Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 13_ Trouble on Cloud City - Kevin J. Anderson [53]
Jacen kept looking for any hint of movement, any dark forms around the cloud-but he noticed nothing.
"What do you seek, Jacen, my friend?" Teriel Ka said.
"You'll see if I find it."
After the lightning blast, the patrol car behind them spun out of control, losing ground for several moments until the pilot managed to get back on course. In frustration, the Wing Guard fired his laser cannons five more times, but all of the shots went wide and disappeared harmlessly into the dark depths of the cloud.
Heavy winds jounced them from side to side as if invisible hands were playing a drumbeat against their cloud skimmer. Suddenly, Jacen hit a pressure differential, and their scarlet cloud car plummeted like a stone until another air current buoyed them up.
Jacen gripped the controls, feeling the blood drain from his face, Tenel Ka sat stoically through it all.
With a surge of engine power the sleek black patrol craft careened in behind them, weapons blazing once more. Jacen took a chance-an extraordinary chance-hooking left to are around the gigantic storm system. He plunged into an outcropping of dark mist and dove into a knot of thunder clouds, hoping to lose himself in them.
Opaque mist flew in his face, acrid-smelling from the gaseous chemicals deep in Bespin's cloud layers. Unable to see, he was glad at least to know there were probably no obstacles with which he could collide in the open sky.
Thunder rumbled deep in the main mass of the cloud like boulders cracking together-but behind it, he could hear the hum and roar of the high-powered pursuit craft.
"They are still following us," Tenel Ka said.
"Maybe we can lose them with some fancy flying," Jacen said, but he knew that was a slim hope. The attackers charged in, following the engine noise of the scarlet cloud car.
As he drove farther through the fringe of the thunderstorm, the mists parted in front of him, and he burst into open sky on the far side of the thunderhead.
Right into the middle of a pack of predatory velsers.
Startled, the chevron-shaped flying creatures soared about, wheeling like razor-winged hawkbats, darting along the edge of the powerful storm as if they fed on lightning discharges.
The creatures were huge, sleek, and affnored, like living attack craft.
When Jacen's cloud car burst in among them, they swirled around like angry piranha beetles. Within moments, they had formed into a squadron intent on attacking the intruder.
Tenel Ka unbuckled her seat restraint and whipped out her lightsaber again. The velsers were black, their skin tough and layered with tiny scales. Jacen saw no eyes, only sleek skinplates, smooth heads at the apex of sharp wings. But as the cloud car dove underneath the outer edge of velsers, Jacen saw that their underbodies consisted of rows and rows of jagged mouths, lampreylike teeth with suckers to anchor themselves, and grinding jaws that could rip any prey to shreds.
"This was your intention, Jacen?" Tenel Ka said, alarmed.
"I was hoping they'd be nicer." He spun the craft about to fly between two ferocious velsers. The creatures collided in the air, then began attacking each other.
Tenel Ka reached up with her lightsaber, using the blazing tip of her turquoise blade to slash the side of one velser that dove toward their cloud car. Its skin ripped open and volatile gases spilled out, sparking and flashing in the flame of the lightsaber. Unable to keep flying, the velser spun out of control; the other creatures fell upon it.
Tenel Ka parried again, ripping open the mouth-filled belly of a second attacking creature. For an instant the velsers drew back, intimidated.
But only for an instant.
Another creature dive-bombed toward them, rows of mouths clacking, teeth gnashing, ready to shred either the scarlet metal of the cloud car or the soft flesh of the young Jedi Knights.
Jacen concentrated