Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [131]
Hurriedly he made his way to the bridge, where he stood for a moment in the hatchway and watched a bustle of activity.
It looked foreign, but not hostile. It was only a place built of metals and plastics. Yet the ship’s very bulkheads seemed haunted with Dev’s long deception and his years of servitude, and with the slaved human energies Luke had liberated.
Light endured, and so did darkness. He would choose daily.
Luke walked the cruiser from top to bottom. When he finished, three hours later, he left with a clear conscience. No captive human energies remained.
Han pressed one finger to his ear and waved Luke to a seat behind Chewbacca. Once his hand dropped, he growled at Chewie, “I don’t care what you were doing. Recording circuits ought to be on at all times.”
Chewie clanged a bulkhead with his spanner. Evidently the often-modified Falcon was up to her old tricks.
“What is it?” Still standing, Luke waded into the argument.
“Subspace radio, relayed from maximum range. From Ackbar, too, coded. I had to decode as it came in, since Furball here disengaged the automatic—”
“Ackbar?” Leia set a hand on Luke’s shoulder. He touched it, grateful for her consolation.
“Yeah,” drawled Han. “Something about ‘Imperial battle group,’ something something ‘small,’ and ‘quickly if we can.’ ”
“We scattered so many of them, back at Endor.” Leia leaned forward. “Ackbar’s scouts have probably found a group he thinks we could handle. The Empire is still vast. We must maintain the momentum of their downslide.”
“Well, then,” said Luke, “time to head back. After …?” He glanced down at Han for confirmation.
“Oh, yeah. Sure, kid,” Han mumbled. “Might as well strap in, Leia. Luke has business to finish. It’ll just take a minute.”
“Now, Mistress Leia,” Threepio called over the comlink from his post with Artoo at the gaming table. “Let me tell you how I arrived at the Falcon, dressed in stormtrooper armor …”
Luke made his way to the primary airlock, where Chewbacca had carried Dev’s body. Sorrowfully, he reached down and brushed Gaeri’s feather-soft shawl with his fingertips. Chewbacca had wrapped it tightly around Dev’s head and shoulders, after swathing the rest of him in an old blanket. He’d lost them both, Gaeriel and Dev … yet both had touched and taught him. Both would live in his memory. “Thanks,” he whispered.
“Ready, Luke?” Leia asked softly over the comlink.
Luke backed out of the airlock. Automatically it hissed shut behind him. “Wait a minute,” he told her. He hurried back to the cockpit and stared out the main viewport.
Leia clasped his hand. Han pulled the hatch release, then reversed lateral thrusters. As the Falcon accelerated heavenward, Dev’s body plummeted toward Bakura. It finished burning, clean and brightly, down through the planet’s high atmosphere.
Luke stared at the meteor, a momentary flare of brilliance … like all life. Nothing really, in the sweep of time. But everything, in the Force.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kathy Tyers, author of the New York Times bestselling Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura, has contributed several other stories to the Star Wars universe, including We Don’t Do Weddings: The Band’s Tale and A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola’s Tale. She has recently published new editions of her first two science fiction novels, Firebird and Fusion Fire, and a new Firebird novel, Crown of Fire. Born in Long Beach, California, Kathy Tyers lives in southwestern Montana with her husband, Mark. They have one son.
By Kathy Tyers
FIREBIRD
FUSION FIRE
CRYSTAL WITNESS
SHIVERING WORLD
STAR WARS: THE TRUCE AT BAKURA
ONE MIND’S EYE
CROWN OF FIRE
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