by Greg Keyes
Leia caught her brother's arm. "You'll send word if you have any news of the twins?"
"You'll know," he said softly. "You have a Jedi's instincts. You don't need anyone to tell you about your
own children." His somber gaze sought Kyp's, and his usually mild eyes echoed Mara's warning.
Han's puzzled gaze shifted from face to face. He squared his shoulders and moved on to something he could understand. Draping an arm around Kyp's shoulders, he led him toward the Falcon. "C'mon, kid. Let's make ourselves useful."
"Flying?" Kyp said dubiously as he eyed the latest dings and creases on the venerable ship.
"Fixing," Han retorted. He opened a compartment in the Falcon's hull and removed a laser torch. With a single flick he coaxed a small beam from it, as easily as any Jedi might awaken his lightsaber. "This plating here needs to be replaced."
The Jedi regarded the tool. "I'm not much of a mechanic," he hedged. He took it from Han and switched it off, hoping the older man would get the hint.
"Just cut off those rivets. How hard could that be?" Han's voice faded off as he disappeared into the hold.
Kyp shrugged and pulled out his lightsaber. He switched it on and removed the half-melted fasteners with a few deft flicks.
"I see you've found yet another appropriate use for your Jedi abilities," a caustic female voice observed.
He turned to face Leia. The older woman was still lovely, despite the weight of grief and worry in her eyes. Her brown hair was thick and glossy, and she wore it in a straight, simple style that made her look remarkably like her eighteen-year-old daughter.
Kyp produced his most disarming smile and enhanced it with the subtle nudge that had so disconcerted Jaina. He got the vivid impression of his effort striking an invisible wall and splattering like a mynock colliding with a Star Destroyer.
The Princess sniffed and spun on her heel. For no reason that Kyp could fathom, he fell into step with her.
Leia ignored him as she waded into the crowd of refugees, dispensing comfort. In a remarkably short time, the crowd had been herded through the initial registration and dispersed into small groups. Hapan landspeeders glided off toward the parklands beyond the city. The refugees who'd been injured during the escape from Coruscant lay on narrow white pallets. Medical droids rolled with quiet efficiency between the rows.
The collective suffering rolled over Kyp in waves. He fought back the memories-his home destroyed, his family dispersed, his childhood lost to slavery.
He noticed Leia watching him, her dark eyes narrowed in speculation. "There's a need here," she said. "One you understand better than most. Maybe you could make yourself useful for a change."
Kyp smiled faintly, but shook his head. "I don't think so. Not here, at least. Not this way."
Her eyebrows shot up. "For some people, doubt can be dangerous. On you, it's an improvement. So what will you do next?"
He considered the question, and the answer that came to him was not the one he'd expected. Kyp had assumed responsibility for fighting this war-and not just fighting, but fighting in a way that set the direction for his fellow Jedi. He'd even told Jaina that their generation needed to establish a new order, a new relationship with the Force. Perhaps on some level he'd been envisioning himself in this role. With Jedi certainty, Kyp realized that this task would fall to another.
Yet there was a place for him, an important one. "No change conies without conflict," he said slowly. "Perhaps my destiny is to be the irritant that forces the discussion, the blister that lets you know your boots don't fit."
To his surprise, Leia burst into laughter. She sobered quickly and fixed him with a challenging stare. "Not a bad analogy, but keep in mind the difference between a
blister and a cancer. You're a young man, and already you've been given more chances than most people get in a lifetime. A lot of people wonder why you're still alive. The answer to that can be given in two words."
"Luke Skywalker," Kyp supplied without hesitation. "I understand how much I owe your brother."
"Really? You have a strange way of repaying your debts," Leia retorted. "You've done nothing to support him, and everything you can to spread dissension among the jedi."
The whir of repulsor engines made further speech impossible. They watched as two strangely designed vehicles lowered skillfully onto the crowded docks- round cockpits reminiscent of the old TIE fighters, and four movable arms that at present were spread like the limbs of crouching beasts.
"Chiss vessels," Leia mused. Her face brightened as a familiar, dark-haired young man leapt from the cockpit.
"Jag Fel," Kyp observed flatly.
"Colonel Jag Fel," Leia added thoughtfully. Her face took on the inscrutable but pleasant expression that Han often referred to as her "diplomat face."
"You'll have to excuse me," she murmured, and then headed toward the young commander.
Kyp chose not to take the hint. He matched his pace to Leia's. Whatever came next, they would need pilots-and even if Kyp didn't like to admit it, pilots didn't come much better than the young man emerging from the Chiss clawcraft.
Colonel Jagged Fel's face lit with pleasure as he recognized Leia. A faint shadow entered his eyes when he noted Kyp at her side. That Kyp could understand. Their first meeting had been more cordial than a bar brawl, but that was the only positive thing Kyp could think to say about it.
The pilot drew himself up and greeted Leia with a crisp,
formal bow. He introduced his wingmate, a Chiss woman who stood nearly half a head taller than either Jag or Kyp.
"Is your presence here a portent of things to come?" Leia asked, a touch of hope in her voice.
Jag inclined his head in a bow of apology. "I regret to report that it is not. Shawnkyr and I are scouts for the Chiss, no more."
"Pretty impressive arsenal for a pair of scouts," Kyp observed, tapping one hand against the proton torpedo launcher.
"We don't seek trouble, but neither will we run from it," Jag said calmly.
Several uniformed Hapans strode toward them, flanking two men in bedraggled flight suits. One of them pointed to Jag. "That's him-him and the woman. They're the ones."
"Some of that trouble you didn't run from?" Kyp asked.
Jag's only response was a brief, cool stare. "Excuse me," he murmured to Leia, and then went over to speak with the officials. He returned in moments and sent a glance toward the Chiss. Immediately she swung back into her ship and began to power up the e ngines.
"We've been asked to undertake a short mission," Jag explained. "A Yuuzhan Vong frigate analog requires an escort to Hapes."
Kyp let out a burst of derisive laughter. "Who'd you have to kill to get that job?"
"The pilot is believed to be Lieutenant Jaina Solo," Jag continued, as smoothly as if the interruption had not occurred.
"I know," Leia said, a shadow of worry in her voice, "and I thank you for undertaking this. It won't be easy to get an enemy ship in unscathed."
Jaina, Kyp mused. Coming here, and flying a Yuuzhan
Vongship. This has distinct possibilities. "Could you use another pilot?"
Jag regarded him for a long moment. "The Hapan officials do not seem entirely convinced that this is not some sort of ambush. They asked Shawnkyr and me to go because we have combat experience against the Yuu-zhan Vong. It's entirely possible, however, that we were chosen for this task primarily because we are not Hapan, and are therefore considered expendable."
"Oh, if that's all," Kyp said dryly. "I've been expendable for years. And recently my status has been downgraded from undesirable to anathema."
Shawnkyr leaned over the edge of the cockpit, her red eyes taking Kyp's measure. She, too, had heard the tales about the rogue Jedi, but she did not look disapproving.
"You will fly under Colonel Fel's command?" she demanded.
"It's his mission," Kyp agreed. "What about it, Colonel?"
The young pilot accepted with a curt nod, then pulled himself up into his shi
p. Kyp sprinted toward his X-wing.
"What's this about, Kyp?" Leia called after him.
He stopped, turning to meet her questioning gaze. The suspicion he expected to see was there, but it was tempered with something softer-curiosity, if nothing more.
"The last time you agreed to take orders from someone, you twisted the situation and turned many of the best people I know into unwitting murderers. Including, I might add, my daughter. What are you after this time?"
Leia's words were harsh, but Kyp didn't consider them unfair. Like her brother, she was giving him a chance to make an accounting of himself.
It was better than he expected, and better than he deserved. His answering smile was slow and wistful, and almost entirely genuine.
"Maybe it's time I started repaying that debt I owe your family."
Leia watched as Kyp raced to his ship and lifted off, swinging into position on Jag Fel's port flank. She reminded herself that this engaging man was the same person who had destroyed Carida, who had fallen to the dark side and nearly killed her brother Luke, who had tricked Jaina into using her name and reputation to bring the Rogue Squadron into his latest vendetta.
"Bring her back, Kyp," she said softly, "and you'll make a good-sized dent in that debt. But if you hurt her again, or anyone of mine, you'd be safer turning yourself over to the YuuzhanVong."
FOURTEEN
Zekk lowered himself into the pilot's seat of the captured Hapan ship and then reached over to help his copilot with her restraints. Like Zekk, Tenel Ka was swathed in an evac suit, a helmet near at hand. She waved off his assistance and buckled herself in deftly, completing the task more quickly with her one hand than Zekk could with two.
The look she sent him was faintly challenging, and the energy she projected through the Force had an edge to it. Zekk understood that this had very little to do with her missing limb. Tenel Ka hadn't become any more competitive since her injury, but then, Zekk hadn't noticed that she'd become any less competitive, either.
He pretended to scowl. "How is that fair?" he said in mock complaint. "You've had more experience with Hapan vessels."
"Results, not excuses," she advised, but a ghost of a smile touched her lips as she turned to the console and began to power up the engines.
Jaina thrust her head into the cockpit, and the grin on her face was that of the girl Zekk had known long ago. "Turn up that music and let's get ready to dance."
The Jedi pilot smiled faintly, understanding exactly what she meant. The hum and whine of the Hapan ship's engines was surprisingly welcome after the eerie silence of the dovin basal.
Her smile dimmed as she studied Zekk. "You sure you want to do this?"
Zekk didn't see much of a choice. The two ships were still connected, firmly melded together by the strange substance the Trickster's coral hull had secreted. They were as open to each other as two enjoining rooms. Zekk could hear Lowbacca's deceptively fearsome howl as the Wookiee herded captive pirates through the portal to the Yuuzhan Vong ship.
And that, he noted grimly, was the problem-that two-meter oval doorway between the two ships. Tahiri claimed the Yuuzhan Vong ship could heal itself, but there was nothing to be done about the breach in the Hapan vessel. Cutting the ship loose would leave nearly a fifth of it open to the vacuum of space. They could abandon it, of course, but that would mean losing a salvageable cargo ship and, more important, the fourteen short-range fighters stored in the hold.
At the moment, none of this seemed terribly important to Zekk.
"It should be an adventure," he said, trying to keep his tone light. "I've never flown in tandem before."
Jaina came up behind the pilot's seat and leaned down, resting her chin on his shoulder and sliding her arms around his neck in the sort of casual, friendly embrace they'd exchanged many times over the years. "It's not the stupidest thing we've ever done."
"Who could argue with that?"
She chuckled and rose. The quick click of her boots faded as she passed through to the Yuuzhan Vong ship.
Zekk glanced at Tenel Ka. The warrior studied him with cool, gray eyes that saw far too much. He grimaced and looked away.
"It is difficult to live among Jedi," she said, acknowledging his chagrin. "I was not able to grieve Jacen in private."
"And I can't worry about Jaina without everyone knowing about it."
"Worry?" Tenel Ka repeated the pale word, rejected it. "You are afraid for her. You are afraid of her."
"Shouldn't I be?" he said softly.
"She's not Jaina as I knew her at the academy, but who has not been changed by this war?"
He couldn't dispute this. "Still, I don't like it."
"Neither does she," Tenel Ka said evenly. "Jaina would have emerged as a leader in time, regardless of circumstances. The battle at Myrkr forced her down this path before she had time to consider where it might end. Leadership involves finding a compromise, a balance. Nowhere is this more important than within the leader herself. She must be able to take action and to focus all her decisions toward a desired end, while remaining grounded in principle."
He considered the warrior woman. "You've thought about this."
"At length," she agreed. "Jaina is dealing with her loss by taking charge. This is a good response, one that returns to her a measure of control. But in detaching herself from her pain, she is also losing an important balance within herself." Her face turned grim. "I have seen what a leader who lacks this balance can become. We must watch her carefully."
Zekk looked away. "You'll have to do the watching. I'm moving on."
"You would abandon a friend?" she demanded.
"As you abandoned Jacen?" he snapped back.
Nothing in Tenel Ka's face acknowledged the hit. "I know you didn't mean that," she said calmly. "But I also know that if Jacen were in danger of sliding into the dark side, I would want to do whatever I could to pull him back."
This was the first time any of them had put their con-
cern for Jaina into words. For a moment they were silent, sobered by the grim possibility.
"And what if she can't be pulled back?" Zekk asked. "I've taken that path, and I know what a Dark Jedi can do. If it comes to that, someone will have to stop her."
"By any means necessary," she agreed, once again giving voice to their shared fears.
"And I couldn't do that. No matter what, I just couldn't do it."
"I see." Tenel Ka turned her gaze straight ahead. "Then you are right to go."
Jaina slid on the cognition hood and urged the drifting Trickster into motion.
The ship balked, confused by circumstances it did not understand, and by the metallic bulk attached to it. Jaina gritted her teeth and reconsidered the wisdom of this attempted salvage. They might be able to fly and land in this formation, but if challenged, they wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.
A trio of starships appeared in the distance, so suddenly that Jaina had the uncanny feeling that she'd conjured them with her unspoken fears. Faint lines of light slid out of hyperspace and slowed into focused, rapidly approaching dots.
She snatched up the comm Lowbacca had rigged up and opened the frequency to hail. "This is Lieutenant Jaina Solo of Rogue Squadron, aboard the Yuuzhan Vong frigate Trickster. The ship is under New Republic control. There are no Yuuzhan Vong aboard. Repeat, this is not an enemy ship. Hold your fire."
"Relax, Trickster. We're here to see you safely down," announced a familiar voice-the last voice Jaina expected or wanted to hear.
"Kyp Durron," she said coldly. "You might as well turn
around right now. I wouldn't follow you out of an ocean if I were drowning."
"Hear me out before you open fire. Your parents are on Hapes, in the refugee center. I told the princess I'd bring you back. Now, you could send me back to Leia empty-handed, but we all know what path a vindictive spirit might take you down."
She absorbed his dark humor in silence as she considered his words, and the likely consequence
s of his presence. Her parents had enough to deal with without the added grief that always seemed to follow Kyp Durron like fumes from a faulty exhaust.
"Don't use my family in another of your tricks-if they're really on Hapes at all."
"This is Colonel Jag Fel, Lieutenant Solo," another voice broke in. "I have seen your mother on Hapes, and the request for an escort ca me directly to me from landing control. Kyp Durron is speaking the truth, and flying under my command."
A strange, unsettled feeling coiled in the pit of Jaina's stomach, and a little rush of gladness entered her heart like a spring breeze. She did her best to ignore both.
"Under your command? Don't believe it," she said bluntly. "If Kyp can twist a Jedi's thoughts, he can make you think anything he wants."
"Thank you for your concern, but I hope I'm not quite so weak-minded as that.",
"So do I," she retorted, a little stung by the glacial tone that had entered Jag's voice. His response didn't exactly come as a surprise, though. Pilots were renowned for their pride, and she'd just stomped on the edges of his. Still, if Jag was determined to fly with Kyp, someone ought to tell him he'd set course on a dangerous vector.
"Suit yourself. But while you're watching my back, keep an eye on your own."
She firmly clicked off the comm and concentrated on
flying the ship. The Trickster rebelled against its mechanical hitchhiker, and Jaina waged a silent but fierce argument with the ship in an effort to keep it from shedding the pirate vessel. Finally the sentient frigate yielded to a compromise.
"Lowbacca, Ganner, can you put that panel back in place?"
"You're not thinking about abandoning them?" Alema Rar demanded.
"The ship wants to," she replied, "but it'll settle for a chance to heal itself. It's a good precaution."
Lowbacca waved Ganner aside, then wrapped his long arms around the coral oval and heaved. He set it down in front of the portal with a resounding thud and then shouldered it into place. Immediately a dark goo began to seep from the surrounding wall, filling in the crack and binding the portal back into the wall.
