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

by Greg Keyes

  Even as he watched, the TIEs broke and came around, putting the skips

  between them and the big guns of the cruiser, and proceeded to take them

  apart.

  "That's some pretty fancy flying," Han commented.

  "Good thing there weren't more like you when we were fighting the Empire.

  "

  "Thank you, sir," Devis said. "But we've got more company. A lot more."

  Han glanced at the monitor. "We can make one more pass," he said. "After

  that it's going to be way too hot here."

  In fact, he knew, this pass was going to be more than a little warm

  itself-probably fatally so.

  "Wow," Prann said, gazing out through the Golan IPs viewport. "Look at

  that. And you wanted us to help them."

  "What? "Jaina said.

  "Come here," Prann said.

  She got up and made her slow way to the viewport. They kd traded out the

  webbing they had bound her with for stun cuffs on her hands and feet and a

  slave collar around her neck. Moreover, the Toydarian was still sticking close

  to her. Prann didn't seem too worried that she would try anything.

  She reached the viewport, and to her dismay saw what Prann was talking

  about.

  "The rest of the Vong fleet came back," she said dully.

  "Yep. In a few hours your fleet's going to be scrap metal, and even if we

  were inclined to lend a hand, I don't think we could do much good against that

  many."

  "Don't try to justify your cowardice to me," Jaina said.

  "They're all going to die, and you're just going to watch."

  "Watch?" Prann said. "No, I'm going to run. The hyper-drive is ready to

  go, thanks to your spare parts. Why do you think I dropped the cloak? But it

  looks like they've for-gotten us out here, so we're going to finish running

  com-puter simulations. Our cobbled-together drive is a little quirky, and we

  don't want to end up in a star."

  "Please," Jaina said. "If you'll just listen to me-

  "Solo, I said no. Hey, look at it this way you're going to live to tell

  the uppity-ups what happened here, which no one else is likely to be able to

  do. You're going to live, Colonel-and it's not even your fault."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Jaina asked.

  "It means," Prann said, leaning over her, "I've done a little fighting

  myself, in my time, and I know your type. Getting dead is your goal in life,

  and you'll keep throwing yourself into the fray until it happens. In the

  meantime, you live in constant disappointment."

  " You don't know me," Jaina said. "Don't pretend you do."

  "Whatever, kid. I'm not going to make an argument out of it. It's not

  worth it."

  "Take this station into battle, now!" Jaina said, as dra-matically as

  possible. Prann blinked at her. She felt the Toydarian tense.

  "Well," Prann said. "Nice try."

  Jaina let her face sag in defeat, but inwardly, she conjured a wicked

  little smile. She'd only lightly nudged Prann with the Force, just enough to

  let him know she was there. Because, in the middle of their little discussion,

  she had found a plan. She wasn't sure it would work, but it had a better

  chance of succeeding now than it had a moment ago.

  "Pash? "Wedge said.

  "Get me General Cracken!" He'd just seen Memory of Ithor take a series o f

  hard hits, and sensors said its core was going critical.

  "Here, Wedge," the general's tired voice said a moment later. "Sorry,

  we're not going to much help to you from here on out."

  "Just get out of there," Wedge said.

  "We're evacuating now," Pash said. "We'll have to take our chances in

  escape pods-we've got none here. I tried to aim her at one of the

  interdictors, but she's not going to make it, I'm afraid."

  "Just take care of yourself, Pash. This isn't over yet."

  "Good luck, Wedge. Cracken out."

  A few moments later, the Memory flashed out of existence. Wedge hoped

  Pash made it out, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. The Mothma was

  limping itself, and it wouldn't be long before he was sharing his old friend's

  fate. Unless something changed, and quickly, they were all going down.

  Millennium Falcon and her escort had picked up twenty skips by the time they

  came into firing range again. The TIEs were staying behind them, drawing fire

  in an effort to keep them from hitting the Falcon, but plenty of shots were

  getting through, making it an awfully rough ride.

  "Captain Solo," C-3PO moaned from the copilot's seat, "I'm afraid our

  rear deflector is beginning to fail."

  "See if you can reroute the power," Han said, wishing Leia were in that

  seat, despite what he'd said earlier.

  "Can't keep them off," Devis said. "I've lost my shields."

  "Thanks for the help," Han told him. "I can handle it from here. You just

  get clear." He fired off the last of his concussion missiles, blowing another

  gouge in the inter-dictor, and focused his quad lasers on the hole. Yorik

  coral churned and evaporated. He dropped even lower, hoping a void didn't get

  him, and continued to strafe. An enormous explosion rocked the ship.

  "What was that?" he asked of everyone and no one in particular.

  "My wingmate," Devis replied. His voice had a rattling quality to it. "He

  took a direct hit."

  "You're still back there?" Han snapped. "Get out! Make sure Pellaeon is

  coming!"

  "A little late for that, I'm afraid," Devis said. "But maybe I can still

  be of service. It was a great honor flying with you, Captain Solo. Tell...

  tell Admiral Pellaeon I did what 1 thought was best."

  "Devis, what are you..."

  But then the TIE came screaming by on his starboard. It was spinning as

  if it had lost a stabilizer, but somehow the kid had still managed to aim it.

  It smacked into the interdictor like a meteor, blasting off a chunk of yorik

  coral almost the size of the Falcon and leaving an incandescent hole.

  Atmosphere blew out into the void, along with a few figures that could only be

  Yuuzhan Vong.

  Han pulled up, pulling a few skips through the explosion as he did so.

  "Threepio?" he demanded.

  "I'm sorry, sir," the droid said. "The interdictor is still functioning."

  Which means it was all for nothing, kid, Han thought. He realized he

  didn't even know what Devis had looked like.

  "Han, what's happening?" Leia's voice drifted up.

  "Nothing," he said. "We've lost the TIEs and the interdictor is still on-

  line. If we make another pass, they'll bring us down for sure."

  "If we don't..."

  "Yeah, I know," Han said. "Even if Pellaeon comes, it'll be too little,

  too late. So we make another pass, right?"

  "Right."

  "Right." He spun the ship in a vicious roll that brought the interdictor

  back into view. "I love you, sweetheart," he said.

  "I love you too, you old pirate."

  "Okay," Prann said, "looks like we're ready, guys. I'm laying in the

  final calculations."

  This is it,

  Jaina thought. She reached out through the Force, subtly, not taking

  control, but instead substituting her own coordinates for the ones Prann

  thought he was entering. She didn't have much skill controlling minds through

 
the Force, and like Jacen she didn't think much of the practice.

  But this time there was no choice.

  One-one-two, not aught-aught-two, she thought at Prann. Aught-nine-one,

  not one-one-nine. Everything else is right, it's perfect, the best jump ever

  calculated, and then you'll be borne, rich, safe from the Vong forever.

  She couldn't change the jump much, or he would notice. But she didn't

  need to.

  "Hey," the Toydarian said. He must have noticed her look of

  concentration. "What are you doing? Stop it, or I shoot your hand off."

  "I'm not doing anything," Jaina said, desperately trying to keep up her

  monologue through the Force. "What could I be doing?"

  "Doesn't matter anyway," Prann said. "Here we go." He pulled back on the

  jump lever, and they went.

  "What in the..." Han yanked back on the stick, pulling the falcon out of

  her dive and just whispering by the huge object that had appeared in his path.

  "Just when you think things can't get worse..."

  "Sir! Sir!" C-3PO shouted. "It's a Golan Two Battle Station. Where in the

  galaxy could that have come from?"

  "A Golan?..."

  "We're saved!"

  "What-what happened?" Prann shrieked.

  "You tried to jump through an interdictor," Jaina replied.

  "It didn't work."

  "I did not! I set the jump in exactly the opposite direction."

  "Yes, well, obviously you didn't."

  Prann leapt up, pulling his blaster.

  "You did this. Somehow you got in my head..."

  "Listen to me, Prann," Jaina snapped. "You're interdicted. They have a

  solid read on you by now, so if you put the cloak up you'll not only be a

  sitting target, you'll be a blind sitting target. You've got just one choice

  now-take out that interdictor, or die. What's it going to be?"

  Prann kept the blaster on her, his face contorted with fury.

  "She's right, Erli," Ghanol said. "We have to fight our way out now."

  Prann's finger twitched on the blaster contact-then he slammed it back

  into his holster.

  "To the guns, then. But so help me, Jedi, you're going to pay for this."

  Han cut hard in next to the station as the shields went on. The next

  instant, heavy laserfire began pounding the interdictor. Now his only worry

  was the dozen or so skips still on his tail, his own failing shields, and

  twenty other things that were going wrong in his ship.

  "Hang on, everybody," he said. "This is going to be tight."

  "Han," Leia called up.

  "Little busy right now, honey," he said.

  "Jaina's in that station."

  "Really? There ought to be a good story behind this one-but hey, that's

  our girl."

  "I don't think-Han, she's still in trouble."

  "Oh, yeah?" He yawed and straightened, leading a skip through cannon

  fire. "Well, we'll see about that."

  "Sir!" Cel shouted. "The Golan Two just appeared right next to the

  Interdictor. It's really giving it a pounding!"

  Wedge looked at the display, not believing what he was seeing.

  "How did they move it?" he wondered.

  It didn't matter. "Change heading. When that field goes down, I want to

  be out of range of the other one. We'll take up the rear."

  Ponderously and under heavy fire, what remained of his tattered fleet

  turned to obey. All except Mon Mothma. The ships between them and the

  interdictor had realigned to deal with the battle station. His battle group

  had a clear run at it, but someone had to prevent that other interdictor from

  keeping pace with them. And since this was his fiasco, it looked like he was

  elected.

  THIRTY-THREE

  "Remember, you're supposed to be training me," Tahiri commented as she

  and Corran moved to stand back to back. "What does the wise Jedi do in a

  situation like this?" The warriors were advancing toward them in a tightening

  circle. In the distance, near where the tops of the field guides could be

  seen, the sky was a mass of white vapor.

  "The wise Jedi avoids situations like this," Corran said.

  "Oh," Tahiri said. "I don't guess I know any wise Jedi, then. Very

  disillusioning."

  She counted thirty warriors.

  "Right," Corran said. "And that's your lesson for the day-don't hang on

  to your illusions."

  "I was hoping more for a crash course in 'how to kick butt when you're

  outnumbered thirty to two.'"

  "Well, if you're going to be picky about what I teach..."

  "Quickly!" Nom Anor shouted, from near the ship.

  "There is little time."

  The circle contracted more rapidly. The ground trembled again, and pain

  pulsed through the Force. Pain and some-thing else-something familiar.

  She hadn't had time to sort it out when a track of green laserfire ran

  through the warriors on their right flank, then their left, and suddenly a

  gleaming spacecraft come into view. It dropped to hover a few meters off the

  ground.

  "Jade Shadow!"

  Corran whooped. "It's Mara and Luke!"

  Even as he said it, the landing ramp dropped down, and Luke Skywalker and

  Jacen Solo leapt out, followed by the hulking reptilian figure of Saba

  Sebatyne. Three new lightsabers flared to life. Then the Shadow leapt back up,

  turned, and began raining fire on the Yuuzhan Vong craft. The remaining

  warriors shook off their stupor and charged, but Tahiri ignored them, tearing

  through one of the gaps cut by the Shadow.

  Nom Anor wasn't watching her-instead he was dodging laserfire, trying to

  reach the landing ramp of the Yuuzhan Vong ship. He made it there only a few

  meters ahead of her, but as soon as he was on it, it began to retract.

  With a war cry, she hurled herself through the air, land-ing on the ramp,

  sweeping her lightsaber toward the executor's head.

  Nom Anor ducked at the last instant and her lightsaber cut into the c oral

  hull. He scrambled away from her, and she started to follow, but the ship

  suddenly bounded up from the ground, twisting as it went. Tahiri lost her

  footing and fell. She grasped at the edge of the retracting ramp and missed,

  but caught the edge of a plasma cannon with her left hand. Furiously, she cut

  at the hull with her lightsaber. It resisted the blow, and her weight suddenly

  tripled as the ship went into drive. She lost her grip and went whirling back

  to the ground, landing so hard all of the wind went out of her. She lay there,

  trying to recover, watching helplessly as the yorik coral vessel bored up

  through the atmosphere with Jade Shadow in hot pursuit.

  Another wrenching wave of pain from the planet lashed at her, and again

  the ground shifted. Wheezing, she forced herself to her feet.

  Corran, Luke, and Jacen were trotting toward her. Saba was standing at

  the edge of the clearing, staring out at the towers. The Yuuzhan Vong warriors

  all appeared to be dead.

  "Tahiri," Jacen asked. "Are you okay?"

  "Nothing broken, I think," she said.

  He wrapped her up in an embrace that hurt almost as much as it felt good.

  Tears threatened again.

  "I let him get away," she murmured. "After all that, I let him get away.

  And now Sekot will die."

  "Die?" Master Skywalker said. "Do you two u
nderstand what's going on

  here? What's wrong with Sekot?"

  Over Jacen's shoulder, Tahiri saw a shaft of blue light suddenly leap

  from ground to sky, appearing from somewhere near the hyperdrive. It lasted

  only a second.

  "Down!" Corran shouted. "Cover your ears."

  A heartbeat later, the shock wave came, followed by a wind so hot it

  scorched her back.

  "What was that?" Jacen asked.

  "The ship's drive," Corran explained. "Nom Anor must have sabotaged it

  somehow."

  "Nom Anor?" Master Skywalker said. "What...?"

  "That's a long story," Corran said, "one that I would like to tell. But I

  don't think I'm going to get the chance if we don't get out of this area, and

  quickly."

  "Mara's already on her way back," Master Skywalker said.

  By the time the Shadow dropped back low enough to pick them up, the

  surface of Zonama Sekot was vibrating like a plucked string, and in the Force,

  Tahiri could feel something building, something out of control. She followed

  the others aboard.

  "I came back when I saw the plasma burst," Mara said.

  "Is it a weapon?"

  "No," Luke said. "Get us out of here, Mara-fast."

  "Sounds good to me."

  "What about Nom Anor?" Tahiri asked.

  "I alerted Widowmaker,"

  Mara said. "They should have enough firepower to deal with the Vong ship.

  "

  The ground was dwindling, and the gigantic vanes of the hyperdrive were

  coming into view. The entire valley they stood in was black, and as she

  watched, three brilliant blue beams like the one they had seen a moment ago

  tore up through the atmosphere.

  The shock wave hit, and the Shadow went into a crazy yaw, which Mara

  fought, cursing, into control.

  "I appreciate the save," Corran told Master Skywalker as the ship leveled

  out. "But how is it you just happened by?"

  "We didn't know it was you," Luke said. "Sekot was in pain-we came here

  to find out what was wrong, and saw the Yuuzhan Vong ship." He raised an

  eyebrow. "We were pretty surprised to find you here."

  "Right," Corran said. "That explanation I promised you..."

  Through the upward-angled cockpit view, Tahiri saw stars appearing as

  they left the atmosphere behind. Then, abruptly, they streaked away.