Light of the Jedi(80)

He fell to his knees, his saber blade flickering out, as the Nihil ship whipped past overhead.

“Master!” Bell cried.

“I’m…all right,” Loden said. “But…I don’t think I can do that…again.”

Bell looked up. The Nihil ship was coming around for a second attack run.

He lit his lightsaber, the green blade flicking into humming, buzzing life.

He turned side-on to the starship. He bent his front knee. He made himself a wall through which no evil could pass.

There’s no way, he thought. If Loden could barely do it…

There might be no way. There was also no choice.

Bell reached out to the Force.

Laserfire, high in the air. Five shots.

Bell braced himself, looking inward, not up.

A new sound—an explosion, like a cough, muffled.

That was…

He snapped his head up just as two Jedi Vectors overflew the Nihil starship, which was now leaking thick black smoke from one of its engines.

They circled around in an incredibly tight curve, a two-craft Drift, and as they banked Bell saw that only one of the ships actually had a pilot.



“Indeera,” Loden said, pushing himself painfully to his feet. “By the light, look at her go.”

In awe, Bell realized what he was seeing. Indeera was flying both ships. Some of the Vectors’ functions could be operated remotely via the Force in cases of extreme emergency—but operating was one thing, and piloting was another. Indeera was mirroring her motions in her own Vector in the second ship, a feat of concentration Bell could barely comprehend.

It was spectacular.

The Nihil seemed more terrified than impressed. Their ship jerked up and headed for open sky, accelerating slowly, trailing smoke.

The two Vectors came in for a landing not far from Bell, Loden, and Erika—not as smooth as they might, skittering along the ground a bit before coming to a halt, but considering what Indeera was doing, Bell was not inclined to criticize.

Both cockpits opened, and Indeera stood.

“Come on!” she cried. “We can try to catch them before they make it to the hyperspace access zone and jump away.”

Loden turned to Bell.

“I would bring you, apprentice, but you have to get Erika back to the outpost. You have two steelees. Once you’re there, put her in the medbay and—”

“I know what to do, Master,” Bell said. He wasn’t disappointed, exactly, but he knew where he could help the most, and it wasn’t slowly and carefully taking Erika Blythe back to their outpost.

“She won’t make it,” came a voice.

Bell and Loden turned, to see that Porter Engle had appeared, as if from nowhere, Ember at his side. A third steelee stood nearby, and the ancient Jedi was down on one knee next to Erika, with his hand hovering above her wound.

“This is serious. She needs treatment on the way. I’ll have to take her back. I’m the best medic of the four of us, by far.”



Loden wasted no time. The Nihil were getting farther away with every second.

“May the Force be with you, Porter,” he said. “Bell, with me.”

He ran toward the waiting Vector.

“It’s time to fly.”





Pikka Adren stretched, feeling her muscles ease a little. She wanted to ask Joss to rub her shoulders, but the thirty-ninth Emergence was set to happen soon enough that she didn’t want to risk him being out of the pilot’s seat when it happened. They still had a few minutes, but there was no reason to take a chance.

Her husband could give her a massage later. Assuming “later” ever actually arrived. Somehow, they’d been swept up in the efforts to solve all the backscatter from the Legacy Run disaster, and that was all well and good—they were getting hazard pay and doing something noble besides. But they were supposed to be on vacation. She had booked them a trip to Amfar once their shift helping to build the Starlight Beacon was over, and those days had come and gone. She’d lost the deposit, and had no idea whether the Republic would let her expense it, and—

Ugh. She was annoyed at herself for focusing on something so petty. She and Joss were literally saving the galaxy here. Or at least a good chunk of it.



But still. She was supposed to be on a beach right now, wearing something tiny, sipping something delicious, lying next to her handsome husband who was also in something tiny, thinking about later, when they would both ditch even those tiny things and think of inventive ways to make each other feel good.

“You ready, my darling?” Joss said.

He sounded excited. Clearly he wasn’t thinking he’d rather be on a beach. He lived for this stuff.

But really, she thought, so do I.

Couple of spanner-slinging contractors out saving the Outer Rim Territories, doing it together, doing it in style. Not so bad.

“Ready, my darling,” she said, putting her hands back on her console.

“I just checked with the rest of the team,” Joss said. “Everyone’s good to go. Whatever pops out, we can handle it.”

Pikka murmured in agreement, pulling her mind away from Amfar and back to the task at hand. Somehow the Republic had figured out how to predict where the Emergences were going to happen—she’d heard a story about some sort of mega-processor made out of tens of thousands of droids linked to the Force that could predict the future, but that surely had to be nonsense. In any case, they had identified three spots as the most likely candidates for where the Legacy Run’s flight recorder would emerge, and had set up a team to intercept them, one after the other.