Razor's Edge: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) by Martha Wells Read Free Book Online

space. It had stopped returning fire and was apparently no longer able to use this opportunity to flee. The
Aegis
hadn’t changed its position. Leia could tell from the gunship’s outline that it had been augmented, though she wasn’t sure exactly how. Most pirates had special equipment for locking onto captive ships and drilling through hatches, as well as other methods of subduing their prey.
    The comm was silent. The
Aegis
would be reading the
Gamble
’s ID by this point; it was legitimate, listing the ship’s original commissioning on Sullust. She hit the pickup’s mute to tell Han, “Keep heading toward the station.”
    â€œYeah, Your Worship, I thought we’d do that.” He checked the sensors again. “You could’ve waited until we were a little closer to the station’s defense perimeter.”
    Yes, she probably could have.
If I was in my right mind,
Leia thought,
I would have.
She stared at the comm, willing it to respond.
    Then the comm beeped, and a voice from the
Aegis
said, “Who are you? How did you know this ship was Alderaanian?”
    The voice spoke Basic, and Leia thought it might be human, might be female, but through the faint but persistent static it was hard to tell. She hesitated. Despite her hopes, she had been expecting to be told to go to hell, or to be told that the crew had been spaced, or that it was none of her business, or most likely to get no answer at all. This sounded as if someone on the ship was willing to talk. She turned the pickup on again and replied, “I recognized it. I’m a survivor of Alderaan.”
    Urgent now, the voice said, “Tell me … Tell me who you are. Tell me how you survived.”
    Han leaned past Ilen and hit the mute on the comm board again. He said to Leia, “They want you to keep talking.”
    â€œI know that.” Leia bit her lip, tried to push aside her anger and fear for the fate of the
Aegis
’s former crew, to think this out logically. “If they’re trying to stall us …”
    Earnest and worried, Ilen said, “If we stall them, the station might be able to send ships out here to help the merchant freighter.”
    â€œThat’s the point I’m trying to make here,” Han said, exasperated. “We’re the ones who should be stalling them—”
    â€œâ€”so why do they want me to keep talking?” Leia finished. She glanced at the sensor screens again but the
Aegis
still hadn’t moved, and the
Gamble
was too far away now to get a weapons lock on the gunship unless it changed position.
Tell me how you survived,
she thought. Why that question, phrased that way?
    She pushed Han’s hand off the mute and said into the comm, “I was offplanet. Why do you want to know? Tell me who you are.” She hesitated, her heart pounding, and spoke on a hunch. “Tell me how
you
survived.”
    There was a silence that seemed to go on forever. At last the voice said, “I was offplanet.”
    Leia nodded to herself. Han shook his head, mouthed the words,
She’s just repeating what you said.
    But the voice continued talking. “We were on the far end of our patrol circuit, at the outer rim of the system. The sensors picked up the blast wave. We tried to go back, to see for ourselves … but there were Star Destroyers in the system. We fled.”
    Leia wet her lips. The
Aegis
must have been boarded at some point after that by pirates, before it could reach an Alliance base, or meet up with other surviving Alderaanian ships. But if there was one survivor of the crew aboard, there might be more. “Who has control of the ship now?”
    There was another hesitation. Then: “I do. I’m Captain Caline Metara.”
    Leia’s throat went dry. “Of the House of Metara?”
    â€œYes.” The word was almost breathless.
    Leia couldn’t believe it. The Metara family had served for