30.

The dust had hardly settled from Halcyons landing before Zozridor Slayke and the entire army staff were running toward him, before even the maintenance droids had trundled out to service the craft. Halcyon popped the canopy and breathed the hot, dry air of Praesitlyn. He ran a hand across his face, rubbing away dry crystals of salt left behind from his perspiration - and his tears. He felt drained, not so much physically as emotionally.

Slayke and another officer climbed up on the wing and reached helping hands into the c.o.c.kpit. Halcyon needed the a.s.sistance to get out.

"Brilliant! Wonderful. The enemy fleet is in disorder and withdrawing.

Your troops are dismantling the droids. A complete victory. Sir, I never thought I'd live to see such a stunning success." Slayke pounded Halcyon on the back with one hand as he steadied him with the other. Dozens of officers and sol diers cl.u.s.tered around, all offering their hands and words of congratulation. Where scarcely minutes earlier the fate of the entire campaign had hung precariously in the balance, now it had been decided in their favor, and before them stood the man responsible for it.

"Not me, it was Anakin," Halcyon croaked. He was surprised, at the sound of his voice, surprised that he was able to speak at all. He held up a hand to silence the crowd. "Commander Sky-walker, at the cost of his own life, destroyed the enemy flagship and turned the tide for us. And it was Anakin who captured the brains behind the droid army." He paused and shook his head. "You and me, Captain, compared to him, we're just a couple of old, used-up dishrags in this business of war."

The crowd had gone still. "I knew the lad had it in him," Slayke said, breaking the silence.

The maintenance droids arrived, humming and clanking, hesitating to approach the fighter while all the living beings were standing in the vicinity.

"Someone shut those things down," Slayke growled. "They're always getting in a man's way." He put an arm around Halcyon's shoulders and gently led him through the crowd that closed in behind them as they walked slowly back toward the command post. "How would you like Plooriod Bodkin back, GeneralT Slayke asked.

Halcyon stopped and pretended to think for a moment. "No, Captain, you earned her-maybe not square, but fair. She's in good hands now." He put his own arm around Slayke's shoulders. They continued toward the bunker.

"Could you tell us what happened?" Slayke asked.

Halcyon stopped. "Gather 'round," he told the crowd. He had regained his composure now. "What that young Jedi did shall live in the annals of the Jedi forever." His voice was normal again. He thought, /'// seek out Padme and tell her ho'w her husband died. He'd have time to prepare himself for that. It was then that he noticed Odie standing with Erk and the two guards. Her cheeks, too, were tear-stained. "You, come closer,"

he said, gesturing to the quartet who'd been standing at the back of the crowd.

Raders pointed to himself. "Me?"

Halcyon smiled and nodded. "Yes, you four. They were with him, up there,"

he informed the officers and nodded at the mesa where Tonith's forces had made their last stand. "You tell us about that"-he gestured at the officers standing around - "and m tell what happened."

"Sir," Odie began, "he was a one-man army." The news of Anakin's death had hit her hard. It was difficult not to cry while she related her part of the tale.

"I've never seen anything like it, sir," Vick volunteered. He filled them in as best he could. "He really laid them low. Nothing could touch him.

Just like you, sir, on the Ranger, only - only-he wasted a lot more droids!" He grinned apologetically at Halcyon.

"What's your name, son?" Slayke asked.

"I'm Private Slane Vick, sir, and this here is my corporal, Ram Raders."

"Well," Halcyon began, "let's get under cover now. We've got a lot of cleaning up to do." He was feeling more himself again. The hurt deep inside his heart still throbbed painfully, but his duty was paramount, and the emotional scars of war would heal in their own time. They resumed walking back to the bunker.

"Someone's coming in for a landing," someone announced. He looked toward the horizon, shading his eyes with a hand. "An aircraft is coming in, sir," he reported. "It looks like a Delta-Seven Aethersprite."

They all looked up at the sky. "Yes, it's a Delta-Seven," Halcyon said.

As it got bigger and bigger coming in for a landing, he stiffened. It couldn't be! "Do you recognize that starfighter?" He turned to Slayke.

Slayke shrugged. "Looks pretty beat up to me. One of yours from the fleet, I suppose."

Halcyon's fatigue had vanished. He began to run toward where the fighter was preparing to land. The others stared after him in amazement and then slowly, first by ones and twos, and then as a crowd, followed him. As soon as the group had moved away from Halcyon's fighter, the droids trundled in and began servicing the craft.

The incoming Delta-7 hovered in its vertical mode and gradually settled down, raising a thick cloud of dust that billowed out to engulf the bystanders. The canopy was pitted and scorched so they couldn't see the pilot; the fuselage was blackened, and most of the paint so badly scored it was hard to determine the original colors. The two blaster cannons on the starboard side of the craft were missing entirely.

"It's him," Halcyon whispered, gripping Slayke by an arm. "It's him!" He pointed at the partially destroyed Podracer symbol just aft of the c.o.c.kpit. "It's Anakin! How could this be!" He broke into laughter and began thumping Slayke on the back.

Slayke looked at Halcyon as if he'd lost his mind. "But-you told us-"

"No, no! I was wrong. This is Anakin's Azure Angel II. I'd know it anywhere." He let go of Slayke's arm, rushed forward, and climbed onto the ship's airfoil. He banged mightily on the c.o.c.kpit canopy. "Anakin!

Anakin!" he shouted. Faintly, the officers standing nearby could hear someone pounding from inside the craft. "Get a service droid up here right away," Halcyon shouted. "The canopy is fused shut. Come on, get one of those things up here!" He gestured helplessly at Slayke, who grinned and stepped forward to lend a hand.

A maintenance droid dutifully rolled up, but it was only programmed to work on undercarriages and armaments. "Someone in maintenance has got to tell them to work on the canopy first, otherwise they're programmed to service these things in a certain order," Halcyon said. "Does anybody have a prybar?"

Frustrated, he drew his lightsaber. "Lean as far forward as you can," he shouted at the pilot, and began cutting away the canopy. When they could see the pilot's head through the gap, Slayke put a pair of gloves, waved Halcyon away, and straddled the canopy.

"I knew sooner or later I could do something useful around here," he said. He made a show of spitting into his palms, grinned fiercely at Halcyon, grasped the canopy with both hands, and began to pull. At first nothing happened. Slayke's muscles bulged visibly beneath his tunic and his face turned a deep red; veins stood out in his neck and a low growl emerged from deep inside his chest. A droid with an extensible body rolled up, raised itself to the level of the c.o.c.kpit, and said, "May I be of service, sir?"

"Get lost," Siayke grunted, and the next instant the canopy popped off.

The pilot removed his helmet and grinned up at the two commanders looming over him. "Hi, Master Halcyon, Captain Siayke," Anakin said, extending a hand. "Give me a lift out of here, would you?"

"Would you mind telling us how you did that?" Halcyon asked.

They sat in the command post, Anakin with his legs spread out before him and a huge, almost empty container of water at one elbow. He ran a grimy hand through his hair. "Well, you knowl always tinker with machines. I rigged Azure Angelll to give her a hypers.p.a.ce capability-just something I cooked up." He shrugged. "At the last instant, just before the missile detonated, I engaged the drive and jumped free." He snapped his ringers.

"Piece of cake."

"Sir," an officer asked, "just how did you know when to disengage?"

Anakin stood up, drained the last of the water, and wiped the drops from his lips with the back of his hand. "The same way I always knew what the ground was like before I could see it when I was Podracing." He shrugged.

"It must be the Force."

"Sir?" Erk stepped out of the circle surrounding Anakin. Odie came up to stand beside him. "We'd like to ask you for a favor, sir."

"I'll grant you two any wish I have it in my power to grant," Anakin replied. "You name it!"

"Well, sir, I need a wingmate. I need someone I can rely on. You know how it is, zooming through the combats of life. A man can do just so much by himself and he needs someone to watch his six. You see-"

"Commander Skywalker," Odie interrupted, "would you marry us?"

EPILOGUE.

"... and thus by the power invested in me as an officer of the Grand Army of the Republic, I now p.r.o.nounce you husband and wife." Anakin leaned forward and kissed Odie lightly on the cheek. The aroma of her freshly washed hair brought back memories-Padme--and his heart raced with joy.

Soon he would be reunited with his own wife. Already, the horrors of the Praesitlyn campaign and his role in them were receding. "I wish you both long lives and much happiness," he told the couple. His smile was huge and genuine. "Every cloud has its silver lining," he told them, "and today that's you two."

Halcyon stepped forward and offered his best wishes. Anakin exchanged glances with him and smiled again. How ironic that he, who had married secretly and against the rules of the Jedi Order, had been called upon to perform a legitimate public marriage rite. Halcyon smiled back and nodded. And Halcyon, also clandestinely wed, and with a child by that marriage, as well!

"Commander," Slayke said, offering his hand, "I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like you. First you win a war single-handed, and then you perform a marriage ceremony."

"Well, I had help, Captain-with the battles, that is."

"Commander Skywalker, I think you're someone who's going to change a lot of things in this galaxy, mark my words. I'm going to keep an eye on you, son." They shook warmly.

"Ah, Captain Slayke, I was just doing my duty." But Anakin wondered what a.s.signment the Jedi Council would give him next and found himself looking forward to it.

"We shall invest him with his Jedi Knighthood when he returns," Mace Windu said.

Yoda nodded. "From Praesitlyn very satisfying the initial reports are; Jedi Knighthood he has earned/' He blinked his huge eyes. "In the Force great disturbances there were. Sensed them, did you, my old friend?"

"I did. Evidently Anakin called upon it more than once, but the fighting was desperate. We were right to send these two to command the expedition."

Yoda nodded again but said nothing. There was-something - he was missing in all of this, like the uninvited guest at a wedding feast, mysterious and just beyond his grasp. He would have to think about it. But for now, young Anakin was a sharp new tool in the service of the Jedi Order. Yoda was looking forward to his invest.i.ture.

Count Dooku's Master, Darth Sidious, considered. His minions on Praesitlyn had been defeated, as he'd expected they would be, and the losses had been tremendous. But he had gained something much more valuable than military victory. He, too, had sensed the disturbance in the Force that was troubling Yoda-it was not the first time recently either.

He had watched young Skywalker for some time and was now convinced he had been right about the boy. He would become very useful in the future.

Darth Sidious folded his hands in contentment and smiled grimly.

By David Sherman and Dan Cragg

Starfist

FIRST TO FIGHT.

SCHOOL OF FIRE.

STEEL GAUNTLET.

BLOOD CONTACT.

TECHNOKILL.

HANGFIRE.

KINGDOM'S SWORD KINGDOM'S FURY LAZARUS RISING.

A WORLD OF HURT.

Starfist: Force Recon BACKSHOT.

By David Sherman THE NIGHT FIGHTERS.

KNIVES IN THE NIGHT.

MAIN FORCE a.s.sAULT.

OUT OF THE FIRE.

A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE.

A NGHU NIGHT FALLS.

CHARLIE DON'T LIVE Here ANYMORE THERE I WAS: THE WAR OF CORPORAL HENRY J. MORRIS, USMC.

THE SQUAD.

Demontech GULF RUN.

ONSLAUGHT.

RALLY POINT.

By Dan Cragg Fiction THE SOLDIER'S PRIZE Nonfiction A DICTIONARY OF SOLDIER TALK.

GENERALS IN MUDDY BOOTS.

INSIDE THE VC AND THE NVA (with Michael Lee Lanning) TOP SERGEANT (with William G. Bainbridge)