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Pellaeon coughed and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. His crew grumbled and glanced at each other in confusion and dizzy perplexity.

“To your posts,” Pellaeon said, raising his voice. More blood came from his lips, but his commanding tone snapped the personnel out of their torpor. “I said I want a status report! What happened to us? Tell me where we are.”

“Stabilizing, sir,” the navigator said.

The stars outside the viewports of the Firestorm’s bridge tower spun around like a whirlpool. Pellaeon, already disoriented, found the effect nauseating, but gradually the Star Destroyer regained its firm position.

He clutched the bridge rail for support. Ahead of him the brightest star was a brilliant yellow dot, far away. He had the sinking premonition that this distant star might be the sun of the Yavin system.

“Sir,” the navigator said, “I’ve managed to cross-check our position. We’ve been thrown far outside the solar system in a matter of seconds.”

“Our hyperdrive is also damaged,” the helmsman added. “We can effect repairs in a few hours, but we can’t make any jumps—especially not in-system—because the navicomputer has been wiped.”

Pellaeon gripped the bridge rail, forcing himself not to slump with dismay. “Check the status of all our remaining Star Destroyers,” Pellaeon said. “I want full repairs on our hyperdrives as soon as possible. For now, proceed back to the Yavin system at full sublight power.”

“But sir, that’ll take weeks!” the helmsman said.

Pellaeon looked at him, cold and calm. “In the meantime,” he said, “we’ll calculate micro jumps—by hand if necessary, even without the navicomputer. We must get back to Yavin 4!”

His crew heard the determination in the vice admiral’s voice and snapped to their duties. They tried to regain their composure and bring the Imperial Star Destroyers back to peak performance.

The fleet began to move, lumbering across the impossible gulf of space. He couldn’t imagine what Admiral Daala would think when she arrived in the system and found that his entire fleet had vanished. He trembled, already imagining her fury, disheartened by his own incompetence … though when Jedi Knights were involved, logical prediction was often irrelevant.

He gazed out the bridge window again, fixating upon the suddenly distant yellow sun of the Yavin system. He kneaded his hands together in anxiety and frustration. His eyes burned with shame.

No doubt the battle would be completely over by the time his fleet finally returned.

CHAPTER 57

The Knight Hammer’s fully loaded TIE bomber bay was like a trap waiting to be sprung—and as Callista landed her hijacked, damaged ship among the other deadly bombers, she vowed to trigger the destructive energy just waiting here for her.

All the pilots had been evacuated because of Callista’s warning of a leaking engine core, but investigators would come soon. She had to hurry.

Squadrons of unmanned TIE fighters and bombers sat in rows on the gleaming metal deck. The ships had been powered up and ready to launch, but for some reason Daala must have decided to keep them aboard the Super Star Destroyer. Callista guessed that the Admiral had opted to continue the battle from a safe distance rather than unnecessarily risking her bombers. Daala was convinced she would win anyway, and she could just as easily continue the onslaught from orbit.

Just as Callista settled in and the bay doors closed, she heard additional alarms pounding through the Knight Hammer—announcements that a new Rebel fleet had arrived, and that the Super Star Destroyer was engaging in space combat. Good, she thought. That might delay the Imperials from interfering here for a few more minutes.

Callista’s injured bomber sat in a cleared area recently used for repair and maintenance of ships. The damaged bomber had flown well enough: the TIE pilot she’d killed had completed field repairs admirably.

She dropped lightly to the deck, crouching low and scanning around to make sure no one had waited to see her,