Star by Star (9 page)

Han and Izal began a warm start-up, while Leia occupied herself trying to guess whether they would intercept the freighter before it jumped to hyperspace. Identifiers began to appear beneath the blips on the tactical display, revealing a motley assortment of old T-65 X-wings, even older Y-wings, and a pair of Skipray blastboats. Some of the newcomers’ transponder codes were already blinking to show damage, and the Yuuzhan Vong had not even fired.

“That’s the saddest pirate band I’ve seen in some time,” Leia said. “Who did Master Saba hire for this assignment?”

“No one. That is our squadron, the Wild Knightz.” Tesar smiled proudly. “I fly a very fine Y-wing.”

Any need to apologize was forestalled by a proximity alarm. Another vessel, this one a fast-freight tagged the
Jolly Man
, emerged from hyperspace to block the
Roamer
’s line of escape. The CorDuro ship continued on course and began to fire, lacing the darkness outside with tiny needles of light. A trio of ancient Z-95 Headhunters dropped out of the
Jolly Man
’s belly and moved to meet it. The
Roamer
started to turn away—then suddenly changed its mind and ran toward the tiny sun.

“He’s going down the gravity well! On a white dwarf!” Han engaged the ion drives—still a little cold—and launched the
Falcon
. “He must be crazy.”

“No,” Tesar said. “He is frightened.”

The reason grew apparent an instant later, when a blip in hot pursuit emerged from behind an asteroid. A tag naming the vessel the
Sureshot
appeared, along with a legend identifying it as a CEC YT-1300 stock light freighter—the same ship as the
Falcon
.

“She’s not as fast as the
Falcon,
” Izal Waz said proudly. “But … well, she still flies.”

The
Roamer
quickly started to pull away from the
Sureshot
, but its abrupt change of direction had given the
Jolly Man
’s Headhunters time to catch up. They took a few passes, taking out the energy shields and forcing the captain to waste time maneuvering or have a hole burned through his bridge. Finally, the
Sureshot
activated its tractor beam and caught hold of the target.

The
Roamer
stopped maneuvering and continued to accelerate, firing at the
Sureshot
and dragging the smaller freighter after it. The Headhunters took care of the cannon fire in two passes, but they could not target the drive nacelles without getting caught in the tractor beam. The
Sureshot
turned ninety degrees in an attempt to change vector, but the course did not vary noticeably. Its engines could not match the combination of the larger freighter’s power and the white dwarf’s gravity.

“Smart,” Leia said. “He’s giving the
Sureshot
a choice—release or be dragged into the sun.”

“Tesar,” Han said, “how long before they reach the point of no return?”

Tesar had already done the calculations. “Ten minutes,” he said. “We will reach tractor range in five.”

Han opened a comm channel. “Hold tight,
Sureshot
. Help’s on the way.”

“Just don’t be all day about it,” came the reply.

Leia spent the next few minutes scarcely breathing as the
Falcon
closed. The Headhunters continued to harry the
Roamer
, though it was just harassment and everyone knew it. On Leia’s recommendation, they opened a channel to the captain and promised to broker a lenient sentence in return for cooperating with New Republic Intelligence. The captain responded by promising not to drag the
Sureshot
into the sun in return for shutting off the tractor beam, then closed the channel. Izal Waz suggested offering the crew freedom in exchange for the bacta tanks, but Leia overruled that idea. If the captain knew what they were really after, there was a good chance he would destroy the tanks out of vindictiveness.

So they waited and watched on the tactical display as the other two flights of Wild Knights used the Yuuzhan Vong picket ship for target practice. Though the vessel was hurling an amazing amount of plasma and magma into space, the ancient starfighters always seemed to be where the enemy attacks weren’t, or to angle their shields at just the right time, or to take the Yuuzhan Vong gunners by surprise. The corvette analog disintegrated bit by bit, slowly at first, then more rapidly, and finally it simply flew apart and became indistinguishable from the dust ring.

Han whistled. “Where were they when the Yuuzhan Vong attacked Ithor? The New Republic could use a few more pilots like those.”

“This one does not think Master Luke would have approved,” Tesar said. “We are given to understand he does not want the Jedi to hunt as soldierz.”

“You’re all Jedi?” Leia asked.

“All of the pilotz, yes.”

The blocky silhouette of a Damorian freighter eclipsed the tiny sun ahead, its glowing ion drives sliding across the cockpit canopy as Han brought the
Falcon
in behind it. The smaller disk of a YT-1300 appeared below them and a little off to one side, its back painted in a patternless kaleidoscope of the primary colors so favored by the Arcona. The Headhunters were barely visible, a trio of tiny black crosses chasing the bolts of their laser cannons up the
Roamer
’s half-kilometer hull.

Han spoke over the intercom. “Ladies, we’re counting on you to take out the drive nacelles. Izal, why don’t you handle the tractor beam?”

“On my way.”

The Arcona unbuckled his harness and rose. The mere sight of the massive hull ahead was enough to convince Leia they could not change its vector in time.

“Han,” she said, “this isn’t the way to do it.”

Han half turned in his seat. “I’m listening.”

“Won’t there be an escape hatch above the bridge?”

“Yeah—locked from the inside,” Han said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Leia said. “We have Jedi.”

Han frowned. “The CorDuro crew will be waiting.”

“So?” Tesar asked. “We have Jedi.”

For some reason even Izal Waz did not seem to understand; this sent Tesar into a fit of sissing. Leia waved the back of her fingers at Han.

“We have five minutes,” she said. “I can handle the cofferdam.”

“Four and a half minutes,” Izal Waz corrected, stepping to the back of the flight deck.

“Two will do.” Tesar began to siss again. “We have Jedi.”

“Right.” Han drew his blaster and passed it to Leia. “I just hope we still have Jedi when this is done.”

Leia led the way to the port docking ring, where Bela and Krasov were already waiting in their brown Jedi robes. They were a terrifying contrast to Izal Waz, who if the truth was told, looked rather comical in his ragged flight tabard.

Han set the
Falcon
on edge and brought it into position over the docking ring. The
Roamer
attempted to slide out from under them, but Han was too good a pilot to let such a cumbersome ship outmaneuver him. Leia put the cofferdam over the docking ring on the third try, then activated the magnetic clamp and pressurized the passage.

“Three minutes,” Han warned. “If you can’t—”

Tesar opened the hatch—and promptly hissed as a blaster bolt caught him in the shoulder. From her chair, Leia glimpsed a charging crew member in a CorDuro uniform and squeezed off two shots, then the two Hara sisters were leaping through the door with lit lightsabers. The human gurgled and thumped to the floor. A pair of blaster rifles opened up from the opposite hatch. The tunnel filled with flashes and hums and zings for about two seconds, then the sounds began to recede as the Barabels carried the battle into the
Roamer
.

Izal Waz followed, stepping over two bodies in the cofferdam and kicking another out of the way as he boarded the freighter. Tesar was slower to react, pulling the cloth away from his shoulder to reveal the smoking hole and scorched scales beneath.

Leia moved her chair forward. “Tesar, how bad?”

“Bad,” he growled. “My best robe.” He stuck a claw through the hole. “This really burnz me.”

Then, sissing with hilarity, he leapt through the hatch and followed his companions into the
Star Roamer
.

Leia stared after him in dumbfounded silence. When the hatch at the other end of the cofferdam closed, she sealed the
Falcon
’s hatch and withdrew the cofferdam, then checked her chronometer.

Two minutes.

She activated the intercom. “Han, we’re clear. Maybe we can buy a little time if we use the—”

“Don’t need to,” Han replied. “The
Roamer
has cut her throttles and is turning outbound.”

“They’re surrendering?” Leia asked. “Good. Maybe now we can find out who wants me dead.”

“Uh, maybe not,” Han said. “They’re not exactly surrendering.”

“Not exactly surrendering?” Leia double-checked the hatch seal, then started for the main hold. “What are you talking about?”

“Sensors are showing two escape pod deployments.”

“
Here
?”

Leia reached the main hold and went straight to the engineering station, where she saw the image of two escape pods arcing away from the
Star Roamer
. At escape pod speeds, it would have taken them over three years to reach the nearest habitable environment. But that was not going to be a problem. From the way it looked to Leia, both pods were already well down the white dwarf’s gravity well.

Izal Waz’s breathless voice came over the speaker. “
Star Roamer
secure,” he said. “With enough bacta to fill a lake.”

“Izal,” Leia asked, patching through the intercom. “What about the crew?”

“You mean survivors?”

“Yes, survivors,” Leia said.

There was a moment of silence, then Izal Waz’s voice fell to a whisper. “Well, what would
you
do if you saw three angry Barabels coming your way?”

Impossible as it was to ignore the stunning cascade of liquid metal outside the transparisteel walls of the Cinnabar Moon Retreat, Han tried. He sat in the natatorium of the abandoned spa the Wild Knights were using as a base, trying to concentrate on the two datapads before him, listening to Leia’s leg braces whir and clunk as she walked circuits around the empty pool. C-3PO was standing behind the covered bar, using a portable HoloNet hookup to access databases across the galaxy and add yet more entries to the catalog Han was studying. It was maddening work, if only because CorDuro had so many employees, and so many of them had at one time or another been affiliated with illicit organizations. Han wondered what his own dossier would have looked like in this light, or even Leia’s. Smugglers, insurrectionists, Hutt-killers …

The name of a woman who had once served as a clerk in Thrackan Sal-Solo’s Human League appeared on a display. Han transferred it to the scrutiny list on the second datapad, then used an electronic stylus to bring up the next entry. Somewhere on this list he would find someone who knew Roxi Barl, and that would give him a thread he could follow to the person who wanted his wife dead. Or so he hoped. In the week since their capture of the
Star Roamer
, it was the best plan they had devised, and time was running out to develop a new one. The Wild Knights had spotted a mysterious task force sniffing around a nearby system; like the flotilla that had jumped the
Falcon
outside Corellia, this one operated with deactivated transponders and included
Lancer
-class customs frigates.

Leia’s clunking grew louder. Han looked up to see her
approaching, arms swinging wide to balance the cybernetic exercise braces that kept her legs from collapsing.

“That’s all.” She stopped in front of her repulsor chair and turned her back toward it, arms extended for Han to take when he lowered her into the seat. “These braces still aren’t adjusted. I can’t even cock my ankle.”

“Give it some time.” Han did not rise. Leia had only completed six of the twenty-five laps that Cilghal—the Jedi’s most accomplished healer—had prescribed, and today was the first day she had gone beyond four laps. “You just need to get used to them.”

“Thanks for your opinion, Dr. Solo,” Leia said dryly. She continued to stand with her arms out. “Now, would you please help me into my chair and take these things off?”

Han slapped the stylus on the table. “Sure.”

Though thrice-daily bacta treatments had finally chased the infection from Leia’s legs, it seemed to Han another infection had been festering in a place bacta could not reach. There was a sadness in her that had been growing since Corellia. Any effort to encourage her invariably met a sharp-tongued riposte, any bid to urge her on only resulted in a sullen retreat. This was not the Leia he had married all those years ago, before … well, before he had gone crazy and shut her out. She had Leia’s face and voice and body and even her wit, but she held herself apart now; it was as though the Yuuzhan Vong had taken Leia away from him without even killing her, and now he wanted her back.

“Han?” Leia was suspended halfway above the seat of the repulsor chair, her arms still clasped in his grasp. “Are you going to keep me hanging here?”

“No.” Han hauled her to her feet, then took her arm and pulled her two steps toward the pool. “Let’s do a couple of circuits together. If something’s out of alignment, maybe I’ll see it.”

“
If
, Han?” Leia pulled her arm free. “Wouldn’t I be the one who could tell?”

Han sighed. “Look, maybe they’re uncomfortable, but there are only so many adjustments. I’ve tried them all.”

Leia narrowed her eyes. “So I don’t know what I’m talking about?”

“I’m saying give them more time.” Han took her arm again. “Come on, just a couple more circuits.”

“Are you listening?” Leia refused to move her feet, and Han had to stop pulling or drag her over. “It hurts. I can’t do any more today.”

C-3PO looked up at the sound of Leia’s sharp voice and started to say something, then wisely decided his assistance was not needed.

“You mean won’t,” Han said.

“All right, won’t.” Leia clunked the two steps back to her chair. “What’s the difference? Either way, you’re helping me into that chair and out of these braces. If you can’t do that—”