Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [120]
Thrackan Sal-Solo broke the mood.
“There is something we can do.” He whirled on Anakin, a wild look in his eye. “We have the time-space coordinates of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet.” He hurried to a console and called up a star chart. “Their warships are clustered Rimward of Fondor’s fifth and sixth moons. We can target them by focusing Centerpoint’s repulsor beam.”
“We have no authority to take such actions,” a technician said, loud enough to be heard over a dozen separate conversations that broke out. “We could miss and hit Fondor or even its primary. We can’t assume the risk.”
“We must assume the risk,” a Mrlssi argued. “Fondor is lost if we do nothing.”
The New Republic colonel glanced at Sal-Solo, who shook his head. “I can’t promise that we’ll hit our target.”
Everyone turned to Anakin.
And Anakin looked at Jacen and Ebrihim, who had his hand clamped over Q9’s vocoder grille.
Jacen wanted to say something, but all words fled him. He had a sudden memory of Anakin from months earlier, practicing lightsaber technique in the hold of the Falcon.
“You keep thinking of it as a tool, a weapon in your war against everything you see as bad,” Jacen had told him at the time.
“It’s an instrument of law,” Anakin had maintained.
“The Force isn’t about waging war,” Jacen had said. “It’s about finding peace, and your place in the galaxy.”
He set himself boldly between Sal-Solo and the console at which Anakin sat. “We can’t be a part of this,” he announced.
Thrackan peered around him at Anakin. “The First Fleet is being decimated, Anakin. The task force launched from Bothawui can’t possibly arrive in time to help.”
“The Tapani is our home sector,” a Mrlssi said. “You must take the risk for our sake—as a Jedi must.”
“It’s our only chance to score a decisive victory,” the colonel urged. He cut his eyes to the joystick Anakin had conjured. “It bears your imprint, Anakin. It answers to you and no one else.”
“Anakin, you can’t,” Jacen said, wide-eyed. “Step away from it. Step away from it now.”
Anakin glanced from his brother to the controls before him. Not through the Force but through Centerpoint itself, he could sense his distant targets. He felt as wedded to the repulsor as he often felt to his lightsaber, and he knew with the same conviction precisely when and how to strike.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Lightsabers clenched in two-handed grips, Kyp and Ganner approached the chamber in which Wurth Skidder was apparently being held. The absence of guards in the dark and humid corridor had Kyp thinking otherwise, but no sooner had his lightsaber coaxed the chamber’s portal to open than he caught sight of Skidder. And immediately he grasped what the captive—Roa—had meant by saying that Skidder wasn’t likely to be his old self.
Stripped naked, he was lying faceup on the floor with his legs bent backward at the knees and his arms extended beyond his head. Surrounding him—and plainly responsible for the cartilaginous growths that wedded him to the deck at knees, insteps, shoulders, elbows, and wrists—were a dozen or so crablike creatures, a few of whom managed to skitter to safety before Kyp’s and Ganner’s lightsabers could be brought to bear on them. The screeching others were cleaved and dismembered, their legs and pincers flung to all quarters of the hold.
Kneeling, Kyp wedged his hand under Wurth’s neck and gently lifted his head. Skidder groaned in agony, but his eyes fluttered open.
“You’re the last person I expected to see here,” he rasped.
Kyp made himself smile. “You think we’d let you execute this mission on your own?”
Skidder licked his lips to wet them. “How did you find me?”
“The Hutts got a message to us through one of their smugglers.”
Skidder’s eyebrows beetled in puzzlement. “I thought they’d joined the opposition.”
“I guess they’ve seen the light.”
“That’s good to hear,” Skidder said in genuine relief. He glanced at Ganner, then added,