Star Wars The New Jedi Order - The Final Prophecy - Book 19

by Greg Keyes

  "And Harrar?"

  "I don't know. He attacked Nom Anor, I think. Maybe he's gone after him.

  Which is what we ought to do." Corran peered outside at the dark and the rain.

  "I agree. But how to track them in this, without the Force?"

  "I have my Vongsense," Tahiri said. "If he hasn't gone far, I might be

  able to sense him."

  Corran produced a small glow rod, and in its light they found muddy,

  water-filled footprints leading back toward the heights. They followed the

  prints until they c ame to a narrow ridge of stone.

  "At least there's only one way to go," Corran said. As they ascended, the

  lightning reached a crescendo, strik-ing in the valley where they had been

  staying every few sec-onds or so. The roar was so steady they couldn't hear

  each other speak. Then-rather abruptly-it was over. The rain slacked off, and

  then ended, and the wind subsided to a clean, wet breeze.

  The ridge continued until it joined a larger one, ascending the whole

  time.

  "He's going for high ground," Corran said. "Can you sense your

  lightsaber?"

  "No," she said. "There's something interfering-more than usual."

  "I feel it, too," Corran said. "It's Zonama Sekot. Some-thing's wrong."

  "We failed," Tahiri said. "Whatever Nom Anor was going to do, he's

  already done it, I'm sure of it."

  "There may still be time to stop him," Corran replied. "Concentrate. Use

  your Vongsense."

  She closed her eyes, and he felt her relax, reaching out to someplace he

  couldn't go.

  "I feel him," she said at last. "Up ahead."

  By the time the east was gray with dawn, they had reached a broad, upland

  plateau that showed signs of recent convul-sion. The stone beneath the soil

  had split in places, rearing up to reveal its strata. The soil was black and

  ashy, and the vegetation was low when there was any at all, though the charred

  trunks of larger boras still stood here and there, like the columns of ruined

  temples.

  "I've lost him," Tahiri said, a tinge of despair in her voice.

  "He could be anywhere up here."C orran agreed. Where there was soil, it

  was spongy with a dark green web of grass that resisted tracks.

  "We'll keep going in the same general direction," Corran said, "unless...

  "

  Far above, they heard a faint report, like very distant and brief

  lightning.

  "Sonic boom," he murmured, searching the skies with his gaze. The clouds

  had cleared away, leaving only a few thin ones very far up.

  "There," Tahiri said. She pointed to a swiftly moving spot, high above.

  "Good eyes," Corran told her. "I'll give you one guess where that's

  going."

  "Wherever Nom Anor is."

  The dot was descending rapidly toward the plateau. Corran peered along

  its projected path and caught a hint of motion near a copse of low trees.

  "Come on," Corran said. "If we run, we might get there in time."

  "We will," Tahiri swore.

  Nom Anor was watching the ship approach when the ground beneath his feet

  suddenly shuddered. It lasted for only an instant, but he knew it was only the

  beginning. He looked off toward the still-visible field guides and saw a white

  plume curling up toward the sky. He curled his lip-if he had timed this wrong,

  if he died in the explosion he had caused, how the gods would laugh.

  The grass off to his left rustled, and from the corner of his eye, Nom

  Anor glimpsed unnatural color. Turning as if in a dream, he beheld Corran Horn

  stepping into the clearing, his eyes full of death.

  Nom Anor glanced up at the approaching ship. It was only moments away,

  but that was longer than it would take for the Jedi to kill him. He touched

  his hand to the stolen lightsaber...

  And ran, into the low-sprawling copse of trees behind him. He need only

  buy enough time for Choka's ship to land and dispatch warriors.

  Corran Horn shouted and ran after him. Nom Anor dodged through the trees,

  leaping an old fis-sure, then bore to his left, hoping to circle back to the

  clearing. The ground trembled again, not enough to upset his footing, but

  almost. He glanced back over his shoulder, saw Horn gaining on him, turned to

  redouble his pace. Just in time to see the blade of a foot, level with his

  eyes. Behind the foot was an airborne Tahiri, her body horizontal to the

  ground.

  The kick caught him above the nostrils, snapping his head back and

  knocking him completely off his feet. He crashed into the trunk of a tree, and

  half of the wind blew out of him. He clawed for the Jedi weapon he'd thrust in

  his sash, but it was missing.

  In fact, it was in Tahiri's hands, the energy blade already on.

  "This is mine," she said.

  Corran had come up behind her. "Don't kill him," the older Jedi said.

  "I won't," Tahiri replied, but Nom Anor heard the tone in her voice. It

  was not a human tone at all-although she was speaking Basic, every nuance of

  her speech was Yuuzhan Vong. There was no mercy in it, but promises aplenty.

  "I'm going to cut off his feet, though," she continued, stepping nearer.

  "And then his hands. Unless he tells us how to stop what he's done to Sekot."

  "Do what you will," Nom Anor said, forcing as much contempt into his

  voice as he could. "It has already begun. You cannot stop it."

  "Where's Harrar?" Corran asked.

  "He's dead," Nom Anor replied. "I killed him." He watched the tip of

  Tahiri's blade dip toward his foot, and then winced as she traced a shallow

  burn across the ankle.

  "Tahiri, no," Corran commanded.

  Her eyes narrowed further, then she withdrew the blade.

  "Yes, Master," she said.

  "Get up, Anor."

  Nom Anor began coming slowly to his feet.

  "The ship's landing, Corran," Tahiri said.

  "But he's not going on it," Corran said. "You have a villip, don't you,

  Nom Anor? You'll call them off, now, or I'll cut your head off myself. And

  that, my friend, is absolutely not a bluff."

  "They will not obey me," Nom Anor said.

  "Maybe they won't," Corran told him, "but you'd sure better try to make

  them."

  Nom Anor stared into the man's eyes and knew he was not lying.

  He reached for the villip beneath his arm, thinking furiously.

  Then Zonama Sekot tried to throw them all into space. The ground bucked

  beneath them and an anguished cry exploded in the Force, filling Tahiri's head

  with such agony that she hardly noticed when she thudded back to the ground.

  Desperately she tried to shut out the world's pain and regain her feet, but

  the will behind it was too strong. She felt as if a trillion needles were

  growing from her heart, pushing through her heart and lungs and bone. She

  clutched at her head, screaming with Zonama Sekot's voice. Through her blurred

  vision, she saw Nom Anor running off through the crazily tilted trees.

  No. Sekot, he's the one doing this to you!

  She was never sure if Sekot somehow heard her, or if that gave her the

  extra strength she needed to push away the sick pain, but she levered herself

  to her feet. Corran was up, leaning heavily against a tree.

  "Corran..."

  "Just a second," he said
. "I-okay. I think I've got it under control now.

  "

  The two Jedi stumbled through the newly broken terrain. The ship was on

  the ground, and Nom Anor was running toward it. Tahiri ran as she never had

  before, drawing on the turbulent Force around them. Corran was just ahead of

  her. They were gaining on the executor. If they could reach him before the

  warriors on the ship could debark, they might yet be able to save Sekot. She

  clung to that hope, as the breath ripped at her lungs and her heart stuttered

  unevenly.

  Without warning, Corran lashed out at her, sending her sprawling. Even

  before a sense of betrayal could register, she saw he was going down, too.

  Less than a heartbeat later, a swarm of thud bugs whirred through the space

  where they'd just been.

  She suddenly understood that she and Corran must have been occupied with

  Sekot's pain for longer than she'd thought. The warriors had already come out

  of the ship and hidden themselves around the clearing. Corran and she were

  completely surrounded.

  THIRTY-TWO

  "Okay, folks," Han said as the reversion warning began sounding. "Hang

  on. If Wedge is still here, it's probably be-cause the Vong have interdictors

  to keep him from leaving, which means we'll probably get pulled out early.

  Again."

  "I hope he isn't here," C-3PO said. "I so dislike un-planned reversions.

  They cause an unpleasant resonance in my circuits."

  "That's great," Han said. "All I need now is a hypochon-driac droid."

  "Sir, it is quite impossible for a droid to be a hypochondriac."

  "If you say so, Goldenrod. Okay, here goes." Han pulled back on the

  levers, and the Falcon decanted as effortlessly as she ever had-in fact, more

  smoothly than usual. "Well, whaddya know," he said. "We came out normally.

  Guess that means..."

  "...that we're too far from the interdictor," Leia finished, "Just

  barely."

  Leia was right. His instruments showed the gravitic profile of not one

  dovin basal interdictor, but two. The falcon

  had flashed into existence marginally outside the field of effect of the

  nearest. If he'd been set to revert just a little farther in, he would have

  made good on his prediction. "Oh, dear," C-3PO said. "It looks as if General

  Antilles is here. And not doing very well!"

  "Yeah," Han agreed. "You can say that again." He looked sharply at the

  droid. "But don't."

  The system was swarming with Yuuzhan Vong ships. The nearest was one of

  the interdictors, hanging in space like a sword with two blades and no grip.

  Beyond it was a stationary mass of skips and a few cruisers, apparently

  guarding the interdictor against attack. Farther insystem was the main battle,

  where ten Yuuzhan Vong capital ships-two of which were behemoths-were engaged

  with what was left of Wedge's battle group.

  Which wasn't much-Han counted four Alliance ships of frigate size or

  larger. They were clustered together, trying to avoid being encircled, but-as

  C-3PO had pointed out-it didn't seem to be going so well.

  Beyond all of that was a nother interdictor. It, like the one near the

  Falcon, was keeping its distance, moving only to keep the Alliance ships from

  going to hyperspace.

  "Ouch," Han said. "He needs reinforcements, and he needs them now."

  "It's a disaster," Leia murmured. Then she straightened and got that Jedi

  look in her eye.

  "What?"

  "It's Jaina."

  He waited for her to continue, his heart frozen in his chest.

  "She's alive," Leia said, "and I don't think she's injured. But

  something's wrong."

  "If she's down there, I guess so," Han said, swallowing.

  "There must be something we can do!" C-3PO wailed.

  "There is," Leia told him.

  "Yeah," Han said, looking at the interdictor. "There is."

  "Whatever-sir, you're not going to attack the interdictor? We barely

  survived the last time!"

  "They haven't noticed we're here yet," Han said. "They don't even have

  any ships on this side. We've got a good clean shot at them. With a little

  surprise on our side, a little know-how-sure, why not?"

  "But our weapons aren't sufficient to incapacitate a ship of that size,"

  the droid pointed out.

  Leia leaned over and kissed Han on the cheek. "That's never stopped him

  before."

  Han felt the lump in his throat swell, but he forced a smile. "This is

  just more of the usual, Threepio. Don't worry yourself."

  He opened a channel to the TIEs.

  "Captain Devis, can I trust you to advise Grand Admiral Pellaeon of this

  situation immediately?"

  "I thought you were going to do that, sir," Devis replied.

  "Pellaeon might not arrive in time. He might even decide not to come at

  all, given the situation. Heck, he might have troubles of his own. We're going

  to stay and take out that interdictor."

  "That could be quite a task," Devis said.

  "All in a day's work," Han replied. "Just hurry up and bring us a little

  relief, will you?"

  "I'll send a wingmate," Devis said, "but I'm staying to help."

  "I..." Han looked back at the battle, remembering that Jaina was down

  there, somewhere. "I would appreciate the help, Captain Devis. Thank you."

  He laced his fingers together and cracked them. "All right," he said,

  "let's get this show on the road." He turned to Leia. "Sweetheart, could you

  get to one of the turbolasers? Our Noghri friends are picking it up pretty

  fast, but in this situation, I'd rather have you-" He stopped, almost unable

  to continue, and most of the swagger went out of his voice. "I'd rather have

  you here, next to me," he finished. "But I need you in the upper turret."

  She gave his hand a squeeze. "I know. I'll put Meewalhin the other."

  She stood to go, but before she could leave the cockpit, he pulled her

  down for a kiss. "Be careful up there, huh?" he said.

  "I always am."

  He watched her go, wishing suddenly that they could just leave, go find

  Pellaeon, go watch a sunset... But Jaina was here, and despite the fact that

  the odds were...

  "Oh, great," he murmured. "I'm turning into Threepio."

  "What was that, sir?" C-3PO asked.

  "I said, I'm glad you're up here, Threepio."

  "Why-thank you, sir. I'm really quite touched."

  "Right," Han said. He opened the channel again.

  "Okay, TIEs, we're going in-just hang back until they start throwing

  skips at us."

  The interdictor was two spicular cones with their bases touching, and it

  was nearly the size of a Star Destroyer. Usu-ally they were covered with

  skips, but this time the skips were elsewhere-either in battle or between the

  interdictor and the battle, guarding against a push in its direction. Han

  dived the Falcon toward the thickest part of the vessel, knowing he would get

  only one good run before they were aware of his presence and "set about a

  thousand skips on him. The TIEs dropped into formation on his port and

  starboard.

  "Watch the gravity well, fellows," he warned them. "We want to mess up

  their paint job, but not by splatting all over 'em."

  "I hear you,"
Devis replied. "Correcting."

  Han tilted the ship to put the seam where the two cones met in the Money

  Lane and started in with the quad lasers. An instant later, the turret guns

  joined him. Voids appeared in spidery clusters, sucking the blasts into

  nothingness. Han launched a concussion missile to either side of the fire

  lane, and had the satisfaction of seeing both plow into the craggy yorik coral

  surface, rupturing it and sending shock waves crawling out toward the thin

  ends of the ship.

  Then he was curving around the interdictor, his course bent by gravity.

  But instead of using the force to sling him away, he settled into a tight

  orbit, firing constantly, trying lo dig a trench into the thing deep enough to

  do real damage. The interdictor's plasma cannons began to fire, but one reason

  Han had picked the centerline as his target was that the ship angled away from

  it in every direction, making it tough to fire at him at all and impossible to

  put him in a cross fire. Nevertheless, a near miss roared by the cockpit, an

  eight-meter-wide explosion of superheated matter that grazed his shields and

  sent an ion jolt through the ship's protective circuitry.

  Meanwhile, less than one in ten of his laser shots were getting through,

  and he had only a few concussion missiles left. His trench wasn't getting deep

  very fast.

  "Skips coming in," Devis reported. "Six in the first wave.

  "Can you keep them off us for another pass or so?" Han asked.

  "Copy that, Captain Solo."

  Han fired another pair of concussion missiles-one got through, the other

  exploded when it was about to be sucked in by a void. That happened near

  enough to the Falcon that the shock wave bounced him from his orbit and sent

  him away from the centerline. Suddenly he was no longer outside the

  interdictor's line of direct fire, but squarely in it. He stood the Falcon on

  her thin side relative to the interdictot to minimize his target surface,

  weaving through withering fire, dropping lower to keep the blasts from

  converging on him. When he was practically skating on the ship's surface, he

  turned abruptly up and out. "Wow," he heard Devis say. Han's jaw nearly

  dropped - the two TIEs had stayed with him the whole way. Behind them were

  only three skips of the original six. Han didn't have to wonder what had

  happened to the other three-not with pilots like that.