She screamed, wrenching the helm sideways so her ship went spinning out of the path of the other vessel. It took her a few moments to regain equilibrium — both the ship’s and her stomach’s — and by then the agent was coming about for another pass at the same speed.
Both of the agent’s engine manifolds were smoking, greasy black stuff that looked as terrible as Ahsoka knew it would smell. Her starboard engine was almost stalled. It would be only a matter of time until it gave out completely, and she’d be unable to run.
“Come on, come on,” she said to the navicomputer.
In that moment, several things happened. The first was that her starboard engine failed and she began to spin out of control. The second was that the Black Sun agent pulled up, as though they wanted to watch her crash from a distance. The third was that there was another ship in the sky with them, and it was much bigger than hers.
Ahsoka saw it only in flashes as she spun. It was a new ship, shiny hull fitted with state-of-the-art cannons. There were markings on it, but she couldn’t make them out. What she could make out was that the ship wasn’t targeting her. It was targeting the Black Sun vessel.
Under onslaught from a ship that size, the sleek little craft didn’t stand a chance. The agent must have known it, because they turned tail and fled after the first salvo. Ahsoka used the reprieve to stop her ship from spinning out. She leveled off just above the treetops and began the climb back up, trying to break orbit and get away so that she could make the jump to lightspeed. It was slow going with only one engine, and she had to use her full strength to hold the ship on course.
Between that and her fading adrenaline, she couldn’t locate the bigger ship. She tried to see it on her scanners, but steering required too much of her concentration.
“Just a little more,” she said. “Just a little more.”
She broke into space and killed the port engine before it could burn out, too. Out of the planet’s gravity and atmosphere, she was able to relax a little bit and use the thrusters to maintain stability while her inertia carried her toward a location where she’d be able to make the jump.
“About that hyperdrive,” she said, turning to the navicomputer and preparing the manual parts of the calculation.
Her proximity alarms went berserk. The bigger ship was right on top of her. It must have waited for her to break orbit and then pounced when she paused to catch her breath.
“Come on, come on!” she said to the computer, but she had a sinking feeling that it was too late.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, when the computer beeped and she tried to make the jump to lightspeed, nothing happened. She was caught in a tractor beam.
Chapter 23
MIARA WENT OVER the circuitry as carefully as their current predicament allowed. Generally speaking, it was not a good idea to rush explosives. Plus, she needed these ones to blow discreetly. It wouldn’t do them any good to blast the hillside, only to have whatever was out there follow the explosion back to its source. She kept her head clear and calm and worked with steady hands. Beside her, Kolvin was not so patient.
“Will you stop that,” she said, when his fidgeting got to be too much for her slowly fraying nerves.
“It’s getting closer, Miara,” Kolvin said.
“I know that, you idiot,” she said. “But if I rush now, I might blow you up instead.”
“Right,” said Kolvin. “Sorry.”
“Just go stand somewhere else, would you?” she requested. “You’re blocking my light.”
He gave her some space, and she went back to work. Just another couple of switches and she’d be ready to go. Fortunately, when she’d first rigged this, she had anticipated a stealth blast would be necessary. Everything was already in place. She just needed to lay the final ignition sequence.
“Okay, Kolvin, back into the tunnel,” she said, closing up the final circuit board.
“You’re really going to blow me up?” he asked, but he was already moving.
“No,” she said. “Though it’s tempting. It’s going to get dusty in here, that’s all. Most of this blast is directed downward.”
Kolvin crawled into the tunnel and she followed him. When they were both entirely covered by the lower ceiling, she hit the detonator. There was a quiet rumble beneath them and a louder clamor behind them as the rocks fell inward. They both started coughing.
“Go,” she said, sputtering. It was going to take her weeks to get the taste of the smoky crap out of her mouth.
Kolvin went, and she followed. A few seconds later, they emerged into the main cavern. Kaeden was still playing crokin with poor Neera, but she got up and walked over as soon as she saw Miara, and started dusting off her sister’s back and shoulders as well as she could with one arm.
“Hey, hey, cut it out,” Miara said, though to be honest, it felt nice to know that Kaeden was watching out for her.
“I’m sorry,” Kaeden said. “I just really hate all this waiting, even when we’re not split up.”
“I know,” Miara said.
They had never spoken about it, but the night and day Miara had spent waiting for Kaeden to come back after the raid was the worst time of Miara’s life. Even though she’d known, logically, that Kaeden wouldn’t be able to return until it got dark, every minute of daylight seemed to taunt her. When she’d heard Ahsoka’s ship take off, she’d almost given up and run out onto the hillside, screaming like Neera. Kolvin had practically sat on her chest until she’d calmed down. When Kaeden had finally arrived, her hair a mess and her poor arm trailing uselessly at her side, it was hours before Miara was willing to leave her.
“I hope Ahsoka does come back,” Miara said. “I mean, obviously I’d like her to rescue us again, but more important, I want to tell her that I’m sorry.”
“You have strange priorities, little sister,” Kaeden said. “But I guess I already got to apologize.”
“Yeah,” Miara said. “I don’t really blame her for anything that happened. I know she helped us as much as she could.”
They didn’t talk about the others, about Vartan and Selda, or any of the rest of the farmers who hadn’t been part of the raid. Not knowing was bad, but speculating would only make it worse.
They waited.
Neera lost interest in the crokin board and started pacing in a corner, muttering under her breath. Kolvin went off to check on the vaporator, which had been making strange noises for a few days. The rest of the insurgents checked their weapons, even though nothing had changed since the last time they used them. Anything to keep distracted while they waited to see if the mysterious creature would find them.
Then, from outside the cave, there came a very loud voice.
“Kaeden Larte! I know you are in there.”
Kaeden started, jerking her arm painfully. Miara’s eyes widened, and everyone in the cave, even Neera, froze.
“Come out, Kaeden Larte,” the shouting continued. “Surrender or I will collapse your little hiding spot, and your sister and your friends will die gasping for air.”
Kaeden was on her feet before Miara could stop her.
“What are you doing?” Miara said. “You can’t just go out there.”
“I can’t stay here, either!” Kaeden said. “We knew they’d get us somehow, and we knew they wouldn’t fight fair when they did. I’m just the name they know, that’s all.”
“He might blow us all up anyway.” Neera materialized next to them, her face completely still and her blue eyes focused in a way they hadn’t been since her brother died.
“Ahsoka picked the escape doors because they have lines of sight with each other,” Kaeden reminded her sister. “I’ll go out the smallest one, and you can keep watch from the others. Maybe you’ll get a clean shot.”