The Force Unleashed (39 page)

were short-range shuttles obviously designed to hop between the construction site

and the prison on Despayre, which it orbited. Others were BFF-1 bulk freighters.

Staring at the incredible venture taking place in front of him, the apprentice

realized that he had found the answer to one mystery.

"I guess this explains what the Empire wants with all those Wookiee slaves," he

said. "Droids alone couldn't build that monster. Not in a thousand years. Nor could

the scum you'd usually find in an Imperial prison."

Juno nodded distantly, her attention firmly focused on flying the ship. They were

moving quickly, mindful of the load on the stygium crystals in the cloaking device.

With so many Imperial ships nearby-including dozens of TIE squadrons backed up by no

less than six Star Destroyers patrolling the area-turning it off simply wasn't an

option. The Rogue Shadow needed to be in and out quickly so Juno wasn't spotted and

intercepted. Even operating at the maximum safe speed, it was going to be tight.

His belly felt full of hydrogen at the thought of what had to happen next.

The Rogue Shadow banked around a beefy gas hauler that lumbered across their path

and slid between two large freighters following a parallel course toward the

station's south pole. A piece of spinning metal, evidence of an accident or perhaps

just spillage from an overstuffed waste hauler, tumbled across their path, and Juno

let the shields take the impact. The margins for error were getting tighter with

every kilometer they traveled. By the time they were within landing range of the

station, it would be like flying through soup.

"Juno..."

"Don't say it." Her gaze stayed determinedly forward as she wrenched at the

controls. "Don't say a word."

He held on as the shields took another battering, this time from a small droid

chasing a lost component with manipulators extended. The impact made the ship lurch.

She glanced at him. "Just tell me you're still sure. This is what we have to do,

right?"

"It is."

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The Rogue Shadow flew through a cloud of orange gas that left the viewport, and no

doubt the hull, a different color. Juno swung the ship hard right to avoid a

tumbling rock the size of a small asteroid and only just missed crashing into a trio

of TIE fighters that suddenly appeared from behind another freighter. In the act of

breaking for a safer quarter of the sky, the shields took a further five hits. One

shield, the left rear, was already issuing a warning.

"All right," she said, flicking switches at a furious rate. In the shadow of a giant

crane, the Rogue Shadow came to a sudden halt. "That's it. I can't take you any

farther."

The apprentice double-checked telemetry as he stood. They had just passed through a

field keeping a thin atmosphere wrapped loosely around the massive structure. For

the slaves, he assumed.

The air was cold but breathable, the distance to the surface a hundred meters.

"This'll be close enough," he said over the sound of the ramp opening. His

lightsaber was at his hip; there was no reason to hang around. "Keep the ship

cloaked and wait beyond scanner range."

She followed him to the ramp, and actually came out with him, which he had not

expected. Steadying herself with one hand on his shoulder, she looked over the edge.

The view was giddying, all droids and ships with navigational lights endlessly

blinking.

"I have a really bad feeling about this," she said.

He tried to muster a casual tone. "Then we must be doing the right thing."

She turned away from the view and looked up at him. "Am I going to see you again?"

"If I can free the Rebels, they'll need extraction." He did his best to sound

nonchalant, but her eyes wouldn't brook dissemblance. "Probably not, no."

"Then I guess I'll never need to live this down." She pulled him closer to her and

kissed him hard on the lips.

Utter surprise was his first response. Then time slowed, and he felt as though he

were already falling. With a sense of unexpected surety he held her in return and

breathed in her scent, relishing the feel of her in his arms-Juno Eclipse, former

captain of the Imperial Navy and now pilot for the Rebel Alliance; Juno, his

companion and occasional sparring partner these long weeks and months; the woman he

had trusted with his life on more than one occasion and would again without a

second's thought.

For one long, wonderful moment, they were just Juno and Galen, and everything was

right.

Then something butted against the Rogue Shadow's shields and the floor shifted

underneath them. They stepped apart, reaching for something more secure to hang on

to.

She looked back into the ship, obviously torn between her duty and him. Her eyes

shone with all the colors of the Death Star, and her own crisp, beautiful blue.

He positioned himself at the edge of the ramp. The taste of her was still strong on

his lips. Despite everything, he smiled.

"Good-bye, Juno."

Before she could say anything, he turned and dived with arms outstretched into the

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roiling atmosphere. Glowing gold with the protective power of the Force, he fell as

straight and free as an arrow toward the surface of the Death Star below.

DETAILS OBSCURED FROM ABOVE TOOK on sharply defined clarity as they came rapidly

closer. Juno had stationed the ship above the equator. What had looked like a broad,

dark line turned out to be a steep-walled trench filled with construction machinery,

slaves, and cargo-carrying walkers. Weapons emplacements and armed squads of

stormtroopers kept a close eye on the toiling Wookiees. Laser welders sent sprays of

bright sparks into the air as giant sheets of metal were fixed in place. Broad

sections of hull remained incomplete, providing access to the station's innards for

the swarms of many-legged droids assisting in the construction. Conveyor belts of

components hovered on repulsorlift beds from site to site like miniature skylanes,

crossing at every conceivable angle.

The apprentice wove around bundles of giant metal girders and other debris as he

fell, trusting in the Force to protect him from the worst of it. As he neared the

surface of the Death Star, he flipped upside down so he was descending feetfirst and

braced himself for impact.

He came down securely on the gray hull in a clear patch between two major

construction sites. His lightsaber was instantly in his hand. Glancing upward just

once, he failed to make out the Rogue Shadow among all the other mobile stars above.

If Juno had any sense, he thought, she was already well away from the battle station

and heading for safety.

Be safe, he wished her. Be well.

Then, putting her out of his mind-as much as he was able-he chose between east and

west at random and began looking for a way into the station. He could feel Master

Kota and the others somewhere in the massive superstructure, but their

Force-signatures were obscured by the presence of so much suffering. If the Emperor

was there, too, that would further cloud the issue. The apprentice had never met his

Master's Master in person, but the Sith Lord who had single-handedly wiped out

nearly every Jedi in the galaxy would cast a shadow deep enough to hide anything.

Relying on luck wasn't going to get him any closer, either. The equatorial trench

alone was over five hundred kilometers long. He needed to find a map of some

kind-or, failing that, a guide . . .

Darting wraith-like from cover to cover, he approached a patrol from behind. Armed

with long-range blaster rifles, they strolled almost casually along a ramp halfway

up the southern trench wall. Their particular job, it seemed, was to keep an eye on

a string of twenty slaves walking in chains from one location to another along the

trench floor, and they performed it with the bare minimum of diligence while

discussing the possibilities of promotion that would arise when the station was

fully operational. Another pair of guards watched the slaves from the far side of

the trench; two more pairs stood at either end of the line.

The apprentice hopped from conveyor belt to conveyor belt until he was at the

nearest pair's level. If all the stormtroopers were working at the same level of

alertness, he calculated that he would have at least a minute before the alarm was

raised.

Raising both hands, he choked the trooper on the right until he dropped unconscious

to the railing, then coerced the left into turning around.

"Tell me where the prisoners are housed," he said without mincing words.

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"Uh, each of the twenty-four zones has a worker restraint facility," said the

stormtrooper. "Those hairy beasts down there are always running amok. There are also

cell blocks on the Detention Level for traitors and spies."

The apprentice's stomach sank. By the time he searched twenty-five such facilities,

the Rebels would be dead for certain. "Have any new prisoners arrived?"

"How would I know? I've been working this grind for a week now."

"Does the Emperor or Lord Vader ever come to supervise your operation here?"

"Constantly. It makes the engineers nervous." "Do they stay anywhere in particular?"

"You're asking the wrong guy. I'm not privy to the Emperor's movements. Try Sergeant

Jimayne."

The apprentice was beginning to realize that he was wasting his time. "See any Jedi

around lately?"

"What? Are you kidding? They were all killed years ago. Hey..." The stormtrooper

glanced down at the apprentice's lightsaber as though seeing it for the first time.

"Isn't that a-?"

The apprentice put him to sleep with a single thought and stepped over the

stormtrooper's crumbling body. Before the pair's opposite numbers on the far side of

the trench could notice, he hurried on his way, thinking through the few

possibilities open to him.

Those hairy beasts down there are always running amok . . .

Shackled and restrained, the twenty Wookiees lowed softly to one another. Many

showed signs of malnutrition and mistreatment. One stumbled, prompting a warning

shot over her head from the guards on the far side of the trench. The tallest

Wookiee, an enormous male with a full, graying mane, roared in protest and raised

his hands in a fighting stance.

The chains prevented him from doing more than that, however, and a blaster bolt at

his feet forced him to back down, growling in frustration.

The apprentice watched the incident, feeling a plan taking shape in his mind. The

slaves outnumbered the guards more than two to one, if this small sample was

anything to go by. Even a minor revolt would cause a significant distraction.

Furthermore, if the guards' sole responsibility was to watch the slaves, then who

better to ask about the station's layout and specifications than those who were

actually building it?

Dropping off the ramp and onto a conveyor belt, he ran to the head of the slave

convoy and dropped the lead stormtroopers before they even saw him. He swung his

lightsaber twice more, cutting the binders of the lead Wookiee slave to make clear

his intent, then reached up with the Force and telekinetically wrenched the far

wall's ramp out of its footings, spilling the guards to the bottom of the trench.

By then the rear guards were reacting, assembling the Wookiees in front of them to

form a protective barrier, and calling for reinforcements. The apprentice sliced

three more of the slaves free. The four of them took up the arms of the fallen

stormtroopers. Within moments a full-scale battle had erupted.

The apprentice cut his way to the big male, who roared open-mouthed in gratitude.

Snatching one of the blasters from his fellows, he wielded it not at the guards or

the weapons emplacements beginning to target the minor insurrection below, but at

the chains still binding half his fellow Wookiees. Indicating with a jerk of his

head that the apprentice should deal with the remaining guards, he began pushing his

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people toward the nearest shelter.

The apprentice saw the sense in that plan. He Force-leapt over the heads of the

Wookiee shield and landed among the guards. They were quickly dispatched and their

blasters handed immediately to the last of the slaves to be freed. Together they ran

for shelter through a gap in the trench's incomplete wall and were soon lost in the

station's densely tangled infrastructure.

The apprentice found it difficult to keep up with the Wookiees, with their long

reach and their familiarity with climbing, but when he came abreast of the big male,

he tugged on a furry arm and brought him to a halt.

"I can't understand your language," the apprentice said, cut ting straight to the

point, "but I hope that you can understand me. Some friends of mine have been taken

prisoner by the Emperor. I need to find them. Can you help me?"

The Wookiee shook his head, then roared at one of his fellows to come over. The two