The Joiner King (49 page)

“That could always change, flyboy.”

“Come on. You know you can’t help yourself.” Han flashed her his best arrogant smirk, then activated the intercom. “Battle stations back there. We might be going anytime.”

“We know,” Kyp replied. “We’re Jedi.”

“Oh, yeah.” Han looked at the ceiling and silently cursed Kyp’s arrogance. “I must be getting forgetful in my old age.”

Meewalh informed him that she and Cakhmaim were also ready. Noghri were always ready.

When the mass analysis finally confirmed Han’s guess, he turned to face Juun. “You two had better head to your battle station, too. You remember how it works?”

“Of course—you went over the procedure several times.” Juun popped his datapad out of his vest pocket. “And I’ve recorded all your instructions right here, in case I forget.”

“Uh, great.” Han glanced away so Juun would not see him wince. “That makes me real confident.”

“I’m happy to know that,” Juun said. “But I do have one question.”

Han counted to three, reminding himself that it was better for the Sullustan to ask his questions now rather than later, when they were being dive-bombed by a thousand dartships.

“Okay, shoot.”

“Has this ever been tried before?”

Han and Leia exchanged looks of surprise, then Leia said, “I don’t see how it could have been, Jae.”

“Oh.” Juun was silent for a moment, then said, “I have another question.”

“No kidding,” Han grumbled.

“Maybe we should make this the last one,” Leia said. “I just felt Luke and Mara emerge from hyperspace.”

“Of course.” The Sullustan slipped out of his chair, and Tarfang did the same. “How do we know it’s going to work?”

“Good question,” Han said. He turned forward again and placed a tracking lock on Alema’s skiff.

After a moment, Leia explained, “It was Han’s idea, Jae.”

“Oh, I see.” Juun sounded satisfied. “Of course it will work.”

Tarfang growled something doubtful, but Juun was already leading the way back toward the engineering station.

A moment later, the irregular, matte-black body of two StealthX starfighters pulled alongside the
Falcon
, and Han saw Luke’s and Mara’s helmet-framed faces looking over from the cockpits of phantom craft. Leia closed her eyes for a moment, reaching out to them in the Force, trying to get some sense of their intentions. After the Dark Nest attack on the
Shadow
, they had decided to return with only the
Falcon
and a couple of StealthX escorts. Since the
Falcon
was not equipped to carry fighters, Luke and Mara had been taking turns with the other two Jedi Masters on the mission—Kyp and Saba—ferrying the star-fighters through hyperspace.

Luke and Mara happened to be in the cockpit when the time came for the final jump to Qoribu, but Han suspected that Mara would have insisted on being one of the pilots to follow Alema into the Dark Nest. She was taking the whole assassin thing pretty personally.

Leia opened her eyes, then Luke and Mara accelerated away toward Kr. They remained visible for a moment, a pair of dark X’s silhouetted against Qoribu’s bright stripes, then shrank into invisibility.

“Luke wants us to hold here until they find the nest,” Leia reported. “Then—”

“Excuse me,” C-3PO interrupted. “But we have an unfortunate situation. We’re being hailed by both Dukat Gray of the Hapan fleet
and
Commander Fel of the Chiss.”

“Put Gray on first,” Han said. “Fel is just going to—”

“No, shift them to a conference channel,” Leia said. “Maybe we can promote a dialogue.”

“Or a war,” Han grumbled.

Gray’s voice came over the speaker first. “Princess Leia, I demand an—”

“Who’s this?” Fel demanded.

“Dukat Aleson Gray, Duch’da to Lady AlGray of the Relephon Moons,” Gray responded.

There was a long silence.

“To whom am I speaking?” Gray demanded.

“Commander Jagged Fel,” Fel replied. “Of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet.”

Another long silence.

Finally, Gray said, “I was attempting to comm Princess Leia and her crew. Have you boarded their vessel?”

“I was wondering if
you
had,” Fel said.

“Of course not. Why would I comm a vessel I had boarded?”

“I don’t know that you
are
comming them,” Fel countered suspiciously. “Your signal is coming from the
Falcon.”

“
Your
signal is coming from the
Falcon,”
Gray accused. “I warn you, I won’t fall for any of your Chiss—”

“Pardon me, gentlemen,” Leia said. “Your concern is touching, but I assure you, the
Falcon
remains under Han’s command. Will you both activate Idol Smasher?”

Idol Smasher was an old encryption system the allies had used in the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. Outdated though it was, it was almost a certainty that both fleets would still have the decoding hardware available in their code room archives. Military cryptographers were notorious pack rats.

After a short pause, Gray said, “We’ll need two minutes.”

“We’ll need one.” Fel’s tone was superior. “Please notify us when you’re ready, Dukat.”

Han glanced back at C-3PO, who was already plugging the necessary module into the comm station, and smirked.

“The
Falcon
is ready now.”

The transmission light went out, then Leia said, “Trouble, Han.”

Han looked back to the tactical screen and immediately began to warm the ion drives. The moon Kr was fast vanishing behind a cloud of dartships. As he watched, the spectrograph identified their propulsion as hydrogen-based.

“Dark Nest,” he said. “Anything from Luke and Mara?”

“A little anxiety—they’re not calling for us, yet.”

“Tell them not to push it,” Han said. “They’re too old to play hero.”

“Han, they’re younger than you were at the Battle of Yuuzhan’tar.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got my luck,” Han said. “All they have is the Force.”

Fel’s voice came over the comm. “Checking encryption.”

“Well done, Commander!” C-3PO answered. “That took only thirty-three point seven seconds.”

“Thirty-three point
four
—you neglected the transmission lag,” Fel corrected. “I wanted to have a word with the Solos before Dukat Gray joined us.”

“Jag, we’re not going home.” Han was keeping one eye on the tactical display and one on Leia, ready to start toward Kr the instant it looked like Luke and Mara were in trouble. “Jaina’s in there, and—”

“Yes, I know,” Fel said. “I think … actually, I’m
convinced
she saved our fleet.”

Leia’s jaw fell, but her voice betrayed no hint of her shock. “You find that surprising, Jag? The Jedi are here to stop a war, not choose sides.”

“We’ve never doubted your intentions, Princess Leia,” Fel said. “Only your province in being here—and your ability to resist the Colony’s Will.”

“Then Jaina has changed your minds?”

“She has opened
miner
,” Fel corrected. “But that is very different from convincing Defense Fleet Command that the Jedi can neutralize the Killik threat.”

“We understand your concern,” Leia said. “Perhaps Defense Fleet Command would believe us if the Colony withdrew from Qoribu?”

There was a moment of stunned silence. On the tactical display, Kr had vanished beneath a yellow swarm of dartship symbols. Han shook an inquiring finger in the moon’s general direction, but Leia shook her head. Luke and Mara still did not want any help.

Finally, Fel asked, “The Jedi can arrange that?”

“Testing encryption,” Gray’s voice broke in. “You’ve been talking without me.”

“Encryption confirmed.” In a tone that mimicked Gray’s peevishness, C-3PO replied, “Though you
are
somewhat late.”

“It was only two minutes twenty,” Gray complained. “That’s no excuse—”

“We were just catching up on old times,” Leia said. “You may not be aware of it, but Commander Fel came
very
close to becoming our son-in-law.”

As Leia spoke, her eyes grew wide, and she began to gesture frantically out the forward viewport. Han slammed the throttles forward, and the
Falcon
leapt toward Qoribu.

“Commander Fel, Dukat Gray, your tactical officers are about to tell you that the
Falcon
is accelerating toward the moon Kr at maximum power.” Though Leia’s face was pale, her voice remained calm. “I wanted to inform you both of the reason.”

Leia briefed them on the Jedi discovery of the Dark Nest and their theory about the power it held over the rest of the Colony’s collective mind. She even revealed the Order’s fear that the nest was being controlled by the two Dark Jedi who had abducted Raynar Thul on
Baanu Rass
, keeping secret only the fact that the Dark Nest was also attempting to absorb Alema Rar.

“You’re telling us that the Colony is ruled by a hidden nest?” Fel asked, incredulous.

“Only in the sense that any sentient mind is ruled by its own unconscious mind,” Leia said. “
Influenced
might be a better term—though in the Killiks’ case the influence is very heavy. We’re fairly sure the Dark Nest is responsible for the Colony’s decision to inhabit Qoribu.”

“For what purpose?” Fel asked.

“To start a war,” Han said. “And so far, you guys are playing right into their snappy little pincers.”

“It would be foolish to assume you know our plans, Captain Solo.”

“Your plans were clear enough when the Fleet of the Glorious Defender Queen arrived,” Gray said. “You were maneuvering to attack.”

“Obviously, I cannot discuss our plans with any of you,” Fel
said. “I assume that the Jedi have located this Dark Nest on Kr and intend to break its hold over the Colony?”

“You could say that,” Han said. Kr was visible to the naked eye now, a fuzzy blue nugget about the size of a thumb. “If blasting it to bug parts counts.”

“With just the
Falcon
?” Gray asked.

“We have more than the
Falcon
,” Leia said. “Luke and Mara have already found the entrance to the nest.”

“That explains the activity on Kr,” Fel concluded. “The dartships seem to be swarming something.”

Though the
Falcon
’s tactical display showed no indications of weapons activity, Han had no doubt that the Skywalkers were busy dodging dartships. He could see it in the tautness around Leia’s eyes.

“Master Skywalker is under attack?” There was more excitement in Gray’s voice than concern.

“There’s no need for alarm, Dukat!” Leia commanded. “Luke and Mara can easily—”

A pair of Hapan Novas began to slip down the tactical display toward Kr. Han’s heart rose into his throat.

“Uh, what are you doing there, Dukat?”

“Sending support,” Gray said. “Queen Mother Tenel Ka would not be pleased if I allowed this Dark Nest to kill Master Skywalker and her husband—”

“Recall your vessels at once, Dukat,” Fel said. “We cannot permit any Hapan capital ship to approach the orbital plane.”

“It’s a small force,” Gray said. “Any fool can that see it poses no threat to—”

“Only a fool would allow his enemy to establish a forward position under the current circumstances,” Fel replied. A Chiss Star Destroyer and half a dozen cruisers started upward to meet the Hapan trio. “And we Chiss are not fools.”

“Oh, boy,” Han said under his breath. “I’ve got a—”

“—bad feeling. I know,” Leia finished. “Dukat Gray, leave this to us. We’ll let you know if—”

A chain of tiny orange flashes suddenly flared along Kr’s long axis as someone on the moon opened fire.

Two more Battle Dragons, accompanied by a dozen Novas, began to descend toward Qoribu’s rings.

“The queen’s fleet will not stand idly by while Master Skywalker is viciously attacked,” Gray declared.

“Dukat Gray—”

That was as much as Leia could say before Fel started to talk over her.

“The Chiss have no wish to see Master Skywalker and his wife injured, either.” A dozen Chiss cruisers joined the growing migration toward Kr. “But the Dark Nest is on
our
side of the rings. Allow
us
to support him.”

“Out of the question!” Gray shot back. Han had known even before the reply that Fel’s offer would never reach orbit. Gray cared more about being able to claim credit for rescuing Luke and Mara than whether they actually
needed
to be rescued. “The Chiss have made it clear they didn’t want the Jedi here in the first place. We have no assurance that you wouldn’t kill them yourselves.”

“Perhaps not,” Fel returned coolly. “But if you don’t recall those vessels, I
can
assure you—”

“Dukat Gray,” Leia said. “Sparking a clash with the Chiss is
not
going to win the Queen Mother’s favor. I suggest you recall your vessels and wait until your aid is truly needed.”

Another string of explosions lit Kr’s face. “It’s apparent to me that our aid
is
needed,” Gray said. “And if we must fight the Chiss to deliver it, we will.”

He closed the channel.

“Stubborn rodder!” Leia cursed. “Jag, you understand—”

“I’m sorry, Princess Leia,” Fel said. The Chiss fleet began to stream upward on all sides of the planet. “But my superiors refuse to take the chance that this isn’t a ploy. I suggest you avoid getting caught in the crossfire.”

A pillar of orange rocket exhaust arced out of Kr’s frozen tangle of ethmane crystals, emerging from an ice-lined shaft more than a kilometer across. This column was far larger than any others Luke and Mara had seen, its heat raising a wall of steam as it bent toward the Skywalkers and streaked low over the moon’s frozen surface.

Confident they had finally found what they were looking for, Luke and Mara banked away and began to accelerate, drawing the orange column after them. Luke would have liked to make a reconnaissance pass to be certain the huge shaft was the hangar opening he believed it to be, but Kr’s tortured terrain and icy blue light neutralized the speed and camouflage of their StealthXs, and both of their starfighters had already taken too much of a beating to risk another confrontation.