Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 01_ Onslaught - Michael A. Stackpole [115]
As the old woman came up to her full height, the ooglith masquer stretched into a parody of what she had been. Leia brought her blaster carbine around and clipped off two shots. One missed high, but the second burned through the Yuuzhan Vong’s throat. His hands clutched at the wound as he went down, with black fluid and white pus flowing out between his fingers.
The Yuuzhan Vong who had masqueraded as her son dove to the right and came up from a somersault with Lando’s blaster in one hand and a small child clutched to his chest with the other arm. The Yuuzhan Vong croaked at her as he pressed the blaster pistol to the blond little girl’s head.
“Harm me. This dies.”
The malevolence in the words could not be missed, but the lack of it coming through the Force seemed incongruous to Leia. She raised her own blaster carbine and sighted in on the Yuuzhan Vong’s head. “You won’t kill just one, so I’ll take that risk.”
The Yuuzhan Vong took a moment to parse Leia’s words, then brought the pistol around to point it at her. Before he could pull the trigger, however, the power pack slid from the weapon and slowly tumbled to the ground. The alien’s taut human mask stretched oddly as the face beneath it contorted into a surprised grimace. Leia triggered a shot that passed over the child’s head and incinerated a hole through the Yuuzhan Vong’s forehead.
The warrior pitched over backward, cushioning his hostage with his own body. It did take a moment for the child’s terrified mother to pry her from the Yuuzhan Vong’s arms, by which time the child realized she was supposed to be afraid. The little girl started crying, but the cries were muffled as her mother hugged the child tightly to her.
Leia’s comlink buzzed. “Go ahead.”
“Mara here. I found tracks for a half-dozen Yuuzhan Vong.”
“We got two here, so there must be one more . . .”
“I got him.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Some scratches. He just went to pieces, though.” Levity lightened Mara’s voice. “I’ll stay out here and see what else I can scare up.”
Leia ran over to where Danni was helping Lando sit up. The Yuuzhan Vong’s claws had scratched him deeply, but Lando seemed more concerned about the state of his shirt than he was the wounds. He held his bloodied hands out in front of him as if looking for something on which to wipe them off. He considered using his cloak for a moment, then rejected that plan.
Leia waved over two volunteers. “Get Lando to an aid station.”
“I’ll be fine, Leia.”
“You’ll be fine after we stop your leaking.”
Lando nodded toward the dead Yuuzhan Vong. “Neat trick slipping the clip like that. I knew you had that in mind when you invited him to shoot toward you instead of the kid.”
“Not me, Lando. Danni did the trick.” Leia smiled at the young scientist. “That was very brave.”
“Was it? I guess, maybe.” Danni shivered. “Being that close to a Yuuzhan Vong again, I just didn’t know what to do. What Jaina taught me, I tried to calm myself down, but it didn’t work. I thought . . . I guess it worked, the trick.”
“You saved my life, Danni. A small victory for us, and a small defeat for them.” Leia sighed and looked out toward the south. Let’s hope the others can scale our victories up so we can get out of here alive.
In Impervious’s cockpit, Luke pointed toward the large vehicle. “Get us closer.”
“Yes, Master Skywalker.”
“How’s the missile telemetry coming through, Artoo?”
The little droid tootled confidently, spinning his head around to look at Luke.
A beep sounded from the droid, and Elegos glanced at a secondary monitor. “I have four torpedo launches. All are hot.”
“Good.”
Luke sank back into the chair and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and reached out through the Force. He let his sense of things ride above the frayed ones’ jagged profile and vectored in toward the vehicle. He got no solid sense of