Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [123]
“Wait!” Luke repeated. “We want that ship. Even damaged, it’d be a lucky catch.” Luke leaned toward the pickup. “All forces,” he ordered, “this is Commander Skywalker. Cease fire immediately. Alliance forces, confirm on this channel.”
“What?” asked Han. Three younger pilots also protested.
Luke repeated his order, then he tried to thrust the Force across the distance to touch Commander Thanas once more. He couldn’t. Even though he’d cast out the parasites before they chewed into his heart, he was too weary from using the Force. If Thanas elected to destroy the Dominant, Luke could do nothing.
Except …
Out into the Force he projected calm. Peace. Peace was possible.…
And this was Thanas’s last chance.
Pter Thanas flinched as Skywalker’s order went out over the subspace radio. During this battle something had reawakened in him, something that cared. Something he’d buried years ago, at Alzoc III.
Nereus wouldn’t hesitate to send him back there, too. He glanced at a red-barred compartment. It hid a lever labeled “self-destruct.” Another compartment, halfway across the bridge, held its mate. Pulled simultaneously, they would blow the Dominant’s main generator. The blast would incinerate everything around it.
His career was over.
He turned to his aide, a stiff-backed five-year man. “Abandon ship,” he ordered, “all hands.” Crew members might get far enough away to escape destruction. Bridge crew, however, must remain. Such was standard Imperial discipline. Those levers had no time delay.
The young aide shifted from one foot to the other, awaiting his next order.
Thanas stared at his black boots, spotlessly polished on a polished deck. At Bakura, as at Alzoc III, he’d received unethical orders from a superior officer he did not respect. These could be his final moments, sacrificed to an uncaring Empire … the legacy of a dead emperor.
Or he could recant and admit that he’d misspent his entire life.
Then again, he remembered Governor Nereus’s parting orders. Coolly he straightened and looked around the bridge. His crew was visibly bracing for a last act of heroism.
“Communications,” he barked, “give me a channel to Skywalker. Wherever he is.”
“Done, sir.”
Pter Thanas faced the communications station and laid a hand on his blaster. Someone on this bridge would be watching him. “Commander Skywalker,” he called, sliding off the safety. “I must warn you of something. Any contact you have with humans endangers their lives. Nereus ordered me specifically to ensure that you did not return to Bakura. He says you now carry some kind of infestation or plague.”
“I’ve taken care of that,” Skywalker’s voice answered, “before it could spread. Remember, I am a Jedi.”
He should have expected that. Still, Skywalker’s voice sounded weak. “Truly? Or is that just for show?”
“I’m on board the Falcon with my closest friends. I wouldn’t be here if I had any doubt.”
Thanas glanced around the bridge. “Very well. If I surrendered the Dominant to you—”
Motion caught his peripheral vision. A crewman sprang to his feet, lunging for his belt. Thanas spun and stunned him: the Imperial Security plant, here to make certain the warship didn’t fall into enemy hands.
“Commander Thanas?” asked Skywalker’s voice. “Are you there?”
“Slight distraction. If I surrendered the Dominant, would you guarantee that you will release my crew members, who conducted this battle under my orders?”
“Yes,” Skywalker said hoarsely. “We’ll send all Imperial personnel to a neutral pickup point, and let them return to their homes—unless any want to defect. You must give each one that choice.”
“I can’t do that.”
“I’ll arrange it.”
Thanas gripped a railing. What kind of traitor handed over Imperial property and gave Imperial personnel the chance to jump ship?
The kind of traitor who still owed Talz slave miners a debt he could never repay. Perhaps the Alliance would be more lenient than that colonel had been back at Alzoc III. “Done,” said Thanas. “Take me to the Alliance and deal with me as you will.”
Skywalker exhaled