Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 07_ Conviction - Aaron Allston [156]
“It felt like when that tsil was hit by Ship’s attack.”
Luke kept his eyes on Vestara. “It was, wasn’t it? A tsil. The spook-crystal that went missing. You took it.”
She nodded. Her face was not entirely impassive. There was an expression to it—not exactly guilt, but perhaps a touch of sorrow. “And a capacitor from the TIE shuttle. And a comm receiver to act as timer and trigger. It was in my pack.”
“Vestara, you’ve killed an innocent being.” It wasn’t outrage Luke felt, but loss. Not just the loss of the tsil; it was as if Vestara had just taken one tremendous step away from the light, retreating into darkness. He wondered if he or Ben would ever be able to bridge that distance.
But her reply was not that of a child trying to stave off punishment. “Don’t you dare criticize me for that, Master Skywalker. I can’t destroy Abeloth. Maybe you can. You have to live. We were about to die, and Abeloth would win. You have to do what it takes to win.”
“If that attack hadn’t hurt every Force-sensitive in the area, would the Sith attacking Abeloth have been able to kill her? Yes or no? You might have just cut down an attack that would have done exactly what we needed it to.” But Luke didn’t know. The future was always in motion, and the future Vestara had just prevented might have been a bad one. Nothing was certain, especially with his Force sensitivity blasted into numbness by the tsil’s death.
Vestara shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know you have more power than anyone else I can think of. You were hard enough to trick me into luring my own people here, knowing it would probably get some of them killed—or me. How can you object to me being hard enough to sacrifice one tsil to save the galaxy?”
“Vestara.” That was Ben, his breathing labored. “Enough. Dad, enough. She has a point, too.”
Grim, Luke kept his mouth shut.
They reached the exit hatch. Vestara went first, opening it for the Skywalkers. Ben, with a little help from Luke, slowly carried Valin up the rungs and out into the cold twilight daytime of Nam Chorios.
Into a war zone.
The first thing they saw was a shuttle streaking by overhead, trailing smoke. It descended in a ballistic arc, disappearing behind a distant dust cloud well away from Crystal Valley. They heard the impact of its crash, its explosion; they saw the black-and-orange cloud of its death rise above the dust storm.
A StealthX shot by overhead, firing quad-linked lasers at a distant target—a hardy little gunship. They could see more red flashes in the dim daytime sky, signs of a battle raging out to a distance of several kilometers.
Panting, Ben took in the scene. “The StealthX wing. Talk about a nick-of-time arrival.”
“Not nick of time.” Vestara slammed the hatch closed, spun the dogging wheel. Then she lit her lightsaber and plunged its tip into the security keypad. “How long have they been in system, Master Skywalker?”
Luke held her gaze. “Days.”
“You had me summon my people, and you summoned yours and told them to wait. To hide. As soon as Abeloth and the Sith were exposed, you brought them in.”
“Yes.”
She deactivated her weapon and hung it from her belt. Then she reached over to give Luke a pat on the cheek, a gesture that was unduly familiar, oddly affectionate. “You’re more like a Sith than I realized. Probably more than you’ll acknowledge.”
He offered her a noncommittal shrug. Then he raised his comlink. “Owen Lars to Kandra Nilitz.”
There was no hiss of jamming, but Kandra did not reply.
“She’s probably halfway to Hweg Shul by now. I hope so.” Then, his next words … Jedi were supposed to distance themselves from self-serving emotions and thoughts, but, blast it, it felt good to say them after so many months. “Grand Master Skywalker to StealthX wing. Come in.”
“Gray One to Grand Master, I copy.” It was a woman’s voice. Jaina’s voice.
Luke couldn’t help but grin. “Requesting immediate dust-off for four Jedi, one unconscious.”
“You’ve got