[Last Of The Jedi] - 07(10)

“Let’s get down to business,” Trever said. He was anxious that they all get along. One trouble with the group he traveled with was that they were all such personalities. He turned to Flame. “Roan is one of the founding members of the Eleven. Dona is also a member of the resistance. They’ll come with us to Bellassa. “

“Good. Do you have an entry point?” Flame asked. “I was thinking of landing in the mountains and taking airspeeders into Ussa.”

“That used to be a route. No more,” Dona said. “The Empire has patrols all through the mountains now, thick as the yarrowfew flowers in spring.”

“I have a way, but it will take some tricky piloting,” Roan said. “The Empire has shut down Ussa, but it’s difficult to maintain patrols in the forested area south of the city.”

“The Tanglewoods?” Flame asked. “But that’s unnavigable.”

“There’s a way,” Roan said.

“What about the rest of you?” Flame asked.

“We’re going to catch a spaceliner to Coruscant,” Astri said.

Clive was leaning back against the wall, holding in his hands a cup of bright blue juice that he hadn’t tasted. “Any advice there? We haven’t been in some time.”

Flame shook her head. “Tight controls on all entry points. Your ID docs better be perfect.”

“Do you have a favorite landing hangar?” Clive asked.

She shook her head. “Haven’t been to Imperial City. Not even before the Clone Wars. I don’t like crowded planets.”

“Well, we’re off,” Solace said, standing. “The spaceliner is boarding.”

“I’ll go do the preflight check with Flame,” Trever said.

They all pushed back their chairs. It was the moment of parting, and no one knew what to say.

Trever was suddenly filled with foreboding. Parting with friends was so different now. He didn’t know when he’d see them again. If he’d ever see them again.

“Curran Caladian told me that the Svivreni never say good-bye,” Solace said gruffly. “They just say, ‘The journey begins, so go.’ “

Trever looked each of them in the eye, holding the gaze. “So go.”

“So go, kid,” Clive said.

Then Lune shouted, “So go, Trever!” making them all laugh.

Astri, Lune, Solace, and Clive headed to the departure gate. Roan and Dona went with Trever and Flame to the private vehicle departure hangar.

They boarded, and Flame automatically slid behind the controls. Roan raised an eyebrow at her.

“She’s a great pilot,” Trever told him. “I trust her.”

Roan waved a hand. “Carry on.” He settled himself behind the nav computer. “I’ll plot the route.”

The ship was cleared for takeoff and shot out into the atmosphere.

They didn’t speak much on the way to Bellassa. What lay ahead was so uncertain and dangerous that it was hard to think about anything else.

Trever found himself wondering again about Ferus. It seemed so strange now, as if he’d substituted Flame for Ferus. Events came rushing at him like a jump into hyperspace, and he didn’t have time to think anything through. It was reassuring to be with Roan, at least, someone he knew and trusted. Someone who connected him to his past.

And now he was flying right into it.

It was a long day’s journey before Roan quietly announced that they were approaching Bellassan airspace. They would enter the planet’s atmosphere well away from Ussa, over the wastelands on the other side of the planet. Then they would come up from the south.

Suddenly, alarms rang throughout the cabin.

“Imperial ships ringing the docking stations,” Roan said crisply. “Evasive action!”





CHAPTER SEVEN


The ship went into a screaming corkscrew dive, and Trever held on. It shouldn’t be this hard just to get home again. Once again, he had the sensation that the galaxy was upside down. Just as he was, at the moment.

The ship leveled out, and they all took a breath.

“Out of radar range,” Roan reported. “But we’re going to have to go back in again if we want to land. Usually the patrols are more random and centered around the landing platforms near Ussa. They never had large Star Destroyers lurking out here before.”

Flame turned the ship and lessened the speed. “What now?”

“I’ve got a large freighter cleared to land at the Ussa spaceport,” Roan said, monitoring air traffic. “It’s got to come in from the south. If you could hug its flank, we might pass through the detection scan. Then peel off when we’re close to the surface.”

“Got it,” Flame said.