Jacen and Jaina ran toward one of the viewports and looked out into the darkness of space. Then Jacen saw the ships, like a swarm of meteors, streaking in their direction. Somehow he sensed they were powering on their weapons—up to no good. He gulped.
“Looks like an Imperial fleet to me,” Jaina said.
4
Lando rushed toward the control bridge of GemDiver Station. “Come on, kids. Follow me!” he shouted.
Jaina took the lead while Lowie and Jacen followed at a run. Lowie’s long Wookiee legs nearly made him plow over Lando in his haste. “Oh, do be careful, Lowbacca!” Em Teedee called.
Taking a turbolift to the upper observation tower, they bustled onto the control bridge, a cylindrical turret that protruded above the main armored body of GemDiver Station. Narrow rectangular windows encircled the control room, allowing a full view in all directions. The glowing diagnostic screens directly below each viewport flashed alarm warnings. Lando’s armed guards ran about, strapping additional weapons to their belts, preparing to defend the station.
“We are under attack, sir,” Lobot murmured in his quiet, difficult-to-hear voice. The cyborg was a blur of motion, hands darting from keyboard to keyboard, eyes scanning the screens around him and silently assessing details. The lights on the computer implants at the sides of his head flashed like fireworks.
Lando scanned the narrow observation ports and saw the fleet of ships coming in from deep space. “Do you think they’re pirates?” he asked. Then to the twins and Lowie, he said reassuringly, “Don’t worry. We’re got station security on alert. These people don’t have a chance against our defenses.”
Jaina studied one of the diagnostic screens, pursing her lips. She shook her head. “Not just pirates,” she said, recognizing some of the ships by the ellipsoid shape of their main body, engine turrets swept back like jagged wings on top and bottom. “Imperial craft. The four on the outside are Skipray blastboats, each fully equipped with three ion cannons, proton torpedo launcher, concussion missiles, and two fire-linked laser cannons.”
Lando seemed startled. “Yeah, that’s right.”
She looked calmly up at his surprised expression. “Dad had me study a lot of ships. Believe me, these’re more than even your security systems could hope to fight.”
Lando clapped a hand to his forehead and groaned. “That’s not just a pirate fleet, that’s an armada! What’s the big ship in the middle? I don’t recognize it.”
In her mind Jaina ran through mechanical specifications of all the ship designs she had learned from her father—but right now she was at a loss.
“Some kind of modified assault shuttle, maybe?” Jaina said. Through the magnification on the screens they stared as the ships came relentlessly in. “But I don’t understand that contraption in the bow.”
The mysterious assault shuttle had a strange device mounted at its front end, circular and jagged, like the wide-open mouth of a fanged underwater predator.
“Send a distress signal,” Lando said to Lobot. “Full spectrum. Make sure everybody knows we’re under attack here.”
With maddening computer-enhanced calm, Lobot shook his bald head. “I’ve already tried. We’re jammed, sir—can’t punch a signal through their screens.”
“Well, what do they want?” Lando asked in exasperation.
“They’ve made no demands,” Lobot replied. “They refuse to answer our hails. We do not know what they’re after.”
Jaina stared out the window at the incoming ships and felt cold inside. She shuddered. Jacen squeezed her hand, his forehead wrinkled with anxiety. They had realized the same thing.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Jacen said. “It’s … us they want, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I can feel it,” Jaina said, her voice barely above a whisper. Lowie nodded his shaggy head and groaned in agreement.
“What do you kids mean?” Lando looked at them with disbelief in his large brown eyes. “They must be after our Corusca gems—it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Jaina shook her head, but Lando was too busy to pay further attention. The four flanking blast-boats angled out from the central assault shuttle toward the defensive satellites surrounding GemDiver Station.
“Have you removed the fail-safes from the targeting systems?” Lando asked.
Lobot nodded. “Systems ready to fire,” he murmured. High-powered lasers from the defensive satellites lanced out toward the blastboats, but the small satellites could not generate enough power to penetrate the heavy Imperial armor.
Each Skipray blastboat targeted one of the small satellites and unleashed a crackling blur from its ion cannons. The defensive satellites powered up, preparing to fire again, but then all the lights went dead.
“The ion cannons fried the circuits,” Lobot announced in his calm voice. “All satellites are off-line.”
The Skiprays came in for another strike and fired with laser cannons, this time blasting the defensive satellites into molten metal vapor.
“We’ve still got the station’s armor,” Lando said, but now his trembling voice betrayed his lack of confidence.
The modified assault shuttle in the middle of the armada homed in on one of the lower space doors. From the bottom decks of the station came a loud thump and clang as something large and heavy struck the outer hull—and stayed.
“What are they doing?” Lando asked.
“The modified assault shuttle has attached itself to the outer wall of GemDiver Station,” Lobot reported.
“Where?”
The bald cyborg checked readings. “One of the equipment bays. I think they’re trying to force their way in.”
Lando waved his hand in dismissal. “Well, they can knock but they can’t come in.” He smiled nervously “Just keep all the airlocks sealed. Our station armor should hold.”
“Excuse me,” Jaina said, “but I may have figured out what that modification is. I think they plan to bore through the station walls. The jagged things we saw looked like teeth—so I’m guessing they cut through metal.”
“Not this metal.” Lando shook his head. “The station wall is double-armored. Nothing could cut through it.”
Jacen spoke up. “I thought you said Corusca gems could cut through anything.”
Lando shook his head again. “Sure, but that would take a whole shipment of industrial-grade Corusca gems.” Then he stopped, eyes widening. “Well, uh, we have shipped some industrial-grade gems since we upgraded our operations.”
He picked up a comlink and spoke into it. “This is Lando Calrissian. All security details go to lower equipment bay number”—he leaned over Lobot’s shoulder to look at the screen—“number thirty-four. Full armor and weapons. We’re about to be boarded by hostile forces.”
Lando took a blaster pistol from the sealed armory case inside the bridge deck. He turned to Lobot. “Nobody boards my station without my permission.” He started down the corridor, calling over his shoulder as he ran. “You kids find a safe place, and stay there!”
So of course the young Jedi Knights followed him.
Station guards in padded, dark blue uniforms sprinted from corridor intersections. The pastel colors and nature sounds of GemDiver Station seemed oddly out of place, no longer soothing amid the chaos of defensive preparations and the turmoil of screeching alarms.
By the time they reached lower equipment bay 34, a squad of station guards had already set up their position behind storage containers and supply modules, blaster rifles drawn and aimed at the wall.
Jaina heard a whining, gnawing sound that made her teeth vibrate. A circular section of the outer wall glowed, and she could imagine the assault shuttle on the other side, linked to GemDiver Station like a huge battle-ready brine-eel, chewing its way through the station armor.