Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 06_ Vortex - Denning Troy [12]
“Good point.” Jaina could see that the forward array had been melted completely off, so it made sense that the aft equipment had suffered heat damage, as well. “Can you open a channel to Captain Calrissian for me?”
A scratchy beep sounded inside her helmet, and a moment later Lando’s static-distorted voice asked, “Jaina?”
Jaina pressed a thumb to the transceiver pad on her stick. “In the flesh,” she said. “Do you have that mouse problem under control yet?”
“Just blasted it myself,” Lando replied proudly. “Ornate will plot new jump coordinates as soon as you’re aboard.”
“Tell her to start plotting now,” Jaina replied. She could see the hangar mouth’s dark rectangle only a few hundred meters ahead, and she wasn’t planning on making a gentle approach. “Jump the second she has them.”
“Jump?” Lando echoed. “No way, not until ByTwoBee tells me you’re aboard and—”
“Lando! Just make sure the barrier field is off.” The hangar mouth was starting to swell rapidly as Jaina approached, and Rowdy was filling her helmet with wave-off alarms and speed alerts. “If you wait for me to buckle down, the Rockhound will be taking cannon bolts up her thrust nozzle. The situation is worse than we thought. A lot worse.”
“That’s hard to believe, considering how bad it was to start with.” Lando’s voice faded as he issued orders to RN8, then asked, “Okay, Jaina, worse than we thought how?”
“Well, you were right—and so was I.” As Jaina spoke, floodlights began to shine down from inside the hangar. Ignoring a cacophony of alerts from Rowdy, she brought up the nose of the StealthX and streaked toward its gaping mouth. “They were pirates. Sith pirates.”
THE SWEEP BAR ON THE JADE SHADOW’S SENSOR DISPLAY ARCED ACROSS the screen, slowly shading the region above the planetary horizon a deep blue. Once the entire area had changed hue, Ben authorized the reconnaissance drone to alter its course and start the next pass. To his surprise—and relief—the entire screen remained blue, and a message scrolled across the bottom: FINAL PASS. ALL CLEAR.
“That’s it,” he said, swiveling around to face Vestara Khai. Ben was sitting on the main flight deck in the copilot’s chair, and Vestara was seated across from him in the navigator’s chair. The Shadow remained on the river beach, below the volcano where Abeloth had kept her lair. “There’s nothing in orbit big enough to be a spacecraft. Agreed?”
Vestara continued to study her display, slumped down in her seat with one arm in a sling, looking pained and exhausted after more than two days of sensor monitoring.
Finally, she nodded. “No Rockhound, no ChaseMaster frigates …” She turned to face Ben, her brown eyes steady and appraising despite her wound and her fatigue. “But what about your cousin’s StealthX? That wouldn’t show up in a standard sensor sweep, would it?”
Ben forced a smirk, trying to hide the little ache he felt inside. With Vestara, no question was ever innocent, no suggestion free of a hidden agenda.
“You heard what it went through,” he said. “Do you really think even Jaina Solo could keep it in one piece for two days?”
A slow smile came to Vestara’s lips, looking a bit like a sneer because of the scar at the corner of her mouth. “I guess I’ll take your word for it,” she said. “So, yes, I agree.”
“That both sides have honored their agreement?” Ben clarified. “That all vessels, except our Shadow and Lord Taalon’s Emiax, have withdrawn from the vicinity?”
Vestara let her breath out. “Look, you don’t have to get snarky. I said I agree.”
“I just want to be sure,” Ben replied. “You Sith can be pretty slippery about your agreements.”
“And that’s news to you?” Vestara retorted. “Your reactor is just running hot because we took you by surprise. Your father knew Taalon would try to take him out. He just didn’t expect it to happen before we finished Abeloth.”
“Taalon was trying to capture Abeloth.” Ben took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm. “Who’d expect a Sith High Lord to try something so … so stupid?”
To Ben’s surprise, Vestara laughed out