Part 25 (1/2)

Luke looked down on the bridge from the gla.s.sed-in confines of the flag deck that looked down on the bridge proper. Luke and all his companions were there, strapped into their seats and ready for action.

Belindi IKalenda, Lando, Gaeriel, Artoo, and Threepio.

And Ossilege, of course, along with his staff officers.

The bridge down below was a fairly standard arrangement, borrowing as much from Imperial s.h.i.+p design as anything else. There was a central raised walkway, with the various control stations in sunken trench like operations centers that lined the perimeter of the bridge.

Luke glanced over at Lando and grinned. ”Let's see if we can make it all the way in this time,” he said.

Lando smiled back. ”Absolutely,” he said. ”I don't like getting doors slammed in my face.”

”enty seconds.”

”I don't know why they bothered with the countdown 1UW n-U-KMMW clock,” Lando said. ”That's just a best-guess estimate of the edge of the field. It's bound to be off.”

”It never hurts to give the crew something to focus on,” said Admiral Ossilege. ”And it makes it a great deal easier to coordinate between the four s.h.i.+ps.”

”Fifteen seconds.”

”I quite agree with Captain Cairissian,” Threepio volunteered.

”I've , always found this sort of thing terrifically disturbing.

”Threepio, pipe down,” Lando said. ”And I don't ever want to hear you agreeing with me again. Is that understood?”

”But, Captain Calrissian-” Artoo cut Threepio off with a rude noise.

”Well, I never!” Threepio said. ”Such language!

Artoo, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

”Ten seconds.”

Luke looked over to the tactical display, showing the colored dots of the four s.h.i.+ps moving toward the dotted blue line of the field's estimated limit. Then he turned back to the forward viewport, determined to see the actual moment of the Intruder's impact on the interdiction field.

”Five seconds.

”Four.”

”Three.”

”One.”

”Zero.”

Nothing happened, but then, Luke hadn't really expected it to. He looked over to Lando, and Lando shrugged. The two of them had done the best they could to measure the field using the Lady Luck's instruments, but they knew better than anyone how rough and ready those measurements had been. It was no surprise at all that they were off by a substantial margin.

”Plus two seconds,”

”Plus three.”

Lando looked toward Luke. ”Hey, who knows?” he asked.

”Maybe, t, hey dropped the field. Maybe we can do this the easyKA-RAM!

Luke was slammed forward into his restraint harness, and thrown to one side at the same time. The forward viewport was suddenly a blaze of surging light, reds and oranges slas.h.i.+ng down as star lines flared into view and then vanished again.

”WE ARE IN THE INTERDICTION FIELD!” the tactics officer shouted over the sudden din of hooting alarms and emergency systems.

'M4INiAiNING STAHC Hll? ERs.p.a.cE BUBBLE. FIRST STATIC BUBBLE GENERATOR DECAYING AT EXPECTED RATE. COLlAPSE IMMINENT-” BLAM! The whole s.h.i.+p bucked and shuddered as the first bubble generator blew out and the second cut in.

The main lighting died for a moment, but kicked back in before the emergency systems had a chance to come on.

The shaking and shuddering got worse, moment by moment, and Luke heard the faroff crash of something slamming into a bulkhead on a lower deck.

BLAMM! The second generator blew, and the third snapped on, more abruptly than the first two. An overhead lighting fixture overloaded and blew out, throwing a shower of sparks across the flag deck. One spark managed to start a fire on the deck carpet, but Artoo had his built-in extinguisher out and on before Luke could even call out a warning.

BA-LAAMM! The third generator blew, and the fourth cut in.

”Maintaining hypers.p.a.ce bubble!” the tactics officer called out, the noise level down enough that she did not have to shout quite so loud.

”Losing hypers.p.a.ce momentum at rate inside projections. Projecting virtual full stop relative to interdiction field in thirty seconds.”

”If we hold together that long!” Lando shouted.

There was another crash somewhere below decks, as if to emphasize his point.

BAA-LAAMMM! There was no doubt about it. Each bounce in and out of hypers.p.a.ce was a bit slower-but a bit less violent-than the one before it. They were through the worst of it. Now if only the s.h.i.+p could hold together for whatever punishment was yet to comewHAMMM! The shock was the hardest yet, and suddenly the s.h.i.+p's artificial gravity failed, just as the lights died again. The s.h.i.+p began to tumble, end over end, as new alarms began to blare and honk. The red emergency lights came on, revealing a scene of chaos. Two or three bridge officers had been thrown clear of their stations, and were flailing about in midair, struggling to grab hold of something, anything, and hang on.

Dozens of small objects had been thrown loose by the impact, and they were caroming about the interior of the bridge. A similar cloud of debris filled the flag deck.

A command station down below on the bridge sparked and flared, throwing lurid shadows in the red-lit gloom.

”Main power coupling off-line!” the tactics officer announced.

”We have lost positive s.h.i.+p control, but hypers.p.a.ce bubble is holding.”

Ossilege punched the com key that linked him to the s.h.i.+p's master.

”Captain Nisewarner! Cut the by, p, ers.p.a.ce sustainer! Drop us into normal s.p.a.ce at once.

”At once, sir,” Semmac's voice replied. A moment later, a long, rumbling ihud, almost below the threshold of hearing, a sound more felt than heard, rolled across the s.h.i.+p. The star lines flared almost halfheartedly to life before dying out, leaving the stars of Corellia gently pinwheeling as the Intruder tumbled her stately way across the sky.

”Fleet status,” Ossilege ordered, his eyes staring out into the sky.

One of the flag-deck technicians checked his displays, listened on his headphones for a moment, and then reported, ”Defender and Sentinel have just dropped out of hypers.p.a.ce in approximate formation with us, within projected parameters. Sentinel reporting only minor damage, Defender reports all boards green. As of yet, we have no track on Watchkeeper.”

”what is the Intruder's location?” Ossilege asked, still watching the viewports.

”No navigational fix as yet, sir. Stand by, data coming in.