Alema gave a couple of throat-clicks, then said, “It was necessary for the good of the Colony. Jaina and Zekk understood that.”
“They understand that you ran out on them,” Leia countered. Now that she was alert to it, she could feel the Twi’lek trying to use the Force against her, to dampen her negative thoughts and bolster the positive ones. Fortunately, there weren’t many positive ones. “And so do I.”
“We had to destroy the bombs.” Alema put a little urgency in her voice-and complemented it by pushing harder with the Force. “We still have to destroy the bombs.”
“Okay,” Leia said, deciding to switch tactics. She reached out in the Force, trying to make her own voice sound beguiling and reasonable. “I’ve never been one to hold a grudge. If you want to work together, Alema, just pass over your lightsaber and other weapons.”
“Really?” Alema started to unbuckle her utility belt-then blinked both eyes in astonishment and let out a jagged little throat-rattle. “Nice try, Princess-but we don’t think so.”
“Good.” Leia smiled, looking forward to the surprise she was about to visit upon the Twi’lek. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Leia charged, firing her blaster pistol with one hand and activating her lightsaber with the other. There was no question of giving Alema a chance to escape later by working with her now-even if it meant letting the Chiss recover the bomb. Eliminating the Dark Nest was the core of Luke’s plan, and the Twi’lek was a big part of that nest.
Alema rushed to meet the attack, igniting her own lightsaber, wielding it with her one good arm and easily deflecting the stream of bolts. They met at a large burl where a smaller limb converged with its parent, their lightsabers coming together in a sizzle of sparks and color.
Leia jolted Alema with a one-handed power attack that hammered the Twi’lek’s block down easily, then whipped her blade around in a buzzing backslash at a pulsing span of blue undefended throat. Alema dropped to her haunches and somehow snap-kicked from that impossible position, and Leia’s middle exploded into pain.
The Princess exhaled hard, forcing the pain out, and did not yield a centimeter. She swept her blade down to attack the extended leg, but Alema had already drawn her foot back, and she ended up blocking the Twi’lek’s blade as it came sizzling in at her knees.
Leia rolled her wrist and sent Alema’s lightsaber flying, then brought her blaster pistol around and allowed herself a small smirk as she opened fire.
It was too soon to gloat.
Alema was already twisting away and launching herself backward in the air, her handed extended to recall her falling lightsaber. A pair of bolts burned past the Twi’lek’s legs-so close that her flight suit began to smoke-but she rolled into an evasive Force tumble and landed unscathed on the adjacent branch … and slipped. She inhaled sharply and started to fall, then hooked the back of her knee over the branch and caught herself.
Leia fired at the knee, but Alema was already swinging around, facing her, deep blue lightsaber in hand, batting blaster bolts straight back at her. Leia stopped firing. The Twi’lek slipped back into the branch moss in a seated position, then brought her leg up and stretched it along the branch, staring at her boot.
Leia’s earlier slash had not missed after all. The front half of Alema’s boot was missing-along with half her foot. The Twi’lek turned toward Leia, her unblinking eyes wide in astonishment and anger, and that was when Leia’s comlink earpiece crackled to life.
“How’s it going down there?” Han asked.
“Busy!” Leia said into her throat mike.
“Any sign of the bombs?” Han pressed.
“Not really.”
Leia watched in alarm as Alema rose and peered over the branch behind her-no doubt plotting an escape route.
“Gotta go,” Leia said. “I’m sort of in the middle of something.”
Determined not to let her prey escape, Leia Force-jumped from her branch toward Alema’s.
The Twi’lek’s withered arm swung up, reaching toward Leia. The princess tucked into an evasive somersault-then felt herself rolling the wrong way as her feet were Force-jerked in the opposite direction. She called on the Force to stop her rotation, but by then the back of her head was thonking into the side of the branch.
The moss was not as thick on the sides of the branches. The sound echoed inside her skull so hard that Leia thought she would never hear anything else. Then she felt her feet whipping down from above and sensed the darkness rising up to swallow hers and she knew she had come to one of those terrible instants when everything depended on willpower and the stubborn desire to live.