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Soresh's laughter cut through the noise. Luke whirled around. The Commander, bloody and shaken, but still on his feet, lunged toward the glowing yellow button. "Too late," Soresh said, and pressed the button.

Luke watched the viewscreen in horror as three resonance torpedoes hurtled toward the sun.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Luke leapt for the console, desperate to stop the torpedoes. There had to be some way of calling them back, or detonating them in midair, something to stop the inevitable. But there wasn't. And he'd wasted too much time searching—enough to give Soresh a head start on his escape. Luke took off after him, then hesitated in the doorway, torn. "You have to find a way off the planet!" he shouted at the confused guards. "If we stay here, we're all going to die!"

The confused buzzing in the room just got louder.

"Ships!" Luke shouted, frustrated. "We have to find ships!"

"Ships!" One of them cried, and took off running down the hall. Luke urged the rest to follow him. He had to help everyone off the planet, and he had to find a way to warn the Rebel fleet—and he had to catch Soresh. But he was only one man, and he couldn't do everything at once—so where was he supposed to start?

"Luke!" A familiar voice cried. A moment later, Leia appeared in the corridor, flanked by Han, Chewbacca, Ferus, and Div. The two droids wheeled behind them.

Luke's jaw dropped. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you," Leia said, then spotted the fleeing guards. "Though it looks like you got tired of waiting."

Luke drew them back into the control room and explained everything that had happened. Chewbacca stayed in the corridor, guarding the door, while Ferus and R2-D2

took a long look at the launch controls. They both agreed: There was nothing they could do to stop the torpedoes. In less than three standard hours, the sun would explode. It would collapse into itself, generating a shock wave that would consume the entire star system. Nothing in its wake would survive.

Leia turned pale. "Half the fleet is up there!" she exclaimed. "We have to warn them."

C-3PO raised a golden hand. "With any prototype weapon of this sort, there is a one in three hundred twenty-seven chance that the weapon will fail."

Han snorted. "Normally, I'm all about playing the odds, but this game's a little too rich for my blood. What do you say we find the fleet and get out of here?"

"I fear that may be more difficult than it was a moment ago," Ferus said solemnly, his eyes fixed on the viewscreen behind their heads. The others turned around. Darth Vader's Interdictor Star Destroyer had just winked out of hyperspace. Six other Destroyers appeared a moment later. TIE fighters were already pouring out of them, firing on the Rebel ships.

"They were only expecting two Destroyers," Div said, alarmed. "And they thought there'd be time to lay an ambush. They can't handle this."

"And they can't flee the system when they're under this kind of fire," Han added.

For a brief moment they stood in silent horror, watching the battle unfold before them.

Then Leia slammed a fist down on the launcher console with a loud crack. "They need help," she said, seizing control. "Luke, Han, Div—find ships. And the guards—"

"The guards won't be a problem," Luke told her.

"Then help them fight. I'll stay here and find some kind of communications equipment so I can fill in the fleet—and maybe I can get the Imperials to understand what we're dealing with."

"I'm not leaving you here alone," Luke said.

She glared at him. "I can take care of myself. The fleet can't."

"I'll stay with her," Ferus said quickly. "We have to evacuate this moon—there are still the hostages you told us about. We can't just leave them here to die."

"We're not leaving anyone here," Han said firmly. "You do what you need to do, Princess, then you make sure you get yourself off this rock. We're not leaving this system without you."

"Get up there, now," Leia ordered him, "or none of us will be leaving this