Apocalypse (12 page)

“Correct.” Tenel Ka smiled a silent thanks to Han, then checked the tactical display to find the Battle Dragon closest to the transport. “Trista, have the
Daphoros
execute a tractor beam capture of Sharmok seven-eighteen as soon as the engines have been disabled, then send a boarding company to retake—”

“If I may, Your Majesty,” Kam said, interrupting as politely as possible. “Given the Sith involvement, it might be wise for me to take some Jedi along.”

“Excellent point, Master Solusar,” Tenel Ka said, feeling a pang of regret that she could not join the Jedi Knights going to fight the Sith. “Trista, inform the
Daphoros
that Master Solusar will be joining the boarding company as its commander. And suggest to the Lady Commander that she send her best assault team on this mission.”

As Tenel Ka spoke, she kept one eye on the tactical display, watching as Volgh Leader and her wingmate came in for their attack run. Rather than dropping back behind the target and risking an engine detonation by firing directly up the thrust nozzles, the Miy’tils were swinging in from the flank. For a moment, as the Sharmok continued toward the
Dragon Queen II
without altering her vector, Tenel Ka began to think Han might be wrong, that perhaps 718 had merely lost her Hapan crew and was now being piloted by some terrified Jedi apprentice.

But half a second before the Miy’tils opened fire, the transport’s designator symbol jerked left as the pilot took evasive action. The first
Miy’til symbol flashed white as the starfighter opened fire, then shot past without a hit. The wingmate opened fire in the next heartbeat, and the Sharmok’s color changed to yellow, for “damaged.” Sighing in relief, Tenel Ka switched her attention to the visual display and saw only whirling stars as Volgh Leader wheeled back around toward the target.

“Report,” Tenel Ka ordered. “Did they disable the engines?”

“Patience, Majesty,” Trista said. “They need time to evaluate.”

Taking her cousin’s gentle chide in stride
—someone
had to keep her humble, after all—Tenel Ka fixed her gaze on the visual display, hardly daring to breathe as stars whirled past. Finally, the Sharmok’s ion tail drifted into view, flickering and flashing as her sublight drives flamed out. By the time the entire stern appeared, the last engine had stopped, and the image showed only a trio of red-hot exhaust nozzles.

Tenel Ka let her breath out—and the screen went white with a detonation flash. She felt a terrible ripping in the Force and heard her Jedi companions gasping in shock—then she heard a small, frightened cry and knew her daughter had felt it, too, the searing pain of three hundred lives coming to a single end.

Tenel Ka pivoted around and knelt before Allana, folding her into her embrace. “Come here.”

Allana remained limp in her arms. “I felt them end,” she said. “I felt them—”

“I know, sweetheart.” Tenel Ka resisted the temptation to tell her daughter not to think about it, because she knew that was impossible. No one could feel the deaths of several hundred people and simply forget about it—especially not a nine-year-old girl. “The Sharmok’s ion drives must have taken a critical—”

“No way,” Han said from behind Tenel Ka. “That was no engine blast. Engine blasts don’t take out whole starfighter squadrons.”

“What?” Tenel Ka craned her neck, but did not rise to look. Allana needed to be held right now. “We lost Volgh Squadron? How much of it?”

“All of it,” Han reported. “The blast radius was three kilometers. They don’t make ion drives big enough to cause that kind of blast. Had to be baradium—a
lot
of it. That ship was rigged.”

Allana looked over Tenel Ka’s shoulder. “You mean the Sith did it?”
she asked. “They blew everyone up because we wouldn’t let them aboard?”

Han’s face grew sad. “Yeah, sweetheart, that’s what I mean.” His gaze shifted from Allana to Tenel Ka. “That bomb was meant for the Queen Mother.”

Allana’s posture grew rigid. “They were trying to trick us?” She slipped free of Tenel Ka’s embrace and looked her in the eye. “Again?”

Tenel Ka nodded. “That’s what Sith do,” she said. “That’s why we need to be so careful around them.”

As Tenel Ka spoke, Leia approached from the corner of the salon. Her expression was calm, but the concern in her Force aura suggested that she had felt the deaths as clearly as the others. She took one look at the somber faces gathered around the console and dropped her gaze in sorrow.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

“They captured Sharmok seven-eighteen.” Tionne’s voice was filled with grief. “It appears they were trying to use it to sneak a baradium device aboard the flagship … to eliminate Queen Mother Tenel Ka.”

Leia’s eyes flashed, and she could not help glancing in Allana’s direction. Like Tenel Ka, the Solos had been warned by the Skywalkers about what had happened at the Pool of Knowledge, when a Sith High Lord had seen an image of a Jedi queen sitting on the Throne of Balance. Obsessed with preventing the vision, the Sith believed Tenel Ka to be that queen, and their mistake had resulted in a series of misguided assassination attempts. It was a burden she gladly carried in order to protect her daughter.

After a moment, Leia said, “We should certainly count ourselves fortunate they didn’t succeed.” She stepped around the console and began to study the tactical display. “But I can’t help thinking of the passengers—of all those students and their families. Do we know for sure they were aboard?”

“Yeah, we do,” Han said. “Seven-eighteen was just ahead of us when we launched, and it wasn’t far behind when we landed. The Sith didn’t have time to off-load three hundred prisoners—even if they had wanted to.”

Kam nodded. “My guess is the whole blastboat attack was designed to cut a transport out of the convoy and conceal a bomb on it,” he
said. “Still, there were over two dozen students aboard who were old enough to put up a fight. The Sith would have needed a sizable force to capture their target so quickly, and we don’t actually know who died on that Sharmok.”

“Right. The bomb might have been Plan B.” Han paused and glanced in Allana’s direction, then apparently decided there was no need to spell out the possible alternative—that the Sith’s Plan A had been to land an elite boarding company and capture the
Dragon Queen II
for their navy. He turned to Tenel Ka and said, “It wouldn’t hurt to have someone check along seven-eighteen’s trajectory to see what they find.”

“Are you trying to be clever again?” Allana asked, looking at Han. “Because I know what you’re saying—that they might have dumped the passengers out an air lock.”

“It’s certainly worth checking,” Tenel Ka said. She nodded to her cousin. “Trista will see to it.”

Trista acknowledged the order with a quick nod and began to speak into her throat-mike. When Tenel Ka turned back to her daughter, she found Allana looking more worried than ever.

“There’s nothing to fear,” Tenel Ka said. “That Sharmok was never going to come aboard. That’s why we have Royal Protocol.”

“I’m not worrying about
us
,” Allana said. “It’s the Barabels. The Sith just killed almost thirty Jedi and their families, and pretty soon they’re going to kill Tesar and his—”

Her eyes went wide, and she ended the sentence without finishing the thought. Instead, she turned toward Leia. “Does Master Sebatyne understand about my vision?”

Leia’s expression grew apologetic, and she shook her head. “I don’t think so. She seemed to be, well,
hunting
, and when I tried to make her think of Tesar, she just withdrew. I was trying to reach her again when …” She finished with a glance toward the console, then added, “I don’t think it’s going to work.”

“It doesn’t sound like it,” Allana agreed. Her face grew serious, then she said, “I guess I have to do this myself.”

Leia’s brow rose. “Do
what
yourself?”

“Go to Coruscant,” Allana said simply. She turned to Han. “How soon can you have the
Falcon
repaired?”

Han scowled. “Never, if you’re expecting to fly to Coruscant in it,” he said. “Haven’t you heard? The place is crawling with Sith.”

“We won’t be there long,” Allana said. “All I need to do is find Barv.
He
can warn Tesar.”

Han looked relieved. “Why didn’t you say so?
I
can find Barv. What’s the message?”

“That I need to speak to him,” Allana said. “Aboard the
Falcon
.”

Han shook his head. “No way,” he said. “You’re wasting your breath, kid. The message or nothing.”

Allana scowled at Han for a moment, then exhaled sharply and turned to Leia. “He doesn’t understand,” she said. “This is about the Force. I have to warn Tesar myself.”

“Isn’t Tesar hiding inside the Temple?” Leia asked.

Allana looked more worried than ever. “I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to,” Leia said. “It’s rather obvious, now that I’ve had a chance to put everything together.”

Allana looked crestfallen. “You mean I let their secret out?”

“Not at all,” Tionne said. Her voice was warm and comforting, and Tenel Ka could tell she was using the Force to help calm Allana. “The Masters have suspected there’s a nest for quite some time.”

“And that has
nothing
to do with you,” Kam assured her. “Tesar and the other young Barabels disappeared months ago, and Master Sebatyne has been
very
touchy about the subject. We’d have to be fools not to figure it out.”

“But only you and Barv know where to find the nest, right?” Tenel Ka asked. “So you haven’t betrayed the Barabels’ trust at all.”

“She’s right, Allana,” Leia said. “And we’ll make sure Barv explains that when we sneak him into the Temple to warn the Barabels. No one will be angry with you, I promise.”

Allana frowned. “What if you can’t find Barv?”

“We’ll find him,” Han said. “We’re good at that sort of thing, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“What if Barv is dead?” Allana countered. “The place is crawling with Sith, and he’s fighting them—probably a lot of them, as big as he is.”

Han’s face went blank, and Leia looked at him with a she’s-got-you-there expression.

“You see?” Allana insisted. “Bringing me is the only way to be sure.”

Han’s expression only hardened. “Then we’re just gonna have to gamble,” he said. “Because you’re not coming. That’s final.”

Allana rolled her eyes, then turned to Tenel Ka. “Tell him,” she said. “It’s my Force vision, and that means
I
have to decide what to do about it.”

“Perhaps, but it’s Captain Solo’s ship, and that means only he decides who flies on it,” Tenel Ka said. “Why don’t we give your guardians a chance to handle this? I really do think it’s for the best.”

Allana gave Tenel Ka such a look of betrayal that it made her heart ache, and then the little girl turned to Leia with beseeching eyes.

Leia merely shrugged. “Han said final. You know what that means.”

“Yes, I do.” Allana fixed an exasperated glare on Han, then said, “It means he’s being a ronto-head.”

“Fine,” Han retorted. “I’m a ronto-head. And you’re still not coming.”

“Fine.” She spun away from him and started for the chairs in the corner. “But don’t blame me if Tesar bites your arm off. He doesn’t like ronto-heads, either.”

L
UKE STOOD WATCHING THE OLD
B
OTHAN LIMP BACK AND FORTH
across the grimy floor of the undercity industrial hangar. The Bothan was addressing three brigades of elite space marines, explaining why he had asked them to volunteer for a mission to overthrow the Galactic Alliance’s current Chief of State, Roki Kem. Whether human, Bothan, or another species, all of the soldiers had the steady gaze of veterans who had seen too much to doubt their commander’s incredible story of infiltration and deception. Their shoulder patches represented units from a hundred different vessels stationed near Coruscant, and their average age skewed ten standard years older than that of a typical combat unit. And they all had at least two things in common: they had all served aboard a ship personally commanded by Admiral Nek Bwua’tu, and when he had commed to ask them to help him save the Galactic Alliance, they had all answered with an unwavering yes.

“… the enemy has retreated into the Jedi Temple with seventy-five percent of its forces.” The admiral’s words seemed to reverberate from every corner of the hangar as a small mike in his tunic collar relayed his
voice to a network of speakers spaced throughout the formation. “This withdrawal is certainly a trap, designed to lure our Jedi friends into an ambush against a superior Sith force …”

Luke turned to another Bothan standing at his side, Admiral Bwua’tu’s dapper uncle, Eramuth. “To tell the truth, Counselor, I’m not sure why you waited for the Jedi to return,” he said quietly. “Club Bwua’tu seems to have the war well in hand without us.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t figured that out by now, Master Skywalker,” Eramuth replied, maintaining a straight face. “We needed the cannon fodder.”

“Cannon fodder?” Luke echoed, almost taking the old Bothan seriously. “You couldn’t have hired Mandalorians?”