The little man was smiling broadly. "You'll be dead."

At this the rodent let out a loud grunt. It was either a signal or a warning,

because everything human or otherwise which had been leaning up at the bar

immediately backed away, leaving a clear space around Luke and his antagonists.

Trying to salvage the situation, Luke essayed a wan smile. That faded rapidly

when he saw that the three were readying hand weapons. Not only couldn't he have

countered all three of them, he had no idea what a couple of the lethal-looking devices

did.

"this little one isn't worth the trouble," a calm voice said. Luke looked up,

startled. He hadn't heard Kenobi come up alongside him. "Come, let me buy you

all something..."

By way of reply the bulky monster chittered hideously and swung out a massive

limb. It caught an unprepared Luke across the temple and sent him spinning across

the room, crashing through tables and shattering a large jug filled with a foul-smelling

liquid.

The crowd edged back farther, a few grunts and warning snorts coming from

some of them as the drunken monstrosity pulled a wicked-looking pistol from its

service pouch. He started to wave it in Kenobi's direction.

That spurred the heretofore-neutral bartender to life. He came charging

clumsily around the end of the bar, waving his hands frantically but still taking care to

stay out of range.

"No blasters, no blasters! Not in my place!"

the rodent thing chattered threateningly at him, while the weapon wielding

many-eye spared him a warning grunt.

In the split second when the gun and its owner's attention was off him, the old

man's hand had moved to the disk slung at his side. The short human started to yell

as a fiery blue-white light appeared in the dimness of the cantina.

He never finished the yell. It turned into a blink. When the blink was finished,

the man found himself lying prone against the bar, moaning and whimpering as he

stared at the stump of an arm.

In between the start of his yell and the conclusion of the blink, the rodent-thing

had been cleft cleanly in half down the middle, its two halves falling in opposite

directions. The giant multiocular creature still stood staring, dazed, at the old human

who was poised motionless" title="a.静止的；固定的">motionless before it, the shining lightsaber held over his head in a

peculiar fashion. The creature's chrome pistol fired once, blowing a hole in the door.

Then the torso peeled away as neatly as had the body of the rodent, its two cauterized

section falling in opposite directions to lie motionless" title="a.静止的；固定的">motionless on the cool stone.

Only then did the suggestion of a sigh escape from Kenobi; only then did his

body appear to relax. Bringing the lightsaber down, he flipped it carefully upward in

a reflex saluting motion which ended with the deactivated weapon resting

innocuously on his hip.

That final movement broke the total quiet which had enshrouded the room.

Conversations resumed, as did the movement of bodies in chairs, the scraping of

mugs and pitchers and other drinking devices on tabletops. The bartender and

several assistants appeared to drag the unsightly corpses out of the room, while the

mutilated human vanished wordlessly into the crowd, cradling the stump of his gun

arm and counting himself fortunate.

To all appearances the cantina had returned to its former state, with one small

exception. Ben Kenobi was given a respectful amount of space at the bar.

Luke barely heard the renewed conversation. He was still shaken by the speed

of the fight and by the old man's unimagined abilities. As his mind cleared and he

moved to rejoin Kenobi, he could overhear bits and snatches of the talk around him.

Much of it centered on admiration for the cleanness and finality of the fight.

"You're hurt, Luke," Kenobi observed solicitously.
关键字:星球大战
生词表: