Edge of Victory 2 Rebirth

by Greg Keyes

  guns to the mix.

  "I see it, but I don't believe it," Jacen said. A constellation of the

  expanding and deflating suns burned around the Sunulok, now, so brightly

  they almost couldn't see it, and Han laughed aloud, though the coralskippers

  were still pounding the Falcon. The dovin basals' grip on the Falcon

  suddenly relaxed, and the laser beams were lancing through the hydrogen

  cloud to burn clots off the Yuuzhan Vong ship itself. Targeting the cluster

  of dovin basals, Han launched his last spread of concussion missiles and

  then threw the Falcon back into drive.

  He punched up Karrde's comm channel. "Hey," he said, "the interdictor

  is out of commission, but I can't say for how long. If I were you I'd go to

  lightspeed."

  "That's the most beautiful thing I've heard in a long time," Karrde

  replied. "I'm gone."

  "Keep those skips back until we hit hyperspace," Han told Leia and

  Jacen.

  "Can do," Jacen called back up.

  Behind them, Han was gratified to see plasma boiling

  from the Sunulok. A few minutes later, they'd left the Interdictor-and

  the rest of their enemies-light-years behind.

  Jaina saw Ten shredded against an asteroid, and pressed her lips

  tight.in anger. She hadn't known the Twi'lek in the pilot's seat, but he'd

  been part of her flight, and he'd saved her life at least twice in this

  fight.

  What's worse, Alinn Varth, Three-flight leader, had been dropping in to

  take out the coralskipper on Ten's tail, and ended up flying straight

  through the burning debris as it skipped off the intervening rock. Jaina

  watched in horror as her leader's X-wing vanished, haloed in inferno.

  But Varth came out the other side, banking, three skips on her tail.

  Jaina dropped down like a bird of prey, spraying the lead skip, then

  launching one of her remaining three proton torps. The resulting explosion

  cracked two of the fighters and sent the third spinning aimlessly.

  "Thanks, Twelve," Varth gasped.

  "You okay, Nine?"

  "Negative. I've lost guns and short-range sensors."

  Gavin heard. "Fall back, Nine."

  "Colonel-"

  "Fall back. That's an order."

  "Yes, sir," Varth said. "As ordered, sir."

  "It's just us," Lensi said, for once not sounding brash.

  "It'll be just me, if you don't watch it," Jaina replied. "You've got

  two coming down."

  "Got 'em. Thanks, Sticks."

  The weapon was huge now that they were closing on it. Maybe it's not

  fully alive yet, she hoped.

  Kre'fey had been as good as his word; the Ralroost and her companions

  had cut through the defense perimeter around the weapon that had so

  successfully kept Kyp's squadron at bay, leaving the faintly glowing hulks

  of two Yuuzhan Vong capital ship analogs to mark the way in. Now they were

  setting up for the run on the gravitic weapon, and roles had reversed. This

  wasn't the fabled Death Star; if the Yuuzhan Vong ship had a weak point, it

  was unknown to

  the motley forces attacking it. In Kyp's holo, the huge iris in the

  center of the thing had seemed to project the gravity field, so that was

  number one priority, and when taking out something you didn't understand,

  honking gobs of firepower was always the safest bet. The Ralroost had the

  guns-it was up to the starfighters to see she had a chance to use them.

  There were two more large ships in the system; One had moved between

  Kre'fey's flotilla and the weapon; the other was hanging back, presumably to

  control the ample swarms of coralskippers that were still massing against

  them.

  "Seven," she heard Gavin say, "break off and take lead with Eleven and

  Twelve."

  "Mind if I cut in?" a new voice asked.

  "Wedge?" Gavin said. "You're sure you want to do this, what with your

  arthritis and all? How'd you slip your nurse?"

  "Told her I was going to take a steam bath," the aging general quipped.

  "What've you got for me?"

  "Good to have you, General. Gives us two full flights. Take Seven,

  Eleven, and Twelve. Guys, you are now designated Two-flight."

  "I copy, One Leader," Jaina said. She could hardly believe it. She was

  flying with Wedge Antilles!

  "Good enough," Wedge said. "Tighten up, Two-flight. Looks like we have

  some business up ahead."

  The next wave of skips hit them and hit them hard, fighting with a sort

  of desperation that Jaina hadn't yet seen in the Yuuzhan Vong. They came in

  clusters, three flying as shields for a fourth. Jaina needled them at long

  range with her lasers, determined not to waste another proton torpedo if she

  didn't have to.

  "I don't like this," Wedge said. "They aren't maneuvering. They're just

  coming head-on."

  "Makes them easy pickings," Lensi said. From the corner of her eye,

  Jaina saw one of his targets flare out.

  "Too easy, Twelve," Wedge said.

  One of jaina's targets tumbled out of formation, its cockpit a fused

  mass of coral.

  "Two-flight, break!" Wedge suddenly shouted. Even as he did so, the

  cover skips broke, and their undamaged charges accelerated through the gap.

  They weren't firing weapons, and they weren't throwing out voids.

  Jaina jerked her stick up, and the skip rose to meet her.

  "I'm going to hit!" Seven screamed, before his channel went dead.

  The voids slowed the skips down. When they weren't using them, they

  were incredibly maneuverable. Jaina's climb was as tight as she could get

  it, but the skip was matching her, still coming on, still at the bottom of

  her field of vision, clearly determined to ram her. Meanwhile, the remaining

  two skips that had flown shield for it were trying to pick up her tail. She

  had nowhere to go, and if she brought her weapons in line to fire, she'd

  meet her enemy head-on, as Seven had just presumably done.

  Suddenly a quad burst of lasers from above her imaginary horizon cut

  the skip in half. Jaina didn't have time to see who her rescuer was. She

  jammed the stick down and starboard, skimming by the wreckage of the

  coralskipper and shaking the two behind her.

  Except the two behind her were already gone.

  "You're clean, Jaina," Kyp's voice informed her. "General Antilles,

  permission to fly what's left of my Dozen with you."

  "Granted, Durron. I'll take what I can get, now."

  The Ralroost and its escorts had taken a lot of hits in the first wave

  of suicides, but once the tactic was understood, the remaining starfighters

  fanned out and picked off the determined skips far in advance. The Yuuzhan

  Vong that made it through their runs intact ended up behind them, where

  collision was much less effective. They still had their weapons, of course,

  and it made Jaina more than a little nervous to have so many live enemies at

  her back, but target prime was just ahead, and she had a job to do.

  The Ralroost opened up on the galaxy-shaped ship. Red streamers of

  plasma lanced out from the curved tips of the Yuuzhan Vong weapon, but the

  destroyer's shields handled the fire easily.

  "I don't get it," Jaina said. "Why use conventional weapons? Why aren't
/>
  they using the gravity weapon?"

  "It's our lucky day," Kyp said. "It must be off-line."

  Multiple proton concussions blossomed at the axis of the Yuuzhan Vong

  weapon, rendering it a dull-red glowing mass.

  "Jaina, behind you!"

  Kyp's warning came too late. Twin bursts of plasma sheared through her

  shields and into her ion engines. A quick babble from her astromech told her

  that if she didn't shut down in fifteen seconds, the whole mess was going

  supercritical. She'd lost a stabilizer, too, and the ship was spinning

  crazily.

  And she still had a tail. Kyp got one of them, but the other just kept

  coming.

  This is it.

  The Yuuzhan Vong superweapon filled most of her gyrating vision, now.

  Grimly, she did her best to aim for it, then shut down. Maybe she could skip

  off it with repulsors. If not, at least she would put another ding in the

  thing.

  But then something in the huge craft made a very big bang, and all she

  saw was inferno.

  "Corran's been gone a long time," Tahiri whispered.

  "Not so long," Anakin replied. "Only about five minutes."

  "Seems longer." He felt her shiver, probably from the biting cold. In

  fact, the only part of Anakin that wasn't freezing was the strip along his

  side where he was pressed against the younger Jedi.

  "There has to be something we can do," she said. "If we can yank

  Massassi trees out of the ground with the Force, surely we can-"

  "What? Pull a bunch of oxygen molecules up here from Yag'Dhul, seal up

  the station, and repressurize it?"

  "Hey, at least I'm trying to think of something."

  "So am I," Anakin said, his voice rising a little. "If you have an

  idea, let's hear it."

  "You know very well I don't have an idea," Tahiri snapped back. "You'd

  feel it if I did."

  "Tahiri-"

  "Oh, just shut up."

  Anakin suddenly understood. Tahiri was frightened, as frightened as he

  had ever known her to be.

  "I'm scared, too, Tahiri."

  "No, you're not. You're never scared. Even when you are, you aren't by

  normal standards."

  "I was scared when I thought I'd lost you on Yavin Four."

  She was silent, and Anakin lost his read on her, but he suddenly felt

  her shoulders quivering and knew she was crying.

  Reluctantly, he reached his arm around her.

  "I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I got you into this. Corran's right-I keep

  thinking I can be like you, and I'm not. You always win, and I always screw

  up. If it weren't for me, you'd be back on the Errant Venture right now."

  "But I'd rather be here with you," he said.

  He couldn't see her face turn toward him or see the widening emeralds

  of her eyes, but he knew they were there.

  "Don't say things like that," she murmured. "I know you think I'm still

  a little kid. I-"

  She stopped, very suddenly, when he found her face with his fingers.

  Her cheek was smooth and cold. He found a stray lock of hair across her

  eyebrow and traced lightly over the raised scars on her forehead.

  Anakin rarely did things he didn't know he was going to do. But it had

  never occurred to him that he was going to kiss Tahiri until his lips were

  already touching hers. They were cold, and she pulled back.

  "Oh," she said.

  "Oh?"

  "That was a surprise."

  "Sorry."

  "No-c'mere." She took his face in both hands and pressed her lips

  against his. It wasn't a big kiss, but it was sweet and warm, and it jolted

  through him like ten g forces.

  "Your timing is perfect," she breathed. "Wait until we're doomed to

  give me my first kiss."

  "Mine, too," he said, his face warming despite the cold. "Umm..."

  "How was it?" Tahiri said, answering his unverbalized question. "Kind

  of weird." She kissed him again. "Nice."

  She took his hand and put her cheek against his. "If we survive, we'll

  have to figure this out, you know," she said.

  "Yeah."

  "I mean, I'm not the kind of girl who'll kiss just anyone on a

  first-time-to-be-stuck-in-a-locker-on-an-airless-space-station."

  "Might be simpler if we don't make it," Anakin remarked.

  "Yeah. Are you sorry?"

  "No. No, not even a little.1'

  "Good."

  "So let's survive," Anakin said, "so we get a chance to figure this

  out, okay? Do you think you can manage a hibernation trance? Our air will

  last a lot longer that way."

  "I'm not sure. I've never done it."

  "I'll help. Just clear your mind-

  "Maybe you don't know very much about girls. You just kissed me, and

  now you want me to clear my mind? It's like there's a tribe of Ewoks dancing

  in there."

  He squeezed her hand. "C'mon. Try."

  Something clanked outside.

  "Did you hear that?" Tahiri whispered.

  "Yeah. But how? There shouldn't be any air to carry the sound." He

  reached for his lightsaber.

  Something started working at the locker door. It swung open, and Corran

  was crouched there, an expression of extreme concern on his face. He still

  had a vac suit on, but without the helmet.

  "You're okay," he breathed.

  "We're okay," Anakin acknowledged. "Where did the air come from?" He

  started crawling out of the cramped space.

  "I remembered there was a modular backup system. I was afraid the Givin

  had taken it out, but they haven't. I sealed up the room and pumped air in.

  It probably won't last long, so get into those, quick." He gestured toward a

  pair of smaller vac suits.

  As they were scrambling into them, Corran shot Anakin a peculiar look.

  "What?" Anakin said. "Should I have left you two unchaperoned?" Vaping

  Moffs! Does it show? Anakin wondered. Just once, he wished most of the

  people he knew weren't Jedi.

  "You fools," Nom Anor hissed at the three warriors. "First you let them

  slip from your claws, now you cannot find them again? You are a disgrace to

  the Yuuzhan Vong."

  He stood next to where the ship the warriors had come on was connected

  to the infidel space station by an oqa membrane, speaking through the

  gnullith-villip hybrid in his throat. He disliked having to command through

  the thing, for it distorted his voice somewhat, lessening its effectiveness.

  The new leader of the warriors, Qau Lah, threw a withering glare his

  way, "The infidels opened their station to space. We were forced to obtain

  ooglith cloakers, as you know, since you wear one yourself. We will find

  them." He lifted his chin and bared his teeth. "Besides, it is the Yuuzhan

  Vong who does not accept challenge from a worthy opponent who disgraces his

  people."

  Nom Anor narrowed his eyes, then chopped his hand in a gesture of

  command. "Go. Find them."

  As they turned, he lifted the infidel blaster he had secreted in his

  sash. It made him feel vaguely sick to handle it, but he had learned to do

  all sorts of distasteful things lately.

  He shot Qau Lah in the back of the head from a meter away, then the

  warrior next to him. The third managed to raise his amphistaff before the

 
blaster burned a hole through his face.

  That was three. Cursing to himself, Nom Anor started off to find the

  rest of the warriors who had seen him with the Jedi, to make certain none of

  them would carry report of what they had seen back to Qurang Lah.

  FORTY-TWO

  "What happened back there, exactly?" Leia asked. "Hand me that," Han

  said, gesturing toward his tools. The Falcon had made five quick jumps with

  no sign of pursuit. Now they were headed for the Maw, but Han wasn't waiting

  for the facilities there to begin his repairs. The second he thought they

  were safe, he'd begun tending to his baby.

  Leia handed him the demagnetizer. "Not that," Han said. "That." He

  pointed just as vaguely. "The thingie." " Which thingie?" "The

  hydrospanner."

  She handed it to him, rolling her eyes. "I'm not gonna sprout fur, you

  know," she said. "I'm not going that far."

  "I don't know," Han replied dubiously. "I knew this woman once, real

  pretty. Hit fifty and grew a mustache." "Han. The Sunulok?"

  "Ask your son. He's the one with the education." Jacen turned from his

  own work on the power core. "I'm pretty sure I get it," he said. His mother

  looked up at him. "Do tell." "The cargo tanker was full of liquid hydrogen,

  right?" "That far I got."

  "Dad dumped it all over the Sunulok, and we fired into it. That didn't

  do anything, except the Sunulok produced voids to swallow our shots. They

  started swallowing hydrogen as well."

  "And choked on it? What?"

  "The voids are like quantum black holes. You reach

  the event horizon-which in this case is more or less microscopic-and

  gravity becomes nearly infinite. Which means acceleration does, too. When a

  concussion missile hits one, for instance, the matter in it is instantly

  compressed into neutrons and then, blip, singularity. Just like a black

  hole. And like black holes, if you dump in too much matter at once, it has

  to queue up to get in. It starts compressing outside the event horizon, so

  on the way in it undergoes fusion."

  "And the black holes swallow most of the energy," Leia said.

  "Exactly. The light we saw was only a fraction of the energy being

  produced, the part that escaped. Most of it went into the singularity. We

  know from experience that disappearing energy taxes the dovin basals, right?

  In a few seconds the Sunulok's voids swallowed dozens of hydrogen fusion

  explosions. It shut them down."