"They're going to shoot?" Wedge asked.

"No, sir." Sela sounded puzzled. "I mean they're flanking us. Like one of our ships would do." Then Wedge grinned. His hunch had been right. Those ships were piloted by droids. And since his action was illogical for a New Republic commander, they a.s.sumed he was one of theirs.

Now. If only his luck held...

"Are those gunners in place?" Wedge asked.

"Yes, sir." He hurried to the gunning console, and positioned the target map. "Using that," he said, "they need to hit the precise point I've marked. No other spot. You got that?"

"The precise point?"

"They'll only get one chance at this each. Because if they screw up and hit the shields, those ships will turn their fire on us." Wedge stood, his heart pounding. "The moment those shots are fired, I want open channels to the Calamari and the Wild Karrde. I also want us to dive at two point six three on my mark. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Wedge glanced up. He could see nothing except the bottom of the Star Destroyer.

All or nothing on one gamble. One hunch.

He took a deep breath, and said, "Fire!"

Luke was raising his lightsaber, his heart pounding. He was reaching out with the Force, going back to the place he had gone when he first fought Exar Kun. He would be out of his body but protected within the Force.

Just as Ben had done in his battle with Darth Vader.

Luke would come back even stronger, and he would guide Leia to defeat Kueller.

Luke's lightsaber had reached a thirty-degree angle with his chin when he felt as if he were wrapped in a warm, soft blanket. He could still see through his eyes, but the rest of his senses were suddenly dim. He could no longer sense Leia or even Kueller.

His blade came up, and Kueller's blade swung back, but Luke couldn't leave his own body. He had lost the Force. It was gone. He was blind and numb without it.

He would die without it.

Kueller's blade came down, and Luke limped out of the way only to back into the ruined tower wall. Kueller had him cornered. There was no place to go.

Luke was trapped, both inside, and out.

FIFTY-TWO.

Kueller felt as if he were moving through mud. The swift grace that had come with his lightsaber training faded as if it had never been. The strength that had flowed through him since he killed the Je'har had suddenly disappeared.

He could no longer feel Skywalker's anger. Or his sister's fear.

Or even that strange new wrinkle in the Force he had felt a moment earlier.

Skywalker backed away from him, and Kueller brought his lightsaber down.

It slammed into the stone wall behind Skywalker, sending sparks flying and a shimmer up his arm. Kueller staggered sideways.

He didn't know what kind of trick Skywalker was using on him. He suddenly couldn't think very clearly. It was as if he had been tossed underwater.

All that he relied on within himself had disappeared.

Then he noticed a similar expression on Skywalker's face. The man looked stunned. He wasn't manipulating his own lightsaber as he should.

If Skywalker wasn't doing this, then who-?

Kueller turned, and started when he saw two new figures standing in front of the alley. He couldn't see them well in the twilight, and as he reached with the Force, he couldn't feel them. Had they caused this? Who were they? What were they doing to him?

Skywalker brought up his own lightsaber as if it weighed ten times more than usual. Kueller's felt equally heavy.

This wouldn't work. Thwarted again, somehow, by Skywalker and his friends.

Anger surged through Kueller, but it didn't increase his strength. He roared at them, and Skywalker laughed. Laughed.

All advantage that Kueller had gained was lost. He let his lightsaber fall to the ground. Not all was lost. He still had one more trick up his very full sleeve.

The Yavin went vertical as it dove away from the Star Destroyers.

"Ceousa! Karrde!" Wedge shouted through the open communications lines.

"Fire on the destroyers! Now!" TIE fighters were moving his way. Nothing seemed to have happened to the destroyers when his own people had fired on them. All this subterfuge might have been for nothing. And he would lose all of his ships.

And then explosions rocked the Yavin. "Damage?" he shouted to his crew.

"Nothing, sir," Sela said.

"That wasn't us," Ginbotham said. "That was a Star Destroyer!" Wedge braced himself, rose, and stared at the tactical screen. The destroyer that had been right above the Yavin was simply a sparkle of light. Pieces soared past. Some hit what was left of the Tatooine, and sent her careening farther away from the battle.

"Get Karrde," he said.

"No need, sir," Sela said. "He's using everything he has on the TIE fighters around him." The A - and B-wings were also going after the TIEs, and it looked like a rout. Faster and faster and faster they went, chasing the TIEs all over that section of s.p.a.ce.

But the other Star Destroyer still lingered above. It had turned on its running lights, and was preparing to dive.

"Blast," Wedge said. Enough of command. The ship would handle itself now.

"Sela, you have the comm." Wedge made his way over the toppled droids and smoking interiors toward the gunport. He could blast that Star Destroyer without the help of a tactical computer. He should've been there in the first place.

He climbed into the gunport, slipped on his helmet, and strapped in. Then he grabbed the laser cannon. His crew were shouting all around him.

Communications static burst into his headphones but he ignored it.

He had to.

If the Star Destroyer got too close, it would explode the Yavin. The Star Cruisers were more vulnerable than Star Destroyers. More sweet spots, more target areas. And after this much fighting, weakened deflectors.

Also, fighting droids made this battle that much harder. Droids were better at precision shooting. That explained why the Tatooine had been destroyed so quickly.

The Calamari showed up on Wedge's display. It was coming after the Star Destroyer. But it would be too late. The destroyer was shooting now, and all the shots were hitting the shields. They rattled the Yavin, making Wedge glad for his straps.

"Making evasive maneuvers," Sela said. "Prepare for..." Wedge pulled off his headphones. He didn't want to think about command. He shoved aside his targeting computer, too. He didn't have the Force, as Luke did, but he had something else, just as important. Faith in his own abilities. And he was close enough to that destroyer to see his target clearly, something that rarely happened in s.p.a.ce.

The red shots looked like a spray of blood coming from the base of the destroyer. They were hitting the shields. He could feel the pattern, knew what they were doing. They were shooting in an ever-narrowing margin, getting closer, and closer, and closer, until all the shots converged into one big one right at the Yavin's most vulnerable point.

The weak spot in the shields.

It would only take a few moments.

Wedge gripped the laser cannon. He hadn't fired a shot yet. It felt as if he only had one.

The Star Destroyer's shots were getting closer together. Near the gunports, people were screaming. The Yavin wouldn't hold together much longer, but the base of the destroyer was in the wrong position. Wedge kept the cannon pointing at the Star Destroyer's weakest spot.

The destroyer loomed overhead, filling his entire vision. His hands were sweating on the cannon handles. He kept moving the cannon, waiting, waiting, waiting-And then it was in position. He held his arms steady, punched the trigger, and watched the single shot fly.

It was long and thin. It soared in the s.p.a.ce between the Star Destroyer and the Yavin, red against the destroyer's scarred white surface. For a moment it looked as if the shot would ricochet off the shields, and then bounce back and forth between the two ships like a ball caught in a narrow corridor.

But it didn't. It hit the weak spot, which glowed bright red. Wedge grabbed his helmet and shouted into the mouthpiece, "Dive! Dive! Dive!"

The red glow spread and there was a small pop at the first explosion.

Then the Yavin dove. Wedge turned his chair so that he could see.

The Star Destroyer exploded: white and red and yellow against the blackness of s.p.a.ce. A flower opening, a lightning bolt expanding, a fire starting and ending all in the s.p.a.ce of a heartbeat. Beautiful and terrible at the very same time.

No lives lost, though.

He breathed a sigh of relief. The cries in the nearby cabins had grown.

There was probably a lot of damage, and they still had the TIE fighters to deal with.

But the worst was over.

This battle was won. But he wondered what was happening with the war.

FIFTY-THREE.

R2 had apparently seen a structural map of this moon. He was leading the droids with some type of purpose. The corridors were sloping upward. The sound of rolling wheels was deafening. One astromech droid was a handful.

Hundreds of them were-well-terrifying.

More and more joined the group all the time. Some had scorch marks.

Others had dents in their chrome surfaces. Still others had parts hanging out of their sides. They came from side corridors, and each time, another astromech droid would query about the Red Terror. The red gladiator droids hadn't been seen by any of them except an ancient astromech unit, one that had been old during the Clone Wars. It claimed that it had seen red droids shooting at each other in a cloud of smoke, more and more red droids approaching that area all the time.

The astromech droid who heard this news bleebled in astromech glee and had pa.s.sed the word to the other droids. This parade of astromech droids a.s.sumed the Red Terror were destroying one another.

A ripple of blerps ran through the astromech droids, rather like a wave carried on the Mon Calamari sea. Something concerned them. When 3PO reached the spot, he understood. Large signs in more than thirty languages, warning all unauthorized droids to stay away on pain of memory wipe.

A large spotlight shone on the corridor and the lighting got considerably brighter beyond that spot. One-way mirrors lined the wall.

R2 ignored the sign, dodged the spot, and continued into the light. His chrome glistened. He had never looked so determined, with his wheels forward, and his blue-and-silver body tilted at a jaunty angle.

The astromech droids followed, splitting up around the spot, flowing around it like water around a stone. Warning sirens started to go off, and 3PO glanced behind him. He was bringing up the rear. If the Red Terror hadn't defeated itself, it would be here shortly, and he would be the first target.

He shoved his way through the sea of short droids. "Excuse me," he said, pushing them aside. "Pardon me. Excuse me. Pardon me." They parted a little to let him pa.s.s. He made it halfway through the grouping, but still hadn't reached R2. Ahead, he could see R2, his jack extended as he worked the opening on a locked door.

"Oh, dear," 3PO said, and shoved forward harder. 3PO wormed his way around the spotlight, and continued shoving past the damaged astromech droids, following R2 like an injured army following a demented leader.

Just as 3PO reached the front of the group, the door opened and R2 slid inside with a triumphant bleeble. 3PO slipped in beside him.

And stopped.

Droid parts hung from the ceiling. These were not prea.s.sem-bled parts, but used pieces. The remains of droids who had come this way before and died. Several golden heads swung from the rafters, and so did more than one cylindrical headplate from an astromech droid.

"R2," 3PO said, his voice warbling, "perhaps we should reconsider. I'm sure we'll find Master Cole and he'll have a legitimate plan of action.

You can't do this on your own."

"You certainly can't." A man stood in front of the one-way mirrors. 3PO hadn't seen him in the room's semidarkness.

Several astromech droids piled in the door behind 3PO. R2 continued forward, heading toward a large computer array.

"Stay back, R2," the man said. The man was Brakiss, and Master Cole was not with him.

"Oh, dear," 3PO said. "R2, do as he says." R2 bleeped.

Several other astromech droids beeped in response, warning him not to continue.

Brakiss had a scrambler. "Stop, R2. I would love to leave your circuits intact-I'm sure you can give me a lot of interesting information-but I won't hesitate to use this."

"R2, do as he says!" 3PO shouted.

R2 bleebled.

"I always thought you were a stubborn droid," Brakiss said. He aimed the scrambler at R2. Then, the instant before he fired, he swiveled his body.