Leia’s eyes slid away from Han’s, looking past his shoulder back down the corridor.
Then Saba’s faceplate suddenly loomed up behind Leia’s head, her pebbly lips broadening into a huge, fang-filled smile.
“It will not itch for long, this one thinkz.”
Han spun around, and his stomach sank.
Dozens of dartship canopies on legs were racing up the tunnel toward them. Han raised his T-21 and opened fire. One canopy shattered, but most of the bolts ricocheted off, melting holes into the walls and filling the passage with an ever-thickening cloud of ethmane vapor.
Han slid over to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Leia.
“Sweetheart…” He lowered his aim and began to blast Killik legs. “.. . did I ever tell you how much I hate bugs?”
THIRTY-EIGHT
The Chiss were retreating in disarray, spiraling down below Qoribu’s south polar region in a tangled vortex of ion trails, lacing space behind them with a ragged net of turbolaser fire. Jaina and Zekk spotted an opening and swung their StealthXs toward it. Before they could dart through, a pair of frigates managed to shift their fire and string the hole with streaks of energy.
Jaina and Zekk peeled away, the StealthX slaved to Jaina’s controls lagging half a second behind. Silhouetted against the white backdrop of Qoribu’s south pole, they were visible to any sensor operator with a tracking telescope, and it would be folly to attempt a penetration when they had so clearly been spotted. If they wanted to reach Lowbacca alive, they would have to try another approach.
Not as disorganized as they look, Jaina observed.
This is a show, Zekk agreed.
Jaina and Zekk checked their tactical displays. The screen showed only the portion of the battle not hidden behind Qoribu’s mass. But what it did show clearly revealed the Chiss falling back in a crooked, disjointed line that was barely managing to stay ahead of the swarm’s dartships. A couple of frigates and light corvettes were blinking with damage, but most of the cruisers, and all of the Star Destroyers and fighter carriers, were safely below Qoribu, milling about in the heart of the fleet.
A Bothan fade, Jaina remarked.
The Chiss probably have a different name for it, Zekk pointed out.
Probably, Jaina agreed.
They swung around in a crooked, uneven curve, ducking
behind blossoming turbolaser strikes and changing their approach frequently to throw off anyone trying to track them by sight. But Qoribu’s polar region was as vast as it was bright, and their StealthXs remained silhouetted against its whirling white clouds.
We should warn UnuThul, Zekk suggested.
Our help isn’t wanted, Jaina replied. That fact made them feel sad and rejected and horribly, utterly alone. Our mission is to
- retrieve Lowbacca and leave, Zekk finished. But we’re Jedi.
Our first mission is prevent a wider war, Jaina agreed.
They were deliberating more than discussing, weighing both sides of the argument in a single shared mind, and an unhappy thought occurred to them.
What if they did nothing?
The Great Swarm would be destroyed-perhaps even the Hapan fleet, which was advancing behind the safety of the Killik dartships. Without the means to defend the Qoribu nests, the Colony would be forced to abandon them, or to find a way to evacuate. In either case, the Chiss would no longer feel threatened, and a greater war would be averted.
UnuThul might be killed, Zekk pointed out.
Would the Colony return to normal? Jaina wondered.
Impossible to know.
Impossible, Jaina agreed. But maybe not a bad thing.
Jaina and Zekk waited, expecting to feel Unu’s Will pressing down on them, driving them to act in the Colony’s best interest.
But they were out of contact with the Taat mind-cut off from it by distance as well as by Unu’s anger-and UnuThul was too busy coordinating the overall battle to join their combat-meld. Jaina and Zekk’s mind was their own-for now.
A hole appeared in the turbolaser net, and they accelerated toward it, aiming for a quartet of tiny blue circles that their R9 units assured them was a cruiser’s sublight drive. If they could sneak up close enough, they could slip into the heart of the Chiss fleet by hiding near its exhaust nozzles, where the glare would blind anyone peering in their direction.
This feels wrong, Zekk said. Like we ‘re betraying the Colony.
And UnuThul, Jaina added. But we ‘re Jedi.
Jedi do what is necessary, Zekk agreed. To prevent war.
To keep the peace.
The cruiser was so close now that they could see the boxy outline of its engine skirt enclosing the bright disks of its four huge thrust nozzles. Turbolaser beams stabbed out all around them, but never close enough to suggest that the StealthXs had been spotted again. Jaina and Zekk continued to close the distance.