Star Wars: Crosscurrent Read Online Free PDF Page B

Harbinger , but only for a moment. I will board it, and that will get me into one of the dreadnought's landing bays." He considered the grenades in his pockets. "From there, I'll see what I can do."
    For a time, Drev said nothing, then, "Are you sure this is the way, Master? If you succeed, that takes care of only one of the dreadnoughts."
    "That we may not accomplish everything is no reason to do nothing. We cannot let that cargo get to Kirrek. Or at least not all of it. We stop what we can here, doing whatever we must. If I destroy or disable the first ship, we'll figure out a way to do the same to the other."
    "Understood."
    "Entering the air lock," Relin said. He opened the interior air lock door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him. He disengaged the safety and pressed the button to open the exterior door. A red light flashed for three seconds to indicate the pending evacuation. Relin held the safety bar as the hatch slid open and the air rushed out into space.
    "Coming up on the transport now, Master."
    Relin moved to the open hatch as Drev eased the Infiltrator over the transport and matched its course and speed as best he could. The awkward transport was a flying storage crate, a gray wedge of a hold with a transparisteel bubble cockpit tacked on to its underside. Like all Sith ships, it still managed to look like a flying blade.
    Dark side energy leaked from its cargo hold in palpable waves, making Relin temporarily dizzy.
    "Master?"
    They would be spotted in moments. He had to move.
    "Have you ever gone angling, Drev?" Relin asked.
    "Angling?"
    "Fishing. You know."
    "No, Master. I have not."
    Relin tried to smile, failed. At that moment, he would have paid a thousand credits to hear Drev's laugh. "Neither have I."
    "May the Force be with you, Master."
    Relin picked a spot on the spine of the transport, closed his eyes, felt the Force. His mastery of the telekinetic use of the Force was not advanced enough to pull a moving ship to him, but that was not what he intended to do.
    "A scanner has picked up our ship," Drev said, tension in his voice.
    "Our usual encrypted channel, Drev. And minimal chatter."
    "Yes, Master. And…don't miss," Drev said, and chuckled.
    Smiling, Relin reached out with the Force, took mental hold of the Sith transport, and leapt out of the Infiltrator into open space.
    "I am clear," he said, and Drev peeled off.
     
     
    THE PRESENT:
    41.5 YEARS AFTER THE BATTLE OF YAVIN
     
    The screams from outside Jaden's window turned to laughter as an open-top speeder streaked past. He heard music booming from the speeder's speakers. The sounds faded as it flew away.
    It took a moment for him to understand what had occurred.
    Adolescents, he realized. Probably on a late-night thrill ride.
    "Stang," he whispered, but he did not deactivate his lightsaber. Its hum filled the room, a comforting sound. The images from the vision remained sharp in his mind.
    The whir of R6's servos announced the droid's entrance into the room. Seeing Jaden standing in his nightclothes with his lightsaber burning, R6 cut short his beeped greeting to whistle a concerned question. Jaden did not fully understand droidspeak, but he usually got the gist of R6's communications. Or perhaps he assumed R6 said or asked whatever Jaden wished him to say or ask.
    "I guess that makes you my confessor," he said to the astromech. "Congratulations."
    R6 beeped the question again, and Jaden smiled.
    "Nothing. A bad joke. And I am fine. I had an…unusual dream."
    But Jaden knew it had not been a dream. It had been a Force vision.
    R6 hummed understanding and whistled out the first stanza of a lullaby.
    Jaden smiled at the droid, though his mind was still on the vision. He had never before had one so vivid.
    What had it meant?
    Dead Jedi and Sith resurrected, an icy moon in the Unknown Regions, a rain of evil, and the repeated cry for help. He could not make sense of what he had seen, so he tried to recall what he had felt—the uncomfortably