But nobody knew, and it would stay that way until he was certain he’d eliminated every threat she might face. He wasn’t taking chances. He was going to create two of the most lethal enemies any being could have.
“Hapan Fleet Ops to StealthX One-One, safe return,” said the voice on the comm. They had never said that before: being Chief of State had obviously upped their anxiety status to triple-red or something. But he was perfectly safe here. He was still visible in the Force, still all warmed bittersweet feelings, and for a little while he could afford not to care.
As Jacen accelerated toward the hyperjump point, he could have sworn a vessel was close to him. He felt something in the Force for a moment, but it was gone again. He checked his instruments: nothing. If the Hapes Cluster hadn’t been such a maze of hazards, he’d have jumped the moment he passed the planet’s upper atmosphere.
It must be something in the Hapan water. You were never this jumpy.
But there was something out there, and while he hated the imprecision of the phrase something dark, that was the best he could do: something hostile that was trying hard not to be. He hoped it was Hapan, and that they were just trying in vain to track him out of their space. He should have been able to sense that clearly, though, an ordinary vessel flown by ordinary people.
This wasn’t ordinary. He planned for the worst.
If he angled the StealthX right and shut down the head-up display, he could see a panoramic rear view reflected in the viewscreen. Sometimes he needed to see with his eyes to be certain. He killed the display and shifted his focus, and for a moment all he saw was velvet void.
Then the stars winked out.
“Lumiya?”
Silence.
She could hide in the Force, too. She thought he was letting his concentration wander. She probably couldn’t resist finding out where he was going.
If she’d followed him here, then she knew about Tenel Ka. She’d use it.
“It’s okay, Lumiya, I know it’s you.”
But there was still no response. That wasn’t like her.
“Lumiya, I can’t let you live now, you realize that?”
For a moment, even in this crisis, he found himself measuring her death against his prophecy. Was it Lumiya after all? Was she the sacrifice? What could there possibly be about her death that would kill something he loved?
“Lumiya, last chance …”
Then a searing white beam flooded his cockpit and blinded him for a second; he rolled instinctively to break, suddenly aware it was a landing light so close on his tail that the vessel must have nearly collided with him. How did the proximity sensors miss it? How did he miss it?
His Force-senses were flooded instantly with someone else’s ice-cold anger. The comm crackled.
“Game over, Lumiya,” he said, targeting his aft cannon.
“You bet it is,” said Mara.
chapter nineteen
She logged out Five-Alpha at 0036 hours, sir, and she didn’t file a flight plan.
GA StealthX technician, Coruscant, to Luke Skywalker
HAPES CLUSTER
Jacen couldn’t fire. It wasn’t regard for Mara, because his first instinct was to lock on and press the button, but she was so close that the detonation would have taken him with her. StealthXs had sacrificed shielding for sensor negators. It was only at times like thistimes that should never have happened, would never have happenedthat it was a problem.
He jinked left, and she matched him, and right, and left, and still she was so close on his tail that he braced for impact out of reflex, arms locked out on the yoke.
There was no advantage: same starfighter. No edge: she was as
good a pilot. No refuge: they were in open space. It was down to who hated more, and who was more prepared to die to take out the other.
All Jacen could think of was that now it was Mara who’d followed him here and knew about Tenel Ka. Her threats over Ben seemed irrelevant. He had a whole new problem.
His comm crackled again. He braced for a stream of vitriol from his aunt. But it was someone else’s voice.
“I have her, Jacen.”
Lumiya. Savior, maybe, but she shouldn’t have been here either. So Lumiya and Mara probably knew about Tenel Ka and Allana; and Lumiya certainly knew that he couldn’t let either woman live with that knowledge. Now he had two assassins on his tail, and he couldn’t trust either of them not to kill or betray him.
Laser cannons flared across his port side and he felt the impact in the airframe, but he was still in one piece. He smelled smoke. Brilliant white light filled the cockpit. Lumiyaif she was targeting Mara, if she wasn’t trying to kill him in some bizarre Sith testhad the same problem: Mara was flying so close that any explosion put him in her blast radius, or would send her debris punching through his shields at this range.