Lost Tribe of the Sith 05 - Star Wars Purgatory

Abeloth home with them, they’re probably crazy enough to think they could take the guy who killed her.”
    “Exactly,” Jaina said. “Until a few weeks ago, no one even knew the Lost Tribe
existed
. That’s changed, but they’ll still want to keep what they can secret.”
    “So they’ll try to take out Luke and Ben,” Lando agreed. “And us, too. Contain the leak.”
    “That’s my guess,” Jaina said. “Sith like secrecy, and secrecy means stopping us
now
. Once we’re out of the Maw, they’ll expect us to access the HoloNet and report.”
    Lando looked up and exhaled in frustration. “I
told
Luke he couldn’t trust anyone who puts
High Lord
before his name.” He had been even more forceful than Jaina in trying to argue Luke out of a second bargain with the Lost Tribe—a bargain that had left the Skywalkers and three Sith behind to explore Abeloth’s savage homeworld together. “Maybe we should go back.”
    Jaina thought for only an instant, then shook her head. “No, Luke knew the bargain wouldn’t last when he agreed to it,” she said. “Sarasu Taalon has already betrayed his word once.”
    Lando scowled. “That doesn’t mean Luke and Ben are safe.”
    “No,” Jaina agreed. “But it
does
mean he’s risking their lives to increase
our
chances of reporting to the Jedi Council.
That’s
our mission.”
    “Technically, Luke doesn’t get to assign missions right now,” Lando pressed. “You wouldn’t be violating orders if we—”
    “Luke Skywalker is still the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. I think we should assume he has a plan,” Jaina said. A sudden tingle of danger sense raced down her spine, prompting her to hit the quick-release on hercrash harness. “Besides, we need to start worrying about saving our own skins.”
    Lando began to look worried. “What are you saying?” he asked. “That you’re sensing something?”
    Jaina shook her head. “Not yet.” She rose. “But I
will
be. Why do you suppose they sent us someplace easy to find?”
    Lando scowled. “Oh …” He glanced up at a display, tapped some keys—no doubt trying to call up a tactical report—then slammed his fist against the edge of the brass console. “Are they jamming us?”
    “That’s difficult to know with the ship’s sensor systems offline for degaussing,” RN8 replied.
    “Offline?”
Lando shrieked. “Who authorized
that
?”
    “
You
did, ninety-seven seconds ago,” RN8 replied. “Would you like me to play it back?”
    “No! Countermand it and bring all systems back up.” Lando turned to Jaina and asked, “Any feel for how long we have until the shooting starts?”
    Jaina closed her eyes and opened herself to the Force. A shiver of danger sense raced down her spine, and then she felt a mass of belligerent presences approaching from the direction of the Maw. She turned to RN8.
    “How long until the sensor systems reboot?”
    “Approximately three minutes and fifty-seven seconds,” the droid reported. “I’m afraid Captain Calrissian also ordered a complete data consolidation.”
    Jaina winced and turned back to Lando. “In that case, I’d say we have less than three minutes and fifty-two seconds. There’s someone hostile coming up behind us.” She started toward the hatchway at the back of the cavernous bridge, her boots ringing on the old durasteel deck. “Why don’t you see if you can put a stop to those false orders?”
    “Sure, I’ll just tell my crew to stop listening to me.” Lando’s voice was sarcastic. “Being droids, they’ll know what I mean.”
    “You might try activating their standard verification routines,” Jaina suggested.
    “I
might
, if droid crews this old
had
standard verification routines.” Lando turned and scowled at Jaina as she continued across the deck. “And you’re going
where
?”
    “You know where,” Jaina said.
    “To your StealthX?” Lando replied. “The one with only three engines? The one that lost its targeting array?”
    “Yeah, that one,” Jaina confirmed. “We need a set of eyes out there—and someone to fly cover.”
    “No way,” Lando said. “If I let you go out to fight Sith in that thing, your dad will be feeding pieces of me to Amelia’s nexu for the next ten years.”
    Jaina stopped and turned toward him, propping one hand on her hip. “Lando, did you just say ‘
let
?’ Did you really say ‘no
way’
to me?”
    Lando rolled his eyes, unintimidated. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. But