Crosscurrent

CHAPTER NINE

Khedryn and Jaden sprinted through the ship's corridors, Khedryn leading, alarms blaring along the way.

Marr's voice sounded over Khedryn's comlink. "They are docked and have overridden the external doors. They are in the air lock."

"The cruiser?"

"Now at a full stop. It still has not scanned us as far as I can tell."

Jaden imagined the tiny freighter facing the huge cruiser across the void of space, a lava flea staring down a rancor.

"Keep me updated," Khedryn said.

They sped through the cargo hold, down a hall, and into a side compartment. Jaden could see the black of space through the occasional viewport. Ahead, he saw the twin hexagonal pressure doors that opened onto the air lock and the docking rings. Both remained closed. The green light above the far door indicated a successful dock.

Jaden put a hand up to slow Khedryn. He pressed his cheek against the nearest viewport and tried to get a look at the ship docked on the ring, but the angle provided poor visibility. The docked ship looked tiny, a small sphere like an escape pod, but no make that Jaden recognized.

To Khedryn, he said, "Probably best you keep your distance-"

An explosion blew the inner air lock door from its fittings and knocked Khedryn and Jaden to the ground. The impact of the falling door sent vibrations through the deck. Smoke filled the corridor, the sizzle of exposed, severed wiring.

Jaden's ears rang, but he still heard the dull clarion of the alarm and, through it, the hum of an activated lightsaber. Adrenaline allowed him to climb to his feet, groggy, his lightsaber in hand. Beside him, Khedryn did the same, blaster in his fist, his other hand on the bulkhead for balance.

Marr's voice crackled over Khedryn's comlink. "What was that? Khedryn?"

A human male in silver armor bounded through the breached doors, a green-not Sith red-lightsaber glowing in his fist. Oddly, a cable attached the hilt of the lightsaber to a power pack on his belt. His left arm was a stump below the elbow, the suit-not armor-black and frayed at the joint, as if it had been recently cut.

Khedryn did not hesitate and fired a series of blaster shots. The intruder's lightsaber turned from line to blurred circle as he weaved a defense that deflected each shot into the bulkheads.

"Stay back," Jaden said to Khedryn. He augmented his speed with the Force and rushed forward, feinting high and stabbing low.

Parrying the low stab as he sidestepped, the intruder spun into a reverse strike at Jaden's head. Jaden interposed his blade, met the man's hard eyes through the transparisteel of his helmet, and put a Force-augmented kick into his abdomen.

The impact slammed the intruder into the wall, elicited a wince and a grunt of pain. He doubled over for a moment, favoring his side. Taking advantage of the opening, Jaden unleashed an overhand slash, but the man spun aside and Jaden's blade cut a black groove in the bulkhead.

Jaden backflipped high into the air to avoid the intruder's reverse backslash and landed on the other side of the corridor, three meters away, trapping the intruder between Jaden on the one side and Khedryn on the other.

Jaden could not quite place the man's fighting style. He had seen nothing like it before.

Khedryn, now with another clear shot, leveled his blaster to fire but the intruder, his eyes on Jaden all the while, gestured with the stump of his left arm and the weapon flew from Khedryn's hand and skittered along the floor until it reached the man's feet.

Jaden and the man stared at each other, eyes narrow, blades held before them. The intruder's breath came hard, and his hunched posture indicated that Jaden's kick had done lasting damage to his ribs. His eyes moved alternately between Jaden's face and his blade.

Surprisingly, Jaden felt no additional pressure against his mind from the dark side. He would have expected a more acute thrust in the presence of a Sith.

Khedryn smashed the glass on an emergency tool bin and removed a hand sledge and ax. Jaden gave him credit for courage if not sense.

The intruder held his ground, breathing heavily, favoring his side. Seconds passed and no one moved to attack.

"How's this going to go, then?" Khedryn said, hefting hammer and ax.

The rhythm of the alarm kept time with Jaden's heartbeat, his breath. He felt the man testing his Force presence, as Jaden did the same to him.

Instead of the bitter tang of a Sith, he felt the kindred nature of an advanced light-side user, perhaps polluted a bit by anger, but definitely a light-side user. No doubt the intruder felt something similar from Jaden, though Jaden knew it was doubt and not anger that infected him.

"Who are you?" Jaden and the man asked simultaneously.

Both lowered their blades, puzzled looks in their eyes. The man touched a button on the control pad on his chest and threw back his helmet. Long black hair streaked with gray contrasted markedly with pallid skin. Dark circles under his eyes tried to bridge the hues of hair and skin.

"You are a Jedi," Jaden said, the words only half question.

"As are you," the man said, his voice a thickly accented dialect.

"Now it's a party," Khedryn said, lowering the hammer and ax.

Jaden deactivated his saber. "Did Grand Master Skywalker send you?"

Perhaps R6 had contacted the Order without Jaden's orders- "I know no Grand Master Skywalker." The man glanced around the ship. "Where am I? What system? I do not know this make of ship and you both speak oddly."

"We speak oddly?" Khedryn said.

"You do not know the name of Grand Master Skywalker?" Jaden asked, incredulous.

"I have been away from Coruscant and the Order for some time, on a mission for Master Nadill."

"Master who?" The name bounced around in Jaden's mind, seeking purchase in his memory. He felt as if he should have known it.

"There is no time for this," the man said. "My name is Relin Druur. I need to get back aboard Harbinger."

Khedryn stepped forward. "Back aboard? That damaged cruiser, you mean?"

"Sith dreadnought," Relin said, nodding. "I tried to bring it down with my Padawan and managed only to damage its hyperdrive. I was caught in its draft when it misjumped. We ended up here."

"Your Padawan?" Jaden asked, and wished he had not.

Relin's jaw tightened. Pain stained his eyes. "He's dead."

"Sorry," Khedryn said awkwardly. "And sorry about shooting at you, but you did ram my ship and-"

"What are your names?" Relin asked.

"Jaden Korr. This is Khedryn Faal and this is his vessel."

Relin took a deep breath, wincing with pain as he did so. "Listen to me, Jaden and Khedryn. Harbinger cannot be allowed to jump away. The cargo it bears, a special ore, enhances the power of those who use the dark side and could turn the battle for Kirrek into a rout. Unless you wish the galaxy to fall under Sith dominion, you will assist me."

"Ore? What are you talking about?" Khedryn said. "You need medical attention, man. Look at you."

Relin's eyes flared and he advanced a step on Khedryn. "There is no time! If Naga Sadow is victorious on Kirrek, we may not be able to stop the Sith at all."

Jaden's mind tried to make sense of Relin's words. Some kind of ore on the cruiser enhanced the power of a dark side user. The presence of the ore explained the free-floating dark side energy that had caused Jaden such unease as the cruiser had approached.

"I need to commandeer this ship," Relin said. "I am sorry but-"

"You aren't commandeering so much as a caf pot, Jedi," Khedryn said, his fists bloodless around hammer and ax. "This is my ship."

More of Relin's words registered with Jaden, but he could not shape them into anything coherent.

"Did you say Naga Sadow?" he asked distantly.

Sadow's name triggered memories of ancient history lessons from Jaden's time in the Jedi academy.

"Yes, Sadow," Relin said. "His forces marshal at Primus Goluud even now while we debate trivialities. Hear me, Jaden. I need your help and I need it now."

The pieces of Relin's story started to fall into place-Kirrek, Nadill, Sadow, his ignorance of Grand Master Skywalker, his obsolete lightsaber, the oddly made blaster he bore.

Jaden's suspicion hit him like an unexpected punch in the stomach. How could this be? How?

"This is not possible," he whispered.

Relin mistook his meaning. "It is not only possible, it is essential. I need to get back onto Harbinger." He looked at Khedryn. "Unless this ship can bring it down?"

Khedryn scoffed, put the hammer and ax back into their wall mounts. "This is a freighter, not a warship. I don't have ship-to-ship weapons. Jaden, are you all right?"

"Nothing at all?" Relin asked.

"Nothing," Khedryn said to Relin. "Jaden? Are you all right?"

Jaden swallowed through a throat gone dry. When he spoke, his voice sounded as mechanical as that of a protocol droid. "The Battle of Kirrek was fought more than five thousand years ago. Naga Sadow has been dead for centuries. If what you've told us is correct, your misjump didn't just move you through space." He let the moment hang there for a moment, allowing Relin to brace himself, before he said, "It moved you through time."

"You are mad," Relin said, but he took half a step back. His eyes flicked to Jaden's lightsaber, his blaster, the ship, to Khedryn, his blaster.

"Seconded," Khedryn said to Jaden, his lazy eye and good eye seemingly split between Relin and Jaden. "That cannot be right. Can it?"

"Look at my lightsaber," Jaden said, and held up the hilt of his blade. "Lightsaber technology left the power pack behind long ago."

Relin took another step back, resisting the evidence before his eyes. "You have a more advanced lightsaber, but it means noth-"

"Look at this ship, Relin," Jaden said. "His blaster. Mine." He held up his own DL-44.

Relin's eyes widened, his pale skin growing a shade more pallid. "This is… a mistake. I… "

He visibly concentrated, once more testing Jaden's Force presence.

"I am a Jedi," Jaden said, understanding his purpose. "You are not being misled."

Relin sagged and Khedryn stepped forward as if to help Relin keep his feet, but the Jedi waved him off.

Jaden continued: "The galaxy just endured a civil war caused by a Sith Lord named Caedus, but he was defeated by the Order and its allies. My Jedi Order. Before that, the Jedi were instrumental in overthrowing a galaxywide Empire ruled by a Sith Lord named Palpatine."

"Jaden… " Khedryn said, holding out a hand to Relin as if to steady him. "Come on, let's tend to those ribs. We can work this out later. I am sure there's an explanation."

"I just gave it," Jaden said, more convinced than ever.

Relin stared at Jaden, started to speak, and then stopped. He shook his head.

"How can this be?"

Jaden had no idea. It seemed impossible, yet he sensed no lie in Relin, and the facts he had were the facts he had. "Get Marr," he said to Khedryn, thinking the Cerean, with his mathematical gifts, might be able to explain what had happened.

Khedryn licked his lips. "Just so I know what to tell him: you're saying I have an old Imperial distress call coming from a moon no one's charted before, a five-thousand-year-old Jedi aboard my ship, and a five-thousand-year-old Sith dreadnought with some evil ore aboard flying through my sky?"

Neither Jaden nor Relin said anything. Jaden understood Khedryn's need to make light. That was how he coped.

"If this is work to you, Jaden," Khedryn said, "I'd love to see what you do for excitement." He activated his communicator. "Marr, you will not believe this."

Saes hurried through Harbinger's corridors, bays, and lifts. Damage-control teams saluted him as they hurried by.

The bone rings holding his hair in a long tail bounced against his back with each stride. He still felt a joyous light-headedness, an after-effect from his use of the Lignan.

When he reached the secondary bridge, he found the night watch already taking their stations. The viewscreen remained dark. Harbinger was blind. All of them, males and females, human and nonhuman, stood and raised a fist in a salute. They smelled of stale fear.

"Captain on the bridge," said Lieutenant Llerd, standing at attention and sticking out his barrel chest.

"As you were," Saes said to the crew, and they returned to work. "You are acting executive officer, Colonel Llerd."

"Thank you, sir," said the human.

"Status?"

"Most of our instrumentation is down, so I've ordered a full stop," Llerd said. "Repair teams are trying to repair blown bulkheads. The primary bridge has been sealed off."

"Get our instrumentation operational and get a scan under way. I want to know where we are. And get the viewscreen up."

"Copy, sir," the human answered.

Someone activated the bridge's communications system. Static crackled for a moment; then the damage reports started pouring in. Saes noted them absently, but his mind was on Relin. He recalled the mirth in Relin's eyes in the moment before the charges on the hyperdrive had blown. The recollection summoned anger. He put a finger to the tip of the horn jutting from his jaw, pressed until the finger bled and he had his anger controlled.

His one-time Master had probably escaped before the jump, though Saes figured it was possible that he could still be aboard.

Saes reached out with the Force and tried to feel Relin's presence, but picked up nothing. Of course, he knew Relin could mask his presence when he wished. Saes tapped his bleeding finger against his jaw horn. Llerd watched him, frozen, as if hypnotized by the motion.

"Colonel Llerd?"

Llerd came back to himself. "Sir?"

"Have security perform a room-by-room sweep of the ship. We may still have a Jedi aboard."

"Yes, sir."

Saes sat in the command chair, issuing orders and letting his surviving crew do the work of resurrecting Harbinger. One by one its systems came back online.

"Scanners operational," said Llerd at last. His tone sharpened. "Picking up a ship, sir. Odd signature. Viewscreen coming online."

A white line formed in the center of the screen, expanded to show the black of space and stars, a nearby ringed gas giant, and a small ship shimmering in the glow of the system's orange sun.

"Magnify the ship," Saes said.

The image centered on the ship and expanded. A flattened disk, with an ancillary vessel attached to it side. He saw no obvious weapons. Not a warship, then. Saes had never seen a ship of its make before.

"That is one of our escape pods," Llerd said, pointing. "There, aft."

Saes rose from his seat, understanding instantly what it meant. Relin had escaped Harbinger in a pod right after the jump and was now rendezvousing with his Jedi allies.

"Close on that ship and fire main batteries, Colonel. Bring it down."

"Weapons are still offline, sir."

Saes clutched the edge of his seat, unable to take his eyes from the ship and the pod. He would not let Relin escape again, not again.

"Scramble two squadrons of Blades. I want that ship on fire."

As Khedryn, Relin, and Jaden hurried toward the bridge, Marr's voice rang out from Khedryn's comlink.

"Incoming, Captain. Sixteen fighters have launched from the cruiser."

"You must be kidding me!" Khedryn said. He looked at Jaden and Relin as if it were their fault, and Jaden supposed it was. "This started as a kriffing sabacc game!"

"Saes must suspect I am here," Relin said matter-of-factly.

"Then leave," Khedryn said, but recovered himself almost instantly. "I do not mean that. Sorry. I've no love for Sith. Especially really old ones." He spoke into his communicator. "Plot a jump, Marr. This is unsafe sky for rascals."

"No!" Jaden and Relin said as one.

That stopped Khedryn in his steps, and he turned to face them. "No?"

"I have to get down to that moon, Khedryn," Jaden said.

"And I need to stop Harbinger," Relin said.

Khedryn looked at them as if they were crazed. "You heard sixteen, yes?" To Relin he said, "The Battle of Kirrek already happened." To Jaden he added, "And that moon isn't going anywhere."

"Cruiser's on the move, too," Marr said.

"You hear?" Khedryn asked, eyebrows raised.

Jaden heard desperation in his own voice and made no effort to hide it. "The Force directed me here. I cannot leave until I see what's on that moon."

"Maybe you were sent here just to find Relin," Khedryn said, obviously hoping that would convince him. "Maybe you've both already done what you're supposed to do."

Jaden shook his head. Relin joined him.

"This is incidental," Jaden said.

"Incidental?" Khedryn responded. "That's what you call this? You are both madmen. Worse than fanatics. Those haunted eyes." He shook his head, paced a few steps, snapped into his comlink. "Marr, can we outrun them without jumping?"

"Outrun them to where, Captain?"

"Good question," Khedryn mumbled to himself. He looked to Jaden and Relin. "Ideas?"

Jaden did not hesitate. "We use the rings for cover. Scanners will never find us and the fighters will not follow."

"That's because we'll be space dust," Khedryn said. "Last time I tried, I wasn't able to walk between raindrops. So unless you can-"

"I can," Jaden said. "And I'll pilot Junker." Seeing Khedryn's hesitation, he said, "I can do it, Captain."

"Force-piloting?" Relin asked, one eyebrow raised.

Jaden nodded.

"Stang, man," Khedryn said, shifting on his feet. "Stang."

"Still closing," Marr said, his voice somehow staying placid. "Orders, Captain? Sitting still seems unwise."

"You think?" Khedryn snapped. He stared at Jaden. Finally he said, "Head into the rings, Marr. Ahead full until we hit them, then Jaden gets the stick."

A long hesitation. "Flying into the rings is madness, Captain."

"Yes. It seems to be going around. Just do it."

Jaden thumped Khedryn on the shoulder. "I appreciate the trust."

Relin said, "You said you have no weapons, but what do you have?"

"Nothing. A tractor beam mount on the rear. We use it for towing derelicts."

"Take me to it."

"What do you have in mind?" Jaden asked him.

"Perhaps nothing. But perhaps something. Jaden… Harbinger's captain and I have a personal connection. The fighters will follow you into the rings."

"Understood."

"Nearing the rings," Marr said. "The fighters are fast, Captain."

"They're kriffin' antiques! How can they be fast?"

"Antiques? I don't under-"

"Never mind, Marr. Jaden is on his way up."

Jaden thumped Khedryn on the shoulder again. "I'll be sure to get a piece of Marr's chewstim."

"Get two."

The Blades poured out of Harbinger's belly and swooped into view on the viewscreen, streaking toward the Jedi ship. The ship turned, its engines flared blue, and it accelerated toward the gas giant's rings.

"Where is he running to? The rings?" Llerd asked. "There's not much room to fly in there."

Saes watched the Blades bear down on the ship. "If he goes into the rings, order the Blades to pursue. I want that ship destroyed. He will try to jump if we allow him to clear the planet's gravity well. The Blades are not to allow that."

Llerd did not hesitate. "Yes, sir."

Saes turned to 8L6, the replacement science droid. "I want a course back to Primus Goluud as soon as possible. And I want a subspace transmission on the ship-to-ship frequency. See if you can raise Omen."

He doubted he was anywhere near Omen, but he needed to confirm.

"Captain, I am getting very odd readings," said 8L6.

Saes leaned forward in his chair. "Specify."

"Astronavigation is unconnected to Harbinger's base chrono."

The words pulled Saes away from his chair to 8L6's side. He made sure Llerd was occupied before continuing the conversation. "How can that be?"

"Unknown, but standard astronavigational markers are not where they should be given the time."

Saes studied the readings for himself. Everything was out of place. "Something fouled the ship's chrono. Double-check it."

"I ran several diagnostics before bringing this to your attention. The chrono is functioning correctly."

A nervous tingle moved up Saes's spine. "Then you have mislocated us in space. Astronavigation was damaged."

"I have located our new position with ninety-nine point nine nine percent confidence. I know where we are."

The implication of the words hung in the space between them, unmarked on 8L6's expressionless face. Saes's yellow eyes reflected off the droid's surface, stared back at him.

Saes spoke in a low tone and asked the question, though he already knew the answer. "What are you saying, Elsix?"

The droid, too, spoke in a quiet tone. "I am saying that given our position, my long-range astronavigation scans strongly suggest that significant time has passed since we entered hyperspace."

Saes glanced around to ensure that no one was listening. "How significant?"

"More than five thousand years."

The words settled like weights on Saes's mind, heavy with meaning. He put a hand on a nearby chair and locked his knees. The tingle creeping up his spine spread to his entire body. His legs felt weak under him but the chair kept him up. He turned and stared at the viewscreen, at the stars that looked the same to him as those he had left behind but were five millennia out of position.

"How?" he said.

"The most likely explanation is that the misjump resulted in Harbinger's never quite entering hyperspace. We had a hyperspace tunnel in front of us but never entered it. Instead, the ship accelerated to near lightspeed only. For us, only a short time passed. For the rest of the galaxy, five thousand years passed."

Five thousand years.

Thoughts bounced around in his mind, unconnected, inchoate. His mind felt unmoored.

Five thousand years.

He struggled to focus, to analyze the situation, but he knew nothing. He had no information with which to perform an analysis. He had no knowledge of the state of the galaxy. What of the Sith Empire? The war with the Jedi? His homeworld?

It occurred to him that he and his crew were artifacts, living fossils heaved from the strata of a misjump.

"Anything could have happened in five thousand years."

The droid said nothing, merely cocked its head as if intrigued by Saes's reaction.

Saes's connection to the Force began to ground him. Five thousand years had passed, but the Force remained constant. He fought down the panic.

"Say nothing of this to anyone," he said to 8L6. "I must think."

The droid nodded, its servos whirring, and turned back to its station.

"Blades are entering the rings in pursuit," Llerd said, the eagerness in his voice betraying a desire to see something die.

Saes realized that Relin would be as lost as he, two men of purpose suddenly left purposeless. Neither had an Order to which to report. The Battle of Kirrek was long over. Yet it suddenly seemed more important than ever that he kill Relin.

In the need for that act he found his purpose.

Meanwhile, he had a damaged but functioning dreadnought, a hold filled with Lignan, and a full crew of soldiers. He had little doubt he could make his presence felt. Once he understood the state of the galaxy, he could make contact with the current Sith Order, if it existed. He could use the Lignan as a way either to secure a place in the hierarchy or seize control of the Sith himself.

And if an Order no longer existed, he would remake it.

Finding his mental footing, he said to Llerd, "Do not monitor or scan local subspace channels. Understood?"

Llerd looked puzzled but acknowledged the order.

Saes did not want local comm chatter, should there be any, to prematurely indicate to the crew what had happened to Harbinger.

He turned his eyes back to the viewscreen, watching his Blades hunt his former Master through a storm of stone and ice.

He wondered, in passing, who else was aboard the ship with which Relin had docked. Not other Jedi, surely.

Kell had watched, his spirit aflame, as the damaged cruiser streaked out of the darkness toward Junker, as fighters of a kind Kell had never before seen launched from the belly of the cruiser and pursued Junker into the thick bands of rock and ice that caged the blue gas giant.

"Lines intersect and grow tangled here," he said. His heart was racing.

He needed only to unknot them and revelation awaited. This he knew. And he knew Jaden Korr to be the key.

He used a nose cam to take pictures of Junker, of the cruiser, of the fighters, and stored them in a holocrystal. He watched Junker dart toward the rings, watched the sleek fighters follow. He did not fear that Jaden would die in the rings. Jaden's destiny was to die while Kell fed on his soup.

He scanned all frequencies until he picked up the signal from the moon that had started it all, the signal that would, in the end, summon Kell to the altar of understanding.

He amplified it, let the heartbeat of its repeating cadence fill the cockpit. Having performed services for the Empire decades earlier, he recognized the signal as Imperial in origin. Predator possessed an advanced decryption package, and Kell loosed it upon the message. In moments he had it decrypted.

"Extreme danger," said a female voice. "Do not approach. Extreme danger. Do not approach."

Pelting through Junker's corridors, Khedryn led Relin to the tractor beam control compartment at the rear of the ship. A small, rectangular viewport provided a view outside the ship. They could see the fighters from Harbinger gaining on them, narrow slivers of black and silver metal hurtling through space toward Junker with ill intent. Khedryn noted the laser cannons mounted on each wing. The cruiser loomed behind the fighters, huge and dark.

"Lose the escape pod, Marr," Khedryn ordered over his comlink. "I don't want Jaden flying my girl with a sack on her back."

"Copy that," said Marr.

Seconds later they saw Relin's escape pod spinning through space in Junker's wake. One of the Blades fired its wing-mounted laser cannons, and green lines turned the pod into flame and scrap.

"Stang, those things are fast," said Khedryn.

"Blades are flying cannons," Relin said. "They have low-powered deflectors. One hit is all it takes."

"TIE fighters," Khedryn said. "Sith designs are the same no matter the time."

"Do you have deflectors?" Relin asked, strapping himself in at the console.

"Didn't I already say that this is a salvage ship?" Khedryn said, watching the Blades grow larger. "I have nothing that can even slow that kind of firepower."

Relin examined the controls. "Can the tractor beam be aimed with any precision?"

"Aimed, yes." Khedryn showed the Jedi the scan and lock display, the fire controls. "But precision? I use it for towing. It's not a weapon."

"It will be today. How do I communicate with the cockpit?"

Khedryn thought he knew what Relin intended. "Tell me you're not planning to do what I think you're planning to do? We'll be in the midst of the rings. The mass shifts alone-"

"If they follow us into the thick of the rings, we'll need to try something. The communicator, Captain."

Khedryn swallowed his protest. He activated the onboard intercom.

"Cockpit, do you read?"

"Clear, Captain," Marr answered. "Fighters are closing. We are in the outskirts of the rings."

In his mind's eye, Khedryn imagined the rings around the gas giant. Taken together, they were a storm of enormous size-five kilometers thick, more than a thousand kilometers wide, and riddled with chunks of rock and ice that varied in size from pieces less than a meter to mammoth hulks 150 meters in diameter. Junker's deflectors could handle the tiny particles, but if Jaden hit anything of size…

"Don't let that Jedi ruin my ship, Marr," Khedryn said. "Increase power to the forward deflector-for whatever good it will do."

"Yes, Captain."

"You don't ruin my ship, either," Khedryn said to Relin.

Relin ignored him, inhaled, closed his eyes, and seemed to lose himself in meditation for a moment.

Through the viewport, Khedryn watched the Blades swoop in behind Junker. The slits of their cockpit covers looked like a cyclopean eye squinting to aim.

Laser cannons fired and green lines cut the space between the two ships. Jaden dived Junker so hard and fast that Khedryn's stomach waved a greeting to his throat.

"I told you not to ruin my ship!" he said into the intercom. He scrambled into a seat and strapped himself in as Jaden pulled hard on the stick and put Junker's nose up.

Relin snapped open his eyes.

"Jaden, when we get into the rings, I plan to use the tractor beam against the Blades. Can you compensate?"

A long pause. "You tell me when and which way to expect the drag. I can compensate."

"Copy that." To Khedryn, Relin said over his shoulder, "Maybe they won't follow us in."

Khedryn nodded but knew better. He had not been born lucky.

A patter of ice and small rocks, the steady beat of a snare drum, announced their entry into the fringe of the rings. Khedryn felt Junker decelerate and allowed himself a relieved breath. At least Jaden wasn't crazy enough to try to run the rings at full speed.

The Blades devoured the distance between them. They moved in and out of view as Junker flew deeper into the rings and the debris field thickened. One of the Blades hit a chunk of ice, spun wildly, and exploded in flame against a spinning rock that reminded Khedryn in shape of a clenched fist.

Ever-larger chunks of ice and rock whirled by, a blizzard that would allow Jaden no room for even a single mistake.

"Stang," Khedryn said, clutching the base of his seat in a white-knuckled grip. He reminded himself to breathe and tried to slow his heart.

"Getting thick now," Marr said.

"Stop stating the obvious!" Khedryn shouted, but forgot to activate the intercom. It was just as well.

As if to make Marr's point, another of the Blades struck a chunk of rock and exploded into a shower of flaming metal.

"Ready yourselves," Jaden said, and Junker began to spin.

Jaden dwelled in the comforting warmth of the Force. He barely saw the swirl of ice and rock whirling through the space before Junker. He felt each rock, each bit of ice, large or small, as if it were an extension of his body. All were connected to one another and he was connected to them. He abided in the cohesiveness of the universe, the ship an extension of his will.

Action preceded conscious thought. His hands were a blur on the console. Junker dived, climbed, spun, wheeled, and careered through the empty spaces between ice and rock. The patter of particles against the cockpit viewport sounded like applause.

Laserfire cut glowing lines along their port side and Jaden turned starboard, dived, then burst out from the bottom of rings and into open space. For a moment he caught the glimpse of the frozen moon of his vision, a pearl against the black of space, before, he veered hard right and lost sight of it.

Laserfire once more turned the sky green, crisscrossed the space before them, cut the darkness aft and starboard. Jaden put Junker into a spiraling roll as he nosed the ship back up through the rings.

Marr, his voice tight, spoke into the intercom. "What do you see back there?"

"Two are down," Khedryn said, his voice as sharp as a vibroblade's edge. "The rest are in pursuit. These jocks are good."

Jaden knew. Several of them were Force-sensitive.

But they were not as good as he was.

The ship's internal compensators could not keep up with Junker's rapid shifts and the g's pasted Khedryn to his seat. His vision clouded now and again when blood rushed too quickly to his head or too quickly out of it. Jaden had Junker wheeling so wildly through space that Khedryn feared for the ship's integrity, never mind the rocks.

"Hold together, girl. Hold together."

The Blades appeared and disappeared in the viewport, flickering in and out of sight like a faulty image on one of The Hole's vidscreens. Rocks and bits of ice large and small moved in and out of his field of vision with dizzying speed. The rapidly changing visual field made Khedryn nauseous. Before him, Relin seemed as impassive as stone.

"Ever gone angling?" Relin said softly to no one. His hand gripped the tractor beam controls.

Junker spun and veered hard to starboard. Khedryn tried not to think about the stress the vessel would endure between Jaden's piloting and Relin's use of the tractor beam.

"Engaging the tractor beam, Jaden," Relin said. "Drag on starboard."

He aimed the tractor beam at a large planetoid in the rings. Junker lurched hard and slowed as the beam tethered it to the chunk of rock. Junker's momentum pulled the rock out of its orbit, and Relin held it for only a fraction of a second before cutting it loose.

Junker lurched hard the other way but Jaden somehow compensated, and the rock, now spinning, crashed into another large rock, then another, and the leading Blades, unready for the sudden movement of the planetoids, wheeled out of the way too late. Two more vanished in a spray of metal and flames.

"Another two down," Khedryn said into the intercom, his voice cracking.

Laserfire split the sky, exploding a large rock to Junker's aft, spraying the ship with particulates. More laserfire lit up the sky. Jaden wheeled down, spun, pulled up hard. Relin aimed the tractor beam again, latched on to one of the Blades themselves. Junker lost velocity from the drag and the other Blades gained.

"Port," Relin said to Jaden, and used the beam to foul the Blade's trajectory. With no room for error, the fighter hit a rock and broke into two flaming bits, one of which spun into another Blade, sending it into a rock.

The rest of the Blades, swooping and diving in and out of the field of rock and ice, fired. Jaden nosed up but one of the beams hit Junker along the port side, shaking the entire ship. The lights flickered and an alarm rang.

"I cannot keep this up for much longer," Jaden said over the intercom. Khedryn could hear the stress in his voice.

Khedryn agreed. It was only a matter of time before they caught a laser. He spoke loud enough to be heard on the intercom.

"Jaden, can you get us out of the fighters' sight line for a moment?"

Jaden did not hesitate. "Yes."

"What are you going to do?" Relin asked.

"I am going to space what's in my hold. It'll hit a rock, explode, maybe fool the fighters if we can stay out of their sight. They can't scan us in here. We make them think we're dead, then lay low."

"I'll have to accelerate to full to open some space," Jaden said. "It will get iffy."

"Do it," Khedryn said, his mouth dry. "And the price of my cargo is added to the price you owe me."

Relin said into the intercom, "A hard dive out the bottom, we space the cargo, then a hard climb back in. We'll have moments."

"Good thought," Jaden said.

Laserfire exploded a nearby rock, spraying Junker with debris. Jaden climbed hard.

"Will what's in the hold explode with enough pop?" Relin asked Khedryn.

"I don't know," Khedryn said. He had speeders in there. They'd blow, though the thought of spacing his Searing made him almost as ill as Jaden's flying.

Relin pulled two oval-shaped metal devices from his pocket as laserfire shook the ship. "These are mag-grenades. Attach them to a speeder and press that button. They'll blow when the speeder does. Understood?"

Khedryn nodded, and another wild turn nearly caused him to pass out.

"Go," Relin said, then to Jaden, "Khedryn is on his way to the hold. Open up some space, Jaden."

Khedryn unstrapped himself and wobbled like a drunk through the corridors, using safety rails to keep his feet as the ship answered with exclamation points to Jaden's commands. He felt Junker accelerate, twist, turn, wheel, and he imagined his ship dancing through hundred-ton raindrops. The superstructure creaked and moaned under the strain.

"Don't get wet," he said, tapping a bulkhead as he opened the cargo bay hatches.

Everything was secured and in order, held down with magnetic clamps or stored in containers integrated into the walls or floor. He had two nearly complete landspeeders, his Searing swoop, Marr's speeder, several containers of electronics, and other pieces of assorted scrap. He ran to the landspeeders-he could not space his Searing-and affixed the mag-grenades. A press of a button turned both of them hot.

"Quickly, Khedryn," Jaden said through the comlink.

Khedryn did not bother to respond. He hurried across the bay to the air lock doors and activated the venting sequence. A beeper started ticking off the thirty seconds.

"Thirty seconds to vent," he said into his comlink.

"We have the readout up here," Marr said, in his calm, certain voice. "Tell us when you are clear."

Khedryn ran back to the speeders, lost his footing, scrambled to his feet, heart racing, and decoupled them from their magnetic mounts. For good measure, he opened one of the storage containers that held scrap electronics. Too late he realized that if the speeder bumped hard against something else in the bay, it might trigger the grenades while they were still in the ship.

He started to go back, but Marr's voice halted him. "Ten seconds to venting."

"Stang," he cursed. He exited the cargo bay, secured the hatch, and then grabbed a safety rail with both hands. "Clear."

Jaden turned Junker's engines loose and slammed the nose down. The g's flattened Khedryn against the wall, and the overhead siren screamed the imminent venting of the cargo hold. He imagined the speeders skidding across the bay floor, live grenades attached to them.

"You've lost them for the moment," Relin said over the intercom.

"Venting," said Marr's voice.

Khedryn stood and stared through the transparisteel viewport in the hatch doors as the air lock opened and months of work, including the speeders, flew out into the void of space. Through the open air lock doors he caught a glimpse of the edge of the rings as Junker burst out of them. He also caught a flash, presumably from the explosion.

Jaden nosed back up hard, throwing Khedryn to the floor as he angled back into the rings, still spinning and wheeling.

"A good explosion," Relin said, as if he were evaluating a grav-ball shot. His vantage at the rear of the ship would have allowed him to see it directly.

Jaden said, "We'll stay flying hard until we see whether they buy the ruse."

Khedryn sat in the core of his ship, listening to her strain, waiting for the telltale shake from a laser cannon's near miss.

Nothing.

"There is nothing behind us," Relin said.

Khedryn looked to the ceiling, and exhaled. He patted his ship. She had saved him again.

"Find something big enough to accommodate us," he said. "And set her down. Then everyone get to the galley. We need to talk."