Survivor's Quest

He felt his breath catch in his throat. But Mara had been expecting that move, and had her lightsaber back up in time to defend herself.

And now, with the droideka's attack pointed in the other direction, it was Luke's turn. Lifting his lightsaber to point horizontally, keeping a wary eye on the droideka, he jabbed the blade into the blast door beside him.

Again, the droideka reacted, swiveling back around toward him. Luke brought his lightsaber up, dropping into combat focus again as the quadruple blasters began laying down their withering rain of fire. Behind the droideka, he knew, Mara would have returned to her own assault on the command deck. If the droideka continued to play this game, eventually both of them would make it through.

The droideka had apparently figured that out, too. Firing one last volley at Luke, it dropped its shield, folded back into wheel shape, and charged down the cross-corridor toward Mara. Luke set off in pursuit—

And barely got his lightsaber back up in time as the droideka's blasters fired a twin burst at him.

He managed to block the shots, his stride faltering with the sheer unexpectedness of it. He hadn't realized it was possible for droidekas to shoot while in wheel shape. The machine fired a rolling burst at Mara, then another at Luke as the positioning of its blasters came back to the right spot in its rotation. It fired another shot at Mara—

Luke inhaled sharply, breaking into an all-out run as the droideka's strategy suddenly became clear. It was going to roll right up to Mara, moving so close that even Jedi reflexes wouldn't be fast enough to handle the shots. Run, he thought desperately toward her. Get away. Now.

Mara didn't move. She'd figured out the droideka's plan, too, he could sense; but instead of trying to get away, she was waiting for it, lightsaber ready, preparing to meet the destroyer head-on. Luke breathed a curse that was half anger and half fear and leaned into his sprint, driving himself desperately toward his wife. The droideka was nearly on her now—

Then, even as it fired one final time from the wheel position and screeched to a halt a bare two meters away, Mara finally moved. She leapt forward and to the side, moving out of its line of rolling fire and lunging toward it with her lightsaber.

Once again, the droideka's mechanical reflexes were too fast. It had its shield up even before it finished unrolling, bouncing her lightsaber blade uselessly off the hazy surface. The droideka continued uncurling, its blasters swinging up and out into full maneuverability again as Mara tried to bring her lightsaber up in time. The blasters spat fire—

And with a final desperate lunge, Luke hurled his lightsaber forward directly in front of the blasters, blocking the shots. "Come on!" he shouted.

Mara needed no encouragement. She jumped past the droideka, plucking Luke's lightsaber out of midair as she passed it, and hit the deck ru

Only it might not be as safe as Luke had expected. Behind them, he could hear the sounds as the droideka once again folded up and set itself in motion. Now that it had both of them in sight, it had apparently decided to go on the offensive.

They reached the starboard corridor and ducked around the corner. "It's following us," Mara panted.

"I know," Luke panted back. "Keep going. We may have to try that lightsaber ambush after all."

Mara didn't reply. Maybe she was thinking about pointing out that the droideka's sensors were obviously still functional enough to make that gesture useless. More likely, she was conserving her air.

Again, he caught the sounds behind him just in time. "Watch it," he snapped, skidding to a halt and spi

The droideka opened fire as they backed toward it, but at this distance Jedi reflexes were more than adequate to handle the attack. A few seconds later, they were into the corridor and out of its sight.

For a moment they leaned side by side against the cool metal wall, panting hard. In the distance, Luke could hear the droideka starting to fold up again, and risked a quick look around the corner. If it thought it could bottle them up...

But with the enemy temporarily out of its sight, the machine had apparently decided to go back to guard duty. Luke watched it finish its reconfiguration and roll almost leisurely back around the corner into the command deck corridor. "This isn't working," he commented.

"No kidding," Mara growled back. "Thanks for getting me out of that, by the way. I thought I might have a chance to get in a killing thrust before its shield went up."

"I guess it saw you coming," Luke said. "Did you know it could shoot while rolling that way?"

"No," Mara said. "Either that was a very well-kept secret, or else it's something new that someone built into this particular model. It's not all that effective—you saw it could only fire straight along its path, and only at the spot in its rotation when the blasters were turned to the right spot."

Luke grunted. "It was effective enough for me."

"No argument there." Mara shook her head. "We need a new approach, Luke. We keep playing this game, and eventually it's going to wear us down."

"Or a Vagaari sniper squad will get us while we're being distracted," Luke agreed. "Let's think it through. We know we can't get it with the shield up. That means we have to get it before then, either while it's still rolling or else right as it stops and starts to unfold."

"And as we just saw, it can put its shield up before it finishes unfolding if it senses an attacker nearby," Mara pointed out.

"Which means we can't let it see the attack coming," Luke agreed. "Which brings us back to some kind of ambush."

"Right," Mara agreed. "Problem: the only place around here to hide is inside one of the rooms off the corridor."

"Which we already tried."

"Right," Mara said. "What we need is for it to follow us someplace more promising. Maybe aft to the turbolaser blisters, where we've got all that wreckage to set up in."

Luke shook his head. "It's not going to let us do that," he said. "You saw what it did just now. With both of us clearly in sight, it still stopped two meters in from the command deck corridor, fired a few times, then went back to guard duty."

"It did, didn't it?" Mara commented, her expression changing subtly as she stared at the wall across from them. "You think you could pick out the exact spot where it stopped?"

Luke pulled up the memory. "Easily," he said. "Both times it stopped about two meters in, right in the center of the corridor where it's as safe from possible ambush as it can get. Of course, there's no guarantee it'll go to the same spot the next time."

"Oh, I think there is," Mara said, smiling a sudden, private smile. "Even if this is one of the models with an autonomous brain, the Vagaari can't possibly have the skill to have programmed anything fancy into it. I'm guessing it's been given its patrol parameters and is going to stick with them down to the half centimeter."

"Okay," Luke said, eyeing her suspiciously. He knew that look, and it generally meant trouble. "But there's still no cover anywhere nearby for an ambush."

"That's okay," she said. "For this one, we're not going to need cover. Here's the plan..."

Getting a firm grip on his lightsaber, Luke once again stepped out into the command deck corridor.