Ioli stared at him for a moment, then slowly nodded. “As you wish, Special Agent Skywalker.”
They made two more course corrections before the ripples strengthened again. This time, Ben extended his Force-awareness as far as he could in that direction, picturing Jaina in his mind and trying to touch her through the Force.
Then, suddenly, she was there in his mind with him, full of surprise and joy and relief-and urgency. Something was terribly wrong, and she needed Ben to help her correct it.
“They’re straight ahead.” Ben tried to open his eyes-maybe he did-but Jaina would not release her grip on his mind. All he could see in front of him was her face, looking at once happy and worried and exhausted. “I think they might be in trouble.”
“When you say straight ahead…”
“I mean straight ahead.” Ben extended his arm toward the image of Jaina in his mind. “There.”
The skiff banked … hard.
“I said straight…”
“I see them!” Ioli snapped back. “But I’m not flying into a hillside, no matter who orders me to!”
Jama’s image vanished, and a pair of tiny colored blades appeared in the rain at about the same altitude as the Rover. They were some fifty meters ahead, on Ben’s side of the canopy and slowly sliding starboard as Ioli turned away.
Through the heavy weather, it was impossible to see the figures holding the blades, but Ben could feel Jaina’s concern as the skiff continued its turn. He reached out to her in the Force, trying to reassure her that her lightsaber beacon had been noticed, and then the blades passed out of sight.
Ioli’s voice came over the headset. “Tanogo, how long before those bandits…”
“We’ve been flying toward ‘em, Lieutenant,” Tanogo reported. “The interceptors will be in missile range in two minutes, and they’ll be on top of us in five.”
“Then we’re in trouble,” Ioli said.
“No, we’re not.” Ben unbuckled his crash webbing and stood. Fortunately, the headset was wireless, so he did not have to remove it before starting aft. “They’re Jedi. Just-get us within ten meters.”
Ioli brought the skiff around so hard that Ben had to Force-stick himself to the deck to keep from being flung into the fuselage. She decelerated hard and began to creep forward on the repulsor drives, at the same time issuing engagement orders to their weapons tech.
By the time Ben reached the rear air lock and opened the outer hatch, Ioli had the skiff hovering alongside the hill. For a moment, nothing was visible outside but rain, fog, and mounds of mud and grass. Then one of the mounds suddenly flew off the hillside and Handed inside the air lock, spraying tear-shaped mud drops across the viewport of the inner hatch. A moment later the Rover rocked noticeably as a second, heavier weight landed inside.
“They’re in!” Ben reported. “But take it easy. They haven’t had time to…”
“Missile range,” Tanogo reported. “Launch!”
The skiff tipped its nose up and shot skyward so fast that Ben had to catch a grab handle to keep from tumbling back into the Twi’lek weapons tech. A pair of dull thumps reverberated from inside the air lock, and for a moment he thought Ioli might have lost Jaina or Zekk.
A moment later the inner hatch slid open and the two Jedi stepped into the flight cabin, sagging in exhaustion and coated head-to-toe in mud. They were covering their ears against the roar of the engines, but even that did not prevent a torrent of questions that Ben could only half understand by reading Jaina’s lips.
“What’s… hurry?” she asked. “. .. nearly lost…”
Ben led them to the only passengers’ seats available in the flight cabin-midway between Tanogo’s snoop station and the weapons station at the aft bulkhead-and motioned them to sit. Zekk obeyed gratefully, buckling himself in and donning a headset hanging on a hook behind his seat.
Jaina took the headset hanging behind the other seat, but continued to stand and fire questions at Ben. “What are you doing here?”
The skiff bucked as the weapons tech deployed chaff and decoys.
Jaina’s eyes went round and, before Ben could answer her first question, she demanded, “Are we under attack?” Ben nodded. “The Terephonians sent some Headhunters…”
“Those lungworms!” She started to step past Ben toward the snoop station. “How many? Are they on a chase vector or an intercept…”
Zekk caught her arm. “Jaina, you don’t have rank here.” He pulled her back to her seat. “And we’ve just been rescued, remember?”