Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 03_ Champions of the Force - Kevin J. Anderson [107]
Sivron looked from side to side, suddenly insecure. He didn’t like to be pushed into snap decisions. Too many things could go wrong if one did not consider the full consequences. But the captain had a good point.
“All right, then, temporary emergency actions. Ad hoc committee decision—shall we use the superlaser to strike out at the Rebel forces? Doxin, your vote.”
“I agree,” the squat Division Leader said.
Tol Sivron turned to the hatchet-faced woman. “Golanda?”
“Let’s cause some damage.”
“Yemm?”
The Devaronian nodded, his horns bobbing up and down. “It will look much better in the report if we have a unanimous vote.”
Sivron considered. “Since Werrnyn is no longer with us, I will act as his proxy and cast my vote along with his. Therefore, the vote is unanimous. We will strike the Rebel forces.” He nodded to Yemm. “Please note that in the minutes.”
“Director,” the stormtrooper captain interrupted, “the Rebel fleet is pulling out. One of the corvettes has already gone into the Maw.”
“Captain, you are so impatient!” Sivron snapped. “Can’t you see we’ve already made the resolution? Now it’s time to implement it. Go ahead and establish your first target.”
He blinked his tiny eyes and spotted one of the Corellian corvettes hanging dead in space. “What about that one?” Sivron said. “It appears to be either crippled or boobytrapped. I don’t like it—and besides, it’s a stationary target. We can use it to calibrate our aiming mechanisms … since you missed a whole planet last time.”
“As you wish, Director.” The stormtrooper relayed the instructions to the team of gunners in the firing bay.
“I suggest we fire at only half strength, Director,” Doxin said, scanning the technical readouts. His bald scalp furrowed again. “Even at reduced power the Death Star superlaser will be more than adequate to destroy a simple battleship. In that way we can manage multiple firings without depleting our reservoir so quickly. We won’t have to wait so long between shots.”
“Good suggestion, Division Leader,” Sivron said with a smile of anticipation. “I’d very much like to shoot more than once.”
Down in the firing bay the gunners hunched over sprawling control banks, fingers moving deftly over the arrays of brightly lit squares to call up the targeting cross and lock in on the doomed corvette.
“Hurry up and fire,” Tol Sivron’s voice echoed through the speakers. “We want to get a second shot at those ships before they all leave.”
Together the gunners focused the secondary laser beams and yanked back on the levers to release the pent-up energy within the power core.
Along the focusing tubes a wide beam of incinerating power shot out. It funneled through the focusing eye and blazed into a deadly spear, striking precisely on target.
The crippled Corellian corvette was so insignificant that it absorbed little of the destructive power. The beam went through the vaporized wreckage and continued into the curtains of the Maw.
“Outstanding!” Sivron said. “See what happens when you follow the correct procedures? Now target the frigate. The big ship. I want to see that one explode.”
“We have enough energy reserves for several more blasts,” the stormtrooper captain said.
Then a tiny, angular blip of light streaked across their targeting viewport—as seemingly insignificant as a gnat—yet it kept coming. Its hull glistened brightly in reflected light. The small ship fired its ridiculously ineffective defensive lasers at the Death Star.
“What’s that?” Sivron said. “Give me a close-up.”
Golanda magnified the image on the screen and scowled. Her face looked unpleasant enough to shatter planets. “I believe it’s one of our own concepts, Director Sivron. You may recognize it yourself.”
As he looked at the shard-shaped vessel, his head-tails twitched. Of course he remembered it—not only