Jaina took little note of any sound beyond the exploding blasters, the hum of her lightsaber, and the snarl of the Adjutant Advisor. The roaring that built louder and louder in the air simply did not register.
She continued to fight, trying not to think ahead … though she did feel an unexpected surge of hope through the Force.
“It’s a ship! There’s a ship coming!” Raynar exclaimed.
Hovrak and his two guards looked up just in time to see the Lightning Rod streak toward the cliff opening. With pinpoint accuracy, the ship fired. Both guards were blasted off the rockface in the surprise attack. Hovrak stumbled back, flailing in the air. A section of the cliff wall melted behind him. Jaina and Raynar pressed themselves back into the crevice as cherry-red rocks fell smoking and steaming down into the chasm below. Hovrak managed to throw himself against an outcropping and hold on, roaring in outrage through his cracked helmet.
As the ship hovered in front of the embattled alcove, the cargo door of the Lightning Rod hissed open. Zekk grinned. “I thought it was supposed to be your turn to rescue me this time, Jaina. Need a lift?”
Luke Skywalker sat in the pilot’s seat. “Jaina! Raynar! Jump in.”
Lusa raced to the cargo bay and held out her hands. Jaina pushed Raynar up onto the unsteady ramp; the young man winced as he touched the hot metal, but he hauled himself aboard.
Jostled by wind currents, the Lightning Rod hovered near the cliff above the blasted chasm.
“Your turn, Jaina!” Zekk said, helping Raynar inside. “We’re just about ready!” He gestured to Master Skywalker at the pilot’s controls.
Seeing Raynar safe, Jaina clipped her lightsaber to her side. Then she jumped. Once on the ramp, she fell to her knees and pulled herself along. “I’m on,” she shouted.
Back in the cockpit, Zekk and Master Skywalker began to move the Lightning Rod. But at the last second, Hovrak bunched his muscles and leaped across the widening gap. With one silver-gloved hand he grabbed the piston support of the Lightning Rod’s ramp; with his other, he clutched Jaina’s foot. “You can’t escape!” he roared.
“Yes we will,” Jaina said, struggling against him.
Lusa leaned over, extending her arms to Jaina.
Hovrak glanced up, his wolf eyes slitted. “Lusa! Another traitor!”
“No. I’m no longer deluded,” Lusa said. “That doesn’t make me a traitor—it just makes me a bit smarter than you.”
Hovrak strained to haul himself aboard the ship as it soared higher into the air … though what the wolfman intended to do, Jaina couldn’t guess. She thrashed and kicked at him, but he would not let go of her foot.
Her skin burned. Her hands were raw from where blisters had popped open. Luke took the Lightning Rod high into the air, away from the rocky uplift, out into the hotter skies of Ryloth.
“You’d better get inside!” Zekk called back to Jaina. The wind howled through the opening, rippling their clothes. “Stop playing around back there.”
“Who’s playing?.” Jaina said, kicking once again at Hovrak. Her foot struck his helmet, cracking the transparisteel plate all the way open.
The Adjutant Advisor clung tenaciously to her leg. He held on with both hands, more intent on dragging her down with him than in getting to relative safety aboard the ship.
Jaina’s knees slipped on the metal ramp. She scrambled for purchase, but Hovrak’s weight dragged her back down the ramp toward the opening and the long drop. Hot winds from the canyon roared in through the opening. Raynar pulled himself to his hands and knees in the cargo bay.
He slapped the control switch for the ramp, closing it halfway so that Jaina could climb in. Hovrak’s feet dangled over the edge.
Seizing the opportunity, Hovrak finally hauled himself aboard. He released his vicious grip on Jaina with a triumphant glare in his bloodshot animal eyes.
“Lusa, do something!” Raynar yelled.
But the centaur girl was already taking action.
As Hovrak stood up, Lusa reared and kicked him full in the chest, knocking him back onto the ramp. Raynar punched the controls again. The ramp opened wide.
The Lightning Rod soared over a lava-filled crevice. Hovrak, in his slippery suit, slid back down and out into open air. The plummeting wolfman flailed. His protective suit glittered as he dropped for thousands of meters … until he plunged with a puff of bright yellow flame into a sluggish river of molten rock. The lava bubbled and swallowed up the dark stain. In a heartbeat, nothing remained of Hovrak.
Panting and distraught, Jaina crawled farther into the cargo area, and the Lightning Rod’s ramp finally hissed shut. Jaina took a deep breath of blessedly cool air and then fell trembling next to Raynar.
The two were battered, sunburned, grime-encrusted messes, but she grinned at the young man from Alderaan, then offered a weak wave to Luke and Zekk in the cockpit.
“How can I help?” the centaur girl asked.
“We could both use a drink right about now,” Jaina gasped.
Raynar looked gratefully up at Lusa. “Cold water?”
“Make it a double,” Jaina added.
22
Together, the Lightning Rod and the Rock Dragon sped upward out of Ryloth’s atmosphere.
As they flew, pursued now by Diversity Alliance ships, Zekk gained new admiration for Luke Skywalker. Even in an old-fashioned freighter like the Lightning Rod, the Jedi Master’s training as a fighter pilot was obvious.
Zekk was glad to witness the legendary skill of the X-wing pilot who had destroyed the first Death Star. Master Skywalker maneuvered the ship, expertly dodging quadlaser fire from their disorganized pursuers, while Zekk answered each attack with a volley of fire from the Lightning Rod’s weapons systems.
Zekk longed to leave the weapons controls to tend to Jaina’s injuries and reassure himself that she was all right. But that would have to wait until they got away from the Diversity Alliance.
“Hang on back there, we’re not out of this yet,” Zekk said. He tossed Lusa the Lightning Rod’s emergency medkit. The centaur girl was more than competent enough to care for the two patients until they could get to a real medical center.
Luke threw the Lightning Rod into a sideways spin just moments before laser cannon fire exploded behind them.
Beside them, the Rock Dragon pulled into a sharp loop and arced backward. Seconds later, Zekk saw explosions to the stern of the Lightning Rod on his viewscreens.
Aloud Wookiee bellow and a triumphant warble blasted from the comm system’s speakers. Em Teedee’s exclamation followed. “Oh, well done, Master Lowbacca, Mistress Sirrakuk!”
Zekk scanned the space around them for Diversity Alliance ships. “We’re all clear!”
Luke nodded. “Thanks for the assistance, Rock Dragon,” he said. “We’ve got Raynar and Jaina. Are the others with you?”
“Oh, yes, Master Luke. And more,” Em Teedee replied. “Master Jacen and Mistress Tenel Ka have brought along a guest—a Twi’lek gentleman. They assure us he’s a friend … or at least he is no friend of Nolaa Tarkona’s.”
Luke’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “A Twi’lek? I’ll have to trust their judgment on that. Anyway, it’s about time we got this team back together.”
A pair of jubilant Wookiee voices roared their agreement.
“I heartily concur, Master Luke,” Em Teedee said. In the background, Lowie barked a question. “Master Lowbacca wishes to inquire whether we should all rendezvous at Yavin 4?”