CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Leia Organa Solo looked over at the organized chaos going on around her and wished for more organization and less chaos. The Ralroost and a handful of freighters had arrived at Dantooine and detected no Yuuzhan Vong ships in the system or having followed them. The freighters and the Ralroost’s shuttles began taking refugees down to an equatorial continent that had slender land bridges to the larger northern continent and the southern polar one. Lavender grasses stretched out as far as the eye could see, though the signs of human habitation were beginning to hide them.

The freighters had all picked up more people than they had supplies to sustain on a long run in toward the Core. Dantooine had been a good jump for getting them free of Dubrillion, but the routes back out of Dantooine were few and far between.

Leia sighed. If Tarkin had taken the bait, this world would have been destroyed, and then we’d not have had this haven to run to right now.

Her comlink trilled. “Organa Solo here. Go ahead.”

“Highness, the last group of refugees is coming down from the Ralroost. Now would be the time for you to return to the ship so we can make our run to the Core.” Admiral Kre’fey kept his voice low and even, with just the hint of a purr to it. “I know you thought this discussion closed, but I will have Masters to answer to on Coruscant.”

“And you think they’ll want me there telling them that I’d warned them?” Leia shook her head. “No thanks, Admiral. I’ll remain here with the others. You send us out help, and we’ll do just fine.”

“And if the Vong do follow us here?”

“Abandoning the refugees in that case will be worse.” She recalled that a previous group of refugees had been transplanted here, then wiped out by the Empire. Not a good omen. “Have a good trip. I’m sure Senator A’Kla will be of help to you.”

“He would if he were coming. He’s piloting down my command shuttle with the last group. I’m leaving you two companies of infantry and enough weapons to arm a number of the refugees.”

“I hope we won’t need it.”

“No more than I do, I think.”

“Speed to you, Admiral. May the Force be with you.”

“I’ll be back with help, soon.”

Leia switched off her comlink, then smiled as Gavin Darklighter came walking over, with Jaina trailing behind him. “Good afternoon, Colonel.”

“Highness. I’ve taken the liberty of appointing my newest flight officer as a liaison between the three squadrons we’ve got here and the civilian authorities, which I assume will be you.” Gavin pointed off north, southwest, and southeast of the camp. “I’ve arrayed my squadrons to establish something of a perimeter. Our weapons are not meant for suppression of ground troops, but they do a good job of it. Rogues have the north; two squadrons of uglies are splitting the south side of things.”

Leia nodded and looked around. The main camp had been set up in a slight depression at the heart of a wide valley. “Doesn’t seem particularly defensible here, does it?”

“No, but sensor sweeps showed we can get water from fairly shallow wells. Folks will be needing to build shelters—nasty weather is rolling in from the north—so we can get them to dig some trenches, prepare some redoubts for defense, too. If the Vong are here, having the defenses will be good.”

“And if they aren’t, people will grumble about having to dig.”

“Mother, these people are terrified. Having them dig will give them something to do.” Jaina sighed. “Having the freighters here in the middle of the camp will provide temporary shelter, and their guns can cover people if we have to go up and vape some skips.”

Jaina’s casual use of the phrase vape some skips sent a shiver through Leia and made her regard her daughter differently. It felt to Leia almost as if she’d been looking at one holograph of her daughter, all pretty and prim and young, and then someone had switched it for this new image.

Jaina had a touch of dirt on her face, and salt rings from sweat marked her flight suit’s armpits. Her hair had been pulled back into a braid and lacked the sheen of clean hair. Leia could tell her daughter was tired, but there was an energy in her eyes that Leia recognized all too well. Her own father—her adopted father—had remarked on it in her eyes, when Leia became involved with the Rebellion.

She’s more grown than any parent wants to admit. Leia reached out to stroke her daughter’s cheek, but caught a flash of wariness in Jaina’s eyes. She shifted her hand to land on Jaina’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “That’s a good point, Jaina.”

Gavin nodded in agreement. “We might have to move them around a bit to provide the best in overlapping fields of fire, but they should be pretty effective in holding hostiles off.”

“Admiral Kre’fey is sending troopers down, and lots of weapons.” Leia shook her head slowly. “We probably won’t have any time to train the refugees.”

Her daughter raised a finger. “There have to be veterans of the Rebellion and even Imp service among them. We sort them out, have them help organize the camp, and we’ll make it more defensible.”

“That will work, too. The grasses here aren’t very tasty, but they will suffice for most folks.” Leia sighed. “That leaves only one other worry.”

Gavin frowned. “And that is?”

“Mara and Anakin are supposed to be here on Dantooine. A sweep of comm frequencies is negative for any activity.”

The pilot shrugged. “If she is here for rest, they might not have their comlinks on.”

“That occurred to me.” Leia shivered. “I can’t feel them with the Force, either. If they were dead, I’m sure I’d have felt that. Their being cut off like this, I don’t know. It’s not good, not good at all.”

Jaina covered Leia’s hand with her own. “Don’t worry, Mom. Mara’s pretty smart, and Anakin isn’t stupid. I’m sure they’re just fine.”

Leia looked at her closely. “Can you feel them with the Force?”

A pained expression passed over her face. “A little, yes, in fits and starts. Not enough to give me a direction, or I’d be out looking. It feels like Anakin, when he was a kid, playing hide-and-seek. When I get him, he’s strong.”

Leia sighed. “Let’s hope he remains strong, then.” And well hidden, especially if it’s the Yuuzhan Vong seeking him.

The thunder crack from above had faded just enough for Anakin to catch the whirring buzz of the Yuuzhan Vong weapon arcing in at him. He pulled his right shoulder back and twisted his face to the left. He felt the fist-size disk whirl past him, barely missing his cheek. It make a solid thud as it slammed into the bole of a tree.

A flash of lightning burnished a silver edge on the thing. Legs sprouted from the body and began to push the right edge of its carapace out of the divot it had chopped into the wood. As Anakin had learned through experience in his flight from Yuuzhan Vong hunters, the bug would free itself, then fly off, returning to the hand of the warrior that had thrown it at him.

Not this time. Anakin darted forward and smashed the butt end of his lightsaber into the bug’s body. The fragile wings shattered, and the body snapped in half. Dark fluid oozed from the bug and began to steam as raindrops hit it.

Repressing a shudder, Anakin turned back and started along the torturous mountain trail. The track he was following was really just a rivulet that had washed away dirt, leaving wet stones and roots to catch at his feet. Reaching forward, he grabbed a thick root and hauled himself up, then found Mara lying there, in the muddy runoff, her chest heaving.

Without saying anything he pulled a piece of vincha root from his pocket, bit off half, and stuffed the rest into her mouth. “C’mon, Mara, they’re right behind us.”

“They’re always right behind us, ’cept when they’re ahead of us.” She started to get up, then stumbled, pulling him down, too.

Two more of the razorbugs sailed past to stick in the ground. Anakin squashed one, then tugged Mara to her feet. “Go, go.”

She scrambled up the next three meters, then perched on a stone for a second before darting forward. He headed up after her. By the time he got to the top of the incline, he saw her legging it around a leftward bend in the trail. He pulled himself up onto that next section of trail and started running after her, but something thumped heavily on the trail behind him.

Anakin spun, igniting his purple blade as he turned. He parried a slash from an amphistaff and half ducked under it. He lunged at the Yuuzhan Vong warrior’s belly, but the armor held despite smoke and water vapor erupting from the lightsaber’s touch. The warrior leapt back, then whipped his amphistaff forward. The weapon caught Anakin with a stinging slash to the left forearm, further tattering the sleeve on that arm and the flesh beneath it.

Anakin hugged his arm to his chest, and the Yuuzhan Vong warrior laughed. His amphistaff became rigid, and the warrior rose to his full height, standing there all glorious and terrible at the end of the path. He looked down at Anakin and said something that dripped with condescension.

The young Jedi’s eyes narrowed, and the big rock on which the Yuuzhan Vong stood rolled back from beneath the warrior’s feet. The warrior leaned heavily on his amphistaff, but the muddy ground gave way, spilling the warrior forward. He landed hard on his chest and face, splashing mud in all directions. As he pulled his head back and up, Anakin caught him with a snap kick that pitched him into the darkness.

The young Jedi doused his lightsaber and darted off along after his aunt. He tried to feel her with the Force, but she’d so effectively drawn it around her, using it to fend off the disease, that he could barely detect her. He knew he had to register just as faintly to her. He’d been hoarding his own strength and minimizing his presence in the Force just in case the Yuuzhan Vong were somehow using the Force to track them. For three days they had been running through the mountains and had been pursued from almost the first moment of their flight. They cut across Yuuzhan Vong tracks before they reached their ship, so they knew the Jade Sabre had been found and, if the Yuuzhan Vong hatred for technology remained true, had been reduced to scrap.

Throughout the run they had been miserable. The rain had come on so quickly and poured so hard that Anakin had wondered if somehow the Yuuzhan Vong controlled it or if he was just growing more and more paranoid. The Yuuzhan Vong who hunted them seemed to take great delight in coursing them and chasing them. The razorbugs constantly flew from shadows, inflicting little nicks and slices. His arms and legs burned from cuts and fatigue. His robes, which were leaden with so much rain and mud, seemed more holes than they were cloth. I’m pretty much reduced to my body and my lightsaber.

Around the turn the trail broadened out. Tall stones, set like teeth along the edges of the trail, channeled him toward an overshadowed pathway. Tall trees eclipsed the night sky—though really only blocked his ability to see the lightning-spitting thunderheads. Mara sagged against one of the plinths, then gave him a quick smile and fingered a wet strand of red hair away from her cheek. Tattered and torn as badly as he was, and sick and exhausted, she still managed to have defiance play in her eyes.

Her head came up, and her eyes focused beyond him. He spun, barely a dozen meters into the clearing. Behind him were three Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Two moved right and left, leaving the third to come straight on. They came slowly, cautiously, and he wondered why. Any one of them could break me in half.

Something in their wariness as they approached brought it all home to him. They are here because of me. I slew two of them in my first encounter. All the single warriors who’ve come to face me have gone down. I haven’t killed any more since then, but perhaps I disgraced them.

Anakin didn’t spare a glance over his shoulder. “Mara, they want me. It’s a matter of honor for them, I think.”

“They may want you, Anakin, but they’ll deal with the both of us.” He heard her lightsaber hiss behind him, pouring blue highlights onto the Yuuzhan Vong and their wet armor. “Light your blade. I’ve got left.”

“No, Mara, run.” He felt a cold calm coming over him as he brought his hands together on the hilt of his lightsaber. He knew, without any doubt at all, that he would not survive a fight with three of the Yuuzhan Vong. The Force had been with him in his first encounter, and all along the way. Just be with me one more time, so Mara can escape. One more time.

He thumbed his blade alive. The energy rod glowed with a violet intensity. He held it forward, with the hilt near his belly and the blade pointing down at the ground. He brought his right leg forward, knee bent; and he planted his left foot. He could see all three of them and nodded to each in succession. Nodding again to the central figure, Anakin impatiently flicked his blade up a centimeter or two, inviting the Yuuzhan Vong onward.

The centermost warrior began to whirl his amphistaff over his head. Lightning seared white-hot edges on his armor and along the amphistaff. The Yuuzhan Vong started forward, and Anakin feinted toward him, kicking a lump of wet sand in his direction. The warrior retreated a step, then his companions hooted at him.

All of a sudden Anakin knew exactly what he had to do. He knew the proper series of steps he had to move through to save Mara. Without giving it any conscious thought, he allowed his body to flow through the choreography that came to him through the Force.

Pivoting on his right foot, he lunged at the Yuuzhan Vong on his right. That warrior leapt back, only to slam himself into one of the plinths. As that warrior stumbled to the ground, Anakin dodged to his left, taking a step toward the central warrior. Because his earlier move had exposed his back to the left warrior, that Yuuzhan Vong had driven at him. Anakin reversed his grip on the lightsaber and stabbed it backward past his right hip, impaling the alien warrior on the blade.

The Yuuzhan Vong’s armor held, preventing him from being opened up, but he did double over from the force of the blow. For his part, Anakin used some of the collision against the blade to drive himself forward. He rolled into a somersault, then spun to the right and brought his lightsaber around in a waist-high cut that caught the center Yuuzhan Vong across the thighs. Armor sizzled and cracked, but stopped the lightsaber from slashing through flesh and muscle. Instead he cut the legs out from under the Yuuzhan Vong, dumping him to the clearing floor.

Anakin lashed out with a foot, catching the fallen warrior in the side of the head. The warrior’s head snapped to the right, but the Yuuzhan Vong still gathered his limbs beneath him and heaved himself to his feet. Anakin cut to the left, to kick the Yuuzhan Vong’s amphistaff away, but the weapon coiled and struck at him. Then the Yuuzhan Vong scythed his leg through Anakin’s ankles and dropped him to his back.

Anakin slashed at the Yuuzhan Vong’s legs, but the warrior leapt above the cut, then came down with a foot heavily on Anakin’s right wrist. Pain shot through it, and the boy was certain he’d heard something snap. His hand went numb, and his lightsaber flew from his grip.

The Yuuzhan Vong towered above him. The warrior’s amphistaff slithered its way up the warrior’s leg, then onto his right arm. It stiffened, and the warrior raised it above his head. Muttering words that sounded solemn and thankful, the warrior whipped the amphistaff down in a cut that would cleave Anakin open from crown to navel.

If it landed.

The snap-hiss of Luke Skywalker’s green lightsaber interjected itself into the fight. The verdant blade caught the descending amphistaff before it could strike. The blade slid in along the amphistaff, evaporating water as it went, then slipped up and slashed through the Yuuzhan Vong’s armpit. The warrior screamed, then spun away.

Off to the left, Jacen Solo leapt down from one of the plinths, landing on the Yuuzhan Vong warrior below. Jacen’s feet hit the warrior square in the back, driving him face first into the ground. The Jedi slammed the butt end of his lightsaber against the base of the warrior’s skull, then darted forward to engage the last Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen leapt above a low slash, then side-kicked the warrior in the gut. The Yuuzhan Vong flew back into a plinth, then slid down into a gap between two of them.

Jacen helped his brother up while Luke ran to Mara. Anakin reached out to use the Force to pull his extinguished lightsaber to him, then bent down and scooped it up with his left hand. “Jacen, how did you find us?”

Jacen shrugged and nodded toward Luke. “He knew when and where to be to find you two. He had a vision, and it led him to Dantooine. We might not have been able to pick the Yuuzhan Vong out with the Force, but plenty of the wildlife here in this forest scattered from them, so we headed for where life wasn’t.”

“Huh. I never thought of that.”

Jacen tousled his brother’s sopping hair. “Ah, you’re just a kid.”

“Don’t give him a hard time, Jacen.” Mara leaned heavily on her husband, and Anakin could tell Luke wanted to pick her up, but she’d have no part of it. “He got me this far. If he hadn’t been taking care of me, I’d be dead.”

Luke nodded solemnly at his youngest nephew. “I can’t begin to thank you enough.”

“Sure you can. Take us back to Coruscant.”

“Can’t, but we will get you to your mother.”

Anakin looked down at his muddy, blood-soaked robes. “To Mom? I thought I was being thanked here.”

“You are, and will be.” Luke pointed toward the north. “Ship’s not far from here.”

Mara gave Luke a kiss on the cheek. “At least we’ll be away from Dantooine.”

“Actually, we won’t.”

Mara frowned. “But you got here in a ship, one capable of making the trip from Belkadan.”

“You’re right, we did.” Luke nodded calmly. “It’s just we can’t leave Dantooine yet. Leia and some Dubrillion refugees landed here on the continent to the southeast. As we were coming in system, we saw a big Yuuzhan Vong ship sending troop carriers down, and it seems they found that continent as hospitable as Leia did.”

Anakin winced. “Out of the firefight, into the carbon freeze.”

“Pretty much.”

The youngest Solo sighed. “So, if you had a vision that brought you here, do you have a vision that shows how things will turn out down to the southeast?”

“As Yoda said, the future is constantly in motion, so this vision might not be true.” Luke’s face became a steel mask. “It’s just as well, because that vision did not have a happy ending.”