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“Stop it. You’ll make me cry. If you have a plan, let me hear it.”

Anakin looked at the starfield. He was weak, very weak, but he thought he felt something.

“Give me long-range sensors,” Anakin said.

“Sorry, no can do. We were working on those when the creepy twins back there told me they ‘felt’ you needed help. We cut the repairs short and hot-jetted it.”

“Sannah, Valin,” Anakin said, gesturing them forward. “Concentrate. Do you feel something out there?”

“Sure,” Valin said, after a minute. “Kam Solusar is out there, somewhere.”

“Yes,” Sannah said. “I feel him, too.”

“I’m too weak to be sure, and so is Tahiri. Tell Vehn where.”

Valin studied the space around him for a moment, then pointed at around ninety degrees to starboard. “There.”

“ ‘There’?” Vehn asked. “That’s supposed to be a direction?”

“Do we have hyperdrive?” Anakin asked.

“No.”

“Then I suggest you set course where Valin tells you. Otherwise, we’re going to end up as star food.”

“It’s better than being captured again,” Tahiri said.

“Well, fine,” Vehn said. “The little creeps have been right so far, today.”

Anakin started to take the copilot’s seat, but Vehn placed his hand in it. “That’s Qorl’s,” he said.

“I’ll give it up,” Qorl said. “Every Solo I’ve ever known was a better pilot than me.”

“Don’t be silly,” Anakin said. “Even if that were true, you’re in better shape than I am to fly. Sorry to presume. You two seem to make a good team.”

The two men glanced at each other.

“Qorl gave me a certain … perspective on things,” Vehn said.

“With my boot, more often than not,” the old man said. But he was smiling, too.

“Well,” Anakin said awkwardly. “Thank you both. You came through for Tahiri and me when you could have just run.”

“Are you kidding? And have the little creeps back there slag my brain?” Vehn said.

“Anyway,” Qorl reminded them, “we’re not out of this yet. Twice I’ve been shot down on Yavin Four. My luck’s not so good when it comes to getting out of this system.”

“True,” Anakin said, “but we’re a lot nearer than we were.”

“Speaking of which, we’re gonna have words with some Vong in about half an hour,” Vehn said.

“They’re catching up that fast?”

“No. These are already out here.”

“I’ll take the turret gun,” Anakin said.

“Right. Give ’em an argument at least,” Vehn said.

“The transport has been engaged by Yuuzhan Vong, sir,” H’sishi reported. “They’ve taken a few hits, but they’re still coming, right for us.”

“How soon?” Karrde asked.

“If we plot a straight course, less than twenty minutes. But if we do that, we’ll be perfect targets for the blockade that’s forming up down there.”

“Yes, but if we go around, we’ll never reach them before that destroyer analog. Dankin, plot it straight in, and have the Idiot’s Array, the Demise, and the Etherway escort us.”

“Sir, they’re hardly our best-armed ships.”

“But they’re the only ones who can keep up with us, aren’t they? Keep her steady.”

“Very good, sir. We’ll be in their range in ten minutes. Unless they have something we don’t know about, which seems to be almost a given with the Vong.”

* * *

Anakin watched the third coralskipper spin off to port. He hadn’t destroyed it—his first two shots had been sucked in by the gravitic anomalies its dovin basal projected and the third had only tapped it—but the smaller craft didn’t have the speed to stay with the transport. They were more than nuisances, but not much more at this point.

It was the destroyer analog coming in from above starboard that bothered him, that and the fact that they couldn’t see much beyond it. For all they knew, there could be an entire fleet between him and Talon Karrde. If Karrde was there at all. He tried once again to reach out for Kam Solusar’s familiar presence and thought, briefly, that he had found it. But Kam might be light-years in that direction—or it might be wishful thinking. He couldn’t be sure.

What was sure was that very soon the destroyer was going to catch them. He hoped Vehn had a few tricks up his sleeve.

“Direct hit on the Idiot’s Array, sir,” H’sishi reported.

“Shada, are you there?