The Emperor's Plague

16

Jaina trotted up the metal-lined corridor beside Tenel Ka and Jacen. Looking back over her shoulder she saw that the emergency interlock still held Rullak and his Diversity Alliance guards. She couldn’t tell how much longer the barrier would last, though. A moment ago it had sounded as if Tenel Ka might have a plan.

“Exactly what kind of drastic measures did you have in mind?” Jaina asked.

“Speed is essential,” Tenel Ka replied, and picked up her pace. Her expression flickered with physical pain, but the warrior girl did not falter or slow down.

“Yeah, I think we can all agree on that,” Jacen panted.

At the next branching of corridors, Tenel Ka said, “This way!” and turned so quickly that Jaina had to pivot on one foot to make the turn, causing her to fetch up sharply against the wall.

Jacen grabbed her left arm and pulled her forward again.

“Come on, Jaina. So what’s the rest of the plan, Tenel Ka?”

Jaina willed her legs to keep moving.

“Kind of hard to have a committee meeting while we’re”—she gasped—“while we’re on the run.”

“Almost there,” Tenel Ka said, turning left again at the next intersection. Jaina sped up and hoped that Tenel Ka really did have a plan.

“Almost there,” Jacen echoed, trying to encourage Jaina. “Hey—almost where?”

Tenel Ka skidded to a stop without warning, and Jacen collided with her, forcing him to throw an arm around her to keep her from falling down. Jaina overshot the intersection by a few steps before she managed to stop.

“We must set explosives here,” Tenel Ka said.

Jaina’s mind quickly switched to analytic mode and her gaze swept the walls, ceilings, joints, and supports of the intersection.

“Structural weak points there, there, and here.” She pointed to each location as she swung her knapsack from her back and rummaged around for the larger thermal detonators. She tossed one to her brother, who caught it easily and began setting it up where she had indicated. Jaina set another one by herself.

“If my sense of direction serves me, the Rock Dragon is docked just over one hundred meters from here,” Tenel Ka said.

“Set the timers for three minutes.” Jaina blinked at the other girl.

“But the blast from these detonators is going to be huge—”

“—and we won’t be able to get far enough away from the blast unless we do a full takeoff in the Rock Dragon,” Jacen finished for her.

“Exactly, my friends.”

Shaking his head, Jacen positioned his detonator and set the timer. Jaina rigged her second and third detonators, lobbed one at the warrior girl, and situated the remaining one for maximum damage.

“Hey, we can’t leave Zekk and Lowie and—”

“We will take off only for a few minutes,” Tenel Ka said, catching the detonator with her one hand and thumbing it into position, “then return to a different point, free of pursuit.”

As one, the three young Jedi Knights began to run down the corridor toward the Rock Dragon. Jaina put on a burst of speed which barely kept her ahead of the clock that ticked down each second in her mind. The passageway seemed to stretch endlessly ahead of them.

“Almost there,” Jacen chanted as they ran. Jaina’s entire concentration focused on the effort of placing one foot in front of the other without slowing down. Left, right, left, right, left, right. An airlock hatch swung open right in front of her. Through her haze of exhaustion she glimpsed her brother’s face streaming with perspiration as he held the hatch open for her.

“Don’t stop now, Jaina!” She couldn’t have stopped then if she had tried. She bolted straight through the hatch into the Rock Dragon without even thinking about where she was going. She dove into to the pilot’s seat, and her hands instantly began moving across the console controls. There was no time for mistakes. In the back of the Rock Dragon Jacen slammed the airlock shut, and Tenel Ka was already beside Jaina, slapping the engine power to full. Jaina checked her chronometer and knew there was no time to wait for her brother to get into his crash restraints. Uncoupling from the asteroid dock, she threw the Rock Dragon into full reverse.

Repulsorjets kicked the Rock Dragon free a split second before the asteroid began to shudder from the shock of the explosions. In the back, she heard Jacen stumble and fall with a loud thunk. Flames and shattered rock sprayed out of the dome and docking area, but the Hapan passenger cruiser shot away at full power.

“Hey, no need to worry about me—I’m fine.” Jacen scrambled into the cockpit as the Rock Dragon pulled away from the tiny asteroid.

“You are bleeding,” Tenel Ka observed. Jaina looked back in alarm to see a large discolored lump forming on the side of her brother’s forehead. Blood trickled from a ragged gash beside his eye. Jacen shrugged a shoulder and pulled his crash webbing around him.

“Builds character.”

Beneath them, an angry, fiery glow marked the site of the detonation.

“We’ll wait another minute until all the aftershocks have died down,” Jaina said. “Then we’ll find a new place to dock.”

“There,” Tenel Ka said, pointing to a dock far below. Jaina nodded.

Jacen said, “Uh-oh. We’re not alone out here.”

Jaina looked out the windowport at a cluster of ominous ships racing toward them—the Diversity Alliance armada.