Ben stepped into the legs and shoved his arms down the sleeves, and Jaina depressed the emergency tab on the shoulder. As the suit sealed itself, Zekk slipped the helmet over Ben’s head and closed the neck ring. Less than a minute later, the helmet speaker chirped to confirm the suit’s spaceworthiness, and the three Jedi crowded into the air lock with Sorzo,
Ben had just closed the inner hatch when his own voice began to come over the helmet speaker. “This is Jedi Ben Skywalker with an urgent warning…”
“Line up,” Jaina’s voice cut in. “Blowing the hatch tn three … two …”
As she counted, they hooked their tether lines to one another and arranged themselves for an emergency exit, with Jaina in front of the hatch and Sorzo behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Ben stood beside the Twi’lek, holding on to a grab bar with one hand. Zekk stood in the corner beside him, clutching the bar with both hands.
“One.”
Jaina hit the emergency release, and the outer hatch . tumbled away in a cloud of smoke and escaping atmosphere. Jaina and Sorzo were drawn out of the lock directly behind it. Ben’s hold on the grab bar delayed him for the half a second it took Jaina and Sorzo to clear the exit; then his hand came free and he was sucked out the hatchway. His visor fogged instantly, and he felt the tether jerk as Zekk was pulled into the void behind him.
His stomach began to turn somersaults as they left the Roger’s artificial gravity behind, but all sensation of motion ceased. Ben listened as his own voice continued to come over his helmet speaker, urging Tenel Ka to “Take all precautions.” Then a soft click sounded as the suit’s comm receiver automatically switched to the Roger’s intercom channel.
“Watch your eyes,” Ioli’s voice warned. “Rof er moving off.”
“Thanks,” Jaina said. “And may the Force be with you.”
“Same to you,” Ioli replied. “Rover out.” The skiff’s ion engines flared to life, brightening space so intensely that Ben’s eyes hurt even through a darkened visor and closed lids.
The glow diminished a couple of seconds later, and Ben opened his eyes to find the fog cleared from his visor. The star-dappled void was whirling by at dizzying speed, and every once in a while he caught a glimpse of battle flash, or of his companions twirling around on their tether pivots.
Ben activated his suit thrusters and brought his own tumble under control, then spun himself toward Hapes. The Ducha’s fleet had already opened fire on Ioli and Tanogo, concealing the planet behind a wall of streaking energy. He could barely make out the Rover, a finger-length sliver of darkness trailing an efflux helix as Ioli tried to spiral her way to salvation.
A stripe of turbolaser fire touched the head of the spiral and blossomed into a boiling ball of flame. Ben could not tell whether the anguish he felt was in the Force-or in him.
Chapter Twenty-three
In the Command Salon holodisplay, it all looked so neat and orderly. The planet Hapes loomed at the back of the projection, a bulging wall of light with dull green islands scattered across basic blue ocean. The battle itself was an arrow-headed column of blue “friendly” symbols driving through a block of red “hostiles.” The friendlies were trying to reach an amorphous mass-identified in blue as the HAPAN ROYAL NAVY-that was swarming a pair of ovoid symbols designated UNKNOWN. A reinforcing fleet labeled GALNEY was racing in from the periphery of the Hapan gravity well, its designator colors changing from friendly blue to hostile red as it traveled.
But Jacen knew what the battle was really like. He could feel it in the hundreds of life-presences winking out every second, in the waves of anguish rolling through the Force ever more powerfully. Most of all, he could sense it in Tenel Ka, in the carefully controlled anger he perceived when he reached out to her, in the fear and sadness she felt over the outcome. Was this what he had been fighting to protect all his life, a civilization that devoured itself? Was this the higher purpose Vergere had shaped him to serve-a society that sent assassins to murder children?
A subtle pressure in the Force drew Jacen’s attention to his aide, Orlopp. He turned to find the Jenet just looking up from the datapad in his hands. “Yes?” Jacen asked.
Orlopp’s big snout twitched uneasily. It always disconcerted him to be anticipated, but Jacen didn’t care. Orlopp was monitoring two crucial situations on his datapad, and he had orders to interrupt immediately if the status of either changed.
When Orlopp took too long to compose his thoughts, Jacen snatched the datapad from his hands, “I can’t wait all day, Lieutenant.”