The Unseen Queen (34 page)

Tarfang stopped and planted his feet. “
Wobba jobabu!
”

“Don’t worry,” Luke said. “We’ll have backup.”

“Backup?” Han turned to look, peering through the barrage haze. “Out here?”

“Mara is keeping an eye on us from a StealthX,” Luke explained. “I think she spotted our helmet lamps when she was sneaking up to attack the nest ship.”

“She’s in a StealthX?” Han asked. “And you still want to do this the hard way? Why don’t we let
her
drop a shadow bomb down that thermal vent and jump this rock? We can trigger our rescue beacons and wait for a ride.”

“That’s not a bad idea, Han,” Luke said. Something that sounded like chattering teeth came over the suit comm, and he turned toward the thermal vent. “I’d like you to take the others and do exactly that. It will make things easier for me.”

“Easier
how
?” Han asked suspiciously. “I thought all we needed to do was blow the nest ship’s hyperdrive, and Mara can do that a lot easier with a shadow bomb than we can with a lightsaber and two crummy blaster pistols.”

“There’s a complication,” Luke said. “One we can’t hit with a shadow bomb.”

“A complication?” Han put his faceplate close to Luke’s and saw that the Jedi Master was shivering uncontrollably. “You mean Lomi Plo?”

Luke turned to Han and nodded. “I should f-finish her off while I have the chance.”

“I don’t know who you think you’re fooling, but it isn’t me,” Han said. “She’s got ahold of you again, hasn’t she?”

Luke sighed. “That doesn’t mean you should stay.”

“You come with us, and I won’t,” Han said.

“And m-make us all targets?” Luke shook his head. “I’m going to stay here and see this thing through.”

“That makes two of us,” Han said. He turned to Tarfang and Juun. “How about you two?”

Tarfang launched into tirade of angry jabbering, then renewed
his grasp on Han’s utility belt and shook his head. Juun merely stood there, blinking at them out of his helmet.

“Well?” Han asked.

When Juun’s expression did not change, Han tapped the side of the Sullustan’s helmet. Juun frowned and shook his head.

“I guess it’s unanimous,” Han said. “Juun can’t risk jumping off this rock with a faulty comm. If his beacon fails, too, he’ll be a goner out there.”

“I wish you’d reconsider, Han.”

“Yeah, and I wish we had a satchel full of thermal detonators and a few kilos of baradium,” Han said. “But that’s not going to happen. Let’s go.”

They started to move again. But instead of traveling straight toward the thermal vent, Luke carefully circled it. Every few meters, he would stop and remain motionless for five or ten seconds, then adjust his course and creep ahead even more slowly.

Finally, he motioned for a stop, then sneaked forward to peer around the side of a heat sink. Han followed and saw several dozen hazy, bug-shaped figures wearing the bulky carapaces that Killiks used as pressure suits. They were all crouching in ambush, still facing the direction he and Luke had been approaching from a few minutes earlier.

“Everybody be ready,” Luke unhooked his lightsaber, then took the blaster pistol out of his utility belt and passed it to Tarfang. “Mara’s making her run.”

“Then what?” Han asked.

“Then Lomi Plo will have to show herself,” Luke answered. “After we finish with her, we trip our rescue beacons.”

“I’m holding you to that,” Han said. He motioned Juun
to stay with the droids and keep down—without a comm or a blaster, the Sullustan would be no good in the fight anyway—then twisted around to look up into space. “What’s taking so—”

Luke jumped up and ignited his lightsaber, pointing the tip toward the hiding Gorog. In the same instant, the dark shape of a Jedi StealthX appeared behind the insects and began to stitch the nest ship’s hull with fire from its four laser cannons. A curtain of spitcrete dust, hull chips, and bug parts boiled spaceward, and then the StealthX was gone, vanished against the star-flecked void.

A moment later a small line of pressure-suited Gorog came charging forward between the heat sinks, spraying electrobolts and shatter gun pellets ahead of them. Han returned fire, cursing in frustration as most of his bolts bounced harmlessly off the insects’ carapace pressure suits. Luke simply made a sweeping motion with his hand, and one end of the Gorog line went tumbling into space.

Then brilliant spears of cannon fire began to stab down from space again, churning what remained of the insect line into an amalgam of chitin and gore. Han continued to fire, more to make sure Mara knew where he was than because he thought he was going to kill anything. In a moment the StealthX’s dark shape swept past only a few meters from their hiding place, so close that Han could see Mara’s head swinging back and forth as she selected her targets.

Han was still watching her when something tinked the back of his helmet. He spun around, half expecting to feel that painful final pop as a shatter gun pellet tore through his head, but there was nobody behind him except Juun and the droids.

The Sullustan pointed toward something on the other side of Luke. Han glanced over and found nothing but the
usual barrage haze. Luke was standing just as he had a moment before, his lightsaber blazing and his attention fixed on the few would-be ambushers that had survived Mara’s strafing runs so far.

Juun began to gesture violently, this time a little closer to Luke. Han looked again, saw nothing but dust, then spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.

Juun beat his fists against his helmet, then leapt to his feet and raced in the direction he had been pointing.

“Look out, Luke!” Han warned over the comm. “You’ve got a crazy Sullustan—”

Luke whirled, bringing his lightsaber around in a high guard—then stopping cold in a flicker of sparks.

Han scowled. “What the—”

Luke suddenly doubled over in the middle, as though he had been kicked hard in the stomach. Then Juun slammed to a stop about a meter in front of Luke, his arms wrapping around something Han could not see.

Luke brought his blade up and hit nothing but air, then flipped the tip over his shoulder in a back-guard maneuver that resulted in another flurry of sparks. He followed this by dropping into a spinning leg sweep that caught whatever Juun was clinging to. The Sullustan’s arms came loose, and he went rolling across the spitcrete into the side of a heat sink.

Han opened fire on the general area, and a flurry of blaster bolts flashed past his shoulder as Tarfang did the same. Most of their attacks did nothing more harmful than burn divots into the hull of the nest ship. But a couple of times, the shots were mysteriously deflected, and once Han thought he saw the flash of a scarred face, so haggard and misshapen that he could not be sure whether it was human or insect.

Luke danced back into the combat, slashing high and low with his lightsaber, missing more often than not, but spinning directly into the next attack, his blade sparking and flashing as it blocked and deflected the unseen strikes coming his way. Han and Tarfang scrambled after the fight, firing more or less where the Jedi was attacking, drawing just enough attention so that Luke could continue to drive the unseen enemy back.

They continued to press the attack for perhaps five or ten seconds; then a row of six-limbed figures wearing bulky Killik pressure suits emerged from the heat sinks. Han’s heart rose into his throat—he wondered if that was what Jedi danger sense felt like—and he stopped advancing.

“Uh, guys?” He glanced to each flank and saw that there were more bugs to each side. “Get down!”

There was a flurry of motion as the insects brought up their weapons. Han was already dropping to the hull. He landed on his side and kicked behind a heat sink; silver flashes began to dance across his faceplate while flying chips of spitcrete beat an irregular cadence on his helmet. He curled into a fetal ball and counted himself lucky.

A moment later Luke’s voice came over the suit comm. “Cover!”

“What do you think I’m—”

Han’s comm gave a sharp pop, then a series of sharp concussions reverberated through the hull. The sound of the chips striking his helmet was replaced at first by a dozen seconds of static, then by utter silence. He uncurled and carefully raised his head.

The barrage dust had thickened to a murky gray cloud, but it was not too thick to prevent him from seeing the brilliant streaks of Mara’s laser cannons chasing off the Gorog survivors. Han rolled to his knees and turned in
the other direction. The hull ended about three meters from where he was kneeling, opening into a deep, dark crater filled with flotsam, floating corpses, and shooting streams of vapor.

“Han?” Luke’s voice came over the suit comm. “Are you okay?”

“That depends.” Han stood and turned in a slow circle, then finally saw Luke coming toward him from about ten meters away. “Did you get Lomi?”

Luke shook his head. “I can still feel her.”

“Then I’m about as un-okay as you can get.” Han began a slow rotation, his blaster held ready to fire. “I
hate
being crept up on by stuff I can’t see. Let’s get back to where we left Juun.”

“Why do you want Juun?” Luke asked.

“Because he can see her,” Han said.

Luke stopped three paces from Han. “You’re sure?”

“Didn’t you see the way he tried to tackle her? Of course I’m sure.” Han did not like the surprise in Luke’s voice. “Does that mean something?”

“Yes,” Luke said. “It means I’m wrong about Lomi Plo.”

“Great,” Han growled. He would have liked to suggest again that they leave the ship and activate their rescue beacons, but he did not want Luke telling him to go ahead on his own. He was afraid the temptation might be too much for him. “Wrong how?”

“I thought she was using some sort of Force blur to hide herself,” Luke said. “But if Juun can see her, and
I
can’t …”

When Luke let the sentence trail off, Han said, “Yeah, that scares me, too.” He turned back the way they had come. “Maybe Juun can explain it.”

“Wait a minute,” Luke said. “What about Tarfang?”

“Tarfang?” Han took a quick look around, then
tipped his helmet back. “Don’t tell me he got bounced again!”

Luke was silent for a moment, then said, “He didn’t. Tarfang is below us, inside the nest ship.” He turned and looked toward one of the holes Mara’s shadow bombs had knocked in the hull. “I think Lomi Plo has him.”

With a cloud of assassin bugs droning behind them and elite Unu soldiers zipping shatter gun pellets down every side corridor they passed, Leia knew her small company was in trouble. They would never hold off the Killiks long enough to initiate the
Ackbar
’s self-destruct sequence.

What Leia did
not
know was how to break the news to Bwua’tu. They had been forced to abandon the command deck after a swarm of assassin bugs had erupted from the ventilation ducts. Since then, activating the self-destruct cycle had been the admiral’s only concern, but the Killiks had foreseen the move. Every primary access terminal Leia and the others passed was damaged beyond all hope of a quick repair—usually by an electrobolt blast to the keypad.

Leia came to another intersection, and Bwua’tu’s voice barked out from the middle of the group behind her. “Right!”

With the assassin bugs buzzing up the corridor behind them, there was no question of pausing to reconnoiter. Leia simply ignited her lightsaber—which Bwua’tu had retrieved from his wardroom vault as they fled the bridge—and led the charge around the corner.

Not surprisingly, there was a squad of Unu soldiers coming the other way. They were as large as Wookiees, with golden thoraxes and big purple eyes and scarlet carapaces
covering their backs, and in their four pincer-hands they carried both shatter guns for ranged combat and short tridents for close fighting. They opened fire as soon as Leia rounded the corner, and the corridor broke into a cacophony of zipping and pinging.

Though lightsabers weren’t much good at deflecting shatter gun attacks, Leia began to spin and whirl forward, slipping and dodging past the flying pellets with no conscious thought, surrendering herself to the Force and trusting it to guide her steps.

Her companions—a ragtag band of ship’s crew whom she and Bwua’tu had been picking up along the way—raced into the corridor a step behind her and poured fire at the Killiks. No one hesitated to shoot past their shipmates or Leia. Twice, she had to deflect friendly blaster bolts, and once she nearly stepped in front of a shatter gun pellet to avoid being hit from behind. She did not blame her fellows for being reckless. There was just no time to be careful.

Leia reached the Unu soldiers and Force-shoved the nearest one into the Killik beside it. She lashed out with her lightsaber and separated the insect’s head from its golden thorax, then whipped the blade back and opened another across the middle.

A pair of huge mandibles clamped down on Leia from the side, and then she saw a set of trident tines rising toward her chest. She used the Force to shove the weapon away, then deactivated her lightsaber, flipped the handle around, and reignited the blade as she pressed the emitter nozzle to her captor’s thorax.

An ear-piercing shriek sounded in Leia’s ear. She brought her foot up and kicked aside a shatter gun another Unu soldier was raising toward her, then flipped her lightsaber downward, slashing her captor open and bringing the blade
up between the legs of her would-be attacker. Both insects collapsed with their lives flooding out of them.

Then Leia’s companions reached the melee, and the battle erupted into a savage gun-and-pincer fight. Badly outmatched in size and strength, the
Ackbar
’s crew poured blaster bolts into the Killiks at point-blank range. The Killiks used one set of hand-pincers to fire their shatter guns and the other to slash and thrust with their tridents, sometimes using their mandibles to grab an attacker, sometimes whipping their mandibles around to knock someone off his feet.

Leia glanced back to check on Bwua’tu and found the admiral on her heels, as covered in insect gore as she was and firing a blaster pistol with each hand. His aide Grendyl was behind him, tossing a thermal grenade back into the approaching cloud of assassin bugs.