At any rate, the formation looked impressive, and that was most of the point.

"-uke, come in, Lu-" It was Lando on the line-of-sight laser corn system.

The best that could be said about the system was that it worked, which was a great deal more than could be said about any other corn system available to the fleet. However, it did not work welL It just about sufficed for conversation between a fighter and his wingman.

Anything else, and it was hopeless. "Still breaking up a bit, Lando," Luke said. "What's up?"

"mine re-ibrate this -ing again. There we go. I just wanted to know if you had any better idea what we're looking for out there." In other words, Lando wanted to know if Luke had sensed anything through the Force. "Not really," he said. "I don't feel anything much from the other side, besides the emotions you might expect before a battle.

My guess is that they don't have any more idea than we do. The bra.s.s knows, but the troops don't."

"Great," Lando said. "How about leia and Han?"

"They're still Out there. I can sense the two of them together now-and someone else, too, now that I know where to focus my awareness.

Mara Jade. I think they're on her ship now, and if I'm matching up my Force sense with the tracking data properly, they are on the shortest, fastest course that will get them clear of the battle zone."

"Can't blame them for -at," Lando said, still breaking up just a trifle. "But I sure wish Mara had decided to join in the fun. Her ship packs some serious firepower.

We could use the help."

"Not really," said Luke. "Ossilege was right. The enemy formations are all wrong for fighter4o-fighter battle. II that was what this was about, we'd wipe them out in a minute. They have to know that. They aren't going to offer battle. Not unless they're suicidal."

" what are they going to offer?" Lando demanded.

"Musical entertainment?"

Luke shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "But we're about to find out. Here they come."

A wave of Corellian PPBs came in from sunward, trying to stay hidden in Corell's glare. They went straight for the Watchkeeper but broke off their attack almost before it had started, only getting off a few token turbolaser shots before shifting course and diving away. A flight of Selonian light attack fighters came in right behind the PPBs and performed almost the identical maneuver, coming in just a trifle closer-and being rewarded by a series of rapid bursts from the Watchkeeper's main battery. The Watchkeeper scored two direct hits on the IA'Fs. Luke had to hand it to Ossilege, who was flying the Watchkeepu by remote. That was some pretty fair shooting.

The surviving LAFs moved off on the same heading as the PPBs, on a bearing that would take them just over the limb of Selonia. Luke reminded himself that they were coming up on the planet. It would be downright embarra.s.sing to get preoccupied with the dogfight and crash into it. More PPBs came in from directly above the Bakuran ships, diving straight into the center of the wedge formation to come up behind the Watchkeeper and give her a dose of firepower from the rear.

The other big Bakuran ships opened fire on the interlopers, but they were restrained by the fear of firing on their own ship. Shooing them away was a job for the fighters, and several flights of Bakuran fighters took up the task.

Luke decided to join them. "Lando, let's encourage those PPBs to go on about their business," he said.

"Form on my port wing and follow me in."

"I'm with you, -uke," Lando replied.

Luke brought his fighter's wings to attack position and lit the engines. The X-wing dove into the center of the flying wedge, the Lady Luck off her port wing. Luke spotted a pair of PPBs below and off to starboard. He swooped in on them, locking his guns-but both PPBs blew up before he could even fire.

"Score two," Land announced. "At least I think it was me. Lot of shooting going on. Luke! Coming up from the rear and below!"

Luke had his X-wing in a diving barrel roll before he could see the threat. You had to trust your wingman.

And sure enough, there was a PPB and an LAF coming straight for him. Both of the light fighters opened up on him, and the X-wing took a glancing hit to the portside lower wing. Artoo bleeped protestingly but recalibrated the shielding to compensate.

Luke fired two short bursts. The first hit the LAF and blew it sky-high. The second burst only caught a piece of the PPB, sent it tumbling out of control and out of the fight. Luke forgot about it and pulled the X-wing's nose up, heading back toward the Watchkeeper coming up under her keel.

"That's it," Lando said. "They've broken off."

"Yeah," Luke said. "And they're heading for that same piece of sky as all the other flights bugged out toward. That's where they want us to go."

"And that's where we are going," Lando replied.

"Watchkeeper's changing course to pursue. Just what Ossilege said they'd want him to do."

"Great," Luke said. "But I'm not sure who's outsmarting who in all this. I'm going to fly formation on the Watchkeeper high and to the rear.

Stay with me."

"Received and understood," Lando said. "Don't get too close to her, though. If Ossilege is flying into a trap on purpose, I don't want to go along for the ride."

"Agreed. Double standard formation distance."

The Watchkeeper broke formation with the other big ships and lumbered toward the ma.s.sed formations of PPBs and LAFs.

The Watchkeeper was very definitely not moving fast. Whatever propulsion they had managed to patch together for her wasn't anything much, that was for sure. But she was moving, for all of that.

Luke slowed his X-wing to match her velocity and took up station keeping five kilometers behind and three above her stern.

"Luke, another -ight of LAFs coming in fr--low the Watchkeeper"

Lando warned.

"Let em come," Luke said. "Shields at maximum, but don't respond or return fire."

"But-"

"Just do it," Luke said. "I want to see how they respond.

But be ready to drop shields and fight if they come back for a second pa.s.s."

The LAFs came up from behind, six of them. Four turned to take a firing pa.s.s right over the topside of the Wztchkeeper, doing a strafing run across her upper deck.

Explosions flickered and flared over the decks of the Watchkeeper but her shields held. The main batteries swung about and poured fire at the LAFs. Thro of them flew right into the battery fire before the others peeled off and headed for that same slice of sky.

But Luke had very little time to worry about that. The other two LAFs were on them, sweeping past in a blaze of turbolaser fIre, catching both ships with repeated hits; but with shields at maximum, the small lasers on the LAFs weren't able to do any appreciable damage.

Of course, with the shields maxed up, neither ship could fight back, either, but that scarcely mattered just at the moment. The two LAFs swooped past, unmolestedand followed their fellows down the same vector, toward the limb of the planet, which every other enemy fighter had taken.

All of them were rendezvousing there now, coming together in a ma.s.s formation.

"Now I get it," Lando said. "That clinches it for me.

They are trying to draw us toward that one point at all costs, and they are under very strict orders to do so.

There isn't a fighter pilot living who wouldn't want to take another crack at two nice big fat slow-moving targets who didn't shoot back. Luke, you sure five kil meters up and three back is distance enough?"

"Not really," Luke admitted. "Make it ten and six and re-form at that station-keeping point. But what are they trying to pull us toward?"

he asked as he flipped the X-wing around and flew toward the new escort point.

"Got me," Lando said. "A big cloaked ship, or some kind of minefield, maybe."

"Except a ship or mines would have to be between us and the fighters for that to make sense," Luke said, watching the Watch keeper move forward in leisurely pursuit of its tormentors. "Their fighters just flew straight through that patch of s.p.a.ce." The Watchkeeper sailed on, bringing her main battery to bear on the enemy fighter fleet. She fired again and again, making a lot of hits.

"whatever it is, they're willing to pay a big price to get a ship to it. But what is it?"

"You've got me, Luke. Maybe they've got some sort of-" Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant, invisible fist slammed into the Watchkeeper.

The lower hull slammed upward, pancaking it against the upper hull, as huge sections of ship broke free and flew off into s.p.a.ce. Ma.s.sive explosions ripped through the ship, and merged into a single fireball that completely engulfed it.

"Evasive!" Luke called out, and flipped his X-wing around to boost away from the expanding fireball at maximum thrust. The Lady Luck was beside him, matching the X-wing's acceleration, but the shock wave of the explosion was moving faster. Luke cut the X-wing's engines and went to maximum shields a half heartbeat after the Lady Luck did so. The shock wave rushed past the two ships, slamming into them, sending them tumbling off wildly into s.p.a.ce before it pa.s.sed by them.

Debris of all sizes clattered intO the shield, bouncing the ship around even more.

At last the explosion shock wave was past them, and Luke was able to bring the X-wing back under control.

But he could not see the Lady Luck. "Lando!" he called.

"Lando!"

"I'm here," he said. "Behind and below you. Took some hull damage and lost the port sublight engine, but I'm here. You okay?"

"I'm okay," Luke said. He brought the nose of the X-wing about and looked back toward the point in s.p.a.ce where a destroyer had been swatted like a fly.

Where the Watchkeeper had been was nothing, absolutely nothing at all. "But what happened?"

"I was about to ask you. Luke-what was that?"

"I don't know," Lando. "But I've got a very nasty hunch we haven't seen the last of it." "It is as we feared," said Dracmus as she watched the main display aboard the Jade's Fire. "The fools have used it. They have gone ahead and used it."

"Used what?" Han asked. "What was that?"

"A planetary repulsor," said Dracmus. "Similar in principle to the repulsors used in s.p.a.cecraft to make them hover, but immeasurably more powerful. The device itself is buried under the surface of Dracmus. There is such a device hidden on each of the planets on this system. It was by use of the planetary repulsors that the long-lost architects of the Corellian system transported the various planets here."

"What?" leia said.

"The Corellian system is an artifact, a built thing, Honored Chief of State. Built when, and by whom, and for what reason, I could not say.

But it was built."

"A huge buried repulsor," said Han. "That was what the Human League was looking for!"

"Yes," said Dracmus, "though they may well have found it by now.

The Dralls and the folk of the Double Worlds are searching for their repulsors as well. We Selonians found ours first, and quickly made it operational. Not surprising, given our skill at underground work. I am told that aiming the device is still quite difficult, which was why that ship needed to be lured to a certain point. But our engineers will soon solve that, I have no doubt. Then we will be able to strike any point in the sky, at will, whenever we choose."

"We? We?" Han said. "Your people, your den, control that thing?"

"I don't believe so. But, in truth, I am not sure. My information is old, and the struggle to gain control of it has been tremendous, as you might imagine. The fight over the repulsor got swept up in other issues, and got out of control, until we had something close to civil war, in fact.

"There were two factions. Oneninells itself the Republicanists.

We sought to use the repulsors as a bargaining chip. We wished to turn our repulsor over to the New Republic in return for a guarantee of Selonia's sovereignty inside the New Republic and the Corellian Sector government. That was why we wanted to bring you to Selonia, honored Solo.

It was , hoped that we might use you to open the negotiations.

"And the other faction?" Han asked.

"Calls itself the Absolutists. Sought to use the repulsor as a weapon to establish absolute Selonian independence. But the issues became so complex, and the fight so desperate, that either side could have used it as the weapon.

"But there were fighters from all the Corellian worlds here," Mara objected.

"Yes. Precisely. A huge irony. We have long suspected that all the revolutionary groupthe Absolutists, the Human League, the Drallist Front, all of them-were being coordinated by someone outside themselves. We have proof of that now-but we are no closer to knowing who that outside force was, or what they did it for.

"It's incredible," Han said. "I can't believe it."

"But how does it all fit together?" leia demanded.

"what does it have to do with the starbuster plot? who blew up that first star? And why the race to find the repulsors on the other planets?"

"I don't know," said Dracmus. "I don't know what to think." She paused a minute and looked toward the screen, where they had just seen the Bakuran ship destroyed. "All I know for certain is thatmy planet has just declared war on the New Republic.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

On the Clock ando replying to Thndra. It's a long story why, but I only arrived in-system very recently, and have just now received your transmission.

Tendra listened to the words, over and over again, her eyes filled with tears. He was here. He was alive. And he was -ng Relief swept over her, even as she felt renewed fear for his safety. She thought of the long speedof-light delays that was one of the most clumsy features of radionics. It took hours for a radionic message to get from the inner system to Thndra aboard the Gentleman Caller. What if something had happened in those hours?

what if Lando had lived long enough to send her a message, but died in battle before she could hear it? No.

No. She would not believe it. She would not ever consider it.

She had work to do. She had come here with a purpose, and at long last she could act on that purpose.

With the radionic link to Lando established, she could send warning of the fleet ma.s.sing in the Sacorrian system. She had long since composed a detailed message, telling all she knew, but now that the moment had come, she could not resist reading it over one last time.

After all, with all the effort she had made, she might as well be sure she got it right.