Star Wars: The New Rebellion Read Online Free PDF Page B

cringed. She nodded once to acknowledge him, and kept moving. The guard was flanking her.
    More rubble dropped from the ceiling. She crouched, hands over her head to protect herself Small pebbles pelted her, and the floor shivered as large chunks of tile fell. Dust rose, choking her. She coughed, feeling it, but not able to hear it. Within an instant, the Hall had gone from a place of ceremonial comfort to a place of death.
    The image of the death’s-head mask rose in front of her again, this time from memory. She had known this was going to happen. Somewhere, from some part of her Force-sensitive brain, she had seen this. Luke said that Jedi were sometimes able to see the future. But she had never completed her training. She wasn’t a Jedi.
    But she was close enough.
    An anger flowed through her, deep and fine. She let her hands drop. The tiles had stopped falling, at least for the moment. She beckoned Meido and anyone else who could see her. If she couldn’t hear, they couldn’t either. And they all had to get out.
    She glanced up once. The blast had made several holes in the ceiling—big, jagged, gaping holes in the crystal inlay. All of the tile put in by the Emperor had come loose and was falling like hail across the Hall. Other senators were standing. A few ancient protocol droids were lifting chunks of debris and pushing them aside, apparently in an attempt to get someone underneath free. M’yet Luure’s junior senator was already halfway up the stairs, his six legs and long tail blocking the exit for half a dozen other senators. Of Luure, she saw no sign.
    The guard took her arm and gestured forward. She nodded, shook him free, and kept moving. She expected more blasts and got nervous each time one failed to happen. This attack was unlike any she had ever felt. Why hit the Senate Hall once and then quit?
    She slipped on broken tile, almost fell, put out her left hand to brace herself, and found it in something squishy. She turned, and saw that her hand rested on one of M’yet Luure’s six legs. It had been blown away from his body. She scrambled toward him, hoping that he was alive, shoving aside rock, tile, and marble as she searched—
    —and then stopped when she found his face. His eyeswere open and empty, his mouth half-closed over his six rows of teeth. She ran a bloody hand along his torn cheeks.
    “M’yet,” she said, the word rumbling in her throat. He didn’t deserve to die like this. She hated his politics, but he was a good friend, a decent friend, and one of the best politicians she had ever met. She had hoped to convert him to her ways. She had hoped he would work with the Republic in a leadership position one day, outside the Senate, where he would be a strong voice for change.
    The doors opened. Blinding light filled the Hall. Leia braced herself and propped her blaster on a nearby rock. Then she saw her own security people hurrying in. She got up and ran to them, struggling on stairs and debris, trying not to trip.
    “Hurry!” she said as she reached the top. “We have wounded below!”
    One of the guards spoke back to her, but she couldn’t hear him. Instead, she surveyed the damage from above. Each seat was covered with debris. Most of the senators were moving, but many weren’t.
    The tone had truly been set for this Senatorial term.
    And for that, the Empire would pay.

Five

    T he boom made the glow panels dim in the Crystal Jewel. Then the ground shivered. Droid dealers all over the casino wailed as they shook on their moorings. Han’s precariously tilted chair fell. He slipped off it and caught it with one hand. Jarril toppled against the table, spilling the remaining drinks.
    “What the—?”
    “Groundquake?” someone asked.
    “… falling …”
    “… Look out!”
    The screams and shouts drowned out any attempt at conversation, not that Han was going to try. He’d lived through enough over the years to know that that was no groundquake. That was an explosion.
    He