Chapter Four

While Jaina could not honestly say that she'd ever had a truly warm welcome on any of her missions, the reaction of Najeme IV to the ship's landing request was worse than she could have imagined.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath. Jaina glanced at her brother, who simply shrugged.

"It could be worse," he said, throwing her a lopsided smile. "Instead of simply refusing to let you land, they could have sent some ships into the sky to blast you to bits."

"Thanks," she smirked, and hailed the planet again. This time, there was no answer at all.

"Umm, Solo, I hate to tell you this, but..." Lehada tapped the view screen. "Looks like your brother may have actually been not so wrong..."

"What?" Jaina turned toward the screen. "Shit!" she yelled this time.

"This can't be good," Jacen mumbled. Three fighter ships were approaching The Firerunner, and fast. "Uh, Lehada? You might want to get Ganner and head back to the guns..."

The ship shook hard, bucking to one side. "Shields up!" Jaina yelled.

"Not going to do much good," Jacen replied as Lehada scampered out of the room. "There'll all worn out from that attack before."

Jaina turned the ship around and tried to hail the attackers as another blast shook the ship. "Why are they doing this?" she pleaded. "Our ship can't take it!"

"Get the hell out of here, Jaina," Jacen said sullenly. "We can't fight them. Even if our ship could take it, how would it look?"

Jaina nodded. "Calculate the jump. We'll have to tell Uncle Luke that--"

The ship went dark as another blast shook it. "Shields down," Jacen muttered. "And our hyperdrive is fried."

Jaina's eyes went blank. What was going on? Why was this happening?

But she couldn't wonder. She had to act. "Ganner, fire a return blast, but not a strong one. Just get them out of the way. I'm going to the other side."

Jacen looked at his sister, puzzled. "Didn't you do your research, Jay?" she said, winking at her brother. "Najeme III has two moons. You can see one to the left, over there," she pointed, while at the same time steering to avoid another blast. Ganner fired another warning shot into the attackers. "The other moon is on the other side, and in far rotation from the planet at this point in time. It is supposed to be undeveloped, too mountainous to be of much use."

"So you want to land there," he said.

"Yep. Then we can make repairs, etc... stay out of sight..." The ship rocked as another blast hit. "Let's see how fast we can get this thing going," she said, turning the ship and accelerating. "Rhysode, distract the pilots as we make out exit. Make them think there's another ship somewhere else or something. Lehada, help him out. Jacen--watch out for anything from the planet. Time to head for the hills."