CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
As if in slow motion, Jag watched Jaina's body slump toward him. The sharp tang of singed flesh seared his nostrils. The lightsaber in her hand deactivated with a hiss, and the grenade she had been about to throw clanked to the floor. At the same instant the cyborg and his minions steadied their aim right at Jag.
"Oh, kriff."
He turned and ducked just as a volley of blaster fire tore through the air where his torso had been a split-second before. Stuffing a blaster pistol into his belt and fleeing at top speed, he grabbed hold of Jaina's limp form by whatever he could – the strap of the disruptor rifle, it turned out – and with one hand dragged her around the corner of the Shadow's narrow corridor. Immediately the cyborg barked an order and the clomping of boots echoed toward them.
"Jaina, wake up!" He continued to hurry down the hallway, dragging her with him. "Jaina!"
A metallic jingle caught his attention, and he looked down to see the sonic grenade trapped in the crook of her ankle, rolling right along with them. The detonation indicator was blinking rapidly.
"Double kriff!"
With a fierce yank he flung Jaina to the side, freeing the grenade. Even as his booted foot flew toward it he wondered whether it would explode on contact.
Fortunately it didn't, and his kick sent the metal sphere sailing back into the crossing corridor. Somehow he'd managed to put just enough arc on its flight so that when the grenade exploded a second later, it inflicted most of the damage on their enemies. Still the force of the blast knocked Jag to the floor.
Just before he slammed down on top of her, Jaina's palms flew up to catch him on the chest and her thighs swung closed to pin his hips a hairsbreadth from hers.
"Is this what you've stooped to now, Jag?" she asked, grinning up at him. "Kidnap me, then drag me off and ravish me?"
"Just the way you like it."
"True. But now's not exactly the best time."
He kissed her lips once, quickly. "You think?"
She shoved as he pushed off from the floor, and in a flash Jag was on his feet again. He offered Jaina his hand, but instead she kicked down with her heels and sprang into a backflip that landed her upright at his side. Her lightsaber ignited with a snap-hiss, and she slung the rifle off her shoulder and passed it to him.
He shot her a glance. "What if I have to drag you again?"
She shrugged, and took the other blaster pistol from his hand. "Then I guess you'll just have to use the hair."
He hefted the rifle in his hands. "Attack or retreat?"
"You have to ask?"
"Just being polite," Jag said, following her toward the crossing corridor.
When they reached the intersection, Jaina pressed her back to the wall and threw a quick look around the corner. "Ready?"
"Ready." Then he stayed her with a hand on her hip. His eyes indicated the tear in the fabric on her shoulder, where the cyborg's shot had grazed her. "You sure you don't want a bacta patch first or something?"
She nodded firmly. "Just nicked me. I can barely feel it. I'm good."
"All right." He met her gaze. "Let's get our ship back."
She grinned. "Yes. Let's."
Right on her heels Jag swung into the corridor, tracking the rifle's sight back and forth with practiced precision. Four of the armored troopers lay sprawled on the ground, along with a Rodian and a Nikto from the first group of interlopers. Everyone else was gone.
"They're regrouping," Jaina said, shutting down her blade.
"And they've got numbers."
"That's an understatement. Numbers plus, we have to assume, reinforcements."
"Yes."
She compressed her lips and blew out a fast breath. "They'd move to disable the engines first, right? Then take the cockpit?"
"Presumably. Whoever they are, they seem to know what they're doing."
"Yeah, they do. So we need to stop them there. Unless…"
He raised an eyebrow. "Unless what?"
"Unless we cut them off. Then hunt down the ones in here."
"Seal the hull breach?" It was either mad – or brilliant.
"They'll never expect it."
"I'll give you that. But how would we do that?"
"I was hoping you'd have the answer for that one."
He chuckled. "Afraid not. Unless your aunt keeps a ten-grade thermo-flashwelder on board that I don't know about."
She grinned at him. "Engine room it is, then. What are we waiting for?"
They moved quickly through the corridors, constantly on alert for the intruders as they headed aft. Fortune was on their side, because they made it nearly halfway back to the engine room before they encountered anyone.
At the intersection of hallways Jaina stopped ahead of him and silently held up her left hand. Three fingers peeled off the handle of the blaster pistol, then after a pause three more, then one. She glanced back over her shoulder at him and readied the inert lightsaber pommel in her right hand.
Jag snapped the butt of the rifle up to his shoulder, then gave her a quick tip of his forehead.
She flicked a salute with the barrel of the pistol and thumbed on her lightsaber. Even before the snap-hiss had finished she had surged around the corner, unleashing an ear-splitting bloodcurdling war cry as she went.
Jag charged after her, swinging around the corner and opening fire. His first shot slammed straight into the chest of the armored trooper in the middle of the enemy group. He held the trigger down, and more laser blasts pounded into the armor until it gave way. The blaster bolts ripped into the man's flesh, and he fell forward with a bellow of agony.
In the instant it had taken him to kill the trooper Jaina had gunned down the Twi'lek and the Devaronian in the rear. She took a long stride toward Jag and whipped her blade through a quick defensive pattern to swat away the shots from the remaining four invaders, who had spun around and opened fire.
Jag squeezed the trigger and sprayed the enemy group with a devastating barrage of blaster bolts. A moment later, he and Jaina were the only ones left standing.
"All too easy," she said. A quick flick of her wrist clipped her lightsaber to her belt, and she took a moment to swap out the power pack in her blaster pistol.
"You think we should split up?" he replied, checking the rifle's charge. Still almost full power. "It's your turn to fly. I could take the engines."
She paused. "No," she finally said, snatching her lightsaber handle into her palm again. "I think we should stick together."
There was something in her voice… No time to ponder it now, though. "All right. We'd better get moving. They have –"
"– too big of a head start as it is." She thumbed on her blade and cut three quick practice strikes in front of her, and the trademark Solo smirk crossed her lips. "Got my back?"
"Always." Their eyes met in a lingering gaze until she spun on her heel and broke into a brisk jog.
Presumably the invaders were taking the most direct route from their entry point, so he and Jaina skirted the opposite hull of the vessel as they hurried to catch up. Not much more than a minute later Jaina gave him a signal with a quick tip of her head. They ducked into a narrow mechanical closet and prepared for battle. While Jaina closed her eyes, Jag tightened his grip on the rifle, readied his finger on the trigger, and took a couple of quick deep breaths to center his focus.
"I don't have the Force back here," she whispered.
He nodded once.
She clipped her lightsaber to her belt and gripped the blaster pistol in both hands, its barrel pointed straight up. "You've got the big gun. You lead this time."
"As ordered." With the rifle cradled in perfect firing position in his hands, Jag lunged back into the corridor and ran the ten paces straight to the open door of the engine room.
Jag whirled inside, the rifle spitting white-hot bolts of plasma faster than he could aim. The three troopers just inside the door staggered backward from the force of the unexpected blows to their armor. They tried to raise their blasters toward him, but he whipped the muzzle back and forth to keep up a continuous spray of laser fire on them.
The other raiders in the engine room were starting to react. Over the sharp retorts of his rifle Jag heard them shouting, scrambling for weapons and cover. He took two strides forward, keeping his shots directed at the three closest troopers. In his peripheral vision he saw Jaina duck past him and dive into a firing crouch behind one of the heavy mechanical cabinets near the door.
One of Jag's scattered shots caught a gap in a trooper's armor, taking him down instantly. Jag risked the time to aim a shot at the head of the next trooper, and in the moment it took that enemy to duck he blasted three bolts squarely into the chestplate of the third. The surviving trooper got off an awkward shot at Jag, but it was too little too late – the unrelenting barrage from the disruptor finished him off.
Immediately he assessed the situation in the engine room. Jaina already had gunned down two Rodians and a human raider. Another armored trooper was firing at her from behind the large cylindrical sublight drive core while she tried to take out the Zabrak scurrying forward from the hyperdrive area.
Without hesitating Jag rushed toward the trooper. Blaster bolts from the Zabrak flew at him, but he pressed onward. Three long strides later he burst around the drive core and opened fire on the trooper. His opponent never even got off a shot – the vicious blasts from the disruptor were simply too much.
Jag whirled at the sound of thumping boots and gunned down an Aqualish making a mad dash for the door. A shot from Jaina took out the Zabrak. And just like that, it was over.
Beep.
Ba-bweep.
Jag turned and looked down at the base of the sublight drive core. Sure enough, a blinking device was affixed to the metal surface. "Jaina?"
She rushed to his side. "Electromagnetic pulse detonator."
He whistled. "They do know what they're doing."
Beep.
Ba-bweep.
"Yeah." She canted her head. "There's another one on the hyperdrive."
He glanced at the blinking indicator on the detonator at his feet. "Not much time. I can get this one."
"Perfect," she said, already running toward the hyperdrive area further back in the room.
"I think." Dropping to a knee, Jag set the rifle on the floor and reached for the detonator. His fingers traced quickly over the keypad. Fortunately the boarders hadn't expected resistance in the engine room, and a simple press of a button deactivated the timer.
Ba-bweep-eep.
"Jaina?" he called out, rising to his feet.
"Kinda busy here."
Ba-bweep-eep.
Jaina was certainly more adept at any sort of electronics, so Jag's immediate reaction was one of concern. He started in her direction –
"Impressive," a baritone male voice boomed from behind Jag. "Most impressive."
Jag spun around to see the cyborg standing in the open portal to the engine room. He took dead aim at the man's chest.
Ba-bweep-eep.
"You are a most difficult man to capture." The cyborg smacked his clenched flesh fist into the open palm of his silver robotic hand. "It appears I will have to finish this myself."
Jag took three strides forward, putting himself squarely between the cyborg and the path to the hyperdrive area. "You can try."
Ba-bweep-eep. Ba-bweep-eep.
The cyborg lunged, and Jag squeezed the disruptor's trigger.
The rifle fizzled and sputtered. He held it out, eyeing the battery readout. Out of power!
Ba-bwee-ooo-eep.
Jag sidestepped, barely avoiding an attempt to grapple him to the floor. Instinctively he swung the inert rifle like a bludgeon straight for the cyborg's head.
The cyborg didn't even try to dodge the blow. The rifle clanged into the silver metal on the left side of his head and bounced away harmlessly.
"Oh, not good," Jag muttered.
The cyborg lunged again, and Jag sprang to the side. Despite the attempted evasion, the cyborg's boot slammed into Jag's chest, sending him sprawling backward to collide with the sublight drive cylinder.
Ba-bwee-ooo-eep.
The cyborg laughed. "You're running out of time, Knight Solo."
Jag shook his head to clear the haze of the collision, and try to make one cyborg out of the two he saw.
Ba-bwee-ooo-eep.
"It's a shame," the cyborg continued, drawing a blaster as he strode deeper into the engine room, "that you won't live to find out if you'd have deactivated it in time."
Ba-bwee-ooo-eee-wooo-eep.
Jag reached for the blaster pistol tucked in his belt –
Ba-bwee-ooo-eee-wooo-eep.
And found nothing. It must have fallen out during the fight! With no time to look for it and no options left, Jag hurled himself toward the cyborg with all his strength.
Ba-bwee-ooo-eee-wooo-eep.
Jag chopped his arm at the cyborg's robotic hand, which held the blaster aimed toward Jaina. His opponent let the blow come –
Ba-bwhooooooooo…
– and only then did Jag see the vibroblade in the cyborg's other hand. Just as the cyborg squeezed the trigger Jag slammed into him, and the shot flew wide.
Jaina! Darkness engulfed Jag's vision as the vibroblade sliced into his gut. I'm sorry!