Jaina hauled back on the stick, hoping she wouldn't get smacked out of s.p.a.ce while her maneuvering killed her velocity. She half rolled through the turn to keep herself out of enemy sights.

When she'd completed her maneuver the sight took her breath away.

An enemy frigate had laid itself along the Republic-cla.s.s cruiser, the s.p.a.ce between them a blaze of furious energies as the two huge vessels slammed each other at point-blank range. Around both capital ships were at least two hundred smaller craft, darting and weaving and blasting each other. She could see at least a dozen craft on fire.

Most of the smaller craft were Yuuzhan Vong. More enemy were appearing every second. General Farlander was getting swamped by the enemy.

"Stay with me, Three and Four," she told her remaining flight. "Now let's go."

As she shoved the throttles forward she felt Tesar's predatory presence through the Force, and she sent him a burst of strength. And then she sent, through the Force, a simple message to Madurrin.

We need help!

Madurrin sent breeze of calm through the Force, and with it the knowledge of help already on the way. The sending was followed immediately by bright splashes on Jama's c.o.c.kpit displays as more ships appeared out of hypers.p.a.ce. Jaina's heart leapt as she felt her mental horizons expand. Personalities crowded into her mind: Kyp Durron, Saba and the Wild Knights, Zekk, Corran Horn, Alema Rare, and Jacen. Jacen, in his place on the bridge of the Bothan a.s.sault Cruiser Ralroost.

We're here! The Force message was a ma.s.sed shout.

Glad to hear it, Jaina sent as she got a coralskipper in her sights, but right now she had to get some Vong off Tesar's tail.

She triggered her lasers.

A new howl chorused from the voxyn, and Tsavong Lah watched in amazement and rising anger as more blaze bugs rose from the floor to form a new enemy squadron in the overhead display. A large force, he saw, a match for any of his five.

Perhaps not so large. He saw now that a number of the enemy ships were big transports, which promptly vanished into hyper-s.p.a.ce, leaving the rest behind to fight.

Apparently the new enemy were a supply convoy and its escort. It wasn't so inexplicable they should be here, then.

The new arrivals had appeared just as he was about to order the Battle Groups of Yun-Txiin and Yun-Q'aah to complete their envelopment of the enemy, the lovers' embrace that would destroy the infidels. But the new enemy force hung off to one flank, near the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin, and if he ordered the enveloping movement now, the new arrivals could pounce on Yun-Txiin's rear.

"The Battle Group of Yun-Txiin will engage the newcomers," he said.

"The Battle Group of Yun-Harla will move to support, but will not engage without my command. The Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah will reinforce the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka and destroy the original defenders."

That left his own Battle Group of Yun-Yuuzhan still in reserve against any further surprises. With his group were the troopships that would be used to secure Ebaq 9 once the enemy fleet was dealt with.

He still had overwhelming numbers.

And since the voxyn had howled again, there were more Jedi among the newcomers.

More sacrifices for the G.o.ds, he thought with satisfaction, and sat back in the cognition throne to watch his forces complete his victory.

Through the Jedi Force-meld Jacen could feel Jaina in her c.o.c.kpit-feel her determination, her cool a.n.a.lysis, and the edges of panic that sometimes broke through her composure. "Skip on my six! Breaking right. .

"This one has destroyed it." This from Tesar.

'Thanks! They weren't words, really, these bursts of image and intensity from the Force, but that's how they translated.

Jaina, Twin Suns, and all of Farlander's force were heavily engaged at great odds. His own new arrivals, with most of the fleet's Jedi, were moving against one of the huge battle groups that loomed like an overhanging cliff on Farlander's flank.

The Jedi meld was skating on the edge of Jacen's ability to comprehend. There were too many ships in the picture for him to absorb.

Fortunately, three-fifths of the enemy were unengaged, and he could safely leave them out of his mental picture.

He called out coordinates, maneuvering Kre'fey's force so as to provide maximum effectiveness at the moment of collision.

"Fire dovin missile!" Admiral Kre'fey ordered. He was too excited to sit in the grand chair reserved for a full admiral, and instead paced back and forth just behind Jacen. Jacen was going to find this annoying if Kre'fey kept it up for long.

"Dovin missile fired, sir."

"Transmit coordinates of the s.p.a.ce mine to General Farlander."

"Coordinates transmitted, Admiral."

"Wonderful!" Jacen heard Kre'fey clap his hands. "This is working well, don't you think?"

But Jacen's mind really wasn't on what was occurring on the admiral's bridge. Instead he kept his focus on Twin Suns Squadron and the desperate battle Jaina was fighting.

Missed!

Lowie, look out!

Jacen considered summoning his Vongsense, his ability to empathize with and sometimes influence the enemy. But that would mean losing the Force, and the ability to help his comrades. He decided that remaining in the meld was his best option.

"I've lost my rear shields!"

"That was my last missile!"

Go with the Force, Jacen sent. He closed his eyes and pushed out as much care, strength, and support as he could.

And behind him, dim in the force, he felt another presence, powerful but cloaked, that radiated strength, but to Jacen alone.

Vergere.

Thirty light-years from the battle, at a narrow point of the long hypers.p.a.ce route that led to Ebaq and its moons, a small New Republic task force dropped out of hypers.p.a.ce. Most of the ships were unarmed.

This was not a fighting force, but even so its mission was vital.

The squadron commander first fired a single missile, one containing an interdictor, modeled after a Yuuzhan Vong dovin basal. The interdictor would serve as a s.p.a.ce mine.

Once the mine had been set in the center of the hypers.p.a.ce lane, the other ships began to drop more conventional mines, mines with detection gear, explosive cores, and maneuvering thrusters. The mines immediately took up station around the dovin basal mine.

The unarmed ships continued to lay mines. Dozens of mines.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

"Got it!" Twin Six shouted. She'd just shot a skip off Lowie's tail, and the Wookiee gave a roar of thanks.

Jaina blinked sweat from her eyes and hauled her X-wing right, away from a stream of plasma cannon fire. That enabled her to get a deflection shot at a coralskipper speeding by, but the Vong's dovin basal sucked the laser bolts and suddenly Jaina was dancing away from more fire coming at her from her starboard quarter. It was friendly fire, laser bolts from a B-wing, but it was deadly for all that and Jaina didn't want any part of it.

"All ships," came an announcement on the command comm, "this is General Farlander. All ships to alter course simultaneously on the following coordinates . . ."

Jaina tried to absorb the coordinates and failed. She'd have to just get a visual and follow, that is if she could ever get free of this furball composed of friendly and enemy craft, debris, and random deadly fire.

"What was that coordinate?" From Twin Nine.

"I didn't get it either." Twin Four.

"Course change on my mark," Farlander continued. "Five. Four.

Three. Two. Mark."

Jaina saw the capital ships around her suddenly swing ma.s.sively to a new heading and ignite their engines. The Yuuzhan Vong took a moment to respond, but soon they, too, were matching Farlander's maneuver.

Except for the ships that couldn't. Trailing behind were the casualties, the dead ships, the wounded, and the out-of-control, both friendly and enemy.

And Jaina, who was too tangled up with the Yuuzhan Vong to follow.

If she straightened her course to pursue Farlander, she'd be blasted by a dozen enemy.

"Squadron to form into single line ahead," came the order from Farlander.

"Slagged him!" From Twin Three.

Enemy fire banged on Jaina's rear shields, and she jerked the fighter into a roll as her astromech chittered angrily at the attackers.

"Rolling left," she said, as if anyone were keeping track of her movements. As far as she could tell the members of Twin Suns Squadron were all on their own, so separated in the melee they could no longer guard one another's backs.

There was a flash. Debris thundered on Jaina's shields.

"Who was that?" Twin Seven's voice.

"Twin Nine." Tesar's voice was calm, but Jaina could feel his anger in the Force.

"Did she get out?"

"Negative."

Anger ripped into Jaina. She'd lost another pilot, and she hadn't even known Twin Nine was in danger.

Time to kill some Vong, she decided. It was what she was here for.

She looked for a coralskipper, and put it in her sights.

Tsavong Lah watched with pleasure as Farlander's squadron fled the battle. The sudden maneuver had caught the Yuuzhan Vong by surprise, but the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka had corrected quickly and were now hanging tenaciously on to the enemy. The Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah had altered course to intercept and would soon join the fight and finish the infidels.

The warmaster's pleasure was increased as the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin slammed into the newly arrived squadron with proper headlong Yuuzhan Vong spirit. The blaze bugs overhead began to moderate their pitch as missiles and projectile weapons began to inflict damage.

A sudden whine from the blaze bugs caught his attention, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Farlander's squadron was in the process of another course change, a radical one this time. Tsavong Lah couldn't believe how rapidly the New Republic capital ships were turning-they were whipping around a full 270 degrees, and without losing velocity!

It was a clear impossibility. Yet they were doing it, and leaving the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka behind.

And then his nerves turned chill as he realized that the infidels'

new course was sending them straight into the battle between the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin and the newly arrived force. The Battle Group of Yun-Txiin would be caught between the two forces and hammered.

"The Battle Group of Yun-Harla will engage the enemy immediately,"

he ordered. That would reinforce the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin and repair some of the damage the enemy maneuver had created. "The Battle Group of Yun-Yammka will regroup and prepare to reenter combat. The Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah will-"

He paused as more blaze bugs began to whine, a whole host of them rising from the floor to hover in the air and form something new.

What now? he thought.

Jacen watched as Keyan Farlander's entire squadron of capital ships performed the Solo Slingshot around the dovin basal s.p.a.ce mine a.n.a.log, the modified interdictor missile that Kre'fey's Ral-roost had fired on its arrival on the field of battle. The enemy fighting them continued on their previous course, unable to claw their way after Farlander without performing a conventional turn and losing most of their speed. A few of the enemy, by guesswork or luck, managed to work out what was happening and make the turn along with Farlander, but these were outnumbered and quickly blasted out of existence.

The rest would be out of the battle for some time as the capital ships lumbered into their turns and tried to maneuver into some kind of appropriate formation.

Nice work., Jacen sent to Madurrin.

Thanks.

Ralroost shuddered to a hit, and Jacen was reminded that a Bothan a.s.sault Cruiser was so named because it concentrated most of its power on attack, not to shields or defense.

"Breach between frames M and N," someone said. "Frame seals arc holding. Damage control is responding."

"Hammer them! Hammer them!" Admiral Kre'fey, shouting swung his fists dangerously in the air over Jacen's head.

Kre'fey's ships were engaged in a furious close-range action with the enemy. Jacen could feel Kyp and his Dozen, Corran Horn and Rogue Squadron, and the all-Jedi Wild Knights flying in frantic combat. The Knights in particular were tearing through the enemy, their predatory reflexes in perfect synchronization with the Force. An all-Jedi squadron was a terrible tiling indeed.

Then Jacen felt another surge in the Force, and he felt a new mind enter the Jedi meld, a mind uncertain and only half trained.

h.e.l.lo, Mom., he sent.

The full power of the Force-meld took Leia by surprise. She was in the copilot's chair of the Millennium Falcon, which was echeloned with the rest of the Smugglers' Alliance ships around the bright red Star Destroyer Errant Venture. No sooner had she fallen out of hypers.p.a.ce than the meld reached for her, and part of her mind was viewing a burning enemy frigate with Corran Horn, fighting a jaw-clenching combat with Kyp Durron, or engaging in vicious, efficient pack behavior with the Barabel Wild Knights. The intensity of it took her breath away.

h.e.l.lo, Mom. Jacen's presence was clear in the Force.

h.e.l.lo, Jacen., she sent uncertainly. Unlike the others in the fight, her Force training had been haphazard, and she hadn't had the opportunity to practice the meld with others. But the power of the meld was so strong that she felt her uncertainty fade as soon as she received her first order from Jacen.

She received another message from Jacen, felt the coordinates burning in her mind. She looked at the Falcon's navigation displays and saw the point indicated. She translated the coordinates and keyed them in.