[Legacy Of The Force] - 08(127)

He fired into Caedus’s leg. Then he just let go. The agony was suddenly somewhere else. It wasn’t happening to Caedus at that moment, but to another Caedus a long way away. He put his last, best effort into Force-punching the hatch overhead-not pushing, nothing so refined-and bursting it open. At the moment he did that, he pushed off hard with his uninjured leg and rocketed through the docking ring into the sprinter with Tahiri clutched to him.

The next thing he knew he was on the med sprinter’s deck, Tahiri sprawled beside him. He slammed the inner hatch controls and the hull sealed. He needed to get clear; whatever had smashed into him outside was going to pur-sue him, but Tahiri needed help now. He concentrated everything on holding that blood back, every Force trick he could muster, and scrambled for clamps and dressings and fluid lines.

She was unconscious. He expected to feel a barrage of cannon fire just before his ship broke up and he had a few final seconds of feeling that he’d fought in vain. But he was still in one piece, and nothing was hammering on the hull. He couldn’t understand why he had several clear minutes-he was certain it really was that long, not the effect of adrenaline and panic on his brain’s time perception-and nothing had happened to him while he put a line into Tahiti’s arm and pumped plasma into her as he put a proper compression dressing on her thigh.

He’d managed to get the suit stuck in the dressing, too, but she wasn’t bleeding out now.

And he was still alive.

It really was his destiny. Nobody could be that lucky without a reason.

Caedus hit the automated controls as he stumbled past the pilot’s console and sent the med speeder shooting vertically away from Bloodfin’s hull.

“It’s okay, Tahiri, “he said, centering himself again. “We’re both going to live to fight another day. It’s our destiny.”



IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER BLOODFIN

“Leave him!” Fett said. “Grade, back off. I said he was Jaina’s and I mean it.”

Grade’s voice came out of nowhere. Jaina realized she could hear the comlink from Mirta’s helmet as it lay on one side on the deck.

“Yes, Mand’alor…. you can’t blame a boy for trying, though.”

“Let me go after Jacen, “Jaina said. “He’s hurt, he’s tired, he’s got an injured apprentice…”

“In what?” Fett said. “The Bes’uliik? Great. And then what do you do when you catch him? You’re not ready to do what needs doing. We’ll make you ready.”

Fett had hold of Mirta’s shoulder as if he was going to shake the daylights out of her. Instead he just reached out to touch her hair, a couple of awkward smoothing gestures that suggested she was burning his fingers. It struck Jaina that he might never have stroked his own daughter’s hair. It was disturbingly poignant. True to type, Mirta bristled and Fett shoved his thumb in his belt. The brief attempt at being grandfather and granddaughter had evaporated.

“I’m fine, Ba’buir, “Mirta said. “Me and Jaina, we’re a good double act.”

“You’re a maniac, “Jaina said. “Tahiri could have killed you.”

“She had to get past the beskar first, and anyway, you got her.”

“No, you got her…. you severed an artery.” “Well, that’s for killing an old man.”

Jaina tried to imagine how Mirta felt being so close to the person who’d killed her mother and not being able to get at him. Jaina was now in a world of unsettling emotions post-combat, of feeling the rush dissipate, and thinking of who might have been killed and who might have done the killing, and an odd urge to find everything both funny and terrifying at the same time.

Fett cut in. “Let’s get back below. In case it slipped your minds, we’ve still got a few troopers to calm down.” He cocked his head suddenly as if he was listening to comm chatter. “Okay. Talgal says she’s done that. It would be nice if someone told me when they were storming a hangar deck.”

The hatch overhead opened and Carid dropped down with Vevut, the pair of them hitting the deck with loud thuds. Carid lifted off his helmet and shook his head like an animal shaking water out of its coat.

“I enjoyed that, “he said, all smiles. “No offense, jetii, but kneecapping your brother made my day, it surely did. If the Mand’alor hadn’t been such a spoilsport and made me stop, I’d have enjoyed putting that bolt in his…”

Vevut slapped Mirta’s back enthusiastically. “Kandosii! Now that’s a daughter to have in the family. Does Grade know you can stab like that?”