Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 12_ Return to Ord Mantell - Kevin J. Anderson [13]
"Dad, you're already close to the red lines," Jaina warned.
"And close to beating my record, too. Let's keep on with it, but keep your Jedi senses alert for anything unexpected."
"We will," Jacen said with conviction.
"We always do," Anakin added.
The ice boulders spun around as they whipped through a denser orbit.
Jaina spotted holocam buoys mounted on some of the ice chunks, and she knew that thousands of spectators on Ord Mantell were even now watching their flight. By now everyone would see that Han Solo was recklessly trying to break his speed record, and that his kids were helping him.
Jaina smiled to herself. She would just have to make sure her father didn't get embarrassed.
"Let's tighten the course," she said, looking at the projection.
"Gravity calculations show we could come even closer to that next comet, make a sharper turn to shave off a bit of distance here and increase our speed, whip around this hazard, come out in a backward spiral, and pull up."
"Yeah. That might make just enough difference," Han said with a grin.
They soared so close to the rotating ball of ice that Jaina could have extended the landing ramp and scraped a long gouge across the ice field.
"This is just like when we ran through the rubble field of Alderean,"
Jacen said.
Ahead, four large fragments drifted close together where one comet had broken into loosely attached boulders. Han narrowed his eyes, and Jaina scanned the motion of the chunks.
Anakin watched them intently. "I see the patterns" he said. "We can go straight through-if you time it right."
"At full speed?" Han said.
"You're going to have to," Anakin answered.
Han roared ahead, straight toward the apparent blockade, but Jaina could see the comets moving, opening up. She saw the gap spreading and wondered if it would be wide enough to allow their ship to pass through.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jacen said. Jaina thought her brother was making a joke with their father's oft-used phrase, but as they approached the broken comet, she felt uneasiness herself.
"Yes, something's wrong," Anakin said.
Jaina watched the fragments moving, plotted their course again. It would be tight, but it seemed clear they would make it. The ship entered the slowly opening gap between rocky mountains of snow. Their deflector shield sizzled, vaporizing some of the snow and ice away from the broken comet.
"If you're worried about something, kids, tell me now."
"It's not the comet, Dad," Jaina said. "It's..." Then she looked up at the enhanced infrared filter and saw an array of small artificial objects, a matrix of tiny spheres, hovering just outside of the broken cometary hulk.
"Hey, what are those?" Jacen said.
"Space mines," Anakin answered in a maddeningly calm voice.
"Punch it, Dad!" Jaina cried. Han Solo reacted instantly, hammering at the emergency thrusters. The Falcon was already sailing at twice the expected speed for the pace craft, and now it went into an overdrive launch.
Jaina grabbed the navigation controls herself and yanked the ship to one side, putting the Falcon into a tight corkscrew that plowed through the array of space mines like a drill bit. They zoomed by so fast Jaina barely caught a glimpse of the deadly explosive devices as the cluster detonated.
The Falcon roared away as fast as the shock wave accelerated toward them.
Fourteen of the space mines blew up behind them. Jaina could count them through the rear sensor screens. When it struck, the shock wave knocked them about, but they were already tumbling. The Falcon narrowly missed another large comet as Jaina regained control in the copilot's seat.
"Space mines!" Han cried. "How did they get out here? This is the Derby course! It's supposed to be completely mapped and checked out before anyone ever flies it."
The Falcon slowed, recovering, and Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin all looked at each other. Han gasped, "If we hadn't been traveling so fast,