conclusions he was reaching. There was altogether too much attention being paid
to the Domain Hul worldship, too many missing infidel resources, too much
unexplained behavior from the gigantic triangle ship now mere minutes from
reaching him.
"Prepare to disengage," he commanded. "Select a Rim-ward withdrawal course
and execute it on my order."
He could feel the eyes of his officers on him. Some would be concealing
anger at what they interpreted as an act of cowardice. Some, knowing how bad his
eyes were, wouldn't bother to conceal it.
He understood their anger. He felt it himself. But he knew, too, that he
did not serve the Yuuzhan Vong cause by needlessly sacrificing a resource as
great as a healthy worldship, not when he could withdraw now and assault again
later with victory more likely. So he ignored them, ignored their stares.
One of his officers said, "Subsurface dovin basal clusters are being
maneuvered into the correct position."
Then Kasdakh Bhul stood beside him once more. He stared up through the
command chamber's viewing lens. "There is something wrong with the oncoming
triangle ship."
"I should hope so, considering the damage that has been inflicted upon her.
"
"I mean, she is not what I expected. 1 have been forced to learn something
of the infidel vessels, and this one is not dying the way she should. Her
skeleton is wrong."
Czulkang Lah squinted up through the viewing lens, but all he could make
out of the approaching vessel were her outline and the flashes of light,
exchanges between starfighters and coralskippers, all around her.
He moved to the blaze bug niche, reached into it until he pointed straight
at the glowing creatures representing the triangle ship, then irritably waved
toward himself. Blaze bugs from the back of the niche swarmed to the center,
joined with the image of the triangle ship, and caused it to grow in apparent
size and detail. Czulkang Lah kept waving until the triangle ship dominated the
niche, surrounded by blaze bugs engaged in dogfights.
The triangle ship had suffered tremendous damage. The topside extension
where her commanders were said to remain was almost gone. No sputters of light
leapt from her flanks or belly-all her weapons were dead. And her nose was
destroyed, the front one-quarter of the vessel worn away by the constant attacks
by coralskippers and Yuuzhan Vong capital ships.
But something protruded from the vessel's bow, like an enormous needle,
reaching from where the ruin began to where the vessel's original prow would
have been.
"That is what I mean," Kasdakh Bhul said. "It is like a stinger. Their
vessels don't have stingers, just compartments."
Czulkang Lah felt something like dread creep through his chest. "Are we
ready to withdraw?" he asked, his voice curiously calm.
"Not yet," one of his officers answered.
* * *
Individual coralskippers, separated from squadrons or the last survivors of
their squadrons, broke out of the worldship's orbit and moved to intercept Luke
and Mara. The two Jedi did not slow to engage. They juked and jinked to avoid
plasma cannon fire, they responded with laser-fire, and they roared past,
heading relentlessly on toward the worldship while their enemies turned after
them.
Then they were just above the worldship, on a diving course toward its
surface. They vectored to enter orbit and whipped around the worldship's
equator, heading toward its far side, the side faced away from the star Pyria.
They crossed the terminator and were suddenly plunged into darkness.
In moments, sensors showed an intact squadron ahead of them, an equal
number of miscellaneous skips arriving over the horizon from behind, and enough
empty space around the two Jedi to give them a few seconds of breathing space.
"This would be as good a time as any, Luke," Mara said.
"No argument here." Luke switched on the apparatus they'd wired into his
comm unit, and the comm units of several of the prestige pilots of Lusankya's
guardian squadrons, just prior to the launch of this mission. "Broadcasting
location," he said. "I'm going to stay on the straight and narrow as long as I
can stand to."
There was a touch of laughter to Mara's voice: "You know, I've said that in
the past."
"Very funny."
Luke's forward shield flared into incandescence as something hit it-not a
plasma ball, for he would have seen that coming, but something that had not been
illuminated until it hit. Probably a grutchin. He tightened, clenching his jaw
as though hardening his body could harden his X-wing against incoming fire. He
was a sitting duck until his task was do'ne.
Mara moved up before him, drifting back and forth, making herself the main
target of the oncoming skips but never moving so far that her shields did not
offer protection to Luke.
Luke could feel her reaching for him in the Force. It wasn't a gesture
seeking reassurance, not really; he could feel her confidence, her focus on her
task.
It took him a moment to understand. She wanted to be there, with him, in
case something happened, in case one or the other of them suddenly winked out of
existence. It was suddenly hard for him to swallow.
Then his sensor board yowled as something huge materialized in space behind
him, no more than two hundred meters in his wake.
It was Mon Mothma, dropping out of hyperspace. The great Interdictor
immediately began drifting to Luke's port, away from the worldship's surface;
she had to have been on a slightly different course before entering hyperspace.
A moment later, a cloud erupted from Mow Mothma's underside-her complement
of starfighters, squadron after squadron streaking away from the launching bays,
some to guard the Destroyer, some to head off incoming coral-skippers from ahead
and behind.
The crude gravitic sensor that was part of the X-wing's new instrument
package lit up. Mon Mothma had activated her gravity-well generators. If the
plan was going according to schedule, she'd be activating her yammosk jamming,
too.
"Last act, Mara."
"Let's catch our breath before we join the other players, farm boy."
"Let's do that."
NINETEEN
The worldship's navigation crew did not have to be told to maneuver away
from the Interdictor. But once they did set a new course, a noise akin to dismay
wafted from their area.
Czulkang Lah merely looked at Kasdakh Bhul. The warrior moved to the
navigators, spoke briefly with them, and returned.
In pained tones, he said, "There is confusion. Five dovin basal mines have
just chased five Millennium Falcons into our immediate space. Their attempts to
seize the infidel ships are interfering with the worldship's dovin basals."
"Five Millennium Falcons."
"Yes."
"And even one is enough to cause us grief."
A few kilometers away, another New Republic ship winked into existence-
Errant Venture. It immediately opened up with all guns, directing damage against
the worldship's surface, a
gainst the nearest Yuuzhan Vong capital ships.
"I've breathed," Luke said. "Let's get 'em."
With four coralskippers closing on his tail, Wedge hurtled away from Ammuud
Swooper's course. The freighter was less than a minute from being able to enter
hyperspace. A minute... surely Wedge could hold the skips here that long. Even
at the cost of his life.
Czulkang Lah watched as his fleet became uncoordinated. Suddenly
coralskippers swarmed like awkward trainees. Villips everted as the commanders
of his capital ships stopped receiving gravitic orders. The spike at the nose of
Lusankya was now visible through the viewing lens above; more of the ship had
eroded, revealing even more spike. The gravitic interdiction of one of the
triangle ships in orbit above the worldship was keeping his dovin basals from
maneuvering Domain Hul out of Lu-sankya's path.
He ignored his commanders. "Activate my son's villip," he told Kasdakh
Bhul.
A moment later, the vilHp installed in the most prominent niche everted and
took on the features of Tsavong Lah. "What news, my father?" the warmaster
asked. "Has Borleias fallen?"
"Borleias has fallen," said Czulkang Lah, his voice weary.
"And have you slain all the infidels? Or do some of their forces remain to
flee?"
"Some forces remain."
"But still, a great victory."
"No, son. Limited facts can point at victory when in fact there is only
defeat to taste."
The villip frowned. "Defeat? You have achieved the conditions of victory.
You have once more brought glory to Domain Lah."
"In a minute I will be dead. Too many clever minds, however heretical they
may be, have undone me."
"But-"
"Be quiet, my son, and know that my last words were reserved for you. Fare
well, and may the gods smile upon you, as they once did upon me." Czulkang Lah
reached up to stroke the villip. It inverted, carrying Tsavong Lah's expression
of bafflement with it.
Kasdakh Bhul stepped before him. "We are on the verge of victory, old one.
Pull one last strategy out of your mind. Give us that last success."
Czulkang Lah stared into the face of a warrior too stupid even to know
regret. The old warmaster held his silence. He'd promised that his words to
Tsavong Lah would be his last. He would not diminish their value by breaking
that promise.
One of his officers, his voice quaking in fear or anger - or both-asked,
"Shall I give the order to abandon Domain Hul?"
Czulkang Lah nodded.
Suddenly space was swarming with New Republic reinforcements. Gavin let off
his thruster and watched, bemused, as four TIE Interceptors off Mon Mothma
strafed the coralskipper duo he and Nevil had been dueling, shredding them by
virtue of fresh pilots and fresh lasers.
"Rogue Squadron, regroup on me," Gavin said. "Let's let the latecomers
escort Lusankya in. Blackmoons, how are you doing?"
"Rogue Leader, this is Blackmoon Ten. We're, ah, not doing too well. Four
actives remain, not counting Black-moon One and Two, who are detached."
"Recommend you sit back and watch for a minute, then."
"Can't do it, Rogue Leader. One of our own appears to be in a furball back
at Borleias. We're going back after him."
"We'll come with you."
Wedge finished his loop and headed back toward his four pursuers. They were
firing long before he was aligned, but two of them, the survivors of Wedge's
proton torpedo. attack, were not firing accurately; their undersides were
charred, and Wedge suspected that those two coralskippers were damaged. Injured,
and in pain.
Not that two healthy ones couldn't kill him. Wedge sideslipped, rotated to
change his profile, juked and jinked to keep incoming plasma and grutchin fire
off him.
As he approached the coralskipper formation, he drifted to port and
squeezed off some stutterfire laser at the healthy skip on that side. He fired
for only a fraction of a second, letting the short series of beams drift forward
from the target's cockpit, watching as the skip's voids moved with the streams
of coherent light and swallowed them; then he switched the weapon over to quad-
linked fire, flicked his targeting reticle back toward the cockpit, and fired,
all in one quick motion.
The voids continued forward for a brief, deadly fraction of a second.
Wedge's lasers slammed in behind them, punching through the pilot's canopy,
punching through the pilot.
Wedge's X-wing shook as plasma, not completely deflected by his shields,
seared through his starboard lower S-foil. His diagnostics lit up with their
report. Structural damage, but no interruption of engine power. The S-foil might
collapse if flown into atmosphere, especially in firing position, but should
hold up to all but the most rigorous of maneuvers in space.
The last healthy coralskipper and its two injured wing-mates were on his
tail, pouring plasma after him; he heard impact after impact as the superheated
projectiles hit his rear shields, watched the alarming drop of his shield power.
His sensor board beeped, alerting him to an object in his path, on
collision course, less than a second away. He began to twitch the X-wing yoke,
to sideslip him around the obstacle, but instead switched weapons controls back
to proton torpedo and fired on it. Only then did he shove the yoke down.
He saw the brilliant flash of the torpedo detonating above him, felt his X-
wing rock as the shock wave from the explosion hammered him, but he switched
back to lasers and hauled back on the yoke even as he was being battered. He was
through the detonation zone in an instant-and there, meters above him, was the
last healthy skip, its pilot still recovering from the unexpected detonation.
Wedge fired and saw his lasers tear into the skip's underbelly.
There was another explosion, this one far less severe, as the skip vented
gases through the crater Wedge's lasers punched in the yorik coral. The skip
suddenly ceased maneuvering.
A shrill alarm had been wailing in Wedge's ear since the explosion. Finally
he could spare an instant's attention to his diagnostics board.
He cursed. His shields were down. Whether they had failed from the proton
torpedo explosion or been stripped as a last act of the coralskipper's voids, he
did not know, but he suspected the latter; it would explain why his last shot
against the skip's underbelly was not blocked.
Without shields, he was nearly as good as dead. He spared a glance for the
two injured skips. They would be closing on him now, predators coming after
injured.prey.
Instead, they were moving away at high speed.
Wedge laughed. Seeing the last intact skip of the squadron destroyed had
caused their nerve to fail; they probably hadn't even detected that he had lost
his shields. He wondered what they thought he was-another supposed godly
manifestation, like jaina?
Then he stopped laughing. His sensors showed the coralskipper squadron from
planetside had left the atmosphere and was racing up in the wake of Ammuud
Swooper. They might intercept her before she rea
ched a point from which she
could launch into hyperspace.
Unless he maneuvered himself in the way. Unless he persuaded a second
squadron to duel with him.
But if he did that, his X-wing shieldless and damaged, he would die. He
would die alone, and he would die anonymous, flying another pilot's X-wing with
no record left behind of his having been here. lella and his children would
never know what had become of him.
He swung around on an intercept course and hit his thrusters.
Turning his back on the Ammuud Swooper, leaving her to be destroyed by the
Yuuzhan Vong when she was so close to escape, would not allow him to live. It
would just give him time to tidy up his affairs before guilt-the crushing weight
of responsibility abandoned-caused him to find some other way to die.
Coming in at an oblique angle to the new coralskippers' course, Wedge fired
at maximum possible distance. On his sensor board, he saw no indication that his
lascrfire had done any damage.
But after a moment the squadron of skips vectored, angling toward him.
He could have cheered. They, too, wanted a challenging kill rather than
some defenseless freighter. Had their decision not guaranteed his death, he
would have cheered.
Wedge kept up his fire, jerking his X-wing back and forth in a bone-jarring
evasive pattern, seeing plasma fire streak above, to port, to starboard. His
sustained lasers fired straight down the voids of the foremost skip, only
occasionally drifting far and fast enough to one side to hit yorik coral.
He felt a tremendous impact and the starfield was suddenly rotating outside
his canopy. The X-wing no longer responded to his control of the yoke. Systems
failure alarms shrilled in his ears, and he knew he was dead.
Eldo Davip locked down the auxiliary bridge controls, then slapped the
button for the new door at the chamber's rear. It slid open instantly,
undamaged, revealing the Y-wing beyond.
A Y-wing. He shook his head as he ran to the cockpit and clambered within.
The starfighter was as old as he was, if not older; he suspected it was one of
the assembly of "spare parts" vehicles that had been used to fabricate the pipe
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