[Legacy Of The Force] - 04(114)

Ben shook his head, ordering his craft to cease fire, and oriented himself toward space. He relaxed, sitting instead of kneeling.

“What happened?” Kiara asked.

“We won.” Now all he had to do was find his way home-use a spacecraft that had no navigational computer, might not have a hyperdrive, to reach the nearest civilized star system, probably Almania again. Coruscant was too much to hope for …

In his mind’s eye, Coruscant grew large, and he could simultaneously see it as a distant gleam in the sea of stars. Can you take us there?

He knew the vehicle could.

Before we grow old and die?

The vehicle didn’t have a precise understanding of human time, but Ben could feel that the trip would take hours or days, not lifetimes.

So he sent the command.

GILATTER SYSTEM RESORT SATELLITE

In the shadow where she was hiding, Alema saw two figures force their way in through the streams of actors trying to escape.

They were Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker, dressed in black jumpsuits with X-wing pilots’ accoutrements, and Alema nearly passed out from happiness. Luke was here and would see Mara die, Leia was still coming … the universe was about to experience some much-needed Balance.

She stopped bouncing up and down long enough to find her comlink. She spoke into it: “Activate and execute approach two.”

On the Duracrud, now floating with all the other arrival craft steered to the holding area by resort security personnel, the nav computer would be loading and implementing a set of simple maneuvers. The Duracrud would move to a position directly above the resort’s dome, a few kilometers away, and then begin accelerating.

“What are you doing, dancer?” The voice was cold, amused, familiar, and it froze Alema’s guts.

She tore her attention away from the fight, where Jacen was coping with an ever-growing number of security agents, and looked to the right. The darkskinned woman who had addressed her did not look familiar … except for her build and her green eyes. “Lumiya,” she said.

“I asked you a question.”

Alema gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “We are here to kill Mara Jade Skywalker, who is here, and Han Solo, who is coming. And you?”

“I was about to dive in and help Jacen.”

“Do not do that.” Alema shook her head vehemently. “If you rescue him, Luke and Mara will leave, and Leia and I Ian will not come. They must be here.”

Lumiya considered. “Then let’s jump in together. Our being here will keep the Skywalkers and Solos from leaving.

Don’t you think?”

“We do.”

Lumiya reached down and tore a long gap in her gown, freeing her legs to maneuver. She unwrapped the decorative scarf she wore as a belt, revealing the lightwhip beneath it, and rewrapped the scarf around her lower face and scalp, giving her the aspect of Lumiya so familiar to Alema and others. Then she drew her lightwhip. “Ready?”

Alema brought her lightsaber up. “We are.”

She was happier than she had been in a long, long time.



Luke and Mara made their approach a merciful one. They landed in the midst of the thickest group of security officers. Luke’s lightsaber flashed in a circle, severing five or six blaster barrels, and Mara gestured with the force to sweep aside half a dozen agents.

Luke deflected a blaster shot from an opportunistic CorSec woman. “Let’s go, Jacen. Your ride’s waiting.”

Jacen struck, cutting a Bothan shooter in two. “I don’t need your help.” Then he looked past Luke and his expression hardened still more. “Oh, no.”

Luke glanced back that way. Han and Leia were entering the main hall at a dead run. “And your other ride is here.”

Then he heard Mara’s warning hiss-more through the Force than with his ears-and when he turned back again, Lumiya stood before him.



As Han and Leia approached, the nature of the battle before them changed in an instant. Abruptly Luke was drawing and igniting his second lightsaber, the half-length shoto, and using his primary lightsaber to deflect a weapon that looked oddly like Lumiya’s lightwhip.

Han squinted. The wielder was Lumiya, though her skin was dark. He raised his blaster and fired, but Lumiya must have been aware of him; she simply twisted aside and the bolt caromed off the floor, then passed through the chest of the six-meter hologram of an admiral that dominated the center of the room.

Mara, nearly surrounded by security agents, was batting their blasterfire back at them with her own lightsaber. Leia angled away from her, toward Luke-and then let out a surprised cry as a low table slid into her path, too suddenly for her to vault or sidestep. She tripped but came up on her feet and lit her lightsaber.