Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 01_ Betrayal - Aaron Allston [46]
He had failed. Less than five minutes into his operation, he had failed. His thinking processes became attached to that notion and could not pull free of it.
“Orders, sir?”
Klauskin shook his head. “Continue with the operation as per existing orders,” he said. “Redeploy half our starfighter squadrons to positions screening the capital ships. Do not initiate hostile actions.”
He turned his back on the Corellian fleet and stared down at the planet’s surface, at the gleaming star-like patterns of nighttime cities, at the brightening crescent ahead of the daytime side of the world. Dimly, he was aware that his new orders hadn’t accomplished much, and certainly wouldn’t do if the Corellians had any more surprises for him.
This was a problem he had to address. He’d get right on that.
VibroSword Squadron launched, a typical fast-moving stream of Eta-5 interceptors. As they poured out of Dodonna’s forward-port-flange starfighter hangar, Lysa saw the distant thrusters of Luke Skywalker’s Hardpoint Squadron far ahead. Already the Jedi X-wings were roaring down toward the atmosphere for their mission, which would begin on Corellia’s day side.
Then Lysa became aware of all the green running lights in the port-side distance. She turned and stared. “Leader, we have a problem…” Her voice mixed with others, a sudden babble of alarm across the squadron frequency.
“Maintain course and speed.” V-Sword Leader’s voice, as ever, was calm, reassuring. This time, at least, it wasn’t mocking. “Correction. Stay on me.” With that, V-Sword Leader and his wingmate rolled over and looped back almost the way they’d come, heading back toward Dodonna but swinging out a bit from the carrier. Once they were parallel to the carrier but out several kilometers, he brought them around again on a course paralleling the capital ship. “This is our new station,” he said. “Keep your eyes open for aggressive action by the Corellians.”
“Leader, Seven,” Lysa said. “Sir, doesn’t their just being here constitute aggressive action?”
“They’re probably asking the same thing about us, Seven. And the answer to both questions is yes.”
“Thank you, sir.” Lysa’s leg began twitching again. This time she didn’t bother to try to control it.
chapter ten
CENTERPOINT STATION, CORELLIAN SYSTEM
Jacen brushed aside the cloth over his head and peered out—out, up, back.
The conveyance he lay upon was one open-topped car of a repulsor train. The cars, connected end-to-end, floated along a containment track laid years earlier along Centerpoint Station’s long axis. Jacen could tell from the way the ceiling was no longer kilometers away but only hundreds of meters above, and getting closer, that they were heading out of the vast open central area known as Hollowtown and into a narrowing choke point toward the station’s “top”—the region where the greatest number of significant control chambers had been found, the region where the majority of the investigating scientists’ new installations of equipment and computer gear had been made.
Far overhead, Jacen saw a cluster of buildings, blocky apartment residences in subdued brown and green tones that seemed very out of place in this ancient technological artifact. Despite the urgency of his mission, he grinned. He was staring up at the apartments’ roofs, which were upside down to him. It had to be disconcerting to emerge every morning from sleep and stare up at a distant floor, one across which turbolifts and repulsor trains were always moving.
He lay alone in the midst of a mound of supplies for the station residents—bolts of cloth, preserved foods, crates full of entertainment data cards, deactivated worker droids. Ben was also aboard the repulsor train, several cars back, maintaining his own hiding place. Jacen had settled on this method of operation as the mission planning entered its final stages. “You’ll trail me at a distance