Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (12 page)

Sensors indicated two rocky planets. A cluster of small dots sheltered behind one of them. He grinned and punched in the coordinates as fast as he was able, assuming that he had indeed found the Rebel fleet.

The relative calm of hyperspace enfolded him. His ears rang in the sudden silence. He took a moment to catch his breath while the ship ticked and pinged around him, slowly shedding its excess heat into the infinite vacuum of an empty universe. He eyed the countdown on the chrono, sure that conditions would be more temperate in the world’s shadow. Why else would the Rebel fleer hide there?

The hop was a short one. Barely a minute passed before the ship emerged from hyperspace again, and this time the ride was considerably smoother. The ships shields were more than adequate to keep the worst at bay. He scanned the ships around him, hoping to find the frigate Kota had mentioned. The Salvation: Juno’s ship.

None of the transponders matched that name, however-and very quickly another hard fact became apparent. None of the ships belonged to the Rebel fleet. They broadcast the standard transponder signals of the Empire. The fighters swarming around him matched, too. TIE fighters, in their dozens.

He had landed in the middle of an Imperial fleet!

“Identify yourself, unknown vessel, ” snapped a voice from the comm. “Cease accelerating and prepare to be boarded. “

Starkiller wasn’t going to sit around and let his ship be taken over. He was already driving hard for the edge of the planet’s shadow cone. Rogue Shadow’s engines roared as the TIE fighters came about in pursuit. He frantically piloted while at the same time calculating the next jump.

He hit the sun’s blazing light the very instant the ship jumped.

Then it was quiet again.

“I told you, ” Kota said from behind him. “They always find us, no matter where we hide. “

Starkiller turned to face him. “Spies?”

“Informers, traitors, lucky guesses-the Force, even, if Vader is looking. ” Kota fell into the copilot’s seat with a weary sigh. His armor was marginally cleaner, but still dented and scratched beyond recognition. “Nowhere is safe. “

The ship traveled smoothly to its next destination-the empty shadow behind the second moon. There Starkiller performed a more thorough sweep of the system. He found no signs of a prolonged space battle, which came as a relief. The Rebel fleer must have moved on before the Imperials arrived. But there was no sign, either, of where they might have gone next.

“The fleer doesn’t leave coordinates behind, ” Kota said. “They could be decoded too easily. The only way to find the fleet again, once you’ve lost it, is to work back up through Rebel contacts. “

“That’ll take too long. “

“What’s your hurry? The Empire isn’t going anywhere. “

Starkiller didn’t know how to explain. If Kota didn’t already understand, maybe he never would.

Instead, he closed his eyes and reached out with the Force.

Juno.

He could see her in his mind’s eye as clearly as if she were standing before him. Blond hair, blue eyes, strong jaw, proud nose-he would carry her face with him for the rest of his life, now that he had escaped Darth Vader’s dire influence. When they were together again, they would never be separated. It was just a matter of closing the gap between them-and what was distance but an illusion of the mind? To the Force, all things were one.

Faintly, he heard the Rogue Shadow creaking and swaying, but he didn’t let himself be distracted. He was out among the stars, seeking, searching. There were quadrillions of minds in the galaxy, and he was looking for just one of them. He sensed fear and great tragedy, cruelty and petty hate. He saw death everywhere, and life, too, ebbing and flowing in that eternal tide. The Force surged within him, primal, powerful, potent-like a beast one never entirely tamed. He felt Kota next to him, full of anger and impatience. He sensed-A hint of Juno flashed through his mind.

“I don’t trust that kind of power. A lesson learned the hard way is hard-perhaps impossible-to unlearn. “

They weren’t her words, and it wasn’t her voice, but she was near their source, which was itself a tantalizingly familiar presence.

Water.

Kota’s urgency flared, pulling Starkiller out of his meditation. A dozen floating objects fell to the floor with a loud clatter.

“What is it?” He checked the scopes for any sign of the Imperials, but they were empty. “What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t say anything, ” said the general. “Or do anything. I’m just sitting here, waiting. “

There was no denying what he had felt. Kota was impatient, and that impatience was throwing Starkiller off. “You think I’m wasting my time. You don’t think I can do it. “

“You’re right on one point, boy. The galaxy is a big place, and the whole point of the Rebel Alliance is to stay hidden-but I’d never try to guess what you’re capable of or not. “

“So you think I’m wasting my time. “

“I think your priorities are wrong. “

“Like Mon Mothma’s. “

“Yes, exactly so. You’re letting your own fears cloud your judgment. “

Starkiller turned to face Kota. “What do you think I’m afraid of?”

“Being yourself. Being Starkiller. Being Ga…”

“Don’t say that name. I’m not him. I’m a clone, a copy-and a bad one at that. “

“Is that what Vader told you?”

“Yes. “

“I don’t believe it. ” Kota spoke with surety and great force. “No one can clone Jedi. It’s never been done. “

“That you know of. “

Kota grabbed Starkiller by the shoulders. “I can sense how powerful you are-and here you are wasting it…”

“By rescuing you? By looking for Juno?”

Kota stalked to the far side of the cockpit and rubbed at his forehead with his right hand. “Listen. The Alliance leadership is deadlocked. It can’t agree on our next move. We don’t have the firepower to take out a meaningful Imperial target, but nobody wants to risk lives making small hit-and-run attacks, either. We need to do something, anything. We need somewhere to start. “

He stopped and turned his blind gaze back onto Starkiller.

“With your power we can…”

“No. “

“Why not?”

“Juno is more important. “

“Why is she more important?”

“Because… ” Starkiller swallowed. He had never admitted this to anyone, not even Juno. “Because… “

Kota waved the question away. “It doesn’t matter. We both know the answer-and still I have to ask you what difference that makes. She’s one person. We’re fighting an entire galaxy. “

“The Emperor is just one person. “

“And so is Darth Vader, and so are all their minions. They add up, boy. “

“But we have to defeat them one at a rime. “

Kota made a dismissive noise and resumed pacing. “Don’t try to trap me in riddles. You’re no philosopher. You’re a fighter like me, and you hold the fare of the Rebel Alliance in your hands. “

“Nobody fights the Empire and wins. You told me that once. Do you remember, Kota?”

“Yes, I remember. ” Kota dismissed that, too. “I was a different person back then. You brought me back to myself, back to the Force. You showed me what was possible. “

“Maybe I’m really showing you now, ” Starkiller said. There was a very large, very complicated thought in his mind that he struggled to put into words. “Maybe-maybe where we begin is as important as what we do. “

“You sound like a teacher I once had, and you make about as much sense as he did. Do you think she cares one bit about that?”

Starkiller hadn’t considered that point. He had no idea what Juno was thinking. He couldn’t even find her.

So much time had passed. He felt disconnected from everyone he had known best: Juno, Kota, even himself. He felt the world around him slipping away, as though he were becoming a ghost, insubstantial and irrelevant.

“I just want… ” Juno. There was no point saying that again. “Kota, listen to me. I rescued you so you could help me, but you’re not helping at all. I need a place to think this through on my own. To meditate without you distracting me. “

Kota stared at him, a disbelieving expression on his face. “We’re at war, and you want a quiet place to think?”

“It’s important to me to find her. I won’t stop until I do. “

“And meanwhile the Alliance will be destroyed. Is that what you want?”

Starkiller stood, tired of being loomed over and yelled, “You talking like this is why I have to go!”

“Fine, then. Go to the forests of Kashyyyk or the caves of Dagobah, or wherever you think you’ll find what you need and let the galaxy die. “

“What are you talking about? I’m nor going to let the galaxy die. I want what she wants-what you want, too, just in a different order. “

Kota faced him, standing straight and tall. “Is that true?”

“Yes. “

“Can I believe you?”

Starkiller hesitated. His feelings were muddied on everything beyond finding Juno. But he meant Kota no harm, and he was certainly no ally of Darth Vader and the Emperor.

“Yes, ” he said. “Yes, you can. I’m not a coward, Kota, and I will come back. “

Kota shook his head and seemed to deflate. He looked old and tired, and for a moment Starkiller wished he could take back everything he had said and give Kota, his mentor and friend, everything he wanted. But there was no doing that now, and it would have been a lie. Juno came first. Then the Rebellion. That was how it had to be.

“All right. ” Kota headed toward the exit of the cockpit. “Go wherever you want. Take the ship: It’s always been yours anyway.

Just drop me at the nearest spaceport before you get lost in the stars, so I can find someone who will fight. “

Starkiller swiveled the pilot’s chair toward the console and stared, without really seeing anything, until he was sure Kota had gone. Then he lowered his head onto the blinking instruments and closed his eyes. The face of the empty moon rotated far below, unnoticed, irrelevant.

He was doing the right thing. He was sure of it.

The only question remaining was: where to start?

Water.

He looked up and began calculating a course for the first waterworld he thought of-Dac, the home of the Mon Calamari.

The cargo freighter touched down on Dac’s moon with a dust-softened thump. Bail Organa, hack in his grunt pilot’s pressure suit, released the controls and set the instruments to standby. No one had followed them on the short journey, and no one would look twice at an authorized vessel in such an utterly uninteresting place. For as much time as they could spare, they would be unobserved and unsuspected of anything at all.

“Nice spot for a summer palace, ” Juno said as PROXY went aft to warm up the R-22. “You should think about moving here. “

“The quiet is tempting. ” Organa’s wry tone perfectly matched hers. “But I don’t think I’ll be settling anywhere soon. The Emperor will get tired of looking for me eventually, and that’s the time to reappear. There’s a lot of work to be done out there. “

On that last point Juno heartily agreed. They had discussed the Senator’s plans on the way from the surface. He believed that he was too well known to be assassinated in public. Robbed of the hope of quiet, our-of-sight murder, the Emperor, Organa said, would stick to the philosophy of keeping his enemies close and rely on other methods to deal with the growing Rebellion.

Juno supposed that he knew the Emperor better than anyone alive, except Darth Vader, but she wondered if he was secretly as worried as she would have been. Painting a target on one’s head and sticking it our into the firing line had never struck her as being particularly life affirming. For oneself or one’s family.

“Any idea, ” she asked, “what this work you’re planning to do might actually be?”

“I know what you’re really asking. You want to know which way I’ll side with respect to Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis. “

“Spot-on, Senator. “

“Well, it’s a tricky question at the moment. With the Dac resistance movement on our side, we’ll soon have more ships, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to be complacent. One shipyard doesn’t make us the equal of the Empire. And for that I’m glad. I don’t trust that kind of power. A lesson learned the hard way is hard-perhaps impossible-to unlearn. “

“Assuming we don’t all get killed along the way. “

“Assuming that, yes. ” He looked at her with one hand cupping his cheek. “Where do you sit on this, Juno? You’re not afraid of action, but I don’t see you running off to start your own revolution. “

She didn’t dodge the question. “I think we need to act decisively, but smartly, too. What we did here, for instance-it made a difference. And if we’d taken Tarkin hostage, it might have made a big difference. “

“Do you think the Emperor would have cared if we’d threatened to shoot “Tarkin? I don’t. “

“No, but those around him might have. When the ruler of the galaxy doesn’t lift a finger to save a Grand Moff, what kind of message does that send?”

“True. ” He nodded. “For what it’s worth, I agree with you. There are tipping points and levers we can use to apply force all through the Imperial administration, and the sooner we start applying them, the sooner the Emperor will start to feel the pressure. But the importance of a symbolic victory should never be downplayed, and neither should the risks. Too many choices, too much at stake, as ever. The future will judge us, not each other. “

“If we have a future. “

“Oh, there’s no doubt about that, Captain Eclipse. The question is: What sort?”

Juno smiled, noting how cleverly he had avoided giving a direct answer to her original question. But she didn’t pursue it. It had been good seeing him, and she didn’t want to spoil the moment with politics.

“Pleasure serving with you again, Senator Organa, ” she said, extending her hand.

He gripped and shook it. “The feeling is mutual, Captain Eclipse. I hope this won’t be the last time I hear from you. “

“And vice versa. “

“That job’s still going, remember. “

She rolled her eyes. “The best you could offer at the moment would be low-pay haulage. I did enough of that when I was with the Empire. “

He laughed and saluted as she retreated to the cargo bay. PROXY had the R-22’s landing lights on and the repulsors thrumming. She climbed up into the cockpit and slid easily into the pilot’s sear next to him. When the hatch was sealed, Organa opened the bay doors and she guided the fighter outside, into the gray, lunar light. Juno lifted a hand in farewell, knowing that Organa would be watching through the forward observation ports. The cargo freighter lifted off, hatch slowly sealing shut on its empty hold.