Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [99]
Leia smiled and it became easy for me to see why thousands of Rebel hearts had been broken when she married Han Solo. “And while he was playing you, you got a good read on him. You can track him, when he’s active?”
“I think so. I also think these displays take a lot out of him. I think he’ll be keeping a low profile, probably tapping in on Streen, to find out what we’re doing.”
She nodded. “And you can feed enough back through that connection to deceive him?”
I nodded. “Giving us time to find a way to deal with him.”
“Good, very good.” Her eyes sharpened. “I can’t leave you in charge—he’d notice the change in routine and spot you as a danger.”
“Right. I’ll have to keep a low profile, too. I’ll keep quiet unless things aren’t going to work or start going really badly.” I moved from the doorway as she headed out toward the turbolift. “I know I can buy us time, but not much. At the rate he recovers, Kun should be ready for something tomorrow, maybe tonight.”
“I know you’ll do what you can.” She stopped at the turbolift and offered me her hand. “May the Force be with you.”
“And you.”
“I hope so.” She smiled at me grimly as the turbolift doors closed. “I have a feeling we’ll both need it.”
TWENTY-FOUR
I spent the rest of the day working on the Headhunter, finishing the repairs. I asked Streen to help me. I didn’t need the help, I just wanted to keep him close. Some of the other students were shunning him, and given what had happened, that came as no surprise. By having him help me I could keep an eye on him and gently monitor him in case Exar Kun tried to influence him again.
I also offered Kun the Headhunter as bait through Streen. The old gas prospector knew enough about flying a ship that he was able to hover the fighter and bring it into the hangar proper from the landing pad, but he didn’t seem able to work the weapons. Mara’s ship no longer had the standard weapons package it had been built with. The concussion missile launchers had been scrapped and replaced with a center-mounted ion-cannon. Each wing still sported a triple-blaster, but they were hardwired for dual-fire mode, which isn’t a choice I’d have made.
I told Streen enough about the weapons to make him think he could work them, but I didn’t tell him about having installed a command override code that was required to use them. If weapons were engaged without the code, the Headhunter would cut thrust to zero, click in the repulsorlift coils, and hover. The onboard computers also had the Great Temple designated as a passive flight zone: there would be no running it up to speed and slamming into the Temple. The navicomp would just take over and land the ship in the face of such an obvious pilot error.
My thinking was that Kun, still taxed from his having funneled enough power through Streen to create that cyclone, would take the chance at having Streen use the Headhunter to kill Luke. I tried to make it easy for him by giving Streen little flying tips and telling him Rebellion pilot stories, but Exar Kun never took the bait. I felt a bit disappointed in him at that, but didn’t push the issue for fear of tipping him to our connection.
It wasn’t until that evening, as I was trying to drop off to sleep, that I realized Kun wasn’t quite as sophisticated as I had expected. Alarms triggered by Artoo, who was stationed in the Grand Audience Chamber, jolted me out of bed. I stretched out my senses and caught spiky impressions of creatures that just felt wrong up at the ziggurat’s pinnacle.
I didn’t even think about hitting the stairs or waiting for the turbolift. I sprinted to the Headhunter, punched in the ignition code and enabled the weapons. I overrode the passive flight directives and cruised out