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The Knight Hammer hurtled toward its doom, its rear sections molten and spewing radioactive fire. But she remained unmoving, like a captain dutifully about to go down with her ship.

CHAPTER 59

But Daala had no intention of letting it end there.

When the bridge personnel evacuated, leaving her to stand alone at the helm as the ship crashed toward its inevitable destruction, she knew the image would burn itself in the minds of her crew. She could rest assured her legend would live on if any of them survived in the escape pods.

However, Daala herself intended to survive, though it never hurt to make contingency plans. She had more battles to fight for the Empire, more ways to strike against the Rebel Alliance.

This time she had caused the enemy pain at least. Her victory was not total—but neither was her defeat.

Daala went to the wall by the command station, where she gained access to her spacious ready-room and its private compartments that held escape pods keyed to command-level personnel only. Before, she had thought the huge room with its amenities and backup systems to be extravagant, but now she blessed the designer who had thought of every contingency.

Another wave of explosions thrummed through the hull of the Knight Hammer, throwing the ship from side to side. With one last glance out the bridge windowports, Daala saw the giant gravity well of Yavin looming larger by the minute, hungry and waiting to devour her ship. She had to make good her escape—now. The Super Star Destroyer would be crushed within moments, its outer hull already burning as it screamed into the upper atmosphere.

She stumbled as another explosion rocked the black ship. The lights flickered in her ready-room, then the red emergency glow came on again. She searched for the rear alcove that contained the escape pods—and stopped when she saw a lone person waiting for her.

A woman.

A Jedi Knight holding up a sun-yellow lightsaber blade. Its topaz beam crackled in the red-washed dimness of the doomed ship.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Admiral Daala,” Callista said.

She stood face-to-face with her Imperial nemesis.

Callista drew a quick breath, giddy with anticipation and exhilaration. Gratifyingly loud explosions continued to ripple through the Super Star Destroyer, chain reactions building up as the destruction tunneled deeper into the Knight Hammer.

Daala, the iron-willed and unpredictable Imperial admiral about whom Callista had heard so many legends, now looked harried and cadaverous in the emergency lighting of the command ready-room.

Daala froze upon seeing her, her face contorted in fury. “I don’t believe this. Jedi vermin, everywhere I turn!” She spat out the words and stalked forward. “You can’t stop me.”

Callista stood her ground in front of the access hatches to the escape pods. “I only need to delay you, Daala,” she said. “That’ll be enough.” Her lightsaber thrummed in her hand. “And I have the means to do that.”

Callista felt the deep-seated anger boiling through her. Admiral Daala was the target for her rage—and this close to the climactic end of her life, just as had happened on the Eye of Palpatine, Callista found herself filled with a sudden freedom. She wanted to touch the Force again one more time, and it didn’t matter now whether she allowed herself to be tainted by the dark side, if that was the only way—and it was. The ship would be engulfed in moments anyway.

All that mattered was that she stopped Daala from escaping and wreaking more destruction upon the New Republic. If she confronted the shadowy temptation, Callista could use the Force again. The dark side of it. The easy abilities. The strength that grew stronger because of itself, not because of any innate qualities its wielder possessed.

The possibilities danced before her gray eyes like smoke, tantalizing her, luring Callista to reach out and grasp them, though she might be unable to let go again—

Seeing her instant of hesitation, Admiral Daala whipped out a blaster pistol