Part 17 (1/2)

”Ah,” Mara said. That was interesting. Very interesting indeed. ”So. You want to get off me, or were you just getting comfortable?”

”Oh-sure,” he said awkwardly, some of that old farmboy embarra.s.sment flicking across his face as he scrambled off her. ”Sorry.”

”No problem,” Mara said, getting to her feet and running a critical eye over him. Some nasty-looking shrapnel tears in his clothing, with what were probably some equally nasty injuries underneath them. ”Looks like you need a pa.s.s through the medical bay.”

”No time,” he said, shaking his head. ”I'm okay for now, and we've got to get out of here.

Did my X-wing get docked?”

”I don't know,” Mara said, slapping the control pad to close the outer airlock door.

”Faughn?”

”It's been secured in B-port,” the captain said. ”Skywalker, you know a safe route Out of this death trap?”

”I used to,” Luke said, keying the inner door. ”It's probably not any safer than any other path now.”

”We'll follow the pirates,” Mara decided, waving Krickle away as be hurried up with his medpac and leading Luke down the corridor toward the Starry ice's half-ports. ”They'll probably shoot at us, but you can't have everything.”

”Problem: we seem to have run out of pirates to follow,” Faughn said. ”Nothing's left the asteroid in nearly two minutes.”

Mara felt her stomach muscles tighten. ”Which means the grand finale of their self-destruct system is probably ticking down right now.”

”Probably,” Faughn agreed. ”What do we do, pick a direction and go?”

”More or less,” Mara told her. ”Start pulling away from the main base, but not too fast. I want to be on my turbolaser before we get into anything nasty.”

”Give me time to get out there, too,” Luke added. ”I can run ahead of you and trigger the traps.”

”Only if you can see them coming,” Mara pointed out, giving him a hard look. ”I've got a better danger sense than you do; maybe I should take your s.h.i.+p and break trail.”

”I can do it,” he said firmly. ”Anyway, it's my responsibility-you're here because of me.”

He had a point. ”If that's how you want it,” Mara said, pointing down the corridor. ”Take the first left, then break right. Make it fast.”

She needn't have worried. By the time she reached her turbolaser station the X-wing was already burning s.p.a.ce ahead of them. ”I'm ready,” she announced as she strapped in again.

”Get going, Luke. Good luck.”

”May the Force be with you,” he said with what she decided was probably mild reproof.

”Stay sharp.”

The trip in through the asteroids had been nerve-racking. The trip out, to Mara's surprise, was almost casually easy. Time and again the X-wing would s.h.i.+ft course slightly and fire, setting off a distant cl.u.s.ter trap or shredder bomb or automatic turbolaser nest, usually before Mara's own danger sense had even triggered. It quickly settled into a pattern: the X-wing would maneuver, fire, and dodge, with the Starry Ice following stolidly behind, its own turbolaser crew needing to do only occasional cleanup work.

Whether by design or accident, Luke seemed, to be running slightly above the freighter, doing his most thorough job of minesweeping within Mara's angle of fire. Most of the cleanup work thus wound up in Elkin's or Torve's sectors, leaving Mara little to do except help watch for any surprises the pirates might have left behind, wait patiently for them to clear the asteroid field, and wonder darkly if Luke was d eliberately being overprotective just to annoy her.

It was on one of her visual sweeps of the sky ahead that she spotted the .s.h.i.+p. Her initial thought was that it was a TIE fighter: it was similarly sized and at first glance bad something of the same silhouette. But even as she opened her mouth to alert the others the craft made a turn&mdash ”We've got company,” she snapped. ”Poking near the edge of the asteroid field at about twenty by fifty.”

”Got it,” Faughn said. ”Looks like . . . what does it look like?”

”You got me,” Mara said. ”I thought it was an Imperial, but those aren't TIE solar panels on its sides.”

”Whatever they are, it's got two more of them flaring aft at the tail,” Elkin pointed out.

”Doesn't necessarily mean it's not an Imperial,” Faughn grunted. ”Skywalker? You up on current Imperial starfighter design?”

”Not really,” Luke said, his voice showing signs of the strain as he was forced to split his attention between the intruder and the more immediate task at hand. ”I've never seen anything like that before, though.”

Mara gazed out at the distant s.p.a.cecraft. Clearly, it was watching them. Did it realize they'd spotted it? ”I think one of us ought to try for a closer look,” she said.

”Let's not, shall we?” Faughn growled. We don't need to borrow any more trouble than we've already got.”

”Besides, with our luck it'd just be another of those useless Qella things,” Corvus added scornfully. ”Like she one Lando Calrissian chased all over s.p.a.ce.”

”I say we take a look,” Mara said, putting the firmness in her voice that made it an order. ”Luke, you're the faster s.h.i.+p. You want to see if you can catch it?”

”I can try,” he said, an odd tone to his voice. Was he feeling the same thing about that s.h.i.+p that she was? ”Can you spare me?”

”I think so,” Mara said. ”We have to be pretty close to the edge of the pirates' defense sphere by now.”

”Okay. Artoo, get all the recorders and sensors going. We're going to want a complete record of this.”

The droid beeped acknowledgment and with a suddenness that even surprised Mara the X-wing angled off and shot toward the intruder. It dodged past the drifting asteroids, cutting close beside them for the maximum of cover. Mara kept her turbolaser targeted on the other s.p.a.cecraft, wondering tautly whether they would choose to fight or run.

But the X-wing was still closing, and so far there was no reaction. Could the intruder somehow be looking the other direction? Ridiculous. So what was it waiting for?

Luke was nearly to close-combat distance now. Behind him, a stray asteroid floated leisurely between the intruder and Mara's line of sight&mdash Her only warning was a sudden jolt in Luke's emotions. An instant later she caught a single glimpse of the intruder as it flicked at incredible speed across the sky, making for the edge of the asteroid field.

”There he goes!” Tone yelped as Mara tried to swing her turbolaser around to target the distant s.p.a.cecraft. But too late. Even as she fought to get a lock on it another asteroid cut across between them, again blocking her view. There was the flicker of pseudomotion from the asteroid's edge, and the s.h.i.+p was gone.

Someone on the intercom swore softly. ”I give up,” Faughn said. ”What the blazes was that?”

”You got me,” Man said. ”Luke? You still there?”

”Right here,” Luke replied. ”Did you get all that?”

”Only part of it,” Mara told him. ”He waited until we were blocked by an asteroid before making his move.”

”Interesting,” Luke said. ”The s.h.i.+p gave off a very unusual energy signature as he took off-I recorded what I could of it, but I doubt my sensors were able to pick up more than a fraction of what was really there.”

”Maybe that's why he waited until we couldn't see him.”

”Probably,” Luke agreed. ”He'd have guessed a s.h.i.+p your size would have better sensors than mine.”

Mara rubbed her lips. Well, unless you want to follow his hypers.p.a.ce vector, there's not a lot we can do about him right now. How about feeding us what your sensors got?”