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“We’re breaking communication silence then, sir?” asked Ean.

Wedge nodded. He needed to know if Ceousa’s instruments showed the same squadron heading toward them, if somehow Kueller had manipulated their technology. Leia, and the message she had sent with his staff, had implied that somehow Kueller had messed with the droids. Maybe he controlled the scanning equipment as well.

Still, Wedge had to prepare for a full-scale battle.

For the first time in years, he was nervous.

He hated being caught by surprise.

His entire military zoomed through space. Several thousand troops and ground personnel. He had never expected to use them.

But Kueller was prepared. Despite what he had said to Yanne, he planned for all contingencies. He was just surprised that his weapon hadn’t worked. For the first time, it had failed to work in the way it was designed. Someone else had died. The droids hadn’t been delivered to the right place.

Brakiss would pay.

Later.

Kueller had to concentrate on the battle now.

Although Leia Organa Solo’s nearness was distracting. He had felt her ship break through the atmosphere, but he hadn’t checked on her since. She wouldn’t be hard to find. Her Jedi powers radiated from her like a searchlight.

He would concentrate on her after he had defeated her fleet.

He almost wished he was with his people.

Almost.

But he knew the risks that entailed, and he didn’t need risk now. Not with his objective so close.

Whatever happened in space mattered less than his defeat of Skywalker and his sister. Once they were gone, the galaxy would be his. It would take only an instant, and every threat to him would disappear.

If Brakiss hadn’t betrayed him again.

“Sir,” said Gant, his advisor. “Commander Bur wants to know if you will be commanding from below.”

Kueller smiled. His people never knew what he would do. “Tell Commander Bur that I have full faith in his ability. And that I will be watching.”

“Yes, sir,” said Gant.

That would be warning enough. His people knew that Kueller judged failure harshly. If he got even a whiff of loss from his favorite commander, that commander would die. Kueller would never lead a fleet in a traditional sense. He’d often felt that leaders who bothered with the trivia of who shot whom lost the battle. But he would lead as best he could from below. All he cared about was that the battle went his way.

He didn’t care who survived, as long as no one from the New Republic landed on Almania.

No one except Leia Organa Solo, that is.

Forty-two

Han was frantic for Leia. More bombs on Coruscant. She might be dead by now. The entire planet might be in flames.

He hoped she had gotten the children away.

He backed away from Blue, from another old friend who had never been a friend at all, leaving her with Davis’s body. All around them, the cries and the screams continued. Lando was powering up the Lady Luck. Han’s repairs at least allowed that.

Chewbacca was beside him. Han didn’t know how much Chewie had heard.

“We have to get out of here. Coruscant was the intended target,” Han said.

Chewbacca moaned.

“But we can’t leave these people like this.” Han’s brain was moving faster than his mouth. He wanted to be gone, wanted to be outside the Run so that he could contact Coruscant and find out if anyone had survived.

Find out if Leia had survived.

His hands were shaking. All he could see was his beautiful wife, her white dress torn and scorch-marked, her hair falling around her ears, her nose bleeding, her body bent with the strain of carrying a senator three times her own weight. Leia during the last bombing. She might have collapsed if he hadn’t taken her from there.

He wasn’t there to rescue her now.

Chewbacca was talking to him. Han hadn’t heard much more than the last yowl.

“Yeah, I know, buddy. They need us here. Find out how many ships still work, how much rescue power we have here. Then let’s load up the Falcon. I want to be one of the first ships off the Run. We can find out about Coruscant then.”

Chewie