Reunion by Sean Williams Read Free Book Online

the two of them, although she couldn’t read lips well enough to work out exactly what was being said. Whatever it was, though, itresulted in the alien briefly lifting his mask, which in turn prompted a look of stunned amazement from Han.
    She didn’t see the alien’s face, so it came as a complete surprise when Han lowered the ramp the rest of the way and gestured for the alien to come aboard. He did so, tossing to the ground the metallic rod with which he’d been banging the ship. And as she watched the alien climb the ramp, Leia couldn’t quash a rising sense of unease in her stomach.
    “
Jade Shadow
, please respond!”
    Captain Mayn’s voice dragged Luke out of what felt like a very deep pit. The world was shaking around him, and a roaring sound filled his ears. Somewhere beyond the haze caused by the intense mental attack, he could feel Saba, Danni, and Tekli nearby, all out cold. Jacen’s mind was bright and conscious, already reaching out to the others. Farther away, but still in
Jade Shadow
, he could sense Soron Hegerty, sleeping heavily. And beside him, his wife, wrestling with the controls.
    “We’re kind of busy right now, Captain,” she said. Her voice sounded calm, but Luke could tell from her thoughts that she was also suffering the aftereffects of the attack. “We’ll get back to you the first chance we get, okay?”
    Before the
Widowmaker
could respond, Mara switched off the comm unit so there would be no more interruptions. The normally simple task of landing her ship was clearly taking a lot of concentration.
    “Where—?” Luke started, but his throat was too dry to get the words out. Pulling himself upright in his seat, he cleared his throat with a cough and tried again. “Where are we?”
    “Coming in to land,” she replied, not taking her eyes from the controls.
    Through the cockpit’s canopy, Luke could see the lush vegetation of the planet below. To the far south he noticed vast areas of cleared land—possibly the same scarring from the Yuuzhan Vong attacks Vergere had described, or perhaps lasting aftereffects of so many jumps through hyperspace, during its flight through the Unknown Regions. From far above, there was no way to tell.
    He glanced at his wife. The bags under her eyes were heavy and dark. “Are you all right?”
    “I guess,” she said distractedly.
    “What happened?”
    “I’m not sure. It felt like a Force punch—only a hundred times more powerful. Whatever it was, it managed to knock out everyone on this ship—and
keep
them unconscious, too.”
    “But not yourself?”
    Mara shrugged. “One minute I’m out like the rest of you; the next I’m awake and listening to Jacen take instructions over the comm.”
    “Jacen?”
    “He woke first. He thinks it was Zonama Sekot that knocked us out and woke him up later, but it was definitely someone on the surface who gave him coordinates and an approach corridor. He’d just finished explaining that he wasn’t the best person to pilot the ship when I woke up. That’d be the planet too, I guess. When I told them I would need to confer with you, the people on the ground said that wasn’t an option. Given what the
Shadow
’s recordings show, I didn’t think arguing with them was the most sensible thing to do.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She looked over to him, and this time there was more than just exhaustion in her eyes: there was a hint of nervousness as well. “Take a look for yourself,” she said, flipping a switch to begin the playback of the recording.“This was taken just before I was roused, after we came into the system.”
    Luke turned to the monitor and viewed the footage
Jade Shadow
’s instruments had managed to capture while the crew was insensate. It showed the Yuuzhan Vong ships he had glimpsed on their arrival, along with the spectacular pyrotechnic display put on by the planet. He had forgotten about the battle in the confusion of waking up, but seeing it again brought it all back. His