Darkest Knight

12

It was comforting to work with someone who loved machinery as much as she did, Jaina thought. Apparently she and Chewbacca were the only ones around today.

Cool breezes crept in through the open bay doors. The fresh air and the view out over the ocean of leaves made her glad they kept the hangar open. Constructed in a crown of trees rising above the overall canopy level in an outlying area beyond the Wookiee residential district and the computer fabrication facility, this hangar bay was used for major vehicle repairs.

Aside from Jaina’s and Chewie’s clanking and thunking noises as they tinkered, the cavernous, wooden-walled bay remained relatively quiet and deserted. That was fine with Jaina. She loved nothing more than relaxing with a fine piece of equipment, making the pieces fit together properly, fiddling with the components.

And the Shadow Chaser was still state-of-the-art.

When Chewbacca bellowed a request up the boarding ramp, Jaina crawled out from under the cockpit control panel she was working on and hollered back. “Didn’t get what you said, Chewie. Which tool are you looking for?”

A large hairy head appeared in the entry-way and Chewbacca pointed to the tools he needed.

“Just about done here,” Jaina said, hoisting the case up to where the Wookiee could reach. “I can finish up with my pocket multi-tool, so go ahead and take the rest of ’em.” Chewie growled his thanks as Jaina crawled back under the console.

She completed her task, reattached the access panel, and trotted down the ramp, where she found Chewbacca cleaning lubricant off the lower armored hull. He rumbled a question.

“Did you ask me if I was hungry?” Jaina asked, struggling with the Wookiee language. She grinned. “Sure. Working on mode-variance inhibitors always gives me an appetite.”

With another growl, Chewie spread his arms and shrugged.

“What are we waiting for?” Jaina interpreted with a chuckle. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Hearing a faint roar, like the sound of distant thunder, Jaina chuckled again. “Is that your stomach? You must really be hungry.”

Chewbacca suddenly went still and cocked his head, as if listening. He squinted his blue eyes. The sound came again, this time punctuated by sharp thuds like blaster bolts hitting their targets, underscored by a low-pitched buzzing Jaina couldn’t quite identify. “That’s coming from outside,” she said. “What could it possibly—”

Chewbacca held up his hand for silence. The Wookiee woofed and loped toward the hangar bay door, with Jaina hot on his heels. Outside, the treetops spread in a green and brown carpet well below the sheer edge of the hangar bay. Uprising branches held the hangar platform high above the remainder of the forest.

Peering out into the hazy sky, Jaina had no trouble identifying the overlapping sounds: explosions, blaster bolts, and a distinctive engine howl.

“TIE fighters! What would TIE fighters be doing here? And what are they firing at?” She looked at Chewbacca in alarm.

The Wookiee pointed in the direction the sounds had come from and barked an explanation: the computer fabrication facility.

Jaina groaned. “It has to be the Second Imperium! We never thought they’d strike here.” Chewbacca roared in anger, and she needed no translation. “I know. We’ve got to get over there. Let’s call for help—where’s the closest comm unit?”

The Wookiee bounded to the communications panel next to the open bay door, slapped the switch, and bellowed an alarm. Jaina whirled as a stuttering whine erupted behind them. “Now what?”

The sound came from the Shadow Chaser itself. Chewbacca and Jaina exchanged glances and sprinted toward the sleek ship they had been repairing. Through the viewport, inside the cockpit, Jaina could see a petite woman with wavy bronze hair clad in polished lizard hide—a Nightsister.

“How did she get in there?” Jaina cried. “Hey, she’s trying to steal the ship!”

The Shadow Chaser’s engines filled the hangar bay with a sound like millions of swarming insects. The whine stopped, started, then stopped again with a cough. The engines wouldn’t fire. In the cockpit, the face of the Nightsister twisted into a scowl. Her creamy brown skin mottled with rage.

Jaina looked up with equal anger. “We’ve got to stop her.”

Chewbacca dove under the belly of the ship, barking reassurance.

“You’re sure it won’t start?” Jaina said. “How do you know?”

His head inside the still-open engine access hatch, Chewbacca grunted and nudged a piece of equipment on the floor with his foot. Jaina recognized the primary initiator module that the Wookiee had pulled for repairs.

The Shadow Chaser would never start—much less fly—without it.

The annoying whine came from the engines again, and Chewbacca yelped. There was a sharp thunk, and the noise stopped as a shower of sparks sprayed from the engine hatch. The Wookiee ducked back out.

Then Jaina heard the low hum of an extending entry ramp. But before they could rush aboard to apprehend the would-be thief, the Nightsister herself sprang out onto the hangar bay floor and faced them. Jaina thought there was something familiar about the set of the woman’s face, the icy beauty and cold anger.

Chewbacca bellowed a challenge, but the petite warrior rounded on the Wookiee, eyes blazing. “I came to reclaim my rightful property. You would be a fool to stand in my way. The Shadow Chaser is mine.”

“Then you’re that Nightsister—Garowyn,” Jaina said. “Tenel Ka and Uncle Luke told me about you.”

Garowyn shifted her glance to Jaina, her anger turning sour. “Why aren’t you at the factory with the rest of your friends, Jedi brat?”

“Factory?” Jaina said in confusion. Why would her friends go there?

“No matter—it is too late to save them,” Garowyn snarled, raising her arms overhead as if to hurl something, though her hands were empty. “It will all end here now—with me.” She laughed. “You never had a chance.”

Chewbacca bared his fangs and coiled his body, ready to lunge.

Suddenly, the meaning of Garowyn’s words sank in, and Jaina cried, “We’ve got to help the others, Chewie! Forget about her.” She ducked, hoping to make a run for the hangar bay door and the lift mechanism that would take them down to the main levels of the tree city.

“You’re going nowhere!” Garowyn shouted.

One of several large wooden crates of engine components sailed through the air and knocked Chewbacca to his knees. He went down with a woof of pain and surprise.

Garowyn stood by the Shadow Chaser’s ramp, her hands on her scale-armored hips. With dark fire flickering behind her eyes, she used the Force to snatch other heavy objects from where they rested.

Jaina cried out as a similar crate flew directly at her head. She instinctively deflected it with a shove from the Force. Eerily, it reminded Jaina of the training sessions she had undergone while a prisoner at the Shadow Academy. Fear gripped her as the Nightsister tossed barrels, heavy bolts, mallets, metal sheeting, hydrospanners, and anything else she could fling, quickly and without moving a muscle, at her two captives.

Chewbacca tried to scramble for shelter behind a half-dismantled skyhopper, but Garowyn sent more sharp and hard objects flying after him.

While doing her best to deflect the flying objects from herself and Chewbacca, Jaina huddled behind one of the fallen crates and concentrated. Even in the midst of her own danger, she felt an urgency about reaching Jacen, Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Sirra.

Unfiltered lubricant oozed out of a broken container, making an acrid-smelling puddle on the floor. Jaina was frustrated that she only had time to react. She was too busy defending herself to formulate any plan.

Though Chewbacca had no Jedi defenses, he also had no intention of remaining a stationary target. Jaina saw him slip away from the skyhopper’s fuselage and lift a crate with his strong, hairy arms. With a powerful heave, he sent the crate smashing into an incoming pail of lubricant tossed by the Nightsister. As iridescent liquid sprayed into the air and splashed to the floor plates all around Jaina and Garowyn, Chewie scooped up his discarded toolkit and, with a mighty bound, leaped onto the hull of the Shadow Chaser.

“Tell me what you’ve done to my ship,” Garowyn shrieked, now directing the barrage of objects at Jaina. “How can I fix it?”

The crate Jaina was crouched behind finally splintered under the attack, spilling hundreds of rattling, loose cyberfuses in every direction. Jaina scrambled to find other cover.

Panting, she dodged some of the thrown objects and deflected others with her skills. Perspiration streamed from her forehead and into her eyes, making it difficult to concentrate. “Damaged in an ion storm,” she gasped, wiping an arm across her eyes. “You’ll never be able to fly it.”

“In that case, you’re worthless to me,” Garowyn sneered. “I’ll take care of you immediately.” Even as the Nightsister stretched out her hands, her fingers crackling with blue fire, Jaina cast about for a way to distract her.

From out of nowhere an impedance tester sailed toward Garowyn, followed by a hydrospanner and a barrage of rivets and heavy clamp-bolts. Chewbacca did not need the Force to hurl heavy objects.

Now it was the Nightsister’s turn to dodge and deflect. Garowyn directed her attention to the Wookiee, and with a muttered oath sent a bolt of blue fire sizzling up at him. Chewbacca yowled and ducked, tumbling back over the opposite side of the sleek ship.

The distraction was brief, but it was long enough for Jaina. Reaching out with the Force, closing her eyes in concentration, Jaina gave the Nightsister’s body a powerful shove.

Caught completely off guard, Garowyn slipped in the lubricant that coated the floor around her. With another forceful shove, Jaina sent her sliding toward the yawning hangar bay entrance.

“Give it up, Garowyn,” Jaina said, her voice harsh with exertion. “You’ll never get the Shadow Chaser.”

“You haven’t seen the last of me yet,” the Nightsister yelled.

Then, to Jaina’s amazement, instead of trying to stop the momentum of her slide toward the gaping outer door, Garowyn gave herself an invisible shove in the same direction. Chewbacca scrambled after the woman, but the floor was too slippery for him to overtake her.

As she reached the entrance, Garowyn flung out one arm to grasp a vertical railing that ran along the edge of the doorway. Without slowing, she used her momentum to swing herself out and around in a tight half circle to land on the verandah that ran along the side of the hangar.

Wind whistled around the open door. Inside, the sounds of loose equipment clattered and clanked, and small components rattled out of broken crates. Jaina scrambled across the slippery floor plates, trying to reach the doorway through which Garowyn had escaped. Before she could reach the outside, Jaina heard a puttering, buzzing sound.

“Quick, Chewie,” she cried, “she’s got a speeder bike.”

Jaina stumbled toward the entrance, slipping as she went. She grabbed on to a wall rail to prevent herself from pitching forward in a long drop to the canopy below.

Her heart sank when she saw the fleeing Nightsister on a speeder bike zip across the hanger bay opening, heading toward the computer fabrication facility, which Jaina knew was under attack from Imperial forces.

Moving with amazing speed, Chewbacca launched himself forward. To Jaina’s horror, the Wookiee gave a ferocious howl and leaped straight out the door toward Garowyn’s buzzing vehicle, with nothing beneath him but thin air—

—and grasped a pipe on the speeder bike with one strong, furry hand.

Still slipping, Jaina held the wall rail and watched Wookiee, Nightsister, and speeder bike spiral down toward the leafy sea. Jaina clung to the rail and reached out with one hand, but she was too far away to help Chewbacca.

As the speeder bike crashed on the treetops, Chewie quickly regained his balance. The Nightsister, still covered with slimy lubricant, dismounted and scrambled for purchase on one of the narrow branches. Chewie swung himself to the thicker branch beneath her and shook the limb on which she stood, growling a challenge.

A harsh laugh escaped Garowyn’s lips, and a triumphant look lit her face. Jaina could hear her voice even at this distance. “So you wish to die?” The Nightsister stretched out a hand that crackled with discharges of blue electricity. “You deserve it for what you’ve done to my ship.”

Chewbacca, though defenseless in the face of her discharge of dark power, snarled at her.

In desperation Jaina tried the only trick that sprang to mind. Letting her eyes fall half closed, Jaina sent a rippling furrow through the leaves behind Garowyn. This time the invisible plow made a loud, rustling sound, like a stampede.

The Nightsister whirled to defend against the supposed attack on her from behind. Flinging up an arm to ward off her unseen enemy, Garowyn lost her footing on the narrow branch. She fell backward.

Jaina gasped as she heard Garowyn’s head strike a lower tree branch with a solid thud. Without another sound, the Nightsister’s compact body tumbled like a shooting star, through the sharp and clinging branches into the depths of the jungle far, far below.