Part 7 (1/2)

Luke forced himself not to react. Leia and Han are safe Leia and Han are safe, he thought. That's what That's what matters. matters.

Soresh jerked his head at the guards, who grabbed Luke and hoisted him roughly off the ground. ”Take him inside and teach him not to fail me again.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

The Firespray craft slipped out of hyperdrive at the edge of the Sixela star system. Div steered the s.h.i.+p toward the sixth planet from the sun, which was circled by a small red moon. It felt good to be flying again-he'd been stuck on the ground for far too long. And when it came to flying, there was nothing like piloting a Firespray. Not that there was anything wrong with the Alliance's X-wings. But the Firespray had long been Div's favorite s.h.i.+p. Sleek, swift, and modified for optimal speed and firing capacities, it was a s.h.i.+p well suited to the galaxy's best pilots. And Div had always considered himself the best of the best.

From the copilot seat, Ferus activated the long-range sensors, and tried to secure a visual on their target.

”Doesn't look like much,” Div said, as they reached the moon.

”Let's hope it's not,” Ferus replied.

Div knew he was right. If their suspicions proved wrong, if there was nothing here but dim sun and bare rock, it would be for the best. But he couldn't help secretly wis.h.i.+ng for a little action. Until recently, Div had been a mercenary pilot, the best in the galaxy. He'd hired himself out to anyone who'd come calling, hopping from one dirty job to the next.

Smuggling, airlifting, sneak attacks, he'd done it all-and he'd done it well. Life had been a nonstop stream of fiery battles and breathless escapes. Just the way Div liked it. Because the faster he moved, the less he had to think.

Running into Ferus again had been like running into a duracrete wall. It stopped him cold. For months, he'd been stuck on that humid Rebel moon, digging ditches and chopping trees and doing nothing nothing. Nothing except thinking about his past, and everything he'd lost. Sometimes he wished he could just erase it all-Clive, Astri, Trever, all the dead, all the losses, all the painful memories-just start fresh. Since that was impossible, he did the next best thing. He flew fast, he hit hard, he defied death in a thousand different ways, anything to distract himself. And there were no distractions on Yavin 4. There was only Ferus, that constant reminder of the past.

So the rational part of him hoped they didn't run into any trouble on this moon.

But the other part of him-the part that was desperate for distraction, for movement, for action action-almost hoped they did.

”Bringing us into orbit,” Div said, dropping the s.h.i.+p so low it nearly skimmed the atmosphere.

”Laser cannons armed,” Ferus reported. ”Just in case.”

Div tried to reach out with the Force and sense whether there was danger lurking beneath them. But he felt nothing-as usual. Ferus kept a.s.suring him that with time and practice, he might regain the abilities he'd had as a child. The Force is always with you The Force is always with you, Ferus kept saying. You just have to let it in. You just have to let it in. But as hard as Div tried, he felt nothing. He could remember how effortless it had been when he was young, when all he had to do was open his mind and he could do But as hard as Div tried, he felt nothing. He could remember how effortless it had been when he was young, when all he had to do was open his mind and he could do anything anything. He just couldn't remember how he had done it.

And the harder he tried, the more impossible it seemed.

”Do you sense anything?” he finally asked, giving up.

Ferus inclined his head, as if listening to the silence of s.p.a.ce. Then he shook his head.

”There is something, some small disturbance in the Force...but I don't believe we're in danger. Yet.”

The Rebel Command would be furious if they knew Div and Ferus had ventured here, ahead of the mission. Reconnaissance had been deemed too dangerous for fear of tipping off the Imperials who might already be here. General Dodonna didn't want anything interfering with the mission. But there were no other s.h.i.+ps in sight, and no sign of an Imperial presence on the radar.

”Then I'm bringing her down a little lower,” Div said. He dropped the s.h.i.+p into the thin atmosphere. Wispy clouds whipped past the viewscreen.

”There!” Ferus cried, pointing down at the surface.

”What?” Div asked.

”Something,” Ferus said, shaking his head. ”There's something there, I feel it.”

At this speed, it was little more than a blur. Div saw nothing of use or interest. But Jedi saw things that others did not. And so Div slowed the s.h.i.+p for the next pa.s.s around the planet, aiming the sensor array at the general area Ferus had picked out. And there it was: the Millennium Falcon Millennium Falcon.

Div's eyes widened. He was about to take the Firespray in for a landing, when Ferus stayed his hand. ”Not yet,” he said. ”Look.” The s.h.i.+p was circled by a ring of men, standing in a tight formation. There was no indication Han, Leia, or Chewbacca were among them. ”We have to know more.”

So they circled the moon several more times. The instruments detected signs of life, all of them concentrated in a ten-kilometer radius of squat duracrete buildings.

Ferus drummed his fingers on the control panel. ”Perhaps it's time to find out-”

A low beeping from the comm cut him off.

”It's a distress signal,” Ferus reported. ”And it's being transmitted on a Rebel frequency.”

”It must be the Falcon Falcon,” Div said, certain there were no other Rebels in the system.

But the signal originated several kilometers away from where the Corellian freighter was docked. Div took the s.h.i.+p in for a landing. Then he armed his blaster. Maybe the distress call was coming from the Falcon Falcon crew. But there was always a chance someone else had gotten their hands on the Rebel frequencies. And Div had no intention of walking into a trap. ”Ready?” he asked. crew. But there was always a chance someone else had gotten their hands on the Rebel frequencies. And Div had no intention of walking into a trap. ”Ready?” he asked.

Ferus nodded. He activated his lightsaber, and opened the hatchway. They climbed down to the surface of the moon. It was an arid, craggy landscape of shallow craters and towering boulders. As they explored the area, their footsteps kicked up clouds of fine red dust. The distress signal was coming from this location, there was no doubt about it.

Whatever had called them here was nearby-right on top of them.

”We mean you no harm!” Div shouted, trying to draw them out. ”Unless you mean some to us,” he added, under his breath. He fingered his blaster trigger, ready for anything.

”We've found them,” Ferus said quietly.

Div didn't bother to ask how he could be so sure. And he wasn't surprised when, a moment later, Han, Leia, and the Wookiee appeared from behind a boulder. The golden protocol droid and his counterpart were by their side.

Han flashed a crooked smile. ”Took you long enough.”

”What do you mean, Luke decided to stay? stay? ” Ferus asked, sounding alarmed. ” Ferus asked, sounding alarmed.

The six of them-plus one very uncomfortable Wookiee-were crammed inside the Firespray. Han and Leia had run through the highlights of their time on the moon. Div couldn't believe the situation was even worse worse than he'd feared. than he'd feared.

”He thought it was the only way to figure out Soresh's plans,” Leia explained. ”So he's pretending to be under Soresh's control.”

”A double agent,” Ferus said, under his breath. All the color had drained out of his face. ”He has to escape-before it's too late.”

”Hey, I tried to convince him,” Han said. ”The kid knows what he wants. I say we trust him.”

”If Luke believes he can do it...” Leia began.

Ferus shook his head. ”Believing in one's own strength can be a great a.s.set. But it can also be the key to defeat.”

”It's really too bad you never got to meet Luke's crazy Jedi friend,” Han said. ”You two could have talked riddles to each other all day long.”

Ferus didn't seem to hear him. Div watched his old friend closely, suspecting he was lost in the past. There was a time when Ferus himself had acted as a double agent, confident that he was strong enough to face the challenge. He had drawn sharp boundaries between the man he was and the man he was pretending to be. But as time pa.s.sed, the boundaries blurred. The dark side swelled within him. He had looked the same, acted the same-but those who knew him well had sensed a difference. A hard, angry edge that had never been there before. A darkness. Ferus had come close to giving in to the dark side.

Closer than anyone knew, Ferus had once admitted to Div. It was Div that had saved him-Div, and everything he had once represented. Hope for the future: innocence and light. That was a long time ago, another life, when Div was known as Lune, when Ferus was a leader. It was a long-dead past, but maybe Div wasn't the only one who still bore the scars.