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"Hey, you hear that?" the copilot asked, jumping up from his seat. He opened a channel on the comlink.

Luke held his breath.

"Griff, everything okay with the prisoner?" the copilot asked. "Griff?"

Griff, lying unconscious on the floor of the cargo bay, did not respond.

It was now or never. Luke activated his lightsaber again. Blue blade held high, he burst into the cockpit. The copilot barreled toward him. Luke struck out with the lightsaber, but the man grabbed his arm and twisted hard. Luke swallowed a gasp of pain. He tossed the lightsaber to his other hand. The blade whipped through the air and sliced effortlessly through the man's bulging belly. He dropped to the ground, curled up and cradling the wound.

Laserfire screamed past Luke, scorching the wall behind him.

The pilot stood before the controls, blaster aimed at Luke. "Where did you come from? What do you want? What'd you do to Tyrus? What's that sword thing? Who are you?"

Luke swept his gaze across the tiny cockpit. There was a chance he'd be able to block the laserfire with his lightsaber. But he'd be a lot more confident about blocking it with a chair, or a storage crate, or a nice thick durasteel bulkhead. "Which question do you want me to answer first?" he asked, stalling.

The pilot shrugged. "How about…none of them?"

He fired.

Luke ducked, closed his eyes, let the Force guide his hands.

The laserfire smacked into his lightsaber. Luke stumbled backward with the impact.

"Watch it." A voice came from behind him. And then another shot. The pilot clutched his chest and pitched forward, tumbling to the floor. Luke spun around to see Div grinning behind him. "You're welcome," Div said. "Now, what are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you," Luke said.

Div raised an eyebrow. Then he raised his blaster. "Don't move!" he shouted.

Luke froze. But Div wasn't aiming at him.

Groaning with pain, the pilot hoisted himself up to the control panel. "If you want to live, don't move!" Div warned him.

But the pilot didn't stop. He reached toward the controls. Div pulled the trigger.

Laserfire sailed across the cockpit, peppering the pilot's body. He tumbled forward onto the controls, his hand slapping down on a large red switch. With a weak but satisfied smile, he dropped to the floor.

And in the viewscreen, the sky exploded with light as the ship jumped into hyperspace.

Stars streamed past as the ship hurtled through space.

Moments later, the autopilot took them out of hyperspace. The ship came to rest in an empty pocket of the galaxy with no planetary systems anywhere in sight. They could have been anywhere. And they had a bigger problem: the Star Destroyer looming in their viewscreen. Hundreds of times their size, the arrow-shaped silver ship hung motionless in the sky less than twenty klicks away, as if it had been waiting for them—which, Div realized, it almost certainly was.

Div glanced at Luke. "When does the rescuing start?" he asked drily.

"Maybe we can escape before it notices us," Luke said, fiddling with the unfamiliar hyperdrive controls.

Div jabbed a boot into the unconscious pilot, hoping the man could give them some clue as to what they were up against. But he didn't stir. Luke was muttering to himself, trying to program a new set of coordinates. "It's an old ship," he murmured. "It's going to take at least six minutes before the drive is ready to jump again."

"I'm not sure we have six minutes," Div said.

The launch hangars of the Star Destroyer slid partially open. A single TIE fighter slipped through the narrow crevice.

"Just one?" Luke said. "We can take it."

"Great," Div said. "But who's going to take them? " As he spoke, the hangar doors were sliding wide open. A fleet of TIE fighters poured out, blanketing the sky.

An Imperial transmission came through from the Star Destroyer. "Identify yourselves," a flat, tinny voice commanded. "Imperial authentication and docking codes required."

Luke took a weapons inventory while Div again tried to rouse the pilot,