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[Legacy Of The Force] - 05(84)

By:Sacrifice (Karen Traviss)


It was the ship.

Mara concentrated hard on sensing Lumiya, but she could detect nobody inside the vessel. Suddenly an aperture appeared in the hull and a ramp extruded. It was too tempting, and she was too old a hand at this kind of game to walk straight in, but she had to know what was going on. The wake ended here. Lumiya had used this ship. But—

I can take her. This is all mini games. I’m not falling for it.

If Lumiya was waiting within, hiding somehow, then Mara would kill her. If she wasn’t, then Mara would sit in wait for her, and kill her then. It was all the same to Mara. She didn’t have anything more urgent to do right then.

She placed her boot on the ramp and took a few cautious steps, lightsaber held two-handed. If the hotel had security cams and could see what was going on, it was just too bad.

Mara felt bewilderment that wasn’t hers.

You’re not who I expected.

It was the ship again.

“What d’you mean, I’m not who you expected?” No, she didn’t need to speak: she realized she could think back at this thing.

You are … very similar.

“Thanks. Thanks a bunch.” Maybe the ship had a high regard for Lumiya. Mara decided that it was as good a source as any of information. She thought her next question, not even in words, but in concepts and attitudes she thought she’d left behind a long time ago. The mental conversation left a taste in her like being a Hand again.

Where is she, Ship’?

The other one? Close by.

You’re a thing of the Sith, aren’t you?

You know darkness well. Better than the other one that I expected to see return.

Mara didn’t know what to make of that, but right then she was prepared to accept that her intent was far more malevolent than Lumiya knew how to be. She wanted destruction. She wanted obliteration.

Last of your kind, Lumiya. And about time.

Mara hesitated on the brow of the ramp. She thought for a minute that she might be pulled in, and the spherical ship would then trap her inside and make a run for it. She took the precaution of reaching inside with one hand to place the last of her tiny transponders—her only remaining gadget from her previous existence—just inside the hatch. It attached to the oddly stone-like coating she could feel within. At least if that happened, someone might trace her. And if Lumiya ever returned to the ship, the transponder would report her position every time Mara’s emitter pinged it.

Mara took a cautious breath and lowered her head to look inside.

The ship really was empty.

Not just devoid of crew—empty. There was nothing within the hull; no cockpit, no instruments, no systems indicators, nothing. It was hollow, lit by a red glow as if there were a fire burning steadily behind the bulkheads. She hadn’t seen that light from the outside.

And that was as far as she got. She felt something coming, and she knew what that something was. She took a few steps back down the ramp and waited, lightsaber still extended.

A slim figure in a dark gray suit and veiled triangular headdress stepped into the space between the parked ships.

“Hello, little housewife … ,” said Lumiya.

Mara’s autopilot kicked in and she was the Emperor’s Hand again, silent and focused. There was nothing worth saying anyway. Amateurs gave speeches; professionals got on with the job.

She Force-leapt five meters at Lumiya, slashing down right to left, two-handed. The stroke—all power, no finesse—clipped the Sith’s headdress as she sprang back, slicing off a section. Lumiya’s eyes widened, pupils dilated, but she was already whirling her lightwhip about her head. The tails crackled and hissed, missing Mara only because she threw all her energy into a Force push to slow them a fraction.

Mara didn’t take that weapon lightly. It was the worst of both worlds, leather strips studded with impervious Mandalorian iron fragments and tendrils of sheer, raw, murderous dark energy. Mara drew her blaster and rolled under the hull of the ship next to her. The lightwhip gouged through the durasteel with a shriek of tearing metal, filling the air with the smell of hydraulic fluid, and the spurt of liquid turned into a torrent that began spreading in a thick pool. As Mara rolled clear on the other side of the ship, Lumiya landed heavily on both feet and brought the whip down so close to Mara’s head that she felt the rush of air on her right cheek like a breath. The crack was deafening.

Mara wasn’t even thinking when she aimed the blaster. Lumiya’s whip hand was raised to throw as much weight as possible from the back stroke. A puff of white vapor burst from Lumiya’s shoulder, and she staggered a few paces.

Metal. Maybe I hit metal.

Maybe she had, because Lumiya teetered for a second but came right back. Mara sprang horizontally from a crouch and cannoned into Lumiya’s legs with all the power she could muster from the Force. She hit solid durasteel. Blood filled her mouth but she couldn’t feel a thing—yet. Clinging to Lumiya’s knees with one arm, denying her the space to swing the whip, she brought her down like a felled tree before smashing her head into the woman’s face.