The Force Unleashed (15 page)

THROUGH THE VIEWPORTS OF THE Rogue Shadow, Juno watched as the Empirical fell behind

them. Tumbling and turning, the modified cruiser's orbit had decayed beyond all hope

of arresting its plunge into the sun. Barely had the Rogue Shadow detached than its

outer shielding spontaneously ignited, sending waves of yellow lines creeping across

the blackened hull. Without air to fuel the flames, for the moment, only metal and

plastic were burning. The moment one of the viewports popped, however, the

combustion began in earnest.

Her prison for six months was little more than a dark dot against the face of the

sun when it suddenly flared and died. The explosion was almost anticlimactic, but it

was sufficient. She unfolded her legs from beneath her, gratified to be rid of the

place. Starkiller and PROXY were in the copilot's and pilot's seats, respectively.

She was sitting behind them in the jump seat with I makeshift bandage around her

wrist like some helpless piece of cargo. Like a passenger.

She had been hanging up like a forgotten nerf carcass for too long. It was time to

take control of her life again.

"Out of my seat," she told the droid who had argued for abandoning her and letting

her die with the Empirical. She felt no hard feelings for him, knowing that he had

only been obeying his primary programming, but that didn't mean she had to like him.

"Yes, Captain Eclipse." He moved back into the seat she had vacated, clicking and

humming to himself.

Touching the controls made her fingers tingle. She had dreamed of this moment for

weeks and never dared believe it Blight actually come.

"What's our destination?" she asked Starkiller.

"Away from here."

"That'll do it." She keyed a jump in a random direction and leaned back into her

seat. The familiar streaks of hyperspace almost made her choke. She smiled through

the wave of emotion and let the ship carry them to safety.

* * *

TWO JUMPS LATER, IT WAS time to talk.

"No sign of pursuit." She put aside her scan of the surrounding space through the

Rogue Shadow's superior sensors with relief. We're light-years away from any

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Imperial forces."

Starkiller looked up from tending a wound on his right forearm. Blood leaked from

the gash. She was relieved to see it. Thinking of the injuries he must have suffered

at the hands of his former Master made her stomach feel light. Part of him had to be

synthetic now, but it was impossible to tell by looking at him. Unless the new getup

he had on hid more than it suggested . . .

"Then what's wrong?" he asked her.

She flushed, still hoping he couldn't read her mind. Putting aside one concern for

another, she said, "No one knows that we exist, or what we've done. We have the

entire galaxy in front of us. So why, for the first time in my life, do I have no

idea where to go:?"

Her throat closed on her words. The reality of her betrayal and insertion was still

sinking in.

Starkiller studied her, his eyes flickering. She would never be able to read his

mind.

"I hope you have a plan," she said, clutching at her only straw.

He nodded, and then said slowly, as though sounding her out:

"There are two things I want, and I can't get them on my own. The first is revenge.

To get that we need to rally the Emperor's enemies behind us."

She nodded, thinking of Callos and her father. After witnessing the way Starkiller

had killed the troopers on the Empirical, sin had no doubt of his sincerity-or his

ability to deliver. "Go on."

"The second thing I want is to learn all the things that Vader couldn't-or

wouldn't-teach me about the Force."

She leaned her elbow on the arm of her flight chair and rested her chin on that

hand. "If we're not careful, we might end up in our old job again-hunting Jedi."

He seemed to be aware of the irony of their situation. "I know of one who might

still be alive. PROXY, show us the file of our first target."

They turned to face the droid, who flickered and transformed once more into the

likeness of General Rahm Kota.

Juno frowned. "I thought you killed him."

"When I fought him in the TIE fighter factory, he said he could see my future. He

said he was part of it."

She could see a thousand holes in his reasoning but had nothing better to offer.

"Back to Nar Shaddaa, then."

"Back to Nar Shaddaa."

Starkiller tended his injuries while she worked on the nav computer. When they made

the jump to hyperspace, he didn't even look up.

She took that as a sign of trust.

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Facedown across a table in the darkest corner of a disreputable cantina slumped a

man who wanted to disappear. The Vapor Room was a particularly good place to make

the attempt. Primarily an Ugnaught hangout, but attracting its share of Rodian and

human workers as well, it was an after-hours dive boasting bottomless shadows in

every corner. The air hung in dense, aromatic sheets that moved only when staggering

beings passed through i hem. The music was wildly hybridized, like the bartenders,

who glowered sullenly as they wiped grease-smeared glasses and spread pools of

liquor in thin layers across the bar top.

An empty tankard of Andoan ale rested near the slumped man's shoulder. His face was

determinedly hidden from view, as if the only conscious desire he had left in him

was to keep it that way. When he came up for a drink, which had happened with

decreasing frequency in recent hours, he kept his face carefully averted from the

cantina's patrons. Greasy gray hair protruded from what had once been a rigorously

maintained queue. His robes were ill fitting and stained.

No one in the Vapor Room knew who the man was or what he had done. No one remembered

who had brought him to Cloud City. They didn't care. They just wanted to be left

alone to drink until their next shift came around.

The man who wanted to disappear had turned his back on the galaxy, but it hadn't

turned its back on him. Despite his very best efforts, he had been noticed.

Inevitably so. A man with his injuries on Bespin was rare enough, but one who could

still pour a glass of Corellian brandy without spilling a drop . . . ? Word had

spread, and that word was trouble.

* * *

THE APPRENTICE WALKED SLOWLY INTO the Vapor Room, eyes peering into the corners,

studying every face and figure he found there. The cantina's atmosphere reeked of

numerous negative emotions, but threat was not one of them. All eyes turned to him

for a moment, then an older Ugnaught with an upturned nose and prominent belly

raised a glass above his head in toast to the local King Ozz. The rest of his table

purred loudly in agreement. Attention returned to frothing mugs, smoking pipes, and

watching the chrono.

The nearest bartender cocked an antenna. The apprentice gestured at him, encouraging

him to think about someone else. He didn't want a drink. He had just one purpose.

This, the first real test of his Master's new plan, was the only thing on his mind.

It had been a long journey, with many risks taken. None had been as important or as

dangerous as this.

"What happens if he recognizes you?" Juno had asked him with concern before he left

the Rogue Shadow.

"He won't," he had said, remembering the general's burned eyes and the absent scars

on his own hands. His body had changed in subtle ways, thanks to Lord Vader. The

Force-signature he had possessed over Nar Shaddaa, in the midst of his murderous

mission, would be very different from the one he projected now.

Calm. Reassurance. Hope.

Kota hadn't moved for twenty minutes, according to the feed from the security cam

that Juno had sliced into. The apprentice was relieved to see that it hadn't been a

loop. The drunken Jedi was exactly where he had expected him to be, showing no signs

of alarm.

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The apprentice looked around the cantina, making sure that attention had really

drifted away from him. Then he kicked the table, startling Kota awake.

The fallen Jedi lifted his head with a jerk, revealing a disheveled shadow of the

man he had once been. His cheeks were hollow and thick with stubble. Dirty bandages,

wrapped around Ins head, hid his eye sockets from view.

"General Kota?"

Kota's voice was slurred. "I've paid for this table. So whoever you are, get lost."

"General Kota, I've tracked you across the galaxy from Nar Shaddaa to Ziost..."

"Who are you, boy?" Kota's brows tightened. "A bounty hunter?"

"Not quite. But I have been watching you." He leaned closer and lowered his voice.

"I think we can help each other, Jedi."

Kota pulled a face and gestured toward his bandaged eyes. "I'm no Jedi now. Not

since this."

"I don't need your eyes, just your mind-and everything you know about fighting the

Empire."

Kota slumped back into his chair, looking more weary than drunk. "Nobody fights the

Empire and wins, boy."

A sudden commotion in the doorway attracted the apprentice's attention. Six

stormtroopers had entered the Vapor Room flanked by two bipedal mechanical walkers,

each controlled by a pair of surly-looking Ugnaughts. The lead trooper grabbed the

stocky bouncer and began asking questions while his offsiders visually scanned the

bar.

The apprentice cursed the Imperials' timing. Juno had intercepted the message from a

local rat alerting station security to Kota's presence, but they had been unable to

spirit him away in time.

He sighed and straightened, unhooking his lightsaber and placing himself between

Kota and the Imperials.

"You'd better hope you're wrong about that, General." With a snap-hiss loud enough

to attract the attention of everyone in the Vapor Room, he activated the glowing

green blade that had once belonged to the man whose life he'd ruined.

Kota flinched as though he had been struck and dived under the table. At that moment

the Imperials opened fire. Ugnaught squealed and leapt for cover as deflected energy

bolts ricocheted around the room. Glasses shattered. Brightly colored liquid went

everywhere, the more volatile catching fire and adding to the chaos.

"Stand up, General," the apprentice called over the racket "They may be shooting at

me right now, but they came here for you."

Then he was forced to concentrate on the Imperials and thru local allies. The

mechanical "Uggernaughts" were heavily armored and armed both. His first priority

was to knock them out He pushed one onto its side with the Force and overloaded the

electrical systems of the second, encouraging the stormtroopers in scatter. The

smell of scorched Ugnaught fur made the cantina smell even worse. From outside, he

could already hear the clanking of reinforcements.

Whoever was behind Kota's attempted capture, they weren't taking any chances.

"Come on," he yelled at the cowering general. "Follow the sound of my lightsaber!"

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He turned his back on Kota, hoping the old man recovered a sufficient sense of

self-preservation to look after himself. Not only did his would-be rescuer have to

take out the Imperials, but he had to do it without harming any innocent bystanders.

That wouldn't look good to anyone schooled in the Jedi ways.

As he fought his way toward the cantina's back door, he commed the Rogue Shadow and

told Juno that he would need a rapid dust-off.

"Same place I dropped you off, I presume."

"Unless it gets too hot there." He brought the ceiling down on one of the troopers

and telekinetically threw rubble at another. "Stay close and wait for my signal."

"Will do. Juno out."

He glanced behind him. Kota was finally moving, hunched 1 like a stunned mine crab

with his hands splayed before him. Hopefully the Force would be with Kota, because

the apprentice knew with one look through the door that he would have his work cut

out for him. There were at least two dozen Imperials in the storeroom, taking cover

behind crates and barrels. A line of Uggernaughts promised to make short work of him

if he so much as blinked.

There wasn't time to hesitate. Drawing on the Force, he burst the barrels, tore the

crates apart, and filled the air with debris. Chased by blasterfire, he ran across

the room in three steps and leapt onto the nearest Uggernaught. Lightsaber flashing,

he cut the pilot and the gunner free and used the Force to crudely turn the machine

about. Its weapons barked and sent its siblings reeling backward, showering sparks.

He leapt free, leaving it to stagger on, firing at random. Kota was keeping up,

barely. He grabbed the old man's arm and dragged him out of the storeroom and along

a series of corridors. The Vapor Room's supply dock wasn't far away, and although he

expected it also to contain a heavy Imperial presence, getting the Rogue Shadow in

wasn't an impossibility. The dock was open to the cloud-filled golden sky all along

one side. One quick Force jump would do it . . .