by Greg Keyes
that this was an extremely well-coordinated strike at the heart of our
communications network. The timing is... suspicious."
"But not conclusive," Bel Iblis said. "They may have known we were
planning to strike-they probably did - but not where. By taking down the
entire HoloNet, they jeopardize our success whatever our target."
"I tend to agree," Sow said. "An examination of when the relays went off-
line indicates that the first to go were not those nearest Bilbringi. In fact,
the process seems to have started some time ago, albeit in sectors we aren't
for the most part in communication with anyway. Still, your whole point
remains valid. Without the HoloNet to coordinate the other two fleets, General
Antilles is very much on his own.
Jaina, Leia thought. But her daughter was still alive. She could feel
that much.
"Then all that fighting we did at Esfandia was for nothing?" she said.
"We don't know if Esfandia is still up or not-all the re-lays linking it
Coreward are gone, though. We're as cut off as the fleets."
"General Antilles is no fool," Bel Iblis said. "The other fleets have
orders not to make the jump to Bilbringi without his go-ahead. When he
realizes he's lost his lines of commu-nication, he'll retreat, as per his
orders."
"If he can," Han said. "But if they were expecting the attack-or even if
they weren't, and they have interdictors-he'll have to fight his way out."
"Can he do that?" Leia asked.
"No," Sow replied. "Our intelligence tells us that the Vong fleet at
Bilbringi is too strong for Antilles to defeat without backup."
"And the Vong haven't lost their communications," Bel Iblis pointed out.
"They can call for backup anytime."
"What will Pellaeon and Kre'fey do when they don't hear from Wedge?" Leia
asked.
"They will hold their positions for a time, but when they're sure no
communication is forthcoming-"
"Oh, it's forthcoming," Han said. "Which force is larger?" "Beta-the
Imperials."
"Where is it?" Han demanded.
"That's classified, Captain Solo," Sow said.
"Classified?" Han sputtered. "This whole thing has al-ready gone south,
General. I say we need to salvage what we can."
"What do you propose, Solo?" Bel Iblis asked.
"We don't have the HoloNet. Hyperwave's not good enough for those
distances. The only thing we have faster than light is ships, and the
Millennium Falcon is the fastest ship there is."
"He's right," Leia said. "We need to set up a courier service, and fast.
It's not just this battle, either-the Yuuzhan Vong will certainly take
advantage of this blackout to strike. We could lose whole star systems without
knowing about it."
"Yeah, but they are already too thin to keep the systems I they have,"
Han said. "But our main concern right now-"
"....is the fleet," Sow replied. "Quite right. General Solo, if you're
willing, I'm putting you in charge of a courier ser-vice to the fleet. Find
four other ships, military or otherwise, but people you trust. Reestablish the
lines of communication between Antilles, Pellaeon, and Kre'fey. I'll also take
suggestions on someone to head up a more widespread emergency information
service. As it stands now, we are in a vacuum, and everything we have won is
in jeopardy."
EIGHTEEN
"Well?" Corran asked Nen Yim. "What can you tell me?"
They had made four more jumps since Nen Yim had given them the assessment
of the ship's living engines, and each had been rougher than the last. The
vessel's pain had gone from a pinprick to an aching throb, and Corran was
happy that most of the ships he flew hadn't had feelings.
Sure, it handled well-when it wasn't sick.
"The deterioration is marked," Nen Yim said. "The dovin hasals were
damaged by the Imperial ship, and the gravitic strains of repeated jumps have
worsened their condition."
"Why didn't you tell me this before the repeated jumps?" Corran asked.
"It took a few passes through darkspace before I could be certain. Also..
." She paused, and her tendrils writhed like snakes. "Also, I think my
coupling of a Yuuzhan Vong drive with a ship designed for an unliving drive
may have been im-perfect and contributed to the deterioration. The wound only
hastened this. Each time we jump, micro gravitic anomalies appear inside or
very near the dovin basals."
"Eating them from within," Corran said. "Wonderful. Can this be repaired?
"
For the first time since Corran had met her, Nen Yim actually seemed
apologetic. "No," she said. "Not with the resources available here. Also, it
is clear that my understanding of Sekotan biology is flawed, or this would not
be hap-pening. I need more samples."
"I don't think it's biology," Tahiri said. "I think it's the Force."
They both turned to her. "Explain," Corran said.
"This ship exists in the Force," Tahiri explained. "You can [feel it,
can't you, Corran? And the nearer we get to Sekot-"
"The stronger the connection becomes," he agreed. "Yeah, I've felt that."
It was as if the ship was eagerly returning to a long-lost family.
"So maybe this ship is rejecting the engines, because they j don't exist
in the Force, and the closer we get to Zonama Sekot, the stronger that
rejection becomes."
"That seems unlikely," Nen Yim said. "The Force, what-1 ever it may be,
should not govern simple biological reac-tions. The links between the Sekotan
ship and our engines should work."
"Yet they don't, and you don't know why," Tahiri said, a I little too
smugly for Corran's tastes. Still, he was impressed with her reasoning.
"Granted," Nen Yim reluctantly acquiesced.
Tahiri leaned against the bulkhead and crossed her arms,
"Look, you said it yourself-you need a guess to start from, You've been
asking why Yuuzhan Vong and Sekotan tech-nology are so similar. Turn that
around-how are interferent! Because if Sekotan life-forms exist in the For.
Yuuzhan Vong life-forms don't, somewhere, somehow, there must be a big
difference."
Nen Yim's tentacles contracted, writhed briefly, and set-tled against her
head.
"It's a place to start," she admitted.
"That still doesn't help us now," Corran pointed out. "If we're stranded
in space without any means of communication, that's going to remain
speculation." He folded his j arms across his chest. "Oh, and plus, we'll die.
"
"The engines can stand another jump, maybe two or three, if we do it
soon," Nen Yim offered.
Corran sighed, looking at his charts, which were easily as speculative as
the topic they were discussing. He suddenly, powerfully, missed Mirax, Valin,
and Jysella, and even that nasty father-in-law of his. In fact, it was
actually kind of handy, having a father-in-law who might drop in with his big
red Star Destroyer to save the day.
Wasn't likely to happen this time, though.
"It's risky," he said, coming back to the moment, "but I believe I could
get us to the system in one more jump, as-suming there's not an uncharted
&
nbsp; black hole in our path. But if Tahiri is right, as soon as we arrive, the
engines will fail, if they don't fail during the jump."
"But we'll be there," Tahiri said. "And even if we can't land, Master
Skywalker, Jacen, and Mara can help us."
"The alternative is to stay here and wait for the do-vin basals to die-or
to attempt another destination," Nen Yim said.
"Well, maybe if we're going away from Zonama Sekot..." Corran began.
Nen Yim shook her head, a very human gesture. Corran wondered if she had
learned the negative from being around Tahiri and him. "Even," she said, "if
we accept the young Jeedai's idea as a working hypothesis, it would only
predict the rate of deterioration to slow if we go elsewhere. The damage
already done will not heal."
"Three jumps, then, best-case scenario?"
"I don't understand that phrase, but I would expect no more than three
jumps. Fewer would be better."
"Fine," Corran said. "We go ahead, then. Everybody to crash couches. This
could get rough."
It got rough.
Even before reversion, something felt wrong, and the instant they hit
normal space the stars went out again as the ship somehow made an extra
microjump of its own. In the jolting, Corran was reminded of a stone skipping
on water, and hoped it was a poor analogy and they didn't keep on jumping.
Existence rushed back, but there were no stars-instead, enormous bands of
roiling red and yellow filled their tum-bling view.
Tumbling... and falling down a gravity well, Corran realized. They were
caught in the pull of a titanic planet, at least the size of Yavin 4, probably
larger. The controls and the ship's feelings told him that one of the dovin
basals was completely off-line-or in shock, or dead, or whatever-which meant
they weren't going to be doing any starhopping anytime soon. The other two
were working, though one was fading fast.
"Come on, baby," Corran grunted, trying to get the wild spin under
control and establish a stable orbit. But something was throwing everything
off, and the pull was so strong There was another pull, too. The ship felt it,
felt Zonama Sekot, and it wanted to go home.
He managed to kill the tumble and roll, which made it at I least possible
to get their bearings. His sensors were showing I another planet, this one
roughly the size of Corellia, about a hundred thousand klicks away. And there
was something els e, too, something in orbit around it. A moon? They were too
far away to tell.
"We've got a chance," he said. "If we can get close enough to Zonama
Sekot, its gravity well will have a stronger pull on us than the big planet.
If the engines quit now-well, we're all going to gain some weight."
He pulled the drive levers back, and the ship throbbed in protest. The
air suddenly smelled foul, like burning hair and fish oil.
"Not much more," he whispered to the ship. "But more." The second dovin
basal suddenly hummed awake-he could feel it like a heart near breaking,
sending pulses of agony through everything else, but the ship suddenly surged
forward. Then the heart did break, and the indicators went dark. Only one
engine remained now.
"What now?" Tahiri whispered. "Did we make it?"
"I don't know yet. We're right at the break point."
"Maybe we should all go stand on the side of the ship nearest Zonama
Sekot," Tahiri said.
"Funny," Corran said, and without even thinking he reached over and
mussed her hair.
She jerked away as if he had attacked her.
"Sorry," he said.
"No, it's my fault," Tahiri said, going red. "It's just-"
She broke off helplessly.
"The head," Nen Yim explained. "In Domain Kwaad, we do not touch the
head."
Corran regarded the snakelike coils on hers. "Yes, I guess not," he said.
I have to let go, he thought.
Whatever she is, Tahiri isn't Anakin's little friend anymore. Of course,
that happened even without Yuuzhan Vong interference. He wasn't even sure what
sort of music Valin liked these days, but it probably wasn't what he
remembered. Yes, when he got back from this he was going home, for a long
time. Or, rather if he got back...
He looked at the instruments. "Oh, yes," he said. "We made it." He
pointed at Zonama Sekot. "We're falling that way now."
"You did it," Tahiri said.
"The ship did it," Corran replied. "Of course..."
"What?"
He flashed her a smile. "Of course, we are still falling, and while the
jolt at the end won't be quite as hard, it's still going to smart."
"It's always going to be something with you, isn't it? Tahiri said.
"You've got a dovin basal left."
"For how long? If we can't find Luke-"
"I'm trying," Tahiri informed him. "I've been trying since we got here.
But all I can sense is that planet. It's so strong in the Force it drowns
everything else out."
"I'll try, too," Corran said. "It may be our only hope. Shaper, if
there's anything you can do for that last dovin basal..."
"I will attend to it," Nen Yim replied. They watched the moon grow. Both
Jedi continued to j reach out through the Force, but if Jacen and the rest
were * there, Tahiri certainly couldn't sense them. It was like lis - j tening
for a voice in a sandstorm.
"Perhaps it isn't the right planet," Harrar suggested.
"It is the planet," the Prophet averred. "The planet of [prophecy. Can't
you feel it?"
Harrar frowned. "I feel-" He snapped his head side to side. "No, nothing.
"
"This ought to be the place," Corran replied. "The ship certainly thinks
it is."
He checked his long-range sensors again. Whatever was orbiting the planet
had moved behind the horizon now. He wasn't sure, but the last read on it had
looked suspiciously like an Imperial frigate.
Luke had been escorted by an Imperial frigate, or so Kenth had told him.
If he could somehow make orbit a link lower and faster than the ship, they
could eventually catch it. j And maybe get blasted out of space. Unless he
could hang some sort of sign out declaring his peaceful intentions. The Imps
still might shoot him down just for the fun of it. Looking at his trajectory,
he suddenly realized that he didn't even have a choice.
"Ah, Sithspit," he grumbled.
"What is it? "Tahiri asked.
"Remind me to never fly a ship that has a mind of its own, especially a
homesick one," Corran said. "It's got us on a landing vector."
"That is what we want, is it not?" the Prophet asked.
"Yes, but it would be nice to land near our friends,"
Corran replied, "especially since I've a feeling we won't be taking off
again-not in this ship."
"I suggest survival is our first priority," Yu'shaa answered.
"Point. Okay, folks, we're about to say a close hello to Zonama Sekot. I
suggest you all strap back in. The slow part of this trip is over."
He hit the atmosphere too steeply, and had to apply a hard push from the
dovin basal to correct. The ship winced, but did its job, and they whistled
down through the upper atmosphere. He felt the
skin temperature climb, and
again cut the engine in, trying to stay above terminal velocity. Burning up
would be no better than crashing.
Water and jungle whipped by beneath, and Corran had to agree with Harrar-
it looked like any of a hundred worlds. But it felt different. Tahiri was
right-the Force was strong here, but strange, and put up a sort of white noise
he couldn't filter through. Now and then he thought he might feel Luke, but it
was never more than a glimpse or a glimmer.
He had more important things to worry about. The tree-tops were coming up
fast. It was time to brake for real. He engaged the dovin basal and felt it
falter almost im-mediately, and then kick back in. Their airspeed dropped, but
not nearly quickly enough. He couldn't push the engine any harder even if he
wanted to, though. He'd diverted all its ability to cancel inertia in the
cabin so he could use it to fly, and the g's were already mounting to his own
tolerance level, which was pretty high. He cut the angle harder, trav-eling
closer and closer to horizontal to the ground, wishing the Sekotan craft had
wings, so if the dovin basal failed en-tirely he would at least have a chance.
A hundred meters from the ground, he still wasn't level,
Fifty, almost there...
They mowed a swath through treetops and the dovin basal went suddenly
off-line. Unpowered, the ship was a hollow rock thrown by a giant, and without
an inertial compensator they were going to be pasted all over the inside of
it. There's the unity we're looking for, he thought grimly. Yuu-zhan Vong and
human, all mixed together in one nasty...
They hit something very hard, and then, desperately, he reached out
through the Force, felt Tahiri reaching out too, and then...
Then he felt Sekot, immense, powerful, and indifferent,
But something happened, a connection, and they were sud-denly falling
like a feather...
For just a second. Then free fall returned, and instants later they came
to ground, hard.
"Interesting landing, Jeedai Horn," Harrar remarked.
"How is everyone?" Corran turned painfully in his seat to survey his
companions.
The return chorus assured him that everyone had made it through.
Everyone but the ship, that is. The glow was going out of it, and the
little voice in his head was a whisper, fading. Sorry, he sent through the
Force.