“Remember, you’re supposed to be training me,” Tahiri commented as she and Corran moved to stand back to back. “What does the wise Jedi do in a situation like this?” The warriors were advancing toward them in a tightening circle. In the distance, near where the tops of the field guides could be seen, the sky was a mass of white vapor.
“The wise Jedi avoids situations like this,” Corran said.
“Oh,” Tahiri said. “I don’t guess I know any wise Jedi, then. Very disillusioning.”
She counted thirty warriors.
“Right,” Corran said. “And that’s your lesson for the day—don’t hang on to your illusions.”
“I was hoping more for a crash course in ‘how to kick butt when you’re outnumbered thirty to two.’ ”
“Well, if you’re going to be picky about what I teach …”
“Quickly!” Nom Anor shouted, from near the ship. “There is little time.”
The circle contracted more rapidly. The ground trembled again, and pain pulsed through the Force. Pain and something else—something familiar.
She hadn’t had time to sort it out when a track of green laserfire ran through the warriors on their right flank, then their left, and suddenly a gleaming spacecraft come into view. It dropped to hover a few meters off the ground.
“Jade Shadow!” Corran whooped. “It’s Mara and Luke!”
Even as he said it, the landing ramp dropped down, and Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo leapt out, followed by the hulking reptilian figure of Saba Sebatyne. Three new lightsabers flared to life. Then the Shadow leapt back up, turned, and began raining fire on the Yuuzhan Vong craft.
The remaining warriors shook off their stupor and charged, but Tahiri ignored them, tearing through one of the gaps cut by the Shadow. Nom Anor wasn’t watching her—instead he was dodging laserfire, trying to reach the landing ramp of the Yuuzhan Vong ship. He made it there only a few meters ahead of her, but as soon as he was on it, it began to retract.
With a war cry, she hurled herself through the air, landing on the ramp, sweeping her lightsaber toward the executor’s head.
Nom Anor ducked at the last instant and her lightsaber cut into the coral hull. He scrambled away from her, and she started to follow, but the ship suddenly bounded up from the ground, twisting as it went. Tahiri lost her footing and fell. She grasped at the edge of the retracting ramp and missed, but caught the edge of a plasma cannon with her left hand. Furiously, she cut at the hull with her lightsaber. It resisted the blow, and her weight suddenly tripled as the ship went into drive. She lost her grip and went whirling back to the ground, landing so hard all of the wind went out of her. She lay there, trying to recover, watching helplessly as the yorik coral vessel bored up through the atmosphere with Jade Shadow in hot pursuit.
Another wrenching wave of pain from the planet lashed at her, and again the ground shifted. Wheezing, she forced herself to her feet.
Corran, Luke, and Jacen were trotting toward her. Saba was standing at the edge of the clearing, staring out at the towers. The Yuuzhan Vong warriors all appeared to be dead.
“Tahiri,” Jacen asked. “Are you okay?”
“Nothing broken, I think,” she said.
He wrapped her up in an embrace that hurt almost as much as it felt good. Tears threatened again.
“I let him get away,” she murmured. “After all that, I let him get away. And now Sekot will die.”
“Die?” Master Skywalker said. “Do you two understand what’s going on here? What’s wrong with Sekot?”
Over Jacen’s shoulder, Tahiri saw a shaft of blue light suddenly leap from ground to sky, appearing from somewhere near the hyperdrive. It lasted only a second.
“Down!” Corran shouted. “Cover your ears.”
A heartbeat later, the shock wave came, followed by a wind so hot it scorched her back.
“What was that?” Jacen asked.
“The ship’s drive,” Corran explained. “Nom Anor must have sabotaged it somehow.”
“Nom Anor?” Master Skywalker said. “What—?”
“That’s a long story,” Corran said, “one that I would like to tell. But I don’t think I’m going to get the chance if we don’t get out of this area, and quickly.”
“Mara’s already on her way back,” Master Skywalker said.
By the time the Shadow dropped back low enough to pick them up, the surface of Zonama Sekot was vibrating like a plucked string, and in the Force, Tahiri could feel something building, something out of control. She followed the others aboard.
“I came back when I saw the plasma burst,” Mara said. “Is it a weapon?”
“No,” Luke said. “Get us out of here, Mara—fast.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“What about Nom Anor?” Tahiri asked.
“I alerted Widowmaker,” Mara said. “They should have enough firepower to deal with the Vong ship.”
The ground was dwindling, and the gigantic vanes of the hyperdrive were coming into view. The entire valley they stood in was black, and as she watched, three brilliant blue beams like the one they had seen a moment ago tore up through the atmosphere.
The shock wave hit, and the Shadow went into a crazy yaw, which Mara fought, cursing, into control.
“I appreciate the save,” Corran told Master Skywalker as the ship leveled out. “But how is it you just happened by?”
“We didn’t know it was you,” Luke said. “Sekot was in pain—we came here to find out what was wrong, and saw the Yuuzhan Vong ship.” He raised an eyebrow. “We were pretty surprised to find you here.”
“Right,” Corran said. “That explanation I promised you …”
Through the upward-angled cockpit view, Tahiri saw stars appearing as they left the atmosphere behind.
Then, abruptly, they streaked away.
Nom Anor was standing on the bridge of the transport vessel Red Qurang, watching the planet recede with a grim smile of satisfaction. Jade Shadow had broken off her pursuit.
“A large infidel ship is approaching,” one of the subalterns growled.
“It’s the Imperial frigate I mentioned to Shimrra,” Nom Anor said. “You were supposed to occupy it with your other ships.”
“There are no other ships,” Ushk Choka growled. “Lord Shimrra had need of them elsewhere.” He grimaced at the sight of the approaching ship. “It’s too large to engage,” he said. “Can we outrun it?”
“We will have to bear its first assault,” the subaltern said. “After that we can outrun. Its mass will prevent it changing its vector quickly enough to catch us before we burrow into darkspace.”
“Can we withstand?” Ushk Choka asked.
“Possibly,” the subaltern said dubiously.
“Maneuver evasively, then.”
Nom Anor was still watching the planet, feeling oddly calm, despite the danger he was in. He could still see where the hyperwave guides were by the boiling cloud, and as he watched, a brilliant blue cone suddenly appeared, then just as quickly vanished.
Something was wrong. The core was supposed to explode, not fire the engines. Had he failed? Was there something about Nen Yim’s protocol he hadn’t understood, or had he underestimated Sekot? Perhaps Skywalker and the other Jedi had managed to somehow reverse the damage he had caused.
The view swung away from the planet and was replaced by the night of space and a white wedge of abomination. It seemed Choka meant to run right into the warship’s forward batteries.
“Keep our present course,” Choka said. “Secure for bombardment.”
“Entering range,” the subaltern muttered.
The ship began rocking from the frigate’s guns, but Nom Anor ignored them and stumbled his way back to the micalike rear viewport analog, where Zonama Sekot was still visible.
Behind him, Choka and the pilot snarled at each other. Something exploded, and a haze of acrid smoke filled the air. Nom Anor dug his fingers into the spongy edge of the bulkhead, still unable to look away from the planet below.
The planet of his prophecy.
Not one, but three blue cones stabbed up through the atmosphere. It was a beautiful sight.
An earsplitting detonation snapped his face against the mica. He tumbled to the deck, black spots swimming before his eyes, but with grim persistence he dragged himself back up, noticing as he did that everything had gone eerily silent, though the ship still shivered beneath the Imperial frigate’s attack. For a foolish instant he thought perhaps the ship had lost its atmosphere and he was in vacuum, but then he would be dead, wouldn’t he?
He wiped blood from his eyes, realizing his forehead was cut, and gazed back out the viewport, just in time to see that they had made their run past the Imperial ship. Its drive section was just coming into view. It eclipsed his view of the planet as it began a ponderous turn, trying to come after them. It was still firing at them from its rear tower. Nom Anor noticed that Red Qurang was trailing a cloud of vaporized coral.
“We can stand no more of this,” the subaltern said. “Another strike, and—”
Suddenly all the stars fell toward Zonama Sekot. The frigate quivered and twisted, stretched into a streak of light, and vanished with the stars. Nom Anor snarled, braced himself—
And the stars were back. In the distance, the orange gas giant rotated as always. Where Zonama Sekot had been was only empty space.
Not what I expected, Nom Anor thought as his body went light from relief. Not what I expected, but it will serve.
Still, for long moments he gazed at where the planet had been, blinking away the blood even though there was nothing to see.
He willed his muscles to relax. The truly dangerous part of his journey was yet to come. Ushk Choka and his men were surely doomed. Shimrra would probably execute them the instant they landed. Nom Anor would live longer, at least until he had told the Supreme Overlord everything he knew. Then the true test of his gamble would come. Would he join Choka and his crew in feeding the gods, or would he be forgiven and perhaps even elevated?
Only time would tell. But the risk was worth it. One way or another, he was at last going back where he belonged.