Leia raced to the cockpit, hands out to brace herself, and found Nien frantically flipping switches.
“Star Destroyer!” he yelled. “Snuck up on me from the dark side of the planet.”
“It’s the Shieldmaiden,” Leia said grimly.
“Hang on! It’ll take a minute or two to calculate the jump to hyperspace—gotta make it before they get a lock with the tractor beam!”
Kidi and Lokmarcha half fell into the cockpit. Kidi pointed at a light on the console.
“They’re hailing us,” she said.
Nien hit a switch with his fist and the cockpit was filled with a woman’s voice, as cold as space.
“I am addressing Princess Leia Organa,” Captain Khione said. “Shut down your engines and prepare for boarding—or the people of Jaresh will pay the price for your treason.”
“Oh, no!” Kidi wailed.
“It’s a bluff,” Lokmarcha said. “They’re not going to go after another target with us right here.”
Nien adjusted his headset, ignoring Kidi’s screams for him to fly the ship with both hands.
“Talk’s cheap, lady,” he told Khione, struggling with the unfamiliar sounds and rhythms of Basic. “You want us? Come get us!”
Alarms began to blare, and laser fire lit up space ahead of them.
“How long till you can make the jump?” Leia asked.
“I need another minute,” Nien said.
“We don’t have another minute!” Kidi yelped.
“Wait! Look on the scopes! That’s perfect!”
A massive ship was ahead of them—judging by its profile it was one of the slow, colossal commercial vehicles that plodded between star systems.
“You’re cutting it too close!” Lokmarcha warned.
“Let’s hope not,” Nien said. He headed straight for the massive freighter, juking and weaving to keep the Shieldmaiden’s tractor beam from locking on. Proximity warnings blared in the cockpit as the freighter’s prow filled space ahead of them.
Then Nien dived below the giant ship, leveling out to streak along beneath its belly.
“Lock on to that!” he yelled triumphantly, then reached for the throttle. A moment later, the Mellcrawler shot into hyperspace and Nien threw his arms in the air, crowing.
“You’re a maniac,” Kidi moaned, hands still over her eyes.
“I know a certain Corellian who’d be jealous of that maneuver,” Leia said, bending down to give the Sullustan a kiss on the cheek.
“So what happens now?” Kidi asked once Nien had appeared in the lounge to verify that the Mellcrawler had taken no damage and was on the correct course.
“We go to Yellow Moon,” Leia said. “But the mission will be a little different than what we originally planned. Any ships responding to our beacons will be there in two days—but the Empire may be waiting. So as soon as they arrive we’re going to tell them what our real mission was—and warn them to clear out.”
“It’s too risky, Princess,” Lokmarcha said. “We’ve had too many close calls already. We’ve done what we came to this sector to do—we should get clear and set course for Sullust.”
“Others are taking risks, too, Lok,” Leia said. “Except they don’t know what they’re getting into. We have to help them.”
“My mission is to—”
“I know what your mission is,” Leia said. “And I’m grateful to you for your dedication. If any of you want to opt out of going to Yellow Moon, you’ve earned that right. I’ll get Nien to find a safe port for you.”
“I go where you go,” Lokmarcha said. “You know that.”
“I want to help,” Kidi said. “Whatever the cost.”
“I want to see if my beacons worked,” Antrot said.
Nien chuckled.
“What can possibly be funny about this?” Kidi demanded
“Well, if I say no you have no ship.”
“That’s true,” Leia said.
“No”—Nien grinned at the shocked surprise on Kidi’s face—“way am I missing this.”
“There’s a problem, though,” Lokmarcha said.
“Only one?” Leia asked.
“The Empire has the codes we’ve been using,” the commando said. “If you broadcast an explanation, you’ll also be telling any Imperial ship or spy droid that might be listening. And that could tip off the Empire about the real plan.”
Leia stared at the deck, frustrated. “And we can’t get a secure code to only the ships we want to talk to.”
Lokmarcha nodded. But Kidi was smiling.
“I can,” she said. “We send a new encryption code by tightbeam—ship to ship, not broadcast. I’d have to compress the code so it can be transmitted quickly, but I think I have time to do it. We only send the new code to the ships we want to hear it. Then we use that to encrypt your broadcast and we’re talking only to our friends.”
“And if one of them’s a bounty hunter posing as a friend?” Lokmarcha asked.
“It’s an acceptable risk,” Leia said. “I’m not going to tell them everything, Major—I’m not that crazy. The Empire’s not in the business of believing wild tales from bounty hunters. By the time they decide it isn’t just more disinformation, the fleet should be assembled.”
“A more immediate problem?” Nien began. “We don’t know how many ships might be waiting for us. You may not have time to contact them one by one.”
Kidi smiled.
“That’s the value of having friends,” she said. “We tell the captains to send my code along to those they came with. That way it only takes a couple of hops to spread the word to everyone.”
Antrot looked up in puzzlement when Leia asked him to come into her cabin for a minute. Then he began packing up his seemingly infinite tools, one at a time.
“You don’t need to do that,” Leia said. “I just need you.”
The Abednedo tinkerer obediently got up and followed her.
“What can I do, Princess?” he asked.
“Something secret,” Leia said.
“There have been enough secrets on this mission already.”
“You’re right,” Leia said. “I tell you what. It’ll be up to you whether or not to keep this one. Fair enough?”
“I suppose.”
“I want you to rig the ship,” Leia said.
Antrot blinked at her. “To do what?”
“Explode.”
“Our mission has had difficulties, but suicide seems like an overreaction.”
Leia sighed. “I’m risking our lives contacting the ships responding to our call at Yellow Moon—but I’m also risking the future of the Alliance. If things go badly, I need a contingency—a plan B.”
“Oh.”
“What do you think?”
“How big an explosion do you need?”
“As big as you can give me.”
“Not a problem,” the tinkerer said. “Nien has the hold packed so full of fertilizer that there was a chance the ship would explode during our maneuvers over Jaresh.”
“I was happier not knowing that, Antrot.”
“My apologies,” the tinkerer said. “People are always telling me that I’ve said too much or too little. It’s confusing.”
“I think you’ve done just fine, Antrot,” Leia said. “And I’m grateful to you. So are you going to tell the others? It really is up to you.”
Antrot thought about it for a moment.
“No,” he said. “I don’t know what Major Lokmarcha would say, but it would make Kidi nervous. And Nien would be angry. I think only you and I should know.”
“All right then. Thank you, Antrot.”
She opened the cabin door. Lokmarcha and Kidi were in each other’s arms on the acceleration couch. Leia put a finger to her lips and gestured for Antrot to follow her down the corridor to the hold.
“Let’s give them some privacy,” she said, wrinkling her nose at the barrels of fertilizer around them.
“Why are they doing that?” Antrot asked, peer
ing back down the corridor.
“Um…” Leia began, then realized she had no idea what to say next.
“I mean, they spent a large part of our journey arguing,” the tinkerer said.
Leia smiled, thinking of an asteroid belt far away. For a moment she could almost see Han’s eyes and the grin she’d found infuriating at first, then irresistible. Hadn’t escaping from Hoth with a damaged hyperdrive been an impossible mission, too?
If I make it out of here, Han, I’m going on one more impossible mission. Not for the Alliance—no matter what I’m told my duty is. But for you.
“Princess?” Antrot asked. “Did you say something?”
“Oh, I was just remembering something funny. Sometimes arguments can be a way of hiding your true feelings, Antrot.”
He shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“You’re right—it doesn’t. But love often doesn’t make sense.”
GALAAN HAD a strange beauty, Leia thought as she sat in the Mellcrawler’s cockpit. It was a massive gas giant whose bid to become a star had narrowly failed, leaving a glowing orb surrounded by a cloud of moons of all shapes and sizes. The largest was a sandy wasteland that reflected the yellow glow of its system’s star like a mirror.
“Yellow Moon,” Kidi said from the seat behind Nien. “It’s hard to believe we’re here at last.”
“It is,” Leia said. “How long until the rendezvous?”
“Less than an hour,” Nien said. “And before you ask again, there isn’t even a blip on the scopes. And no unusual comm traffic.”
Kidi covered her mouth, looking embarrassed.
“What is it?” Lokmarcha asked.
“I was thinking that I really want ships to show up,” Kidi said. “Because that would show that our mission succeeded. Our original mission, I mean. But that’s crazy. Because it would be a lot better if nobody did.”
They waited in silence. The appointed time of the rendezvous came, with no ships appearing. A minute passed. Then another.
“Maybe nobody’s coming,” Leia said hopefully.
An alert hooted on Nien’s console.
“Ship coming in!” the Sullustan said. “Looks like a small freighter, but she accelerates like an attack ship.”
“Ready with the new code?” Leia asked Kidi.
Kidi nodded, speaking urgently into her headset.
“They say they’re the Sapphire Rogue, and they got our message at Sesid,” she said. “Sending code now.”
Then another ship came out of hyperspace, followed by another, and soon there were nearly two dozen, ranging from salvaged Clone Wars–era craft to space yachts like the Mellcrawler. Nien carved sweeping arcs through space to ensure Kidi could contact as many of the arriving ships as possible, seeding the code Leia would need. Kidi’s long fingers flew over the keys of her datapads, but at last she looked up and smiled, giving them a thumbs-up.
“Let me have the comm,” Leia said, then hesitated. She’d rehearsed what she was going to say half a dozen times but was still unhappy with it.
“All craft, this is Princess Leia Organa,” she said. “I represent the Royal House of Alderaan and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. On behalf of the Alliance, we are honored that you have responded to our call.”
“They’re receiving,” Kidi said.
Leia nodded.
“But please listen to what I have to say next,” Leia said. “You are here as a small part of a larger plan—and I regret to say that has placed you in terrible danger.
“As I speak, a rebel armada is gathering to fight the Empire. What happens on that battlefield will determine the fate of the Alliance and whether our galaxy will be free once again. But we are not that armada, and this is not that battlefield.
“I brought you here to buy time for that mission. I brought you here under false pretenses. For that I am deeply sorry, and I swear I did so only because the Alliance was in grave peril. The call you responded to was a ruse, but my gratitude is very real. And so is that of everybody in the Alliance.”
She swallowed.
“And now that you know the truth, I beg you—flee this system. Because my ship is being hunted. We kept our rendezvous to warn you, in case the hunters followed us here.”
“Another ship coming in,” Nien said.
“What kind is this one?” Kidi asked. “Nien? What’s wrong?”
“It’s an Imperial Star Destroyer.”
NIEN MASHED DOWN the throttle and the Mellcrawler leapt forward, carving an arc across space, away from the ships that had answered the beacons’ call.
“I outran her once—I can outrun her again,” he said.
But this time they had no head start, and there was no bulk freighter to put between the Mellcrawler and the Shieldmaiden’s tractor beams. Leia knew they weren’t going to make it, even before the Mellcrawler shuddered and slowed.
“If I don’t shut down we’ll get turned into scrap,” Nien said apologetically.
“What about the other ships?” Leia asked. “Are they safe?”
“They’re out of tractor range,” Nien said. “And already jumping into hyperspace.”
Leia looked back and saw that Antrot had something in his hand—a compact little device with two bright red buttons on top.
“Not until we’re inside the Shieldmaiden’s belly,” Leia said.
The tinkerer nodded.
“Inside?” Kidi asked, but Lokmarcha reached over and put his hand on Antrot’s arm.
“Don’t blow up the ship,” he said. “We may still have a chance, Princess—I have my own plan B, remember?”
Nien looked back, his ears quivering. “Wait—you were going to blow up my ship?”
“Take the detonator apart,” Lokmarcha told Antrot. “Hide the pieces in those pockets of yours. You can be plan C.”
Leia nodded at Antrot.
“How did you know?” she asked Lokmarcha.
“The tinkerer and I share a cabin, remember? Antrot talks in his sleep.”
Antrot looked chagrined. “I didn’t know I did that.”
“Besides, it’s what I would have done,” Lokmarcha said.
The Shieldmaiden’s shadow fell over the Mellcrawler, immersing it in darkness.
“I think it’s time for you to tell me your plan B, Lok,” Leia said.
The commando shook his head. “I’ll be with you. You’ll know. And if I’ve learned anything about you, it’s that you’ll find a way.”
“Since you’re not going to blow up my ship, I’ll purge the logs,” Nien said.
“Right,” Leia said. “All of you, do the same with your datapads. Don’t let the Imperials get any information except what’s in our heads. And hang on to that as long as you can.”
Antrot immediately left the cockpit. When Kidi got to her feet, her hands were shaking.
“They’re going to interrogate us, aren’t they?” she asked in a small voice.
“Yes,” Leia said, and tried to push away memories of the torment she’d suffered at Darth Vader’s hands, aboard the Death Star.
“Will it hurt?”
The question made Leia want to run and find Antrot and tell him to blow up the ship after all. But she steeled herself to remain in her seat.
“Yes, Kidi,” she said. “I’m afraid it will.”
When the stormtroopers led them down the ramp into the Shieldmaiden’s landing bay, Leia expected Captain Khione to be waiting. But the officer at the foot of the ramp was a young lieutenant, who simply verified that they’d been disarmed and ordered them taken to a detention block.
“We haven’t jumped to hyperspace,” Nien whispered to Leia. “I would have felt it.”
“They must be waiting in hopes of catching more ships,” Leia replied grimly.
“No talking,” a stormtrooper said, jabbing Leia in the small of the back with his rifle.
They threw Leia in a detention cell and shut the door. She scanned the cell in despair—it was the standard
Imperial model, down to the hard slab of a bunk and the tiny pop-out washbasin. Her cell aboard the Death Star had been identical, and she’d come to know every centimeter of it.
I should have had Antrot blow the ship, she thought, hating the idea of Kidi’s pleading with her captors, of Antrot’s trying to reason with tormenters who would never listen. She hoped she wouldn’t be able to hear their interrogations when they reached the worst parts, the ones that Leia remembered only in nightmares.
The light inside the detention cells never changed, so it was easy to lose track of time—a tactic the Empire used to disorient prisoners. But eventually the door to her cell slid into the wall and an officer walked in, two stormtroopers taking up positions in the corridor behind her.
“Princess Leia Organa,” Captain Khione said. “We have a lot to discuss.”
She tapped a button on a control unit attached to her belt. Leia heard an awful warble outside, and then the black bulb of an Imperial interrogation droid floated into the cell, moving with a slowness she remembered all too well. Her eyes inventoried its grim instruments—pincers and prods and needles. She knew them all, and how they were used.
“I’m impressed you do your own dirty work, Khione,” Leia said. “Most captains would leave it to the Imperial Security Bureau.”
“I enforce the Emperor’s will in this sector,” Khione said. “When things go wrong, I put them right myself. Anyone who knows my name ought to know that, too.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but until a few days ago I’d never heard your name,” Leia said. “I’d barely heard of your sector.”
Khione just smiled.
“Within a few days everyone in the Empire will know my name,” she said. “But for now, it’s your name that matters. And Kidi’s, and Nien’s, and Antrot’s, and Lokmarcha’s. We’ll discuss them first, and then we’ll move on to other names. Names of admirals, and starships, and planets.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Leia said. “No matter what you do to me.”
“Speaking of names, there’s something I’ve always found interesting about this model of interrogation droid,” Khione said. “It typically isn’t programmed to know anything about a prisoner. All it knows is that you’re the one in the cell—and that means you must be the interview subject. I’ve had prisoners break when no one’s there to listen. They think they’re talking to the droid, but it doesn’t hear them. You can tell it anything and it doesn’t care. It’ll just keep working on you until someone tells it to stop.”
Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure Page 10