Darksaber

by Kevin J. Anderson

  Unfortunately, this changed the positions of the Taurill bodies, and when the fuzzy creatures returned to their work, many hung at new stations, connecting different girders together, hooking the wrong circuits.

  As he studied the lines, Lemelisk felt his heart sink into his paunchy stomach: a large section of the Darksaber outer framework was indeed assembled wrong, girders welded to incorrect counterparts. The computer core receptacle was connected to the waste-heat exhaust. The superlaser anchor points were offset ninety degrees from each other, as wrong as they could possibly be.

  Lemelisk immediately stormed out of the peaceful womb of Durga's observation blister. He had to find one of the Taurill and shout at it, explaining where the construction had gone wrong. It didn't matter which of the creatures he talked to; they were all the same, and the Overmind would hear him--oh, yes, the Overmind would hear him.

  He felt his stomach churning in dread that Durga would find out about the delay and order Lemelisk's execution after all. Lemelisk didn't want to be killed again. He was relieved the Hutt crime lord was gone. Lemelisk would order the Taurill to work double time to rip apart an entire section of the Darksaber and start all over. The hive-minded creatures had to pay closer attention, though he feared that was probably impossible. But perhaps the situation could be salvaged before anything worse happened.

  In all likelihood, General Sulamar wouldn't even notice the mixup.

  HOTH

  CHAPTER 28

  The ice world of Hoth hung beneath its coterie of moons like a cracked snowball. Callista piloted their space yacht, following the coordinates Luke had given her.

  He leaned forward in the passenger seat, tingling with anticipation. "Down there," he said, "that's where Obi-Wan's spirit first came to me, when I was near frozen in a blizzard. He told me to go to Dagobah, to find Yoda. Han tried to convince me it was just a hallucination."

  Callista sat subdued, gripping the controls. She had been reluctant to tamper with her locked Jedi powers ever since her brush with the dark side on Dagobah. Luke was concerned that her reticence and anxiety would do more damage than any of her actual failures had, because now she was afraid to try. Somehow Luke had to dispel that fear.

  Callista stared at the ice planet as they skimmed through the misty atmosphere. "I wish my master Djinn Altis would come to me in a vision," she said. "I'm sure he could offer some insight."

  Luke didn't know how to respond, so he squeezed her hand.

  She looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and frustration. "I'll be all right, Luke. Maybe I can't have everything I want, but I'm going to do what I can. I haven't given up."

  "I'm glad to hear that," he said. "And down there is the next place to try." Luke indicated the white-pocked glacier fields beneath their soaring yacht. "This is where I really learned to fight. I had flown my X-wing against the first Death Star, but here during the battle of Hoth is where I learned to be a warrior. I left the wreckage of Echo Base to find Yoda,” Luke said, smiling wistfully at the memory, "and one of the first things he told me was that wars don't make a person great."

  "He was wise, your Master Yoda,” Callista said. "But sometimes you have to fight. Sometimes it's all or nothing. That's the only way to win." She swallowed. "That's why I made my sacrifice in the Eye of Palpatine."

  Luke said, "Let's hope you don't ever have to face that all-or-nothing choice again."

  She forced a smile. "I'd prefer that."

  Callista skimmed low under the afternoon sunlight where ice chips burned bright below the whitish sky. She darkened the viewport shields to cut down the glare.

  "I don't know what shape Echo Base is going to be in," Luke said. "It suffered some pretty extensive battle damage, and it's been abandoned for years. Don't expect luxury accommodations like the Mulako quarry.”

  Callista looked across the frozen snowfield.

  "At least it won't have any bugs or bats."

  She sat up straight. "Hey, what's that ship?"

  As they approached the line of rocky hummocks, Luke spotted a blackened hulk lying in the snow, surrounded by a starburst of greasy soot and slagged wreckage. "Can't be a leftover crash from the battle," he said. "That was nine years ago. This is something new." Luke stared at the burned debris, reaching out with his sense. "Nothing alive there that I can tell. It's recent, but not too fresh."

  Callista brought their yacht down near the wreckage, close to the hidden shield doors that sealed off Echo Base in the solid ice. She double-checked with her scanners. "Yes, the metal's all cold. Ambient temperature. It's been here a few days at least, maybe as much as a couple of weeks."

  Luke opened the uniform locker and removed the two insulated jumpsuits hanging beside a pair of full environment suits. Luke and Callista pulled on the uniforms, activating the body heaters and tugging on gloves. Luke clipped his lightsaber to his belt and handed the second smooth black handle to Callista.

  "Here, you'd better take yours."

  "I don't want to," Callista said, glancing away.

  "But you should do it anyway," Luke answered. "You always have the option of not using it." White-lipped, she took it, still refusing to meet his gaze.

  They climbed out of the yacht into the blinding cold of Hoth, leaving the door closed but not sealed, so they could reenter in a hurry. Callista shivered as she walked beside him. "It's chilly here," she said.

  He raised his eyebrows and felt frost already collecting on the skin of his cheeks. "Chilly?" he said. "But this is the hottest part of the day."

  Their boots crunched on the ice-crusted snow as they walked to the wrecked ship. "It was a single transport," Luke said, bending over a scorched hull plate. "Probably a blockade runner or a light freighter, the kind smugglers and poachers use."

  Callista picked up a twisted lump of metal, turned it over in her gloved hands, then let it drop. Her breath curled in white steam from her mouth. "Do you think they crashed?" she said.

  "I don't see any bodies."

  Luke shook his head. The icy air sliced into his nostrils like razors. "No, look at the pattern. The ship landed safely and then exploded on the ground. See, none of the snow is plowed up. There'd be a long crash furrow if it came down from orbit."

  Luke looked over at the snow-camouflaged opening of Echo Base. "Maybe they took shelter there." He pointed out the blaster cannon turrets on either side of the shield door. "Let's check this out--but be careful." The wind picked up, skirling around the rocks in transient whirlwinds that whipped ice crystals into the air and scoured the snowdrifts.

  The opening to the ice cave was flanked by rocks, though most of Echo Base had been chewed into the centuries-old packed snow and ice.

  As they approached the shield doors, the pair of silent blaster-cannon emplacements standing like sentinels suddenly came to life. The turrets swiveled, the long deadly barrels seeking a target--and finding one.

  "Look out!" Callista shouted, and shoved Luke out of the way.

  He dived to one side, using his Jedi powers to fling him farther. Callista rolled, hitting the ground as the first blast seared out. Steam boiled from a fresh crater in the ice.

  Luke began to run back toward her, but Callista rolled aside and moved out of range. The turrets swiveled, targeting on Luke, and fired again. He leaped into the air, and the beam missed him, exploding one of the frozen rocks.

  As the blaster cannon fired a third time, Luke drew his lightsaber and deflected the beam with blinding speed, countering the bolt with the energy blade. The sheer power of the blaster cannon made Luke reel, and only the strength of his synthetic hand allowed him to withstand the blast.

  "Must be motion detectors, Luke. They're tracking us as we move!" Callista shouted.

  "I'm going to run and draw their fire. You use your Jedi powers to rush forward and knock out both weapons.”

  "No," Luke shouted. "It's too—“

  But Callista was already on her way. Luke knew this was how she did things: she made up her mind and t
hen took action without considering the risks or even alternate ideas. For better or worse, Callista was in it now, Sprinting in a zigzag pattern across the snow. Both blaster cannon emplacements swiveled, locking in on her.

  Luke plunged forward until he landed in front of the cannon. Holding the lightsaber in one hand, he scrambled up the tower and slashed with the glowing blade, severing the barrel of the weapon. He threw himself onto the snow and scrambled to the second turret just as the damaged one fired. With the barrel gone and its end fused, the cannon blast blew up the entire turret.

  The second weapon targeted Callista. She danced to one side, throwing herself into the snow half a second before the beam struck the glacier with an explosion sufficient to hurl Callista into the air.

  Luke didn't take the time to climb the second blaster turret. He used his lightsaber to hack at the emplacement itself as if it were the trunk of a giant tree. He chopped through the armored plating, and a smoking square of durasteel tumbled to the ice. Luke stabbed inside with the yellow-green blade, slashing the power conduits and computer interlinks, slicing the heart out of the weapon. Above him the ominous barrel stuttered to one side, seeking another target, then went dead.

  He looked up and noted that the weapons themselves had been jury-rigged, sensors wired in with automatic targeting systems, linked to motion detectors. He hurried over to help Callista to her feet, wondering why someone would go to all that trouble on this empty world.

  "Good work," she said as they brushed each other off. "We're a team even without my Jedi powers."

  With a reluctant grinding thud, the shield door split in the middle and began to spread apart. Icicles flaked off, and chunks of snow crashed to the ground. Figures appeared, shadowy forms standing in the crack of the partially opened door.

  Luke tensed and turned around, the lightsaber gripped in his hand. Callista held her weapon, but did not ignite it. Luke waited to see what their mysterious enemies would do.

  "Don't just stand there," a gruff human voice shouted. "Get inside quick, before those creatures come back!"

  A dark-eyed man wearing the shadowy stains of beard stubble and remnants of white plasteel armor stepped outside, holding a blaster rifle. Beside him came a hairy feline alien with tufts of fur sprouting from his chin and fangs protruding below narrow black lips. A Cathar, Luke recognized. The feline alien also carried a blaster rifle and sniffed the cold air, tense and ready to fight. They did not point their blasters toward Luke or Callista, though. Instead, they seemed to watch for some invisible threat from the snows.

  Another human man, tall and broad shouldered, stood within the main tunnel, gesturing for them to hurry. Luke looked around at the bleak, seemingly lifeless surface of Hoth; then he felt a sudden uneasiness. He grabbed Callista's arm and rushed with her into the shelter.

  Only five of them had survived.

  "Seemed an easy way to make a few credits, since I was looking for a new occupation," said Burrk, a former stormtrooper who had deserted the Empire in the turmoil following the battle of Endor. Ever since that time, he had been on his own, surviving through shady dealings and illegal activities.

  "I hooked up with these two Cathar, Nodon and Nonak." The two feline aliens growled and flashed their teeth, glaring through slitted eyes at Luke and Callista. They appeared identical except for slight variations in fur color.

  "They're both from the same litter," Burrk continued, "and they were great hunters--at least they said they were." The two Cathar snarled, extending hooked claws from their hands. Burrk didn't even seem to notice. He rubbed the stubble on his chin. His eyes were sunken, haunted by unrelenting tension, as if someone had beaten him repeatedly and might return at any moment. Together, his group had managed to get only a dozen or so glowpanels functioning again, and none of the heater units.

  "There's a huge black-market price on wampa pelts, you know," he said, and finally a spark of pride and daring appeared in his eyes.

  Although Luke sensed the brooding terror surrounding them in the unheated meeting room, the gaunt former stormtrooper grew more animated as he spoke.

  "So, the Cathar brothers and I decided to set up big-game expeditions. For a fee, we'd take hunters here to track down and kill the "biggest game in the galaxy"--a bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but that didn't matter to rich Baron-Administrators, like him." Burrk gestured to the tall muscular man with chiseled features, a white smile, and hardened eyes.

  "Drom Guldi," the muscular man said, introducing himself, "Baron-Administrator of the Kelrodo-Ai gelatin mines." He swelled with pride, confident that everyone had heard of him. "We're famous for our water sculptures," he said. "And this is my aide."

  He indicated a nervous-looking man with gray-blond hair and faint wrinkles across his skin, as if his surface layer had crumpled with a thousand pressure cracks. "Sinidic." Burrk the stormtrooper continued with his story, giving the rich hunter a nod of grudging admiration. "We had four customers on this run, and Drom Guldi was the only one worth having."

  "I bagged ten of those wampas myself when they attacked," the Baron-Administrator said, "though we couldn't go back and collect the pelts." He ground his teeth together, and a flush rose to his bronzed cheeks. "The other monsters kept coming, and we had to retreat."

  "What happened?" Callista said. "How did you let yourself get so vulnerable?"

  Burrk stared at his fingers, nervously twining and intertwining them. "This was our third run. The other two went smoothly. We would track the creatures, bag one or two, and then leave. By this time, the monsters had learned how to work together. We thought they were dumb brutes--all teeth and claws, and no brains--but we were wrong."

  The two Cathar hissed, and their fur ruffled.

  "We knew about this old abandoned base. Used it as a stopping point because there isn't much shelter on this rock," Burrk said, and he looked up at Luke. "We went out on scouting teams: me and Nodon on one ship, Nonak and the others on another. It was just a day's hunt. Sun was shining. Looked perfect." His haunted eyes stared off into the shadows of the room. "We came back, and found our pilot slaughtered--and I mean slaughtered. We had all those weapons. We never thought they'd attack us."

  "We underestimated the problem," Sinidic said in a thin nasal voice, then ducked his head, as if realizing he shouldn't have spoken.

  "When we went to investigate," Burrk continued, "the wampas must have been waiting for us. They ... erupted out of the snow and fell upon us like a meteor strike. We couldn't see 'em. They killed one of our guides and the other three clients. Luckily we got to shelter in the base ... we closed the shield doors behind us." He swallowed, reliving the nightmare.

  Drom Guldi picked up the story, businesslike and matter-of-fact. "That's when they blew up our ship," he said.

  "Must have been an accident. I can't believe they knew what to do. They triggered it themselves."

  "We've been here four days," Burrk said.

  "No supplies, and those things are out there waiting for us. We couldn't even send a distress signal."

  Nodon, one of the Cathar, said, "Do you have weapons in your ship?"

  Luke and Callista looked at each other.

  "Weapons? No," Luke admitted.

  Callista said, "We didn't think we were coming into combat."

  "We got the two blaster cannons working,” Burrk said. "Rigged motion detectors to fire on anything approaching. But you sure took care of those." A low bubbling growl came from the Cathar throats. "Now we got no defenses other than those doors--and we can't stay here forever."

  "You can't all fit in our ship, either,” Callista said, anticipating their next question.

  "It's only a small yacht. But we can transmit a distress signal, get a rescue crew here within a day or so."

  "It's getting dark," Sinidic pointed out. "Shouldn't we do something as soon as we can?" He looked up to Drom Guldi. "Why don't you order them to go back to their ship and send a signal."

  "We'll all go to their ship," Drom Guld
i said. "Otherwise, Burrk just might take them hostage and fly off and leave us here. And I don't suppose I'd blame him." The Cathar snarled, but from the way they looked at the former stormtrooper, Luke suspected they considered the possibility likely.

  "We've got only a dozen charges left in our blaster rifles," Burrk said, not the least bit offended by the accusation. "We won't last long if we're under attack."

  Drom Guldi squared his jaw. "We'll have to make the most of what we have. Make a stand."

  Luke met Callista's gaze. Helping people was one of the primary responsibilities of a Jedi Knight, and they could not turn down even poachers and unscrupulous hunters such as these. But Luke felt his skin crawl with the memory of his own encounter with a wampa.

  Coiled and tense, the two Cathar stood from the empty storage containers they had used as seats and readied their blasters. Drom Guldi slung his rifle over his shoulder. Sinidic carried no weapon, but clung close to the Baron-Administrator. Burrk wore two blaster pistols at his hips; they looked battered and well used, repaired enough times that Luke wouldn't count on them. He and Callista had their light-sabers.

  "Let's do this fast," Burrk said, leading them to the outer shield doors. "We can make a dash for it ... since we don't have to worry about the motion sensors anymore." He scowled at Luke.

  "Leave the door partially open as a fallback option," Drom Guldi suggested, "in case we need to make a hasty retreat." Burrk nodded.

  Luke sensed an interesting shift in command.

  Burrk was the nominal leader, but Drom Guldi --a hardened administrator--was equally proficient in making decisions under stress. The two men seemed to have formed a team for their own survival.

  The shield door opened, and freezing air and snow gusted in. The sky had turned a hazy purple as the day drew to a close. Together, Luke and Callista led the five survivors in a sprint past the wreckage of the exploded poachers' ship to their own small space yacht.