Star wars: The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams

Author:Sean Williams
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Vader, Space Opera, Star Wars fiction, General, Darth Vader (Fictitious character), Space warfare, Imaginary wars and battles, Adventure, Science fiction, Fantasy fiction, Darth (Fictitious character), Fiction, Media Tie-In
ISBN: 9780345499028
Publisher: Lucas Books/Del Rey/Ballantine Books
Published: 2008-08-19T07:00:00+00:00

A clicking rose up out of the white noise, followed by a weary but familiar voice.

"Relax, General. I'm still here." Kota sagged with relief. "Good. Good." She didn't feel reassured at all. "Kota, where's PROXY? He..." Kota waved her silent. "The cannon?" "Destroyed. And the ship-is it okay?"

"Seems intact to me, inasmuch as I can tell." "Juno?"

Kota exhaled through his nose. "She's here, but we do have a new set of problems."

"Imperials, I presume."

"No. PROXY. That droid of yours has slipped his programming. He attacked Juno and disappeared."

"Attacked-?" She heard the catch in his voice. "Is she all right?"

"Just a little battered. That's not the only reason we couldn't fly. PROXY overrode our launch codes before he left. We can break them, but it'll take time. We're grounded until then-or until you bring him back."

"Where did he go?"

"That's the problem. I didn't hear him leave." Kota's face was a picture of fury, but not just at the droid, Juno guessed: at himself, too, for not being around when she was attacked and the mission compromised. "The important thing to work out is why he did this. Could he be an Imperial plant?"

"No," said Starkiller in a tone that would allow no disagreement. "PROXY would never betray me."

No, thought Juno, but he'll try to kill you every day you're alive. "I think I know what might have happened," she said. "It's the core intelligence. PROXY was trying to slice into it at the time. I remember him saying something about accessing his processor, then-then he went mad." She touched the back of her head and winced.

"The Core . . . ," echoed Starkiller. "Yes. That's all it could be."

"Don't think our problems end there, boy," growled Kota. "That droid knows everything we've been doing. If the Core is now an Imperial ally, that data could destroy us!"

More than you realize, thought Juno with a shock of fear. "We have to find him, and fast."

"I will," said Starkiller. "His homing beacon is still active."

There was a tightness to the reply that spoke of the sins'. Starkiller was under.

"Watch yourself," Juno urged him. "Whether the Core really has reprogrammed him or not, PROXY isn't your friend anymore, Don't believe anything he tells you."

With an ominous click the comm channel closed.

Kota and Juno sat staring at the console for a moment, ea< h wrapped in private thoughts. Briefly she considered telling Kota the truth, desperate to take the terrible weight off her shoulders. Starkiller was a Jedi assassin devoted to bringing down the Emperor for his own benefit, not out of concern for anyone else. It would be better to abandon him here and flee with the rest of the rebels while there was still time. If only the launch codes hadn't been overridden by PROXY-and if only guilt didn't tug at her in sides at the very thought. . .

She remembered, vaguely, a dream of a disintegrating stone edifice falling into a lake. That was her sense of self, surely, collapsing and sinking farther with every passing day.

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