Heirs of the Force Page 15

  blow up the Death Star, who had killed Darth Vader and Grand Moff

  Tarkin. He, a single soldier, would secure vengeance for the entire

  Empire.

  There! Qorl squinted through the scratched goggles of his blast

  helmet. Protruding from a clearing in the dense jungle, a towering

  stone temple rose up-a ziggurat, the squarish pyramid that served as the

  main structure of the base.

  Oorl roared low over the facilities of the old Rebel stronghold. A wide,

  sluggish river sliced through the jungle near the site of the temples.

  On the opposite side of the brownish-green current lay other crumbling

  ruins, but they seemed uninhabited. Then he noticed a large

  power-generating station next to the towering ziggurat and knew for

  certain that he had not been wrong: this base was still used as a

  military installation.

  As he brought the TIE fighter in on his first attack run, Qorl saw that

  the jungle had been cleared to make a large landing area in front of the

  Great Temple. On the flat field he saw only one ship-disk-shaped, with

  twin prongs in front.

  Qorl didn't immediately recognize the make or model of the lone ship

  below. It was some kind of light freighter, not a Rebel X-wing or any

  of the familiar battleships he had learned about during his rigorous

  combat training.

  On the ground, several people ran toward the ship, sprinting away from

  the stone pyramid. Scrambling to battle stations perhaps?

  His lip curled in a snarl. He would take care of them.

  He flicked the buttons on his control panel, powering up the TIE

  fighter's weapons systems. Before he could align the victims in his

  targeting cross, though, all the small figures below managed to climb

  aboard the light freighter. Its boarding ramp drew up, preparing for

  launch.

  He dismissed the light freighter as a possible target-for now, at least.

  It was probable, Oorl realized, that the Rebels kept a large force of

  more powerful fighters in an underground hangar bay If so, his first

  task was to prevent those craft from launchingeven if only by damaging

  the doors enough to keep the ships trapped inside.

  He decided his best strategy would be to continue his straight-line

  course and fire with full-power laser cannons on the main structure of

  the Great Temple. He would blow the entire building to rubble-perhaps

  causing it to collapse internally, thus eliminating the Rebels and

  destroying all their equipment inside.

  Then he could swoop around and take care of the single light freighter,

  even if it managed to get up off the ground. His third target would be

  the power-generating station.

  With the Rebels completely paralyzed by his lightning attack, he would

  swing back for the last time. He would charge up his laser cannons

  again and go for the kill, mopping up anything he had missed the first

  time.

  From start to finish, it would take only a few minutes to bring the

  Rebels to their knees.

  Oorl centered the Great Temple in his targeting cross, aiming at the

  apex of the squared-off pyramid, with its thin banks of skylights and

  ancient vine-covered sculptures. The TIE fighter zoomed in.

  He grasped the firing stick with his good hand. At exactly the right

  moment he depressed the firing buttons, letting an expression of

  anticipation light his normally emotionless face.

  Nothing.

  He squeezed the button again and againand nothing happened! The

  weapons systems did not respond.

  Oorl flicked on the backups as he spun the TIE fighter in the air,

  barreling down again on his target. Over and over he tried to fire, but

  the laser cannons were completely dead.

  His eyes swept the diagnostic panels, but all the readings seemed

  normal.

  With his gloved hand Oorl pounded on the instrumentation panel, as if

  that would fix anything-and with old Imperial equipment, sometimes it

  did. But not this time.

  He frantically worked with the controls, digging under the panels to

  restart the weapons systems even as he flew on. He reached down and

  felt around his seat, searching for anything he could use to jump-start

  the malfunctioning laser cannons.

  Oorl caught the glimmer out of the corner of his eye, reflected against

  the dark goggles of his helmet. He glanced down and noticed something

  moving . . . sinuous, barely seen, glittering and transparent.

  The crystal snake reared up fight beside him, its triangular head

  showing up as a faint rainbow in the glow from the cockpit lights.

  Qorl, who had seen plenty of the reptilian creatures during his exile on

  Yavin 4, spotted it immediately and reacted.

  He let out a startled cry and tried to brush the snake away. It lunged

  and bit down as he reached out with his crippled arm to block it.

  The crystal snake dug its spearlike fangs into the thick leather of

  Qorl's gauntlet, but was unable to penetrate all the way to his skin.

  As he flung his hand back and forth, Oorl could feel the heavy weight of

  the crystal snake writhing, snapping, though he could see almost nothing

  at all.

  He let the TIE fighter fly itself as he reached with his good hand to

  grab the long body of the serpent just behind its head. He ripped the

  fangs free and stuffed the thrashing creature into the cockpit jettison

  chute.

  With a cry of disgust he ejected the snake into the air, where it fell

  toward the treetops of the jungle moon, disappearing instantly in the

  bright sunlight.

  He wrestled for control of his weaponless vessel. The Jedi twins must

  have done something in their repairs.

  He managed to stabilize his erratic flight but before he could decide on

  a new course, bright streaks from an enemy laser cannon sizzled through

  the air, bolts of energy that ionized the atmosphere around Qorl's TIE

  fighter.

  He yanked at the control stick with his good arm, and his fighter

  lurched into a starboard spin. The Rebel light freighter had taken to

  the air and was flying after Qorl like a furious bird of prey. And its

  weapons worked just fine.

  Oorl punched in full power to the twin ion engines and decided that his

  only chance for now was to try to escape.

  in the heart of the jungle, next to Oorl's primitive dwelling, Jacen and

  Jaina sat beside each other, deep in concentration. They reached out

  with the Force to see what was going on back at the Jedi academy.

  Their powers were only sufficient to bring them shadowy images, distant

  echoes of thoughts . . . but it was enough.

  "He didn't know I never fixed the weapons systems . . . but then, he

  never asked. I managed to jury-rig the readouts so they would look

  normal," Jaina said at last. "He can fly, but his ship is defenseless."

  "Yes, and I think the crystal snake must have distracted Qorl somehow,"

  Jacen said.

  "I wonder what happened to it." They smiled at each other.

  "I suppose our next step," Jacen said, squinting up at the morning light

  that filtered through the trees, "is to figure out how to get back

  home." />
  Jaina pushed a tangle of her usually straight brown hair back from her

  face and took a deep breath. "Agreed," she said, then clapped her hands

  and rubbed them together.

  "So what are we waiting for?" ----------------"HANG ON!" HAN SOLO

  yelled.

  As the Millennium Falcon lifted off from the trampled landing area in

  front of the ancient temple, Tenel Ka struggled to a seat beside

  Lowbacca and strapped herself in.

  "That TIE fighter's coming in, and it looks mean," Han said as he and

  his Wookiee copilot frantically set switches and calibrated the weapons

  targeting systems. "Hope Tionne managed to get all the Jedi trainees to

  safety."

  Their seats tilted back as the Falcon angled up into the air, its

  sublight thrusters roaring behind it. The Imperial TIE fighter broke

  through the sky overhead like a yowling battering ram.

  Han Solo looked grim as he gripped the controls. His jaw was set, his

  shoulders rigid.

  At the moment he had no way of knowing whether his children were safe,

  or if this imperial enemy had killed them both, just as the pilot had

  tried to blast Lowbacca and Tenel Ka.

  Tenel Ka wished she could give him some reassurance, but she knew

  nothing herself.

  Still panting with exhaustion from her long run through the jungle, she

  adjusted the restraints across the reptilian armor on her chest. At her

  side Em Teedee's thin, warbly voice spoke up. "I beg your pardon,

  Mistress Tenel Ka, but I can't see a thing! Your crash webbing has

  blocked my optical sensors."

  When Tenel Ka freed the flat, silvery device from its restraints, Em

  Teedee let out what sounded like a sigh of relief. "Ah, yes, much

  better. Now I can see perfectly. Oh, dear!" he said in alarm. "I

  didn't want you to rescue me from that dreadful jungle just so we could

  all be blown up chasing that TIE fighter."

  Lowbacca grunted and looked over at the small translating droid with

  obvious surprise and relief.

  "This is yours, Lowbacca," Tenel Ka said.

  "I found it in the jungle." She handed Em Teedee to the young Wookiee,

  who accepted the little droid gratefully, bleating his thanks.

  Han Solo spun the Falcon around in a tight arc, its engines rumbling

  behind them as they pursued the TIE fighter. "He's coming in on an

  attack run," Han said. "But he's not firing his weapons for some

  reason."

  Through the cockpit windows, Tenel Ka watched as the TIE fighter she had

  helped to repair zoomed low over the Great Temple, seemingly bent on

  destruction-but its laser cannons did not fire.

  "I'm going to get his attention, Chewie," Han said. "You open a comm

  channel. That guy did something to my kids-and I want to find out where

  they are."

  Chewbacca growled and reached with his long hairy arm to toggle a few

  switches on the Millennium Falcon's control panel.

  Han fired two warning shots. Bolts of brilliant light streaked past the

  squarish planar wings of the Imperial craft-bracketing it, but doing no

  damage.

  "Attention, TIE pilot," Han said. "You're going nowhere if I don't find

  out where . . ."

  He paused. ". . . the two young Jedi Knights are. You're in the middle

  of my targeting cross, so your choices are simple: surrender, or we blow

  you out of the sky."

  A gruff voice came back over the comm systems. "Surrender is betrayal,"

  the pilot said, then broke the connection.

  The TIE fighter zoomed upward on an impossibly steep trajectory,

  climbing into the air above the dense green treetops. Then the Imperial

  ship wheeled about in an evasive maneuven "All right," Han said, his

  anger evident." "This old ship has taken on plenty of TIE

  fighters in its day. We can take on one more.

  Punch it, Chewie."

  The Falcon lunged forward in another burst of speed as Chewbacca worked

  the controls.

  Em Teedee wailed, "Oh, no! I can't watch.

  Somebody cover my optical sensors."

  Han spared a second to glance back at the droid, and found Lowbacca

  cradling Em Teedee in his lap. "Just like having SeeThreepio with us

  again. I think we may have to adjust that programming."

  "Oh, dear," Em Teedee said.

  In the back Lowbacca grumbled a suggestion, which his uncle seconded

  loudly.

  "Good idea," Han said. "Let's try the tractor beam first. Maybe-just

  maybe-we can bring that ship to the ground without destroying it. That

  way we can get some information. If we say'Please,the might be a little

  more cooperative."

  Chewbacca worked the Falcon's tractor beam generator, casting out the

  invisible beam like a force-field net to grab the Imperial ship.

  The TIE fighter lurched and jerked to one side as the tractor beam

  snagged a partial hold-but the pilot alternated bursts from his twin ion

  engines and tore free, spinning upward in a tight corkscrew that made

  Han whistle with reluctant admiration.

  "This guy's good," he said. "After him, Chewie! Full speed."

  The TIE fighter, as if seeing it as his one chance for escape, darted

  back down toward the rough greenery of Massassi trees. It dodged jagged

  branches that thrust up like blackened witches' fingers where lightning

  and forest fires had burned the jungle, dipped down to trace the winding

  courses of rivers, and streaked over lush canyons-all with the

  Millennium Falcon following in hot pursuit.

  If it were only a matter of speed, the Falcon's more powerful engines

  could have outrun the TIE fighter and brought it down, but the small

  ship's maneuverability among the dangerous treetops gave the Imperial

  pilot a definite advantage.

  Han Solo, however, had greater determination. "What have you done with

  my kids?" he yelled into the comm channel.

  It was obvious he expected no answer, but to everyone's surprise, the

  pilot spoke back in a calculating voice. "They are your children,

  pilot? They were alive when I left them-but the jungle is a dangerous

  place. There's no telling if they will last long enough for you to

  rescue them."

  Tenel Ka marveled at the brilliant strategy..

  "It's a trick," she said. "He wants you to break off the pursuit."

  "I know," Han said, glancing back at her.

  His face was ashen. "But what if it , s true?"

  The TIE pilot used Han's brief hesitation to take his last best chance

  for escape: arrowing upward and bolting straight toward space.

  The twin ion engines roared through the thinning atmosphere.

  Chewbacca yelped in reaction. Without waiting for Han to give the

  order, the Wookiee copilot pushed the accelerators to maximum. The

  Falcon white heat rippling from its rear sublight engines, zoomed after

  the TIE fighter.

  The acceleration slammed Tenel Ka back against her seat, and she

  grimaced as the tug of additional gravities stretched her skin. She

  squeezed her eyes shut. Beside her, Lowbacca grunted with the strain,

  but Han and Chewie seemed accustomed to putting such stress on their

  bodies.

  The bright, milky-blue sky grew darker, turning a deep purpli
sh color

  around them as they soared upward. The stars shone out as the Falcon

  pulled into the night of space. The blurry sphere of the great orange

  gas gianl Yavin filled most of their cockpit windows.

  The TIE fighter zigzagged to throw off pursuit, shifting course at

  random intervals and burning a great deal of energy.

  "Maybe we can still wound his ship and pull him in," Han said, his voice

  strained.

  Chewbacca piloted the Falcon as Han controlled the weapons systems. "I

  can't get a target lock," Han said.

  The TIE fighter zoomed above the green jewel of the jungle moon.

  Arching around in a tight orbit, the Falcon clung to it, following

  closely Han fired repeatedly with his laser cannons-but the scarlet

  bolts missed.

  Han pounded his fist on the control panel.

  "Hold still for a minute!" he shouted.

  Then, as if obliging, the TIE fighter paused in the middle of the

  weapons system's aimpoint grid. The target lock flashed brightly, and

  Han gave a whoop of excitement.

  "Gotcha!" he said, and depressed both sets of firing studs.

  But at the last possible instant, the lone TIE fighter shot forward with