"You should probably get that shoulder looked at," Jesper commented helpfully as they feverishly flicked switches and toggles, the ship lurching beneath them.
"Sure. I'll worry about it once we're not busy staying alive."
Jesper frowned. "You're in a. . . jagged. . . mood."
"I just watched several men get shot in front of me, and shot the shooters in a futile attempt to stop it. Apologies I'm not feeling like my usual happy-go-lucky self."
"You're never happy-go-lucky," was all Jesper said. Silence fell in the cockpit as they busied themselves with their tasks, not looking at each other.
In fact, it was only broken by Inej's profuse swearing at the site of the long line of side-to-side Star Destroyers hovering just beyond the atmosphere. This, incidentally, also broke the not-looking-at-each-other streak, since Jesper shot her a shocked glance. Inej wasn't the sort you'd expect to say such foul things, but he supposed she had been Kaz's partner once upon a time. It made sense that she'd know more than a few offensive Huttese expressions.
"What's our game plan?" he asked, because while he was the better pilot, she was technically the leader on this mission - not to mention she had a lot more experience evading Imperials than he did.
"Fly casual," she said through gritted teeth as they broke through the atmosphere. Whether the tension was from their current situation or her previous one, Jesper didn't know. "If we continue to masquerade as here on Van Eck's behalf, then they might just think we're a civilian ship and let us through-"
"Unidentified shuttle, please return to Eadu. This is the Imperial Star Destroyer Vigilance commanding you to return to the surface-"
"Great. They're hailing us."
"So much for that plan." Inej sounded so. . . dejected. . . in that moment that Jesper wanted to give her a hug. "Hyperspace coordinates?"
"Still being plotted. It'll take a few more minutes at least."
"We don't have a few more minutes." Inej blew her breath out through her teeth. "We can't return to Eadu. They'll figure out our ruse and slaughter us all."
"Someone's cheerful today," he muttered to himself, before he jerked his head up and his hands began to fly over the controls. "I have an idea."
"What are you-" She cut herself off as the ship shot forward, her own breath searing the back of her throat. "-doing?"
"Would you be upset if I said 'improvising'?" He tried for a grin, and was rewarded by Inej huffing a reluctant laugh. The hands that were gripping the console were still white with strain, but at least she was smiling.
"This is great. I get used to dealing with Nina and now there's two of you," she quipped. Jesper had to chuckle. "And what are you doing?" The question came just as one of the Star Destroyers loomed up ahead. He jerked the controls so hard the Barrel barely skimmed the surface. "Jesper!"
"I know what I'm doing."
"They're firing up their surface cannons!"
"Counting on it."
"Unidentified shuttle, please divert from your flight path or we will be forced to fire on you. I repeat, unidentified shuttle, please-" A voice interrupted in the background: "Just blast them already!"
The comm transmission clicked off.
"Well," Inej said, mirth gone. There was a queasy feeling in her stomach. They were all going to die, simple as that. "This is fun."
"Glad you think so," Jesper murmured back, then shouted, "Kaz! Nina! Merchling! Get on the cannons and aim for those towers!"
Inej sat back with her arms crossed; she didn't know what he was doing, and he didn't seem to need her to pilot anyway. "So we're taking out the surface cannons on one of the Destroyers to stop them shooting at us. So what? There are at least five other ships up here with fully functional weaponry able to take a shot."
"Not," panted her companion, "if we're right on top of one of their own."
"Tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking-"
He dived down to the surface of the Destroyer they were flying at.
The rattle of blasterfire sounded from below, and Nina whooped as a tower to their left exploded into sparks. There was a similar rattle to their right but Kaz was more reserved - he didn't cheer at his kill.
"Coordinates?" Jesper's voice was strained.
Inej glanced at the navicomputer. "Thirty seconds."
A pained grunt was the only reply she received as he took them in a spin to duck away from the barrel of another tower and the surface gun mounted on it. Nina took that one down too.
"Twenty seconds." Inej glanced into the bridge of the Star Destroyer as they flew over the viewport. For a moment, she could see through it - could watch the gaping Imperial officers as they soared by. "They'll dispatch TIE fighters soon."
"Not before we jump to hyperspace. They won't have time." There was a grim certainty to Jesper's voice. He barely glanced at the console as his hands darted across it; every inch of his being was riveted to the viewport and beyond.
There was a grinding, then a shout of dismay from Nina. "The cannon's stuck in forward position; I can't move it. And there's a tower firing up to blast us."
Inej saw Jesper's throat bob; his hair was clinging to his forehead with sweat. "Hold on," he replied. "Inej, disengage the front repulsors."
For an instant all she could do was gape. "Have you gone mad-"
"Do it!"
She did it. She choked on her own breath as the back repulsors shoved them forwards, then the nose was dipping towards the surface of the Destroyer and the back end was lifting and then they were vertical and Inej could see the blast marks and dents on the surface of the Destroyer in excruciating detail. . .
. . .and Nina, looking out of the underbelly of the ship, had a clean, straight shot at the tower targeting them. It exploded with more of a whimper than a bang.
"Coordinates calculated," Inej said. Jesper nodded grimly, then he yanked the ship up over the main bulk of the Destroyer, and for an instant they were facing the planet Eadu again.
For an instant, Inej had the perfect view of a moon-sized battle station peering at her from over the curve of the cerulean atmosphere.
For an instant, she saw the green turbolaser streak to hit the surface of Eadu, and the billow of debris that reached halfway to space because of it.
Her eyes bulged out of her head; she choked on her own heart-
Then the stars turned to a tunnel of streaks and the ruined planet was left far behind.
"What," Nina heard Inej shout, storming out of the cockpit, "the kriff was that."
Matthias looked somewhere between petulant and scandalised at her choice of language, but everyone else wore looks of confusion - except Wylan and Kuwei. Kuwei's bronze face had been leeched of colour as he bit his lip; Wylan's mouth was set in a grim line as he nodded.
"That, Captain," Jesper proclaimed loudly as he strode in after her, "was the superweapon this entire trip is about."
Inej's mouth fell open. Nina had genuinely never seen her friend look so terrified. "That- that thing-"
"That's what we're up against, yes."
Inej's mouth formed words, but none of them were voiced. Instead, all of her heavy breathing and valiant attempts at speech culminated in a anticlimactic, "Oh."
Kuwei spoke up. "The weapon - it was used?"
Both Inej and Jesper jerked their heads towards the newcomer. Both "Yes," and "Who are you?" came at the same time.
Kuwei lifted his chin slightly, but everyone could see that it was trembling.
Nina decided to step in. "This is Kuwei Yul-Bo, Bo Yul-Bayur's son," she explained. "I said we'd get him out."
Wylan turned on Kuwei. "Your father designed that thing?" There was something uncomfortably close to a hiss in his voice. It made Nina uncomfortable, hearing the seemingly innocent man - boy, really - with such venom in his voice. "Do you have any idea what it's done-"
"Quiet, lordling," Nina snapped. Yelling at Wylan was like kicking a wounded puppy, but a fierce protectiveness of Kuwei welled up in her chest. He was just a boy - he'd loved his father so much - he'd had so much faith in the Jedi when she stumbled through that window. . . "Unless I need to remind you that your own father had a pretty big part to play in the development of that thing as well, Van Eck."
Wylan flinched. "I-"
"The Death Star just fired on Eadu," Jesper said flatly. "It wiped out half the surface of the planet. We barely escaped. And that was only an inkling of its destructive capabilities. Wylan and I saw it blow up-"
"Not now, Jesper," Inej said quietly. Nina was inclined to agree. She herself was clenching her fists so tightly it hurt, and Inej was holding herself up, rigid, all muscles wound with tension. Kuwei was shaking, leaning hard against the dejarik board. Wylan looked like he was about to collapse, too. Matthias was the only one sitting down, stoic and silent. Even Kaz looked ill.
The silence that fell was stifling.
Inej was the one to break the stillness. She moved, slowly but surely, her motions full of grace, over to Kuwei. She supported his elbow with one hand and guided him onto the bench next to Matthias. He slumped in the seat, and she sat down next to him.
"Your father was Bo Yul-Bayur?" she asked. Nina didn't miss the "was".
Kuwei nodded mutely.
"Then I'm so sorry."
A bitter smile wreathed Kuwei's lips. "So I take it there was no chance he survived the Death Star blast?"
Inej shook her head. Her hair more out of her ponytail than in it, bounced around her face. "No," she said. "He didn't live to see his creation turned on him. One of the officers shot him and his team just after they witnessed something on a viewscreen. I don't know what it was-"
"The destruction of the planet Alderaan," Jesper, who would not be shushed, said.
Inej closed her eyes briefly, and although Nina had long sworn not to probe her friends' emotions, she thought she sensed a weight settling on the spy's soul. A weight far, far heavier than that of any of her previous missions.
She said to Kuwei, "I'm sorry I couldn't save him."
Then she walked out of the room.
Nina watched her go, something inside her aching in unison.
She jumped when, behind her, Kuwei said, "You're a Jedi."
"Yes," Nina tried at humour, forcing a smile onto her face, "we've established that."
Kuwei didn't blink. "I want to be trained as a Jedi."
Nina hid her shock with, "I thought you were Force-sensitive."
Kuwei nodded. "My father was as well - he was too weak to be of any use to the Jedi Order, so he used his affinity with the Force to study kyber crystals." He lifted his chin. This time, it didn't shake. "But I'm strong enough. I can be trained."
Nina frowned at him. "Yes, you can be. But are you sure you want to be?"
"Maybe not as a Jedi," he admitted. "But. . . I want to be able to defend myself. I want to have those skills in my repertoire. The age of the Jedi is over, but their abilities aren't obsolete. I want to be able to take on Koroleva with a lightsaber if it comes down to it; I want to be able to jump long distances like you did." A pause, then: "I want to be able to stop anything like this from ever happening again."
Nina opened her mouth, then closed it. Then she walked over to where she'd dumped her satchel on top of the dejarik board.
When she drew out Zoya's lightsaber, her heart constricted in her chest. This was her Master's - no one else's.
But she didn't have any other spares.
Still facing away from Kuwei, she ignited the saber. The beam that shot out was blue - the blue of the planets Eadu's atmosphere, the blue of Alderaan's seas, the blue of Zoya's eyes. The blue of all that was lost.
She shut it off again just as quickly. When she turned to face Kuwei, she was ashamed to say that her eyelashes were damp.
"Here," she said, holding it out to him. "You can practice with this."
She was acutely aware of Matthias's gaze on her. Everyone else seemed to have looked away or found somewhere else to be. But Kuwei was the only person she looked at.
And as he took the lightsaber from her, she saw herself reflected in his eyes. To him, she looked ancient. Trustworthy. A lifeline to cling to.
Wise and strong and powerful.
She'd do her best. She'd do her best to teach him, but. . .
Nina wished she could believe in that lie herself.
