Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 11_ Dark Journey - Elaine Cunningham [106]
“Your turn, Kyp,” she prodded.
The rogue Jedi took three X-wings and peeled away, leaving Jaina’s frigate alone and apparently unprotected. Lowbacca moaned anxiously.
They watched as the coralskippers advanced, battling their way through Jag’s disciplined squadron.
“Most of them should have the repulsors by now. Get ready,” she said slowly, “and … now!”
The Wookiee broadcast a signal to the repulsor devices, and suddenly two-thirds of the attacking coralskippers whirled away, responding to the gravitic messages informing them that the Trickster was now behind them.
“Here’s where it gets interesting,” Jaina murmured.
She ordered the frigate to advance at maximum speed. As they soared into the midst of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, Lowbacca prepared to activate the small repulsor units attached to the skips.
Streaks of disabling plasma flared toward Jaina—all of them aimed at the underside of her ship. By now she understood the Trickster well enough to follow this strategy. Nom Anor’s ship was heavily armored, with an extremely thick lower hull. Attacks to this section activated the dovin basal, allowing other ships to generate gravitic tractor beams to pull Jaina in.
But Jaina didn’t allow them to distract her dovin basal. She wove the frigate through the battle, twisting and dipping in the wildest and most reckless flight of her life, daring the enemy to follow and fire upon her.
In the confusion that followed, the Yuuzhan Vong ships relied upon their sensors—which in turn directed their fire to whatever ship was currently broadcasting the Trickster’s signal. Not every ship was as well armored as Jaina’s. Two coralskippers went up in bright, brief flames.
Suddenly Lowbacca howled in alarm.
“A glitch?” Jaina yelled back. “No glitches! You can’t broadcast the signal to more than one ship at one time!”
Even as she spoke, the Wookiee’s mistake led to a happy accident—the three Yuuzhan Vong skips receiving the signal converged on one another. A simultaneous eruption of plasma exploded from all three ships, followed by a secondary explosion that reduced them to a massive spray of coral shards.
“Glitches can be good,” Jaina conceded.
As the battle devolved from one level of chaos to another, Harrar’s growing superstition moved toward terrified belief.
The Jeedai twin was performing seemingly impossible feats of movement, strategy, and destruction. With one ship, she evaded their best pilots, destroying some of their swiftest skips. She was nowhere, and everywhere.
All around him, the crew members begin to murmur the name Yun-Harla in a mixture of awe and dread. The priest could not bring himself to chastise them for this heresy.
Khalee Lah strode into the control room, his scarred face grim. “How do you wish to proceed, Eminence?”
The priest considered only for a moment. This decision might end his career, but it was the only reasonable option.
“Order the retreat.”
The survivors returned to the Hapan dock, spilling out of their ships with cheers and hoots of laughter, falling into back-thumping embraces. Jaina smiled faintly as she strode down the Trickster’s ramp. The task she had in mind was far from finished, but they’d made a good start.
She was lifted off her feet and spun around in an exuberant circle. Kyp set her down, beaming.
Jaina felt Jag Fel’s approach. Her exuberance dimmed as she turned to face the young colonel.
“That was astonishing. If you ever feel in need of a title, you should consider ‘commander.’ I’d be happy to consider you in that light.”
“Gee, a girl can’t hear that too often,” Jaina said dryly.
A flicker of puzzlement entered Jag’s eyes. Before he could ask, a tall, blue-skinned female strode over.
“No Chiss would fly under this woman’s command,” the Chiss said sternly. “I am surprised, Colonel Fel, to