Harbinger fell into the moon's thin atmosphere and skidded along, an ever-lengthening spear of flame in its wake. Bleary-eyed, he saw fire consume the entire ship until the massive vessel exploded in a cloud of smoke and flame.
Relin had done it, he realized, but he felt no elation.
There is nothing certain.
The autopilot was flying Junker straight into the aftermath of the explosion but Marr did not trust himself enough to change the ship's course. He needed to reach the surface and hope that Jaden and Khedryn would see him and help him.
He was dying, he knew. Already the pain in his back was diminishing-not a good sign-and he felt a creeping cold enshrouding his body.
He tried to reach for the emergency distress beacon, thinking he would activate it and that matters would end as they had begun, with the beep of someone in distress.
But he could not reach it. His body no longer answered his commands.
Pain and blood loss drew him back into darkness.
Jaden and Khedryn stepped through the hatch and into the blowing snow and ice. Jaden welcomed the elements, the freezing air, and the pain. He inhaled deeply, hoping to cleanse his lungs of any residuum of Mother or the facility. Khedryn pointed ahead.
"Flotsam is still there." His voice sounded metallic through his helmet's external mike.
Jaden saw. Shields still secured the ship's viewports. The clones had not gotten in, which meant they had not gotten off the moon… yet.
"The Anzat had a ship."
"Right," Khedryn said, and started trudging through the snow. "Let's get aboard Flotsam and get into the air. We can find it that way."
They had not taken five strides before a ship streaked into view, flying low, its engines a barely audible hum over the wind. Jaden recognized the silhouette immediately from the low profile and wide wings-a CloakShape fighter, modified with a hyperspace sled and coated in the black fiberplast typical of a StealthX. It would have been almost invisible against a field of stars. In atmosphere, it looked like a piece of outer space had descended planetside.
Jaden knew that it was too late to seek cover. Khedryn must have realized the same thing. He took station beside Jaden, freed the shoulder stock on the E-11, and aimed it at the ship's cockpit. Jaden activated his lightsaber and held his ground. The weapon's hilt was unsteady in his two-fingered grasp. He switched to his left hand, where it felt awkward, but at least he could hold it.
The CloakShape slowed, maneuvered over them, and hovered at maybe ten meters. The energy from the engines warmed the air. The barrels of the laser cannons looked like tunnels that went on forever. Jaden and Khedryn stood still on the frozen ground, cloaked in the fighter's faint shadow. The ship dipped its nose so that the cockpit had a clear view of them and they of it. The transparisteel was dimmed so that they could not see within. Jaden reached out with the Force-even that small effort tried him, after all he'd been through-and felt the Force presences of ten beings.
"They do have children aboard," he said. "Or there were more clones than we thought."
Khedryn lowered his blaster, a symbolic gesture only. The blaster could not have penetrated the CloakShape's hide.
"Maybe they don't know who we are or what… happened."
Jaden shook his head, his eyes fixed on the cockpit. "No. They know I killed one of them. The holo-log said they had an empathic connection, maybe even a telepathic one. They know."
"Stang," Khedryn murmured.
For a time they stood there, staring up at the unseen crew through the swirl. Finally Jaden shouted up at the cockpit.
"If you leave I will have to come after you."
He gave that a moment to register and still received no response. He deactivated his saber, turned away from the fighter, and walked through the cold and snow for Flotsam.
"Let's go, Khedryn."
"Go?" Khedryn said, and hurried after him, looking back over his shoulder at the fighter.
"We are either dead or we're not. Their choice."
Khedryn fell in beside him, partially hunched as though in anticipation of a blow.
Jaden did not flinch-though Khedryn did-when a shriek tore through the sky, not the cannons on the CloakShape fighter, but the wail of engines failing, of superstructure collapsing.
Jaden turned, already flashing back to his vision, and looked up to see the sky on fire. An enormous ship-it could only be Harbinger-streaked across the upper atmosphere, leaving a fat line of fire kilometers long.
"Stang," Khedryn said in a hush.
With the suddenness of a blaster shot, the cruiser exploded, the fireball starting in the rear engine section and racing forward along the length of the ship until the entire vessel vaporized into a billion-billion tiny, glowing particles that lit the sky like pyrotechnics.
Jaden watched, not breathing, as they started to fall to the surface, a rain of evil. He lived alternately in the present and the memory of his vision. He felt the oily touch of the Lignan, the familiar nudge in his very being impelling him to darkness. The feeling did not elicit in him the horror he remembered from his vision and he wondered what that meant. He resisted the pull-his will, his ability to choose, was something internal, unconstrained by the external.
The CloakShape fighter's engines fired and Khedryn and Jaden watched it accelerate skyward, its form a black silhouette against the still-glowing sky.
"It is heading right into the debris," Khedryn said. "What are they doing?"
Jaden understood exactly what they were doing. They were taking in the Lignan's power.
"I will have to come after you," he said again, more softly, unsure how he felt about the words.
Another boom sounded far above them, not an explosion but a sonic boom, a ship entering or leaving atmosphere. At first Jaden assumed it was the CloakShape exiting the moon's atmosphere, but instead he saw a familiar disk cutting its way through the sky, falling out of the ruin of Harbinger's death. Junker looked wounded, incomplete without Flotsam attached to its fittings and Khedryn in its cockpit.
Jaden imagined it passing the CloakShape fighter and its crew of dark side clones on its way down, imagined paths crossing, lines meeting at angles, currents intersecting. He thought of Relin and felt profound sadness. He knew the ancient Jedi would not be aboard Junker.
"That is Junker!" Khedryn said. He took Jaden by the shoulder, shook him with joy. Jaden winced from the pain but could not stop smiling himself.
With the ship so close, Khedryn tried to raise Marr on his suit's comlink. No response.
"Look at the way she's flying," Khedryn said, joy giving way to concern in his tone. "She's on autopilot."
Jaden reached out with the Force, felt Marr's faint Force presence, felt, too, that the Cerean was near death.
"Let's move," he said, and they ran for Junker as it started to set down.
EPILOGUE
Khedryn's voice exploded over the comlink. "He's awake!"
Jaden jumped up from the table in the galley, spilling caf, and hurried to the makeshift medical bay aboard Junker. Khedryn had converted one of the passenger berths off the galley into a rudimentary treatment room. Transparent storage lockers held a disorganized array of gauze, scissors, stim-shots, antibiotics, bacta, synthflesh, and any number of other miscellaneous medical supplies and devices. Jaden had to credit him for thoroughness if not orderliness. Khedryn and Marr had already seen to their wounds as best they could. They could get better treatment when they returned to Fhost.
Marr lay in the rack, a white sheet covering him to the chest. He blinked in the lights, trying to shake the film from his eyes. Khedryn held his hand the way a father might a son's.