Revenge of the Jedi/Part 51

"Where are they?"

Jirdo took some solace in the fact that he was not the one asking for once. "Well, like you said, we can't exactly comm them and ask, can we?"

He had never known a droid to worry, but then, he had never known a droid like Bernius. The droid had massacred the Sith soldiers defending the shield conduit almost before Jirdo had gotten his lightsaber free, but even when they had blown up the entire room and begun to ferry the prisoners to freedom, Bernius remained worried over Raven and Gaebrean. Jirdo couldn't exactly blame him, either; he would rather have tried for the reactor core alone than gone head-to-head with Vedya Gasald.

"B7-Q4 reports the Kiss of Death has begun to take structural damage," Bernius noted. "The enemy fleet or fleets—our reinforcements, I suppose—has discovered its weakness."

The Republic spy Neeric, who lay on one side of the boarding ramp for stability and was picking off Sith soldiers who came near with his blaster pistol, said, "Even Darth Kra'all will do something about that."

"He is," Bernius reported from the other side of the ramp. "He is moving support craft into flanking position to shield the ship."

Bernius aimed at a distant weapons technician and fired; the man went down. One of the panicked beings running pell-mell through the hangar shot back, but Jirdo, who stood between his two allies, deflected the bolt into the distant deck above their heads. Bernius sniped the shooter too.

Suddenly, Jirdo's comlink burst into Tirien's voice. "We're incoming."

"Gasald?" Jirdo asked.

"…it's complicated."

Jirdo looked at Bernius. "Is it just me, or does that not sound like 'we did it'?"

Though he regarded Jirdo with his photoreceptors, Bernius had other priorities. "Master Raven?"

"I'm here, Bernius."

"Master Gaebrean?"

The long pause told Jirdo the answer even before Raven answered in a frailer voice, "I…I have him."

Bernius bowed his durasteel head.

"How long do we have before the Kiss of Death is totaled?" Tirien asked.

Jirdo explained about Bee Seven and the defensive flanking formation. Once he was done, Tirien asked, "Can this droid deactivate the weapons?"

"No—nothing that imperils the ship by its nature," Harshee said.

"Which is why the bridge shields are on." Tirien's voice was becoming more labored, as if he carried a weight as he ran; Jirdo hoped he wasn't injured.

"And the weapons."

"And the engines," Jirdo noted.

"They have discovered the interference," Bernius added. "Bee Seven is locking the ship's defensive software out of the loop, though it is trying to find ways around."

"We have to destroy this ship…" Tirien said.

Yan Razam ran into the hangar bay. Jirdo almost called to her, but he felt a discombobulating disturbance in the Force, as clear a warning as he could ever desire, and he held his tongue. Yan raced across the deck, seized a blaster from a dead soldier, and began mowing down beings in her way.

"That is not typical of Jedi," Bernius noted.

"She's with you?" Neeric asked.

"Well, she was…" Jirdo said.

Another squad of troops flooded in nearby, and Jirdo had to defend himself and his companions while they returned fire. He tried a Force push, though it was hard at this distance; the man only staggered back, though that was enough for Bernius to shoot him in the head.

Hearing screams, Jirdo glanced under the Second Chance ' s fuselage and saw Yan halfway up the ladder to a Sith fighter's cockpit, shooting technicians from there. Tirien's voice crackled back over the comm, charged with new energy as he asked, "The droid can activate systems that don't, by their nature, endanger the ship?"

"Correct," Bernius said.

"And the Sith have moved other capital ships in close to screen the Kiss of Death?"

"Correct."

"Tell it to turn on the tractor beams. Full power.  All of them."

After Bernius relayed the order—and Bee Seven squealed loudly enough that Jirdo heard it over the calamity in the hangar bay—there was nothing to do but wait. Already antsy, he jumped at a sudden roar of cannon fire. Laser bolts shot through the hangar bay, ripping open the bulkheads and destroying those few craft still grounded. Poking his head around the Second Chance, Jirdo saw Yan in her stolen fighter, laying waste to everything in sight.

"What is she doing?" he asked.

Whether Bernius would have replied, he never learned, because Zaella pounded into the hangar bay, followed by Tirien supporting Narasi, and Raven carrying Gaebrean over his shoulders. Tirien passed his Padawan off to Zaella and asked Jirdo, "Where's Harshee?"

Good to see you too. "Not back yet. What happened with Gasald?"

But Tirien turned away, pulling out his comlink and yelling over the laserfire, "Harshee!"

"Coming! Just gotta swing by and get the droid!"

Bernius spoke in Binary, paused, spoke again, then sighed. "B7-Q4 can not leave; if he does, the security system will override his commands and turn off the tractor beams. And potentially seal us in the hangar, as well.  He instructs us to go."

"No!" Neeric said.

"You sure, Bee Seven?" Harshee asked.

"He is sure," Bernius said. "He wishes that the Force be with us…and that…oh…"

Without warning, Bernius ran from the ship, barreling toward a distant terminal. Jirdo stared after him, but before anyone could speak, a girder struck the deck not ten meters away, melted at both ends.

Tirien jerked away from it. "What in blazes…"

"It's Yan!" Jirdo said, pointing. "What happened?"

More laser bolts struck the deck above, and this time a falling girder hit the Second Chance with a shriek of tortured metal. They all winced, and Tirien glowered. "Enough of this. We have to go.  Everyone, get aboard."

"What about Harshee?" Jirdo asked.

"I'll wait as long as I can," Tirien said.

"What about Bernius?" Jirdo raised his voice over the din. "BERNIUS! Time to go!"

The droid had plugged his scomp link into the console. As Yan's fighter soared out of the hangar bay, leaving flaming ruins and thickened smoke in its wake, Harshee clip-clopped into view, panting. "Got held up…battle droids…what happened…?"

"No time, get aboard!" Tirien barked. Sucking in a breath, he amplified his voice with the Force and bellowed, "Bernius!"

Jirdo feared they would have to leave the droid, but just as Tirien turned and started up the ramp, Bernius unplugged and raced after them. Jirdo waited at the top of the ramp until the droid's footfalls clanged on the metal, then slapped the button.

"What was that about?" he demanded.

"I will explain later," Bernius promised.

"Dammit!" Tirien said from the cockpit; Jirdo lurched past the liberated prisoners into the access corridor and saw him in the pilot's seat. "That falling girder knocked out the sensors!"

"What do we do?" Narasi asked.

"Use the Force—apart from that and visual scanning, we'll have to fly blind. Get up on the guns, I need a Force user aiming."

Narasi took one step toward the cockpit door before her leg buckled; Jirdo caught her before she hit the deck. "I can't make it up that ladder, Master."

"Zaella, guns," Tirien said without hesitation.

"Do it," Narasi urged. "We trust you!"

Jirdo didn't understand the need for the reassurance, but Zaella seemed to take heart from it as she ran past. Tirien pulled the Second Chance up off the deck as Jirdo helped Narasi into the co-pilot's seat; she sat with a groan. Tirien asked, "Shield status?"

"Uh…seems to be okay. So far it's just sensors down.  Maybe she crushed the dish."

Jirdo shook his head. "Why is Yan—"

"Long story," they both said, and he clammed up.

Once the hangar bay exit was in sight, Tirien hit the throttle, and the Second Chance shot forward, sweeping out into a hailstorm of laserfire. Two cruisers loomed in the viewport, terrifyingly close for space combat. Jirdo remembered the tractor beams and swallowed as Tirien weaved the ship through the lattice of fire like a fire gnat drunk on fungal secretions.

"Narasi, get on the comms," he said. "Try to find out who's out there."

"No sensors," she reminded him.

"Well, use a Republic frequency and see if someone picks up!" As she bent over the comms station, Tirien turned the Second Chance into a corkscrew and said, "Zaella, I can sense something behind—"

"I see them! If you'd hold the ship steady for five seconds, maybe I could shoot them too!"

"Too steady and there won't be a ship! Use the Force and trust yourself."

"Got something!" Narasi said. "Here, I'm patching it through."

There was a scramble of static, then… "—reading us?"

Jirdo sensed surprise from them both. "Master Z'dar?"

"Tirien, my boy! I knew you could do it!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Always planned to come, laddie, just wasn't sure I could get through in time. Seems I'm not alone in the idea, either!"

"Jedi Kal-Di, this is Commodore Essely Kalliot of the Corellian Defense Fleet," a woman's voice said. "General Darakhan sends his regards."

"And from House Cadriaan," added a male voice; Jirdo pictured a fussy bureaucrat with a fantastic handlebar mustache. "When I heard of your endeavor, I was loath to allow young Raven and you other bold Jedi to dare such peril in defense of our gains at Milagro without lending such aid as I was able to provide, and therefore—"

"Baron Obveluus came along too," Commodore Kalliot summarized.

"Of course, we owe you for the biggest contribution, Tirien," Master Z'dar said.

"How do you figure, Master?"

A new voice joined the comms chatter—brusque, digitized as if through a vocoder, and just a little insectoid. "When this is over, Tirien, we're going to have to discuss—"

"Master Bnodd!" Narasi exclaimed.

There was a buzz on the line; Jirdo didn't know if it was a huff of annoyance or an alien laugh. "Rican. I'm glad you're not dead."

"We've got an even fight going here, Tirien," said Master Z'dar. "You might want to come aboard."

"Our sensors are dead, Master," Narasi said.

Tirien added, "We've got civilians aboard. We have to make the jump to Pelagon."

This time Bnodd's buzz was clearly a sigh. "Go on, then. We'll cover you."

"Is Jarkun with you?" asked Z'dar.

Tirien flinched. "He…didn't make it, Master. I'm sorry."

The line was quiet for a moment, and then… "I am too, lad, but not nearly as sorry as Gasald is going to be. If you'll excuse me, I have some ships to destroy."

As Narasi ran the calculations through the navicomputer, Tirien cocked his head. They had left the majority of the battle behind, though Jirdo could not make out which gleams were Sith ships and which Republic, but Tirien cranked the Second Chance into a hard reversal, pointing back the way they had come.

"Coordinates coming in…Master?"

"Harshee, Raven, get up here!" Tirien called.

Raven Kaivalt appeared a moment later, ashen-faced and hollow-eyed, and asked in a lifeless voice, "What?"

"Watch," he said, then added into the comm, "We may be able to...unbalance your fight yet, Masters."