[Hand Of Thrawn] - 01(17)

“I will send out more searchers,” Cakhmaim said, pulling out a comlink. “Perhaps I can also arrange an unexpected surprise for our thief.”

“Your Highness?” Threepio called. “I don’t know if this is of any use to you-or indeed whether or not you already know it-but before I tripped and fell-“

“Speak quickly,” Cakhmaim snapped.

Threepio shrank back slightly. “I observed the stolen speeder bike leave in that direction.” He pointed.

“Hey, yeah,” Anakin said. “Threepio was outside the smoke!”

“He’s making for the northern side of Mount Tantiss,” Cakhmaim said decisively. “Undoubtedly where his ship is located. Khabarakh, your group will take the airspeeders and remaining speeder bikes and pursue. I will take the Lady Vader and her firstchildren back to the settlement.”

“Just the children, Cakhmaim,” Leia corrected, heading for one of the airspeeders. “I’m going with Khabarakh.”

Thirty seconds later the group was airborne. “Do we have any idea where his ship might be?” Leia asked as the vehicles tore across the landscape.

“The Myneyrshi will know,” Khabarakh said. “They watch all movements near the forbidden mountain. Perhaps that is the surprise Cakhmaim spoke of.”

Leia pulled out a set of macrobinoculars from the airspeeder’s storage compartment, and for a few minutes she scanned across the forest below and ahead. Nothing. “He’s probably staying right down at ground level,” she said.

“That will slow him,” Khabarakh said. “Still, if we cannot locate his ship, he will likely be able to lift off before we reach him.”

And unless the Noghri airspeeders were lucky enough to be right on top of him at the time, the Devaronian would be out of their firing range in a matter of seconds. Pressing her face tighter against the macrobinoculars, Leia stretched out as hard as she could through the Force, trying to locate Lak Jit’s presence.

There was nothing she could detect from the forest ahead of them. But even as she tried to focus her thoughts more tightly, she caught a flicker of something else nearby. Something unexpected, yet definitely familiar, and coming steadily closer. Lowering the macrobinoculars, she half closed her eyes and tried to focus on the sensation&mdash

“Hold on!” Khabarakh snapped, and the airspeeder curved sharply around to the left. Leia grabbed for a handhold, nearly losing her grip on the macrobinoculars. Ahead and below them, an old Gymsnor-2 freighter had appeared above the trees. Half closing her eyes again, she stretched out toward the freighter, finally catching the Devaronian’s presence. “That’s him,” she confirmed. “Can we stop him?”

“We will try,” Khabarakh said.

Leia grimaced. Do; or do not. There is no try. Luke had quoted that Jedi dictum to her over and over during her training.

And it was quickly becoming clear that here, too, there was no try. Even with the airspeeders running full throttle, the Gymsnor was steadily pulling away from its pursuers. Ahead of it, there was nothing: no ships, no hills, no obstacles of any sort, nothing that would slow it down. Already it was above the speeder bikes’ maximum height limit; a few minutes more and it would be leaving the airspeeders behind, as well.

There was a sudden gravelly mewing of Noghri words from the comm speaker. Khabarakh answered; and abruptly the airspeeders slowed. Leia turned to him, opening her mouth to ask why they were giving up the chase&mdash

And with a terrific roar, a spaceship shot past them on their right, heading straight for the Gymsnor.

“Khabarakh!” Leia snapped, wincing as the airspeeder bucked in the other ship’s slipstream.

“It is all right, Lady Vader,” Khabarakh assured her. “It is an ally.” “An ally?” Leia repeated, frowning at the newcomer. A Corellian Action VI bulk freighter, by the looks of it. Nearly four times the size of Lak Jit’s ship to begin with; and if the rate it was closing on the Devaronian was any indication, it had undergone a substantial engine upgrade.

Lak Jit had apparently come to a similar conclusion. Banking hard to the right, he dipped back down toward the trees and then cut sharply up and around, settling into a new vector and clawing hard for space.

It was a maneuver that Leia had seen used time and again in the war against the Empire, and it was one that nearly always worked against the larger and more ungainly pursuer. But in this case, it didn’t. Almost before Lak Jit had even begun his turn, the Action VI was moving to counter; and by the time the Gymsnor had straightened out, the larger ship was right back on top of him, forcing him to abandon his climb or risk a midair collision. Slowly but inexorably, the Devaronian was being forced down.