too close. Mara threw the little ship into a sideways skid, just in time to get out of a TIE fighter's line of fire. 'Pull out where?' she demanded, turning her skid into a barely controlled spin that had the effect of killing her forward velocity. Her attacker, perhaps made overconfident by the appearance of the backup force, roared by too fast for more than a wild shot in her direction. Coolly, Mara blew him out of the sky. 'In case you've forgotten, some of us don't have enough computing power aboard to calculate a safe hyperspace jump.'
'I'll feed you the numbers,' Aves said. 'Karrde-'
'I agree,' Karrde's voice came from the Escort Frigate. 'Get out of here.'
Mara clenched her teeth, glancing up at the second Star Destroyer. She hated to turn tail and run, but she knew they were right. Bel Iblis had shifted three of his ships to meet the new threat, but even equipped with ion cannon, three Dreadnaughts couldn't hold down a Star Destroyer for long. If they didn't disengage soon, they might not get another chance Abruptly, her danger sense tingled. Again she threw the Z-95 into a skid; but this time she was too late. The ship lurched hard, and from behind her came the hissing scream of superheated metal vaporizing into space. 'I'm hit!' she snapped, one hand automatically slapping cutoff switches as the other grabbed for her flight suit's helJet seals and fastened them in place. Just in time; a second hiss, cut off almost before it began, announced the failure of cabin integrity. 'Power lost, air lost. Ejecting now.' She reached for the eject loop ... and paused. By chance-or perhaps last-second instinct her crippled fighter was aimed almost directly at the first Star Destroyer s hangar entry port. If she could coax a little more power out of the auxiliary maneuvering system ...
It took more than a little coaxing, but when she finally gripped the eject loop again she had the satisfaction of knowing that even in death the Z-95 would take a minor bit of revenge on the Empire's war machine. Not much, but a little.
She pulled down on the loop, and an instant later was slammed hard into her seat as explosive bolts blew the canopy clear and catapulted her out of the ship. She got a quick glimpse of the Star Destroyer's portside edge, an even quicker glimpse of a TIE fighter whipping past And suddenly there was an agonized squeal from the ejection seat's electronics, and the violent crackle of arcing circuits ... and with a horrible jolt Mara realized that she had made what might very well be the last mistake of her life. Intent on aiming her crippled Z-95 at the Star Destroyer's hangar bay, she had drifted too close to the giant ship and ejected directly into the path of the Dreadnaughts' ion beam bombardment. And in that single crackle of tortured electronics she had lost everything. Her comm, her lights, her limited maneuvering jets, her life support regulator, her emergency beacons.
Everything.
For a second her thoughts flickered to Skywalker. He'd been lost in deep space, too, awhile back. But she'd had a reason to find him. No one had a similar reason to find her.
A flaming TIE fighter roared past her and exploded. A large piece of shrapnel glanced off the ceramic armor that wrapped partially around her shoulders, slamming her head hard against the side of the headrest. And as she fell into the blackness, she saw the Emperor's face before her. And knew that she had again failed him.
They were approaching the monitor anteroom just behind the Katana's bridge when Luke abruptly jerked. 'What?' Han snapped, looking quickly around down the corridor behind them.
'It's Mara,' the other said, his face tight. 'She's in trouble.'
'Hit?' Han asked.
'Hit and...and lost,' Luke said, forehead straining in concentration.
'She must have run into one of the ion beams.'
The kid was looking like he'd just lost his best friend, instead of someone who wanted to kill him. Han thought about pointing that out, decided at the last second they had more immediate things to worry about. Probably just one of those crazy Jedi things that never made sense anyway. 'Well, we can't help her now,' he said, starting forward again. 'Come on. Both the starboard and port main corridors fed into the monitor anteroom, from which a single set of blast doors led the rest of the way forward into the bridge proper. Lando and Chewbacca were at opposite sides of the port corridor entrance way as Han and Luke arrived, huddling back from a barrage of laser fire and occasionally risking a quick shot know. 'What've you got, Lando?' Han asked as he and Luke joined them.
'Nothing good, buddy,' Lando grunted back. 'There are at least ten of then' left. Shen and Tomrus were both hit-Shen will probably die if we don't get him to a medic droid in the next hour or so. Anselm and Kline are taking care of them inside the bridge.'
'We did a little better, but we've still got a couple of them coming up behind us,' Han told him, doing a quick assesment of the rows of monitor consoles in the anteroom. They would provide reasonable cover, hilt given the layout, the defenders wouldn't be able to retreat farther without opening themselves to enemy fire. 'I don't think four of us can hold this place,' he decided. 'We'd better pull back to the bridge.'
'From which there's nowhere else to go, Lando pointed out. 'I trust you considered that part?'
Beside him, Han felt Luke brace himself. 'All right,' Luke said.
'Into the bridge, all of you. I'll handle this.' Lando threw him a look. 'You'll what?'
'I'll handle it,' Luke repeated. With a sharp snap-hiss he ignited his lightsaber. 'Get going-I know what I'm
