Neelah braced herself in the corner formed by the cock-pit's two rear bulkheads. The sudden acceleration, as Den-gar slammed the controls, forced her spine and the back of her head against the metal behind her. Another burst, from the ship's side jets, threw her against the hatchway.
"What're you doing?" She had grabbed the back of the pilot's chair to keep from being knocked off her feet. Past Dengar, she could see out the forward viewport; a few remaining scraps of Kud'ar Mub'at's once-living web scattered to either side of the Hound as it gained speed, heading for a larger shape ahead. "You're going straight toward the KDY ship!"
"If I'm supposed to be chased by something with guns," said Dengar between gritted teeth, "I want to make sure I've got their attention!"
The combined acceleration of the two ships ate up the distance between them; at the last possible moment, and as the cruiser fired off a bolt from its prow-mounted can-non, Dengar banked the Hound's Tooth to one side and above the other ship's hull, clearing it by what seemed to Neelah to be less than a few meters.
Below the Hound, the cruiser's rear thruster exhausts shot past. Dengar kept the ship at full throttle, taking them out into empty space, with nothing but stars ahead of them. Reaching into one of the Trandoshan-sized grooves on the control panel, he toggled onto one of the display screens the image from the stern viewport. Far off in the distance was Balancesheet's untouched freighter; closer was the KDY cruiser, wheeling itself around to fol-low them.
"Good." Dengar backed off the thruster controls a fraction of a centimeter. "Now all we have to do is fire off our comm transmission—"
Neelah watched as he picked up the comm unit mike, then listened as he gave the rendezvous coordinates to the now-vanished Headhunter with Fett and Suhlak aboard. A moment later, the Hound's Tooth was in hyperspace as well.
"Now we're all set." Dengar leaned back, hands be-hind his head.
"You think so, huh?" Neelah had managed to stay on her feet through the Hound's violent maneuvers. Hands braced against the back of the pilot's chair, she leaned down closer to Dengar. "Did you ever stop to think about what happens when we reach the Oranessan sys-tem? And if Boba Fett doesn't show up? Then we're sup-posed to just hang around there and wait, I suppose. Seems to me, that's a perfect opportunity for this KDY cruiser to eventually catch up with us and sort us out into a lot of little pieces."
Dengar's face fell. "You're right ... I didn't think about that."
"Great." Neelah straightened up and shook her head. "Boba Fett's the one with a clear shot right now, and we've got the heavy artillery chasing us. That worked out, all right—for him. Too bad for us if anything hap-pens to him—or he decides to change his plans again."
"I guess ..." Dengar had been hit hard by Neelah's words; he spoke slowly, his thoughts obviously turned to the KDY ship, heading for the same destination. "I guess we'll just deal with it when we get there ..."
13
"Of course," said the a-foreman of the Kuat Drive Yards' construction docks, "we remain loyal to you per-sonally. Even beyond our loyalty to the corporation itself."
"That means a great deal to me." Kuat of Kuat was not surprised to hear the statement, though. He had come down from the office in his private quarters, to which he normally would have summoned the various supervisors one by one, the single alpha and the ranks of beta team supervisors below him. This time—perhaps for the last time, Kuat knew—he preferred to meet with the crew leaders here among the docks, the true heart of the corporation he led. To find a devotion equal to his own was only fitting in such a place. "But you must re-member," continued Kuat, "loyalty to me is the same as loyalty to Kuat Drive Yards. I wouldn't ask you to do anything that would not be best for it, and for all that we've worked so hard to create."
The men and women assembled in the meeting shed— there were probably close to a hundred of them, repre-senting all of the corporation's divisions—looked back at him with complete understanding in their collective gaze. They were as aware as he was of all the enemies arrayed against Kuat Drive Yards, the greedy and am-bitious who desired to consume the corporation whole, bring it entirely under their power, make it a mere part of that greater entity known as ... the Empire. Palpa-tine and the underlings that he had come to dominate with his insatiable will, from Lord Vader down through the ranks of admirals in the Imperial Navy—none of them could abide the thought of any entity, from the last solitary Rebel to one of the most powerful corpo-rations in the galaxy, remaining independent. The faith-ful KDY employees standing before Kuat knew that their only options were to resist the Empire's encroachment with all their possible strength and will—or see them-selves crushed inside Palpatine's fist, as he had crushed worlds with wealth greater than any possessed by the planet Kuat.
One of the eldest B-supervisors stepped forward. Kuat recognized the man as the leader of the shipbuild-ing team that laid down the enormous central frames of the ships that took form in the KDY construction docks. The B-supervisor had been a lead operator, back in the days of Kuat's father, of one of the massive cranes span-ning the docks, each nearly as long—and powerful—as an Imperial battle destroyer. Through the meeting shed's overhead skylights, the outline of one of them could be seen, blotting out an entire swath of stars.
"You've led this corporation well, Kuat." Though white-haired, the B-supervisor was still a figure of imposing musculature, with a razor-sharp gaze in his age-seamed face. "And through times perhaps more difficult than any faced by your predecessors; you've proven your-self to be the true heir of the Kuat Drive Yards' helm."
A murmuring chorus of agreement sounded behind the man.
"Is it your intent, then, to be the final leader that this corporation will ever see?" The B-supervisor peered closely at Kuat. "Perhaps you seek to ensure that Kuat Drive Yards will never have a leader greater than yourself."
"That's not my intent," said Kuat of Kuat. The ranks assembled in the meeting shed fell absolutely silent to hear his softly spoken words. "But if it turns out to be my duty, then I will accept it."
The grizzled figure standing before him slowly nod-ded. "A fine answer, Kuat. And a worthy decision. I've heard that there are many, on the planet of Kuat that we orbit—" As with most of the KDY workforce, the old man had spent his entire life in the construction docks and the attached dormitory complex. "—and on worlds far from here, who believe that from our work, our lives among the ships we build, we wind up with hearts as cold and precise as machines. So be it; perhaps those other creatures speak truly. But if such is the case, then you should feel certain of the judgment of the living ma-chines you see before you." The B-supervisor turned and gestured with an outflung arm toward the other KDY workers. "And that judgment is—as you accept your duty, however painful, so do we accept ours."
The voices behind the man were louder this time, but just as united in their assent.
Kuat looked away from his followers for a moment, toward the bank of transparisteel panes along the side of the meeting shed. From here he had a closer view than from his personal quarters, high above the construction docks, of the corporation's work. As far as his eye could see, and against a glittering backdrop of stars, the mas-sive shapes of a completed battle fleet were arrayed one after another. The cranes and other heavy equipment that the shipbuilders used in their intricate craft arched over the ships, as though to protect them from hands that would defile their beauty and power. Kuat's heart, however hard and machinelike it may have become, swelled in his chest. No matter what happened, however dark the fate closing upon Kuat Drive Yards, its accom-plishments would remain. We built these, thought Kuat as he gazed at the ships. They were ours before they be-came anyone else's. He nodded slowly to himself. What became of them now was a matter for him to decide.