Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 07_ Fury - Aaron Allston [119]
Leia stopped crawling and closed her eyes. Luke, back on Endor, had communicated to her the precise presence in the Force she was to look for, and she had found it soon after boarding the Anakin Solo. On that first contact, she had brushed across Jacen, too, but had subsequently managed to avoid touching him through the Force.
She couldn’t bear to touch her own son.
She shook the thought away. It was a distraction she didn’t need right now.
There was Allana, the Chume’da, a bright, pure presence. The girl did not seem to have moved since Leia first detected her. Leia lifted an arm, pointing ahead, up, to the left.
“What’s the holdup?” Han, not surprisingly, sounded impatient.
“Just a pause while I make sure we’re on the right course, Han,” Iella said. “Thanks, Leia.” When Leia opened her eyes, Iella was consulting her datapad. “Getting a diagram update from Artoo. Overlaying the original design specs for this class of ship with the plans used by the onboard maintenance division, I’m finding several spots that are just blanks. Not officially there. One is exactly where Master Skywalker says the torture chamber was.”
“Is one of them in the direction Leia was pointing?” Han’s voice, floating up from past Leia’s feet, suggested that he was doing his best to pretend he wasn’t irritated…and that his best wasn’t enough.
Iella nodded.
Han added some mock sweetness to his tone. “I’ve got a suggestion. Let’s go that way.”
Iella gave Leia a sympathetic look. “You could have found a nice Corellian to marry. I did.”
“I’m nice. I’m just…decisive.”
Caedus watched on his monitor as Luke, Saba, and Ben approached the bridge doors from the corridor beyond. There were a few guards on duty, not that it mattered. They fired, the Jedi rushed, fists and lightsabers swung, the guards went down.
This was not good. Both Masters remained intact.
All was not lost, though. Caedus had resources still available to him. He was fresh. He had eight YVH droids.
In the monitor view, the Jedi approached the blast doors. Ben began to drive his lightsaber point into the metal.
Caedus made an impatient gesture. “Open.”
The blast doors slid aside. The Jedi stood there in triangular battle array, Luke and Saba now in front, Ben behind. Caedus and his YVH droids stared back at them. The bridge officers pretended to ignore the situation; they kept their eyes on their screens, conducting the space battle that raged around Centerpoint Station.
Caedus offered a smile that in no way reflected how he felt. “Uncle Luke. Ben. Master Sabatyne. Care for some caf?”
The Jedi, lightsabers ready, moved in, paying close attention to the two YVH droids flanking them.
Luke shook his head. “Care to surrender?”
“If I did, I’d never be able to have more fun with Ben, like the last time he was here.” Caedus fired the taunt like a blaster bolt—a pair of them, one at Luke, one at Ben.
And yet, in the Force, he felt not one flicker of anger from either of them. That was…surprising. Distressing. Time away from him appeared to have undone all the good he’d done Ben during their last session.
Caedus sighed. “All right. Kill.”
The combat droids snapped into motion, all eight firing simultaneously, their streams of blasterfire converging on the Jedi.
CORELLIA, CORONET, COMMAND BUNKER
Teppler walked into the situation room. There, over a broad triangular table, floated a holographic display of the battle being waged insystem. At the center of the display was the image of Centerpoint Station, surrounded by a large number of red Alliance ships, a shrinking number of Corellian ships.
Admiral Delpin, standing at one point of the table, surrounded by advisers, caught sight of him. “Where have you been?”
“Dealing with allies. Demands of state, you know.” He worked his way through the crowd