[Legacy Of The Force] - 07(58)

With the brightness and distortion came a blow in the Force. It hammered at Caedus, a vast, instantaneous loss of life.

Allana’s sobs cut off. She slumped in Caedus’s lap, mercifully relieved of the burden of consciousness.

Then space darkened and twisted back to its normal shape. Where once scores of ships had floated and fought, now there was only nothingness-or perhaps twisted wreckage, with no destructive beams or running lights to illuminate it.



On the verge of distributing hyperspace coordinates for their first jump, Luke bent over as the wave of pain and dread hit him. It was far from enough to incapacitate him, but he could feel a resonating shock from the others in his battle-meld.

He put up a rear holocam view on his cockpit monitor. It showed the Anakin Solo and tiny flashes of the ever-more-distant main starfighter engagement. … and emptiness where all the capital ships should be.

Numbed, he considered options. Turn back to help. … help whom? With six StealthXs? Look for the cause. … without a corps of scientists or adequate sensory gear?

Jacen was alive. Luke could feel him. He could feel Leia, too, not far away, and Jaina and Zekk. They were safe. Whatever had hit the region seemed to be an all-or-nothing attack, and it was done.

Dry-mouthed, he activated his comm board and transmitted the jump route. “Let’s go.”



Proximity alarms screamed all across the Love Commander’s bridge. Leia felt a yawning emptiness rise up to swallow her. She forced it back, saw Jaina turn toward her, pale-faced.

It was like that day, long ago, when she had seen Alderaan destroyed. She hadn’t known then that she was Force-sensitive, hadn’t realized that she was feeling the shock of those millions of deaths as well as her own sense of loss and horror.

This blow through the Force was much less severe, but her sensitivity to such things was much greater. She stood on shaky legs. “What just happened?”

Han glanced between her and Jaina, then returned his attention to his sensors. “Something just appeared in back of us, in back of the-behind Colonel Solo’s ship. Something huge, if its gravitic signature is any indication. Then it faded. The proximity alarms thought we were too near a planetary mass.” He looked again, gave a grunt of surprise. “The two task forces are gone.”

“Gone? Just go”e?”

“Just gone. Most of the starfighters are still out there. Away from where the capital ships were.”

“Centerpoint.” Jaina’s voice was subdued. “That had to be Centerpoint Station firing.”

“Yeah.” Han banked sharply to port and accelerated. “Colonel Solo’s ship is behind us, starfighters are headed our way from ahead-it’s time to go.”

Leia cast out with her feelings and picked up a strong presentment of Luke, a fading presence that was Jacen.

They were alive. In Jacen’s case, she felt both relief and dread.





Chapter 20


CENTERPOINT STATION, FIRE-CONTROL CHAMBER

Smoke filled the air, pooling against the ceiling and being battered in various directions by breezes from air vents. Technicians, unused to immediate action, fumbled with fire suppressors. One leapt away from his station as his keyboard suddenly glowed red; flames licked up through it, consuming its keys.

Admiral Delpin moved from station to station, issuing orders, forcing technicians back into seats or shooing them out of chairs too near burning and sparking control boards, as the situation warranted.

And all the while, Prime Minister Koyan stood where he was, bellowing in ever-escalating volume, “What happened? What happened? WHAT HAPPENED?”

Denjax Teppler caught his arm. “They don’t know yet, sir. You’re not helping.”

“I don’t have to help! I’m the kriffing Five Worlds Prime Minister! I want answers!”

“Answers don’t exist yet.” Teppler’s voice was low, but there was a trace of durasteel in his words. “You’ll get your answers faster if you stop interfering.”

Koyan stared at him as if debating whether to bite off the top of his skull, but nodded and shut up.

A moment later Delpin directed one of the technicians over to the knot of politicians. The man-yellow-skinned, bearded, with long hair in a braid and a patch of soot discoloring the left side of his face-offered Koyan an awkward salute. “Sir, the weapon fired.”

“Are you sure?”

The man nodded. “But the system overloaded. Getting past the old security interlocks-the way the system imprinted on Anakin Solo all those years ago, so that only he could fire it-has been problematic. So we fired the system and it punished us.”

Koyan shook his head. “I don’t get it.”