Legacy Of The Force_ Bloodlines Part 37

Then he shoved Han ahead of him and forced him to run. The fool was still staring back at his cousin's body.

"Now my side of the bargain, Solo," Fett panted as they ran. "My daughter. I have to see my daughter."

Chapter Eighteen.

The Galactic Alliance is in turmoil this morning as more planets withdraw representatives from the Senate in protest at fighting in the Corellian blockade. Atzerri's amba.s.sador to the Alliance described the destruction of one of its freighters as "an act of war." Chief of State Cal Omas told HNE earlier that the exclusion zone would remain in place until Corellia disarmed and that the Atzerri vessel had opened fire after repeated warnings.

There has been no response from Corellia's President Thrackan Sal-Solo.

-HNE morning bulletin LUMIYA'S APARTMENT, SAFE HOUSE, GALACTIC CITY.

Jacen rubbed his eyes, trying to erase the dream he'd had on the flight back from Corellia and that was still vivid in his mind.

He hoped it was a dream and not a vision. As the turbo-lift climbed to the three hundredth floor of the apartment tower, he tried to shake the image from his mind and failed. In the dream, he was staring at his hands, lightsaber clutched in one, sobbing.

That's what you dream of when you send your own sister for court-martial. Deal with it.

No, he wasn't proud of what he'd done to Jaina, but it had to be done. He let the misery wash over him and didn't flinch from it as he opened the doors of Lumiya's safe house apartment with a brief focus of Force energy. Inside was a surprisingly comfortable suite of rooms scattered with objects that he thought he recognized from her asteroid habitat.

She'd been back home to pick up a few things. Somehow he hadn't thought of her as needing material trappings.

"You're very upset," she said, emerging from another room. Jacen was startled by her appearance. "Your grandfather found me drifting in my starfighter after Luke Skywalker had fired on it and left me for dead. Vader saved me. So my life is inextricably linked with your family. Did you know that?"

"You see that as destiny."

"Inevitability. Which is why you should stop feeling guilty about your sister."

"I'm having bad dreams about it. I wasn't expecting that."

"Do you want them to stop?"

"No. They are what they are. I have to embrace them."

"Be sure you know the fine line between dreams and visions. They may tell you what you need to know-what I can't tell you."

"Which is?"

"How you progress from where you are now to what you have to become. I can guide you in techniques, but their application must come from you."

Jacen sat down, careful not to touch any artifacts in case one had a use he didn't yet know. "This is what I don't understand. I spent over five years perfecting my use of the Force, learning techniques from all species-not just the Jedi way. What more can there be?

Where does a Jedi adept end and a Sith begin? You see, I never really believed that it was purely a line between good and evil. Some days I can't even define those terms."

"It's acceptance," said Lumiya. "The willingness to surrender to what the Force asks of you. To stop denying it by rationalizing denial as self-discipline and avoidance of powerful emotions."

"That sounds as if I should simply do the first thing that comes into my mind."

"You already know you should."

"Why am I different from my grandfather, then? The more I do, the more I feel I'm doing exactly as he did. Was it really only his preoccupation with his wife that stopped him achieving order?"

"He started his training too late and was still inexperienced when he was exploited by a man who wanted power. You're a mature man with a lifetime's training and n.o.body is using you. You won't make the same mistakes."

"It can't be that easy."

"It won't be. It'll be painful."

"More painful than turning on your own sister?"

"Oh, yes .. ."

"That's my destiny?"

"That's the price you pay for bringing order to the galaxy. This is your sacrifice. Now do you see why weak men like Palpatine saw only power, and why they were defeated?" Lumiya's hypnotic voice was almost disembodied. Jacen watched her mouth, and had no sense of being spoken to by another living being. It was an oracle, a dispa.s.sionate revelation. "There is nothing in it for you as Jacen Solo."

He'd lied. There were worse things already than suspending Jaina. There was the look on Ben Skywalker's face when he saw Ailyn Habuur's body. He'd gone too far invading the woman's mind; she hadn't been up to the physical strain. He wouldn't make that mistake again. But Ben's trust in him had taken a body blow. The boy still didn't understand that doing things his father's way led to an endless cycle of war and chaos. Luke wouldn't face the need to take extreme measures. Luke wanted to feel good about himself.

That was attachment.

"How do you feel when you see Luke Skywalker now?" he asked.

"I feel nothing," said Lumiya. "I only remember."

"What should I do next?"

"I can't tell you. Deal with what troubles you most."

"My apprentice, Ben. He's wavering."

"Don't seek his approval."

"I don't."

"Don't set an example and hope that he'll follow it. Put him in a position where he has to discover the truth for himself."

She was, as she had been at Bimmiel, painfully right. Ben had to learn what his father never had-that there were necessary evils.

And there was no better place to learn that than in the Galactic Alliance Guard.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMPLEX UNDER KEBEN PARK, CORONET, CORELLIA.

For a couple of old guys, Han thought, he and Fett were keeping up with the girl pretty well. Then he realized that the underground pa.s.sage sloped downhill.

The corridor that ran from Sal-Solo's Presidential suite to the emergency management bunker stretched for a kilometer under Keben Park. All they had to do was keep running.

What happened after that Han had no idea, but it wasn't the first time he'd run headlong and trusted to his instincts and luck.

Besides, he was with Boba Fett. That man could escape anything.

"Where does this come out?" Han panted.

"Leads into the bunker complex. Then two exits out of there to the surface."

"Two?"

"Two exits are always better than one."

A long way behind-but not far enough-pounding boots echoed. They were now in a dimly lit tunnel with a hard, tiled floor and large stenciled signs every few meters with helpful messages like GOT YOUR RESPIRATOR? and SECURE ALL DOORS-YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT.

"We're not going to run into company ahead, are we?"

"Not unless we're really unlucky." Fett pounded along behind Mirta. "They only staff these places in civil emergencies."

"Like a war?"

"Yeah, that'd qualify Mirta had her hand blaster held at shoulder level as she sprinted, a testimony to the benefits of unfashionably flat boots and sensible clothing. "They'll have a real emergency on their hands if they get in the way."

Doors ahead of them opened automatically and bright lights flared into life on the ceiling. If this was all set to trigger when staff entered, then they had to he alone down here, or the lights would already be on.

Alone except for the guards chasing them, of course. Had to be guards. Han was tuned to the sound of guards' boots. Fett came to a halt as they entered a lobby with six doors leading from it. Three were marked TRAFFIC CONTROL, WATER & POWER, and CENTRAL E.M. CELL.

The other three weren't marked at all.

"Which one?" said Han.

Mirta stepped behind them, blaster sweeping an arc, while Fett froze. Han realized he was focusing on some display in his helmet's HUD.

"Two exits via the main E.M. room here, but if we get stuck there are hatches to accessible vents from the other rooms." He indicated his jet pack. "I don't do vents."

"E.M. room here we come-"

The running footsteps behind were much, much louder now. A bolt of blasterfire spattered plaster ten meters from them. Fett broke off and extended his left arm, sending a long jet of flame down the pa.s.sage behind them that made a loud ha-whompp sound and blew billows of gray smoke back at them. Curses and shouts rang down the pa.s.sage. The flamethrower had slowed their pursuers but not stopped them.

"Move it," said Fett.

The E.M. door didn't open automatically. Mirta hit the heel of her hand on the square red key at the side a couple of times and the doors parted. They were already halfway into the room before Han realized that it was full of desks in rows with comlinks on each of them.

The walls were covered completely in holomaps and display boards; the place was ready to handle whatever disaster hit Coronet when the warning sirens sounded.

A bewildered man in a white shirt looked up from a data-pad and stared at them.

"You're early," he said. "We weren't due to staff the-oh, boy-"

A blue streak of blasterfire spat from the doorway and Han, Fett, and Mirta fired at the same time, driving back two security guards. The man ducked, arms covering his head, while they traded blaster bolts and Fett shot out the doors' lock panel, sending the two halves slamming shut.

"Health and safety inspection," said Han as the terrified man flattened himself against the wall. "Keep up the good work."

They burst through one of two doors marked EMERGENCY EXIT and were back in a yellow-lit corridor again, running for their lives. It sloped uphill. Han really noticed that now.

His thigh muscles screamed for a rest. Behind them, there was the sound of blaster bolts smashing through doors and the pounding of those boots again. The guards didn't give up easily.

"Your jet pack isn't going to be much use to you down here, pal," said Han.

Fett didn't break his pace. He got to the end of the pa.s.sage and spun around, nearly knocking Han against the wall. Then he bent forward at ninety degrees to the ground, hunched his shoulders, and tapped at the panel on his left forearm.

"You reckon?" he said, breathless. "Mind the backwash, Solo."

A shwoosh of hot air and a blinding flash of yellow light nearly flattened Han as the small missile on Fett's jet pack skimmed the back of his helmet and shot down the corridor, trailing vapor. The explosion deafened him for a few seconds. Fett grabbed his shoulder and shoved him ahead.

"You know how much these MM-nines cost?" Fett grumbled.

Han's ears were ringing. "There's got to be safety regulations on that thing." But he could hear the thuds and cracks of falling rubble. They ran.

Ahead, a patch of light that was brighter than the yellow gloom of the tunnel kept Han running at an automatic, animal level. Escape. Just escape. Worry about everything else later. He'd expected Mirta to be halfway across the park by now, but she was standing by the exit doors, pumping blasterfire into them until they parted.

Cool evening air washed into the musty pa.s.sage. The tunnel emerged in the slope of another artificial hill on the far side of the park.

"All clear," she said. "Go on, run."

Mirta didn't strike him as the type to care whether he lived or died. But, like Fett, she had her reasons for wanting him in one piece. Fett could have left them both stranded and escaped with his jet pack, but he didn't let Han out of his sight.

"Call your wife," said Fett. "Get her to pick us up. We can't run all over Coronet at this time of night. Too conspicuous."

They crouched in the cover of thick bushes near the highway, and for a second Han had one of those out-of-body views of himself in his mind that sometimes left him reeling. Three Mandalorian a.s.sa.s.sins, fully armored, hiding from the Corellian Security Force in a nice, normal park as a government coup began a kilometer away. He opened the comlink.

What am I doing here?

"Hi, honey," said Han. "Can you give us a lift?"

Leia's voice was, as usual, all resigned calm. "Who's us?"

"Some Mandalorian buddies I ran into."

"That's nice. I'm watching a lot of police activity from the apartment."

"Ah, that'd be Cousin Thrackan . . ."

"How is he?"

"Dead," said Han, his stomach torn between nausea and a lifetime's worth of relief. "Very, very dead."

GAG HEADQUARTERS, GALACTIC CITY, CORUSCANT.