Chapter

29

Zak sidestepped Alitha's sudden lunge, but he wasn't quick enough and felt the blade brush barely against his thigh. She continued past him, lightsaber flicking around behind her to fend off the strike aimed at her as she went.

Zak decided on a strategic repositioning then, and he took off around the edge of the bridge. Tash, who had recovered her lightsaber now, leapt into the space between him and Alitha as she gave chase, heading her off and engaging in a quick flurry of strikes before the Sith kicked her in the side and used the Force to throw her laterally across the bridge.

Zak had already attained his new position, though, and spun his blade around himself in a daunting display he hoped appeared intimidating. It might have to someone else, he realised, but not likely Alitha. When she came at him, he was ready for it. He spun his weapon around in his hands, creating a fan of blurred light in front of him that fended off three of Alitha's strikes before she stepped back and lunged forward with her lightsaber extended like a spear.

Zak stopped the rapid movement of his weapon and slashed down at her blade, sending the tip sizzling through the durasteel deck between them. Alitha hissed and flung her hand out at him, sending a wave of the Force crashing into him and knocking him back.

As he was recovering, he heard the thrumming of a lightsaber coming down at his head. He switched off one of his blades and held the hilt of his weapon tightly with both hands with the still-live blade running down behind him to block the strike.

But it didn't come.

Instead there was a loud thwack of flesh on flesh, and an oof of surprise. When Zak adjusted his vision to his left, he saw that Jaina had flown over his shoulder from behind him—he'd completely forgotten that she was there—and crashed into Alitha head on before flinging them both across to the side.

Alitha was recovering, prying herself from the tangle of wires and busted console she'd been thrown against with enough force that her leg buckled beneath her and the metal had cut into her at a few points, tearing through the skin-tight bodysuit she wore.

Jaina herself was perched at the edge of the bridge on one of the crisscrossing viewport braces. She watched with her head cocked to the side as Alitha finished extricating herself from the control boards and turned her gaze back and forth between her three opponents to determine the bigger threat.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "Restrain them both!" she directed at Jaina, pointing to Zak with her free hand, and then Tash, who was now back on her feet and striding over to them warily. Alitha's hand bore a deep cut on the back of it. "NOW!" she screamed at Jaina.

Jaina shook her head and bared her teeth at the Sith by way of a smile—for her lips could no longer form a human one with all of those teeth blocking the way.

"Looks like your plan failed," Zak said, taking a step toward the edge of the walk, closer to Alitha, who looked up at him with the coldest of furies. "Jaina's will is her own, not yours to control."

"She thinks that because I was infected, I should be susceptible to her will," Jaina pointed out, her voice almost a hiss, and the words seeming awkward on her tongue. Zak contained his smile as Alitha's fury grew.

The Sith flung herself towards him again, and in the same instant, Jaina sprung from the brace and ploughed into the woman's side with all the momentum she had. Tash was by Zak's side now, weapon at the ready.

Alitha was flung again to the side, but this time she missed the danger of the broken consoles and skidded across the deck in a heap.

Zak waited, but Alitha didn't move.

She was breathing, so she was definitely still alive. It seemed that Jaina had hit her hard enough to render her unconscious.

Part of him was tempted to jump down after her and drive the lightsaber in his hand straight through her heart, to end her before she did any further harm.

He hadn't even realised that he'd started over, or that his fingers were gripping his lightsaber's hilt tightly enough that his knuckles were white, until rough fingers grasped him by the wrist of his weapon hand, and soft fingers grabbed him by the other, bringing him to a halt.

"Don't do it," said Jaina from his right, "when she's so helpless. It wouldn't be conscionable."

He turned his head to look over his right shoulder to see Jaina standing beside him, looking back at him with as much warmth as worry. She'd obviously seen the dark desire in his eyes, or in his thoughts, and known what he was about to do. He reached out for the silent link they shared, but it was weak, almost unreachable, and it worried him.

"My connection to the Force is somewhat … strained, as I am," she explained with a frown. "At least we still have the link. I have nothing else for the moment."

"For the moment?" Zak asked.

Jaina nodded and then said; "Allina gathered together some of the knowledge she'd gleaned from her time amongst the Imperium and devised a treatment to undo the mutations wracking my body."

"So I can't expect to have lizard-girl for a partner for long?" Zak said cheekily.

"No," she prodded him in the side with a claw.

"Blaster bolts. And the look was just starting to grow on me," he joked with a smile. She prodded him again. "Ow! Those are sharp, you know!"

"Jaina …" Tash switched off her weapon and released Zak's wrist to approach her friend. "I'm sorry. I should have acted faster."

"Stop it," Jaina warned her. "It was my own carelessness that caused this." Then she turned back to Zak and changed the topic. "Did you get it?" she asked.

Zak nodded. "Irina should be on her way out now. We told her to get out without us while we delayed Alitha."

"Foolhardy!" Jaina snapped, irate. "Barvy! You're no match for her!"

"It's a good thing she wants me alive, for some reason, isn't it?" he joked. "She held back. She didn't want me dead."

Jaina's dark eyes regarded them both for a moment before she let out a sound that might have been a sigh and clapped them both on the shoulder. "Do it again, and I'll flay you alive—both of you."

"Yes, mother," Tash said with a grin. It earned her a sharp jab to the ribs. "Ow! Those are sharp!"

"We need to hurry," Jaina said, looping her arm through Zak's and tugging him towards the rear of the bridge to the lift tube. "Find Irina and let's get the brix out of here."

"Why? What's happened?" he asked.

"Allina is what happened. She pushed herself beyond her physical capabilities writing down the information she could provide for my cure, and it's sped up her deterioration. They've got her in stasis until we get back with this, but we don't have long."

Zak frowned and deactivated Allina's lightsaber before clipping it back to his belt. "You know … you could have opened with that instead of wasting time."


"Irina's gone," Zak shouted over his shoulder at his sister. He pointed to an escape pod drawing a straight line of exhaust vapour straight up from the hull of the Star Destroyer into the atmosphere.

"Then let's get back to the ships," Tash called back, swinging her lightsaber back and forth continuously as they raced across the tarmac to the docking ports where the Phantom and the Recluse were sheltered.

Alitha must have warned the destroyer's command staff of their deception when she arrived, because an entire platoon of stormtroopers were waiting for them outside the hangar bays they were heading to. There was no cover, but a few of them had deployed field shield-screens and crouched behind them with their blasters aimed over the top at the approaching Jedi.

Jaina charged ahead of them, dodging left and right around blaster shots aimed at her. Zak and Tash deflected the shots away from them, but not back at the troopers in case they hit Jaina by mistake.

When Jaina reached the troopers, she dug her claws into the armour of two of them. Claws pierced the plates at their shoulders, and she flung them in opposite directions with enough force that they wouldn't be getting back up when they landed. A third trooper turned to her and brought his blaster to bear. With a swipe of her claws, she cleaved the end of the weapon's barrel free and then kicked out at the trooper's chest, caving in the armour plate, and probably his ribs as well.

Tash then leapt ahead Zak to come to Jaina's defence, batting away the incoming blaster fire from behind her. She thrust her hand out to her left and sent a wave of Force energy crashing into the crates there. Stormtroopers flew, and a few of the airborne troopers fired aimlessly, trying to hit something.

Zak reached them and swung his lightsaber out to the right and deflected a blaster bolt back into the chest plate of the stormtrooper that fired it. The energy bolt burned through the armour and the trooper dropped dead to the tarmac.

Jaina continued to rush forward, hitting the ground and rolling toward a tight cluster of troopers concentrating their fire on the two armed Jedi. She came up to her knees, claws raking deep gouges in their armour. A couple of them started to turn their weapons to her, and she took one of them by the arm just as he was pulling the trigger and aimed him at his fellows so that he felled them instead. Then she tore the trooper's arm free and threw it at his helmeted head, taking him down, screaming in pain.

Zak watched the whole thing unfold, horrified at her strange strength. He was sure that she couldn't have done that before these mutations had taken hold. He hoped that he never saw her doing that again, either.

Tash looked around for the berth the Phantom was docked in, swinging her lightsaber to defend herself from the continued fire of the still-standing stormtroopers. She found it, not too far away.

"Zak, get to the ship!" Tash called out, pointing in the direction of the Phantom. "I'll follow you."

Zak felt Jaina's scaly hand on his arm. "I'll take the Recluse back to the Glory. Get going!"

Zak didn't hesitate. He took off in the direction of the ship, ignoring the troopers as he sped past their surviving number. Some of them fired at his back as he passed, but Tash stepped between him and the oncoming fire and intercepted it. He felt several more troopers felled, and the others scattered, looking for cover.

Footsteps behind him, light and hurried—Tash, he realised. She was only a few steps behind him when he raced up the Phantom's boarding ramp and slapped the hatch open.

She closed it behind her, but Zak had switched his weapon off and was already racing down the corridor that led to the middle of the ship. When he reached the cockpit, he set his lightsaber down on the control boards and keyed in the system start-up.

"Jaina will be fine, won't she, little brother?"

"Jaina will be better than fine," Zak said, feeling more sure of that than anything else at that moment. He pointed to the co-pilot's chair. "Sit. Let's get out of here."