Star Wars_ Rebel Force 06_ Uprising - Alex Wheeler [24]
"Then I'm bringing her down a little lower," Div said. He dropped the ship into the thin atmosphere. Wispy clouds whipped past the viewscreen.
"There!" Ferus cried, pointing down at the surface.
"What?" Div asked.
"Something," Ferus said, shaking his head. "There's something there, I feel it."
At this speed, it was little more than a blur. Div saw nothing of use or interest. But Jedi saw things that others did not. And so Div slowed the ship for the next pass around the planet, aiming the sensor array at the general area Ferus had picked out. And there it was: the Millennium Falcon.
Div's eyes widened. He was about to take the Firespray in for a landing, when Ferus stayed his hand. "Not yet," he said. "Look." The ship was circled by a ring of men, standing in a tight formation. There was no indication Han, Leia, or Chewbacca were among them. "We have to know more."
So they circled the moon several more times. The instruments detected signs of life, all of them concentrated in a ten-kilometer radius of squat duracrete buildings.
Ferus drummed his fingers on the control panel. "Perhaps it's time to find out—"
A low beeping from the comm cut him off.
"It's a distress signal," Ferus reported. "And it's being transmitted on a Rebel frequency."
"It must be the Falcon," Div said, certain there were no other Rebels in the system.
But the signal originated several kilometers away from where the Corellian freighter was docked. Div took the ship in for a landing. Then he armed his blaster. Maybe the distress call was coming from the Falcon crew. But there was always a chance someone else had gotten their hands on the Rebel frequencies. And Div had no intention of walking into a trap. "Ready?" he asked.
Ferus nodded. He activated his lightsaber, and opened the hatchway. They climbed down to the surface of the moon. It was an arid, craggy landscape of shallow craters and towering boulders. As they explored the area, their footsteps kicked up clouds of fine red dust. The distress signal was coming from this location, there was no doubt about it.
Whatever had called them here was nearby—right on top of them.
"We mean you no harm!" Div shouted, trying to draw them out. "Unless you mean some to us," he added, under his breath. He fingered his blaster trigger, ready for anything.
"We've found them," Ferus said quietly.
Div didn't bother to ask how he could be so sure. And he wasn't surprised when, a moment later, Han, Leia, and the Wookiee appeared from behind a boulder. The golden protocol droid and his counterpart were by their side.
Han flashed a crooked smile. "Took you long enough."
"What do you mean, Luke decided to stay? " Ferus asked, sounding alarmed.
The six of them—plus one very uncomfortable Wookiee—were crammed inside the Firespray. Han and Leia had run through the highlights of their time on the moon. Div couldn't believe the situation was even worse than he'd feared.
"He thought it was the only way to figure out Soresh's plans," Leia explained. "So he's pretending to be under Soresh's control."
"A double agent," Ferus said, under his breath. All the color had drained out of his face. "He has to escape—before it's too late."
"Hey, I tried to convince him," Han said. "The kid knows what he wants. I say we trust him."
"If Luke believes he can do it…" Leia began.
Ferus shook his head. "Believing in one's own strength can be a great asset. But it can also be the key to defeat."
"It's really too bad you never got to meet Luke's crazy Jedi friend," Han said. "You two could have talked riddles to each other all day long."
Ferus didn't seem to hear him. Div watched his old friend closely, suspecting he was lost in the past. There was a time when Ferus himself had acted as a double agent, confident that he was strong enough to face the challenge. He had drawn sharp boundaries between the man he was and the man he was pretending to be. But as time passed, the boundaries blurred. The dark side swelled within him. He had looked the same, acted the same—but those who knew him