Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (55 page)

"The
end justifies the means, right?"

"That's
what Stryver said. I'm not sure I agree. "

"Being
alive is always better than being dead. That's my golden rule. "

"But
what comes afterward?"

"The
fleets change their codes. Business goes back to usual. "

"If
you let them go. "

"Why
wouldn't I? I'm not power-mad like you. There might be money to be
had in empire building, but never at the top. You only end up on the
wrong end of a coup, or an invasion, or a sniper's rifle. Your
Emperor will learn that eventually, the hard way. "

Ula
was trapped. He had betrayed the Republic, after all, but he had
betrayed the Empire along with it. And now he was utterly powerless.
All he could do was sit back and watch-and wonder if he would
intervene if the opportunity arose. Jet was, after all, doing the job
that he had failed to do. Who was he to get in the way?

Maybe
Jet, too, was defying his baser instincts and trying to do the right
thing.

A
voice crackled from the planet on a Republic frequency. Ula
recognized it instantly.

"...higher
now so the jamming might not be as effective. This is Lieutenant
Moxla calling Director Vii. I've hitched a lift on the back of the
skyhook and I'm placing transponders on the vulnerable points. Strike
them as hard as you can. Please respond. Let me know I'm getting
through. We're higher now so the jamming might not be as effective.
This is Lieutenant Moxla calling Director..."

"It's
a recording. " Jet reduced the volume. "I see the
transponders. If she's done her job properly, we can hit the skyhook
with everything the Paramount has and take it out of commission
before it reaches the equator. "

"What
about Larin?"

"Maybe
she's already ditched. "

"We
can't know, can we?"

"No.
So what do you want to do?"

"Are
you really giving me the choice?"

"Not
really, just seeing if you could come up with a decent argument. "

Tiny
points of light flared in the holoprojector as the Paramount sent
every missile it had on the way.

CHAPTER
42

Larin
ran lightly over the uppermost dome of the skyhook, keeping low to
avoid the occasional potshot. The structure was made entirely out of
linked hex bodies. Some of them retained a modicum of individuality
and raised a limb to fire as she went by. She couldn't watch
everywhere at once, but she had managed to avoid any serious injuries
thus far.

That
would change the moment her message was received, or the fleet opened
fire regardless. There was no way off the skyhook now that it was in
flight. If it went down, so would she and all her squad- mates. Not
all of them had jumped aboard with her, but those who had knew what
they were getting into. There were perhaps two dozen troopers like
her scattered across the moving skyhook, all operating independently.

Comms
came and went; she had set her transceiver to broadcast at the
earliest opportunity and let it spool on without her hearing. Each
transponder she placed pointed to an air vent or sensor array, or
anything else that might suffer from an accurately placed hit. She
hadn't wasted time on trying to sneak inside the skyhook. There would
have been little benefit in getting herself killed that way.

It
was ironic, she thought. Telemetry told her that the skyhook was
bringing her closer to where Shigar should have landed, but she
probably wouldn't make it, and neither had he, most likely. His
transport had gone down in flames. She might share the same fate as
he had and never know it.

Blue
light flashed to her right. A trooper had been pinned by three widely
spaced hexes, all firing simultaneously. He returned fire, crouching
low to present a smaller target, but he couldn't fire at all of them,
and he had nowhere to retreat to. As she watched, taking the measure
of his predicament, a shot clipped the neck seal of his helmet,
triggering a jet of precious air. He went down, thrashing about to
reach the leak, but his shoulder joints wouldn't flex that far.

She
came in low and fast, shooting the nearest hex first, before getting
a bead on the others. They shifted their sights to her, but she was
practiced at fighting hexes now. She aimed for the sensor pods first
because they were easiest to hit. Without eyes, how could they shoot
back?

Two
other hexes joined in before she reached the fallen trooper. She
scooped him up with one hand under his left underarm and kept moving,
firing as she went. Using gravity and her own momentum, she took him
down the dome as if they were running down the side of a hill.

When
they were out of range, she skidded them to a halt. The edge was in
sight. Beyond that point, there was nothing but Sebaddon, far below.

He
was still thrashing about. She reached for the repair kit in her
thigh pocket and urged him to stay still. He obeyed. As she applied
the fast-acting sealant to his damaged neck joint, they recognized
each other.

The
trooper looking up at her was Ses Jopp.

His
voice traveled clearly through the material of their suits.

"You're
the last person I expected to see. "

She
didn't want to say that the feeling was mutual. "I couldn't just
leave you there. "

"And
I'm grateful, believe me. Thank you, Lieutenant. "

She
couldn't tell if he was sincere or not, but it was something.

"There,
" she said, smoothing down the last of the sealant. "You'll
live to fight another day. "

His
eyes tracked to her right, over her shoulder.

"Probably
not, " he said. "Look. "

She
turned and stared up at the sky. Clearly visible were the white
streaks of Imperial artillery coming their way. It looked as if the
crew of the Paramount were giving it all they had-precisely as they
ought to, she thought.

Rather
than craning awkwardly up at the approaching missiles, she turned and
sat down next to Jopp.

"Best
seats in the house, eh?" she said.

He
laughed. "Yeah. People would kill for 'em. "

She
thought of her former colleagues in the Blackstars, of the bravado
and the bonding and the sense of belonging that she had missed so
deeply.

"Grunts
like us never learn. Fireworks are only pretty from a distance. "

Jopp
nodded soberly. "Makes a pleasant change to have an officer down
here with us. "

He
turned to look at her.

"Guess
you're not so bad after all, Toxic Moxla. "

She
smiled. That was as close to an apology as she was likely to get, but
in the service it amounted to a vow of loyalty that would endure
until they died. It was a shame, she thought, that that wasn't going
to be very long.

CHAPTER
43

Exhaust
trails drew complex hieroglyphs across the sky. No less than fifteen
missiles were converging on the object that had risen out of the
lake. The blast radius was going to be so huge, there was no point
running.

Shigar
braced himself for the explosion. There was a small chance that he
could shield himself from the worst of it, but what happened
afterward was the great unknown. There might be no island left at
all. He couldn't float about forever on a sea of lava.

On
the brink of death, he caught a glimpse of how his life would have
played out, had he lived. He knew, intellectually and viscerally,
that he had earned the rank of Jedi Knight. Master Nobil couldn't
deny him that now. He had fought and made deals with enemies. He had
wrestled with the dark side. He had conquered his one remaining
weakness. And, most important, he was willing to fight.

You
arc a product of your time, he heard his former Master saying. You
must confront the times ahead with great care. The Sith are the
enemy, but we must not become like them in order to beat them. We
must remain true to all that we stand for.

He
couldn't tell if her voice was in the present, or an echo of the
future that would never be. Similarly, he couldn't tell if she was
reproaching him or offering him encouragement.

I
cannot stand by while politicians play their games, he said in reply.
It was an act of thievery that led us here-an act conducted on behalf
of the Republic. Even in this corner of the universe, privateers and
false treaties have endangered billions of lives. When the whole
galaxy is at stake, who can stand idle?

Not
you, Shigar Konshi. Not you.

I
don't understand. Are you telling me that I'm wrong, or that I'm
right?

Perhaps
both. The answer is beyond my sight.

He
snapped back to reality.

A
powerful roaring filled the air. The lines in the sky converged on a
point. The hieroglyph was complete.

Darth
Chratis vanished behind a shimmering Force shield.

Shigar
stood unprotected, at one with the other troopers staring up at their
deaths. He wasn't afraid to die.

There
was a bright flash, then another, then so many they became one
simultaneous assault.

Shigar
shielded his eyes with his hand.

That
he still had a hand and eyes surprised him.

He
squinted through his fingers.

The
massive structure had generated a broad electromirror shield, and was
deflecting the full force of the blasts back out into space.

Relief
flooded him, then dismay. He was still alive, but the plan had
failed. What now?

Darth
Chratis emerged from his shield as superhot clouds radiated above
them. He looked as surprised as Shigar felt.

"Unacceptable,
" he said.

A
second series of flashes came from the south, where something else
was undergoing bombardment from above. They turned to see another
work of mega-engineering from the hexes drifting across the sky,
trailing explosive streamers in its wake. An identical electromirror
shield protected it, too.

A
skyhook, Shigar realized. The other half of the thing looming over
him, undamaged by everything the Empire and the Republic could throw
at it.

He
almost laughed. "It was all for nothing, " he said to Darth
Chratis. "You, me, Larin-everything. "

"Do
you find this amusing, boy?"

He
didn't, but the moment had a hysterical edge all the same. He could
agonize all he wanted about the choices he had made and would make,
about the Jedi Order's role in the Emperor's plans, and about the
Republic's feet of clay when it came to taking decisive action-but if
nothing stopped the hexes, there wouldn't be a war at all. The future
of the galaxy ended here.

You
win, Lema Xandret, he thought, wherever you are.

CHAPTER
44

Cinzia
Xandret stared out of her tank at the girl she might have been.

"Don't
look at her, " whispered her mother.

"Why
not?"

"She's
not real. "

"She
looks real enough. "

"But
she's not you. "

"She's
me as I might have been. "

"You
are not her. You will never be her. She is a lie and she is evil. She
is..."

"Shut
up, Mother. "

The
whisper ceased. Cinzia's attention returned to the two people outside
the tank, a mature woman with gray-streaked brown hair and her more
youthful companion, both dressed in bloodstained armored suits, both
strangers, at least to the complex. One she recognized. She had seen
that face all her life. It was her own.

"Who
are you?" The more senior woman of the two looked shocked and
surprised. "Are you Cinzia?"

"I'm
her clone, " she said. There was nothing to be gained by hiding
the truth, and there was no harm in just talking. "My mother
took a tissue sample from me before I was taken away. She made me all
over again. The same daughter, but better, purer. "