Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi, Volume 2

by Jude Watson

  He was too late. The cannonfire streaked toward them. Obi-Wan had anticipated it and swung on a beam, flying through the air toward the rear of the hangar. Ferus was close on his heels.

  The firepower ripped into the roof where Obi-Wan had been. The bolts had all been cut by the lightsaber on this particular panel, and the thin durasteel peeled back like the rind of a fruit, falling toward the floor below.

  Boba Fett made it to safety, but D’harhan was caught. The falling durasteel panel hit him squarely on the back, crashing him to the ground and pinning his legs.

  Obi-Wan and Ferus dropped to the floor below. Swinging his lightsaber, Obi-Wan advanced on Fett. Ferus took shelter behind the various ships, trying to get behind Boba Fett so they could corner him. With D’harhan temporarily out of commission, this would be their best chance to stop Fett.

  Unfortunately the damage had not gone unnoticed by the spaceport security. A fight among pilots was one thing, property damage another. Suddenly speeders soared into the space, piloted by security officers armed with blaster rifles. Fett was their first target, and they headed for him. The bounty hunter now had his hands full as he turned to meet their assault.

  With a quick swipe, Obi-Wan destroyed the control panel on D’harhan’s laser cannon. The cyborg’s usual smile was now a grimace. His expressionless voice was hoarse. “You think you’ve won, don’t you. But we don’t lose. One day you’ll be another Jedi prisoner on Coruscant. Malorum has his ways.”

  Blaster fire suddenly ripped into the ground next to them. More security officers had arrived.

  “Don’t move,” an amplified voice said.

  As Ferus joined them, D’harhan’s grin grew wider. “Now we’ll all be in prison together.”

  Ferus leaned down. “We’re not going anywhere with you, you slab of circuit parts.”

  Obi-Wan heard the hum of an engine. He saw through the partially open door that a space cruiser had jockeyed out of the line and was edging toward the hangar.

  Trever.

  Ferus saw him, too. “Time to catch the air taxi,” he said.

  They raced toward the ship. Trever spun it around and released the landing ramp even as he began to rise in the air. With a flying leap, Obi-Wan and Ferus hit the ramp and pulled themselves onboard.

  Blaster bolts peppered the closing ramp as they ran up into the belly of the ship. They reached the cockpit just as Trever sent the cruiser screaming above the spaceport.

  As they streaked up into the atmosphere, the Red Twins dwindled into two pulsating crimson dots, then just a single reddish glow.

  “Nice driving, kid,” Ferus told Trever. “Where’d you get the ship?”

  Trever’s face was flushed. “Traded for it while you were dancing around. I figured we’d need a clean getaway.”

  “Not so clean,” Obi-Wan said. A glowing light was streaking across the sky.

  Boba Fett had escaped to his ship.

  Trever looked at the control panel. “Aw, you’ve got to be kidding me. This guy is really starting to get on my nerves.”

  Without taking his eyes from the fighter following them, Obi-Wan said, “We can lose him in hyperspace.”

  “Right,” Trever said. “If only we had a hyperdrive.”

  Ferus rotated and fixed Trever with an incredulous look. “You didn’t trade for a ship with a hyperdrive?”

  “I didn’t have much time, you know,” Trever protested.

  “We’re at the edge of the Outer Rim,” Ferus said. “Every ship has a hyperdrive out here. Except the one we’re on.”

  “I didn’t see you being choosy when I came to rescue you,” Trever shot back.

  “If you two don’t mind a suggestion,” Obi-Wan said. “The what-ifs aren’t helping. Fett is gaining.”

  Ferus was starting to hate it when Obi-Wan was right. “You want me to take over?” he asked, pointing to the controls.

  “Sure.” Obi-Wan crossed to the nav computer. “I hate flying. And, Trever, I think this might be a little beyond your experience.”

  Ferus took over the controls. He wondered about his own experience. For the past few years he’d been living quietly on Bellassa, trying to put his Jedi past behind him. The decision to leave had been the hardest one he’d ever made, and it had haunted him every day and every night. He’d let his rival, Anakin Skywalker, push him into leaving. He’d left behind a life of missions and meaning for…isolation. He and his friend Roan had lived quietly—until the rise of the Empire had turned them into Rebels. Ferus had found his cause once more. And he had vowed to stick to it this time, until the Empire was defeated. Roan was lost now, Bellassa a new part of his past. Once more, Ferus found himself on the path of a Jedi—but unsure whether it was a path he was allowed to take.

  He pushed the speed, then dropped back, trying to get a feel for the unfamiliar engines. “I’m just going to have to outfly him.”

  Obi-Wan cast an uneasy glance out the cockpit window. “I have confidence in your piloting skills, Ferus, but I’ve seen this Firespray in action. For a small ship, it’s impressive. Don’t let it fool you. In addition to those blaster cannons, it has laser cannons and seismic minelayers.”

  “Piece of sweetcake,” Trever said, but he looked pale as he saw how quickly Fett was gaining on them. “Don’t you want to speed up?” he asked Ferus nervously.

  “We know he can outrun us,” Ferus pointed out. “The only way we’re going to win this is if we’re able to outmaneuver him.”

  Obi-Wan studied the star map. “Let me see if I can find an asteroid shower to hide in or a dense nebula,” Obi-Wan said. “We need to play hide-and-seek.”

  They were almost within firing distance now. Obi-Wan quickly flipped through the different quadrants on the nav computer. “There’s a dense nebula close by. All uninhabited star clusters. If we can manage to hold on, we can make it in a few minutes.”

  The armored plating on Boba Fett’s ship slid back and the laser cannon sprang to life. Streaks of light headed toward them. Ferus went into a steep dive even as Fett put on speed, zooming toward them.

  “I didn’t think he’d be…quite this fast,” Ferus said, pushing the speed and making a hard right.

  The cannonfire just missed them. Another barrage flew in their direction.

  Ferus tumbled and turned the ship, spinning and diving. Trever was slammed against the console and quickly leaped into a seat in order to grab the armrests.

  They were in a race now, a race they couldn’t possibly win. The attack sent shock waves that buffeted the ship, rocking it. It shook so hard that Obi-Wan was afraid it would break apart. He felt his teeth rattle.

  “We’d better get there soon,” Ferus said. “We’re running out of fuel.”

  “He said he’d just refilled it!” Trever protested.

  “Never trust a pilot, kid,” Ferus said.

  The cannon fired again, and though Ferus went into a dive, the ship quaked as it was struck. Fett followed up the cannonfire with a targeting torpedo.

  “Hang on!” Ferus shouted.

  The ship dived, then looped up. The torpedo followed, tracking them precisely.

  “This is a cargo ship, right?” Obi-Wan asked Trever. The boy nodded. “Release the cargo.”

  Trever flipped the switch. The cargo bay opened and spilled out empty bins and boxes. At the same moment, Ferus pushed the ship into another steep dive. The torpedo’s tracking device followed the cargo instead.

  “That’ll only work once,” Ferus said. “And we’ve got a problem. I don’t think the power systems are used to getting knocked around like this. We have some yellow warning lights flashing. Our systems are failing.”

  “Nebulae coming up!” Trever shouted.

  It wasn’t a moment too soon. Ferus counted off the seconds as Fett pounded behind them. The Force filled the cabin. In times of need, Ferus was able to access it and use it—that had never fully gone away. He felt it move through him, and he relaxed his grip on the controls. Once, he had based his life o
n trusting the Force. He had to remember to do that again.

  The ship suddenly entered a tunnel of tiny stars rotating around a central energy core. Golden light filled the ship, and the atmospheric disturbance caused it to bounce alarmingly. “Hang on!” Ferus shouted. He maneuvered the cruiser so that it rode the currents, rotating as it jolted from one edge of the star corridor to the other. “How long will we be in this?” he barked to Obi-Wan.

  “Not long. We’re on the edge of an unstable current, but it’s moving fast away from us.”

  Fett followed, not giving up, just as intrepid as Ferus—and just as willing to push his ship.

  Obi-Wan hung on to the console as he studied the star map. There was incomplete information here, gaps in the mapping, no doubt because of the volatility of the atmosphere. “It looks like there’s a planet called Deneter up ahead. It was abandoned after the Clone Wars—it was so decimated by battles that the population emigrated to the Core. It has twenty orbiting uninhabited satellites.” He shouted out the coordinates to Ferus. They might be able to lose Fett among the satellites.

  They passed through the star tunnel and into the planet’s atmosphere. Ferus pushed the ship, zooming from one satellite to another, lurking behind one to zoom out behind the next. Boba Fett stayed on their tail, blasting his cannons.

  “This isn’t working,” Obi-Wan said. “We can’t shake him.”

  “I’m not out of tricks yet,” Ferus muttered, hoping it was true. “Trever, remember your gravsled action?”

  On the streets of Ussa, Trever had used the unwieldy gravsled like an airspeeder, pushing its capabilities in order to evade Empire security. “Which action?” Trever asked, his eyes on Fett’s ship.

  “The one where you pretend to spin out, and then recover and zoom off?” Ferus said.

  “Yeah. Worked every time.”

  “How’d you do it?”

  “Well, it takes a certain touch,” Trever said. “And an extra boost on the stabilizers.”

  “I’ll need a boost from another system,” Ferus said. “Can you patch in some power from the hydraulics?”

  “Wait a second,” Obi-Wan said. “That could leave us without enough braking power to land.”

  Another barrage of cannonfire sent the ship into a steep dive. This time, the blast hit them in the rear. The ship careened out of control for several long, agonizing seconds while Ferus fought to stabilize. At last, with a great groan, the ship righted itself.

  “Then again,” Obi-Wan said, “we can worry about landing when the time comes.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Ferus said through gritted teeth.

  Trever dived to the floor and wrenched open the engine panel. He leaped inside the small space. “I don’t have much experience with sublight engines, but…” They heard muttering and clanking. “Got it!” Trever shouted from below.

  “Okay, everyone,” Ferus said. “When I say ‘hang on,’ I really mean it this time.”

  Ferus speeded up, pushing the engines past maximum now. A slight wobble on the wings told them the ship was at the edge of its control. “Here we go,” he muttered. The ship began to list, as though he’d lost control of the left engine. Dizzily, it spun, falling now through space, straight toward the asteroid. Fett followed, no doubt to record their death spiral…and hasten their end. Laser cannons streaked their firepower through the atmosphere, but they were traveling too erratically for any of the targeting computers to get a fix on them.

  The surface of the satellite loomed. At the last moment, Ferus pulled the ship out, its control centers screaming with the effort. Fett zoomed past them. Now he was the one fighting for control. They watched as his ship careened close to the surface. Fett had no choice but to crash-land.

  There was a small bloom of fire, and they saw smoke rise.

  Obi-Wan studied the life-form sensor. “He’s evacuated the ship. It’s not destroyed, but its not going anywhere soon.”

  Ferus soared back up into the atmosphere. “I hope that’s the last we see of him,” he said. “But somehow I don’t think so. Now, I’m afraid, we have our own landing problem to deal with.”

  They didn’t have many choices. They could land on the uninhabited planet, but they’d be a little too close to Boba Fett for comfort. Besides, they had no reason to think they’d be able to scavenge fuel to get back off.

  “We’ve got one chance,” Obi-Wan said as he scanned the nav computer. “The computer is showing we don’t have enough fuel to make it, but we might be able to eke out a few more kilometers than the computer shows. It’s a fairly large planet; so there’s bound to be an orbit dock or an orbiting shipyard. It’s called Acherin.”

  “Sounds familiar,” Ferus said.

  “It was where one of the last sieges of the Clone Wars took place,” Obi-Wan said briefly. The name of the planet brought a heavy load to his heart. His friend Garen Muln had been Commander of the Republic forces on Acherin—and had presumably died there on that awful day when the clone troopers had turned against the Jedi, slaughtering their former generals on the order of the Sith Lord who was now Emperor.

  “Plug in the coordinates,” Ferus said. “It’s our only shot.”

  There was nothing to do now but hope that the fuel would hold out. As they spun through space, they tried not to tick off the kilometers in their heads. Finally, they approached the planet, a violet-tinged haze in the distance.

  Obi-Wan worked the comm unit, trying to raise a response. “This is strange,” he said. “I can’t get an answer. Not only that, but there’s no chatter on the open lines.”

  “That is strange,” Ferus said. “Keep trying. Is there some kind of atmospheric disturbance in the air?”

  “No. They have a dense inner atmosphere, but nothing that should block communications.”

  “We’re going to have to enter their atmosphere,” Ferus said. “I hate to enter anyplace without permission these days, but we have no choice.”

  He pulled back on speed as they approached Acherin.

  “What’s that?” Trever asked, pointing to some orange streaks in the sky.

  “Could be some naturally occurring cosmic gas,” Obi-Wan said.

  “But we’re in the inner atmosphere,” Trever said.

  Ferus immediately started turning the ship. “In certain conditions, like a dense atmosphere, the after-burn of a missile can leave—”

  A sudden streak crossed the sky. This time, they knew exactly what it was.

  “That’s cannonfire,” Obi-Wan said. “But what—”

  Suddenly, an imposing fleet of assault ships appeared, heading directly toward them.

  “The Empire,” Trever said.

  Fighters took off from one of the assault ships—chasing a trio of small starfighters that now shot across the sky. The Imperial fighters began to chase the three renegades.

  Ferus swallowed. “Great. Out of all the planets in the galaxy, we have to pick one in the middle of a war.”

  “We’re going to have to land,” Obi-Wan said. He quickly accessed the surface mapping systems. “Just put it down—we’re nowhere near a spaceport, and we don’t want to blunder into the Empire’s hands anyway.”

  Quickly Obi-Wan scanned the topographical sensors. “There’s an area below in a canyon that would give us plenty of cover.” He gave Ferus the coordinates.

  Suddenly, one of the renegade starfighters peeled off from the others. It bore down on them, flying so close its belly almost scraped the roof of their craft.

  “It’s forcing me down!” Ferus shouted. “What’s going on?”

  “And it’s drawing fire,” Obi-Wan added. “It’s alerted the Empire to our position.”

  “Yeah, this just keeps getting better.”

  They screamed down through the sky. The surface of the planet loomed.

  “I can’t hold this course,” Ferus said.

  Cannonfire shook the ship.

  The ship on top of them was hit. Smoke suddenly obscured their vision.

  �
�We’re going to crash-land!” Ferus shouted, wrestling with the controls.

  With a horrible groaning sound, the ship hit ground and skidded on rock. Ferus controlled the landing, but the battering it received from the rocks took its toll. It came to rest on one side, metal screaming against the rough ground.

  They activated the landing ramp, which only opened partway. Ferus searched the pilot’s compartment and found an old blaster, which he held in his hand as he led the way out.

  A short distance away, the pilot of the renegade starfighter had emerged from its canopy—with a blaster at the ready.

  Blaster fire streaked toward them, trying to pin them in one small area.

  “Don’t move!” the pilot shouted. “If you move, you’re dead.”

  The helmeted pilot stood on the hull of the ship, casually balanced, with both hands on the blaster. Obi-Wan reached out a hand and Force-pushed. The pilot stumbled back…as Ferus raised his own blaster and Obi-Wan leaped forward to place the blade of his lightsaber above the pilot’s neck.

  The pilot looked up with wide, dark blue eyes.

  “Well,” she said, “what do you know. A Jedi.”

  “Who are you?” Obi-Wan asked.

  “Raina Quill. I’m a commander in the Acherin resistance. Pleased to make your acquaintance. That is, if you could manage to take your lightsaber off my neck.”

  She was a humanoid woman of about Ferus’s age. Her gaze seemed friendly, if intense, but Obi-Wan wasn’t about to let her free yet.

  “Why did you force us down?”

  “Because you were about to land in the middle of enemy-controlled territory, right within range of a turbolaser. I had a feeling you wouldn’t like that. Hey, I thought all the Jedi were dead.”

  Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber. “Not all.”

  “Apparently.” She gingerly came to a sitting position. “Ow. As it is, we’re still behind enemy lines. And I have a feeling those starfighters didn’t lose us. They had better things to do. But I bet they broadcast our landing site to the ground army.”