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  There was no flash of light, no noise of the impact - Wedge was racing away

  too fast for the sound to catch him. There was only the grisly image of the

  coralskipper tearing through the creature, emerging in a different, narrower

  shape, the rakamat being flung in two pieces away from the point of impact, the

  remains of the coralskipper arching up in a ballistic course and then gradually

  down toward the ground.

  Wedge looped around to mop up. There was unaccustomed tension in his arm,

  and he realized that he was gripping the yoke too hard.

  "I'm not going to say it," he told himself. ''I'm not."

  I'm getting too old for this.

  Lusankya was visible to the naked eye now, a tiny needle pointed straight

  for Domain Hul.

  Czulkang Lah squinted up at it, irritable, his diminished eyesight

  insufficient to provide him with any details of what he was seeing. He gestured

  at an aide, who correctly interpreted the nonspecific motion and stroked the

  enormous circular lens in the center of the command chamber's ceiling. It

  distorted, stretching details at its periphery into blurriness, magnifying the

  enemy ship's image until it dominated the scene.

  The ship had already sustained tremendous damage. The deckplating

  everywhere was torn, rough, like a road that had once been smooth and then had

  been traveled over by herds of rakamats with spike weapons on their feet. Flame

  jetted out from its hull in dozens of places. Its guns were mostly silent;

  Czulkang Lah saw only two batteries that were still active, and they seemed to

  be firing at random. They posed little threat to his coralskippcrs.

  But there were still squadrons of enemy starfighters out there, mostly

  concentrated at Lusankya's stern, maintaining a savage defense over that area of

  the ship.

  Kasdakh Bhul moved to stand beside him. "Our pilots report that the

  Lusankya abomination is almost destroyed. Lack of responsiveness indicates that

  most of her crew must be dead and most of her weapons eliminated. She will not

  be able to send her lasers and bolts against us."

  Czulkang Lah carefully positioned his feet so that the blow would not cause

  him to lose his balance; that would be unseemly. Then he swung his arm. His

  vonduun crab armor correctly interpreted his haste and snapped his arm forward.

  His armored forearm cracked across the back of Kasdakh BhuPs helmet, sending his

  second-in-command staggering forward.

  Kasdakh Bhul regained his balance and spun. Czulkang Lah could see the

  younger officer's features graduate from an expression of anger to one of

  surprise.

  "You see, but you do not understand," Czulkang Lah said. "They never

  intended to use their weapons upon us."

  "Oh." The younger officer's voice became unreasonably reasonable, a type of

  mockery useful in that it could be persuasively denied afterward. "So this was

  simply an infidel sacrifice? An apology? They are saying, We are sorry for being

  bad; here, have our greatest weapon?'"

  Czulkang Lah offered him a smile nearly devoid of teeth. "You persist in

  being an idiot. I am proud to say I did not train you; you would have been my

  most repellent failure. Did you not notice? They never protected their weapons.

  They only protected their engines. What does that tell you?"

  The younger officer scowled. "That they wanted the thing to get here

  quickly?"

  "That their engines are their weapons. Are you sure you are not an ooglith

  masquer with nothing actually inside?"

  Kasdakh Bhul ignored the undisguised insult. "Then their intention-is to

  ram us?"

  "Wisdom. At last. So, even an ooglith masquer can learn a little when

  submerged in knowledge."

  "Then we must make sure the abomination is incapable of reaching us. Of

  maneuvering adequately to ram us."

  "Very good. Issue the orders, Ooglith Masquer."

  Three coralskippers, all that remained of the latest wave, turned and sped

  away.

  Doubtless they'd regroup with reinforcements in a minute and return. Luke

  checked his sensor and status boards. He was now two pilots down, and the

  remainder of his units were battered; he had some plasma scoring on his

  starboard top S-wing and engine. "Blackmoon Leader to squadron," he said. "We

  have a moment. Anyone with stripped shields, now's the time to commence a power

  restart." He goosed his thruster to come up behind and below Lusankya's port-

  side thruster banks; he kept well to port of them. This position gave him a good

  view of the Yuuzhan Vong worldship ahead. "Anything I should know?"

  "We have Blackmoon Eleven back on the status board." That was the voice of

  Lieutenant Ninora Birt, Black-moon Ten, the squad's new communications

  specialist. A freelance smuggler, she'd loaned her expertise and her freighter,

  Record Time, to the cause of this operation. Her freighter had been half

  destroyed during the taking of Borleias, and the job had been completed above

  Cor-uscant weeks later; now, with a new military officer's commission, she was

  still fighting the good fight.

  Luke glanced at his status board. It did indeed indicate that Blackmoon

  Eleven was active. Distance and direction suggested that the X-wing was on

  Borleias.

  "No way." That was Blackmoon Five. "Koril's in bacta somewhere. I saw the

  medics haul him off."

  "Doesn't matter," Luke said. "Concentrate on what's at hand."

  "Blackmoon Leader, this is Twin Suns Leader."

  "Go, Goddess.''

  "Sharr is detecting skips regrouping in a bunch of different units. All at

  a uniform distance away from Lusankya."

  "We'll set up for a new wave, then. Thanks, Exalted One."

  Finally Jaina could see the incoming squadrons on her sensors. There were a

  lot of them, eight groupings at least, and the three squadrons at Lusankya's

  stern were losing strength. "Time for a Goddess chase, don't you think, Sharr?"

  "Ooh, your words thrill me, Great One,"

  "Don't be so thrilled that you screw up."

  "Ooh, your supportiveness thrills me-"

  "Get back to business, Sharr."

  "Right." Sharr was silent for a long moment, during which the units of

  coralskippers got closer, moving in from all directions. Then: "Nearest dovin

  basal minefield is ahead and to port. The Goddess should aim for that. Piggy,

  when do the incoming units get close enough to recognize us by sight?"

  "Forty seconds, but if the Goddess goes off straight toward that minefield,

  she'll pass close enough for them to see her."

  "Ooh, right. Adjusting course... Twin Suns Leader, prepare yourself for the

  chase. Three, two, one... chase."

  A missile roared away from Twin Suns Ten, streaking off to port at nearly a

  ninety-degree angle to their current course, aiming toward the largest gap

  between any of the inbound squadrons. Jaina activated her gravitic signature and

  transponder switches. Abruptly her designation on the sensor board went to Twin

  Suns Nine, while the ourbound missile, just as instantaneously, became Twin Suns

  One.

  There was a momentary wobble in the movements of skip squadrons to port.

  Then four of the squads in that direction
changed course, converging on the

  missile.

  "Well done, Sharr," Jaina said. When she'd switched to the Twin Suns Nine

  identity, her comm system should have activated a program to alter her vocal

  characteristics, making her sound like an older woman, one with a deeper voice.

  "Thanks, Nine. And nice to have Leader gone. She's so bossy."

  Kyp cut into the conversation: "Heads up. We still have incoming contacts

  to starboard. Prepare to repel boarders. Break by shield trios on my command...

  three, two, one, break."

  While Beelyath held position within the Twin Suns Ten-Eleven-Twelve shield

  trio, Sharr kept his attention on his special sensor and comm boards. The

  distant missile code-named Goddess, and now, courtesy of Cilghal's biotechnical

  magic, characterized by the precise gravitic signature of Jaina's X-wing, had

  onboard computers and logic programs that allowed it to execute its mission on

  its own, but Sharr could still feed it priority updates.

  He switched to a wire-frame view of local space as the Goddess missile and

  the coralskippers pursuing it entered the dovin basal minefield. The green wire

  frame superimposed on the scene showed the spatial distortions caused by the

  mines and their gravitic influence on their surroundings.

  Sharr kept the missile's speed down to that of an X-wing's standard cruise

  rate, allowing the pursuing skips to gain on it. So far, they were still far

  enough in its wake that the pilots could not see it with their naked eyes, could

  not realize that it wasn't the true Jaina Solo.

  The Yuuzhan Vong pursuers were good. They were gaining faster than he

  expected on the missile. With his sensors, superior to the missile's, Sharr drew

  a course revision on his screen, sending the missile on a path that would take

  it past mine after mine, while giving more and more pursuers the chance to

  approach it. He executed and sent the course revision, then lost sight of his

  sensor board as Beelyath sent the B-wing into a veering turn that crushed Sharr

  into his restraints and caused his vision to blur, all despite the starfighter's

  inertial compensators.

  "Comfortable?" Beelyath croaked.

  "Huh?" Sharr grunted. "Sorry, I was sleeping."

  EIGHTEEN

  Though he could not see the distant X-wing, Charat Kraal's cognition hood

  created a glow in in the distance, a glow he knew actually existed only in his

  mind, showing the enemy vehicle's position.

  And his opponent was good, as he knew Jaina Solo to be, but this day she

  was flying with more skillful reckless abandon than he had ever before seen,

  leading the coral-skippers deep into the dovin basal minefield, doubtless hoping

  to elude them by passing through such a difficult and dangerous area at high

  speed.

  For a moment, doubt flickered in Charat Kraal's mind. Why would she have

  left the relative safety of numbers, of her personal squadron, to lead the

  Yuuzhan Vong here by herself? There seemed to be only one possible answer: so

  she could attempt to kill them all without any of her fellow pilots to share the

  glory.

  Was she that overconfident? Was she that mad?

  Could her confidence be warranted?

  The pilot to Charat Kraal's port side opened fire with his plasma cannon,

  sending a stream of red glows oft toward the distant target.

  Charat Kraal cursed to himself. Of all the traits of the infidels'

  starfighters, the one he truly envied was the ability they gave their pilots to

  talk to one another, voice to voice. The yammosk war coordinator kept this

  flight of pursuers coordinated and pointed in the right direction, but could not

  prevent a pilot with a rogue streak from firing on an enemy they were supposed

  to capture alive.

  Charat Kraal dropped back a few lengths and slid in behind the errant

  pilot. From this close distance, he could see that the yorik coral of the

  coralskipper ahead was marked with the symbols of Domain Hul. Making no effort

  to disguise his action, he carefully aimed at that coralskipper's stern and

  fired a single plasma cannon shot straight at it. As he expected, a void from

  the other coralskipper appeared in the path of the plasma projectile and

  swallowed it.

  That pilot ignored the warning. He continued firing at the distant Jaina

  Solo and now sideslipped to starboard, distancing himself from Charat Kraal,

  indicating in no uncertain terms his intent to continue following his own

  warrior spirit, even if it meant disobeying direct orders.

  Charat Kraal growled to himself and followed. He fired again, this time a

  continuous stream of plasma, intending to kill rather than to warn. The Hul

  pilot banked away more sharply, his voids intercepting the incoming plasma, and

  then rolled into a maneuver designed to swing him around behind Charat Kraal.

  Finally, Charat Kraal grinned. In a moment, he would have another kill,

  this one a disobedient pilot from another domain, and would have reinforced his

  reputation for order and ruthlessness in his own unit.

  The other coralskippers of the unit continued on their original course,

  closing on Jaina Solo.

  Czulkang Lah made a noise of displeasure. The pattern of blaze bugs in the

  darkened sensor niche told the whole story of Charat Kraal's pursuit. He did not

  blame Charat Kraal for this momentary diversion, but was not happy at the lack

  of discipline shown by the other pilot. It would be best when that warrior was

  dead, best if he died painfully and ignobly enough to discourage other warriors

  from similar acts of self-glorifying disobedience.

  "What is wrong?" Harrar asked. "This is the Jaina Solo pursuit?"

  "It is." Czulkang Lah pointed into the mass of blaze bugs, though he

  doubted that the priest, unused to the complexity of battlefield images, would

  be able to interpret what he saw. "The pursuers are not acting in concert. It

  appears that one wishes to kill Jaina Solo. If we are lucky, this notion will

  not spread to the others."

  "We cannot have that. We must capture her. Must extract from her the truth

  about her trickery, the truth that she has nothing to do with our gods." Harrar

  turned to another of the command chamber's officers. "Have my ship alerted and

  readied. I will enter the minefield and join the pursuit."

  At Czulkang Lah's reinforcing nod, the officer did as instructed.

  Then something changed in the blaze bug image, and for a moment Czulkang

  Lah thought that perhaps he, too, was misinterpreting what he was seeing. Two of

  the coralskippers closest to Jaina Solo, though too far away for her infidel

  lasers to have hit them, had disappeared, simply winked out. Even with his

  enfeebled eyes, Czulkang Lah could see the blaze bugs that had represented them,

  now darkened, flying to the darkened back of the display niche, ready to reenter

  as a new contact when needed.

  What had happened?

  Sharr Latt was getting the hang of it now, the method of calculating the

  gravitic pull of a dovin basal mine on one of the Goddess missile's passes, then

  coming near it again and using its own gravitic attraction to whip the missile

  around and slingshot it in a new direction.

  The miss
ile, mostly solid-state, not disadvantaged by the physical

  limitations of a living pilot, could survive much tighter turns and more

  strenuous g-forces than the pursuing coralskippers. On the last pass the missile

  made past one specific mine, the two closest pursuers had followed the missile's

  path exactly, had been caught by the mine's gravity, had been torn to pieces by

  their own daring.

  Plasma projectiles flashed past the bubble viewport of the B-wing's crew

  compartment. Fascinated with his deadly toy, Sharr ignored them, relying on

  Beelyath to keep him alive.

  The squadrons protecting Lusankya broke toward different incoming

  squadrons. Jaina, still masquerading as Twin Suns Nine, kept her silence as Kyp

  Durron scattered Her shield trios in the path of incoming coralskippers.

  As the distant skips came within maximum laser-effective range, she reached

  for Kyp in the Force, found nim there, found him waiting for a better shot. She

  reached for Jag as well, detected him, could even faintly feel the intensity of

  his focus, his state of alert relaxation. But she could not interact with him as

  she could with Kyp, could not afford to be distracted, so she withdrew from that

  contact.

  Then Kyp was firing and her hand was automatically squeezing her lasers'

  trigger, firing a quad-linked blast at one incoming skip. Both her shot and

  Kyp's were intercepted by voids, but Jag's, a fraction of a second later, plowed

  into the enemy star fighter's nose, destroying the dovin basal there, depriving

  the craft of its capabilities of flight and defense. Kyp and Jaina each poured

  another salvo of laser energy into the craft; it burst, exploding as the lasers

  superheated internal moisture to the state of gas, and vented atmosphere into

  space.

  "One Flight, Twin Suns Five." That was Piggy. "Suggest you come to zero-

  one-zero ecliptic, hold that course for ten seconds, take targets of

  opportunity."

  "Twin Suns Two, copy." Kyp led Jag and Jaina around in the indicated

  direction. Ahead, Jaina could see where Four Flight-Beelyath and Tilath-had

  gotten on the tails of two skips and were chasing them directly across One