Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [213]
The holographic representation of the Errant Venture evaporated to be replaced by a bigger ship, a much bigger ship: a Super Star Destroyer that would eat up her Impstar Deuce as easily as the Invidious had destroyed the Harmzuay. I fed to her every image I’d had burned into my memory of the Lusankya, Isard’s old SSD, and channeled in a good dose of fear.
I touched her paranoia and let one of her own fantasies spin out for her. From the SSD’s belly a slender, needlelike craft shot. I fed her images of the Sun Crusher and let her calculate the damage that could be caused by that indestructible fighter-sized craft accelerating to just below lightspeed, then ramming her ship. It would blow through it from stern to stern in seconds, shattering the Invidious. The SSD would just pound the scraps until their molten metal fragments congealed into debris that would make for a spectacular light show when they burned into Susevfi’s atmosphere.
“Belay those orders,” I heard her shout. “It’s a trap, a Jedi trap. Evasive maneuvers, plot me a course out of here. Far away!”
I retreated into myself and staggered back against the observation deck railing.
From below I heard Elegos. “The Invidious is coming about. Tavira is leaving the system.”
I turned around slowly, then tried to lean nonchalantly on the railing. “Problem solved.”
Mirax arched an eyebrow at me. “You think so, do you?”
I looked down at my wife. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
“Sure.” Mirax smiled. “But my father’s going to think she was running from him. He’ll be insufferable. You’ll never hear the end of how he saved my life, and just happened to include yours in the bargain.”
“I don’t mind,” I forced myself to say. “After all, a Jedi does not know pain.”
FORTY-NINE
Things quieted down on Susevfi fairly quickly after the Invidious ran. We called Booster and through him got Jacob Nive. Jacob apologized for having brought Booster to us and having given him the data we’d left behind for Cracken, but Booster had been most insistent and had an Impstar Deuce to back things up. Nive contacted Colonel Gurtt, informed her of what was going on and offered to consider her and any ex-Invids who stopped their fighting to be members of the Survivors for purposes of the deal Luke and I had offered him. Colonel Gurtt, being the highest ranking Invid officer in the system, got the ground resistance to back off and Rogue Squadron set down in the palace grounds to hold back any misguided loyalists until Booster could shuttle down some of his security personnel and Nive could bring down some of the Survivor mudbugs to take care of ground ops.
Rogue Squadron had been on a long patrol circuit when Cracken had reached them and pointed them toward Courkrus. Though they came from further away, they plotted a tight course that got them to Courkrus before Booster. He arrived and offered them a ride to Susevfi, so they shipped aboard. Colonels Celchu and Gurtt met on the ground for the first time and were able to work out terms under which the Survivors would be allowed to keep their ships. They quickly began to bring local politicians into the meetings and I had no doubt that within several weeks, Susevfi would petition the New Republic for entry as a full member, complete with a fighter force, and that the Survivors would find themselves a nice little home.
In addition to that, Elegos indicated that Susevfi struck him as a much nicer world than Kerilt. The possibility of moving at least part of the Caamasi Remnant to it seemed quite likely. Somehow I thought Caamasi fellowship and guidance for the Survivors and the Invids would go a long way toward making Susevfi strong and peaceful.
The Jensaarai still presented us something of a problem, but here, too, the Caamasi