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As the Y-wings swooped by on their second pass, blackened holes began appearing in the Dreadnaught’s starboard flank, where its massive engines were.

Now that the shields were down, other smugglers were attacking the Dreadnaught’s stern with abandon. The Imp Captain tried to turn his ship so he could fire on them, Mako could tell, but the ship was already sluggish, unresponsive.

And then, suddenly, there was a bright flare on the starboard side, and then the light from the Peacekeeper’s engines went out.

Mako whistled softly. I think he’s in trouble …

“Sir, the starboard reactor overloaded! The safeties shut it down!” Reldo Dovlis’s second-in-command reported. “No engine power remaining, sir!”

Dovlis looked around, feeling desperate. Without engines, he couldn’t escape. The smuggler ships were too small to do him much damage quickly, but over time they could cut his ship to ribbons, starting from the unprotected starboard stern, and working their way up, toward the bridge, destroying shields piece by piece, boring into his ship with their little lasers …

“We’ve got to restart those engines, or we’ve had it,” Dovlis said, knowing he spoke the truth. “Override the failsafe. We need power!”

“But, Captain—” The young man’s face was ashen with fear. Dovlis didn’t blame him. Reactors weren’t something to mess around with. But what other alternative did he have? All the other Imperial vessels were engaged—it was unlikely that an appeal to Greelanx would bring help quickly enough.

Dovlis was counting on the fact that the override on the reactor was designed to trip long before there was actual danger of an explosion.

He fixed his subordinate with a steely gaze. “I gave you an order, Commander.”

“Yes, sir!”

If only we can fire the engines for long enough to get closer to the other ships! Dovlis thought. Drifting, the Peacekeeper would tend to be pulled in by Nar Shaddaa’s gravity.

Dovlis heard his ship’s engines fire, strain, and his heart ached at what he was having to do to her. But all their lives were at stake.

Peacekeeper strained, lurched, then crept slowly forward—

—and then shuddered in agony as her starboard engine exploded. The port engine was still firing, however, and the unequal thrust sent the Dreadnaught into a dizzying spin!

“Engines off!” shouted Dovlis, but found that the Commander had already anticipated his order. Peacekeeper spun now in silence, whirling over and over.

The artificial gravity was still functioning because of the emergency power cells. But they weren’t enough to power the ship’s maneuvering thrusters. They had no way to pull out of this spin. Firing the port engines again would only make them spin harder, faster.

Reldo Dovlis watched in utter terror as the stars whirled by, then the surface of Nar Shaddaa, hazy because of the moon’s planetary shield, then the stars, then the moon …

Do something! his mind screamed. We’re being drawn by the moon’s gravity! In about a minute, we’re going to hit Nar Shaddaa’s energy shield!

And what an explosion that would be!

Stars … moon … stars … moon …

Whirling in a dizzying spin, whirling, spinning, utterly powerless to stop …

Stars … moon … stars … moon … stars … moon very close now …

Dovlis strove for dignity. He was, after all, an Imperial officer. “Can anyone think of anything that might help?” he asked, keeping his voice steady and calm.

His bridge crew looked at him silently. The law of gravity was, in this case, as cruel and inexorable as any of those imposed by the Emperor.

Stars … moon … stars … moon so close now …

Stars … moon …

And then there was only the moon, clutching them to her, dragging them into her shield.

And then there was nothing at all …

One of the smugglers who had darted in to take shots at the dying Peacekeeper was Roa, who was feeling pretty cocky. Lately he’d been wondering if he wasn’t getting old, losing his edge, but today he’d engaged in two dogfights with TIE fighters, and come out victorious.

Hey, I’ve still got it! he thought, sending the Lwyll