Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury by Aaron Allston

Author:Aaron Allston [Allston, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-345-51054-9
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2011-10-04T13:00:00+00:00

chapter twenty-nine

SANCTUARY MOON OF ENDOR,

SHUTTLE REVEILLE, ON APPROACH

The forest stretched for countless kilometers in every direction, but below was a clearing broad enough to house several sports complexes … and at its center was a huge sheet of durasteel, curved like the roof of a prefabricated building, burned through in places by the violence of uncontrolled atmospheric entry, elsewhere rusted in spots the size of whole freighters. Nearly forty years earlier, it had been cast off the second Death Star when that vessel exploded. It had come to ground here, crushing and igniting all life beneath it, creating a clearing where before there had been tall trees. Now, decades later, grasses, flowers, and vines grew around the relic, but trees were slow in returning to the once-burned spot.

Syal Antilles, at the pilot’s controls, banked the shuttle over the site, taking note of objects and living things on the ground—the Millennium Falcon, half protruding from the shadow of the giant metal plate, X-wings, shuttles, Jedi, droids, Ewoks. The Ewoks clambered on the vehicles, climbed the curved slopes of the Death Star remnant. Some had constructed sleds of wood planks and leather, and now they rode the sleds down the smoother, unrusted slopes of the metal plate.

Syal whistled. “What a relic. If my sister Myri were here, she’d be cutting three-centimeter squares off that thing and selling them as souvenirs. Get your own piece of history. Own a part of the second Death Star.”

General Celchu, relaxing in the copilot’s seat, offered a noncommittal “Ah.”

Syal glanced at him, remembering, too late as usual, that her words might dredge up bad memories. Tycho’s world of Alderaan had been destroyed by the first Death Star—at the precise moment he was in live holocomm contact with his family on that planet. He had been part of the mission to destroy the second Death Star, flying a first-generation A-wing into the gigantic vehicle’s superstructure. Had his skills and reflexes been just a touch less brilliant in those days, his A-wing and his bones might now be lying beneath that wreckage.

She winced. “I’m sorry. Was that stupid of me?”

Absently, he shook his head. “No. But your comment about your sister made me think …”

“Yes?”

“Maybe we could get a cutting torch and pick up a few square meters of it before the shuttle heads back to Coruscant.”

She grinned.

Moments later, following the landing beacon being transmitted to her, she brought the Reveille down to a smooth, wings-up landing near the Millennium Falcon. A quick postflight checklist later, she, Tycho, and their passenger stood at the top of the boarding ramp.

As the ramp lowered, it revealed the face of the uniformed man standing below.

Tycho leaned over to whisper in her ear, “Antilles, you’re off duty.”

“Thank you, sir.” The ramp touched down and she ran down its length, throwing herself into the arms of the man waiting there. “Daddy.”

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