Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [318]
“Wars’ll do that,” Shryne said into his helmet comm.
The console issued an alert chime, and Gayn leaned forward a bit to study one of the display screens.
“Three bandits closing on our tail. Signatures ID them as two V-wings and what might be a modified Jedi Interceptor. This Vader character?”
“Good bet.”
“Guess the Empire isn’t any more choosy about commandeering Jedi hardware than it is Sep gear.”
“Obviously, we’re still serving Palpatine in our own way.”
“Are you two aware that three starfighters are chasing us?” Starstone broke in.
“Thanks for the heads-up, sweetheart, but we’re on it,” Gayn said.
“Here’s another heads-up for you, flyboy. They’re gaining on us. Can’t you coax any more speed out of this junker? It’s about as lethargic as you are.”
Gayn laughed shortly. “I suppose I could try jettisoning the tail gunner. That ought to lighten us up.”
“First you might try letting some of the hot air out of yourself,” Starstone fired back.
“Ouch,” Gayn said. “Is she always like this, Shryne?”
“She was a librarian. You know how they can be.”
“A librarian with the Force … Very dangerous combination.” He chuckled to himself, then asked: “What happens to the Force now? Without the Jedi order, I mean?”
“I don’t know,” Shryne said. “Maybe it goes into hibernation.”
Gayn rocked his head from side to side. “Well, here’s a little something to show you that the Force isn’t the only game in town.”
Gazing in the direction indicated by Brudi Gayn’s gloved right hand, Shryne saw a swift space skiff approaching the Cloak-Shape on an intercept course.
“Hope it’s on our side.”
Gayn laughed again. “It’s our ticket out of here.”
All but wedged into the cockpit of his black interceptor, Vader was in full command of the situation. He had the starfighter’s inertial compensator dialed down, and felt revitalized by the experience of near weightlessness. In another life he had flown without helmet or flight suit, but those necessary accoutrements notwithstanding, he felt unburdened, released from gravity’s reign.
This was not the craft Anakin Skywalker had piloted to Mustafar, and the starfighter’s socketed astromech droid had a black dome. Nor was this the craft he would have chosen to fly. But the interceptor would do, at least until Sienar Fleet Systems completed the starfighter that was being built to his specifications.
After all, despite the manifold losses he had endured, he remained the galaxy’s best pilot.
The CloakShape’s lead evaporated as he made adjustments and poured on speed. The Jedi’s choice of escape vehicles was a reflection of their desperation, since the CloakShape lacked a hyperdrive of any sort. But Vader saw what they had in mind. They hoped to rendezvous with the Sorosuub skiff that even now was angling toward them. The plan would have worked, however, only if Vader had taken the Twi’lek crime boss at his word. And because he hadn’t, the Jedi wouldn’t have enough time to transfer to the larger ship. By then both the CloakShape and the skiff would be in proton torpedo range.
“Form up on me,” he told the clone pilots in the escort V-wings, “and fire on my command. There’s no need to take them alive.”
“Lord Vader, we have identified the Sorosuub,” one of the pilots returned. “The registry is Murkhana. The owner is Cash Garrulan.”
“So,” Vader said, mostly to himself. “It all ends here.”
“But there is something else, Lord Vader. The CloakShape appears to be fitted with external booster-ring adapters.”
Glancing at the display screen in which the CloakShape was centered, Vader issued a command to the astromech droid to display the skiff on a secondary screen.
Instantly he understood.
“All speed,” he ordered the clone pilots. “This is not a rendezvous. Fire proton torpedoes the moment our targets are in range.”
It was going to be close, Vader realized.
He enabled the interceptor’s laser cannon. The CloakShape, too, was traveling flat-out, and was faster than he would have thought possible. The pilot was skilled and artful. At this distance it would be difficult