Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 02_ Dark Apprentice - Kevin J. Anderson [37]
The outburst distracted Gantoris for only a second. But Luke used the moment to reach out with the Force. Grasping with invisible hands, he yanked the lightsaber handle out of Gantoris’s grip and used his skill to push the button that deactivated the blade.
Luke snatched Gantoris’s weapon from the air, gripping it with his left hand, and switched off his own lightsaber. Suddenly, without the roaring hiss of dual blades, the jungle seemed disturbingly silent.
Gantoris stared at him, unmoving. Both of them panted with trembling exhaustion. They stood close to each other, within arm’s reach. Pearls of sweat appeared on their foreheads.
Reaching his decision, Luke broke the frozen moment. He flipped the handle of Gantoris’s lightsaber forward and extended it toward the other man. Gantoris tentatively took his weapon back, glanced at it, then met Luke’s gaze again.
“Good exercise, Gantoris,” Luke said, “but you must learn to control your anger. It could be your undoing.”
8
Through the simmering haze of a security field deep within the steelcrete mazes of Coruscant, Kyp Durron looked at the thorn shape of the Sun Crusher.
He squinted to get a better view, leaning forward until three heavily armed New Republic guards strode to bar his way. Within the hangar he could see another crew of guards standing around the Sun Crusher itself. Just inside the electrostatic security field, a huge blast door hung ready to clang down at a moment’s notice.
With his small wiry frame, free grin, and tousled dark hair, Kyp didn’t think he could possibly pose any threat, but the three guards pointed their blaster rifles at his chest. “This is a restricted area,” the sergeant said. “Leave immediately, or we will shoot.”
“Hey, relax,” Kyp said, raising his hands. “If I wanted to steal the thing, I would never have flown it here in the first place.”
The sergeant looked at him skeptically. It was obvious he didn’t have a clue what Kyp was talking about.
“I’m Kyp Durron. I flew the Sun Crusher with Han Solo from Maw Installation. I just wanted to have another look.”
The sergeant’s stony expression did not change. “I don’t know General Solo personally,” he said, “but I have orders to restrict all access. No exceptions.”
Kyp shifted to one side to see between the guards. He disregarded their presence, looking again at the angular superweapon that had been developed by the captive scientist Qwi Xux at Maw Installation.
Dr. Xux had innocently designed a weapon that could trigger a star to explode, wiping out all life in an entire solar system. Qwi had done it as an exercise to test the limits of her scientific abilities; but Han had broken through her brainwashing and made her realize what she had created. Qwi had then helped them steal the superweapon and escape from Admiral Daala and Maw Installation.
Kyp was glad the Sun Crusher was now in the hands of the New Republic, but it concerned him that the Senate couldn’t decide what to do with it. The existence of such a powerful weapon seemed to change the attitudes of even good people in the government.
Kyp watched as engineers and mechanics attempted to understand how the Sun Crusher worked. They used laser-welders against the ultradense quantum-plated armor, but nothing could scratch the indestructible craft.
Two mechanics clambered out of the upper hatch, carrying a metal cylinder a meter and a half long and half a meter wide. Three engineers at the bottom of the hangar bay craned their necks to look up at the cylinder and dropped their hydrospanners in horror. Another engineer put down her precision calibrator and backed away very slowly.
“It’s one of the supernova torpedoes!” an engineer said.
The two mechanics carrying it suddenly froze. Someone sounded a squawking alarm. The guards inside the security field ran about looking for targets to shoot. The trapped engineers and mechanics