by Jude Watson
Toma began barking out orders to his pilots. Obi-Wan took a moment to
familiarize himself with the pattern on the large, square screen on the
wall.
"Your left flank is weak," he told Toma. "In battles like this, many
commanders like to use pincer movements. They have the superior numbers.
You have to fly through them, not around them. It's more dangerous, but
it's also more effective."
Toma nodded. He spoke into the comlink, translating Obi-Wan's words
into specific ship movements. The dots on the screen reassembled.
Toma pointed to two moving dots, each with a different number code.
"That is Raina and Ferus. They've taken off."
Obi-Wan kept his eyes on them. Ferus had made his decision, but Obi-
Wan wished he had stayed here. He suddenly realized how much he was
depending on him. He himself had to return to Tatooine, but his consolation
was that Ferus would be out in the galaxy, doing what he could, where he
could.
He had no more advice to give to Toma. It was clear to him, looking at
the screen, that the battle was already lost. The Acherins simply did not
have enough ships or firepower. He was amazed at the daring pilots and
their skill, but one by one the blinking dots disappeared. Toma's face grew
ashen.
"We are losing our best," he said.
"They can't hold out," Obi-Wan said gently.
"We didn't dare to hope that we'd beat them," Toma said. "We hoped we
would be enough of a nuisance that they'd just go away."
"They never just go away," Obi-Wan said. "Their reach is a
stranglehold. They won't let go."
"If I pull the pilots back, it's over," Toma said. "I will have to
surrender Eluthan."
"If it must be done, it should be done," Obi-Wan said.
Toma spoke into his comm unit. "Recalling all pilots," he said. "The
battle is lost. Return to base. You have done well, each one of you."
He bowed his head. Obi-Wan watched as Toma struggled with his
decision. When he raised his head, his eyes were clear. With Obi-Wan out of
view, he contacted the Imperial commander, Admiral Riwwel. Soon Riwwel's
face appeared on the screen.
"I am prepared to surrender," Toma said. "I ask for safe passage for
my pilots. Acherin agrees to become part of the Empire."
"Do you think after what has happened, after the many deaths of our
forces, that this is acceptable'?" Admiral Riwwel sneered. "You must pay
for your disloyalty. I do not accept your surrender terms. You will
surrender on our terms."
"And what are your terms?"
"Annihilation. Eluthan must pay with its own destruction. Prepare for
saturation bombing of the city. We have already knocked out your planetary
shield."
Toma whirled to check the computer. "No! It is our ancient city,
revered by all Acherins, the site of our most precious treasures!"
"You should have thought of that before you made it your base."
The screen went black.
"What have I done'?" Toma wondered aloud.
"You haven't done it," Obi-Wan said. "They have. You must tell the
pilots not to return. They'll be destroyed."
"They are almost here... they think they have safe passage.." It was
true. The pulses of light were returning. Behind them were the lights of
the Imperial destroyers, tailing them. Toma spoke into the comlink. "Do not
return to Eluthan! Repeat, do not return! Take evasive action, now!"
Obi-Wan saw the great Empire's ships fire even as the pilots peeled
off. All of them made it, a tribute to the skills of the Acherin pilots. To
his dismay, he saw two pulsating lights begin to take evasive action, but
not deflect from their course.
"Ferus and Raina are returning here," he said.
"No," Toma said in disbelief. "They'll be slaughtered."
"Trever, come on - we must get to the spaceport," Obi-Wan said.
The sounds of explosions came to them now. The Empire was leading a
barrage against the city. Toma flipped the image control and they saw
scenes of devastation outside as cannons boomed from the destroyers above.
Toma flinched as a large, stately building suddenly disintegrated.
"Libraries, museums... our university. How could an invading force do this?
They're targeting them. Why can't they just allow us to surrender? This is
our civilization!"
"It is yours, not theirs," Obi-Wan said. "So they don't care about it.
All they care about is a display of power. Toma, we must go."
Toma snapped back into his authority. "There is a hidden landing
platform with my personal transport. That is where Raina will be going."
With a last glance at the screen, Obi-Wan turned.
He motioned to Trever. "Stay close to me."
"I'm not going to argue with that," Trever said. The building shook
with the heavy barrage. The thick stones held up, but cracks appeared and
dirt rained down on them as they ran down the corridors.
They heard the sound of thudding boots.
"The stormtroopers are here," Obi-Wan said.
Toma turned down another corridor. The echo of the stormtrooper boots
seemed to be everywhere. Obi-Wan focused on the sounds, tuning into the
Force to tell him what he needed to know.
"There's a squad of twenty ahead. But only five behind," he told the
others, reversing direction. "This way."
"No, we can't," Toma said. "That leads to a dead end. We have to go
this way."
Toward twenty stormtroopers? "Oh, well," Obi-Wan said. "You can't have
everything."
He charged forward, lightsaber in hand. Toma was at his side with his
blaster ready.
Trever called out in a whisper. "Wait!"
Obi-Wan paused impatiently. Trever had opened up a closet marked
ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT. He took out a box of laserballs.
"Let me go first. I'll give you the edge you need." Obi-Wan hesitated.
"Trever, I'm not sure about this."
"Trust me."
There was no time to argue. The stormtroopers were approaching.
Obi-Wan stood near Trever, poised to protect him. As the footsteps
grew closer, he nodded at Trever.
The stormtroopers appeared, rounding the corner, moving quickly in
lockstep. With a flick of his wrist, Trever sent six laserballs shooting
down the corridor, centimeters above the floor.
Flick. Flick. Flick. Trever's action was so fast it was almost a blur.
More laserballs zoomed down the hallway.
At first, the stormtroopers were just confused. Then they tried to
evade the laserballs, but one got tangled up and started to fall. Another
crashed into one on his left. Before long, they were colliding, trying to
keep their balance and shooting at Obi-Wan and the others at the same time.
Blaster bolts pinged through the air and hit the walls and ceiling.
Obi-Wan leaped directly into their midst. While Toma came at them on
the right with his blaster, Obi-Wan's lightsaber danced. Within seconds the
entire squad had been demolished.
"Thanks for the edge," Toma told Trever.
They continued on. Toma led them through a narrow passage to a small
hangar with one ship. He flicked on a vidscreen. The sky outsid
e was thick
with Imperial starfighters. "We're underground now. I can activate the
opening when we see Ferus and Raina," he said. "It's concealed in the side
of the building."
Obi-Wan looked at the ship. It was a battered star cruiser with dull
gray plating.
"I know," Toma said. "It doesn't look like much. It's not supposed to.
But it's got a tweaked hyperdrive engine and all the firepower you could
want."
"Look!" Trever called, pointing to the vidscreen.
Two ships were spinning and diving, cartwheeling through the air as
cannonfire streaked around them. Smoke was spiraling out from one of the
ships. Obi-Wan didn't know whether it was Ferus's or Raina's.
Toma pressed a switch as they dove in a straight line toward the
surface. At the very moment it seemed they would crash into the city, they
veered off. Part of the ceiling overhead slid back, and they dropped into
the hangar.
Raina quickly popped her cockpit canopy and leaped out as her ship
exploded into flames. Toma and Trever took a step back from the heat, but
Obi-Wan raced toward Ferus's ship. Why hadn't Ferus opened the cockpit
canopy?
He looked clown into the transparent bubble. Ferus was working at the
canopy manually with a vibrocutter. When he saw Obi-Wan, he stepped back.
Obi-Wan used his lightsaber, and the cockpit canopy peeled back. Ferus
leaped out.
"I lost all systems in that last dive," he said. "Even the manual
control blinked out. Thanks for the help."
Stormtroopers poured into the hangar, firing as they came. Obi-Wan
deflected the fire with his lightsaber as they ran toward the remaining
ship. Raina leaped aboard and started the engines. Toma helped Trever up
the ramp.
Ferus and Obi-Wan turned their attention to the stormtroopers. Obi-Wan
deflected fire and used the Force to push several stormtroopers backward,
knocking them into the formation and sending several of them tumbling,
hampered by their armor.
Obi-Wan and Ferus took advantage of this to jump aboard. The ship
lifted off and streaked outside. Dodging cannonfire, Raina guided the ship
through the smoking city.
"I can't believe it," Raina cried. "I can't believe they're destroying
the city!"
But she didn't have time for reflection. Starfighters were chasing
them, hammering at them with cannonfire.
"They've locked a missile on our position," Obi-Wan called.
"I've got to take us through the standing stones," Raina said.
"Isn't this ship a little big?" Ferus asked. "There's no room to
maneuver."
"I've done it before on a training exercise," Raina assured him.
"That was in a starfighter," Toma pointed out. "And you crashed your
ship."
"Is he kidding?" Trever asked.
Raina shook her head. "Toma never kids."
"Oh, good." Trever gulped.
Raina flew over the walls that circled the city. She dove down into
the canyon of standing stones. She did it so fast that the torpedo crashed
into a standing stone with a roar.
Obi-Wan gripped the console as a giant stone came at them. Raina
flipped the ship sideways, then zoomed around another stone.
It's almost like flying with Anakin, Obi-Wan thought. For a second,
this made him happy. Then he remembered the rest of it, and it pierced him.
Anakin.
The starfighters overhead dipped down to follow them. One of them
tipped a wing into a stone and spiraled out in a fiery crash. The spaces
between the stones were so narrow that their starship barely made it
through, even when Raina tipped them sideways.
Most of the starfighters gave up and lurked above in airspace, waiting
for them to emerge. But one determined pilot swooped behind them. It was a
race now, and Raina's face was set with determination. She headed straight
for a narrow opening between two standing stones.
"You'll never make that one," Obi-Wan said. Inwardly he thought, I
really do hate flying.
Raina didn't answer. It seemed as if she meant to kill them all. She
still headed for the opening at top speed, the starship behind her
screaming through the stone field.
At the last moment, she dove to the ground and cut her speed. Obi-Wan
didn't think any ship could handle such a maneuver without stalling out,
but this one did. With a great shudder, it hovered only meters off the
ground. The starship tried to flip sideways and make the opening between
the two stones, but the pilot must have been distracted by Raina's sudden
maneuver. It crashed headlong into the stone.
Raina gently eased the ship close to ground level through the rest of
the stone field. They were reaching the end of the canyon, and the standing
stones were farther apart now.
"The starfighters are still up there," Ferus said, his eyes on the nav
screen.
Obi-Wan watched Raina. She was going so slowly. Why?
The sun was slipping down in the sky. Suddenly it hit the stones and
lit them with orange fire.
"We call this the flames of Eluthan," Toma said.
At the same time that the stones lit up, the canyon walls surrounding
them went deep black with shadow. Raina put on a burst of speed and entered
the canyon, losing herself in the shadows.
"This ship has a cloaking device," Toma explained to the others. "It
drains a lot of power, so we can't use it for long. In the meantime, we'll
make it hard for them to get a visual sighting."
Raina did some amazing flying, pushing the speed and hugging the
contours of the canyon wall.
Trever was impressed. "If you ever want to give piloting lessons, sign
me up," he said.
Raina only nodded for an answer. Her face was set in grim lines. She
knew how slim their chances were to outrun and outfox a squad of Imperial
star-fighters.
Wide navy blue sky loomed ahead. They were almost out of the canyon.
Raina shot out into the dusky sky and headed up into the outer atmosphere,
now pushing the speed to maximum.
"We made it!" Trever crowed.
"We're losing the cloaking device," Raina said. "Just a few... more...
seconds," Toma said, scanning the sky.
But Obi-Wan's eyes were on the screen. He saw the blinking dots
reverse direction.
"They've spotted us," he said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The starfighters were gaining on them. The first missile streaked from
the lead starfighter.
Raina pushed the craft left, then right, leading them on a zigzagging
path that made them dizzy. The missile zoomed past them on the right.
"Any volunteers for the gun pods?" Toma asked. He flipped a switch,
and gun stations opened up below the cockpit.
Ferus and Obi-Wan ran to the forward gun pods and strapped themselves
behind the guns. They waited until the starfighters came into range. Ferus
felt the Force gather and grow as they pounded the starfighters behind
them.
But the starfighters were relentless, and more were sent from the
surface. It was clear that the Imperial commanders knew that Toma had
escaped on this ship. The starfighters zoomed toward it, grouping and
regrouping, and pounding the ship with fire. They took one hit, then
another.
"We've got to lose them!" Ferus shouted.
Bent over the nav computer, Toma shook his head. "We're in deep space
now. There are no neighboring systems."
"Hold them off for a minute," Obi-Wan told Ferus before running back
to the cockpit. Ferus watched him out of the corner of his eye. What was he
up to?
"I have an idea," Obi-Wan told Toma. He quickly bent over the nav
computer, making a wide search of the area. "On the way to Acherin we were
caught in a fast-moving star tunnel. The kind that spins out from a vast
atmospheric storm."
"And you want to find the storm?"
Obi-Wan looked up at him. "It's one place to lose the starfighters.
We're heavier and more durable. How much do you trust your ship?"
"I trust my ship," Toma said. He glanced at Raina. "I trust my pilot