“Hit and … and lost,” Luke said, forehead straining in concentration. “She must have run into one of the ion beams.”
The kid was looking like he’d just lost his best friend, instead of someone who wanted to kill him. Han thought about pointing that out, decided at the last second they had more immediate things to worry about. Probably just one of those crazy Jedi things that never made sense anyway. “Well, we can’t help her now,” he said, starting forward again. “Come on.”
Both the starboard and port main corridors fed into the monitor anteroom, from which a single set of blast doors led the rest of the way forward into the bridge proper. Lando and Chewbacca were at opposite sides of the port corridor entranceway as Han and Luke arrived, huddling back from a barrage of laser fire and occasionally risking a quick shot back. “What’ve you got, Lando?” Han asked as he and Luke joined them.
“Nothing good, buddy,” Lando grunted back. “There are at least ten of them left. Shen and Tomrus were both hit—Shen will probably die if we don’t get him to a medic droid in the next hour or so. Anselm and Kline are taking care of them inside the bridge.”
“We did a little better, but we’ve still got a couple of them coming up behind us,” Han told him, doing a quick assessment of the rows of monitor consoles in the anteroom. They would provide reasonable cover, but given the layout, the defenders wouldn’t be able to retreat farther without opening themselves to enemy fire. “I don’t think four of us can hold this place,” he decided. “We’d better pull back to the bridge.”
“From which there’s nowhere else to go,” Lando pointed out. “I trust you considered that part?”
Beside him, Han felt Luke brace himself. “All right,” Luke said. “Into the bridge, all of you. I’ll handle this.”
Lando threw him a look. “You’ll what?”
“I’ll handle it,” Luke repeated. With a sharp snap-hiss he ignited his lightsaber. “Get going—I know what I’m doing.”
“Come on,” Han seconded. He didn’t know what Luke had in mind, but something about the kid’s face suggested it wouldn’t be a good idea to argue. “We can backstop him from inside.”
A minute later they were set: Han and Lando just inside the bridge blast doors, Chewbacca a few meters farther in under cover of an engineering console, Luke standing alone in the archway with lightsaber humming. It took another minute for the Imperials to realize that they had the corridors to themselves; but once they did they moved swiftly. Cover fire began ricocheting around the monitor consoles, and as it did so the Imperials began diving one by one through the two corridor archways into the anteroom, taking cover behind the long consoles and adding their contribution to the laser fire storm.
Trying not to wince back from the attack, Han kept up his own fire, knowing full well that he wasn’t doing much more than making noise. Luke’s lightsaber flashed like something alive and hungry, deflecting the bolts that came too close. So far the kid didn’t seem to have been hit … but Han knew that it couldn’t last. As soon as the Imperials stopped laying down random cover fire and started concentrating on their aim, there would be too many shots for even a Jedi to stay clear of. Gritting his teeth, wishing he knew what Luke had in mind, he kept shooting.
“Ready!” Luke shouted over the screaming of the bolts … and even as Han wondered what he was supposed to be ready for, the kid took a step back and threw his lightsaber to the side. It spiraled across the anteroom, spun into the wall—
And with a crack like thunder, sliced the anteroom open to space.
Luke leaped backwards, barely making it into the bridge before the blast doors slammed shut against the explosive decompression. Alarms whistled for a moment until Chewbacca shut them off, and for another minute Han could hear the thudding of laser fire as the doomed Imperials fired uselessly at the blast doors.
And then the firing trailed off into silence … and it was all over.
Luke was already at the main viewport, gazing out at the battle taking place outside. “Take it easy, Luke,” Han advised, holstering his blaster and coming up behind him. “We’re out of the fight.”
“We can’t be,” Luke insisted, his artificial right hand opening and closing restlessly. Maybe remembering Myrkr, and that long trek with Mara across the forest. “We’ve got to do something to help. The Imperials will kill everyone if we don’t.”
“We can’t fire, and we can’t maneuver,” Han growled, fighting back his own feeling of helplessness. Leia was on that Escort Frigate out there … “What’s left?”
Luke waved a hand helplessly. “I don’t know,” he conceded. “You’re supposed to be the clever one. You think of something.”
“Yeah,” Han muttered, looking around the bridge. “Sure. I’m supposed to just wave my hands and—”
He stopped short … and felt a slow, lopsided smile spread across his face. “Chewie, Lando—get over there to those sensor displays,” he ordered, looking down at the console in front of him. Not the right one. “Luke, help me find—never mind; here it is.”
“Here what is?” Lando asked, stepping in front of the display Han had indicated.
“Think about it a minute,” Han said, glancing over the controls. Good; everything still seemed to be engaged. He just hoped it all still worked. “Where are we, anyway?” he added, stepping over to the helm console and activating it.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Lando said with strained patience. “And fiddling with that helm isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
“You’re right,” Han agreed, smiling tightly. “It’s not going to get us anywhere.”
Lando stared at him … and slowly, a smile of his own appeared. “Right,” he said slyly. “Right. This is the Katana fleet. And we’re aboard the Katana.”
“You got it,” Han told him. Taking a deep breath, mentally crossing his fingers, he eased power to the drive.
The Katana didn’t move, of course. But the whole reason the entire Katana fleet had disappeared together in the first place—
“Got one,” Lando called out, hunching over his sensor display. “Bearing forty-three mark twenty.”
“Just one?” Han asked.
“Just one,” Lando confirmed. “Count your blessings—after this much time we’re lucky to have even one ship whose engines still work.”
“Let’s hope they stay working,” Han grunted. “Give me an intercept course for that second Star Destroyer.”
“Uh …” Lando frowned. “Come around fifteen degrees portside and down a hair.”
“Right.” Carefully, Han made the necessary course change. It was a strange feeling to be flying another ship by slave-rig remote control. “How’s that?” he asked Lando.
“Looks good,” Lando confirmed. “Give it a little more power.”
“The fire control monitors aren’t working,” Luke warned, stepping to Han’s side. “I don’t know if you’re going to be able to fire accurately without them.”
“I’m not even going to try,” Han told him grimly. “Lando?”
“Shift a little more to portside,” Lando directed. “A little more … that’s it.” He looked up at Han. “You’re lined up perfectly.”
“Here goes,” Han said; and threw the throttle control wide open. There was no way the Star Destroyer could have missed seeing the Dreadnaught bearing down on it, of course. But with its electronic and control systems still being scrambled by Bel Iblis’s ion attack, there was also no way for it to move out of the way in time.
Even from the Katana’s distance, the impact and explosion were pretty spectacular. Han watched the expanding fireball fade slowly, and then turned to Luke. “Okay,” he said. “Now we’re out of the fight.”
*
Through the Judicator’s side viewport Captain Brandei watched in stunned disbelief as the Peremptory died its fiery death. No—it couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t. Not an Imperial Star Destroyer. Not the mightiest ship in the Empire’s fleet.
The crack of a shot against the bridge deflector screen snapped him out of it. “Report,” he snapped.
“One of the enemy Dreadnaughts seems to have been damaged in the Peremptory’s explosion,” the sensor officer reported. “The other two are on their way back here.”
To reinforce the three still blasting away with their ion cannon. Brandei gave the tactical display a quick check; but it was a meaningless exercise. He knew full well what their only course was. “Recall all remaining fighters,” he ordered. “We’ll make the jump to lightspeed as soon as they’re aboard.”
“Yes, sir.”
And as the bridge crew moved to comply, Brandei permitted himself a tight smile. Yes, they’d lost this one. But it was just a battle, not the war. They’d be back soon enough … and when they did, it would be with the Dark Force and Grand Admiral Thrawn to command it.
So he would leave the Rebels to enjoy their victory here. It might well be their last.
CHAPTER
29