Point your repulsors over the back of the boat and push us. Come on, Korda could be here any moment!”

The droid shook his head again.

Just then, a gloved hand grabbed the back of the boat!

Lina cried out as the downed TIE fighter pilot tried to pull himself from the water. The black figure reached out for Lina, her terrified face reflecting in his mask’s goggles.

“Crater, stop arguing and do it!” Lina shouted.

As the TIE pilot struggled to haul himself up, the droid threw his base over the stern. Gripping the edge of the boat with his manipulator arms, CR-8R fired his repulsors straight in the TIE fighter pilot’s face.

The boat shot forward, faster than before. The pilot lost his grip, flying backward into the water.

Milo turned out of the channel and onto a clear stretch of canal.

“Keep going forward,” Lina instructed as she consulted the map. “And then take a right next to that landspeeder dealer.”

Milo did what he was told as CR-8R’s repulsorlift unit whined in protest. Ahead of them, the buildings on either side of the canal thinned out to reveal a cluster of large ships.

“It’s the spaceport!” Lina cheered.

Milo turned to look at her.

“Yeah, and Korda, too.”

The captain was standing on a low bridge ahead of them, his blaster aimed in their direction and ready to fire!