Heir To The Empire (13 page)

“I still don’t like it,” Mara insisted. “We promised them we’d do it. We promised.”

There was a short pause. “It’s standard procedure,” Karrde told her, a touch of curiosity almost hidden beneath the usual urbane smoothness of his voice. “I’m sure they’d prefer late delivery to losing the entire shipment.”

With an effort, Mara forced the black haze of memory away. Promises . . . “I suppose so,” she conceded, blinking her attention back to the control board. While they’d been talking, the last Star Destroyer had apparently gone to lightspeed, leaving nothing behind but enraged and impotent defenders and mass destruction. A mess for the New Republic’s politicians and military people to clean up. For a moment she gazed out at the distant planets. Wondering if Luke Skywalker might be among those the New Republic would send to help clean up that mess.

“Whenever you’re ready, Mara.”

With an effort, she shook away the thought. “Yes, sir,” she said, reaching for the board. Not yet, she told herself silently. Not yet. But soon. Very, very soon.

The remote swooped; hesitated; swooped again; hesitated again; swooped once more and fired. Leia, swinging her new lightsaber in an overlarge arc, was just a shade too slow. “Gah!” she grunted, taking a step backward.

“You’re not giving the Force enough control,” Luke told her. “You have to- Wait a minute.”

Reaching out with the Force, he put the remote on pause. He remembered vividly that first practice session on the Falcon, when he’d had to concentrate on Ben Kenobi’s instructions while at the same time keeping a wary eye on the remote. Doing both together hadn’t been easy.

But perhaps that had been the whole idea. Perhaps a lesson learned under stress was learned better.

He wished he knew.

“I’m giving it all the control I can,” Leia said, rubbing her arm where the remote’s stinger blast had caught her. “I just don’t have the proper techniques down yet.” She impaled him with a look. “Or else I just wasn’t cut out for this sort of fighting.”

“You can learn it,” Luke said firmly. “I learned it, and I never had any of that self-defense training you got when you were growing up on Alderaan.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Leia said. “Maybe all those old fighting reflexes are getting in my way.”

“I suppose that’s possible,” Luke admitted, wishing he knew that, too. “In that case, the sooner you start unlearning them, the better. Now: ready-”

The door buzzed. “It’s Han,” Leia said, stepping away from the remote and closing down her lightsaber. “Come in,” she called.

“Hi,” Han said as he walked into the room, glancing in turn at Leia and Luke. He wasn’t smiling. “How’s the lesson going?”

“Not bad,” Luke said.

“Don’t ask,” Leia countered, frowning at her husband. “What’s wrong?”

“The Imperials,” Han said sourly. “They just pulled a three-prong hit-and-fade on three systems in the Sluis sector. Some place called Bpfassh and two unpronounceable ones.”

Luke whistled softly. “Three at once. Getting pretty cocky, aren’t they?”

“That seems par for them these days.” Leia shook her head, the skin around her eyes tight with concentration. “They’re up to something, Han-I can feel it. Something big; something dangerous.” She waved her hands helplessly. “But I can’t for the life of me figure out what it could be.”

“Yeah, Ackbar’s been saying the same thing,” Han nodded. “Problem is he’s got nothing to back it up. Except for the style and tactics, this is all pretty much the same rear-guard harassment the Empire’s been pulling for probably the last year and a half.”

“I know,” Leia gritted. “But don’t sell Ackbar short-he’s got good military instincts. No matter what certain other people say.”

Han cocked an eyebrow. “Hey, sweetheart, I’m on your side. Remember?”

She smiled wanly. “Sorry. How bad was the damage?”

Han shrugged. “Not nearly as bad as it could have been. Especially considering that they hit each place with four Star Destroyers. But all three systems are pretty shook up.”

“I can imagine,” Leia sighed. “Let me guess: Mon Mothma wants me to go out there and assure them that the New Republic really is able and willing to protect them.”

“How’d you guess?” Han growled. “Chewie’s getting the Falcon prepped now.”

“You’re not going alone, are you?” Luke asked. “After Bimmisaari-”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Han said, throwing him a tight smile. “We’re not going to be sitting ducks this time. There’s a twenty-ship convoy going out to assess the damage, plus Wedge and Rogue Squadron. It’ll be safe enough.”

“That’s what we said about Bimmisaari, too,” Luke pointed out. “I’d better come along.”

Han looked at Leia. “Well, actually . . . you can’t.”

Luke frowned at him. “Why not?”

“Because,” Leia answered quietly, “the Bpfasshi don’t like Jedi.”

Han’s lip twisted. “The story is that some of their Jedi went bad during the Clone Wars and really mangled things before they were stopped. Or so Mon Mothma says.”

“She’s right,” Leia nodded. “We were still getting echoes of the whole fiasco in the Imperial Senate when I was serving there. It wasn’t just Bpfassh, either-some of those Dark Jedi escaped and made trouble all throughout the Sluis sector. One of them even got as far as Dagobah before he was caught.”

Luke felt a jolt run through him. Dagobah? “When was that?” he asked as casually as possible.

“Thirty, thirty-five years ago,” Leia said, her forehead creased slightly as she studied his face. “Why?”

Luke shook his head. Yoda had never mentioned a Dark Jedi ever being on Dagobah. “No reason,” he murmured.

“Come on, we can discuss history later,” Han put in. “The sooner we get going, the sooner we can get this over with.”

“Right,” Leia agreed, latching her lightsaber to her belt and heading for the door. “I’ll get my travel bag and give Winter some instructions. Meet you at the ship.”

Luke watched her leave; turned back to find Han eyeing him. “I don’t like it,” he told the other.

“Don’t worry-she’ll be safe,” Han assured him. “Look, I know how protective you’re feeling toward her these days. But she can’t always have her big brother standing over her.”

“Actually, we’ve never figured out which of us is older,” Luke murmured.

“Whatever,” Han waved the detail away. “The best thing you can do for her right now is what you’re already doing. You make her a Jedi, and she’ll be able to handle anything the Imperials can throw at her.”

Luke’s stomach tightened. “I suppose so.”

“As long as Chewie and me are with her, that is,” Han amended, heading for the door. “See you when we get back.”

“Be careful,” Luke called after him.

Han turned, one of those hurt/innocent expressions on his face. “Hey,” he said. “It’s me.”

He left, and Luke was alone.

For a few moments he wandered around the room, fighting against the heavy weight of responsibility that seemed sometimes on the verge of smothering him. Risking his own life was one thing, but to have Leia’s future in his hands was something else entirely. “I’m not a teacher,” he called aloud into the empty room.

The only response was a flicker of movement from the still-paused remote. On sudden impulse, Luke kicked the device to life again, snatching his lightsaber from his belt as it moved to the attack. A dozen stinger blasts shot out in quick succession as the remote swooped like a crazed insect; effortlessly, Luke blocked each in turn, swinging the lightsaber in a flashing arc that seemed to engulf him, a strange exultation flowing through mind and body. This was something he could fight-not distant and shadowy like his private fears, but something solid and tangible. The remote fired again and again, each shot ricocheting harmlessly from the lightsaber blade-

With a sudden beep the remote stopped. Luke stared at it in confusion, wondering what had happened . . . and abruptly realized he was breathing heavily. Breathing heavily, and sweating. The remote had a twenty-minute time limit built in, and he’d just come to the end of it.

He closed down the lightsaber and returned it to his belt, feeling a little eerie about what had just happened. It wasn’t the first time he’d lost track of time like that, but always before it had been during quiet meditation. The only times it had happened in anything like a combat situation were back on Dagobah, under Yoda’s supervision.

On Dagobah . . .

Wiping the sweat out of his eyes with his sleeve, he walked over to the comm desk in the corner and punched up the spaceport. “This is Skywalker,” he identified himself. “I’d like my X-wing prepped for launch in one hour.”

“Yes, sir,” the young maintenance officer said briskly. “We’ll need you to send over your astromech unit first.”

“Right,” Luke nodded. He’d refused to let them wipe the X-wing’s computer every few months, as per standard procedure. The inevitable result was that the computer had effectively molded itself around Artoo’s unique personality, so much so that the relationship was almost up to true droid counterpart level. It made for excellent operational speed and efficiency; unfortunately, it also meant that none of the maintenance computers could talk to the X-wing anymore. “I’ll have him there in a few minutes.”

“Yes, sir.”

Luke keyed off and straightened up, wondering vaguely why he was doing this. Surely Yoda’s presence would no longer be there on Dagobah for him to talk to or ask questions of.

But then, perhaps it would.

“As you can see,” Wedge said, his voice grimly conversational as he crunched through plastic and ceramic underfoot, “the place is something of a mess.”

“That’s for sure,” Leia agreed, feeling a little sick as she looked around at the flat-bottomed, rubble-strewn crater. A handful of other Republic representatives from her party were wandering around the area, too, holding quiet conversations with their Bpfasshi escorts and occasionally pausing to pick through the pieces of what had once been a major power plant. “How many people died in the attack?” she asked, not at all sure she wanted to hear the answer.

“In this system, a few hundred,” Wedge told her, consulting a data pad. “Not too bad, really.”

“No.” Involuntarily, Leia glanced up at the deep blue-green sky above them. Not bad, indeed. Especially considering that there had been no fewer than four Star Destroyers raining destruction down on them. “A lot of damage, though.”

“Yeah,” Wedge nodded. “But not nearly as much as there could have been.”

“I wonder why,” Han muttered.

“So does everyone else,” Wedge agreed. “It’s been the second most popular question around here these days.”

“What’s the first?” Leia asked.

“Let me guess,” Han put in before Wedge could answer. “The first is, why did they bother pounding on Bpfassh in the first place.”

“You got it,” Wedge nodded again. “It’s not like they didn’t have any better targets to choose from. You’ve got the Sluis Van shipyards about thirty light-years away, for starters-a hundred ships there at any given time, not to mention the docking facilities themselves. Then there’s the Praesitlyn communications station at just under sixty, and four or five major trade centers within a hundred. An extra day of travel each way, tops, at Star Destroyer cruising speeds. So why Bpfassh?”

Leia thought it over. It was a good question. “Sluis Van itself is pretty heavily defended,” she pointed out. “Between our Star Cruisers and the Sluissi’s own permanent battle stations, any Imperial leader with a gram of sense would think twice before tackling it. And those other systems are all a lot deeper into New Republic space than Bpfassh. Maybe they didn’t want to push their luck that far.”

“While they tested their new transmission system under combat conditions?” Han suggested darkly.

“We don’t know that they’ve got a new system,” Wedge cautioned him. “Coordinated simultaneous attacks have been done before.”

“No.” Han shook his head, looking around. “No, they’ve got something new. Some kind of booster that lets them punch subspace transmissions through deflector shields and battle debris.”

“I don’t think it’s a booster,” Leia said, a shiver running up her back. Something was starting to tingle, way back at the edge of her mind. “No one in any of the three systems picked up any transmissions.”

Han frowned down at her. “You okay?” he asked quietly.

“Yes,” she murmured, shivering again. “I was just remembering that when-well, when Darth Vader was having us tortured on Bespin, Luke knew it was happening from wherever he was at the time. And there were rumors that the Emperor and Vader could do that, too.”

“Yeah, but they’re both dead,” Han reminded her. “Luke said so.”

“I know,” she said. The tingling at the edge of her mind was getting stronger . . . “But what if the Imperials have found another Dark Jedi?”

Wedge had gotten ahead of them, but now he turned back. “You talking about C’baoth?”

“What?” Leia frowned.

“Joruus C’baoth,” Wedge said. “I thought I heard you mention Jedi.”

“I did,” Leia said. “Who’s Joruus C’baoth?”

“He was one of the major Jedi Masters back in pre-Empire days,” Wedge said. “Supposed to have disappeared before the Clone Wars started. I heard a rumor a couple of days ago that he’s surfaced again and set up shop on some minor world named Jomark.”

“Right.” Han snorted. “And he was just sitting around doing nothing during the Rebellion?”

Wedge shrugged. “I just report ‘em, General. I don’t make ‘em up.”

“We can ask Luke,” Leia said. “Maybe he knows something. Are we ready to move on?”

“Sure,” Wedge said. “The airspeeders are over this way-”

And in a sudden rush of sensation, the tingling in Leia’s mind abruptly exploded into certain knowledge. “Han, Wedge-duck!”

-and at the rim of the crater a handful of well-remembered gray-skinned aliens appeared.

“Cover!” Han shouted to the other Republic reps in the crater as the aliens opened up with blasters. Grabbing Leia’s wrist, he dived for the limited protection of a huge but badly twisted plate of shielding metal that had somehow gotten itself dug halfway into the ground. Wedge was right behind them, slamming hard into Leia as he reached cover.