Zekk leaned back to sniff at the seat top. “Doesn’t smell like a Bothan.”
“We don’t all shmell alike!” Kolir’s outraged shout floated up from the passenger compartment. “How do these rumorsh get shtarted?”
“Rest your mouth, you’re injured,” Jaina called back.
A groundspeeder rose from a lower lane and settled into place in front of the shuttle’s bow, close enough that its proximity alarm sounded-precisely what the irritated Corellian pilot ahead intended. Jaina growled. All around, normal groundspeeder traffic was reacting negatively to the inappropriate presence of the shuttle in their traffic lane. They crowded the shuttle from behind, decelerated ahead to force Jaina to slow down, settled into place immediately above the shuttle’s wings to aggravate her. “Rudest pilots in the universe,” she said. “Where’s Uncle Luke?”
“Soon, soon,” Thann soothed from the main compartment.
A new sound cut through the shuttle’s hull-the warbling alarm of a CorSec groundspeeder. Sighing, Jaina checked her sensor board and found the view showing the vehicle. It was right behind the shuttle, its flashers going, its pilot waving her to descend. Doubtless the pilot was also broadcasting a warning, but the shuttle’s communications gear was set to Hardpoint Squadron and operation frequencies.
“Are we on Corellia yet?” Zekk asked.
“First chance, I’m going to space you,” Jaina said.
They reached a point where Wedge Antilles Boulevard crossed under an even broader avenue, listed as Five Brothers Avenue on both the datapad and the ground-level glowsigns. Traffic on Five Brothers Avenue was higher than that on Wedge Antilles Boulevard, for the simple reason that this was an elevated trafficway, a thruster-scoured transparisteel bridge so broad that even the fastest-moving vehicles on Wedge Antilles Boulevard would be beneath it, in shadow, for long, long seconds.
But as Jaina’s stolen shuttle neared the intersection, she and Zekk recognized some of the traffic up on the Five Brothers overpass-a formation of X-wings, tucked neatly among the groundspeeders, and also pursued by a CorSec speeder doubtless piloted by a very annoyed officer.
She keyed her communications board. “Hardpoint, this is Purella-Tauntaun. We have you on visuals. Over.”
Luke Skywalker’s voice crackled back instantly. “Are you spaceworthy-wait, I see you. Isn’t that a little conspicuous? Sand panthers? Over.”
“Best we could do on short notice. And we’re ready for space. Over.”
“Begin your ascent. Out.”
“Belt in or hang on!” Jaina shouted. The jubilant tone in her voice came from being able, finally, to escape the restrictions of slow-paced traffic and a ruined operation. Not waiting to see if her teammates complied-they’d been told to belt in the instant they originally took off, after all-she used her repulsors to raise the shuttle’s nose.
The pursuing CorSec vehicle crowded up on her rear a little too fast from a little too close. Jaina heard a clang of impact as the groundspeeder banged into her main drive unit. She fired her accelerators, just enough to splash thruster wash over the hood of the CorSec vehicle, and gave the pilot two seconds to get clear. Then she put her thrusters and repulsorlift units on full.
The shuttle leapt into the sky.
It didn’t leap as nimbly as the X-wings on the bridge ahead. They stood on their tails and rocketed skyward. By comparison, her shuttle rose like a lazy balloon.
But it was better than being in traffic.
Four of the X-wings reduced speed and dropped into position behind her, forming a protective box beyond her stern. Three maneuvered into position around her, one above, one to port, one to starboard, a protective triangle. And Luke and Mara took point.
Jaina grinned. She’d prefer to be out there with them, in a nimble starfighter protecting a more vulnerable target … but if she had to be shepherded, to have Luke and Mara doing the honors was about as good as it could get.
CORELLIAN SPACE
The ships of Admiral Klauskin’s task force pulled away from Corellia’s gravitational attraction. It would be some time, long minutes, before they were far enough away from the gravity well to make the jump to hyperspace.
The vessels of the Corellian fleet moved in, forming up in small groups of four and five ships. “But they’re not moving in for the kill,” Fiav Fenn said. “They’ve recalled their fighter squadrons.”
“We’re just going to get harassment fire, then,” Klauskin said.
“Probably.”
“How’s their frigate?”
“Floating dead in space. Minimal casualties as far as we can determine, but a confirmed kill. All their escape pods have been picked up by their side.”