soon drowned out by the growling purr of the shuttles'
repulsorlift engines.
Chewbacca raised the heavily armed ship off the
floor and guided it down the launching corridor.
Atmosphere — containment fields sealed behind them just
before the heavy launch doors opened into space like a
huge vertical mouth.
Threepio linked up to the guidance computers and the
directional programming of all five assault
shuttles. Behind them identical vehicles flew
in a tight formation, picking up speed. "This is rather
exhilarating," Threepio said.
Chewbacca punched at the controls until the
shuttle rocketed like a projectile through the
launch doors and away from the Installation's
protective shield.
Above, swarms of starfighters streamed from the
Corellian corvettes. The frigate
Yavaris began to fire on the Star Destroyer
as Daala continued to rain turbolaser bolts upon
the Installation. From the lower bay doors of the
Gorgon, squads of TIE fighters streaked
out like spooked mynocks from a cave.
Chewbacca powered up his weapons systems, and
Threepio linked into theirthe preprogrammed attack
patterns. The five assault shuttles from
Maw Installation plunged into the heart of the
burgeoning space battle.
"Oh, my!" Threepio said.
When Leia answered the summons at the door
to her quarters in the rebuilt Imperial
Palace, she saw it was the deepest hour of the
bustling night. For a moment she had a thrilled
thought, that Han might have come back from Kessel
already. But when she rubbed sleep from her eyes and
opened the door, she found her brother Luke standing
there. She paused a moment, utterly astonished,
and then rushed forward to embrace him.
"Luke! When did you come to Coruscant?"
Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of
another young man standing off to the side in the dim
corridor. She recognized the tousled dark
hair of Kyp Durron; his eyes were deep — set
and averted, no longer the brash teenager
that Han had rescued from the spice mines of
Kessel.
"Oh, Kyp," she said in a flat,
unemotional voice. Seeing the young man unnerved
her. He had been Han's dear friend, a
companion through enjoyable adventures — but Kyp had
also gone over to the dark side, paralyzed Luke,
killed millions of people, turned on Han. ...
Kyp's face and eyes looked old now,
exhausted from the traumas he had endured — and
caused. Leia had seen eyes like those only
once before: on her brother after he had faced the knowledge
that Darth Vader was his own father. But Kyp had been
through a hell as deep as Luke's had been.
A small courier droid shot down the hall,
blinking red lights to warn others to clear the way as
it propelled itself along on urgent business,
even this late at night.
With a flush of embarrassment Leia remembered
her manners. "Please, come in."
From the back room Winter emerged, gliding
forward on silent bare feet, wearing only a
loose sleeping garment. Winter appeared ready for
action lest some other danger throw itself upon the children.
She bowed her head formally when she saw Luke.
"Greetings, Master Skywalker," she said.
Luke smiled and nodded to her. "Hello,
Winter."
Winter backed into her chambers. "I'll just
check on the children," she said. She vanished, giving
them no chance to say anything else.
Leia looked from Kyp to Luke again, feeling
deep weariness behind her eyes, behind her head. She
had been relying on too many stimulant drinks,
spending too much time negotiating with other
Council members, sleeping too little.
Luke closed the door behind him as he and Kyp
entered the common room. Leia remembered when her
brother had trained her in this room, trying
to unlock her Jedi potential. Now, though, she
sensed that Luke had a much more ominous agenda.
"Is Han here?" Kyp blurted, looking
around the quarters.
Leia noticed that he still wore the black
cape Han had given him as a gift; but now
light jumpsuit, a reminder to himself of what he
could become.
"He's gone off to Kessel with Lando,"
Leia said, a tired smile tugging at
the corners of her mouth. "Lando wants to try
running the spice mines."
Kyp frowned uncertainly. Luke sat down
on one of the self — conforming cushions and leaned
forward, weaving his fingers together. He directed his
intense gaze at Leia. "Leia, we need your
help," he said.
"Yeah, I figured that out," Leia answered
with a touch of irony. "I'll do everything I can, of
course. What do you need?"
"Kyp and I have ... made our peace. He
has the potential to be the greatest of the Jedi I
am training, but there's one thing he must do before I can
consider him completely absolved."
Leia swallowed, already afraid of what he
might say. "And what is this "one thing"?"
Luke did not flinch. "The Sun Crusher must
be destroyed. Everyone in the New Republic
knows that. But Kyp must do it himself."
Leia simply blinked, unable to say anything.
"But ... how can he destroy it?" she finally said.
"As far as we know, it's indestructible. We
already dropped it into a gas planet's core, but
Kyp" — she turned her exaggerated gaze on the
young man — "managed to retrieve it. I don't
suppose even dropping it into a sun would have made
much difference."
Kyp shook his head. "No, I could have
recovered it just as easily."
Leia looked helplessly at Luke,
spreading her hands. "So what else?"
"Kyp and I will fly the Sun Crusher back
to the Maw. He will set the autopilot and drop
it down one of the black holes. Quantum armor
or no quantum armor, it will be obliterated.
There's no more definite way of erasing something from
this universe."
Kyp piped up. "I know the Sun Crusher
must be taken away from both the Empire and the New
Republic. I ... Dr. Xux no longer
has any memory of how to reconstruct it. The
galaxy will never need to fear such a threat again."
His posture stiffened, his chin rose, his eyes
grew alive again. The guilt and pain were
replaced with a look of pride and determination.
Luke placed a hand on the young man's forearm,
and Kyp fell silent, content to let Luke
continue.
"Leia, I know you've been appointed the new
Chief of State. You can make this
happen." He leaned forward, speaking to her with the
idealistic, boyish energy she remembered from
&nbs
p; years before. "You know I'm right."
Leia shook her head, already afraid of the
enormous diplomatic battle she would have
to face at the mere mention of Luke's
preposterous request.
"There'll be a lot of heated discussion. Most
of the Council members are going to refuse to let
Kyp get within sight of the Sun Crusher again.
What's to stop him from rampaging around the galaxy
and blowing up more star systems? Can they take that
risk? Can we?"
"They have to take that risk," Luke said. "It
must be done. And I'll be there with him."
Leia bit her lip. Her brother could be so
forceful. She knew him well enough that she wasn't
simply awed by what the Jedi could do ... but she was
confident that Luke could follow through on his claim.
"Do you know what you're asking?" she said in a
soft, pleading voice.
"Leia, just as I had to face our father, this is
a test Kyp must complete. Tell the Council
that if he passes this test successfully, Kyp
Durron could become the most powerful Jedi
Knight of this generation."
Leia sighed and stood up. "All right.
I'll try — was
Kyp interrupted her and said, "There is no
try: do or do not." Then he allowed himself a wry
smile, gesturing toward Luke. "At least that's
what he always says."
Han Solo gritted his teeth as he yanked
on the Falcon's controls. The modified
light freighter flew up and around in a tight
backward loop. The blinding flash of the Death
Star's superlaser faded to a glowing streak as the
rubble of Kessel's moon mushroomed in a
rapidly expanding cloud.
"That was gonna be my garrison!" Lando
cried. His voice cracked. "First Moruth
Doole, now a Death Star — this deal is getting
worse all the time."
Mara Jade, her face hard as chiseled
stone, quickly leaned between Han and Lando in the two
cockpit seats and shouted into the comm unit. "This
is Mara Jade. All ships
report. How many did we lose? Did the
evacuation order go out on time?"
One of the cool — voiced Mistryl guards
responded. "Yes, Commander Jade," the
warrior woman said. "We scrambled at first
sign of the intruder. All but two ships made it
away from the base. One more was struck and destroyed
by the flying debris."
Mara nodded grimly. "Then we still have enough of a
fighting force," she said.
"Fighting force!" Han said. "Against that thing?
To do what? It's a Death Star, not a cargo
freighter." He looked through the overhead
viewport and saw the skeletal prototype
over Kessel. The superweapon seemed to be
brooding over the destruction it had just caused.
"But, Han," Lando pleaded, "we've got
to do something before it blows up the planet, too.
Think of all the spice down there."
Mara grabbed the comm again. "Attack formation
gamma," she said. "We're going to head out and
pound that Death Star." She turned to Han and
lowered her voice. "If it's just a prototype,
my guess is they won't have the defenses the real
Death Star had, no squadrons of TIE
fighters, no turbolaser fortifications across the
surface. That's what did the most damage to your
Rebel fleets, wasn't it?"
"Not entirely," Lando said. "The second
Death Star used its superlaser against a few of
our capital ships."
Mara pursed her lips as she thought. "Then
we'll just have to keep them busy. I don't think
that superlaser can be very effective at targeting
small moving objects."
"I don't like the odds on that," Lando said.
"Never quote me the odds," Han said,
hunching over the panel and guiding the ship
into position.
"Who, me?" Lando said, raising his eyebrows.
"I'm a sucker for lost causes."
The Millennium Falcon soared into the
vanguard of the smugglers' attack formation. Han
was impressed to see the assortment of large and
small ships fall into a perfect pattern, as
if they were trained and regimented. The motley
bunch must have a great deal of respect for Mara
Jade, he realized; as a rule, smugglers were
notoriously independent and took orders from no
one.
One of the other ships, an insectile Z — 95
Headhunter — the type of ship Mara herself often
flew — streaked in beside the Falcon. Its pilot
spoke over the open channel. "This is Kithra.
I'll take the right — hand prong, Shana will take
the left. You fly center, Falcon, and we'll
hit the Death Star in all three places at
once."
Han recognized the no — nonsense voice of
another Mistryl guard. How many had she brought
along with her?
"Agreed, Kithra," Mara said. She turned
to look at Han. "Well, Solo, ready
to lead the attack?"
"I never intended to take the Falcon against a
Death Star," he groaned, even as he prepared
for battle. "I was just giving Lando a lift
to Kessel."
"Think of it as an added bonus," Mara said.
"Come on, Han," Lando urged, "before that
Death Star fires again."
"Good thing Leia's not here," he muttered.
"She'd probably succeed in talking me out of
this."
As the ships converged on the skeletal
behemoth, the superlaser struck once more,
scorching the fabric of space with emerald fire
— comb the beam passed through the scattered ships
descending upon it, causing no damage.
"Shields up," Han said, "for whatever good
it'll do against that."
On either side of the Falcon two segments
of the smuggler fleet peeled off like the skin from a
rustle snake: one prong led by Kithra in her
Headhunter, the other headed by Shana in an
angular blockade runner, a clunkier
forerunner of the Falcon's light — freighter
design.
The smuggler ships drove in, energy
cannons blazing, drawing a deadly tracery of
fire across the superstructures and girders of the
enormous sphere.
Han launched three proton torpedoes into the
labyrinth of cross beams and supports as they
charged toward the emormous construction. A few
reinforced girders glowed molten as projectiles
and energy beams hit.
"It's going to take us a year to chop away at
this thing," Han said, firing from the Falcon's
forward weaponry.
"I never claimed this was going to be easy,"
Mara said.
Tol Sivron's head — tails twitched. He
squinted his black beady eyes at the oncoming
small ships. They appeared so trivial, their
weapons systems so minor. "I can't believe
they're attacking us," he said. "What do they
think th
ey're going to accomplish?"
At the tactical station the stormtrooper
captain spoke through his white helmet. "If I
might point out, Director, this battle station
is for proof — of — concept only. It was never
designed to defend itself against multiple small
threats. In fact, the Death Star was meant
to house over seven thousand TIE fighters, not
to mention thousands of surface turbolasers and ion
cannons and an escort of several
Imperial — class Star Destroyers. We have
none of these.
"Individually, those Rebel ships may be
only a minor threat, but together they can harry us for
an extended period and, if we are unlucky,
cause significant structural damage."
"You mean we don't have any fighters of our
own?" Tol Sivron said with stern disapproval.
"That was poor planning. Who wrote that section
of the procedure? I want to know right now."
"Director," the stormtrooper said with a tinge
of exasperation in his filtered voice, "that
doesn't matter at the moment."
"It matters to me!" Tol Sivron said.
He turned toward demon — faced Yemm, who was
already scouring the records.
"It appears that Dr. Qwi Xux was
responsible for that section, Director," Yemm
said. "She devoted much of her time to the operation and
performance of the superlaser, giving short shrift
to tactical considerations."
Sivron sighed. "I see we've found a
flaw in our approval system. Such weak
spots should never have been allowed to pass through the
progress reports and review meetings."
"Director," Doxin said, "let us not allow
this to overshadow the marvelous performance of the Death
Star superlaser itself."
"Agreed, agreed," Sivron said. "We should
have a meeting immediately to discuss the implications
of — was
The stormtrooper captain stood up
from his station. "Director, we must establish
certain priorities right now! We are under
attack."
An outside explosion made the Death Star
framework around the control chamber vibrate.
"That's three direct hits with proton
torpedoes," the stormtrooper said. "So far."
As Sivron watched, four Z — 95
Headhunters swooped out of the superstructure,
their rear engines blazing.
"Well, then fire again with our laser," Tol
Sivron said. "Maybe we can hit one of them this
time."
"The power core is only half — charged,"