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“They still have their lightsabers, sir, even if we kill the power,” said Lekauf. “They’re very good at deflecting blasterfire, and any heavier ordnance might blow a hole in our hull anyway.”

“I’ve got something they’ll have trouble deflecting,” said Nele, the Lekauf clone who had been thrown across the gymnasium. He hefted a large rifle with a cylindrical chamber mounted where an optical scope would have been on a conventional blaster rifle. “Instant barbecue.”

Lekauf looked embarrassed for a moment. “A flamethrower, sir. He’s right. Better to char the section than put a big hole in it. And it’s quick.”

Vader couldn’t imagine his ultraformal lieutenant teaching his clones phrases like instant barbecue, but there was clearly a side to the man he hadn’t yet seen.

“Fire is the greatest danger in a vessel.”

“Not as dangerous as letting them blow up the ship, sir.”

“Very well,” said Vader. He could use the Force to contain damage if he had to. Feeling a presence approaching, he looked around to see Palpatine, standing serene at the end of the passageway and simply…observing. “Make ready.”

Vader regretted the waste of Cuis’s clones. But this was a matter of survival, and if a Hand could turn on the Emperor, the man who had originally inspired his devotion, then he had instilled in his trainees a capacity to do the same.

Clones were always fast learners. That was a two-edged sword as well.

Palpatine remained at the end of the passageway that ran the length of Lambda’s starboard side. He had projected a shimmering field in front of him, a silent statement that he would not participate in the fight.

“I have confidence in you, Lord Vader.”

That trick no longer works on me, Master.

“And I have confidence in my men.” Vader could see from the tight control on Lekauf’s face that he was now far from inspired by the Emperor. For once, here was someone whom he didn’t appear able to imbue with the desire to please him. Lekauf seemed to feel what Vader felt. It was unsettling to see that in an ordinary man.

Pepin stood with a hydrospanner in his hand, ready to shut down the shuttle’s drives and generator. Lekauf positioned the six clones on either side of the hatch with flamethrowers and blasters ready.

Vader stood back. What they needed was not so much his fighting skills as his ability to prevent the Dark Jedi from using the Force. They almost certainly had a danger sense as acute as his—and seven of them together could reach out from behind that hatch and thwart Pepin or any of the clones.

He took a breath and centered himself, shutting out almost everything around him until he was aware only of the living beings in the shuttle. He could feel Lekauf and his men; he could feel Pepin at the power controls. And he could feel the seven vortices of dark energy behind the bulkhead in the forward section as if no durasteel stood between them at all.

There was a click and whir of blasters charging and a faint hiss as three of the clones adjusted the pressure in their flamethrowers.

“Ready when you are, sir,” said Lekauf.

Vader concentrated on Pepin and enveloped him in a Force-shield.

“Pepin—now!”

Vader felt a sense of focus from behind the hatch as seven minds seemed to sense the threat and reached out. Pepin cut the generator and the shuttle was plunged into darkness except for the shimmering red blade of his lightsaber. He raised his left hand, knowing exactly where the weakest point of the hatch was, and sent a massive Force push that swept the two halves of the hatch doors apart.

For a moment, frozen in time, Vader saw a forest of red lightsaber shafts exactly like his own. He punched a Force shock wave into the cockpit just as his field of vision erupted in hot yellow light and the loud whoomp of flame filled the ruptured compartment ahead of them, fire licking across bulkheads and darting into the cockpit hatchway.

He could see inside now. He heard screams. Three lightsabers had disappeared, appearing to