Simultaneously the lightsaber jerked around, as accurate as it was awkward in its motion, to deflect the bolt. This time the ball didn't fall motionless to the deck. Instead it backed up three meters and remained there, hovering.

Aware that the drone of the seeker remote no longer a.s.saulted his ears, a cautious Luke peeked out from under the helmet. Sweat and exhaustion competed for s.p.a.ce on his face.

"Did I-?"

"I told you you could," Ken.o.bi informed him with pleasure. "Once you start to trust your inner self there'll be no stopping you. I told you there was much of your father in you."

"I'd call it luck," snorted Solo as he concluded his examination of the readouts.

"In my experience there is no such thing as luck, my young friend-only highly favorable adjustments of multiple factors to incline events in one's favor."

"Call it what you like," the Corellian sniffed indifferently, "but good against a mechanical remote is one thing. Good against a living menace is another."

As he was speaking a small telltale light on the far side of the hold had begun flashing. Chewbacca noticed it and called out to him.

Solo glanced at the board, then informed his pa.s.sengers, "We're coming up on Alderaan. We'll be slowing down shortly and going back under lightspeed. Come on, Chewie."

Rising from the game table, the Wookiee followed his partner toward the c.o.c.kpit. Luke watched them depart, but his mind wasn't on their imminent arrival at Alderaan. It was burning with something else, something that seemed to grow and mature at the back of his brain as he dwelt on it.

"You know," he murmured, "I did feel something. I could almost 'see' the outlines of the remote." He gestured at the hovering device behind him.

Ken.o.bi's voice when he replied was solemn. "Luke, you've taken the first step into a larger universe."

Dozens of humming, buzzing instruments lent the freighter's c.o.c.kpit the air of a busy hive. Solo and Chewbacca had their attention locked on the most vital of those instruments.

"Steady... stand by, Chewie." Solo adjusted several manual compensators. "Ready to go sublight... ready... cut us in, Chewie."

The Wookiee turned something on the console before him. At the same time Solo pulled back on a comparatively large lever. Abruptly the long streaks of Doppler-distorted starlight slowed to hyphen shapes, then finally to familiar bolts of fire. A gauge on the console registered zero.

Gigantic chunks of glowing stone appeared out of the nothingness, barely shunted aside by the ship's deflectors. The strain caused the Millennium Falcon to begin shuddering violently.

"What the-?" a thoroughly startled Solo muttered. Next to him, Chewbacca offered no comment of his own as he flipped off several controls and activated others. Only the fact that the cautious Solo always emerged from supralight travel with his deflectors up-just in case any of many unfriendly folks might be waiting for him-had saved the freighter from instant destruction.

Luke fought to keep his balance as he made his way into the c.o.c.kpit. "What's going on?"

"We're back in normal s.p.a.ce," Solo informed him, "but we've come out in the middle of the worst asteriod storm I've ever seen. It's not on any of our charts." He peered hard at several indicators. "According to the galactic atlas, our position is correct. Only one thing is missing: Alderaan."

"Missing? But-that's crazy!"

"I won't argue with you," the Corellian replied grimly, "but look for yourself." He gestured out the port. "I've triple-checked the coordinates, and there's nothing wrong with the nav 'puter. We ought to be standing out one planetary diameter from the surface. The planet's glow should be filling the c.o.c.kpit, but-There's nothing out there. Nothing but debris." He paused. "Judging from the level of wild energy outside and the amount of solid waste, I'd guess that Alderaan's been... blown away. Totally."

"Destroyed," Luke whispered, overwhelmed at the specter raised by such an unimaginable disaster. "But-how?"

"The Empire," a voice declared firmly. Ben Ken.o.bi had come in behind Luke, and his attention was held by the emptiness ahead as well as the import behind it.

"No." Solo was shaking his head slowly. In his own way even he was stunned by the enormity of what the old man was suggesting. That a human agency had been responsible for the annihilation of an entire population, of a planet itself...

"No... the entire Imperial fleet couldn't have done this. It would take a thousand ships ma.s.sing a lot more firepower than has ever existed."

"I wonder if we should get out of here," Luke was murmuring, trying to see around the rims of the port. "If by some chance it was the Empire "I don't know what's happened here," an angry Solo cursed, "but I'll tell you one thing. The Empire isn't-"

m.u.f.fled alarms began humming loudly as a synchronous light flashed on the control console. Solo bent to the appropriate instrumentation.

"Another ship," he announced. "Can't judge the type yet."

"A survivor, maybe-someone who might know what happened," Luke ventured hopefully.

Ben Ken.o.bi's next words shattered more than that hope. "That's an Imperial fighter."

Chewbacca suddenly gave an angry bark. A huge flower of destruction blossomed outside the port, battering the freighter violently. A tiny, double-winged ball raced past the c.o.c.kpit port.

"It followed us!" Luke shouted.

"From Tatooine? It couldn't have," objected a disbelieving Solo. "Not in hypers.p.a.ce."

Ken.o.bi was studying the configuration the tracking screen displayed. "You're quite right, Han. It's the short-range TIE fighter."

"But where did it come from?" the Corellian wanted to know. "There are no Imperial bases near here. It couldn't have been a TIE job."

"You saw it pa.s.s."

"I know. It looked like a TIE fighter-but what about a base?"

"It's leaving in a big hurry," Luke noted, studying the tracker. "No matter where it's going, if it identifies us we're in big trouble."

"Not if I can help it," Solo declared. "Chewie, jam its transmission. Lay in a pursuit course."

"It would be best to let it go," Ken.o.bi ventured thoughtfully. "It's already too far out of range."

"Not for long."

Several minutes followed, during which the c.o.c.kpit was filled with a tense silence. All eyes were on the tracking screen and viewport.

At first the Imperial fighter tried a complex evasive course, to no avail. The surprisingly maneuverable freighter hung tight on its tail, continuing to make up the distance between them. Seeing that he couldn't shake his pursuers, the fighter pilot had obviously opened up his tiny engine all the way.

Ahead, one of the mult.i.tude of stars was becoming steadily brighter. Luke frowned. They were moving fast, but not nearly fast enough for any heavenly object to brighten so rapidly. Something here didn't make sense.

"Impossible for a fighter that small to be this deep in s.p.a.ce on its own," Solo observed.

"It must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something," Luke hypothesized.

Solo's comment was gleeful. "Well, he won't be around long enough to tell anyone about us. We'll be on top of him in a minute or two."

The star ahead continued to brighten, its glow evidently coming from within. It a.s.sumed a circular outline.

"He's heading for that small moon," Luke murmured.

"The Empire must have an outpost there," Solo admitted. "Although, according to the atlas, Alderaan had no moons." He shrugged it off. "Galactic topography was never one of my best subjects. I'm only interested in worlds and moons with customers on them. But I think I can get him before he gets there; he's almost in range."

They drew steadily nearer. Gradually craters and mountains on the moon became visible. Yet there was something extremely odd about them. The craters were far too regular in outline, the mountains far too vertical, canyons and valleys impossibly straight and regularized. Nothing as capricious as volcanic action had formed those features.

"That's no moon," Ken.o.bi breathed softly. "That's a s.p.a.ce station."

"But it's too big to be a s.p.a.ce station," Solo objected. "The size of it! It can't be artificial-it can't!"

"I have a very strange feeling about this," was Luke's comment.

Abruptly the usually calm Ken.o.bi was shouting. "Turn the ship around! Let's get out of here!"

"Yes, I think you're right, old man. Full reverse, Chewie."

The Wookiee started adjusting controls, and the freighter seemed to slow, arcing around in a broad curve. The tiny fighter leaped instantly toward the monstrous station until it was swallowed up by its overpowering bulk.

Chewbacca chattered something at Solo as the ship shook and strained against unseen forces.

"Lock in auxiliary power!" Solo ordered.

Gauges began to whine in protest, and by ones and twos every instrument on the control console sequentially went berserk. Try as he might, Solo couldn't keep the surface of the gargantuan station from looming steadily larger, larger-until it became the heavens.

Luke stared wildly at secondary installations as big as mountains, dish antennae larger than all of Mos Eisley. "Why are we still moving toward it?"

"Too late," Ken.o.bi whispered softly. A glance at Solo confirmed his concern.

"We're caught in a tractor beam-strongest one I ever saw. It's dragging us in," the pilot muttered.

"You mean, there's nothing you can do?" Luke asked, feeling unbelievably helpless.

Solo studied the overloaded sensor readouts and shook his head. "Not against this kind of power. I'm on full power myself, kid, and it's not shifting out of course a fraction of a degree. It's no use. I'm going to have to shut down or we'll melt our engines. But they're not going to suck me up like so much dust without a fight!"

He started to vacate the pilot's chair, but was restrained by an aged yet powerful hand on his shoulder. An expression of concern was on the old man's face-and yet, a suggestion of something somewhat less funereal.

"If it's a fight you cannot win-well, my boy, there are always alternatives to fighting..."

The true size of the battle station became apparent as the freighter was pulled closer and closer. Running around the station's equator was an artificial cl.u.s.ter of metal mountains, docking ports stretching beckoning fingers nearly two kilometers above the surface.

Now only a minuscule speck against the gray bulk of the station, the Millennium Falcon was sucked toward one of those steel pseudopods and finally swallowed by it. A lake of metal closed off the entryway, and the freighter vanished as if it had never existed.

Vader stared at the motley array of stars displayed on the conference-room map while Tarkin and Admiral Motti conferred nearby. Interestingly, the first use of the most powerful destructive machine ever constructed had seemingly had no influence at all on that map, which in itself represented only a tiny fraction of this section of one modest-sized galaxy.

It would take a microbreakdown of a portion of this map to reveal a slight reduction in spatial ma.s.s, caused by the disappearance of Alderaan. Alderaan, with its many cities, farms, factories, and towns-and traitors, Vader reminded himself.

Despite his advances and intricate technological methods of annihilation, the actions of mankind remained unnoticeable to an uncaring, unimaginably vast universe. If Vader's grandest plans ever came to pa.s.s, all that would change.

He was well aware that despite all their intelligence and drive, the vastness and wonder were lost on the two men who continued to chatter monkeylike behind him. Tarkin and Motti were talented and ambitious, but they saw things only on the scale of human pettiness. It was a pity, Vader thought, that they did not possess the scope to match their abilities.

Still, neither man was a Dark Lord. As such, little more could be expected of them. These two were useful now. and dangerous, but someday they, like Alderaan, would have to be swept aside. For now he could not afford to ignore them. And while he would have preferred the company of equals, he had to admit reluctantly that at this point, he had no equals.

Nonetheless, he turned to them and insinuated himself into their conversation. "The defense systems on Alderaan, despite the Senator's protestations to the contrary, were as strong as any in the Empire. I should conclude that our demonstration was as impressive as it was thorough."

Tarkin turned to him, nodding. "The Senate is being informed of our action at this very moment. Soon we will be able to announce the extermination of the Alliance itself, as soon as we have dealt with their main military base. Now that their main source of munitions, Alderaan, has been eliminated, the rest of those systems with secessionist inclinations will fall in line quickly enough, you'll see."

Tarkin turned as an Imperial officer entered the chamber. "Yes, what is it, Ca.s.s?"

The unlucky officer wore the expression of the mouse chosen to bell the cat. "Governor, the advance scouts have reached and circ.u.mnavigated Dantooine. They have found the remains of a rebel base... which they estimate has been deserted for some time. Years, possibly. They are proceeding with an extensive survey of the remainder of the system."

Tarkin turned apoplectic, his face darkening to a fine pomegranate fury. "She lied! She lied to us!"

No one could see, but it seemed that Vader must have smiled behind his mask. "Then we are even in the first exchange of 'truths.' I told you she would never betray the rebellion-unless she thought her confession could somehow destroy us in the process."

"Terminate her immediately!" The Governor was barely able to form words.

"Calm yourself, Tarkin," Vader advised him. "You would throw away our only link to the real rebel base so casually? She can still be of value to us."

"f.a.gh! You just said it yourself, Vader: we'll get nothing more out of her. I'll find that hidden fortress if I have to destroy every star system in this sector. I'll-"

A quiet yet demanding beep interrupted him.

"Yes, what is it?" he inquired irritably.

A voice reported over an unseen speaker. "Sirs, we've captured a small freighter that was entering the remains of Alderaan. A standard check indicates that its markings apparently match that of the ship which blasted its way out of the quarantine at Mos Eisley, Tatooine system, and went hyper before the Imperial blockade craft there could close on it."

Tarkin looked puzzled. "Mos Eisley? Tatooine? What is this? What's this all about, Vader?"

"It means, Tarkin, that the last of our unresolved difficulties is about to be eliminated. Someone apparently received the missing data tapes, learned who transcribed them, and was trying to return them to her. We may be able to facilitate their meeting with the Senator."

Tarkin started to say something, hesitated, then nodded in understanding. "How convenient. I leave this matter in your hands, Vader."

The Dark Lord bowed slightly, a gesture which Tarkin acknowledged with a perfunctory salute. Then he spun and strode from the room, leaving Motti looking from man to man in confusion.

The freighter sat listlessly in the docking hangar of the huge bay. Thirty armed Imperial troopers stood before the lowered main ramp leading into the ship. They snapped to attention when Vader and a Commander approached. Vader halted at the base of the ramp, studying the vessel as an officer and several soldiers came forward.

"There was no reply to our repeated signals, sir, so we activated the ramp from outside. We've made no contact with anyone aboard either by communicator or in person," the officer reported.

"Send your men in," Vader ordered.

Turning, the officer relayed the command to a noncom, who barked orders. A number of the heavily armored soldiers made their way up the ramp and entered the outer hold. They advanced with appreciable caution.

Inside, two men covered a third as he advanced. Moving in groups of three in this fashion, they rapidly spread through the ship. Corridors rang hollowly under metal-shod feet, and doors slid aside willingly as they were activated.

"Empty," the Sergeant in charge finally declared in surprise. "Check the c.o.c.kpit."

Several troopers made their way forward and slid the portal aside, only to discover the pilot's chairs as vacant as the rest of the freighter. The controls were deactivated and all systems shut down. Only a single light on the console winked on and off fitfully. The Sergeant moved forward, recognized the source of the light, and activated the appropriate controls. A printout appeared on a nearby screen. He studied it intently, then turned to convey the information to his superior, who was waiting by the main hatch.

That worthy listened carefully before he turned and called down to the Commander and Vader. "There is no one aboard; the ship is completely deserted, sirs. According to the ship's log, her crew abandoned ship immediately after lift-off, then set her on automatics for Alderaan."

"Possibly a decoy," the Commander ventured aloud. "Then they should still be on Tatooine!"

"Possibly," Vader admitted reluctantly.