[Legacy Of The Force] - 03(95)

“I’m afraid the Kendall has closed the channel,” C-3PO said. “Shali I attempt to reestablish contact?”

“Absolutely not.” Morwan turned to Leia. “Princess Leia, I truly hate to ask this, but the Ducha’s orders were clear.”

“Of course, we’ll obey.” Leia was already pushing the throttles forward. “We’re old hands at staying out of trouble in big battles like this.”

As Leia spoke, the nav computer beeped to announce that it had received jump coordinates. A moment later the usurper fleet-Han refused to think of it as the Heritage Fleet-began to accelerate under the head of the comet.

While Leia chased after the fleet, Han performed the jump calculations-taking the time to look up Hapes’s rotation cycle so he could plot exactly where the fleet would revert to realspace relative to the planet. After double-checking his answers, he copied the information to a datafile, then attached the two screen shots he had captured identifying the fleet’s flagship and composition. As field-intelligence dossiers went, it was neither very thorough nor very timely, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances.

The Falcon passed under the comet and pulled ahead. A moment later the canopy blast-tinting paled, revealing the blue circles of hundreds of ion engines spread across the darkness in front of them. The circles were accelerating toward the tiny white ball of the Hapan sun, but still growing rapidly larger as the Falcon overtook the fleet.

“Blast!” Han said. He needed an excuse to make Leia delay a few seconds when the usurper fleet jumped into hyperspace-and he had to keep Morwan distracted at the same time. “The sensor dish is sticking again. Lady Morwan, can you shut down the sensor suite just before we jump?”

“Won’t that be dangerous when we revert?” she asked. “We won’t be able to tell where the rest of the fleet is.”

“Not if Leia waits a bit after everyone else jumps,” Han replied. “And if you bring the sensors up again right after we jump, we won’t be blind for more than fifteen or twenty seconds.”

“Twenty seconds?” C-3PO squawked. “Eighty-seven percent of all fleet-maneuver accidents occur within the first ten seconds of exiting hyperspace!”

“Better that than being blind for the rest of the battle,” Leia said, following Han’s lead. “I can handle it, Threepio. I have the Force, remember?”

“Of course-pardon me for doubting you,” C-3PO said. “It’s impossible to assign a safety coefficient to the Force, but I’m quite sure we’re as safe with you flying blind as we are even when Captain Solo has all his instruments.”

Han would have reminded the droid that he had not gotten them killed yet, except that the blue circles ahead had begun to swell more slowly as Leia matched the fleet’s velocity. He quickly formatted his intelligence dossier for transmission, then watched in silence as the Falcon slid into position at the rear of the formation.

Finally, the voice of a female maneuvering chief came over the cockpit speakers. “Jump in three.”

Leia put her hand on the hyperdrive actuator, and Lady Morwan reached for the sensor controls.

“Two.”

Han turned to C-3PO and held his finger to his lips, then cranked their S-thread unit to maximum transmission power and switched to a general hailing channel.

“Mark.”

Space ahead flared blue as the usurper fleet accelerated to jump speed.

“Deactivate sensors,” Leia ordered,

Morwan used both hands to pull the sensor suite glide-switches to their off positions, and space went dark again as the usurper fleet entered hyperspace.

Han hit the TRANSMIT key.

Leia waited another second, then shoved the throttles to maximum and activated the hyperdrive. The stars stretched into a pearlescent blur.

Han returned the comm unit to its previous settings, then caught C-3PO looking at him with a cocked head.

“It was hardly necessary to do that yourself,” the droid said. “I’m perfectly capable of…”

“Your timing’s no good,” Han interrupted, worried the droid was about to mention the S-thread message. “And that’s the last I want to hear about it.”

“But my timing is excellent!” O3PO protested. “My reaction speed is less than two one-thousandths of a second, which is two magnitudes better than yours.”

“Han means that it’s a matter of judgment,” Leia said. “There were too many variables to define in the time available.”

“Oh, I see,” C-3PO replied, sounding calmer. “Captain Solo is having trouble expressing himself again.”

“I’m going to trip your primary circuit breaker,” Han said. “Is that clear enough?”