Apocalypse (44 page)

The woman staggered, and when Luke blasted her again, she gathered herself to spring after Corran. Time up. Jaina stretched a hand toward her lightsaber and, summoning it into her grasp, used the Force to lift herself to her feet.

The woman surprised Jaina by stopping between her and Luke, and Jaina found herself looking into the face of death. The mouth, where it had not been blown away by Luke’s blaster bolt, was a hideous wide thing that stretched from ear to ear, and the eyes were sunken wells of darkness, at the bottom of which burned two tiny points of light.

Abeloth.

Jaina recalled the description well enough to realize whom she was facing, and she knew that her chances of surviving to see Jag again had just dropped to zero. She ignited her lightsaber and leapt into battle with a powerful midbody strike that she hoped would drive her foe back onto Luke’s blade.

Abeloth’s hand flicked, and Jaina found herself tumbling down the duct backward. She saw the dark rectangle of a stack-head flash past beneath her; she slammed down and rolled twice before she could finally use the Force to bring herself to a stop. She came up on her knees, facing back the way she had come, and saw Abeloth leaping across the pit toward her.

Jaina brought her lightsaber across in a high guard—only to see her attacker drop down the stack and vanish from sight.

Too exhausted and confused to rise, Jaina remained kneeling where she was, half expecting a hand to come punching up through the sheet metal to grab her by the ankle and drag her to her death. Instead she saw Luke approaching, his lightsaber in one hand and his blaster in the other. When he reached the edge of the stack-head, he extended his arm and blind-fired a flurry of bolts after Abeloth. Then he peered cautiously over the side … and looked confused.

He looked back toward Jaina. “What happened?”

“I was about to ask
you
the same thing,” Jaina said. “I thought you—”

“Not me,” Luke said, shaking his head. “It was something else—something we don’t understand yet, I think.”

“Something
else
we don’t understand about her?” Jaina replied. “Great.”

Then she remembered Corran—and that she had not yet heard the crackle of a thermal detonator. Jaina checked her chronometer. It was still a minute and a half before midday. She spun around and was relieved to see Corran standing at the edge of the exhaust port, looking back toward them—and still holding the detonator in his hand.

“Now?”
he called. “My chrono is acting up.”

Jaina checked her own chrono again, then shook her head. “Not yet.” Guessing that it would take her just about a minute to cover those last fifty meters, she motioned for Luke to join her, then rose and began to hobble down the duct toward the shield generator.

“Let’s do it together.”

“Good thinking,” Luke called. “The med-evac team will be faster if we all collapse in one place.”

T
HEY HAD FINALLY CLIMBED HIGH ENOUGH INTO THE
T
EMPLE TO ESCAPE
the acid-dripping mold and the fungi with poisonous, razor-sharp edges. This passage was just a typical undercity corridor, with corroding durasteel walls, layers of grime, and the reek of decay. And since there were no more man-eating vegetables, Han was no longer in fight-or-flight mode. Now he was just angry—furious, even.

During the ambush in the loading dock, he had glimpsed a brown-haired girl standing in the entrance to the access tunnel. She had been wearing Jedi combat armor, so at first he had assumed she was a prisoner or was fleeing the enemy. Then he had noticed the thermal detonator in her hand, and he had started to think
spy
. The clincher had come when she had stepped into the loading bay and tossed the detonator toward the
Falcon
’s boarding ramp, where Allana stood talking with Bazel and Leia. That was about the same time that he got a good look at the little scar at the corner of her mouth, and he had recognized her instantly.

Vestara Khai.

The little smooka had been playing Ben all along, using the girl-in-danger ploy to make him fall for her. Then, after she had gotten inside the Jedi Order and learned as much as Luke was going to allow, she had seen an opportunity to take out Allana and had slipped back to the Sith to set up the ambush in the loading dock. That much was clear. She had used Ben and fooled Luke.

The only thing Han did not understand was
how
. How had Vestara learned about the drop-off—and that Allana would be aboard? How had she set up the attack so quickly? She had already been inside the Temple when the
Falcon
arrived on Coruscant, and even if she had had some means of eavesdropping on Bwua’tu’s headquarters, there had been less than an hour to get into position.

But at least Han knew why the Jedi had been running into so much trouble inside the Temple. There had been a spy in their ranks. And someday Vestara Khai would pay for what she had done. Han would make sure of that, if it was the last thing he ever did.

“Grandpa!”
Allana whispered from behind him. “Be quiet!”

Han glanced down at the grime-caked floor, trying to see what he might have kicked or snapped. In the weak glow-panel light, he could see compressed dust and not much else—no stray fusioncutters or beamdrills, no slashrat skeletons or breemil carapaces. He couldn’t even see any dead muxi carcasses, and as bad as the place smelled, there ought to have been a thousand of them.

Still walking, he twisted around enough to look back. Leia and Anji were about ten paces away, bringing up the rear. Allana and R2-D2 were following closer behind, almost on his heels. They were both coated top-to-bottom in dust and grime, and Allana looked every bit the combat veteran she had become in the last few days of running, skulking, and fighting. Her big gray eyes were getting that hard, wary edge that Han had watched develop in his own kids as their Force talents and galactic strife conspired to make them warriors when they were barely into their teens. Now Allana’s destiny was coming for her at an even younger age. She was learning to kill at the age of nine—and to watch friends die—and it broke his heart. If he could have changed her fate, he would have done it in an instant. But the choice wasn’t Han’s, or anyone’s. She had been born into her role, and the best he could do was prepare her to shoulder the burden.

Han was still looking behind him when he reached an intersection and triggered a set of motion-activated glow panels a few meters to his left. With a company of Sith still somewhere behind them, he knew better than to let himself cry out in surprise—but he couldn’t help whirling around and pointing his blaster pistol down the adjacent hallway.

“Grandpa!”
Allana whispered again. “Quiet means no blasting, either!”

Han stopped and turned to face her. “I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said. “And I
was
being quiet.”

R2-D2 flashed a couple of status lights, using the Jedi blink code to contradict him, and Allana shook her head.

“You were muttering again,” she whispered. “And I heard someone behind us.”

Han raised his gaze, looking back down the way they had come. Anji and Leia were still behind them, Anji keeping a wary eye on their backtrail while Leia used the Force to smooth the dust. There was no sign of anyone else.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Of course, I’m sure,” Allana replied. “You were saying something about the little smooka, and how she was going to pay. What’s a smooka?”

“Just another word for bad news,” Han said. “I meant, are you sure about
hearing
something?”

“I’m sure,” Allana replied. “There was a yell behind us. I think someone was surprised.”

“I heard it, too,” Leia said, joining them and also whispering. “And I can feel them, maybe a dozen presences about half a kilometer back.”

“What about Zekk and Taryn?” Han asked. He glanced down at Allana. “You’re sure you activated your tracking beacon?”

She turned her arm over, revealing an orange glow where the subcutaneous transmitter had been implanted. “I’m sure.”

“Blast,” Han said. “They should have caught up to us by now.”

“Maybe they have,” Leia said. “The Force has started to feel empty behind that first group—maybe a little
too
empty.”

“Like Zekk is hiding his Force presence?” Han asked.

“Not quite,” Leia said. “If that were the case, he’d just be drawing
it in around himself. This feels more like a bubble—like he’s trying to hide more than himself—Taryn, perhaps.”

“He can do that?”

Leia shrugged. “Luke can,” she said. “I’m not sure about Zekk.”

“But if
you
can feel the bubble, then so can the Sith. Right?”

“I’m afraid so,” Leia said. “They probably know someone is behind them—just not who, or how many.”

“Great—so they’re probably thinking they need to make a move on us before it’s too late.” Han looked up the corridor into the darkness beyond the active glow panels, trying to guess how far it continued before reaching someplace mazy enough for them to lose their pursuers. “Looks like we need to make a run for it.”

“We can’t,” Allana said. “We’re too close to the Barabels’ nest.”

“We are?” Han glanced down at her. “
How
close?”

Allana studied the floor. “When was the last time you saw a slashrat or breemil?” she asked. “Or a granite slug or a muxi? Or even any
sign
of one?”

“I don’t know,” Han said, looking around the corridor again. “About thirty minutes ago, I guess.”

“I see what you mean, Allana,” Leia said, also looking around. “This area has been hunted out.”

“Right,” Allana said. “But the way it smells—we’ve
got
to be close to the nest.”

“Good,” Han said, starting up the corridor again. He wasn’t sure how the smell fit in, but he
did
know that Barabels were voracious hunters, so being close to the nest would explain why they weren’t seeing any vermin. “We can use some reinforcements.”

Allana caught hold of his trouser leg. “Are you crazy, Grandpa? If we lead those Sith any closer to the Barabels’ nest,
we’re
the ones they’ll eat.”

“I thought you had to warn them about your vision? That’s what got …” Han caught himself, realizing that if he was not careful about what he said, Allana would end up blaming herself for Bazel’s death. “That’s what we’re doing here, isn’t it?”

Fortunately, Allana didn’t seem to catch his near slip. “I need to
warn
them about what I saw, not make it come true.”

“Yeah, well I’ve been having visions about Sith and little girls,”
Han said. “So I say we take our chances and team up with the Barabels while we still can. We’ll
all
stand a better chance.”

“Han, this isn’t a decision we can make for Allana,” Leia said gently. “It’s
her
vision.
She
has to decide what path the Force wants her to follow.”

“Since when did the Force become the parent around here?” Han demanded, struggling to keep to a whisper. When Leia only looked at him, he took a couple of breaths and turned to Allana. “Fine. Maybe I can stay here and hold them off while you and your grandmother go find the Barabels.”

“Hold off a dozen Sith—alone?” Leia shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Han scowled. “I thought you said it was Allana’s decision.”

“It is, and Grandma’s right,” Allana said. “We have to stick together.”

“And do what?” Han demanded.

Allana frowned in thought, then finally turned to look back along the wall. “Something crazy,” she said. “That’s what you would do if I weren’t here, isn’t it?”

Han followed her gaze to the intersection they had just passed. “An ambush?” He rubbed his chin, then looked toward Leia. “That’s not a bad idea—not if Zekk and Taryn are coming up behind them.”

“That’s a big
if
,” Leia said. She thought for a moment, then laid a hand on Allana’s shoulder. “But it’s the last thing they would expect.”

“Good.” Allana started back toward the intersecting hallway. “We’ll set a trip line about five meters in. That way, if something goes wrong, we’ll have a chance to run off and draw them away from the nest.”

Han rushed to catch up with her. “Not bad,” he said. “Mind if I add a couple of things?”

“Not at all, Grandpa,” Allana said. She flashed him a little smile. “Han Solo’s ideas are always welcome.”

Han shared his suggestions, and the two of them went to work. By the time Leia had used the Force to spread a fresh layer of dust over the main corridor, he and Allana had strung the trip wire, disabled the overhead glow panels, and lodged a durasteel door across the hallway, forming a makeshift breastwork that ran between two rooms located
across the corridor from each other. Leia joined them, Allana summoned Anji with a hand command, then the three Solos checked their blasters and knelt down to await the Sith.

After half a minute or so, the glow panels in the main corridor flickered off automatically and they were plunged into total darkness. Han knew that this would be the hardest part for Allana, since it was always the moments before a battle when most people’s thoughts turned to the possibility of death—and to the friends they had lost in previous battles. And he was right. They had been kneeling in the darkness only a short time before he began to hear sniffles, and he knew she had to be thinking of Bazel Warv’s incredible last stand. It was a sacrifice Allana would remember forever, and he knew she would spend the rest of her life trying to be worthy of her friend’s heroism.