Jaina glared at Ben for an instant, then thrust the reinforcement strip at Han. “Hold this.”
Ben retreated a step, bringing his blade up behind his rear shoulder. “Jaina, don’t make me-wbaaaargggh!” Ben’s threat came to a surprised end as Zekk slipped around the corner and caught hold of his hands from behind, twisting his wrists forward and forcing the lightsaber blade down toward the deck.
And that was when the shock wave of a nearby turbolaser strike slammed the Falcon. The deck jumped so hard that Han’s knees buckled, and he came down on his wounded shoulder again. Cries of astonishment rang out all around, and his body exploded into pain.
“How’s that feed line repair coming?” Leia asked over the intercom. The air was so thin now that her voice was starting to sound tinny and faint. “If I can’t accelerate, the flight is only going to get bumpier.”
“Just keep us pointed out of here.” As Han spoke, he realized that someone nearby was groaning in terrible pain. “We’ll pass out of range sometime.”
He rolled to his knees and saw Zekk curled on the deck, his hands clutched to a blackened slash in the side of his evac suit. Ben was kneeling next to him with a look of horror on his face, still holding an ignited lightsaber and shaking his head in despair.
“You shouldn’t have grabbed me,” he said. “Why’d you have to grab me, Zekk ?”
“Because you were acting like a Jedi wannabe,” Jaina said, coming up behind him. “Give me that.”
She snatched the lightsaber from Ben’s hand.
He looked up at her. “It wasn’t my fault.”
“Then whose fault was it, laserbrain?” She switched the lightsaber off. “I just hope you haven’t killed us all. Now grow up, go help your uncle, and I’ll…”
“No, Jaina.” Han stuck a handful of reinforcement strips into his sling and turned to the damaged area. “You’ve got to get Zekk and Ben out of here.”
“Out of here?” Jaina asked.
“Get into the escape pods.” Without removing the strip’s backing, he held it up to the edge of the perforation circle and allowed the vacuum to suck it into place. “Zekk needs medical help, and I really don’t want you sticking us with the brat.”
“But what about…”
“The Falcon’s only carrying a four-person pod capacity right now,” Han interrupted. “And even if we had more, Leia and I are not surrendering.” He shot a look at Ben that could have melted frasium, then added, “Not to Jacen-or anyone else.”
He held another strip to the edge of the circle and let the vacuum suck it into place. It would be a temporary patch at best, but it might hold long enough to save them. He placed another strip, then looked back to find Jaina kneeling beside Zekk. She had the fingers of one hand pressed to his throat, taking his pulse. But her eyes were fixed on Han, and there were tears running down her cheeks.
She nodded, then chinned a toggle switch in her collar, and spoke into the microphone of her suit’s comm unit. “Sorzo, get back here. We’re abandoning ship again.”
“Good.” Han had never been more proud of his daughter. He could see in Jaina’s face how much she wanted to stay aboard the Falcon with him and Leia, but she was a seasoned spacer who knew better than to question a captain’s orders aboard his own ship. “Don’t worry about your mother and me. Until we get the Falcon patched up, it’ll be good not to have so many noses breathing the air-but we’ll be okay. We’ve been in a lot of fixes tougher than this one.”
Jaina managed a smile, though her fear for her parents remained obvious. “I know, Dad-I’ve seen the holovids.” She motioned Ben toward the rear hatch and used the Force to lift Zekk off the deck, then stepped to Han’s side and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. “Let me know how it goes … and may the Force be with you.”
“Yeah.” Not wanting her to see the tears welling in his eyes-and to realize that he was afraid this might be their final good-bye-Han didn’t look as she started after Ben. “You too, kid.”
He turned back to the damaged area and started to lay the rest of the reinforcing strips in place. By the time he had finished, Jaina had everyone loaded into the escape pods and was sounding the departure alarm. The turbolaser strikes just kept coming. The falcon was bucking and leaping like a wild ronto, and the cabin pressure had fallen to the point that Han was shivering and starting to lose his breath.
He didn’t feel the escape pods go. The launch alarm simply fell silent, and he had a feeling like something had torn loose inside him.