his salute while his hand closed on something small and hard. One Bakuran
dropped to a firing crouch.
Smoothly Thanas drew out his pearl-handled folding knife. Ignoring the
guard, he tucked his chin to his chest and sliced the red and blue rank
insignia from his uniform. He pulled it off by one corner and dropped it into
a poc ket.
Then he turned to the crouching guard. "Sir," he said, "take me to Prime
Minister Captison. If you mean to refit a Carrack'-class cruiser for service,
you need experienced advice. I know that cruiser."
The Bakuran lowered his Imperial blaster rifle. "Under the Alliance, sir?
"
Thanas nodded. "That's right, soldier. Under the Alliance. I'm defecting.
"
"Uh, yessir. Follow me."
Thanas followed at a quick march to a Bakuran landspeeder.
One TIE fighter went to the Alliance as booty. Commander Luke Skywalker
pulled rank and got the shuttle mission... with the medic's reluctant
approval.
Approaching the captured Ssi-ruuvi cruiser, newly repaired and
rechristened Sibwarra (though its small Alliance crew called it the Flutie,
and he suspected that was the name that would stick), he gripped the controls
through the gloves of a full vacuum suit. Compared with an X-wing, this was
like riding an unshielded cargo box. It turned and accelerated like a
terrified womp rat, but it wobbled, unstable in every vector plane.
It wasn't just his lifelong urge to fly a TIE fighter--once--t had driven
him to request this mission. He must return to that Ssi-ruuvi bridge for a
final glimpse. He felt as if the odor of darkness still clung to him, he'd
come so close to falling. How many times must he renounce the darkness? As he
grew in power and knowledge, would temptation beckon again and again?
Gingerly he docked the fighter in a vast Ssi-ruuvi hangar bay, perhaps
the same one where Han had landed the Falcon to rescue him. The Bakuran
replacement crew would surrender it to a Rebel pilot for transport to the
Fleet, eventually, since Luke's carrier had been destroyed. There would be
regular communications between Bakura and the Alliance, now. Admiral Ackbar
might want to use the TIE fighter in some future undercover operation,
although Luke would recommend shredding it for flak.
Hurriedly he made his way to the bridge, where he stood for a moment in
the hatchway and watched a bustle of activity.
It looked foreign, but not hostile. It was only a place built of metals
and plastics. Yet the ship's very bulkheads seemed haunted with Dev's long
deception and his years of servitude, andwiththe slaved human energies Luke
had liberated.
Light endured, and so did darkness. He would choose daily.
Luke walked the cruiser from top to bottom. When he finished, three hours
later, he left with a clear conscience. No captive human energies remained.
Han pressed one finger to his ear and waved Luke to a seat behind
Chewbacca. Once his hand dropped, he growled at Chewie, "I don't care what you
were doing. Recording circuits ought to be on at all times."
Chewie clanged a bulkhead with his spanner. Evidently the often-modified
Falcon was up to her old tricks.
"What is it?" Still standing, Luke waded into the argument.
"Subspace radio, relayed from maximum range. From Ackbar, too, coded. I
had to decode as it came in, since Furball here disengaged the automatic--"
"Ackbar?" Leia set a hand on Luke's shoulder. He touched it, grateful for
her consolation.
"Yeah," drawled Han. "Something about "Imperial battle group,"' something
something "smallea"' and "qkly if we can."'"
"We scattered so many of them, back at Endor." Leia leaned forward.
"Ackbar's scouts have probably found a group he thinks we could handle. The
Empire is still vast. We must maintain the momentum of their downslide."
"Well, then," said Luke, "time to head back. After...?" He glanced down
at Han for confirmation.
"Oh, yeah. Sure, kid," Han mumbled. "Might as well strap in, Leia. Luke
has business to finish. It'll just take a minute."
"Now, Mistress Leia," Threepio called over the comlink from his post with
Artoo at the gaming table. "Let me tell you how I arrived at the Falcon,
dressed in stormtrooper armor..."
Luke made his way to the primary airlock, where Chewbacca had carried
Dev's body. Sorrowfully, he reached down and brushed Gaeri's feather-soft
shawl with his fingertips. Chewbacca had wrapped it tightly around Dev's head
and shoulders, after swathing the rest of him in an old blanket. He'd lost
them both, Gaeriel and Dev... yet both had touched and taught him. Both would
live in his memory. "Thanks," he whispered.
"Ready, Luke?" Leia asked softly over the comlink.
Luke backed out of the airlock. Automatically it hissed shut behind him.
"Wait a minute," he told her. He hurried back to the cockpit and stared out
the main viewport.
Leia clasped his hand. Han pulled the hatch release, then reversed
lateral thrusters. As the Falcon accelerated heavenward, Dev's body plummeted
toward Bakura. It finished burning, clean and brightly, down through the
planet's high atmosphere.
Luke stared at the meteor, a momentary flare of brilliance... like all
life. Nothing really, in the sweep of time. But everything, in the Force.