Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

, they're closing in on us. What do we do now?" "This is some rescue," an irritated voice complained from behind them. Bothmen turned to see a thoroughly disgusted Princess eyeing them with regal disapproval."When you came in here, didn't you have a plan of getting out?" Solo nodded toward Luke. "He's the brains, sweetheart." Luke managed an embarrassed grin and shrugged helplessly. He turned to helpreturn fire, but before he could do so, the Princess had snatched the pistol from hishand. "Hey!" Luke stared as she moved along the wall, finally locating a small grate nearby.She pointed the pistol at it and fired. Solo gazed at her in disbelief. "What do you think you're doing?" "It looks like it's up to me to save our skins. Get into the garbage chute,flyboy!" While the others looked on in amazement, she jumped feet first into the openingand disappeared. Chewbacca rumbled threateningly, but Solo slowly shook his head. "No, Chewie, I don't want you to rip her apart. I'm not sure about her yet.Either I'm beginning to like her, or I'm going to kill her myself." The Wookiesnorted something else, and Solo yelled back at him, "Go on in, you furry oaf! Idon't care what you smell. This is no time to go dainty on me." Shoving the reluctant Wookie toward the tiny opening, Solo helped jam themassive bulk through. As soon as he disappeared, the Corellian followed him in.Luke fired off the last series of blasts, more in the hope of creating a covering smokethan hitting anything, slid into the chute, and was gone. Not wanting to incur further losses in such a confined space, the pursuingsoldiers had momentarily halted to await the arrival of reinforcements and heavierweapons. Besides, they had their quarry trapped, and despite their dedication, noneof them were anxious to die needlessly. The chamber Luke tumbled into was dimly lit. not that the light was needed todiscern its contents. He smelled the decay long before he was dumped into it.Unadorned except for the concealed illuminants, the garbage room was at least aquarter full of slimy muck, much of which had already achieved a state ofdecomposition sufficient to wrinkle Luke's nose. Solo was stumbling around the edge of the room, slipping and sinking up to hisknees in the uncertain footing in an attempt to locate an exit. Al he found was asmall, thick hatchway, which he grunted and heaved to pry open. The hatchcoverrefused to budge.