by Troy Denning
“It’s part of my GAG training.” Ben drew a veneer of calm over his Force presence so Jaina and Zekk would not sense his lie. “We need to know all that spy stuff.”
“Well, you must be studying hard,” Zekk said. “Because I think you’re right.”
Jaina nodded. “It makes sense. The real spy is probably one of Galney’s consorts. Tenel Ka would have no reason to talk to them anyway.” She glanced back to Ben. “And Hapan noblewomen have a bad habit of underestimating male duplicity.”
The comment sent a bolt of alarm shooting through Ben, but he did his best to stay calm, reminding himself that during their practice sessions, not even Jacen could always tell when he was lying. “I’m glad that stuff finally came in useful. To tell the truth, I was beginning to wonder if those instructors were making it up.” He turned his attention to Zekk, who had already devoured most of his “snack” and was using the bread to wipe the stew bowl clean. “You know how to use the multiprocessor if you’re still hungry?”
Zekk studied the unit with a ravenous gleam in his eye. “Oh, yeah.”
“Good.” Ben pointed to the locker beneath his bunk. “My spare flight utilities might fit you, Jaina, but Zekk—”
“Don’t worry,” Jaina said. “I’ll stick Zekk’s in the cleaner while he’s sanisteaming.”
“Then I’d better go talk to Lieutenant Ioli,” Ben said. Ioli had not told him to report, but the last thing he wanted to do was say anything else to arouse Jaina’s scrutiny. “She’ll want to send a report to Jacen as soon as we’re out of the dead zone.”
“Ask her to send one to Tenel Ka, as well,” Jaina requested.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Zekk said. “We know she’s surrounded by spies—even if Lady Galney isn’t one of them.”
“We’re just going to have to take that chance,” Jaina said. “Tenel Ka needs to know about this as soon—”
“The Queen Mother will know about it as soon as Jacen does,” Ben said. “She’s aboard the Anakin with him.”
Jaina frowned. “The Anakin?”
“The Anakin Solo—our new Star Destroyer,” Ben said proudly. “She’s in orbit above Hapes, and Queen Mother Tenel Ka is hiding—”
“Our new Star Destroyer?” Jaina echoed. She stood and leaned across the table toward Ben. “Jacen named a GAG ship for Anakin?”
“Yeah, he thought—”
“What did he think?” Jaina demanded. “That he would drag our little brother’s name into the poodoo pit with him?”
“Uh, you’ll have to ask him,” Ben said, realizing there was nothing he could say to calm Jaina down. “I gotta go.”
He retreated through the bulkhead and escaped forward. He was aware of the bad feelings between Jaina and Jacen, of course, but he had not understood the reason until now. Jaina was just as volatile and unreasonable as Jacen claimed. It was a wonder she had lasted in the military even as long as she had—but then, the standards of the old New Republic forces had not been nearly as high as they were now that Jacen and Admiral Niathal had reorganized the military. These days, someone as hotheaded as Jaina would never even make it into flight school—and he couldn’t imagine how she had ever become a Jedi Knight. Jacen was always telling him that a good Jedi used his anger—not the other way around.
Ben returned to his duty station and reported to Ioli, then coded a burst message to be sent over the HoloNet as soon as they left the Transitory Mists. After a few minutes of thought, he also included a warning about Jaina’s reaction to the Anakin’s name. With a little forewarning, maybe Jacen would be able to avoid another blowup like the one that had opened the rift between them in the first place.
After Ben finished the message, he remained in his seat, afraid to go back and give Jaina something else to be angry about. He really did not want to cause any more tension between her and Jacen, but his motives were also selfish. With his father already threatening to end his apprenticeship with Jacen, the last thing he wanted to do was give Jaina any reason to suggest to his parents there might be reason for concern.
Fortunately, avoiding Jaina and Zekk turned out to be easy. Their long trudge across the bogs had left them so exhausted that as soon as they had cleaned up and eaten, they climbed into bunks and fell asleep.
The pair still had not stirred nearly a standard day later when the Rover finally emerged from hyperspace in the star-spangled vastness outside the Transitory Mists. Tanogo quickly brought up the holocomm and sent Ben’s message.
To their astonishment, they received a response almost immediately—even before Ben had finished plotting their course back to Hapes.
“That was fast,” he said.
“Too fast,” Tanogo answered. He set to work decoding it. “It’s a CU message. Has to be.”
This drew a groan from the usually silent Twi’lek weapons officer.
“CU message?” Ben asked.
“See you later,” Ioli explained. “When a Star Destroyer has to change posts while her scouts are out, she drops a message beacon with rendezvous coordinates.”
“Okay,” Ben said, not seeing the problem. “So I don’t plot a course until we have the new coordinates.”
“That’d be too easy, son,” Tanogo said.
“It’s pretty rare that a Star Destroyer moves toward the scout ship,” Ioli said. “And since reconnaissance skiffs don’t carry a lot of fuel or provisions—”
“And since we have half again our normal complement,” Ben added, beginning to understand.
“Right,” Ioli said. “It can be a problem.”
They waited in silence while Tanogo finished decoding the message. Then Ben felt a ripple of relief in the Force.
“It’s not so bad,” Tanogo announced. “We might even get in a little R and R, if the lieutenant is feeling generous.”
“That depends on how long you intend to keep me waiting,” Ioli said.
The message appeared on the cockpit display almost immediately. RECON SKIFF ROVER PROCEED TO ROQOO DEPOT FOR REFUELING AND RESUPPLY. AWAIT RENDEZVOUS OR ORDERS.
“What about our message?” Ben asked.
“The Anakin is probably in hyperspace herself,” Tanogo said. “We’ll have to keep trying and hope we catch her between jumps.”
“That’s not good enough,” Jaina said from the back of the cabin.
Ben turned in his seat and saw her and Zekk emerging from crew quarters. Their faces still had pillow lines and their hair was still sleep-tousled, but they appeared completely rested—as Jedi usually did after a recovery trance.
“We have to go to Hapes,” she said, continuing forward.
“Those aren’t our orders,” Tanogo objected. “When Colonel Solo tells us to go somewhere—”
“Colonel Solo doesn’t know about our message,” Zekk interrupted. “Or the importance of getting it there now.”
Jaina slipped past Tanogo’s station and stopped behind Ioli’s seat. “You know how important it is to deliver our intelligence to the Queen Mother in time, and you have the authority to act on your initiative.”
Ioli nodded. “Of course. But the Queen Mother is aboard the Anakin—”
“Not if the Anakin left Hapes, she isn’t,” Jaina said.
“A leader of Tenel Ka’s courage and integrity is not going to leave her capital world while it’s under threat of attack,” Zekk added. “Wherever the Anakin went, the Queen Mother will be staying behind to oversee Hapes’s defense.”
“So I suggest you act on your own initiative,” Jaina said. “Or we’ll act on ours.”
Ioli’s small jaw clacked shut, then she let out a snort of irritation and turned to Ben. “What do you think Colonel Solo would want?”
Ben glanced over his shoulder at the uncompromising faces of Jaina and Zekk. “Well, that message is pretty important,” he said. “And I don’t think Jacen would want you to get your crew killed by the two Jedi Knights he just sent you to rescue.”
Jaina smiled at Ben, then winked. “Good answ
er,” she said. “Maybe Jacen’s teaching you something after all.”
chapter nineteen
The task force had emerged from hyperspace in perfect crescent formation, and the luminous green disk of the planet Relephon was already swelling in the Anakin’s bridge viewport. The world was one of those truly massive gas giants on the verge of becoming a star itself, the tremendous pressures in its core releasing enough energy to bathe its horde of moons in a life-sustaining blanket of heat and light.
Jacen did not notice the tiny saucers of any Battle Dragons silhouetted against the pale glow, nor see the blue slivers of even one efflux tail streaking in to intercept the task force Tenel Ka had sent to arrest AlGray. Still, he had a cold prickle along his spine and an uneasy emptiness in his stomach. The minutes after a fleet emerged from hyperspace were always its most hectic and vulnerable, with the sensor officers struggling to calibrate their instruments and the hangar chiefs rushing to launch a fighter screen. It was the ideal time for an attack, and Jacen could feel one coming.
Unfortunately, he had no idea from where. The advance scouts had reported only an alarming inability to locate the enemy fleet, and AlGray’s commander was certainly in no rush to reveal her position.
“Major Espara, I find this odd.” Jacen was addressing Major Moreem Espara of the Hapan royal guard, whom Tenel Ka had assigned to serve as his adviser and command liaison. Along with a handful of aides, they were standing together on the observation balcony overlooking the Anakin’s busy bridge. “Wouldn’t Ducha AlGray be deploying her fleet by now?”
“She would if it were here.” A tall woman with silky black hair and alabaster skin, Espara was dressed in a pale blue uniform that managed to look both military and stylish. “Even if she were innocent, she’d be troubled enough by our arrival to make a show of force.”
Jacen remained silent, concentrating on what he was feeling through the Force. He could not sense the source of the danger, but the prickle along his spine felt as if it was about to erupt into hives.
“We’re too late,” Espara continued, as though Jacen were not astute enough to understand what she had said. “The coup must be moving faster than the Queen Mother realized. The usurpers are going into open revolt.”
Jacen began to expand his Force-awareness rapidly, but the population of the Relephon Moons was too scattered to glean anything useful. The planet was ringed by at least thirty major population centers and hundreds of smaller concentrations, and none of them felt particularly hostile.
“Colonel Solo?” Espara asked. “Did you hear what I just said? The AlGray fleet is probably on its way to Hapes!”
“Your aides,” Jacen asked, still troubled by his premonitions. “How many did you bring?”
“You think someone betrayed our mission?” Espara glanced toward the two female officers behind her. “I assure you, Beyele and Roh are above suspicion—”
“How many?” This time, Jacen put the power of the Force behind his words.
Espara shrank back. “Just Beyele and Roh.”
“What about your pilots?” Jacen demanded. “Were they personal staff?”
Espara shook her head. “They were from the Royal Transportation Pool.”
The empty feeling in Jacen’s stomach turned to a cold void. Whatever had gone wrong, it had started with the pilots.
“But I don’t see how they could have betrayed us,” Espara continued. “Even if they were traitors, all they did was ferry me into orbit. They might have noticed the Anakin making preparations to get under way, but they wouldn’t have known to where.”
“That might have been enough,” Jacen said. He turned to his aide, a Jenet named Orlopp. “Ask Commander Twizzl for a threat report.”
“I’ve been monitoring that continuously.” With a pink snout, wet nostrils, and smirking upper lip that did not quite cover his yellow fangs, Orlopp cut a menacing figure in his black GAG uniform. “There don’t seem to be any threats. A junior garrison commander is demanding to know our intentions, though she hasn’t deployed her defenses yet.”
“She wants to avoid giving us an excuse to attack,” Espara surmised. “That confirms the main fleet has departed. Colonel Solo, we must return to Hapes at once. If the Queen Mother is not under attack already …”
Jacen did not hear the rest of Espara’s complaint, for he had turned away and was rushing off the observation balcony. The threat seemed more immediate than ever—and if it was not coming from outside the Anakin, then it had to be coming from inside.
“Colonel Solo?” Espara called, following behind. “We’re in the middle of an action here!”
Espara’s confusion was understandable. Even she did not know that Tenel Ka had left Allana aboard the Anakin, and she certainly didn’t know that Jacen’s parents had provided intelligence suggesting that Aurra Sing’s primary target would be the child.
As he raced for the lift tube, Jacen’s comlink chimed for attention. He pulled it off his belt and opened the channel.
“You know who this is?” asked a wispy voice.
“Double-Ex,” Jacen replied. “What is it?”
“You ordered me to report if anyone attempted to enter the girl’s cabin,” the security droid replied. “I’m reporting.”
Jacen’s stomach sank. “I was afraid of that.”
“What are my orders?” SD-XX asked. “Evaporate them?”
“No,” Jacen said. His briefing on Aurra Sing had suggested that “evaporating” her would be beyond the security droid’s capabilities. “Stay out of sight and frustrate her attempts to enter. I’m on my way.”
Jacen opened a channel to Bridge Security. “Execute a Level One lockdown.” He did not bother identifying himself, as his name would already be displayed on the duty officer’s datascreen. “This is not a drill.”
“Level One, Colonel?”
“Affirmative.” Jacen reached the lift tube and stepped inside, not bothering to acknowledge the crisp salutes from the two GAG sentries stationed there. “Now!”
“I’m sorry, sir,” the officer replied. “We can’t lock down while we’re at battle stations. The crew needs to move freely.”
“Then go to Level Two!” Jacen ordered.
He would have canceled battle stations, except the order would have to go through Commander Twizzl, who would demand a confirmation and an explanation Jacen had no time to provide. The assassin—assuming Sing was the danger he had been sensing—had chosen her moment well, when the priorities of a Star Destroyer ready to enter battle took precedence over the safety of even her most important passenger.
Alarm horns began to beep over the Anakin’s intercom, indicating that the Level Two security protocols Jacen had ordered were now in effect. Armed guards would be posted at every lift tube and bulkhead hatch with orders to detain anyone lacking proper identification; anyone who resisted would be blasted. Jacen did not think those precautions would make the slightest difference to Aurra Sing.
When he arrived at the Commander’s Deck, he found the lift sentries lying on the floor with smoke rising from their blaster-scorched faces. A dozen paces down the corridor, two more guards were down outside the Sovv Stateroom—the quarters assigned to visiting dignitaries—and there was smoke pouring from the cabin. He unclipped his lightsaber and rushed forward.
Jacen’s mind was whirling with dark fears and black furies. For the first time since his imprisonment by the Yuuzhan Vong, he truly wanted to hurt someone, to make them pay in agony and anguish for their vile actions. And if Allana were to die, he did not see where he would find the strength to carry on with his mission. Who would want to save a galaxy that could abide the murder of his own innocent daughter?
As Jacen approached the Sovv Stateroom, one of the guards began to moan for help. The fellow’s torso had been cleaved at an upward angle by something hot and long, and his fading Force presence suggested he would die if he did not receive help soon. An abandoned lock slicer hung on the keypad above his head, and a still-crackling
arc had been cut through the double doors.
Leaving the stateroom uninspected and the guard to die where he lay, Jacen continued down the long corridor. The low hum of a lightsaber cutting metal was droning around the corner ahead, where the entrance to his own stateroom was located. He extended his Force-awareness into his own quarters and was relieved to feel the presence of his daughter somewhere near the back of the cabin, approximately where the refresher was located. She seemed curious and not at all frightened.
Suddenly Allana responded to Jacen’s contact, filling the Force with surprise and delight. She seemed to recognize his touch and be happy about it, and that filled him with pride and joy and an even greater determination to catch Sing before she found his daughter.
But their contact was shattered by the intrusion of a cold presence, gleefully pouring its murderous intent into the Force. Allana reeled back in shock and vanished, leaving Jacen alone with the assassin’s presence. Then the humming of the lightsaber suddenly assumed a higher pitch, and a loud clang sounded as a freshly cut panel of security door fell to the floor.
In the next instant a brilliant orange flash lit the corridor ahead, accompanied by the crashing whumpff of a concussion grenade—launched, no doubt, by Allana’s Defender Droid, DeDe. Jacen paused a moment to be sure there would not be another grenade, then rounded the corner when he began to hear the shrieking of DeDe’s blaster cannon.
The corridor ahead was so filled with smoke and blasterfire that it looked like the inside of a thunderstorm. Sing was a pale ghost in a red bodysuit, battling through the hole she had cut in Jacen’s door, surrounding herself in crimson snakes of light as she used her lightsaber to bat aside DeDe’s attacks.
Jacen drew his sidearm and fired on the run, hoping to blast the assassin in the back while she was too overwhelmed to defend herself. Sing dropped into a forward roll and vanished through the door. An instant later her lightsaber whined half a dozen times, and DeDe’s blaster cannon fell silent.
Aurra Sing was alone in Jacen’s stateroom—and with her Force abilities, it would take her only a second to find his daughter. He stopped a few paces from the door and reached out to the assassin in the Force.
