Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [6]
Leia touched his forearm in indebtedness, and the two of them hastened for the ramp. Behind a barricade of soldiers, at the head of the line of evacuees, stood a group of tailed, spike-haired, and velvet-furred aliens attired in colorful if threadbare vests and wraparound skirts.
Ryn, Leia realized in surprise—the species to which Han’s new friend Droma belonged.
“Four,” the flight officer reminded, even as Leia was doing a head count of the Ryn. “Some of them will have to be left behind.”
Six Ryn, to be exact, she told herself. Even so, four was better than none. She edged between two broad-shouldered soldiers closest to the ramp and beckoned to the aliens in line. “You four,” she said, pointing to each in turn. “Hurry!”
Expressions of relief and joy appeared. The chosen four turned to exchange embraces with those who would be abandoned. A swaddled infant was passed from the rear to one of the females up front. Leia heard someone say, “Melisma, should you find Droma, tell him we’re here.”
Leia gave a start and glanced about for the one who had said the name, but there wasn’t time to seek out the Ryn. Already the soldiers were backing their way up the ramp, taking her with them.
“Hold on!” she said, coming to a sudden stop and refusing to be moved. “Skidder. Where’s Skidder? Is he already aboard?”
She leaned forward to gaze across the devastated landing zone and spotted him dashing for the ship, dragging a human female behind him and cradling a longhaired infant in his left arm. The sight gave Leia pause. Maybe Skidder had changed, after all.
“Make certain they get aboard,” Leia instructed the officer in charge, pausing when a coralskipper-delivered projectile impacted the permacrete only meters from the ramp. “And I don’t care if you have to use a shoehorn to do it.”
TWO
Death pursued the shuttle to the edge of space, spitting fire from below, needling with fighter-launched missiles, clutching with dovin basals housed in warships anchored just inside Gyndine’s envelope. The X-wing escort had to blaze a route through swarms of coralskippers and take on a frigate analog, five pilots sacrificing themselves in the attempt to see the evacuees to safety.
Leia sat in the cramped cockpit watching the battle rage, wondering whether they would reach the transport in time. A ship that had launched before dawn hadn’t been so lucky. Hull perforated in several places, the oval craft drifted lazily in golden sunlight, venting atmosphere and debris into space.
Wherever Leia’s eye roamed, New Republic and Yuuzhan Vong vessels assailed one another with lasers and missiles, while enemy drop ships fell obliquely into the well, winglike projections extended and ablative coral blushed crimson red. Farther from the planet were the new arrivals Commander Ilanka had mentioned. Two of the ships had tentlike hulls fashioned from some sort of diaphanous material, from which protruded a dozen or more lightning-forked arms, as if dendrites from an insect-spun nest. The third resembled nothing so much as a cluster of conjoined bubbles, or egg sacks waiting to hatch.
In the shuttle’s passenger cabin, Gyndine’s refugees conversed in hushed tones or prayed boldly to sundry gods. Fear rose off the group in waves that stung Leia’s nostrils. She was circulating among them when a familiar shudder passed through the ship, and she recognized with relief that a tractor beam had possession of them.
Moments later the shuttle was pulled gently, almost lovingly into the docking bay of the transport.
But even there death reached for them.
During the deboarding process, a pair of coralskippers that had somehow duped the transport’s energy shield came streaking into the hold on a suicide run, skidding across the deck and exploding against a blast shield raised in the nick of time. Several refugees and crew members were killed, and a score more were injured.
Two of Leia’s female aides who had remained aboard the transport