Vision of the future

'Sounds good,' he said. 'But be careful. These guys aren't built for atmosphere maneuvers, but neither are we. Hah!'

'What?'

'Got one. Didn't slow him down, but I think I took out his shields. Get 'er moving.' The deadly game continued. Leia pushed the Falcon's sublight drive for all it was worth, twisting their tortured way toward the growing bulk of Pakrik Minor. The hail of laser fire continued, most of it missing, but enough of the shots were connecting to become distinctly worrisome. Already the red indicators on the status boards outnumbered the green, with their number creeping up with every salvo. Unbidden, a memory flashed: her first ride in the Falcon as they tore madly away from the Death Star, blasting their way through the TIE fighter sentry line in their bid for escape. But Luke had been with them then, and Chewie and Threepio and Artoo. And the Falcon had been younger, less temperamental. Besides which, Vader and Tarkin had in fact wanted them to escape...

Abruptly, the memory was shattered by a brilliant flash from above and behind her. 'Han—!'

'Got him!' Han's voice crowed from the comlink. 'One down, two to go. She holding together?' Leia threw a quick look at the status boards. 'Yes, but just barely. We've lost the ion flux stabilizers and we're down to less than half power on the sublight. Looks like another direct hit and we'll lose the rear deflector, too.'

Han grunted. 'Sounds like it's time to try something clever. You ever done a smuggler's reverse?'

'Once or twice,' Leia said cautiously. 'But I already tried a dip-and-turn, and that didn't do any good. They probably know all about smuggler's reverses.'

'Yeah, but you're not going to do it like they expect,' Han said. 'You're going to swing the Falcon around like you're bringing her to a hard stop; but instead you're going to keep spinning the rest of the way around until you're pointing at the planet again and then gun her for all she's got. That ought to throw them off guard.'

'And if it doesn't?'

'Hang on, I'm not done,' Han said. 'You give them a few seconds to hit their drives to try to catch up; and then you do a straight smuggler's reverse. With any luck, they'll shoot straight past us.'

'Or ram straight into us,' Leia said with a grimace. 'You ready?'

'Ready. Do it.'

'Here goes.' Setting her teeth, Leia killed the drive and twisted the Falcon hard over. The stars spun dizzyingly around—she caught a glimpse of the two fighters braking hard to keep from overshooting their target—the sunlit bulk of Pakrik Minor swung back into view—

And she threw full power to the drive again, the acceleration pressing her back into her seat.

'Han?'

'Perfect,' he reported with grim satisfaction. 'Can you give me any more speed?'

'Sorry, this is it,' she told him, checking the displays.

'That's okay, it'll do,' he assured her. 'Get ready. Smuggler's reverse... now.' Bracing herself, Leia cut power and once again threw the Falcon into a spin. The attacking fighters swung back into view ahead of her, much closer this time and framed by the glow of their sublight drives flaring at full power. Killing the rotation, she threw power to the drive. The attackers tried. They really did. But even with their smaller size they had a fair amount of inertia, and with that much power already committed there was no possible way for them to stop. With their minds radiating frustration and helpless anger, they shot past the Falcon. Or rather, one of them did.

The shock of the impact threw Leia out of her seat, the awful crunching sound from somewhere aft ringing in her ears. 'Leia!' Han's voice shouted as the echoing noise was joined by a dozen warbling alarms. 'Leia!'

'I'm all right,' Leia called back over the din. 'Han, we've been hit.'

'Are we leaking air?'

'I don't—I don't know,' Leia stammered, blinking at the proper status board as something tried to obscure her vision. She swiped a hand across her eyes; it seemed to help. 'No—hull's still intact. But the drive and repulsorlifts—'

'I'll be down in a minute,' Han cut her off. 'Just hold her together.' A blaze of light and color caught the corner of Leia's eye. She looked up from the controls, startled to see Pakrik Minor rotating past in front of her again. The last remaining fighter was framed in the center of the planetary disk, waggling evasively as he tried to kill his speed. But even as he swung back around, Han caught him dead center with a full salvo from the quad. With a brilliant multiple flash of fire, he was gone.