by Troy Denning
TWENTY-TWO
The shadow bomb had opened a velker-sized hole in the hull of the nest ship, but the blast had penetrated only as deep as the second deck, where Luke now stood amid a tangle of devastation. The Force was too filled with ripples to tell where Lomi Plo had gone, but he knew by the cold knot in his stomach and the ache in his limbs that she was somewhere nearby, watching and waiting for the right moment to attack again.
Luke could sense Tarfang about thirty meters ahead, slowly moving away. Hearing the Ewok was even easier. Tarfang was chattering angrily into his suit comm, though it was anyone’s guess whether he was cursing his captors, or Luke and Han.
Then Han’s voice came over the comm as well. “All set here, Luke.”
Luke looked up and saw Han and Juun two stories above, dimly silhouetted against the star-flecked void of space. C-3PO and R2-D2 were nowhere in sight; Han had left the damaged droids on the exterior of the ship, where they would be easy to retrieve on the way out.
Luke grasped Han and Juun in the Force and lowered them through the hole, being careful to keep them well away from any jagged edges or sharp protrusions. DR919a’s escape pod vac suits were about as flimsy as space suits came; one tear would be the end of the person inside. Once they were down, Mara’s StealthX appeared in the breach and descended on its repulsorlifts, slowly spinning in a circle.
Luke kneeled at Juun’s side and touched helmets so they could converse. “Did you see Lomi Plo up there, when she tried to sneak up on me?”
“I aw omeding,” Juun said. Sound waves never carried well through helmets, and his nasal accent made the situation worse. “I did na know it wah her until you had the li-saber fight.”
“Good enough,” Luke said. He stood and turned toward Mara’s StealthX, now settling onto the deck next to them, and activated his comm unit. “We’re a little short on weapons.”
Mara nodded inside the cockpit. A moment later the canopy opened, and she passed Luke the E-11 blaster rifle from the survival kit attached to her ejection module.
“What about destroying the hyperdrive?” she asked over her suit comm. “We can’t let this nest ship leave the Choke.”
“I know,” Luke answered. “But we have to get Tarfang back first. I dragged him into this, and now I have to drag him out.”
This drew an affirmative Ewok yap over the suit comm.
“We don’t have much time,” Mara warned. “And we’re only going to have one chance to hit that thermal vent you and Han found. I’m down to my last shadow bomb, and the Falcon can’t do this.”
Luke nodded. He had felt Leia’s relief as she and Saba escaped the Ackbar’s captors aboard the Falcon, and now they were on their way to the Gorog nest ship to retrieve him, Han, and the others. But the Falcon’s concussion missiles would not be accurate enough to reach the nest ship’s hyperdrive—or powerful enough to destroy it even if they did.
“What about Kyp and all the other Jedi I sense out here?” Luke asked. “Maybe I should call them over to help.”
“You could,” Mara said. “But you’d have to countermand Admiral Bwua’tu’s orders. He has them targeting the hyperdrives of the other nest ships. This one is my responsibility.”
Luke raised his brow. “Kyp has been helping with this blockade?”
“Hardly,” Mara scoffed. “It’s complicated, but it all started when Leia and Saba were captured by the Ackbar on our way back to Woteba.”
“An Alliance vessel arrested Jedi?”
“It gets worse,” Mara said. “From what I’ve been able to pick up eavesdropping on comm traffic between the Ackbar and the Mothma, the Chiss have been holding the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance responsible for the Killiks’ return to their border. Chief Omas tried to appease them by blockading the Utegetu nests, and to keep the Jedi from interfering, he placed Corran Horn in charge of the order.”
Luke frowned. “Chief Omas doesn’t choose Jedi leaders.”
“That’s what Kyp and his team thought,” Mara said. “So they commandeered a squadron of StealthXs to free you and Han from the Killiks, and Leia and Saba from the Ackbar. It’s a mess.”
“That’s an understatement.” Luke shook his head in frustration. He had always taught that Jedi should act in accordance with their consciences, trusting that the Force would lead them to do what was best for the order, the Alliance, and the galaxy. Clearly, his faith had been misplaced somewhere along the line. “Then why is Kyp—and everyone else—following Bwua’tu’s orders now?”
“Because Leia urged us to,” Mara said. “Nobody wants Killiks loose in the galaxy with these nest ships.”
“At least everyone agrees on that much.”
Luke had a terrible, hollow feeling in his stomach. In his efforts to build an order of self-directing Jedi, he had left the order itself adrift. No one had made a selfish or wrong decision—not even Chief Omas—but there had been no one to make them work together, no one to channel their energy in a single direction.
In short, there had been no leadership.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Skywalker,” Mara said. “You were stuck on Woteba.”
“I remember,” Luke answered. “But it shouldn’t have mattered—not if I had prepared the other Masters properly.”
Mara shook her head. “This is on Kyp and Corran and the rest of them. You can’t be there every minute.”
“No, but I can provide direction . . . and vision,” Luke said. “If I had been doing that, the Masters would never have let Omas split them.”
Han came over to stand beside the StealthX. “Maybe you two can talk command theory later,” he said. “If we don’t reach Tarfang before the bug queen drags him into a pressurized area, we’ll never get him back.”
“Sorry.” Luke reached up and rested his glove on the sleeve of Mara’s vac suit. “We’ve got to do this. I can’t leave him.”
Mara sighed. “I know—and so does Lomi Plo. She’s trying to draw us in.”
Luke smiled. “Her mistake.”
“It better be,” Mara said. “I’m not going to raise Ben alone.”
“You won’t have to.” Luke patted her arm, then stepped away from the cockpit. “I promise.”
Han started to follow Luke away from the StealthX, but Mara motioned him back toward the cockpit.
“Take this.” She passed her lightsaber to Han. “If things get close, it will do you more good than a blaster.”
Han’s faceplate remained turned toward the weapon for a moment, then he nodded. “Thanks. I’ll try not to cut up anything I shouldn’t.”
Mara smiled inside her helmet, but her eyes betrayed her concern. “After you three get Tarfang, jump on my wings,” she said. “I’ll lift you out of here fast, then go drop a shadow bomb down that thermal vent.”
“Sure,” Han said. “It’ll be just like my swoop-riding days.”
Once Han had stepped back, Mara closed the canopy and lifted the StealthX off the deck again. She turned in the general direction of Tarfang’s presence, then activated the external floodlamps and began to creep forward.
Luke waved Juun to his side, then leaned down and touched helmets. “Stick close to me.” He gave the blaster rifle from Mara’s survival module to the Sullustan. “And when you see Lomi Plo, don’t hesitate. Start blasting.”
Juun’s eyes widened inside his faceplate. “Me?”
“You want to save Tarfang, don’t you?”
“Of course.” Juun flipped the safety off. “I’d wo anywing.”
“Good,” Luke said. “Just remember: stick close.”
He motioned Han to the StealthX’s other flank, then started to follow the starfighter forward on his own side. The deck seemed to have been little more than a storage level. There were a few Gorog bodies, their eyes burst from sudden decompression, but most of the debris looked like broken waxes of black membrosia.
“These bugs are really starting to scare me,” Han said over the comm. “This ship design is sturdy . . . really sturdy.�
�
“Even with no shields?” Luke asked.
“Doesn’t need ’em,” Han said. “Every deck is a shield layer itself. Blast through one, and there’s another just like it right below. Given the size of these bug haulers, you might have to go down a hundred decks before you hit anything important.”
Luke had a sinking feeling. “What about Bwua’tu’s plan?”
“Oh, that’ll work,” Han said. “All ships are weak in the stern—even these monsters. But those shadow bombs better go right down the thrust channels. If they hit a wall and detonate before they reach the hyperdrive itself, all they’ll do is throw the bugs off course when they jump.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
Luke opened himself to the combat-meld, trying to impress on Kyp and the other pilots how important it was to be accurate when they targeted the other nest ships. He perceived a variety of emotions in response, from joy at sensing his presence, to gratitude for the advice, to frustration that the warning had come so late. The StealthXs were in the middle of their runs; some had already launched their bombs and were turning back to join the Falcon in coming after Luke and Han.
Luke poured reassurance into the meld; then the light from Mara’s floodlamps fell on a section of spitcrete wall. A band of about twenty pressure-suited Gorog were nearing one of the leathery membranes Killiks used as air locks. They were holding—struggling to hold—a small, kicking figure in a vac suit.
Mara touched Luke through the Force, wondering if she should take a shot.
He gave her a mental nod, then warned Han, “Watch your eyes! Cannons!”
Luke averted his own gaze and reached down to cover Juun’s faceplate, then Mara fired the StealthX’s laser cannons. The flash was so bright that Luke’s eyes hurt even looking at the floor.
When the light faded an instant later, he raised his gaze and found that the blast had destroyed not only the membrane, but much of the wall around it as well. Dozens of Gorog were spilling out through the gap, their limbs and bristly antennae flailing as they suffered swift but painful decompression deaths.
Many of the bodies tumbled into Tarfang’s captors, knocking some off their feet and turning the band into a tangled knot. One of the Ewok’s arms came free, and he began to thrash about so violently that the tangle became a snarl of whirling carapaces and flailing limbs.
Han rushed forward, firing half a dozen times before he traded the blaster pistol for Mara’s lightsaber. When he ignited the blade, the gyroscopic effect of the arc wave caught him off guard, and he spun in a complete circle before bringing the weapon under control and slashing through a Gorog’s midsection.
By the time Luke and Juun arrived, the Gorog had recovered from the initial shock of Han’s attack and were turning to fight, their shatter guns rising to fire. Luke used the Force to sweep the barrels aside, then ignited his own lightsaber and opened four pressure suits in a single slash. Juun clung to his back, firing point-blank into any insect that made the mistake of trying to close from the sides.
With their mandibles and pincer-hands enclosed inside their carapace-like pressure suits, the Killiks were reduced to simple blows or using their shatter guns. Luke concentrated on the weapons, defending himself, Juun, and Han with his lightsaber and the Force, lopping off gun hands and deflecting aims.
That left Luke and his companions vulnerable to hand-to-hand attacks, and several times Luke was almost knocked off his feet when a carapace slammed into him or a flailing limb smashed into his legs. But Mara was watching their backs from the StealthX, using the Force to seize any bug wielding anything that looked sharp enough to tear their flimsy vac suits, then sending it crashing into a jagged stub of broken wall.
When they had carved the band down to the last half a dozen insects, Mara’s lightsaber began to trace a frenzied, twirling, rolling pattern through the middle of the fight. Luke thought Han must have locked the blade on by accident and dropped the weapon. But then he caught a glimpse of orange vac suit behind the handle, and the lightsaber began to slice through Gorog pressure suits, dropping four insects in half as many seconds.
“Han?”
“Not me,” Han answered over the suit comm. He appeared a couple of meters away from the lightsaber, picking himself up off the floor. “I got knocked over.”
The lightsaber dropped another Gorog, then Luke cut the legs out from under the last insect as it spun around to fire its shatter gun.
Clinging to the lightsaber handle with both hands, being tossed around like a rag in sandstorm, was Tarfang. He was chattering in mad delight, swinging his legs around like a rudder, vainly attempting to counterbalance the weapon’s gyroscopic effects.
Luke stepped in and blocked, bringing the wild ride to a sudden halt and allowing Tarfang’s feet to drop back to the deck. He used the Force to deactivate the blade, then summoned the weapon out of the Ewok’s trembling hands.
Tarfang stood wobbling for a moment, then drew his shoulders back, chittered something grateful sounding over the suit comm, and held his hand out for the lightsaber.
“Sorry,” Luke said. “You’d better take the blaster.”
Tarfang placed his gloves on his hips and snarled.
Then the StealthX’s floodlamps began to dim, and Luke felt Mara’s confusion through their Force-bond. Tossing the lightsaber to Han, he whirled toward the StealthX and saw nothing but the fading glow of the floodlamps.
Han stepped to Luke’s side. “What is it?”
“Trouble!” Luke said. He gave Mara’s lightsaber back to Han. “Lomi Plo is draining the energy from Mara’s flood—”
He stopped in midsentence as Juun opened fire with the blaster rifle, aiming for a dark area just behind the StealthX’s cockpit. A trio of bolts passed only a meter above Mara’s canopy, then abruptly reversed course and came streaking back toward Juun.
The chill ache in Luke’s joints was slowing his reflexes, so he would have never have been quick enough to save Juun had he not known that Lomi Plo would deflect the attack. But when she did, his lightsaber was already dropping into position, and one after the other he intercepted the bolts, batting them back toward their original target.
The first bolt was deflected toward the ceiling. The other two simply passed over the StealthX and vanished into the darkness beyond.
Mara twisted around in her seat, trying to see what they had been attacking, but the StealthX’s floodlamps were already returning to their normal brightness. Lomi Plo had been forced to retreat.
“It’s okay,” Luke commed. “We’re coming!”
He grabbed Juun by the shoulder and started toward the StealthX, but the Sullustan suddenly stopped and dropped to a knee, trying to look under the craft.
Luke knelt beside him and touched helmets. “Where is she?”
“Behind de strut.” Juun’s voice was muffled. “Don’t you see her leg?”
“No,” Luke said. “I can’t see her.”
“You can’t see her, Madter Skywalker?”
“No, Jae,” Luke answered. “You’re the only one who can see her.”
“But when you foughd her, you blocked her addacks.”
“The Force was guiding my hand,” Luke explained.
Juun was quiet for a moment, then asked, “And when she dent my shots back at me?”
“The Force was guiding my hand,” Luke repeated.
Juun remained silent a moment longer, then exclaimed, “Madter Skywalker, you set me up!”
“I knew she would deflect your attacks,” Luke admitted. “But I did block her attacks . . . and you said you’d do anything to save Tarfang.”
“I suppose I did.” Juun sounded disappointed in himself. “All wight. What now?”
“Start shooting again. We need to chase her away from the StealthX before she does any more damage.”
Juun shouldered the blaster rifle, but did not open fire.
“What’s wrong?” Luke asked.
“I can’t dee her, either.”
> Luke’s heart rose into his throat. “What do you mean? Did she move?”
Juun shrugged. “I don’t know. Her leg just dort of disappeared—right in front of my eyes.”
Han and Tarfang came and knelt beside them.
“Let’s climb on that StealthX and get out of here!” Han urged over the suit comm. “If Lomi Plo darkened those lamps, it’s because she doesn’t want us to see the reinforcements coming up behind us.”
“You’re right.” Luke rose and started to lead the way forward, circling out of the StealthX’s line of fire. “But we need to be careful. She’s still up there, and now Juun can’t see her, either.”
“Why not?” Han demanded.
“I don’t know,” Luke said. “When he realized we couldn’t see her, he stopped . . .”
He let the explanation trail off, for he suddenly understood why Juun had lost sight of Lomi Plo.
“Doubt!” Luke turned to Han. “Cloud your vision, doubt will. Blast it! How many times did I hear that from Yoda?”
“Probably about as many times as I’ve heard that from you,” Han said, sighing.
Luke ignored the barb. “That’s how she’s doing it, Han. She’s using our doubts against us!”
“Only one problem with that theory,” Han said. “I believe in her, and I can’t see her, either.”
Tarfang added a positive yap.
“It doesn’t have to be doubt in her,” Luke said. They drew adjacent to the StealthX, and Mara began to back the starfighter toward the opening on its repulsor drive. “If Lomi Plo can sense any doubt in a mind at all, she can hide behind it.”
Han fell quiet for a moment, then said, “That might explain why Alema was trying so hard to make you doubt Mara.”
“I’m sure it does,” Luke said. “And now that I know what she was trying to do, I know that it’s without basis.”
He glanced in the StealthX’s direction and saw . . . nothing.
When Luke remained silent, Han seemed to sense his disappointment.
“It won’t be that easy, kid,” Han said. “Nobody knows how to twist up a guy inside better than a Twi’lek dancer. And Alema’s got the Force to help.”
