The Unseen Queen (17 page)

But that still did not explain how Saba knew it was the
Mon Mothma
ahead. The Galactic Alliance had two
Imperial
-class Star Destroyers equipped with hidden gravity-well generators. Leia stretched out to the ship in the Force and felt the expected throng of life, but the concentration was too dense for her to recognize the presence of anyone in particular.

“Okay, we were interdicted,” Leia said. “But I still don’t see how you can be sure it’s the
Mothma
up there. It could be the
Elegos A’Kla
.”

“It is the
Mon Mothma
,” Saba insisted. “But what does it matter?”

“It doesn’t, really,” Leia said. “Nobody in the Defense Force is going to interfere with a Jedi mission, but the
Mothma
’s commander, Gavin Darklighter, is an old family friend. He won’t waste too much of our time.”

“It would not be wise to place your trust in friendship, Jedi Solo,” Saba warned. “Chief Omas tried to keep the fleet’z departure from us, and now this. Commander Darklighter will have orderz.”

“Probably,” Leia said. “But you don’t know Gavin Darklighter. He always finds a way to do the right thing.”

She touched Mara and the other StealthX pilots in the Force, alerting them that she was about to get under way, then activated the
Falcon
’s sublight drives and started forward. The Star Destroyer quickly began to swell in the viewport, and the comm signals and sensor returns soon grew strong enough for the electronic scrubbers to clarify. Finally, the
Mon Mothma
’s transponder code appeared on the tactical display, surrounded by a large cloud of symbols denoting war-era XJ3 X-wings and Series 4 E-wings.

A comm officer’s voice crackled over the cockpit speaker, so raw and scratchy that it was impossible to recognize the owner’s species. “
Millennium Falcon
, be advised that the Utegetu Nebula is under blockade. Please reverse course.”

“
Blockade?
” Leia made herself sound more surprised than she really was. “Under whose authority?”

“The Galactic Alliance’s, obviously,” the comm officer replied. “I ask again, please reverse course. All vessels attempting to enter or leave the nebula will be impounded.”

Leia’s blood started to boil. “
You
be advised that the
Falcon
is on a Jedi mission.”

She began to angle ahead of the
Mothma
’s bow. The tactical display, still smudged with blank streaks and small patches of static, showed a squadron of XJ3s moving to intercept the
Falcon
.

Leia frowned, then said to the comm officer, “I trust you’ve been in the Defense Force long enough to understand the grief you’il face if you interfere with us.”

“I know the consequences of ignoring my orders,” the officer said. “This is your last warning. Continue to advance, and the
Falcon
will be impounded.”

The Force grew electric with the outrage and surprise of Mara and the other StealthX pilots, but Saba was more contemplative. She flicked the air absentmindedly with her forked tongue, then activated her own microphone.

“We will consider your threat,” she said. “Stand by.”

“Stand by?” the officer echoed. “That is not—”

Saba closed the channel, then turned to Leia. “We should reverse course.”

“And leave Han and Luke stranded on Woteba?” Leia asked. “Never!”

“Having no ship and being stranded are different thingz,” Saba replied. “Master Skywalker is … he is
Master
Skywalker
. He can find a way off Woteba anytime he wishez.”

“But he
won’t
,” Leia objected. “He’s waiting for us to return with a cure for the Fizz—and in the meantime, the Colony is provoking the Chiss again. We need to get him and Han off Woteba before a war breaks out.”

Mara began to pour impatience into the Force, urging Leia and Saba to start their run.

Leia looked over at Saba.

Saba shook her head. “Not through the Murgo Choke. We cannot take a Star Destroyer.”

“Take it?” Leia asked. “You think we’re going to
attack
the
Mon Mothma
?”

“You know another way through the Choke?” Saba asked.

“Sure,” Leia said. “We call their bluff.”

Leia reached out to initiate the Jedi battle-meld and discovered that Mara and the other pilots had already opened it. Clearly in agreement with Leia, Mara was radiating confidence, reassuring them that the StealthXs were ready to drop in behind the XJ3s. Saba let out a hiss of resignation, then began rerouting extra power to the shields.

Leia reopened the comm channel to the
Mon Mothma
.

Before she could speak, the comm officer’s angry voice came over the cockpit speakers. “
Falcon
, we have finished warning you. Slow and stand by for escort.”

“Negative,” Leia said. “Let me speak to Commodore Darklighter.”

“Commodore Darklighter is unavailable,” the officer replied.

Saba made a hissing sound deep in her throat, and Leia saw on her display that the XJ3 squadron had moved into firing position behind the
Falcon
.

“Kill your drives and stand by,” the comm officer ordered, “or we
will
open fire.”

Leia rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to fire on the
Millennium Falcon
without Commodore Darklighter looking over your shoulder. Put him on
now
, or stand down and let us proceed with our mission.”

Lock-alarms chimed in the cockpit as the XJ3s designated the
Falcon
a target. Leia could not believe that this would actually come down to being fired upon, but she began to juke and jink like a fighter pilot. It never hurt to be careful.

“You are certain they are bluffing?” Saba asked quietly.

“Nearly certain.” Leia silenced the lock-alarms, and they quickly reactivated. The XJ3-wing pilots were selecting and deselecting the
Falcon
, repeatedly triggering the alarms in an effort to wear on the crew’s nerves. “Almost, even.”

A sense of satisfaction came to the battle-meld; Mara and the other StealthX pilots had slipped in behind the XJ3s without being noticed.

Saba switched her microphone to the ship’s intercom. “Cakhmaim, Meewalh, shut down those quad cannonz.”

“Good idea,” Leia said. “The last thing we want is a shooting match with the
Mon Mothma
. It would only make Chief Omas believe that the Jedi have gone completely over to the Colony’s side.”

Saba gave her a sideways glance. “That, too.”

Leia sensed through the meld that the Barabel’s concern had been more immediate: they were not going to be much use to Han and Luke if they got blasted to atoms here.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing, Master,” Leia said. “You must learn to trust your pilot.”

Saba made a rasping sound low in her throat. “The pilot, this one trustz. It is her arrogant student that worriez her.”

Leia laughed, then activated the intercom again. “Cakhmaim
and Meewalh, when you’re done in the turrets, go to engineering and power up Han’s repulsor beam.”

Saba raised her brow. “We are going to
push
the
Mothma
out of the way?”

“Hardly,” Leia said. The repulsor beam was a special anti-dartship device Han had developed the year before by rigging the
Falcon
’s tractor beam so the polarity could be reversed. “But we may need to swat a few flitnats off our tail.”

Leia reset the lock-alarms for what must have been the tenth time, and they did not reactivate. The XJ3s had stopped flicking their target selectors.

The meld began to fill with reptilian battle lust. “If this is a bluff, they are raising the stakez,” Saba said. “It feelz to this one like they are about to open—”

Before Saba could say
fire
, eight of the XJ3s—four two-ship combat teams—broke into evasive loops and spirals, and the
Falcon
’s military comm scanner came alive with the alarmed voices of XJ3 pilots.

“Targeted! Targeted!… breaking right … breaking left … where are they?… still on me … can’t shake him … find ’em,
find them!
”

Then a deep female voice announced, “StealthXs! We have StealthXs out here!”

Leia pushed the throttles past their safety stops, still angling ahead of the
Mon Mothma
’s bow. The tactical display showed the remainder of the XJ3s—the four craft that had been guarding the squadron’s flanks—sliding into firing position and slowly closing to range.

Leia told the Noghri to activate the repulsor beam and dust two of the remaining starfighters off their tail.

“Only two?” Saba asked. “Why?”

“Just sending a message,” Leia said. “Besides, we may need those XJs later.”

The cabin lights dimmed, and the status displays winked out as every spare erg of the
Falcon
’s power was diverted to the repulsor beam. But unlike the first time they had used the device, the shields did not go down. When Han had decided that the repulsor beam was too handy to dismantle, Leia had insisted that they install a supplemental fusion unit so they wouldn’t be quite so vulnerable to counterattack.

The
Falcon
gave a little jolt as the Noghri triggered the repulsor beam. Two of the XJ3s suddenly went out of control and veered toward the edge of the tactical display, and the comm scanner erupted into startled curses and a tense request for permission to open fire.

Gavin Darklighter’s voice came over the comm an instant later. “Captain Solo, will you
please
stop kriffing around? Chief Omas is serious about this blockade.”

Leia continued to accelerate, still jinking and juking. “Is that why he didn’t inform the Jedi about it?”

Darklighter hesitated, and the
Falcon
’s lock-alarms whined again. Leia checked the tactical display and saw that the last pair of XJ3s had reached firing range. The rest of the squadron was still rolling and looping, either trying to recover from the repulsor beam or shake the StealthXs still threatening them with target-locks. Thankfully, there was no shooting.

“I apologize for the language, Princess,” Darklighter finally said. “I was addressing Captain Solo.”

“Han is unavailable,” Leia replied. “I’m in command of the
Falcon
for now.”

The channel fell silent for a long time, and Leia began to wonder if Darklighter had deliberately manipulated the admission out of her. He was a shrewd commander, and he would be analyzing even the tiniest scrap of information for hints as to the true nature of their mission. Normally, it
would not have troubled Leia to share such information with a high-ranking Defense Force officer. But right now, the last thing she wanted was for anyone subordinate to the Chief of State to realize there was a power vacuum at the top of the Jedi order.

They passed in front of the
Mon Mothma
’s bow. The last pair of XJ3s remained on their tail, but Darklighter sent none of the other squadrons to cut off the
Falcon
—and that made Leia nervous.

“Keep an eye on the
Mothma
’s tractor beams,” she said to Saba. “Let me know the instant any of them start to power—”

Leia felt a surge of alarm from Saba and knew the Star Destroyer was activating its tractor beams. She accelerated into an open, erratic spiral that would make it almost impossible for the beam operators to lock on to the
Falcon
.

The red cones of four tractor beams appeared on the tactical display, stabbing out from the
Mon Mothma
’s designator symbol to circle the
Falcon
. Leia aimed for the trailing edges of the beams, rolling and diving from one to the next, alert for the telltale hesitation that Han claimed always gave the operators away when they figured out the strategy.

An instant after the tractor beams appeared, Darklighter said, “I didn’t … any offense, Princess.” With the comm antenna constantly struggling to adjust to the
Falcon
’s gyrations, the signal had grown a little patchy. “Chief Omas has been … to reach Master Skywalker for a week. When there was no response, he decided the Jedi must be … the Killiks’ side again.”

Saba hissed, and Leia felt the same frustration rising in Mara and the other StealthX pilots that was welling up in her. She started to make a sharp reply—then realized what Darklighter was trying to do and remained silent.

“He is trying to provoke you,” Saba agreed. She closed
the channel, then set the comm unit to burst mode to prevent the
Mon Mothma
’s tractor beam operators from riding a comm wave back to the
Falcon
. “Do you still believe Commodore Darklighter is bluffing?”

“If he weren’t, he’d be shooting by now,” Leia said. She opened the channel to Darklighter again. “Nice try, Commodore. But if Chief Omas is claiming that the Jedi have betrayed the Galactic Alliance just because he can’t reach Luke—”

“What’s … supposed to assume?” Darklighter interrupted. “And now … only proving him right. Kill your drives or … open fire.”

Leia hesitated. Darklighter was really raising the stakes this time. If she refused to obey, he would either have to make good on his threat, or admit that it was a bluff. She reached into the battle-meld, urging Mara and the others to keep their fingers away from their triggers, then took a deep breath and activated her microphone again.

“I guess you’ll have to open fire, Gavin. This is too important.”

A long silence followed in which even the comm crackles seemed to be growing sharper. Leia angled back toward the center of the Choke, placing the last pair of XJ3s between her and the
Mon Mothma
, and the Star Destroyer’s tractor beams flickered off. She felt a flash of approval from Mara and the StealthX pilots, then Darklighter’s voice came over the comm again.

“Blast it, Princess! I’m not bluffing.”

“Neither am I,” Leia returned. Now that she was past the
Mon Mothma
and heading straight toward the blue curtain of the Utegetu Nebula, she was happy to keep talking. Every second carried her farther down the narrow alley between the two sets of binaries, closer to making
that final jump to Utegetu. “Gavin, you know Luke. He would never betray the Galactic—”