toward the planet below.
And as they did so, Luke caught a glimpse across the entry port of TIE fighters from the forward hangar bays scrambling to intercept.
'Come on, Mara,' he said, slipping off his restraints. 'You know how to handle a quad laser battery?'
'No, I need her here,' Karrde said. He had the Falcon skimming the underside of the Star Destroyer now, heading for the ship's portside edge.
'You go ahead. And take the dorsal grin bay-I think I can arrange for them to concentrate their attack from that direction.'
Luke had no idea how he was going to accomplish that, but there was no time to discuss it. Already the Falcon was starting to jolt with laser hits, and from experience he knew there was only so much the ship's deflector shields could handle. Leaving the cockpit, he hurried to the gun well ladder, leaping halfway up, then climbing the rest of the way. He strapped in, fired up the quads...and as he looked around he discovered what Karrde had had in mind. The Falcon had curved up past the portside edge of the Chimaera, swung aft along the upper surface, and was now driving hard for deep space on a vector directly above the exhaust from the Star Destroyer's massive sublight drive nozzles. Skimming rather too close to it, in Luke's opinion; but it was for sure that no TIE fighters would be coming at them from underneath for a while.
The intercom pinged in his ear. 'Skywalker?' Karrde's voice came.
'They're almost here. You ready?'
'I'm ready,' Luke assured him. Fingers resting lightly on the firing controls, he focused his mind and let the Force flow into him. The battle was furious but short, in some ways reminding Luke of the Falcon's escape from the Death Star so long ago. Back then, Leia had recognised that they'd gotten away too easily; and as the TIE fighters swarmed and fired and exploded around him, Luke wondered uneasily whether or not the Imperials might have something equally devious in mind this time, too. And then the sky flared with starlines and went mottled, and they were free.
Luke took a deep breath as he cut power to the quads. 'Good flying,' he said into the intercom.
'Thank you,' Karrde's dry voice came back. 'We seem to be more or less clear, though we took some damage around the starboard power converter pack. Mara's gone to check it out.'
'We can manage without it,' Luke said. 'Han's got the whole ship so cross-wired that it'll fly with half the systems out. Where are we headed?'
'Coruscant,' Karrde said. 'To drop you off and also to follow through on the promise I made to you earlier.'
Luke had to search his memory. 'You mean that bit about the New Republic standing to gain from your rescue?'
'That's the one,' Karrde assured him. 'As I recall Solo's sales pitch to me back on Myrkr, your people are in need of transport ships. Correct?'
'Badly in need of them,' Luke agreed. 'You have some stashed away?'
'Not exactly stashed away, but it won't be too hard to put my hands on them. What do you think the New Republic would say to approximately two hundred pre-Clone Wars vintage Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers?' Luke felt his mouth fall open. Growing up on Tatooine had been a sheltered experience, but it hadn't been that sheltered. 'You don't mean the Dark Force?'
'Come on down and we'll discuss it,' Karrde said. 'Oh, and I wouldn't mention it to Mara just yet.'
'I'll be right there.' Turning off the intercom, Luke hung the headset back on its hook and climbed onto the ladder - and for once, he didn't even notice the discontinuity as the gravity field changed direction partway down the ladder.
The Millennium Falcon shot away from the Chimaera, out maneuvering and outgunning its pursuing TIE fighters and driving hard for deep space. Pellaeon sat at his station, hands curled into fists, watching the drama in helpless silence. Helpless, because with the main computer still only partially operational, the Chimaera's sophisticated weapons and tractor beam systems were useless against a ship that small, that fast, and that distant. Silent, because the disaster was far beyond scope of any of his repertoire of curses.
The ship flickered and was gone ... and Pellaeon prepared himself for the worst.
The worst didn't come. 'Recall the TIE fighters to their stations, Captain,' Thrawn said, his voice showing no sign of strain or anger. 'Secure from intruder alert, and have Systems Control continue bringing the main computer back on line. Oh, and the supply unloading can be resumed.'
'Yes, sir,' Pellaeon said, throwing a surreptitious frown at his superior. Had Thrawn somehow missed the significance of what had just happened out there?
