Star Wars_ Shadows Of The Empire Part 42

That set them off again. They'd made it. They were safe.

Well, almost. But at least the hard part should be over.

40.

Xizor was angry and, save for the death of his family, could not recall ever having been more so. His castle was gone, his valuables, much of his ma.s.sive information base, all destroyed in an instant. Artifacts and records that could not be replaced because they had no duplicates anywhere else. Blackmail files, personal projects, the most central secrets of Black Sun since he had taken over, gone-just like that. It would take years to recover, and should something happen to him, his successor would never know much of what was missing because he would never know it had ever existed. He wouldn't even know who had been responsible-all of the files on Skywalker and the princess had been in his personal computer, and it and its backups were slag.

Whatever anger he felt, it was no longer in his voice as Xizor called ahead to his skyhook. He had figured out that the small Corellian freighter that had nearly smashed into him as he leaped away from his castle was the same one his people had been searching for.

The same one that had come to rescue Skywalker and Leia and their friends.

Perhaps it had failed in that mission. Given the way things had been going of late, likely that was not so. Best to be sure.

Being the head of a s.h.i.+pping concern had some advantages when it came to describing s.h.i.+ps: "There is a dilemma-saucer-style Corellian freighter leaving the planet shortly," he told the commander of his navy over the comm. "It is a YT-Thirteen Hundred, a little over twenty-five meters long, a hundred-ton capacity. Locate it and destroy it. If you can disable it and capture the crew and pa.s.sengers, that would also be acceptable.

"If, however, it gets past, you and anybody else I consider responsible will be fertilizer before the next sunrise-are we perfectly clear on that?"

"Clear, my prince."

"Good." He reached for the comm switch to shut off the transmission.

"I've got you now, Skywalker."

"I beg your pardon, Highness."

"What? Nothing. Never mind."

He flipped the switch and killed the transmission. Probably should not have mentioned Skywalker's name that way, but it didn't matter. The opchan was scrambled. It did not matter. He was so close to finis.h.i.+ng this now.

He looked at the console's timer. He should be at the skyhook shortly.

My lord Vader, you asked to see anything regarding this name," the officer said. Vader stared at the man. Took the printout flimsy from him and scanned it.

"Where did this originate?"

"An encoded transmission from the s.h.i.+p Virago, my lord, en route to the skyhook Falleen's Fist in high orbit. The s.h.i.+p is registered to-"

"I know who it is registered to," Vader said. He crumpled the thin plastic hardcopy sheet in his hand. And though the attending officer could not see it, Darth Vader smiled, ignoring the pain it caused.

"Prepare my shuttle," he said.

He had warned Xizor to stay away from Luke. The criminal had chosen to ignore that order.

That was a grievous error.

As much as it was possible, Vader was delighted. They had played Xizor's game long enough. Now they would play his.

Dash said, "Take over, would you, Luke?"

"Sure." Luke, already in the copilot's seat, took the controls. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere. I just need to whistle up my steed."

"What?" Dash pulled a small black rectangular box from his belt. "Long-range s.h.i.+elded single-channel comlink. Time to have Leebo lift and put my s.h.i.+p into orbit. We can rendezvous; I can borrow one of your suits-this bucket still has vac-suits, doesn't it? - and get back to a real s.h.i.+p instead of this rickety crate."

Luke smiled. "I guess we can do that."

"After that, you go your way, I'll go mine. I figure the cleanup bill for that building down there ought to go a long way to balancing my account with the Empire."

"You really ought to consider signing on with the Alliance," Luke said.

"You're a good man and we could use you."

"Thanks, Luke, but I don't think so. I'm not much of a joiner." He tapped the command b.u.t.ton on his specialized comlink. "Hey, Leebo, you rust bucket, get your gears mes.h.i.+ng and meet me at the following coordinates."

"My master is not in at the moment. Who is calling, please?"

"Very funny," Dash said. He looked at Luke. "Never buy a droid programmed by a failed comedian."

Aizor's landing at the skyhook was uneventful. His navy had already deployed. Since they had all the proper clearances, the Imperial Navy didn't bother them.

Xizor strode to his command center, a deck surrounded by transparisteel plate that allowed him an almost 360-degree unimpeded view of s.p.a.ce around the skyhook.

He had the comm to his commander opened. A holoproj of the man appeared.

"Yes, my prince?"

"Have you deployed your vessels, Commander?"

"Yes, Highness. Our sensors have been set to detect any s.h.i.+p matching the criteria you gave me. If it comes this way, we will spot it."

"Good. Keep me informed."

The image vanished, and Xizor stared out into the blackness of s.p.a.ce. He had heard the buzz of conversa-tion when he arrived. The rumor had reached here fast, though no one dared speak directly to him about the disaster below. Well. No matter. He had survived worse.

He would survive this; survive it and somehow turn it into a victory.

Thanks for the ride," Dash said over the comm.

The Outrider hung just off the Millennium Falcon's port bow in a matching orbit. If you had a good arm, you could hit it with a rock, even in full gravity. Dash had jetted across the short gap, complaining all the while about how bad the borrowed suit smelled.

"Want to race to the jump spot?" Luke said. He now sat at the controls, taking a turn piloting. Lando sat next to him, Leia stood behind them.

Dash laughed. "You want a pa.r.s.ec head start?"

"No, I-"

A hard green beam of light flashed between the two s.h.i.+ps. The sighting ray of a big s.h.i.+p's cannon-you couldn't see the laser itself in vacuum, of course, but it followed the ionized marker you could see precisely.

Somebody was shooting at them.

"Uh-oh, looks like we got company."

More laser and charged-particle bolts blinked, none really close. Well, no closer than a couple of meters-Luke punched it. The Falcon jumped like a startled hopperoo.

Lando said, "We've got an unmarked corvette coming in at two-seventy! And four fighters at three-fivenine! Those aren't Imperial s.h.i.+ps! Who are these guys?"

"Who cares?" Luke said. "We've got to move! Chewie, the guns!"

"You heard the man, furball," Leia said. "You want dorsal or ventral?"

Chewie harned. He and Leia disappeared.

"Good luck, Das.h.!.+" Luke yelled.

"You, too, Luke."

Luke pointed the Falcon into the deep and ran. The s.h.i.+p rocked as a beam found the s.h.i.+elds and splashed from them. They needed to get clear of this system, fast, and make the jump to hypers.p.a.ce.

Prince Xizor, we have located the Corellian freighter," came the commander's voice from the holoproj.

"And...?"

"We are engaging it now. It should be destroyed momentarily."

Xizor nodded. "Don't be too sure, Commander. They seem to be extremely lucky."

"They'll need more than luck, my prince. We have them completely surrounded. They'll need a miracle."

Xizor nodded again.

"There is a wall between us and where we need to go," Luke said.

"So find another way," Lando said. "You want me to fly her?"

"No."

A beam hit them, slapped them crooked. The s.h.i.+elds held. Lando yelled into the comlink. "I thought you two were supposed to be shooting back!"

Both Chewie and Leia yelled at him, but Luke was too busy flying to pay attention to what they said. He put the Falcon into a power climb and turned the move into a half twist at the top of the arc, heading back the way they'd come.

"Chewie wants to know how he's supposed to hit anything with you looping like that," Lando said.

"How can he miss? We're surrounded! He should hit something no matter where he shoots!"

A black shape zipped past them. The Outrider, can-nons blazing.

Ahead of the Falcon a fighter exploded.

Lando said, "See how it's done, Chewie?"

Chewie yelled something back at Lando.

Have you stopped the s.h.i.+p yet, Commander?"

"Not yet, Highness. They are, ah, quite skilled. And there are two s.h.i.+ps returning our fire. We don't have a transponder signal on the other one, but it is heavily armed."

"If my navy can't defeat two s.h.i.+ps it certainly needs another commander,"

Xizor said. "We will defeat them. Our net is closing. They are running out of room."

The attacking s.h.i.+ps had formed a loose hemisphere in s.p.a.ce. There were an awful lot of civilian freighter and pa.s.senger s.h.i.+ps going to and coming from the planet, and it was all Luke could do to avoid hitting one of them as he dodged the fighters buzzing them. The civilians tried to get out of the way, which made things worse. And sooner or later, the Imperial Navy was going to wake up and probably add to the confusion. Why they hadn't already made Luke wonder.

As he watched, one of the aggressors fired at the Falcon. The cannon's beam struck one of those pa.s.senger s.h.i.+ps, punched a hole through a power converter, and caused a bright flash as the unit shorted out. Lot of damage, probably n.o.body hurt.

"Lousy shots," Lando said. "Don't care who they hit."

Luke nodded. He had thought they might weave in and out of the thick traffic and avoid being blasted, but it seemed Lando was right: The bad guys didn't care who got fried.

The attackers had them boxed. There didn't seem to be any way out. Too bad he couldn't get to his X-wing - though one more s.h.i.+p probably wouldn't be much help.

Things looked bad. Really bad...

One of the attacking fighters came straight at them, cannons winking hot plasma eyes-The attacker exploded. The Falcon blew through the cloud of debris. It pattered like hard rain against the s.h.i.+elds.

"Good shot!" Luke yelled. "Who got it, was that you, Leia?"

"Not me," her voice came back. "I've got plenty to worry about coming in from my side. Must have been Chewie."

Chewie said something.

Lando said, "Chewie says he didn't get it, either."

Luke blinked. Then who did?

Over the comm: "Hey, Luke! Okay if we join your party?"

"Wedge! What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you. Dash's droid sent us a distress signal. Sorry it took so long to get here." Another of the unmarked attackers blossomed into a fireball.

"Well, just don't let it happen again," Luke said. He grinned. Now that Rogue Squadron was here, the odds were a little better.