Part 40 (1/2)

”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 modic.u.m 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 squadmates. 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 s.h.i.+gar 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 s.p.a.ced 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, thras.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+fted 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 thras.h.i.+ng 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.

s.h.i.+gar braced himself for the explosion. There was a small chance that he could s.h.i.+eld 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 n.o.bil 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, s.h.i.+gar Kons.h.i.+. 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 s.h.i.+mmering Force s.h.i.+eld.