Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 10_ Jedi Bounty - Kevin J. Anderson [58]
"It's hard coming back here," Lusa said, trying to maintain her balance on all four hooves as the ship rolled from side to side. "Nolaa Tarkona knows I betrayed her. The Diversity Alliance won't hesitate to kill me."
"Then we won't give them the chance," Zekk said grimly.
"She's already sent an assassin to kill you on Yavin 4, and he failed,"
Master Skywalker pointed out, looking at the centaur girl with understanding.
"Sometimes we have to face our fears."
"My fears keep coming after me," Lusa said.
"And now they're trying to hurt my friends."
Zekk dodged and rolled, pirouetting experimentally in space. Then, satisfied that the Lightning Rod was ready, he dove toward the mountain range at the terminator between day and night. "Let's just hope we make it down there without running into much resistance," he said, and powered up his weapons systems.
Two sentry cruisers homed in on the rapidly approaching intruder. Zekk recognized a Hornet Interceptor and a stripped-down Lancer frigate emblazoned with alien langnage glyphs. "Unidentified ship, you are trespassing in airspace held by the Diversity Alliance. You are not welcome in this system. If you do not depart immediately, you will be destroyed."
"Yeah, right," Zekk muttered. '°Iy me." Alarms sounded on his control panel, but he ignored them. Without acknowledging, he raced straight at the sentry ships and opened fire.
"They aren't prepared for any resistance yet," Luke said, his eyes half closed in concentration.
"Their minds are too... complacent."
The sentry cruisers began to activate their weapons systems and power up their shields.
Suddenly aware of their danger, both craft spun out of the way and arched upward, but not before the Lightning Rod's rapid, low-power blaster bolts scored some important hits.
"Hah! Right in the sensors," Zekk crowed. He clapped his hands in triumph. "They're blind now until they can reset their systems."
"Leave them, then," Luke said. "We need to hurry. I sense that Jacen and Jaina are in trouble."
Lusa braced herself. The Lightning Rod scraped into the atmosphere while the two Diversity Alliance sentry vessels spun about.
Disoriented in space, the two ships drifted so close to each other that they nearly collided before their respective commanders regained control.
Zekk roared down to cloud level, where huge tornadolike heat storms spawned by the temperature discontinuity between the frigid night side and the hot day side buffeted the ship. The wind currents knocked the Lightning Rod back and forth, but Lusa knew where they had to go.
With terse accuracy, she directed Zekk toward the section of mountain range that held the tunnels controlled by Nolaa Tarkona.
"I spent plenty of time there," Lusa said,. her crystalline horns glimmering. The muscles in her back rippled as she paced the deck and snorted uneasily. "I never thought I'd go back willingly. But this is for my friends."
"That's why it's an important step in your healing process," Master Skywalker said.
Lusa nodded. "For my friends...," she repeated.
"Hang on," Zekk said. "I'm increasing speed.
Those sentry cruisers are trying to sound an alarm." The Lightning Rod soared straight along the day side slopes of the mountain range.
On the open channel Zekk heard a strident warning being transmitted now that one of the ships had managed to get its main generators back on-line--but no one responded. Perhaps the Diversity Alliance was already too busy with its own emergencies.
Lusa pressed her face against the sloped trans-paristeel of the cockpit windows. "Look--down there on the mountainside!" she said. '%Vhat are those lights?"
Zekk frowned and studied the area the centaur girl had pointed to.
"Looks like blaster fire."
"And a lightsaber," Master Skywalker added.
"Somebody's fighting down there."
"It's Jaina!" Zekk said with absolute certainty.
"Hold on down there, we're on our way!"