"Ready to fulfill your destiny, of course." He guided Luke over to a narrow gray console, just below the viewscreen. At its center was a glowing yellow b.u.t.ton. "The resonance torpedoes are armed and ready to go," Soresh said. "Grand Moff Tarkin's greatest creation. One touch of this b.u.t.ton will send them into the sun, kicking off a fusion chain reaction, and then..." He flung his arms in the air, blowing his lips out with the sound of an explosion. "If we hurry, we'll have time to watch the fireworks from s.p.a.ce- before we navigate to safety, of course. I would never leave you behind, Luke," he said, as if Luke had expressed concern. "You're my ticket." He pulled something out of his cloak-the hilt of a lightsaber. "You'd like this back, wouldn't you?"

"If it pleases you," Luke said, trying to survey the room without moving his head.

There were six guards, plus Soresh. If he had his lightsaber back and could find a blaster, there was a chance he could take down Soresh before the b.u.t.ton got pressed. As long as he chose the exact moment to act.

Let the Force be your guide, the deep voice in his mind reminded him.

Soresh dangled the lightsaber before him. "You can have it back, for good," Soresh said. "All you need to do is press the b.u.t.ton."

Luke didn't move.

"Now," Soresh urged him.

Now.

Luke struck out. His leg slashed across Soresh's knees, knocking the man to the floor.

The lightsaber flew out of Soresh's hand and Luke s.n.a.t.c.hed it out of midair.

"Kill him!" Soresh shouted.

The lightsaber blade lit up just as the guards started shooting. Luke slashed and hacked at the guards, but they evaded him. He was always a step behind, a moment too slow...maybe because now he understood those guards. He understood they were people just like him, doing what Soresh wanted them to do because they had no other choice. He didn't want to hurt them.

On the other hand, he didn't want to die.

Trying to remember his training, Luke swept the blade through the air, deflecting every laserbolt that came near him. Laserfire erupted in the room, scorching the walls and blasting through the giant computers. Exposed wiring sparked and soon flames licked at the walls. Foul, acrid black smoke choked the room, shrouding them in darkness. Laserfire streaked through the black, and Luke struck on instinct. Eyes squinted against the smoke, he had nothing but the Force to tell him where the next shot was coming from. Still, he wheeled on his feet, deflecting one shot after another, from all directions.

Soresh had dropped to the ground, and was slithering across the room on his belly.

Luke felt the blade reaching toward him, as if the lightsaber wanted Soresh dead as much as Luke did. But the laserfire was backing him toward the far wall, and soon he was pinned. His blade was still blocking the shots, but his arms were tiring. He couldn't keep this up forever, and sooner or later his luck would run out. Even if it didn't, he would never be able to overpower Soresh. Not unless he could figure out a way to take out the guards-and there was no way he could defeat so many.

Especially since, from the sound of approaching footsteps, more were on the way. A wave of hopelessness washed over him, but Luke ignored it. There had to be something something he could do, some way to defeat the enemy- he could do, some way to defeat the enemy- And then he got it. The guards weren't his enemies, he reminded himself. Not really.

They were just men and women like him, except they hadn't had the strength to hold on.

They'd lost themselves to Soresh. He He was the enemy, of all of them. Luke just had to make them realize it. He continued to dart and weave away from the bolts of laserfire, as his mind worked feverishly, searching for a solution. was the enemy, of all of them. Luke just had to make them realize it. He continued to dart and weave away from the bolts of laserfire, as his mind worked feverishly, searching for a solution.

The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded, Ben had told him.

What could be weaker than a mind that was completely empty?

It was difficult to concentrate while he was swinging his lightsaber wildly and dodging laserbolts. But maybe that was better. Concentration had never helped his control of the Force. On the contrary, it was only when he stopped stopped thinking, thinking, stopped stopped trying that he ever succeeded. And so, without thinking about it anymore, or knowing what he was going to say, he spoke to the guards. trying that he ever succeeded. And so, without thinking about it anymore, or knowing what he was going to say, he spoke to the guards.

"You are someone!" he said.

"You do not belong to him!"

"He is not your master!"

He said the words with as much force as he could, again and again, trying to drown out the voice that was playing in their heads. But it wasn't working. The hail of laserfire continued to a.s.sault him in dangerous bursts. And somewhere, beneath the veil of smoke, he was sure he could hear Soresh laugh. At the sound, everything Soresh had done to him welled up in Luke and burst out of him.

"He is not our master," he said, pouring all his rage, all his pain, all his exhaustion, everything he was and had ever been into the words. "We do not belong to him."

Silence dropped over the room. A blaster clattered to the floor.

"Where am I?" someone mumbled.

"What am I doing?"

Sounds of confusion and fear-but no more explosions. No more laserfire. No more killing on command. It had worked-they were free.

Soresh's laughter cut through the noise. Luke whirled around. The Commander, b.l.o.o.d.y and shaken, but still on his feet, lunged toward the glowing yellow b.u.t.ton. "Too late," Soresh said, and pressed the b.u.t.ton.

Luke watched the viewscreen in horror as three resonance torpedoes hurtled toward the sun.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Luke leapt for the console, desperate to stop the torpedoes. There had to be some way of calling them back, or detonating them in midair, something to stop the inevitable. But there wasn't. And he'd wasted too much time searching-enough to give Soresh a head start on his escape. Luke took off after him, then hesitated in the doorway, torn. "You have to find a way off the planet!" he shouted at the confused guards. "If we stay here, we're all going to die!"

The confused buzzing in the room just got louder.

"s.h.i.+ps!" Luke shouted, frustrated. "We have to find s.h.i.+ps!"

"s.h.i.+ps!" One of them cried, and took off running down the hall. Luke urged the rest to follow him. He had to help everyone off the planet, and he had to find a way to warn the Rebel fleet-and he had to catch Soresh. But he was only one man, and he couldn't do everything at once-so where was he supposed to start?

"Luke!" A familiar voice cried. A moment later, Leia appeared in the corridor, flanked by Han, Chewbacca, Ferus, and Div. The two droids wheeled behind them.

Luke's jaw dropped. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you," Leia said, then spotted the fleeing guards. "Though it looks like you got tired of waiting."

Luke drew them back into the control room and explained everything that had happened. Chewbacca stayed in the corridor, guarding the door, while Ferus and R2-D2 took a long look at the launch controls. They both agreed: There was nothing they could do to stop the torpedoes. In less than three standard hours, the sun would explode. It would collapse into itself, generating a shock wave that would consume the entire star system. Nothing in its wake would survive.

Leia turned pale. "Half the fleet is up there!" she exclaimed. "We have to warn them."

C-3PO raised a golden hand. "With any prototype weapon of this sort, there is a one in three hundred twenty-seven chance that the weapon will fail."

Han snorted. "Normally, I'm all about playing the odds, but this game's a little too rich for my blood. What do you say we find the fleet and get out of here?"

"I fear that may be more difficult than it was a moment ago," Ferus said solemnly, his eyes fixed on the viewscreen behind their heads. The others turned around. Darth Vader's Interdictor Star Destroyer had just winked out of hypers.p.a.ce. Six other Destroyers appeared a moment later. TIE fighters were already pouring out of them, firing on the Rebel s.h.i.+ps.

"They were only expecting two two Destroyers," Div said, alarmed. "And they thought there'd be time to lay an ambush. They can't handle this." Destroyers," Div said, alarmed. "And they thought there'd be time to lay an ambush. They can't handle this."

"And they can't flee the system when they're under this kind of fire," Han added.

For a brief moment they stood in silent horror, watching the battle unfold before them.

Then Leia slammed a fist down on the launcher console with a loud crack. "They need help," she said, seizing control. "Luke, Han, Div-find s.h.i.+ps. And the guards-"

"The guards won't be a problem," Luke told her.

"Then help them fight. I'll stay here and find some kind of communications equipment so I can fill in the fleet-and maybe I can get the Imperials to understand what we're dealing with."

"I'm not leaving you here alone," Luke said.

She glared at him. "I can take care of myself. The fleet can't."

"I'll stay with her," Ferus said quickly. "We have to evacuate this moon-there are still the hostages you told us about. We can't just leave them here to die."

"We're not leaving anyone here," Han said firmly. "You do what you need to do, Princess, then you make sure you get yourself off this rock. We're not leaving this system without you."

"Get up there, now," Leia ordered him, "or none of us will be leaving this system, period."

"As you wish, Your Wors.h.i.+pfulness," Han said. He grabbed Luke. "C'mon, kid, it's time for some target practice."

They rushed out of the room, hesitating only when Leia called after them, a note of panic in her voice. "Han! Luke!"

They turned back. She shot them another fierce glare."Don't you dare dare get yourselves killed." get yourselves killed."

Leia watched with surprised respect as Ferus sorted through the mess of wires, stripping and splicing and finally rising in triumph. "We should be able to transmit now,"

he said.

She still couldn't believe this was the same Ferus Olin she'd known all those years on Alderaan. The same slimy, spineless suck-up she'd despised for most of her life. Of course, he'd gone by a different name then-but a new name wasn't supposed to change so much about a person. She was finally seeing the man her father had always promised her was there, behind Ferus's oily smile. The man who was brave and capable, who could be counted on. She just didn't understand why it had taken him so long to emerge.

War could make a hero out of almost anyone, she mused.

Just look at Han.

"Princess?" Ferus prompted her.

Leia shook off her thoughts. It was time for action. She contacted the fleet leader on a secure line and offered her authentication code.

"Princess Leia!" Commander Willard's voice came through the comm loud and clear.

"What a relief you're safe."

"None of us are safe for much longer," Leia said quickly. "In two hours, twenty-seven minutes, this system's sun is going to explode."

"How can you possibly know-"

"It doesn't matter," Leia said. "The fleet will have to make the jump into hypers.p.a.ce as soon as possible."

"Understood," Commander Willard said. "But we can't go anywhere under such heavy fire. We're putting everything we have into holding off the Imperials."

"Do what you can up there," Leia said. "And I'll do my best from down here."

"May the Force be with you, Princess."

"And you," Leia said, cutting the transmission. She'd never thought much about those words before meeting Luke. It was just something people said, calling on a meaningless superst.i.tion, just a habit or a lucky charm. But since Luke had come into her life, she'd begun to understand that the Force was real. If only it were with me If only it were with me, she thought, not for the first time. Imagine what I could do. Imagine what I could do. But there was no point in thinking about that. You fought with the weapons you had, not with the ones you wished for. But there was no point in thinking about that. You fought with the weapons you had, not with the ones you wished for.

"Can you open a channel to the Imperial flags.h.i.+p?" she asked Ferus.

He nodded. "Do you think they'll listen to you?"

Not a chance. "It's worth a try," she said. Then she prepared herself. It was Vader's s.h.i.+p, which meant Vader himself might be on the other end of the line. The man she held responsible for the death of her home planet-and with it her father. I will not lose I will not lose control. control.

But it wasn't Vader's distinctive voice. Just a faceless Imperial. Leia spoke without fear. "This is Princess Leia Organa of the Rebel Alliance," she said.

"What do you want, Rebel sc.u.m?" the Imperial spit out. "We'll accept nothing less than unconditional surrender. Submit to us now, or die like the swine you are."

Now is not the time to fight, Leia reminded herself.

"This is not about our battle," she said, as calmly as possible. "This is about a common threat to us all."

" Nothing Nothing is a threat to the Empire," the Imperial said. "The sooner you learn that-" is a threat to the Empire," the Imperial said. "The sooner you learn that-"

Enough diplomacy. "The sun is about to explode," Leia said, her temper fraying. "Stop firing on the Rebel s.h.i.+ps, get out of the system, and maybe you won't explode with it."

There was a sharp bark of laughter. "More pathetic Rebel tricks? When will you ever learn? The Empire is your destiny. Quit this ridiculous-"

Leia cut the line. "Either they'll a.n.a.lyze the solar spectrum and figure out I'm telling the truth, or they won't," she told Ferus. They needed to help the befuddled guards and the hostages find a way off the planet. Even if the Imperials kept fighting, at least some s.h.i.+ps would be able to make it out of the system. "We can't afford to stand around and wait for them to decide to believe us."

"The fleet is strong, Princess," Ferus a.s.sured her. "And Div, Han, Luke...each of them will give everything to defend the Rebellion. All they have."

Leia frowned, her eyes pinned on the viewscreen. It glowed with laserfire and explosions. "That's what I'm afraid of."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

"Fire again, Chewie!" Han shouted into the comm. The Wookiee released another concussion missile. It screamed toward the nearest TIE fighter and collided with its c.o.c.kpit. The Imperial s.h.i.+p exploded, unleas.h.i.+ng a flakstorm. Han pulled up hard, straying right into a hail of laserfire.

"Whoa!" he shouted, as laserbolts strafed the hull. Sparks sprayed from the instrument panels and smoke plumed in the c.o.c.kpit. "When I said fire, that's not what I meant," Han muttered, dropping into a sharp corkscrew to evade the Imperial s.h.i.+ps.

A proton torpedo seared past, cras.h.i.+ng into the X-wing on his starboard flank.

Fractured and twisted pieces of durasteel and broken wings floated across the viewscreen.