[Dark Nest] - 3(119)

Still dodging shatter gun pellets, rolling back and forth on the floor and parrying madly, Luke glanced up the corridor and used the Force to reach into the carnage heap beneath Raynar’s feet. He grabbed the largest, heaviest thing he could find-a disabled bugcruncher droid-and jerked it free.

The pile shifted and Raynar crashed down on his back, but Luke barely noticed. He was pulling the droid down the corridor straight at Lomi Plo.

She deflected it easily, of course-but she had to spin away from Luke and wave a hand, and that gave him the chance he needed to Force-spring up the corridor toward Raynar, who was just returning to his feet.

“As I was saying,” Luke said, pointing his lightsaber down at Raynar’s chest. “You never learn.”

Raynar’s eyes flashed with alarm and he rolled away-presenting the side of his head for a perfect knockout blow. Luke brought his lightsaber down, but deactivated the blade and flipped it around at the last second to strike at the base of the ear.

The blow landed with a sharp crack that suggested a breaking skull, but Luke had no time to worry about Raynar. Lomi Plo was dragging herself out the hatchway, trying to escape into the general confusion of the Ackbar’s recapture. He sprang after her, using the Force to drag her back into the corridor.

Lomi Plo whirled around, her lightsabers rising into a guard position but not attacking. Trapped on the floor with a broken knee, she knew as well as Luke did that she could not defend herself; that he could kill her any time he wished.

So Luke was half expecting it when Control’s voice sounded in his earpiece again. “Be advised, Killik swarms are opening fire on Healing Star.”

Lomi Plo’s mandibles opened wide, and a long, gurgling hiss erupted from her throat. Luke did not need to speak Killik to understand what she was saying-or even to probe her meaning through the Force. She could call off the attack on the hospital ship.

All Luke had to do was let her go.

Luke snorted. “That’s the trouble with you ruthless types-you’re all so predictable.”

Lomi Plo grabbed hold of the sides of the hatchway with two of her hands, then pulled herself up on her insect leg and cocked her head so that only one of her bulbous eyes was turned toward Luke.

“Mara and Jacen are in a hospital back on Coruscant,” Luke explained. “There’s nobody aboard Healing Star but a few mouse droids. Admiral Bwua’tu said you were going to attack it. And by the way, I have no doubts about Mara. She says hello, in fact.”

Lomi Plo’s reaction came so suddenly that Luke doubted even she was expecting it. She just came flying at him with both blades flashing, striking high and low from opposite sides in a desperate attempt to finish him off.

Luke, of course, had anticipated this, too. Lomi Plo had no power over him. He simply stepped inside her attack and flicked his wrist twice, first sweeping his blade upward, then whipping it around in a backslash, and she landed at his feet in four parts.

Luke stood looking down at the pieces for a moment, half expecting them to turn to smoke and vanish, or to dissolve like a bad HoloNet signal. It was hard to believe that a woman of mere flesh and blood and chitin had caused so much trouble-had brought the galaxy to the edge of eternal war-but of course, beings of flesh and blood were always starting wars. That’s why the galaxy needed her Jedi.

Luke reached down and retrieved the two lightsabers Lomi Plo had been wielding. He tucked the white one inside his flight utilities and hung the green one in its proper place on his belt, then returned to the side of his former student.

Raynar was still unconscious, but his vital signs were stable, and he did not seem to he in any great danger.

Luke broke out a medkit and started to work. “Let’s get you patched up, son,” he said. “We’re going home.”