Star Wars_ Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor - Matthew Woodring Stover [103]
The initial test subject had had a number of limitations, though; he was twice Skywalker’s age, and instead of a hero to the entire Rebel Alliance and now the New Republic, he’d been a hunted fugitive for longer than the boy had been alive, with a substantial bounty on his head that still stood. He was also more than a bit distinctive-looking, being over two meters tall and built like a rancor, not to mention having teeth filed sharp as a sabercat’s. He also, owing to some kind of structural brain abnormality that Cronal had been unable to repair, entirely lacked the power of human speech.
All of which made him a less-than-ideal body for Cronal to spend the next few decades inhabiting, and so Cronal had never taken the final step of permanent consciousness transfer … which only made this particular test subject all the more ideal for this particular task: a remote body, through which he could exert the whole of his powers, without risk to himself.
After all, when one needed a job done properly …
And so Cronal closed his eyes and brought the Sunset Crown down from its resting place onto his hairless scalp. When he opened his eyes again, the eyes he opened were not his.
They were the eyes of Kar Vastor.
CHAPTER 15
LUKE HIT THE DECK ROLLING. HIS FLIGHT SUIT WAS flame-retardant, but that wouldn’t stop the molten cinder and white-hot shards of the Falcon’s armor that the explosion had blown in through the hatch from burning right through it. Rolling might not have done him much good either, except that the Falcon’s automated fire suppressors were squirting supercooled extinguishing foam all over the cargo hold. Luke got himself good and coated with the gunk, then struggled up to his hands and knees.
Nick and Aeona and most of the others were similarly down and rolling, but a few just stood and screamed as they burned. Luke stretched out into the Force and flattened every one of them with a single hard shove, which might not have been necessary since the ongoing explosions were bouncing the ship around enough that nobody would have been on their feet much longer anyway, but Luke wasn’t about to leave that to chance.
He kicked off the wall and slid through the cascading foam over to Nick and Aeona, shouting above the blasts and screams. “Get your people secured and ready to move, and have them seal that ramp door! You’ll find three or four HatchPatch units in the rear storage compartment. Any questions?”
“Yeah—who put you in charge?” Aeona snapped.
“You did, sweetheart,” Nick said. “When you marooned his sister and his best friend. Suck it up and do what you’re told.”
Her eyes flashed like a blaster charging to overload. “You are gonna be in so much trouble …”
“If we live through this, you can spank me.”
“Don’t think I won’t.”
“Get yourself to the cockpit,” Luke told her. “Activate as many thrusters as you can bring online, and on my order fire them full ahead.”
“Ahead? That’ll only drive us deeper into the ground!”
“Someday, girl,” Nick said, “you and I are gonna have a talk about arguing with Jedi. He’s got a plan.” He turned to Luke. “Tell me you’ve got a plan.”
“More or less.” Luke got up—with a little help from the Force to keep his balance in the soapy, slippery extinguishing foam—and started trotting aft.
“That’s not the most reassuring thing you could have said. Where are you going?”
“Quad turret,” Luke said without slowing.
“Skywalker, give me the other one,” Nick said.
Luke stopped and looked back. “Can you shoot?”
Nick made it to his feet. “I can clip the wings of a Perthrillian nightwasp at a thousand meters and never wake it up.”
“That’s not really an answer.”
“Hey, the guys in there right now couldn’t even hit me.”
“Good point. Come on.”
When they got to the access junction, both turrets were empty. “Looks like they bailed.”
Luke moved into one of the turrets