Birth of the Jedi

Chapter 8

VIII

The crew on the command deck of the Vengeance holds its collective breath, waiting for an explosion of Vang's wrath; but the eruption never comes.

Vang sighs heavily as if relieving the pressure of his rage through a valve, then turns to Saul and Riddick who are standing at attention behind him. "Failure should never be tolerated," he says as he stares at the empty view screen, "but one cannot plan for blind luck."

"But was it luck, master?" Saul asks cautiously.

Darth Vang pivots around, catching Saul's eyes with a look of frightening intensity. Then he smiles. "Yes. You are indeed in tune with the wisdom of the Force. That is why your life has been spared. It was not luck that guided the Jedi and her companions through their flight of suicidal bravado. The Force is strong with them."

"But the Force is stronger in us," says Riddick.

"Yes." Vang nods. "Yes it is. And despite this minor setback, the Jedi is almost within our grasp." He turns to his crew. "Determine the most likely courses their shuttle could have taken after clearing the Geonosian sun."

At his words, the crew of the Vengeance relaxes and resumes their flurry of activity, plotting out courses and mapping possible escape trajectories.

"Shall I send orders to the rest of the fleet?" asks a commander, approaching cautiously.

"Tell them we will exit the Geonosian system together and fan out. Despite their bold maneuver, our friends will not have gotten far. Their poorly equipped shuttle will not have endured such close exposure to solar energy well. They have bought themselves a few moments more, but soon their damaged shuttle will forsake them and they will be stranded, waiting for us to pluck them from the vacuum of space."

"Any sign of them?" Sahria asks, slipping into a chair beside Raun.

"Not yet." He flips several switches, keeping a constant eye on the sensors for any trace of Vang. "But rest assured they're not far behind . . . and coming fast." He turns to her with a grim look, but is forced to relax by her unfaltering confidence. "So how is KP coming along?"

"Fine. His systems weren't as fried as we feared they might be. His speech circuits certainly survived in tact. He wouldn't quit complaining long enough to give us any assistance, so we switched him off. We're managing fine without him, though. Padawan seems to be a natural with machines. He learns with remarkable speed and has a knack for problem solving."

"Well, he has quite a teacher. I can't believe you remember as much as you do, being isolated for as long as you were." Raun turns back to the helm. "So, are you still fiddling with that crazy sword of yours?"

"No. I'm finished with it. I've been able to equip this lightsaber with a sharper, more intense beam than the one I left on Nede' Fo-Nedrag. Still, I regret losing that one. It was starting to feel like an extension of my arm."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. Unless you can throw together a new shuttle and a fleet of Destroyers to escort us out of here, you won't be needing that thing anyhow. A stonemason's toy isn't going to do us much good if this shuttle gives out and strands us. I'm not sure how much life she has left in her."

Sahria leans forward and looks over the instrument panel. "How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad. We're limping along, though fortunately at a decent pace. But the life is slowly going out of her. We're going to have to land soon and either find a really good hiding place or an alternate means of transportation."