The stormtroopers poured out on the landing stage. They were equipped with light missile launchers.
And they were hanging here, perfect target practice.
Ferus began to swing. His only hope now was to swing them up to the sensor spike, and somehow crawl back to the tower itself. Except there was no way into the building that he could see.
The first blast missed them by centimeters. Lune cried out.
“Swing!” Ferus ordered, and Lune began to swing his legs, trying to create the momentum to get them away from the targeting computers.
Great. Now an Imperial starship was heading toward them. Something small and fast. Probably equipped with laser cannons. Someone was already trying to do a visual sighting. He could just make out a shadow at the windscreen.
If he could manage to reach the alpha charge in his utility belt…
“Turn on the cockpit lights!” Trever yelled.
“What for? So those troopers can aim straight at our heads?”
“Just do it! It’ll be okay.”
Cursing, Maggis switched on the cockpit lights. Trever pressed himself against the windscreen as Ferus did a slow turn.
Ferus smiled. He’d recognized Trever. “Okay, you can switch them off. Now open the cockpit canopy and get underneath them.”
“Are you nuts? They can’t just drop in! The speed ratio is too fast. They can’t judge it. They’ll miss!” “He can do it. Trust me.”
Maggis brought the starship in line. “I’m just doing one pass, just one. Then I’m outta here.”
He turned the ship and zigzagged his way toward Ferus and Lune. A missile streaked toward the pair, and Ferus somehow managed to get out of the way.
A second later, Maggis zoomed underneath them. With split-second timing, Ferus directed Lune to climb on his back and released the laser line.
The two fell through space, straight down. Ferus guided them into the opening and they landed in the cockpit with a jolt that sent the starship lurching. They sprawled on the floor.
“Holy moon!” Maggis blustered. He pushed the engines forward, and they shot away, cannonfire streaking behind them.
Ferus lay half-sprawled on the floor, his arm securely around Lune. Trever stared at them, wild-eyed. He couldn’t believe it had all worked.
“I don’t know how you did it,” Ferus said, looking around at the Imperial ship, “but thanks.” He looked over at Maggis, in his Imperial officer’s uniform. “And thanks to you, too, whoever you are.”
“That’s whoever-you-are, sir,” Maggis corrected, wiping the sweat off his face.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Once Lune was returned to his mother in a safe house in Galactic City, she did not let him out of her sight for twenty-four hours. Then Dex gently suggested that Lune might need some time to play, and she let him go off to play laser tag with a group of kids who lived on Thugger’s Alley.
Dex had sent Maggis on to another safe house, where he promised they would set him up with a new identity. Flame and Wil had arrived from Bellassa, and Clive had joined them as well. It was time to plan the first Moonstrike meeting. It would have to be done in a place of complete safety.
“Well, now, you can meet here, I suppose,” Dex said. “But…”
Flame was already shaking her head. “I don’t think anyone would agree. No one wants to meet right under the Emperor’s nose.”
Keets and Curran Caladian both started to speak at once, coming up with different suggestions. dive watched as Astri faded out of the room. He followed.
“Are you going to join Moon strike?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t really have a homeworld. I lived all over with Didi when I was a girl. Then we settled here in Galactic City. But technically I’m not part of the resistance.”
“This could be a place to begin,” Clive said.
“Ry-Gaul has offered to train Lune,” she said. “The Jedi think he can develop his Force-ability. He’ll never be a Jedi, but he could be… something. I owe him that. I guess I can’t run from his Force-ability any longer. So we’ll stay here for the time being.”
“Maybe I have a job for you,” Clive said. “There’s something I need to do.” He nodded in the direction of the conference. “We’re placing a lot of trust in Flame. She’s passed enough tests, it’s true. But…”
“But what?”
“I don’t trust her.”
“So? You don’t trust anybody.”
“I went to Acherin to look into her background. I might have stumbled on her real identity. I thought I found somebody who might know something, but he was killed before I got a chance to talk to him. That bothers me.”