[Legacy Of The Force] - 08(125)

Jaina shot around the corner and even though she was in Mirta’s arc of fire, she felt complete confidence. But ahead of them, Tahiri-struggling to release something in the deckhead, clinging to a ladder, wearing a bright yellow environment suit-clearly didn’t. She let loose with a volley of blaster bolts that Jaina deflected with her lightsaber. The fire hit Mirta’s plates.

Jaina had never been close enough to someone in those circumstances to worry about what happened to deflected bolts, but now she knew. Mirta swore loudly and returned fire. Tahiri fended off the shots with her own lightsaber, and then Mirta just went crazy as far as Jaina was concerned: she ran full-tilt at Tahiri, yelling some curse at her at the top of her voice, something like “Gar shab’ika!”

Mirta shouldn’t have been able to beat a Jedi’s reaction time. But she did.

She cannoned into Tahiri and the impact lifted the Jedi bodily. It had to be the pure shock of seeing this ball of armored, cursing fury coming at her, not caring if the enemy held blaster, lightsaber, or ion cannon, that rooted Tahiri just long enough to get hit hard. She lashed out with the lightsaber. Jaina could see Tahiri through the faceplate and knew she would never forget her look of horror as the blade of energy simply failed to slice through Mirta’s body: My lightsaber doesn’t work. For any Jedi, it was a shocking, naked moment.

Jaina was only a split second behind Mirta, but it felt like minutes. She found herself on autopilot, somehow accessing that blind violence that Beviin had shown her, that absolute focus, and for a moment-for long enough-it shut down every warning about the dark side.

There was no anger, only her body taking over, and a voice inside saying, You can’t kill Mirta, she’s getting married, her mom died, she’s found her grandma. It felt like perfect logic right then. Jaina swung at Tahiri like a madwoman. Mirta rolled clear and there was the shunk of a vibroblade. She ducked under the flashing lightsabers, taking a fair few accidental hits, and Jaina saw it unfold in that odd slow motion of desperate combat-Mirta’s blade connected with Tahiri’s leg and dug into her thigh. Blood spurted: she’d hit an artery. Her blaster went spinning across the deck.

And then there was firing from behind; and boots, running. Tahiri fell back, clutching at her leg. Jaina twisted to see what was coming her way and there it was: three, four men in brownish gray uniforms and caps running toward them. One turned to fire behind him and got a bolt in the chest for his trouble. The rest opened fire on Jaina and Mirta, and it was clear they wanted to get where Tahiri was going. Tahiri herself was second priority at that moment. Jaina slashed at the flying bolts. Fett, Carid, and Vevut came pounding up behind the Moffs and the firefight sent Jaina spinning on instinct alone, following her lightsaber.

She felt the breath of cold air behind her. Metal rasped. Tahiri had dislodged whatever had jammed the hatch, and when Jaina turned, she saw Tahiri scrambling through the deckhead. There was blood everywhere on the deck; Mirta was on her knees, clutching her throat one-handed. “Your shabla brother, “she gasped. “He’s up there.” The Moffs lay dead. Jaina felt Jacen then; he was throttling Mirta to let Tahiri escape into the docking tube above the hatch. Jaina put every scrap of strength she had into breaking Jacen’s invisible Force choke hold on Mirta. She saw it like a black chain and visualized the links flying apart just as Carid shot past her and scrambled up the ladder followed by Vevut. Fett skidded to a halt and grabbed Mirta by her shoulder, as if he thought the blood on the deck might be hers.

“I’m okay, “she said.

“If he’s hurt you, I’ll break my own rule and take a long time killing him, “Fett said.

“Don’t worry.” Mirta rubbed her neck. “I got my own Jedi…”

Then the hatch above them slammed shut. Fett took a couple of steps up the ladder and hammered on it.

“Let me up there.” He hammered again. It must have been the air lock: they could hear nothing. “Carid? Open the hatch. Now. Leave the scum. You too, Verut.”

But there was still silence; and then Jaina could feel scraping vibrating through the hull.



MED SPRINTER: BELLY HATCH DOCKING TUBE

“Tahiri!” Caedus could see her in the dark tunnel of the tube, through the transparisteel viewport set in the outer hatch. The tube was five or six meters deep, long enough to extend through the multiskinned hull and into the air lock beneath. He opened the hatch; it was a simple manual opening, the kind that flipped back on itself. “Tahiri, come on - “

“I’m stuck, “she said weakly.

“You’ve only got a few meters to go.” Jaina… he could feel Jaina very close. “Come on.”