by Timothy Zahn
The wrinkles in her forehead smoothed out, and Maris smiled. "I knew he could do it," she said, holding out her hand. "Good luck, Jorj, and take care of yourself. Maybe we'll run into each other again sometime."
Car'das forced himself to smile as he took her hand. "Yes," he said softly. "Maybe we will."
The shattering impact had passed, the violent shaking had faded away, and the dust was beginning to settle onto the darkened deck. Slowly, carefully, Uliar lifted his head from the mass of chair cushions he'd curled up against, wincing as a twinge of pain arced through his neck. "Hello?" he called, his voice echoing eerily through the silent room.
"Uliar?" a voice called back. "It's-" He broke off as a sudden coughing fit took him. "It's Pressor," he said when he got the cough under control. "You all right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Uliar said, getting up and walking unsteadily toward the voice. All the lights were out except for the permlight emergency panels, leaving D-4 looking and feeling uncomfortably like a tomb. "You?"
"I think so," Pressor said. A pair of shadowy figures crawled out from beneath a desk across the room, resolving into Dillian Pressor and his son, Jorad, as they stepped beneath one of the permlights. "Where are all the others?"
"I don't know," Uliar said. "Everyone scattered for cover when you gave the collision warning." He looked around. "What a mess."
"That's for sure," Pressor agreed grimly, rubbing at some blood trickling down his cheek. "I wonder what happened."
"It didn't feel like laser blasts or energy torpedoes," Uliar said. "Aside fromthat, I haven't the faintest idea."
"Well, first things first," Pressor said. "We need to get everyone together and check for food, water, and medical supplies. After that, we can see about power and living quarters. After that, we can see if we can get to the bridge and figure out what in blazes happened."
He started picking his way through the debris, Jorad at his side, clutching his hand tightly. "Yeah, it's a good thing you gave us that warning, all right," Uliar commented as they reached the door. "How come you knew it was coming?"
Pressor shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "It just sort of popped into my head."
"You mean like some kind of Jedi thing?"
"I'm not a Jedi, Chas," Pressor said firmly. "I probably heard something moving or scraping against the hull. Precursor asteroid gravel, or maybe atmospheric friction. Something like that."
"Sure," Uliar said. "That's probably it."
But whether or not Pressor was a Jedi, there was definitely something strange about him. And after what the Jedi had done to Outbound Flight, Uliar would be watching Pressor and his family. He would be watching them very closely.
In the meantime, there was a little matter of survival to deal with. Ducking under a twisted section of ceiling panel, he followed Pressor down the corridor.
FB2 document info
Document ID: 674de4bb-98c3-4c4d-bbe1-e181cedd7041
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