A bright white line appeared in the circle as a Corusca tooth bit through the thick plate. Jaina hoped belatedly that the attacking ship’s seal against the station was airtight.
One of Lando’s station guards, keyed up with overwhelming tension, let off two shots from his blaster rifle. The bolts spanged against the wall and left a discolored blotch on the inner hull, but the jaws of the boring machine continued to chew through the plates.
In a flash, with a puff of steam and the crump of small, shaped explosives, a large disk of the outer hull fell forward into the equipment bay.
Lando’s security forces started firing immediately, even before the smoke cleared; but the enemy on the other side did not pause either. Dozens of white-armored Imperial stormtroopers boiled through the hole like a hive of frenzied lizard-ants that Jacen had once kept in his collection of exotic pets. The stormtroopers fired as they charged—using only the curving blue arcs of stun beams, Jaina was relieved to see.
Four stormtroopers went down with smoking holes in their white armor; but more and more poured out of the assault shuttle. The air in the equipment bay was crisscrossed with bright weapons fire.
Looming behind the armed stormtroopers, cloaked in shadows and rising smoke, stood a tall and sinister woman dressed in a black cape with spines on each shoulder. She had flowing ebony hair like the wings of a bird of prey. Despite her growing terror, Jaina saw that the woman’s eyes were a striking color, like the violet of iridescent jungle flowers on Yavin 4. Jaina felt her heart clench as if hands of ice had wrapped around it.
The ominous dark woman stepped through the smoldering hole in the wall of GemDiver Station, oblivious to the weapons fire. A faint electric-blue corona of static lightning clung around her like the powerful discharges that had zapped the Fast Hand in the atmospheric storms of Yavin.
“Remember—don’t harm the children,” the woman shouted. Her voice was slow and heavy, but razor-sharp menace edged every word.
At the mention of the children, Lando whirled to see that the twins and Lowie had followed him. “What are you doing here?” he said. “Come on, we’ve got to get you to safety!” He waved his blaster pistol toward the entryway. Then, as if in afterthought, he turned and fired three more times, catching one of the white-armored stormtroopers full in the chest.
Jacen and Jaina bolted down the corridor. Lowie, needing no further encouragement, bellowed as he ran along.
Lando came charging after. “I guess you were right,” he said, panting. “For some reason they are after you.”
“I’m just a simple droid,” Em Teedee wailed. “I certainly hope they don’t want me.”
A series of muffled explosions erupted behind them, and a shockwave of heat rippled through the station’s metal corridors, making the kids stumble.
Lando caught his balance and steadied Jaina. “Turn right,” he gasped. “Up here.”
They ran. More blaster fire followed them, then a third explosion. Lando clenched his teeth. “This has not been a good day,” he grumbled.
“I most heartily concur,” Em Teedee chimed from Lowie’s waist.
“Here! In the shipping chamber.” Lando gestured for the three others to stop outside the barricaded door of the launching room where they had seen the cargo pods and the droids packing Corusca gems for automated shipment.
He punched in an access code, but Lando’s fingers were trembling. A red light blinked. “ACCESS DENIED.” Lando hissed something, then rekeyed the number. This time the light winked green, and the heavy triple doors sighed open. Inside, the two copper-plated droids continued packing the hyperpods. “Excuse me,” one droid said, sounding flustered, “would you please discontinue those explosions? The vibrations make it much more difficult for us to process.”
Lando ignored the droids as he pushed the kids inside. “We can’t get you away from here—those blastboats would come after you before you knew it—but this is the safest place on the station. I’ll stand outside and guard the door.” He gripped his blaster pistol, feigning confidence.
Lowie growled, obviously wanting to fight; but before Jacen or Jaina could say anything, Lando slapped the emergency panel. The thick doors clanged shut, locking them inside the chamber.
Jacen placed his ear against the thick door and listened, but he could hear only the muffled noises of battle. Lowie, his ginger-colored fur standing on end with battle-readiness, kneaded his big knuckles. Jaina looked around the room for anything to help them fight.
Jacen yelled to the droids, “Hey, is there an armory in here? Do you have any weapons?”
The droids interrupted their packing and swiveled smooth copper heads toward him, optical sensors glowing. “Please do not disturb us, sir,” they said, then resumed their tasks. “We have essential work to do.”
Outside the door, the sound of gunfire suddenly increased. Jaina pulled Jacen back from the door as she heard Lando shout. The door vibrated with the impact of energy bolts, then everything went quiet. Jaina waited, backing away and looking into her twin brothers brandy-brown eyes. They both swallowed. Lowbacca let out a thin sound like a whimper. The multiarmed droids continued working, undisturbed.
A shower of sparks ran around part of the door as heavy-duty lasers cut into it, slicing away a section.
“D’you suppose you could invent some sort of weapon for us in the next few seconds?” Jacen said.
Jaina racked her brain for inspiration, but her inventiveness failed her.
The door split open, melted and smoking. The security breach set off yet another alarm, but the sounds were pitiful and superfluous in the already-overwhelming noise of the battle for GemDiver Station.
Stormtroopers muscled their way in.
The two packing droids trundled indignantly toward the stormtroopers. “Intruder alert,” one of the droids said. “Warning. No unauthorized entry is permitted. You must return to—”
In response, the stormtroopers fired with all their weapons, blasting both copper droids into shards of smoking components that clattered and sparked on the floor.
Jaina saw Lando sprawled unconscious on the floor outside the door, his green cape pooled around him, his right arm extended forward, still grasping the blaster pistol.
The towering dark woman strode in, her violet eyes flashing at the three companions. The stormtroopers leveled blaster pistols at Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca.
“Wait!” Jaina said. “What do you want?”
“Do not let them manipulate your minds,” the dark woman shouted to the stormtroopers. “Stun them!”
Before Jaina could say anything else, bright blue arcs shot toward her and the others, and they were overcome by a wave of unconsciousness.
Jaina fell into blackness.
5
On Yavin 4 Tenel Ka paced the ramparts of the Great Temple that housed Luke Skywalker’s Jedi academy. As befitted a warrior of Dathomir, she wore scaled armor that shone as if it had just been polished … which it had. Her red-gold hair was caught up in a multitude of ceremonial braids, each decorated with feathers or beads. Her cool gray eyes scanned the leaden skies for any sign of the ship that would bring the dreaded ambassador from her grandmother.
Wind whipped the ornamented braids about her face, and Tenel Ka pushed them away in annoyance. The humid air felt oppressive, charged with menace. Yavin’s dry season had ended.
She sensed an uncomfortable tingling in the depths of her mind that told her something was about to happen, as if lightning were about to strike. She sighed. Her grandmothers messengers and diplomats could be as lethal as lightning….