Rebel Stand Page 20

  confident about the extent of their knowledge."

  Han looked at her and cracked his knuckles. "So, they think there's a fair

  chance we'll be dragged out of hyper-space before we quite reach Borleias's mass

  shadow. Well, you tell 'em that it's not going to happen."

  "And it's not going to happen because...?"

  "Because I'm going to fly around them. What did you think?"

  "I think we'd better have weapons on-line and ready." Leia trotted aft and

  climbed into the topside laser turret while Han activated the concussion missile

  launcher. Once she had her comlink activated, she heard her husband's complaint,

  "You have no faith in my abilities."

  "Of course I have faith in your abilities." She took the turret for a

  practice spin and began the self-test of its computer targeting system. "I also

  have experience with theirs."

  Space twisted before them and then almost instantly snapped back to normal.

  But Borleias did not dominate the viewport as it should have. The sun was

  somewhat larger, a bright globe.

  Then they were in a loop, centrifugal force crushing Leia down into her

  gunner's chair before she could shout to Han about the coralskippers she saw

  closing on the Falcon from astern. She watched the universe to either side

  rotate as they went upside-down to their original arrival orientation, and

  overhead she could see the two distant gleams of the oncoming skips.

  Leia began firing the topside lasers as fast as they could charge, and the

  skips sent streams of plasma at the Falcon. They gained relative elevation in

  what was probably originally an attempt to follow the Falcon's loop, but the

  maneuver ended up putting them on a collision course with the Falcon.

  Han's words came over the comm, muffled as if uttered through clenched

  teeth: "Going starboard."

  Leia chose a starboard target and concentrated all her laser fire on that

  skip. Its voids did well against her barrage, intercepting every bolt, but her

  concentration of fire on the area of the pilot's canopy doomed the coralskipper-

  Han's concussion missile, fired a moment later, detonated against the skip's

  hull, vaporizing the smaller craft.

  Han sent the Falcon into a mad spin along its long axis. A shower of plasma

  projectiles flashed harmlessly by-mostly harmlessly; a clank and the sudden

  sound of damage alarms was proof that at least one of them had managed a graze.

  Then the second coralskipper was past, behind them, and beginning a long

  loop around.

  Han did not follow; he turned back toward Borleias and put on a burst of

  speed.

  Leia felt her jaw drop in surprise. She keyed the corn-link. "Hey, you,"

  she said. "What have you done with my husband? The one who laughs in the face of

  death, then takes it out for drinks and dinner?"

  Han sounded pained. "That pilot is just trying to lure us back to his pals.

  Do I look that dumb?"

  She frowned, considering.

  "Am I that dumb?" he asked.

  "Well, no, certainly not."

  Grinning, Leia returned her attention to the sensors. They showed the

  remaining coralskipper tightening its turn as its pilot realized that the Falcon

  was not pursuing; it would be coming up behind them soon. Distortions in the

  wire-frame image showed the locations of dovin basal mines, the gravitic

  organisms capable of yanking ships out of hyperspace.

  That wire-frame was continuing to update, continuing to distort, and she

  frowned at it, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. "Straight down," she

  shouted, "relative to our current orientation. Move it, flyboy!"

  He moved it, pointing the Falcon's nose straight "down." The hard maneuver

  hauled Leia up out of her seat, and she could hear the restraining straps

  creaking against her slight mass.

  "All right, we're pointed down," Han said. "You are one crabby, grumpy

  wife. What's that all about? Why not straight for Borleias?"

  "More mines that way. And we're being followed by one,"

  "Followed by a mine?" Han spared a glance for the sensor board, for the

  distortion Leia had seen, the distortion that was closing on the Falcon's

  position. "Not fair. Leia, how's our pursuer?"

  "Rotate, please, he's coming in under us."

  Han obligingly spun the Falcon again on its long axis, and Leia began

  firing on the second coralskipper.

  Now that the Falcon was no longer maneuvering, except for the juking and

  jinking Han performed to keep enemy projectiles from hitting it, the transport

  was outdistancing the dovin basal mine pursuing it. And they were coming up on

  the outer fringes of the gravitic effects of the closest dovin basal mines.

  Leia sprayed the skip with fire and noted that its protective void tended

  to recenter itself over the pilot's compartment each time the craft maneuvered

  to match one of the Falcon's twitches. She concentrated her fire there, waited

  until the Falcon made another sideslip, then jerked her aim toward the

  coralskipper's bow. The audio interpreters built into the Falcon's sensor system

  gave out the sound of an explosion and the coralskipper's blip disappeared from

  the screen.

  "Good shot," Han said over the comlink. "How about coming back up here and

  plotting us a course back to Borleias?"

  "Give me a second. You are one crabby, grumpy husband."

  Wedge frowned throughout Han's and Leia's account of their return to

  Borleias. "I don't like this notion of dovin basal mines that pursue you."

  "Me, either," Han said. "I'm going to draft a strongly worded letter to the

  Yuuzhan Vong high commander and insist he stop using them."

  Tycho, on the other side of the conference table, offered up a rare smile.

  Leia merely gave her husband an arch look.

  "Actually, we know his name now," Wedge said. "Their local commander.

  Czulkang Lah. We got the information from some of the reptoids that were

  involved in their big push on us, after we freed them from their control seeds."

  "Lah," Leia said. "From the same domain as Tsavong Lah?"

  Tycho nodded. "Even better. He's Tsavong Lah's father. An old, fierce,

  terrifying warrior and teacher of warriors. He's like the Garm bel Iblis of the

  Yuuzhan Vong."

  "And if we can beat him," Wedge said, "really beat him, it may suggest to

  the Vong that their gods aren't really as anxious for them to win as they

  supposed."

  "Back to the mobile mines," Tycho said. "It does beg the question of how

  long they've had them, and why this is the first instance we've run into of them

  being used."

  "Right." Wedge considered. "Han, Leia, when you were making the insertion

  into Hapes a few weeks ago, you became convinced that the dovin basal mines

  didn't just drag things out of hyperspace. You said you thought they registered

  every ship's unique mass characteristics and communicated that information to

  the Vong leaders. Let them build up a sort of Vong database of our ship

  movements."

  Leia nodded. "That's right. And Jaina used their reliance on those mass

  characteristics against the Yuuzhan Vong while she was there."

  "My guess," Wedge said, "is that this mobile dovin basal mine came after

  you be
cause it recognized you, specifically the Millennium Falcon. Another ship,

  they might devote fewer resources to capturing or destroying, but loss of the

  Falcon and the Solos would be a big morale hit for our side."

  Han and Leia exchanged a glance. Han's expression was cocky, but Leia could

  see that he recognized the danger if Wedge's theory was correct.

  "Meaning," Leia said, "that any ship belonging to one of our side's, well,

  celebrities might be detected as such at any time, wherever it goes."

  "Something to keep in mind." Wedge turned to Tycho. "Call Cilghal in for a

  meeting later today or tomorrow. And Jaina and her psychological warfare

  advisers. Maybe we can use this to our advantage."

  "Are we done here?" Han asked. "We have some important things to do. Like

  running down Jaina before you monopolize her. We'd sort of like to spend some

  time with her. It's why we keep coming back here. Not to look at your face."

  Wedge gave him a toothy grin. "Watch that insolence. I might just have to

  call you up to active service, General Solo."

  Leia lay in her bed. Yes, it was too hard, too lumpy, and light-years away

  from the quarters that had been her home for years, but this was her bed, and

  just knowing that it was a place she could return to again and again gave her

  pleasure out of proportion to its characteristics. She'd flopped onto it, fully

  dressed, luxuriating in possession if not in comfort, the instant they'd entered

  their quarters.

  Someone knocked on the door. Leia lifted her head and looked at Han on the

  other side. He stared at her expectant.

  "Your turn," she said.

  "Why mine?"

  "Because I said it first."

  "Can't argue with that logic." Han rolled to his feet and pressed the

  access panel beside the door. The door slid aside, revealing a tall, awkward-

  looking man; the man's left arm was in a sling.

  "Ah, hello," their visitor said. "I'm Tam Elgrin."

  "I know who you are." Han shook his hand. "You spied around for a while,

  and then decided to quit. Headaches ever since."

  "Something like that."

  "Come on in."

  Leia rose. The quarters she shared with Han were not large or well-

  furnished, but the two of them could make a pretense at civilization. "Can I get

  you something to drink, Tam?"

  "No, I'm fine. I'm, uh, here to talk to you about Tarc."

  "We saw him just a few minutes ago," Leia said. "He mostly talked about

  you."

  Han waved him toward a chair. "So talk."

  A rap at his door awakened Kyp. Still clothed-he'd settled in only to rest,

  and was surprised to find that he'd nodded off-the Jedi Master rose and

  activated the door. It slid out of the way to reveal Piggy. The Gamorrean pilot

  leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, a tough-guy posture,

  "It's the Great One," Piggy said.

  Kyp rubbed sleep out of his eyes. "What about her?"

  "She wants to see you."

  "Now?"

  "Now."

  "Where?"

  "On the roof."

  Kyp gave the Gamorrean a closer look. Piggy wasn't normally so taciturn. In

  fact, he sounded more like a bar bouncer than himself. Kyp reached out with a

  whisper of his control over the Force and reassured himself that he could sense

  the pilot, that this Piggy wasn't a Yuuzhan Vong warrior in an unusually

  distinctive ooglith masquer disguise. "I'm on my way up."

  Kyp emerged onto the biotics facility's roof, an uneven surface of external

  equipment housings and rough textures. It was now dark, a glow in the west

  attesting to how recently the sun had set.

  "Over here." That was Jaina's voice, and when Kyp turned he could see both

  her and Jag Fel sitting atop a condenser-unit housing. He could barely identify

  them by sight; they were nothing but silhouettes. There were more, smaller,

  silhouettes where they sat-something that looked like a basket, something that

  looked like a bottle. Kyp snorted. "You're having a picnic?"

  "That's right." There was amusement in Jaina's voice. And the Goddess

  commands you to attend."

  'You're getting strange, Goddess." Kyp sprang up to the unit housing top,

  landing directly into a cross-legged sitting position to match Jag's. Jaina was

  stretched out of her side, facing the two of them.

  "It's not just a picnic." Jaina took the bottle and poured some of its

  contents into a glass, one of three mismatched glasses beside the basket. She

  handed the glass to Kyp. "We need to talk. The three of us." She poured two more

  glasses and handed one to Jag.

  Kyp sniffed dubiously at his glass. "Paint thinner?"

  "We're not that lucky," Jag said. "While we've been waiting, I've been

  determining its effects on local insects. One hundred percent deadly."

  "Hush," Jaina said. "This is the finest example of the Borleias distiller's

  art. It's dereliction of duty to be drinking it when another Vong barrage might

  start at any minute. That means it's going to taste wonderful." She took an

  experimental sip.

  To her credit, she did keep her reactions from her face. But through the

  Force Kyp could feel her physiological reaction as nerve endings in her throat

  protested the intrusion of the homemade brew.

  Though blind to the Force, Jag had to be familiar enough with Jaina to

  sense what she was experiencing. His shoulders shook with silent laughter.

  "Anyway," Jaina said. Her voice sounded as though she'd suddenly

  transformed into an elderly mechanic. "We've got a problem, Kyp. You and me and

  Jag."

  "I wasn't aware of any problems."

  "Then why do you yank yourself out of our Force connection the instant it's

  not absolutely vital to our current task? It's like dancing with a partner who

  jumps back past arm's length and brushes himself off at the end of every dance."

  "That's... an interesting comparison." Kyp glanced at Jag, but the younger

  man hadn't reacted to Jaina's phrasing, and Kyp couldn't see his face. "Maybe

  you and I should talk about this some time. Privately."

  "And maybe not. Jag's part of this situation. He was the one who suggested

  this talk."

  Kyp felt himself grow annoyed, and became even more annoyed with himself

  for indulging in such a predictable reaction. "He did, huh? Direct

  confrontation. That is the Fel family approach, isn't it?"

  Jag took a sip of the homebrew and made a noise that suggested he'd just

  been punched. After a moment, he said, "I come from more than one family line,

  Kyp. Some of them are sneakier than others."

  "What does that mean?"

  "That means... that whatever you expect this meeting to be, it probably

  isn't."

  "A nice enigmatic reply." Kyp sipped from his glass. Whatever the fluid

  was, it seemed to be part alcohol, part pepper, part rotted fruit. His eyes

  watered. "Wait a second. You two took the antidote before I came up here, didn't

  you?"

  Jaina snorted. "Would you mind if I cut straight to the power cable?"

  "Go right ahead."

  "A while back, you manipulated me. I didn't like it. On Hapes, I dragged

  you into some situations you didn't care for. I gave you plenty of trouble. We

  both li
ed to each other about what we intended and what we meant. Well, I

  thought, when you decided you wanted to join my squadron, that it meant you'd

  forgiven me. When I accepted, it meant I'd forgiven you. Did it mean that, or

  didn't it?"

  "It did."

  "So are we partners, or aren't we?"

  "Well, we are. At least so long as Twin Suns Squadron holds out."

  "No, don't do that." Jaina let some exasperation creep into her voice.

  "Every time we link through the Force, I can feel you preparing yourself for the

  day you have to cut loose and run. Believe me, I understand that. I was doing

  the same thing until just a few weeks back. For reasons equally as dumb. And you

  break the link fast so that I won't know what you're doing, not that it's done

  you any good. I want you to quit doing that. I want you to quit thinking about

  going off and being by yourself. I know your brother's dead, your family's dead,

  your last squadron is dead, and I'm sorry. But you don't have to leave, and you

  don't have to be alone."

  "Uhh..." Kyp struggled to come up with an answer, the right answer. "I also

  don't want to be in the way. In your way. Between you and, you know."

  Jag extended a hand. "Colonel Jagged Fel. Glad to meet you."

  "Shut up, you. Jaina, it's uncomfortable."

  "Yeah, I know. Jag and I are partners, too, and something more besides, and

  you're here, and you were sort of chasing after me for a while, and it's got to

  be confusing. It is to me as well. Is it going to make you leave?"

  "It should."

  "Then you should leave now and stop wavering."

  Kyp stood. "You're right. I'm sorry I-"

  "Sit down!"

  Surprised at the strength in her voice, Kyp sat before he realized it. He

  gaped at her.

  "That's better," Jaina said. "Jag, why are males so stupid?"

  "Biological predisposition. Here's an example." Jag took another sip. Even

  in the darkness, the ripple of anguish that moved from his neck to his feet was

  clearly visible.

  Jaina sat up, her pose a mirror of Jag's. "Kyp, it's uncomfortable because

  partnerships are uncomfortable. Families are uncomfortable. I know mine is. You

  have to put up with the discomfort because the only alternative is to lose

  everything.

  "Once upon a time, you were kind of a kid brother to rny father. I don't