Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 03_ Champions of the Force - Kevin J. Anderson [58]
Wedge gave her an encouraging hug. He felt so warm and comforting against her. “That’s all over, Qwi. It’ll never happen to you again. You’ve been let out of a cage, and I’m here to help show you the rest of the universe—if you’ll come along with me.”
“Yes, Wedge.” She looked up at him with a faint smile. “Of course I’ll come with you.”
Wedge’s comm link beeped at him from his waist, and he pulled it out with a sigh. “Yes, what is it?” he said.
“General Antilles, we’ve brought down some temporary equipment to the reactor facility. We modified the critical components taken from one of the corvettes, as you suggested. We’ve managed to emplace them, and the systems are marginally functional. The core temperature levels of the reactor have begun dropping, and we expect them to go below the red lines within the next several hours.”
“Good. Do we have a time limit here, then?” Wedge said.
“Well…,” the technician’s voice answered, “the reactors are still shaky, but they’re stable for now.”
“Good work,” Wedge said. “Pass along my commendations to your people.”
“Yes, sir.”
Wedge switched off and smiled at Qwi. “See, everything’s working out after all,” he said. She nodded, raising her face to look through the long, narrow window at the top of the wall. Pools of hot gas drifted around the Maw’s black holes.
They seemed safe here, walled off from the conflicts of the galaxy. Qwi had fought her greatest personal battles, and now she could allow herself to relax just a little.
But before she could turn away, she saw a shadow appear in the multicolored nebula—a huge triangular shape, like a spear point plunging through the gases and emerging into the safe gravitational island.
Qwi stiffened, biting back an outcry of panic.
Wedge let go of her and whirled, looking up.
“Oh, dear!” Threepio said.
Battered and blackened, an Imperial Star Destroyer came through the Maw with its weapons already powering up. Its once-white hull was blistered and streaked with burn marks; its shielding plates damaged by an inferno of destruction.
Admiral Daala’s flagship, the Gorgon, had returned to Maw Installation.
19
The Imperial Spider Walkers ascended the steep, pitted stone pinnacle. Their long metal legs bent at odd angles as their claws hauled them toward the heavy blast doors protecting Winter and baby Anakin.
Winter stood in the operations room, her jaw clenched, her eyes narrowed, as she viewed the progress of the assault transports. They had reached her first line of defenses.
When establishing the Anoth hiding place, Admiral Ackbar and Luke Skywalker had been unwilling to rely entirely on secrecy. They had tried to plan for every possible attack scenario. Winter had hoped she would never need to test those contingency plans, but now she had to fight for the child’s life—and her own.
Winter looked down at her status panels: the Foreign Intruder Defense Organism was primed and ready for automatic strike. She anticipated that FIDO could take out at least two of the Spider Walkers. She watched, gripping the edge of the consoles to steady herself.
Scuttling up the rock wall with insectile legs, the Spider Walkers reached a line of caves, small openings to a labyrinth of dead ends and grottoes within the stone.
Winter tensed as the first two MT-ATs passed, unsuspecting, over the black openings. The uppermost assault walker paused and fired a preemptive strike against the blast doors above with two forward lasers. A muffled thump and clang reverberated through the sealed installation.
As the second Spider Walker also prepared to fire, masses of whiplike tentacles lashed out of the hidden caves, long ropes each ending in a razor-sharp pincer claw. The tentacles took the Spider Walkers completely by surprise.
Two of FIDO’s writhing arms locked around the first walker and ripped it from