Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [129]
She gazed at the misty colors of the Maw and the clump of strung-together rocks that had spawned the weapons for her assault. In formation the Hydra, the Basilisk, and the Manticore powered up, waiting to spring out upon the galaxy with swift and deadly precision. The New Republic would fall to its knees.
She had no interest in ruling the former Empire herself—Daala never had any such aspirations. Her main intent right now was just to cause them pain. She licked her lips, and her hair hung heavy down her back, serpentine like the demon for whom her flagship had been named. Grand Moff Tarkin would have been proud.
Commander Kratas, the man who ran the subsystems of the Gorgon, spoke to her from a communication terminal. “Admiral Daala, I have a priority message from the detention level!”
“Detention level? What is it?”
“The prisoners Han Solo and Kyp Durron have escaped! One guard was found stunned in Solo’s detention chamber, and another is dead in Durron’s cell. Both were stripped of their armor. We are attempting to question the survivor now.”
Daala felt a jolt of anger disrupt the eagerness singing through her veins. She drew herself up taller, raising her eyebrows and focusing intently on Kratas. “Track the service numbers of the stolen uniforms. Maybe they’ve logged in somewhere.” Her orders came like staccato laser blasts.
Kratas consulted his terminal, spoke into the comlink. Daala clasped her hands behind her back and paced, barking orders to the bridge personnel. “Put together a search party immediately. We’ll comb every deck of the Gorgon. They can’t have gotten off the ship. There’s no place else they could have gone.”
“Admiral!” Commander Kratas said. “The surviving guard claims that one of the scientists from the Installation came to see Solo. Qwi Xux. The guard insists that Dr. Xux had an authorization directly from you.”
Daala’s jaw dropped; then she clamped her lips together in a bloodless, iron line. “Check on the Wookiee! See what’s happened to him.”
Kratas queried the database. “The keeper says that the new Wookiee prisoner has been requisitioned and taken to a higher-priority assignment.” He swallowed. “Qwi Xux was the one who requisitioned him. She used your authorization code again.”
Daala’s nostrils flared, but then another thought struck her like a crashing asteroid. “Oh no!” she said. “They’re after the Sun Crusher!”
Alone in the guarded hangar holding the Sun Crusher, Han clambered into the hatch. “Can’t remember the last time I had to use a ladder to get inside a ship! Pretty primitive for such a sophisticated weapon.”
“It works.” Qwi hauled herself up the rungs behind him. “The sophistication is inside. All the rest is just window dressing.”
Han sat down in the pilot’s chair in the cockpit and looked at the controls. “Everything seems to be labeled the way it should be, though the placement is a little odd. What’s this for? Wait a minute, I’ll figure it out.”
Kyp reached the top of the ladder, paused, then pulled off his stormtrooper helmet. “Those mask filters stink!” he said, then with obvious pleasure tossed the skull-like helmet to the floor of the chamber. It clattered and bounced like a severed head. Kyp’s dark hair was curled with sweat and mussed from the confining helmet, but his face shone with a grin.
Chewbacca swung into the compartment, ducking his head and squeezing through the narrow hatch. He looked at the skylights in the chamber’s ceiling, then growled at the shape of a Star Destroyer orbiting overhead.
Han dropped his own helmet to the floor of the cockpit. Kyp kicked it under the seat and out of the way. Han touched the Sun Crusher’s navicomp, switching it on. “This thing is in better shape than the Imperial shuttle we stole. Are all the coordinates burned into the database, Doc?”
Qwi nodded, sitting down primly and strapping herself into her seat. “The