"I'll hang on here, thanks." The news speeder banked, sluggish, and headed toward the business district. "How did you know I was Valin Horn?"

"An arrest bulletin issued a little while ago by the office of the Chief of State ..."

The Quarren watched, startled, as Jaina Solo vanished over the lip.

The woman in the black jacket clapped him on the back. "Nice move, fish-head. She's not-"

Her words were cut off as an airspeeder, painted in a stylish silver-gray, dived past the cargo hauler's cab, missing it by less than a meter.

The hauler's pilot reacted instinctively, veering to starboard and down. The sudden maneuver sharply tilted the cargo bed.

The Quarren staggered to his left and stumbled clean off the edge of the cargo hauler. The blond woman staggered, too, but dropped, rolled with an acrobat's skill, and fetched up safely against the low rail at the side of the cargo bed.

The YVH droid didn't budge.

Luke flipped into the c.o.c.kpit and did an involuntary dance for a moment until both feet found nonsuperheated areas on the floor of the still-smoking compartment.

He glanced at the controls and grimaced. Every screen was out of commission. Experimentally, he waggled the yoke and found it unresponsive. This would be tricky, if not downright impossible.

Unless- He turned. There, in the circular slot behind the c.o.c.kpit, rested a gray and red R2 astromech.

"Hey, there. Can you pilot this thing?"

The R2 tweetled, ending on a sorrowful note.

"Forget steering. Can you kill the thrusters but leave the repulsors running?"

The R2 offered a series of notes that sounded quizzical. Luke heard starfighter systems dip and rise in power, fluctuations that lasted a fraction of a second each, then the R2 tweetled an affirmative.

"Do so. Execute. Problem solved." Luke turned to port. Ben was still there, a few meters away, pacing him with considerable skill.

Luke leapt back across, settling into the pa.s.senger seat. "Did you keep track of Valin?"

"Up thirty degrees, port twenty, three hundred meters."

"Strap in and take us there."

Leia shook her head as she watched Luke abandon the X-wing. "I'm not sure how, but he thinks he has it solved."

"Probably drafted the astromech. Took me a second to think of that myself." Han did not look away from the silver-gray speeder, which had, moments earlier, matched the netted Jaina's precipitous fall; then the pilot had gestured, drawing Jaina into the seat beside him with an exertion through the Force, and pulled out of his dive. Han glanced at his wife, who, watching Luke, hadn't seen any of it.

He shook his head. Jaina must not even have been alarmed, since Leia had not even detected her brief emergency. He put the Falcon Falcon into a tight curve, aiming it toward the news speeder that now bore Valin away and the lumbering cargo hauler chasing it. "That YVH droid could be bad news. Want to take the belly lasers?" into a tight curve, aiming it toward the news speeder that now bore Valin away and the lumbering cargo hauler chasing it. "That YVH droid could be bad news. Want to take the belly lasers?"

"I do." Leia was unstrapped and up in an instant, headed aft toward the laser turret access shaft.

Jaina, helpless, spasmed again as another electrical shock coursed through her. "Get this thing off me."

"I'm driving here, and that's Get this thing off me, please, Master Katarn. Get this thing off me, please, Master Katarn."

She offered a very Han Soloish growl in response.

Dropping almost to parked-speeder level, Kyle set his vessel in pursuit of Valin's conveyance and the cargo hauler. The hauler now seemed to be towing something at the end of a cable. It took him a moment to recognize the Quarren. A cable stretched between his weapon and the tail of the hauler, and the Quarren held on to his weapon with both arms as if to save his life. As the hauler picked up speed, the Quarren was towed along behind at a more shallow angle.

Absently, barely looking, Kyle took his lightsaber from his belt, lit it, and lashed out against the metal cylinder attached to Jaina's net where it lay bouncing on the back of the speeder. His blow sheared through the object without scarring the speeder's paint beneath. "Better?"

"Actually, yes." Jaina lay there a few more moments, then began struggling with the net. It had relaxed, no longer constricting or clinging to itself, and she was able to unwrap it within moments. "Electrical shocks."

"Interfering with your control over the Force. Which turns you from a Jedi into a rather weak gymnast with a spasming problem."

"That's one way to put it."

The Galaxy 9 News speeder reached the edge of the business district before any of the vehicles pursuing it caught up. It shot through the cleft between skytowers that const.i.tuted the end of the s.p.a.ceport zone and dropped toward lower traffic lanes.

The bounty hunter cargo hauler followed, descending at an angle not recommended for such a big, ungainly vehicle, still trailing the Quarren, who looked increasingly frantic. Then came Jaina and Kyle in their speeder, the Falcon Falcon, Luke and Ben, and finally a stream of speeders with Jedi, s.p.a.ceport security, press, and more bounty hunters intermixed.

"Whoa." Kyle put the speeder into a side-to-side evasive maneuver an instant before the YVH droid in the cargo hauler opened fire. Streams of blasterfire flashed beside his door, then just above Jaina's head, then immediately under the fuselage.

A pulse of laserfire, four brilliant red streams converging so closely that they seemed to be one, crossed from above and behind the speeder to hit the YVH droid dead center in the chest. The droid was catapulted off its feet and smashed through the rear of the hauler's control cab, disappearing completely.

Smoke poured out of the cab, and the hauler began to nose forward into a shallow dive.

Jaina craned her neck back to see the Falcon Falcon, pacing the speeder at a higher alt.i.tude. She waved at her mother, clearly visible in the underside turret. "Thanks, Mom."

"Most mothers just pack a lunch." Kyle put on a burst of speed, accelerating toward the news speeder. "You want to try another jump?"

"I guess." Jaina checked her lightsaber, then clipped it to her belt.

Another speeder, black with arrow-tipped white stripes on the sides, open-topped, raced past Kyle's. It was no civilian vehicle; the roar from its engines was similar to that of a Podracer. It was a two-seater, and the pilot was the bounty hunter who dressed as a Jedi. Beside her was a man Jaina had barely glimpsed at Luke's arrest, a Rodian holding an unusually long blaster rifle, scoped, in his hands. As they roared past, the woman gave Kyle and Jaina a wave.

The striped racer dipped low and pa.s.sed the news speeder moments later. Jaina saw the pa.s.senger turn, raise his weapon, and fire at the news vehicle.

It was not a destructive shot-it was surgical. Smoke began issuing from the news speeder. It wobbled, probably from a fright reflex on the part of the pilot. Moments later, viewports all over the vehicle opened, allowing smoke to pour out everywhere.

Luke took a moment to a.s.sess the vista before him. The news speeder was clearly doomed, so Valin would be abandoning it as soon as possible. "Take me over it, just to one side."

Ben nodded and put on more speed. Crowding the edge of the traffic lane, he pa.s.sed below the Falcon Falcon, then above Master Katarn and Jaina. Drawing near the news speeder, he maintained his higher alt.i.tude but sideslipped to port, putting Luke directly above the speeder's roof.

Once again Luke looked down into the face of Valin Horn. He flipped over the side and landed at the rear of the speeder's roof, stabilizing himself through the Force.

Valin flipped up to the roof. "Wish you'd taken longer with that X-wing."

Luke gestured at the lightsaber Valin carried-not Valin's own, it was a very simple cylinder of shining steel. "Did that belong to your nurse?"

"Yes." Valin switched it on. "It's not very stylish, but-"

"That's enough." Luke advanced, activating his own lightsaber. Valin raised his in a preliminary block. Luke struck, twitching his blade out of the most obvious line of attack, and the blade sheared the hilt of Valin's weapon in two, not harming him.

Valin's blade switched off as the weapon's lower half dropped into the darkened urban chasm below. Valin took a step back, the last step he could afford before dropping off the front of the speeder, but Luke's advance was near instantaneous. The Grand Master slammed the b.u.t.t of his own weapon into Valin's temple.

Valin Horn dropped like a slaughterhouse bantha. Luke caught his topcoat lapel, keeping him from following the lightsaber wreckage into the depths.

THE PILOT OF THE NEWS SPEEDER NEEDED NO URGING FROM LUKE. HE picked the nearest plausible landing spot, a portion of a twentieth-story-alt.i.tude pedestrian walkway broad enough for two starfighters to land abreast, and set down. Immediately, all the pursuit vehicles set down on one side or the other of it-all but the picked the nearest plausible landing spot, a portion of a twentieth-story-alt.i.tude pedestrian walkway broad enough for two starfighters to land abreast, and set down. Immediately, all the pursuit vehicles set down on one side or the other of it-all but the Falcon Falcon, which rose, looking for a broader landing area.

Jaina, Kyle, and Ben joined Luke. At his instant order, they stood at the four corners of the news speeder, lightsabers unlit but in hand, and waved the oncoming security troopers, press, and onlookers back. The security troopers, no ranking officer present, hesitated in the face of unthreatening but armed Jedi resistance and simply formed up lines, keeping the press and observers at bay, barring the exit paths of the Jedi.

Kyp Durron and Jedi Knight Doran Tainer arrived moments later, filling in the Jedi line, and Luke could see other Jedi speeders moving in for agile, illegal landings. Luke shook his head. "This is going to be a real mess."

"Going to be?" Kyp looked amazed. "Are you trying for some galactic record in the understatement event?"

The dark-haired female bounty hunter and her Rodian companion arrived, showed identification to the s.p.a.ceport security officers, and moved through their line, confronting Luke. The woman smiled with what seemed like genuine good cheer. "Care to surrender the prisoner? It will save everybody trouble."

Luke shook his head. "We'll manage this. You You can save everyone a lot of trouble by convincing the security forces to fall back and leave us to our business." can save everyone a lot of trouble by convincing the security forces to fall back and leave us to our business."

She shook her head. "The Chief of State has ordered us to take the rogue Jedi into custody. Surely you've heard of her. Natasi Daala."

"I have, but I haven't heard of you you. Who are you?"

She offered him a slight bow. "Zilaash Kuh. Not, I am afraid, at your service."

"You're not a Jedi."

She nodded. "And may I present Kaddit."

The Rodian offered a minimal glance in Luke's direction, but he clearly had his eye on the growing numbers of Jedi and GA Security personnel.

The noise was incredible-the Falcon Falcon's repulsors howling, people shouting.

"Stand back! Stand back! GA Security has jurisdiction here!"

"Hand over the prisoner; this is not your jurisdiction."

"Take one more step and you'll be picking your nose with a prosthetic!"

"Luke! Luke! When did you first realize you were a criminal?"

Master Cilghal was among the later Jedi arrivals. The security troopers let her enter, and she injected Valin with enough sedatives to keep a wampa unconscious for a couple of days. But the security troopers and bounty hunters clearly would not open ranks to permit the Jedi to carry Valin out. Zilaash and Kaddit took the opportunity to retreat to the security lines.

Han and Leia forced their way into the Jedi circle. Han stared out at the thickening lines of security troopers and shook his head. "This is getting way out of control, old buddy."

Luke nodded. "GA Security has legal jurisdiction, those others have a profit motive, and all we have is the fact that we're right. No one's going to back down until someone gets hurt."

Ben gestured toward someone in the security ranks. "There's a familiar face."

Luke peered in that direction. Captain Savar stood there, waving the security men and women around him to silence. "This could help," Luke said.

Leia's expression was one of irritation. "It certainly couldn't hurt."

Luke calculated odds and resources. He now had twenty Jedi here, including six Masters. If violence erupted, the security troopers would be slaughtered-or perhaps not, depending on how well their two bounty hunter allies fared.

Luke gestured until he got Captain Savar's attention. The officer headed his way, ignoring the guns at his back and lightsabers ahead of him, until he stood before Luke. "Quite a mess you Jedi have made here."

Luke shook his head. "It would have been a lot worse without us here. Is there any way you can pack those bounty hunters into a spent fuel drum or something?"

"I wish. That's not on the list of options."

Luke felt as glum as the man looked. "Well, we've got to figure something out. One twitch like your boy had yesterday, and we're going to have blaster bolts, arms and legs, and who knows what else flying everywhere."

"So hand Valin Horn over."

"How do you know his name?"

"He was caught on holocam and identified when he stole a cla.s.sic starfighter and crashed a Kuati shuttle at the Senate Building."

"Tell you what, you conduct us all to the Jedi Temple and we'll let you have an observer on hand while we study Jedi Horn to see what's wrong."

"Why would we want you you to study to study our our prisoner?" prisoner?"

Han and Leia, breaking from a bout of hurried consultation, stepped forward. Leia's voice was at her most diplomatic; this was the voice she'd used for all her Chief of State speeches. "Grand Master, Captain, I believe my husband and I can offer a solution that will defuse the immediate situation."

Captain Savar gave her a not entirely hopeful look. "Please."

"Mon Mothma Memorial Medical Center is pretty close to equidistant between the Temple and the Senate Building. That makes it a sort of halfway point for respective jurisdictions. Let's take Jedi Horn there. It's a secure facility and an enclosed s.p.a.ce, so we can limit the number of people with access to the situation-say, six Jedi and six security agents."

Han nodded. "And no bounty hunters or press. None living, anyway."

Savar considered, took a look at the growing number of press and onlookers arriving, and nodded. He looked back over his shoulder. "Carn! Commandeer a civilian vehicle suitable for carrying fifteen or more. With a civilian driver. We need it here, now. now."

"Yes, sir!" A broad-shouldered male trooper pushed his way through the ranks of security troopers and onlookers, then set off at a dead run.

It was almost a re-creation of the previous day's events in the Temple medical center, but with a bigger and more diverse cast. Jedi, troopers, and the Horns waited for the doctors' reports while Valin lay unconscious. News of the rampage spread like a tenement fire through the newsnets. And the Jedi had little to do but watch the news coverage for the first several hours.

It wasn't good. Amateur recordings showed Valin's dressing-robe paranoia outside the hostel the previous morning. Commentators asked why the Jedi had not surrendered him to the authorities then, which would have prevented today's outrage. Luke's arrest was briefly covered, with many angles on the Jedi, lightsabers lit, looking menacing. There were security recordings of Valin performing overrides on the X-wing and shuttle security, followed by gloriously detailed scenes of the shuttle smashing out of the Senate Building and crashing nearby.

And then Valin's final rampage, covered in exacting detail by high-quality holorecorders and far too many members of the press.

a.n.a.lysts cast the Jedi Order in the guise of ungoverned, unprincipled superhumans content to gratify themselves whatever the cost might be to the common population-every Jedi a potential Jacen Solo. No such stigma was attached to Luke Skywalker; his benevolence was too well known, too ingrained in the public consciousness. Instead, he was cast as an out-of-touch autocrat, kindly but dangerously clueless, dedicated to a culture of ent.i.tlement that was decades behind the times.

After the ninth news cycle, Leia heaved a sigh. "I can feel the public turning against us from here. Minds are slamming shut like malfunctioning turbolift doors."

Luke gave her a glum look of agreement. "Any recommendations?"