Star Wars by Adam Christopher

Author:Adam Christopher [Christopher, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Lando flicked a switch and slammed a fist down on the console in front of him.

“It’s no good,” he said, gesturing to the panel. “There’s too much interference out here. We’ve got debris from the attack scrambling the sensors, and the ice in the rings is shielding everything else. I can’t pick up the vector of the Goldstone, and anything I transmit just gets bounced straight back.” He shook his head. “And they haven’t signaled yet. Hell of a place to get lost in.”

Luke paced the flight deck of the Lady Luck behind Lando. Like the rest of the ship, it was spacious and opulent, the control consoles, even the flight seats, designed for elegance and comfort as well as function—even the deck was covered with a thin, soft synthetic weave embroidered with subtle interlocking designs. The flooring deadened the sound of Luke’s boots.

Lando was right. The icy rings of Therezar were a good place to hide, and his advice to the family to take the regent-captain’s ship out into them and wait had been good.

Except the rings were too good a place to hide. Lando hadn’t counted on the interference from the system, and they could spend hours—days, even—cruising among the bergs, trying to find the luxury yacht by eye and close-range mass detectors. Luke only hoped that their non-arrival wouldn’t panic the family and they’d at least stay put for a while as they searched. They seemed quite capable, according to Lando’s account from the private hangar. They—or the mother, at least—had been able to slice through the Goldstone’s security systems and hijack the ship, after all. And they knew, now, that they had a Jedi on their side. Luke didn’t know the family’s state of mind, but he hoped that if they knew the Sith, they would also know Luke’s Order. That, at least, should have counted for something.

But what he did know was that they were frightened, and he knew from personal experience the power that fear could hold, even over the most rational minds.

As he paced around on the Lady Luck’s soft decking, Luke couldn’t help but be drawn back to his own memories. To be hunted by a Sith, to have the focus of the dark side on you, was a terrible thing. But while he had been unprepared for the discovery of his own place in the galaxy, this family, at least, seemed to know what they faced—they had a hex charm, and, more important, they knew exactly what it was and what it symbolized.

They were no ordinary family, and perhaps one that wasn’t quite as helpless as he feared.

And that, Luke thought, felt good.

R2-D2 bleeped. Lando turned in his seat to face the droid, who was plugged into a workstation on the port side of the flight deck. R2-D2 turned his dome to face the others, the large indicator light on his front flicking from red, to blue, to red.

“Keep looking, Artoo,” said Lando. “Scan all frequencies and see if you can pick up their transponder code.

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