Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 09_ Edge of Victory 02_ Rebirth - J. Gregory Keyes [92]
“That’s better,” he grunted.
“We’re doomed,” C-3PO noted.
“Lock it down. We’ve seen a lot worse than this.”
“Might I point out—”
“No.”
The quad lasers were pounding steadily, Jacen and Leia doing their part. A gratifying number of skips had already succumbed to his family’s efforts, but they weren’t the problem. The big ships were the problem, especially the Interdictor.
Only the Falcon had a shot at it. Karrde’s ships were fighting for their lives against the two Peace Brigade vessels and the Yuuzhan Vong frigate analog.
“Han Solo,” he muttered, “suckered into the most obvious pirate trap imaginable. I’ll never live it down.”
“I’ll add that to the list of other things you’ll never live down,” his wife’s voice said over the open intercom.
“Yeah, well, you’d better hope I do live this one down, sweetheart.”
“Dad?” Jacen said. “Did I ever mention this whole pirate thing was a bad idea?”
“Why no, son, you—Wow!”
His exclamation was comment on the jet of plasma the interdictor had just released. Its diameter was greater than that of the Falcon, spearing up like a solar flare. He avoided it by a turn so sharp that even with the inertial compensators at 98 percent, the g’s sent blood rushing from his head.
Behind him, he heard a loud clattering sound as C-3PO smacked into a bulkhead. Again.
“Okay,” Han muttered. “Time for a change in strategy. Threepio, quit fooling around and haul yourself up here. I need you.”
The golden droid’s head peeped around the corner. “You need me? I would be happy to be of service, Captain Solo, but I don’t see how a protocol droid could be of help. Unless you want me to transmit our surrender, which I must say seems like a bad idea, even when you consider the alternative.”
“That’s not it,” Han said, weaving through a cloud of fresh skips. “Earlier, we noticed an odd radiation signature from one of those cargo pods. Figure out what it is.”
“Sir, I really don’t see—”
“It’s that or you start working on your surrender speech.”
C-3PO moved to the sensor readout. “I’m quite sure I don’t know what I’m doing. Nevertheless, I hasten to be of service. Oh, why didn’t I stay with Master Luke?”
THIRTY-SEVEN
“This is driving me crazy,” Tahiri fussed. “Not knowing. For all we can tell, the Yuuzhan Vong have already taken over the entire system.”
“I think there are a few hundred Jedi proverbs about patience,” Corran said. “Though they all elude me just this moment. Try to follow Anakin’s example.” He paused. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
Anakin hardly paid attention to his companions. He was mostly beyond the plain, boxy room they were “guests” in, riding the Force out through the reaches of the Yag’Dhul system. He brushed the intricate, mathematical beauty of the tides of the planet and its three moons, felt the straining of Yag’Dhul’s atmosphere toward space. He heard the whispering of millions of Givin minds in the corridors of their hermetically sealed cities. He touched a billion shards of stone and ice that had never cohered into planets, biding their time until the sun finally caught them in its fiery noose.
And he felt them, the Yuuzhan Vong. Not in the Force exactly, but through the telepathic lambent incorporated in his lightsaber. The feeling was akin to a faint, staticky comm signal—but it was unmistakable.
“They’re here,” he said.
“Who?” Corran asked.
“The Yuuzhan Vong. They’re in the system. I can’t tell anything else, nothing about how many or how—” He choked off as something new, strong, and terrible struck him in the Force. He gasped, and tears welled in his eyes, spilling down his cheeks.
“What?” Tahiri said. “What’s wrong?”
“Mara,” Anakin managed. “Don’t you feel it? Aunt Mara is dying. And Uncle Luke …” He sprang