Star Wars: Shadow Games
Page 1
Star Wars: Shadow Games is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2011 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated.
All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
Excerpt from Star Wars: Red Harvest © 2010 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-53280-0
www.starwars.com
www.fateofthejedi.com
www.delreybooks.com
Cover art and design: Scott Biel
v3.1
This one’s for Gerry Conway
—MR
For Stan Schmidt,
who bought my first-ever science fiction story
—MKB
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank our inestimable editors, David Pomerico and Shelly Shapiro, who herded their cats with patience and good humor. (I especially appreciated David’s “out-of-office messages.”) Also thanks to Sue and Leland at Lucasfilm, Ltd. for their assistance with research and continuity, to Dan Wallace and Jason Fry for their very helpful resource manual, and to the team of researchers who put together the Star Wars Encyclopedia that now resides on my laptop. Also, kudos to the team of volunteers at Wookieepedia for helping me to find things. And a special shout-out to all the fans who have built beautiful Star Wars–related websites as a labor of love. You guys are why we write these books in the first place.
—MKB
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Arno D’Vox; commander, Bannistar Station (human male)
Arruna Var; Javul Charn’s engineer (Twi’lek female)
Bran Finnick; first officer, Nova’s Heart (human male)
Dash Rendar; smuggler (human male)
Eaden Vrill; smuggler (Nautolan male)
Edge; assassin (Anomid male)
Han Solo; captain, Millennium Falcon (human male)
Hityamun “Hitch” Kris; Black Sun Vigo (human male)
Javul Charn; holostar (human female)
Kendara “Spike” Farlion; Javul Charn’s road manager (human female)
Leebo; repair droid (masculine droid)
Nik; cargo master’s assistant (Sullustan male)
Oto; service droid (masculine droid)
“Red” Rishyk; security chief Bannistar Station (human male)
Serdor Marrak; captain, Nova’s Heart (Zabrak male)
Tereez Dza’lar; Javul Charn’s costumier (Bothan female)
Yanus Melikan; Javul Charn’s cargo master (human male)
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Dramatis Personae
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Also by This Author
Introduction to the Star Wars Expanded Universe
Excerpt from Star Wars: Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight
Introduction to the Old Republic Era
Excerpt from Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance
Introduction to the Rise of the Empire Era
Excerpt from Star Wars: Republic Commando: Hard Contact
Introduction to the Rebellion Era
Excerpt from Star Wars: Allegiance
Introduction to the New Republic Era
Excerpt from Star Wars: X-Wing: Rogue Squadron
Introduction to the New Jedi Order Era
Excerpt from Star Wars: New Jedi Order: Vector Prime
Introduction to the Legacy Era
Excerpt from Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal
Excerpt from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast
Star Wars Novels Timeline
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away .…
ONE
“THIS IS IT, EADEN. THIS IS THE DAY WE ONE-UP SOLO.”
Dash Rendar sat back in the pilot’s chair of the Outrider, feeling an almost palpable sense of satisfaction. It was a good feeling—nearly tingly, in fact. And he expected to relive it every time he bragged about how fast he’d done the Kessel Run. It was, after all, acknowledged to be the ultimate test of a pilot’s skill … and propensity for risk taking. Every time you ran it, you risked your cargo, your life, and your reputation, but you got your goods where they were going faster than more cautious pilots and you could walk into any port with a swagger in your step. The faster your time, the bigger your swagger.
“Hubris,” said Eaden Vrill, his dark, liquid gaze on the tactical display. His voice was a low rumble, more suited for underwater communication than atmospheric, and his Basic took some getting used to, with its hard-edged fricatives and sibilants. Dash was used to it; he and the Nautolan had been partners for some time.
“Confidence,” Dash retorted, annoyed at being pulled out of his pleasant reverie. “The Outrider is twice the ship the Falcon is.” As far as he was concerned Solo’s boat was a scow compared with Dash’s heavily modified YT-2400.
Eaden glanced at him. “You confuse pride of possession with a distinct entity. The ship is not you, nor did you build it. Its speed—”
“Is largely the result of my expert modifications.”
“Beg to differ,” the Nautolan replied. “The improvements are almost entirely the result of repairs carried out by LE-BO2D9. The rest is unarguably the result of my superior navigation skills.”
Dash glanced at his navigator. “Now who’s overweening? Hubris, my—”
“You imply that I’m boasting. I’m not—but feel free to correct me if I’ve misinterpreted your colorful patois. I am concentrating.” He hesitated, then added: “We’re entering the Pit.”
Reason enough to concentrate, Dash knew. He rocked his seat forward, hitting the comm button on the pilot’s console as he did. “Hey, Leebo, we’re headed into the Pit.”
“Imagine my excitement.” The reply came back in the sarcastic voice of the repair droid’s previous owner, Kood Gareeda—a stand-up comic who toured the Rim perpetually. Dash had seen Gareeda’s routine; he was wise to keep moving.
“I guess I’ll have to,” he said in response.
“Try not to break the ship—again,” Leebo added. “And try especially hard not to give me anything to shoot at.”
“Do my best.” Dash took the steering yoke and turned off the autopilot. “Course?” he prompted Eaden.
The Nautolan n
avigator locked the course coordinates into the navicomp, and Dash watched them appear as a bright saffron arc on the tactical display. He frowned at the solid yellow line. “Hey, this isn’t a leisurely holiday tour.”
“You refer to the arc of our course?”
Dash sighed and pointed at the navicomp monitor. “Look at the blasted line. Do you see red?”
Eaden looked. “I see no red.”
“That’s because the course you set is safe.”
“And this is a problem because?”
“Because safe isn’t gonna better Solo’s time.”
Eaden Vrill blinked his extraordinarily large maroon eyes. Two of his fourteen tentacle-like tresses lifted their tips toward Dash. “You wish me to recalculate?”
“What I wish is to beat Solo’s alleged record.”
“I’m simply being careful. We have an expensive cargo that we have yet to be paid for.”
“All the more reason to get it to port quickly,” Dash said. He gestured at the monitor. “So reset the course, please. We have to skate as close to the Maw as Solo did. Closer, if possible.”
Eaden made an almost subsonic rumble of disapproval and ran nimble fingers over the console. The arc of light on the tactical display shot forth again. The curve was more pronounced now, running closer to the Maw, where the color deepened from yellow to orange to a satisfying shade of crimson.
“Keep in mind,” Eaden cautioned, “that nothing in the galaxy is static. The orbital trajectories of stars, systems—”
“Are negligible within the context of human and humanoid life spans. If I were a Cephalon, say, it might be something to worry about.” Dash took the steering yoke in hand, aimed the Outrider along the flaming arc, and punched the hyperdrive.
It was just a microjump to put them in the vicinity. To fly hyper along the edge of the Pit was almost impossible. For one thing, the gravity well could yank you out of hyperspace in a heartbeat even if you’d tinkered with your failsafes—which, of course, Dash had. Then there was the fact that the hard radiation from the nebula that cradled the asteroid field played havoc with instrumentation—adhering to a set sublight course that skirted the fringes of the Pit was about the only way Dash knew he could come through in one piece. Deviation on one side could result in clipping a wandering asteroid; deviation on the other would send the ship into the gravitational pull of the Maw, a cluster of black holes that warped local space. Fly too close to one of those singularities and all kinds of bad things could happen—not the least of which was having one’s atoms stretched to an infinite length by the tidal forces that waited to tear everything apart.
He was counting down to the end of the jump when the Outrider trembled abruptly, the unexpected vibration passing through Dash’s hands and up his arms. He frowned. That wasn’t right. He opened his mouth to say something to Eaden when the ship bucked like a fractious tauntaun and dropped out of hyperspace.
“What the—”
“Oh, mother of chaos!” Leebo’s bleat came through the com in a wash of static. “Incoming!”
“Incoming what?” Dash looked frantically at the tac display—which made no sense. There was no gravity well here—
“Incoming Imperials! There’s an Imperial cruiser bearing down on us from astern—Interceptor-class!”
Dash swore in three languages—adding several choice moans in Wookieespeak. The Interceptors had gravity generators—four of them—that could suck a smaller ship right out of hyperspace or keep it from fleeing by producing a false gravity well. They’d flown right into a trap—probably set up here at the top of the Kessel run for the express purpose of catching smugglers.
The ship rocked violently to port and Leebo uttered a shrill, metallic squeal.
Before Dash’s eyes the tac display finally made sense. Outrider had dropped back into realspace close enough to the contents of the Pit that they were practically kissing the asteroid field. If the cruiser’s gravity well had hit them a few seconds sooner, they might have hit something big enough to hurt. Bad.
He pushed the thought down and focused on the display. A slowly rotating planetoid the shape of an egg and the size of an old-style generation ship lay several hundred klicks off their port bow. It was moving lazily across the general flow of rocky traffic, rolling on its long axis. In a split second, he’d made his decision. They’d hide behind that and use it to guard their flank while they made their getaway.
He manhandled the steering yoke hard to port and hit the ion drives hard. The Outrider leapt toward the egg-shaped planetoid, nosing down slightly in anticipation of dropping beneath the great rock.
When they were close enough that the bulging flanks of the planetoid filled the forward viewport, there was a resonant ping from the proximity sensors and Eaden sat bolt upright. “Target dead ahead!”
“And up!” Leebo screeched through the intercom. A barrage of laser fire erupted from the Outrider’s cannon emplacement at the upper horizon of the planetoid. Dash looked up and felt his blood run cold. Over the close horizon of the great gray egg loomed the bow of an Imperial light cruiser, its laser ports glowing red. Leebo’s useless salvo had pattered harmlessly against its heavy shielding.
Dash thrust the steering yoke forward. The ship plummeted in response, accelerating as she dived beneath the planetoid. A trail of laserfire from the Imperial ship lit up her wake.
“What are you doing?” cried Leebo.
“Proving that size isn’t everything!”
Dash continued to accelerate, giving the Outrider even more juice as they passed beneath the long axis of the planetoid and began ascending. The cruiser was five times bigger than the Outrider, which meant it was, at minimum, at least five times less maneuverable. By the time the captain figured out what Dash was doing and was able to turn the ship or order up a new firing solution, the target would be gone.
He hoped.
The Outrider described a perfect semicircle in the void of space, pressor beams providing maneuverability in the vacuum. It sailed around the planetoid upside down relative to the cruiser and whizzed over it toward the Maw.
“I need a quick course adjustment,” he told his navigator, then spared a second to glance at the rearview screen. As he had hoped, the Imperial captain had read his move as an attempt to flee and had started to turn his ship in anticipation of pursuit into the Pit. He was still swinging to port as the Outrider streaked away in the opposite direction, toward the cluster of black holes.
“I sometimes think,” said Eaden, as his webbed fingers played over the instrumentation, “that you are a certifiable madman. I assume you want a course that the Imperials will be loath to follow.”
“I want the Imperials to think I’ve chosen death over dishonor.”
The Nautolan gave him a sidewise glance. “You may well have done just that.”
“Cute. Range to the rim of the Maw?”
“Two-point-three light-hours and closing.”
Dash’s gaze swept the tactical display, taking in the diffuse rims of the gravity wells, depicted in the display as broad, glowing bands of faded orange. If they eluded the cruiser, and went to hyperspace at the right moment and dived into the Maw at just the right angle, they could, with more luck than anyone had any right to expect, use their superluminal velocity to skip them along the outer edge of the region like a flat stone across a lake. Theoretically, anyway. If the gravitational waves generated by the various collapsed masses didn’t muck up their navigation or suck them out of hyperspace again. If they could maintain a safe course through the complicated orbital arabesques being performed by the singularities. If they could get far enough from the Imperial’s gravity generators to make the jump in the first place.
Eaden pointed out these various risks with maddening calm, and Leebo chimed in over the comm with even more maddening hysteria. Dash shouted them both down.
“As much as I hate to quote an adversary,” he said, “remember what Han says in situations like this?”
“
Enlighten me,” Eaden replied. It was, Dash thought, hard to believe that an amphibious humanoid could manage so dry a tone.
“Never tell me the odds.”
The navicomp beeped, and he punched the ion drives. Hard.
TWO
I LOVE TO WATCH YOUR SHOW, AND WILL ALWAYS COME Back for more. I’ll be Coming For about the tenth time to see You At Your Next Concert. —a Die-Hard fan
Javul Charn stared at the holographic message that hovered in the air before her face. On the surface it looked just like all the other fan mail she’d gotten in this packet, but her gut told her it wasn’t fan mail at all. It was a warning.
Reading it over for the second time, she used the tip of her finger to select the oddly capitalized words from the text and drag them to a separate line, wondering how it had gotten past Kendara Farlion, her road manager and professional worrywart. Dara was used to seeing quirky holomail, but quirkiness usually had a pattern to it.
This wasn’t a pattern.
Javul looked at the finished sentences hovering before her eyes: Watch Your Back. Coming For You At Your Next Concert. Die-Hard.
Was that last just a throwaway line or something more? A clue, perhaps?
At your next concert, the message said, but that didn’t guarantee that something wouldn’t happen before then. Her next concert was a little over a week away on Rodia, and would kick off a tour that would take them all the way to the Core Worlds, ending on Alderaan.
Panic fluttered beneath Javul’s breastbone and she felt suddenly, unutterably alone. Beyond the door of the luxurious cabin on her equally luxurious private yacht, the Nova’s Heart—named after her first holo-album to sell ten billion copies—her entourage and crew went about the hundreds of daily tasks that were integral to producing and maintaining her seemingly endless cycles of live concerts, holocasts, personal appearances, and travel. And yet—here, in her private sanctum, no less—someone had managed to breach the battlements of her life.