Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 04_ Agents of Chaos 01_ Hero's Trial - James Luceno [109]
“You’re telling me it jumped that far in a second?” Han yelled at Droma while he fought to stabilize his ship.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you! One second it was there, the next it was practically right on top of us!”
Han’s hands flew across the cockpit console. “Angle the rear deflectors! If we can’t outrun them, we can at least try to stay in one piece!” He looked over his shoulder at Elan and Vergere. “Get to the acceleration couch in the forward hold!”
Droma waited until they had disappeared to say, “Vergere’s not an extragalactic, Han. I don’t know the species, but I have seen her type before.”
Han glanced at him. “What are you telling me? That she’s an impostor?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe only that those two don’t add up.”
“You don’t trust them?”
“Do you?”
Han considered his answer, then shook his head.
“Something’s been nagging at me. Why would the Yuuzhan Vong send a warship to back up the Peace Brigade? If they knew Elan was aboard the Queen, they would have done the job themselves. And another thing: even if some Yuuzhan Vong bioweapon escaped aboard the shuttle, that doesn’t explain the shuttle’s decelerating the way it did.”
“Unless the Yuuzhan Vong deliberately slowed it down.”
Han made his lips a thin line. “Exactly what I was thinking. You remember Reck’s man reporting that the corvette was glitched—that they couldn’t disengage from the Queen?”
Droma nodded. “The corvette pulled the Queen from hyperspace, but suddenly was unable to break away from her.”
“Which could happen if the Yuuzhan Vong tasked the dovin basal aboard the corvette to hold fast to the Queen.”
The Falcon shook as a projectile caught up with her. Han and Droma flinched, but dozens more missiles streaked past the ship to port and starboard.
“I’m tempted to see what happens if we stop taking evasive action.”
“Not too tempted, I hope,” Droma said worriedly.
Han growled. “I’ve gone up against the Yuuzhan Vong ships before. They just don’t miss this often. It’s like they’re doing everything they can to convince us they want their property back—”
“When they actually want Elan and Vergere to remain where they are.”
Han rubbed his jaw. “But why the ruse?”
“Something unrevealed,” Droma said leadingly. “The Queen of Air and Darkness.”
Han scowled. “I don’t put any stock in card games.”
Droma shrugged. “Watching you play sabacc, I would have thought otherwise.”
Han fell silent for a moment, then reached for his pack and located his holstered blaster. Getting to his feet, he buckled the holster around his hips and fastened the thigh grip.
“Take over,” he told Droma.
He hurried to the forward hold, where Elan and Vergere were seated side by side on the acceleration couch.
“Can you outspeed the warship?” Elan asked in a way that was meant to sound guileless.
“Probably not,” he told her. “But I think your people will make us think we did.”
She looked at him questioningly.
“I mean that I’m beginning to think they don’t want you back. That this whole thing—your defection, maybe even this battle—is part of some elaborate scheme your superiors cooked up.”
“You don’t care that I have important information for the Jedi?” she said in a scurrilous but composed voice.
Wrestling with uncertainty, Han paced the hold. “I don’t know what to think.” He came to a halt and regarded the two of them. “I suppose I could take you back to the Queen and let Jedi Master Skywalker decide.”
“Yes,” Elan said hurriedly, “you must at least do that.”
Han heard her. But what struck him was the look of shocked recognition that played briefly over Vergere’s exotic features.
“You’re right,” he said at last. “I guess I’m just being overly suspicious.”
He turned, as if to head to the cockpit, then stopped and said, “That creature that shredded your ooglith masquer aboard the Queen—does it respond only to a Yuuzhan Vong handler or will it adapt to anyone?”
“Only a Yuuzhan