Survivor's Quest

"We managed," Fel said, his voice rigid with the strain of someone fighting back pain and determined not to show it. "Afraid we left a mess by the turbolifts that someone's going to have to clean up."

"Don't worry about it," Luke assured him. "What about Bearsh? Did you see him?"

"I didn't, no," Fel said, glancing around at the others. There was a general murmur of agreement. "He must have made it to D-Four before we were able to deal with their rear guard."

"Rear guard?" Mara asked. "You saying there are still more of them up there?"

"Definitely," one of the stormtroopers said. "We could hear them working in the turbolift pylon while we were bringing the car in."

"I don't suppose you got a head count," Luke said.

The stormtrooper shook his head. "We were too busy getting the car moving and laying out the flash paste to give them much attention."

"I have done a rough calculation, however," Drask said. "From the size of the three inaccessible rooms aboard the Vagaari vessel, I estimate Bearsh could have brought as many as three hundred troops with him."

Luke whistled. "Three hundred? They must have been stacked like data cards in there."

"With their hibernation technology, that would be entirely possible," Drask agreed.

"What were they doing in the pylon?" Evlyn asked.

They all looked at her. "What?" Fel asked.

"You said they were working in the turbolift pylon," the girl reminded them. "You said you didn't count them, but didn't you at least look to see what they were doing?"

The two slightly-less-injured stormtroopers looked at each other. "Not really," one of them confessed. "We could see the lights, and they were definitely working on the tube and not on any of the cars. But that was all we got."

"We had more pressing things to think about at the time," the other stormtrooper added.

"Well, let's think about it now," Luke said. "What could Bearsh be up to?"

"Maybe there's a quick way to find out," Mara said, stooping beside one of the Vagaari bodies and pulling off his helmet. "Let's ask him."

She glanced over the controls, then keyed on the built-in comlink. "Hello, Bearsh," she called toward the voice pickup. "This is Mara Jade Skywalker. How's it going up there?"

There was a long pause. "Bearsh?" she called again. "Come on, Vagaari, look alive."

"I'm sorry, but General Bearsh is unavailable at this time," a voice replied, sounding distant and oddly hollow as it came from the helmet's headphones. "So you still live, Jedi?"

Luke grimaced. General Bearsh, no less. "That's right, Estosh," Mara said. "We still live, you're up and around again—it's just a glorious day for us all."

"Not for all, Jedi," Estosh said, an edge of malicious pleasure in his voice. "But for the Vagaari, this is indeed a day of satisfaction. Where precisely are you?"

"We're standing around on a Vagaari-free Dreadnaught," Mara told him. "You want something more precise?"

"No need," Estosh said. "I see you now, there in the corridor beside the Number Two Turbolaser Coolant Room."

Luke glanced at the marker beside the nearest door in mild surprise. Apparently, the Vagaari had very precise locators built into their troops' helmets. "What do you mean, Vagaari-free?" Estosh went on.

"Oh, didn't you know?" Mara said. "Your rear guard's dead. All of them."

"Really," Estosh said. "Interesting. You Jedi are more effective warriors than we realized. Our mistake."

"A mistake others paid for," Mara pointed out. "But I suppose that's typical. I don't suppose you're brave enough to come down here and take any of the risks yourself?"

Estosh chuckled melodiously. "Thank you for your invitation, but no. The Supreme Commander never takes the same risks as the common soldiers. I have my duty, and they have theirs."

"Supreme Commander, you say," Mara said. "I'm impressed. Speaking of duty, you surely didn't sacrifice forty-odd troops just to kill off a couple of hundred humans and a few Chiss, did you?"

"Of course not," Estosh said. "Tell me, is Master Skywalker there with you?"

Luke hesitated, sensing the trap lying beneath the question. Estosh was willing to talk, but only if he knew he didn't have a Jedi ru

On the other hand, if Luke confirmed he was here listening, his own freedom of movement would be severely limited, at least for the length of the conversation. With Fel and the stormtroopers largely out of commission, it would be a bad idea to let the Vagaari pin both him and Mara down to this one particular spot.

Mara, he could sense, had come to the same conclusion. Fortunately, she'd also come up with the answer. Smiling wickedly at Luke, she pulled out the comlink Pressor had given her and lifted her eyebrows.

He nodded understanding, taking a rapid couple of steps aft down the corridor as he pulled the matching device from his own belt. Clicking hers on, Mara held it near the helmet's voice pickup and nodded. "Yes, I'm here, Estosh," Luke said into his comlink. "What do you want?"

"Nothing in particular," Estosh said offhandedly, his voice coming more faintly now from the comlink as Luke continued down the corridor toward the aft turbolift lobby. It was time, he decided, to see what exactly was going on up there. "I merely didn't want to have to repeat all of this for you later. You're right, we did indeed come here for revenge. But certainly not for the few ragged handfuls of humans who will soon be dying alongside you. No, our revenge will be against the entire Chiss race."

The colonists, Luke saw, were begi

"Mock me all you wish, Jedi," Estosh snarled. "But I am up here, and you are down there."

Luke had reached the turbolift lobby now. There was a single car waiting there behind the piles of Vagaari bodies, a car with an oddly shaped hole blown in the front part of the roof. He stepped inside and turned back toward the control panel.

It was only then that he saw that Evlyn had followed him.

He blinked at her in surprise, cutting off his comlink's voice pickup. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I want to help," she said. "What can I do?"

His first instinct was to tell her to get back to Mara where she'd be safe. The only way he was going to be able to find out what the Vagaari were up to would be to go up to D-4 and take a look for himself. If they'd left a reception committee watching that approach, it could get messy.

But there was something about the expression on the girl's face that was stirring old memories...

"And up there is about as far as you're going to get," Mara's voice scoffed over the comlink, the tone carefully designed to draw Estosh out still further. "Or had you forgotten we're in the middle of the Chiss Redoubt?"

"I want to go with you," Evlyn said. "Please?"

Luke smiled as the memory clicked. I want to go with you. He could still remember his eagerness and frustration as he'd said those same words to Ben Kenobi, way back on the first Death Star. But Ben had refused him, going alone to shut down the tractor beam that was preventing the Mille

And thereby going to his death.

Would things have been different if he'd allowed Luke to go along? Of course they would. Leia might never have been found and rescued, for one thing. Han certainly wouldn't have gone out on a limb for her back then, at least not alone.