Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 06_ Vortex - Denning Troy [126]
Saba had just reached the midpoint seam—where the doors came together in a magnetic seal stronger than the turadium itself—when a pair of hawk-bats suddenly dropped out of the superstructure above. The din inside the hangar had grown so loud that it was impossible to hear their shrill cries. But she could feel in the Force that they were more angry than frightened, and the way they kept circling back into the darkness suggested they were trying to protect a nest somewhere up on the girder.
Saba ran her gaze along the upper edge of the girder and realized her mistake even before she spotted a shadowy figure running toward the doors. Hamner didn’t intend to cut the power feeds. He was going for the relay box that controlled the magnetic seal between the blast doors. She raised a hand and used the Force to jerk him off the girder.
If Hamner cried out as he fell, his voice was lost in the general roar of the StealthX engines. But when he looked in Saba’s direction, his mouth was gaping in rage, his arms flailing and his eyes filled with betrayal. Determined not to kill him, Saba stepped closer to the safety rail and caught him with the Force, then pulled him toward the catwalk. Toward her.
Hamner’s hand dropped to his side, and as Saba floated him over the rail half a second later, he had his lightsaber in hand and ignited. She hurled him into the catwalk, slamming him into the durasteel grate facedown, then snatched her own weapon and was standing above him as he looked up. His nose was gashed, crooked, and pouring blood.
Saba ignited her own blade. “Kenth, stop,” she yelled, trying to make herself heard above the roar of the engines. “If we continue, you will only get …”
Saba felt her shin scales go flat and barely lowered her blade in time to keep Kenth from cutting her off at the knees. He was only trying to drive her back … she was sure of that. Instead of taking an easy counterstrike at his head, she rolled her wrist and sent his blade flipping away, then stepped forward to stomp on an elbow that was suddenly no longer there.
Hamner was rolling toward the edge of the catwalk, turning up on his side with his top arm extended toward his tumbling lightsaber and his lower arm coming around to club her behind the legs. Saba tried to escape by stepping forward. He was too quick, landing a Force-enchanced blow that buckled her knees and would have sent her crashing down on her back … had she not had a tail with which to catch herself.
But Saba did have a tail, and so Kenth’s attack merely dropped her to her knees at his side. She lashed out, more by instinct than will, barely remembering to retract her claws before she planted her free hand in Hamner’s chest. She pushed hard, pinning him against a safety rail support post.
“Enough!” she bellowed. “This one is losing patience.”
Hamner glared back at her, eyes burning with self-righteous fury. He snarled something Saba could not hear over the roaring of StealthXs, something so filled with hatred it turned his Force aura sour and cold. Suddenly Saba understood how badly she had misjudged the situation. This was no dominance fight. Hamner had one desire: prevent the Jedi from launching their StealthXs. And to achieve that goal, he was very willing to kill.
The fire in Hamner’s eyes changed to ice. Saba brought her guard up and blocked the blade flashing toward her neck. She countered with an elbow, trying to catch him below the ear, but her angle was poor and his jaw snapped instead. His eyes went wide, rolled back, and for an instant Saba thought she might have knocked him unconscious despite the miss.
She should have known better. Kenth Hamner was a Jedi Master,