Set crouched down behind one of the ships, gasping for breath. To some extent he had been able to resist the Iktotchi's strange ability. He was able to fight through her ability to draw on the Force, but the effort had left him exhausted.
And it still messed you up enough so that she was able to dodge your lightsaber.
The Dark Jedi frowned at the memory of how close he had come to ending this battle, even as he forced himself to get up and get moving again. He couldn't stay in one place for more than a few seconds, not unless he wanted to end up dead. He knew she'd be more careful now; he'd missed his best chance.
The Iktotchi was too quick for him to beat in a straight-up fight:not with her disrupting his connection to the Force and slowing him down. So far he'd managed to avoid a direct confrontation, but he couldn't keep running for much longer. He had a stitch in his side, and his lungs felt like they were going to burst. Unless something happened to change the situation, the outcome was inevitable.
As if in answer to his prayers, there was a sudden change in the sound of the alarms. It only took Set a moment to figure out what had happened, and a new escape plan began to form in his mind.
The Huntress heard the change in the sound of the alarms, and she knew that they had maybe five minutes before the detonations began, and maybe ten before the entire complex was reduced to rubble.
Her opponent noticed the change as well.
'Hear that?' he called out from somewhere on the other side of the hangar. 'This whole place is going to come crashing down around our ears. Why don't we each just hop on one of these shuttles and get out of here before that happens?'
'I still have enough time to find you,' she shouted back, slowly heading in the direction of his voice. It sounded like he was near one of the shuttles on the far side of the room. 'You're getting tired. Wearing down. You won't last much longer.'
'I was afraid you'd say that,' he answered as she stepped from behind one of the ships, giving her a clear view of the man she had been chasing.
He was leaning casually against the side of one of the shuttles, near the thrusters at the rear. He glanced toward her but made no attempt to hide. Instead he just stood there, holding his lightsaber casually at his side.
Wary of walking into another trap, the Huntress began a cautious approach. As she took her first step, the silver-haired man pulled his arm back and brought his lightsaber down hard against the shuttle's hull. There was a shower of sparks, and the blade bit a full centimeter into the ship's reinforced exterior plating.
The man pulled his arm back and struck again, hitting precisely the same spot, the glowing blade carving even deeper this time. It was only on the third blow that the Huntress realized what he was doing.
The third chop brought the lightsaber deep enough to sever one of the shuttle's fuel lines. Her opponent flung himself backward and she threw herself to the floor as a stray spark ignited the flammable liquid. Hundreds of tiny metal shards that had once been a fuel cell were sent hurtling through the air. The shuttle bucked once, its tail leaping a full meter off the ground from the force of the blast. A thick cloud of greasy black smoke curled up from the gash the lightsaber had left in the hull.
'Amazing weapons, aren't they?' the man noted as she picked herself up from the ground. 'Cut through almost anything.'
His face was cut and scraped from flying debris, but somehow-probably through shielding himself with the Force-he had managed to avoid the worst of the explosion. Before she could reply, he had ducked around the corner of the shuttle, disappearing from sight once again.
A few seconds later she heard the unmistakable sound of the lightsaber shearing through metal yet again from the far side of the hangar.
She broke into a run, heading in the direction of the noise. She was only halfway there when another explosion knocked her to the ground. When she got back to her feet she saw that a second shuttle had been disabled.
Knowing his next target, she turned and ran toward the Stalker. She pulled up short when she came around a corner and saw her opponent standing beside her shuttle, his hand moving gently along the hull.
'What are you doing?' the Huntress shouted.
'All I want is to get out of here alive,' he explained. 'But for some reason you seem intent on killing me.'
'You took the first swing at me,' she reminded him. 'When I caught you about to steal my ship.'
'A simple misunderstanding,' he said, waving his hand to dismiss her accusations. 'There are two shuttles left. You take yours and leave the other one for me, and we never have to see each other again.'
'What if I say no?'
'Then I destroy your shuttle and we see if you can stop me before I get to the last one. My guess is you can't, and then we're both stuck here when these walls come crashing down.'
'You're a coward,' the assassin shot back. 'You wouldn't even stand and fight me. Now you expect me to believe you'd sacrifice yourself to trap us both here?'
'I'm a realist,' the man explained. 'If we fight, I'm dead. If I trap us here, I'm dead. Either way the outcome is the same:but if I destroy the shuttles, then at least I take you with me.'
She didn't answer right away. It was possible he was telling the truth: people did desperate things when cornered.
Her thoughts seized on the hooked handle in her belt; he wasn't the only one armed with a lightsaber. She briefly considered trying to use the weapon she'd taken from the Sith Lord's mansion to block the attack if he tried to damage her shuttle, then dismissed the idea. She had no training or experience; she'd never even held a lightsaber until a few days ago. Even if she did, by the time she crossed the distance between them the damage could have been done.
Next, she tried to calculate her odds of getting to the last remaining shuttle before her enemy could disable it. She might be able to beat him there, but as soon as she climbed inside the cockpit he'd be able to run up and wreak havoc on the engines.
Finally, she weighed the possibility that he wouldn't actually go through with his threat. Even when faced with a hopeless situation, few people would have the strength of will to destroy their only chance of escape. There was a very good chance he was bluffing.
But even if he was, what did she gain by calling his bluff?
She didn't know anything about this man: who he was, how he got here, or why he had shown up in the first place. What did she really accomplish by killing him? And what did she lose by letting him go?
The only reason she hadn't left yet was the belief that this was where she would find her destiny. Whether this man lived or died was of no consequence compared with that.
A deep thrumming boom rolled through the cavern. The silver-haired man swayed slightly on his feet.
'We're running out of time,' he warned, cocking his arm back and taking aim.
'We have a deal!' she shouted.
'Stay where I can see you,' the man warned, backing away from her carefully.
Keeping his eye on her, he scooted over to the other shuttle. He disappeared around the far side of the vessel. She heard him fumbling with the access panel as he sliced the security systems, followed by the unmistakable whoosh of the boarding ramp descending. A few seconds later he reappeared, visible in the cockpit viewport.
The Huntress simply watched, knowing there was nothing she could do. Unlike a lightsaber, neither her vibroblades nor her blasters were capable of inflicting any serious damage on the hull of a shuttle. She momentarily considered drawing the lightsaber and mimicking the trick he had used against her, but even if she was able to damage his vessel, it just meant he would still be here, and she'd have to find some way to get to her own ship before he returned the favor.
The shuttle engines roared to life as it rose up and turned to face the exit, hovering for an instant just below the chamber's high ceiling. She could clearly see the Doan royal crest on the side, as well as the silver-haired man inside the cockpit. He waved to her and flashed a self-satisfied smile, and then the thrusters kicked in and the ship swooped away, flying out of the hangar and disappearing into the night sky.
For the first time in the Huntress's life, someone she had wanted to kill had gotten away. Yet it would be a small price to pay if she managed to find what she was truly looking for.
