Star Wars_ Darksaber - Kevin J. Anderson [162]
Callista couldn’t avoid the deadly bolt, but she could use the Force to snatch heightened abilities. With no choice, she let herself go in a fraction of a second.
Using the lightsaber as an extension of herself, Callista struck defensively. Her Jedi weapon knew where it was going, following the inexorable path of the Force so that the topaz blade struck each blaster bolt as Daala fired again and again. The deadly fire reflected from her light-saber and splashed blackened stains against the ready-room’s metal walls.
Daala shot four times, but in each instance, Callista let the Force flow through her, allowing the dark side to guide her actions. Flaring with anger, she struck right and left, deflecting Daala’s beams.
“The Force is more powerful than you are, Daala,” Callista said through gritted teeth. She felt the frightening strength surging within her, as her anger fed upon itself, growing more and more powerful. She could feel the Force again! She tried to back away from the dark side, concentrated on throttling back her efforts, to free herself before its grip became too strong.
Daala ceased firing—but only for an instant as she switched the setting to STUN. Before Callista could react, Daala shot again. This time, the beam was not a discrete bolt of power, but outspreading arcs of tenuous blue energy.
She raised the lightsaber to deflect the stun blast, but the paralyzing energy rippled around her from all sides and hammered Callista to the floor. Her lightsaber short-circuited, flashed out—and Callista crumpled into blackness.…
Daala stood over the fallen Jedi woman. With her polished black boot she kicked the dead lightsaber away.
Outside, the atmosphere of Yavin scraped against the hull of the Knight Hammer with a wailing of lost spirits. The winds tore at the helpless ship as it careened into the crushing depths of the gravity well.
Daala glared at the stunned Jedi woman, annoyed that even the brief battle might have been too much of a delay, that she could no longer escape. “I told you you couldn’t stop me,” she said, and stepped over Callista’s body on her way to the escape pod.
CHAPTER 60
The jungle battles continued to rage, but the Imperial ground assault vehicles began to lose their momentum as the Jedi Knights mounted a brutal guerrilla defense, destroying scout walkers, Juggernauts, and Flying Fortresses. The remaining TIE fighters and bombers circled overhead, but most had already been knocked out of the sky by Force-hurled projectiles.
Luke Skywalker fought hard, the lightsaber throbbing in his hand—but his attention was focused on his desperate mental search for Callista.
Overhead, through the tattered jungle canopy, he could see the swollen planet Yavin filling much of the sky. The black sliver of the Knight Hammer stood out plainly, creating a triangular eclipse against the gas giant.
Brilliant streams of turbolaser fire danced across space, a flickering light show … and Luke remembered a time long, long ago when he had been no more than the adopted nephew of a moisture farmer, a wide-eyed enthusiastic kid who had stared up into the bleached skies of Tatooine to see the distant space battle above his world. He had never dreamed that Darth Vader’s capture of Princess Leia’s ship would have so changed his life—and the future of the galaxy.
Back then, Luke had heard only rumors of the Jedi Knights, had no idea who his father was, and couldn’t imagine the possibilities of the Force—and now Callista was just as helpless as he had been then … but she knew what she no longer had.
Luke charged through the underbrush shouting her name over and over. Because she had been walled away from the Force, he could not sense her, had no idea where she was.
“Callista!” he called again, drawing fire from a hidden scout walker in the jungle. Laser cannon blasts erupted on either side of him, but he dodged out of the way, still partially distracted by his search. With a rapid sweep