“Easy as anything,” she said.
She fired the engines, putting as much distance between her and the Black Sun agent as she could while they were still ascending. Maybe they would be a terrible pilot and this would be easy.
“Or maybe not,” she said, as the agent’s ship closed the gap on hers.
She gave the engines more fuel and took the ship down toward the mountain peaks. She’d have to lose her pursuer that way. A flurry of stone erupted on her port side as the agent’s artillery laid waste to a mountainside. She dodged the rubble and flew lower, trying to force them to fly down after her.
“Cloud cover would be very handy,” she said to no one in particular. Even R2-D2 couldn’t control the weather.
She spotted a peak and swung around it, banking so hard that the metal around her screamed with exertion. It was worth it, however, because for a few precious seconds, the Black Sun vessel crossed into her line of fire. She didn’t waste the opportunity. Her guns fired much more rapidly than theirs did, shorter bursts and less concentrated power but still effective. One of their cannons was disabled by the time she finished her pass, and they had to turn around to follow her.
She used the time, brief though it was, to start her computer’s hyperspace calculation. There was no point in sticking around any longer. So much for a few days to clear her head!
As she continued to evade the agent, though, she realized that her head did feel clearer. For better or worse, she had made a choice: she’d chosen to protect the friends she had and the friends she might yet make by concealing her identity once again, even though it made her escape more complicated. Choosing, even under pressure, had made her see that she was capable of deciding on the fly. She’d been right to reveal herself on Raada, even though it had led to problems, and she’d been right to conceal herself on Thabeska. There was no one way forward for her anymore. She would have to make decisions like that over and over again, but it was always going to be her. Ahsoka Tano. She was ready to put Ashla away for good, even though she didn’t know exactly who the new Ahsoka was going to be just yet. She’d have to write Black Sun a thank-you note.
“Or maybe not,” she said, as the agent successfully targeted her starboard engine. She was going to be much slower now, if that smoke was any indication. At least her hyperdrive was still online.
She pulled her ship around. It was time for drastic measures. The other ship was careening toward her. The agent either hadn’t noticed her direction change or didn’t care that they were about to ram her. Ahsoka fired everything she had, landing almost all her shots, but they didn’t deviate from their course.
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.