Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 04_ Backlash - Aaron Allston [0]
Galatea in 2-D
Bard’s Tale series (with Holly Lisle)
Thunder of the Captains
Wrath of the Princes
Car Warrior series
Double Jeopardy
Doc Sidhe series
Doc Sidhe
Sidhe-Devil
Star Wars: X-Wing series
Wraith Squadron
Iron Fist
Solo Command
Starfighters of Adumar
Star Wars: New Jedi Order series
Rebel Dream
Rebel Stand
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series
Betrayal
Exile
Fury
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi series
Outcast
Backlash
Terminator 3 series
Terminator Dream
Terminator Hunt
To everyone in 2009 who helped me get through a very hard time
Acknowledgments
On March 27, 2009, while on a book tour promoting Outcast (the first book in this series), I suffered a heart attack. Six days later, I underwent quadruple bypass surgery. I’d like to offer thanks to the doctors and nurses of the Baylor Medical Center, Grapevine, Texas, without whom I would not have survived to write Backlash.
Thanks also go to Troy Denning, Christie Golden, Shelly Shapiro of Del Rey, and Sue Rostoni of Lucas Licensing, not only for doing their usual fine job, but also for offering endless patience with me during the trials and tribulations of my recovery;
My agent, Russell Galen;
and all the fans who have embraced this series and offered their support.
Dramatis Personae
Allana Solo; child (human female)
Ben Skywalker; Jedi Knight (human male)
C-3PO; protocol droid
Drikl Lecersen; Moff (human male)
Dyon Stadd; former Jedi candidate (human male)
Han Solo; captain, Millennium Falcon (human male)
Haydnat Treen; Senator (Kuati female)
Jagged Fel; Head of State, Galactic Empire (human male)
Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight (human female)
Kaminne Sihn; chief, Raining Leaves Clan (Dathomiri female)
Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight (human female)
Luke Skywalker; Jedi Grand Master (human male)
Natasi Daala; Galactic Alliance Chief of State (human female)
R2-D2; astromech droid
Vestara Khai; Sith apprentice (human female)
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
EMPTY SPACE NEAR KESSEL
IT WAS DARKNESS SURROUNDED BY STARS—ONE OF THEM, THE UNLOVELY sun of Kessel, closer than the rest, but barely close enough to be a ball of illumination rather than a dot—and then it was occupied, suddenly inhabited by a space yacht of flowing, graceful lines and peeling paint. That was how it would have looked, a vessel dropping out of hyperspace, to those in the arrival zone, had there been any witnesses: nothing there, then something, an instantaneous transition.
In the bridge sat the ancient yacht’s sole occupant, a teenage girl wearing a battered combat vac suit. She looked from sensor to sensor, uncertain and slow because of her unfamiliarity with this model of spacecraft. Too, there was something like shock in her eyes.
Finally satisfied that no other ship had dropped out of hyperspace nearby, or was likely to creep up on her in this remote location, she sat back in her pilot’s seat and tried to get her thoughts in order.
Her name was Vestara Khai, and she was a Sith of the Lost Tribe. She was a proud Sith, not one to hide under false identities and concealing robes until some decades-long grandiose plan neared completion, and now she had even more reason than usual to swell with pride. Mere hours before, she and her Sith Master, Lady Rhea, had confronted Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker. Lady Rhea and Vestara had fought the galaxy’s most experienced, most famous Jedi to a standstill. Vestara had even cut him, a graze to the cheek and chin that had spattered her with blood—blood she had later tasted, blood she wished she could take a sample of and keep forever as a souvenir.
But then Skywalker had shown why he carried that reputation. A moment’s distraction, and suddenly Lady Rhea was in four pieces, each drifting in a separate direction, and Vestara was hopelessly outmatched. She had saluted and fled.
Now, having taken a space yacht that had doubtless been old when her great-great-great-grandsires were newborn, but which, to her everlasting gratitude, held in its still-functional computer the