Vision of the future

'Right.'

The blue-white blade sizzled out again—there was a crackle of broken metal and plastic—and suddenly that point of danger faded from Luke's mind. 'Good job,' he called to Mara, shifting his full attention to the sentinel in front of him. 'Now get around here and do the same thing to this one—' He swiveled back again, getting his lightsaber blade around just in time. Suddenly the sentinel on Mara's side had started shooting again—

'Watch it,' Mara snapped a belated warning. 'It had another blaster holstered for its left hand—oh, shavit.'

'What—? Never mind,' Luke growled. In response to Mara's attack, the sentinel facing him had now drawn a second blaster from concealment with its left hand.

'He's got a second blaster for the right, too—'

'I got it, I got it,' Luke cut her off, leaning still harder into his defense. With twice as many shots coming in now from each of the sentinels, they were in worse shape than they had been before. A missed blaster bolt sizzled painfully across the top of his left shoulder—

'Sorry,' Mara said, her back pressing against his now, the hum of her lightsaber like an angry insect behind him. 'What do we do now?'

Luke grimaced. The row of ysalamiri-equipped Chiss he'd faced up in the fortress had been bad enough; but at least there they'd had the option of shooting their opponents if defense became too difficult. Here, trapped in the middle of an open room, caught in a crossfire from two tireless droids who couldn't be killed, with tangling cords around their feet precluding any chance of fast escape...

'Luke?' Mara called again over the sound and fury. 'You hear me?'

'I heard you, I heard you,' he snapped back.

'So what do we do?'

Luke swallowed hard. 'I have no idea.'

* * *

Beneath Leia, the Predominance's great bulk shuddered as another proton torpedo got through the Ishori defenses, its violent explosion ripping another piece out of the hull. Ahead out the main bridge canopy, the sky was a tangle of turbolaser blasts splashing across their shields or occasionally burning through to vaporize layers of metal or transparisteel.

But in that sudden, heart-stopping moment, none of that mattered; not the battle, not her own life, not even the terrible threat of civil war. With that flicker of distant emotion, that sudden tremor in the Force, one thing alone had surged to overriding importance for her.

Somewhere out there, Han was in deadly danger.

'Captain Av'muru!' she shouted over the din of the bridge, crossing quickly toward the command console. Two guards raised their blasters warningly; without thinking, Leia stretched out with the Force to turn the weapons aside as she passed. 'Captain, I must speak with you right away.'

'I am busy, Councilor,' the Ishori captain snarled, not even bothering to look at her.

'You'll be busier than you care to be if you don't listen to me,' Leia bit out, straining with all her strength toward the wispy, unclear sensation that was Han. His emotions were still seething with danger and threat and helpless fury; but try as she might, she couldn't penetrate through the emotion and the distance to his underlying thoughts.

But there was one thing that was very clear. 'There's some new threat waiting out there,' she told Av'muru. 'One you're completely unaware of.'

'Other threats are meaningless!' Av'muru all but screamed. 'There can be no other concern but the Diamalan attackers around us.'

'Captain—'

She broke off at a feathery touch on her arm. 'It's no use, Councilor,' Gavrisom said, his long face tight and almost bitter. 'He can't and won't think that far ahead. Not with his ship under immediate attack. Can you tell me what this threat is?'

Leia looked out the canopy, trying to pierce the dazzlingly lethal light show outside. 'Han's in danger,' she said.

'Where? How?'