“Uh-huh. And how much time does this approach give us?”
Finished with his splicing, Seyah reaffixed the ceiling panel. “As long as it takes from now until they fire the weapon. A day. … two seconds. Unless, again, the master programming rejects the data I just submitted, in which case this master plan is also ineffectual. Down.”
Kyp dropped him. Seyah landed awkwardly but came upright, unhurt.
“And what’s master plan number three?”
“If we can get to the fire-control chamber, we can splice in programming that might cause Glowpoint, at the center of Hollowtown, to overload and explode.”
“Radius of the explosion?”
Seyah shrugged. “A few thousand kilometers? I’m guessing here.”
Kyp nodded, his expression fatalistic. “Facts, exact numbers, reassurance … a Jedi seeks not these things.”
“Good! Let’s get going.”
ABOARD THE ANAKIN SOLO
Leia pulled herself along the rectangular horizontal shaft. It was a meter wide, somewhat less than that tall, and seemingly endless ahead and behind. Bunches of cables, bound to the surface above by flexible ties, were thick enough to graze her back, particularly when they reached a cross-passage, and some of them-unshielded by accident rather than design, she was sure-carried current. Han had howled when his back had brushed against one, half a kilometer back.
Han was behind her, Iella ahead, and Iella was moving comparatively easily, despite the fact that she was broader in most dimensions than Leia.
“You’ve done this before, Iella.”
Leia sensed but could not see her companion nod. “A bunch of times. Since leaving CorSec, I think I’ve spent a quarter of my life in air passages, wiring accesses, and turbolift shafts.” She stopped and twisted so Leia could see her face-dusty, with rivulets of sweat making interesting patterns through the dust, as Leia knew she herself must look. “Location check, please.”
Leia stopped crawling and closed her eyes. Luke, back on Endor, had communicated to her the precise presence in the Force she was to look for, and she had found it soon after boarding the Anakin Solo. On that first contact, she had brushed across Jacen, too, but had subsequently managed to avoid touching him through the Force.
She couldn’t bear to touch her own son.
She shook the thought away. It was a distraction she didn’t need right now.
There was Allana, the Chume’da, a bright, pure presence. The girl did not seem to have moved since Leia first detected her. Leia lifted an arm, pointing ahead, up, to the left.
“What’s the holdup?” Han, not surprisingly, sounded impatient.
“Just a pause while I make sure we’re on the right course, Han, “lella said. “Thanks, Leia.” When Leia opened her eyes, lella was consulting her datapad. “Getting a diagram update from Artoo. Overlaying the original design specs for this class of ship with the plans used by the onboard maintenance division, I’m finding several spots that are just blanks. Not officially there. One is exactly where Master Skywalker says the torture chamber was.”
“Is one of them in the direction Leia was pointing?” Han’s voice, floating up from past Leia’s feet, suggested that he was doing his best to pretend he wasn’t irritated… and that his best wasn’t enough.
Iella nodded.
Han added some mock sweetness to his tone. “I’ve got a suggestion. Let’s go that way.”
Iella gave Leia a sympathetic look. “You could have found a nice Corellian to marry. I did.”
“I’m nice. I’m just… . decisive.”
Caedus watched on his monitor as Luke, Saba, and Ben approached the bridge doors from the corridor beyond. There were a few guards on duty, not that it mattered. They fired, the Jedi rushed, fists and lightsabers swung, the guards went down.
This was not good. Both Masters remained intact.
All was not lost, though. Caedus had resources still available to him. He was fresh. He had eight YVH droids.
In the monitor view, the Jedi approached the blast doors. Ben began to drive his lightsaber point into the metal.
Caedus made an impatient gesture. “Open.”
The blast doors slid aside. The Jedi stood there in triangular battle array, Luke and Saba now in front, Ben behind. Caedus and his YVH droids stared back at them. The bridge officers pretended to ignore the situation; they kept their eyes on their screens, conducting the space battle that raged around Centerpoint Station.
Caedus offered a smile that in no way reflected how he felt. “Uncle Luke. Ben. Master Sabatyne. Care for some caf?”
The Jedi, lightsabers ready, moved in, paying dose attention to the two YVH droids flanking them.