• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Kyp Durron and Jedi Knight Doran Tainer arrived moments later, filling in the Jedi line, and Luke could see other Jedi speeders moving in for agile, illegal landings. Luke shook his head. “This is going to be a real mess.”

“Going to be?” Kyp looked amazed. “Are you trying for some galactic record in the understatement event?”

The dark-haired female bounty hunter and her Rodian companion arrived, showed identification to the spaceport security officers, and moved through their line, confronting Luke. The woman smiled with what seemed like genuine good cheer. “Care to surrender the prisoner? It will save everybody trouble.”

Luke shook his head. “We'll manage this. You can save everyone a lot of trouble by convincing the security forces to fall back and leave us to our business.”

She shook her head. “The Chief of State has ordered us to take the rogue Jedi into custody. Surely you've heard of her. Natasi Daala.”

“I have, but I haven't heard of you. Who are you?”

She offered him a slight bow. “Zilaash Kuh. Not, I am afraid, at your service.”

“You're not a Jedi.”

She nodded. “And may I present Kaddit.”

The Rodian offered a minimal glance in Luke's direction, but he clearly had his eye on the growing numbers of Jedi and GA Security personnel.

The noise was incredible—the Falcon's repulsors howling, people shouting.

“Stand back! Stand back! GA Security has jurisdiction here!”

“Hand over the prisoner; this is not your jurisdiction.”

“Take one more step and you'll be picking your nose with a prosthetic!”

“Luke! Luke! When did you first realize you were a criminal?”

Master Cilghal was among the later Jedi arrivals. The security troopers let her enter, and she injected Valin with enough sedatives to keep a wampa unconscious for a couple of days. But the security troopers and bounty hunters clearly would not open ranks to permit the Jedi to carry Valin out. Zilaash and Kaddit took the opportunity to retreat to the security lines.

Han and Leia forced their way into the Jedi circle. Han stared out at the thickening lines of security troopers and shook his head. “This is getting way out of control, old buddy.”

Luke nodded. “GA Security has legal jurisdiction, those others have a profit motive, and all we have is the fact that we're right. No one's going to back down until someone gets hurt.”

Ben gestured toward someone in the security ranks. “There's a familiar face.”

Luke peered in that direction. Captain Savar stood there, waving the security men and women around him to silence. “This could help,” Luke said.

Leia's expression was one of irritation. “It certainly couldn't hurt.”

Luke calculated odds and resources. He now had twenty Jedi here, including six Masters. If violence erupted, the security troopers would be slaughtered—or perhaps not, depending on how well their two bounty hunter allies fared.

Luke gestured until he got Captain Savar's attention. The officer headed his way, ignoring the guns at his back and lightsabers ahead of him, until he stood before Luke. “Quite a mess you Jedi have made here.”

Luke shook his head. “It would have been a lot worse without us here. Is there any way you can pack those bounty hunters into a spent fuel drum or something?”

“I wish. That's not on the list of options.”

Luke felt as glum as the man looked. “Well, we've got to figure something out. One twitch like your boy had yesterday, and we're going to have blaster bolts, arms and legs, and who knows what else flying everywhere.”

“So hand Valin Horn over.”

“How do you know his name?”

“He was caught on holocam and identified when he stole a classic starfighter and crashed a Kuati shuttle at the Senate Building.”

“Tell you what, you conduct us all to the Jedi Temple and we'll let you have an observer on hand while we study Jedi Horn to see what's wrong.”

“Why would we want you to study our prisoner?”

Han and Leia, breaking from a bout of hurried consultation, stepped forward. Leia's voice was at her most diplomatic; this was the voice she'd used for all her Chief