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By Root 1279 0

three ships here,” Anakin said evenly. “We ought to be able to cobble something together. Besides that, help is on the way, so maybe all we really have to do is hold out for a little while. Valin, I’m putting you in charge of taking inventory of what food and medicine we have. Vehn, you’ll tell him where to find it on your ship—all of it. Sannah, I’m giving you the blaster. I want you to watch the camp, while I go do recon at the other wreck sites. If you hear anything—I mean anything—coming from the sky, you both hide and stay hidden. Understand?”

“Yes,” Sannah replied. Valin nodded dutifully.

“Good. And ignore everything Vehn says. Don’t touch his restraints, don’t go near him. I’ll be back soon.”

CHAPTER TEN

Karrde didn’t black out, but time stretched weirdly as his harness tried to cut him in half and his ship spun madly, power blinking on and off, finally settling on off before minimal emergency systems kicked in. The inertial compensator started up, and gravity reasserted itself, but the screen was a confusing jumble.

“Report!” he snapped. “What’s going on?”

H’sishi looked up reluctantly. “Minimal damage to the frigate,” she said. “We took a pretty hard bounce, and we’re limping a bit.”

“Limp away from them, at least,” Karrde said. “Head for the outer system.”

“The hyperdrive core took some of the worst damage,” Dankin pointed out. “I don’t think we can jump.”

“Well, we certainly can’t here, not in the hole Yavin’s dug for itself.”

“The big ships we can still outrun, at least for a while. The frigate will catch us eventually, but we’ve got a lead it will take them at least an hour to cut down. We’ve got a couple of E-wings that will be harassing us shortly.”

“Good luck to them,” Karrde grunted.

“We do have some weak points in the hull, now,” Shada pointed out.

“That’s why we’ll shoot them out of space, Shada my dear,” Karrde answered.

“And our shields—”

“Will hold up long enough.”

“Long enough for what?” Shada said. “Without hyperdrive—”

H’sishi suddenly grated out a yowling snarl.

“What’s the matter, H’sishi?”

“I can give you something better than a working hyperdrive, Captain,” the Togorian said.

“And what might that be?”

Her toothy grin nearly split her head in half. “The rest of our fleet, sir.”

“You asked what I was waiting on, Shada? Don’t ever doubt that the gods favor me. How far out are they?”

“Umm, urr.” H’sishi was suddenly more sober. “Two hours at least, sir.”

“Well,” Karrde said cheerfully. “Then I’m taking suggestions on how to stretch the—it’s what, eight minutes now? Into the two hours we need.”

The hull suddenly rattled.

“E-wings on us, sir,” Dankin reported.

“Well, don’t keep them waiting. Show them what this helpless old transport has in store for them. Shada, you have the bridge.”

“You’re leaving in the middle of a fight?”

“It won’t be a long one. When that capital ship catches us, give me a call. I need to talk to Solusar.”

Four hours later, a weary Imsatad appeared on Karrde’s screen.

“You’re a fool, Karrde,” he opined.

“What does that make you, Captain?” Karrde replied. “In any event, our positions are now reversed. I have considerably more firepower than your little flotilla.”

“And yet, as you once observed of me, you’re still here, which means you aren’t finished,” Imsatad said. “What do you want?”

“By my count, four of the young Jedi are still missing. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t.”

Karrde stood and locked his hands behind his back. “I can be a very serious man, at times, Captain Imsatad. This is one of them. I gave my word to deliver the Jedi students and their teachers safely from the hands of scum like you, and I intend to do that. Not in part, but in full.”

“You’re endangering our work here,” Imsatad said. “The Yuuzhan Vong will not stop until they have all the Jedi. If we do the work for them, show our good faith—”

Karrde cut him off with a mordant chuckle. “The Yuuzhan Vong have conquered half of our galaxy in an unprovoked crusade. What about this obligates us to show them good faith?