Free Star by Star by Troy Denning

“I fly a very fine Y-wing.”
    Any need to apologize was forestalled by a proximity alarm. Another vessel, this one a fast-freight tagged the
Jolly Man
, emerged from hyperspace to block the
Roamer
’s line of escape. The CorDuro ship continued on course and began to fire, lacing the darkness outside with tiny needles of light. A trio of ancient Z-95 Headhunters dropped out of the
Jolly Man
’s belly and moved to meet it. The
Roamer
started to turn away—then suddenly changed its mind and ran toward the tiny sun.
    “He’s going down the gravity well! On a white dwarf!” Han engaged the ion drives—still a little cold—and launched the
Falcon
. “He must be crazy.”
    “No,” Tesar said. “He is frightened.”
    The reason grew apparent an instant later, when a blip in hot pursuit emerged from behind an asteroid. A tag naming the vessel the
Sureshot
appeared, along with a legend identifying it as a CEC YT-1300 stock light freighter—the same ship as the
Falcon
.
    “She’s not as fast as the
Falcon,
” Izal Waz said proudly. “But … well, she still flies.”
    The
Roamer
quickly started to pull away from the
Sureshot
, but its abrupt change of direction had given the
Jolly Man
’s Headhunters time to catch up. They took a few passes, taking out the energy shields and forcing the captain to waste time maneuvering or have a hole burned through his bridge. Finally, the
Sureshot
activated its tractor beam and caught hold of the target.
    The
Roamer
stopped maneuvering and continued to accelerate, firing at the
Sureshot
and dragging the smaller freighter after it. The Headhunters took care of the cannon fire in two passes, but they could not target the drive nacelles without getting caught in the tractor beam. The
Sureshot
turned ninety degrees in an attempt to change vector, but the course did not vary noticeably. Its engines could not match the combination of the larger freighter’s power and the white dwarf’s gravity.
    “Smart,” Leia said. “He’s giving the
Sureshot
a choice—release or be dragged into the sun.”
    “Tesar,” Han said, “how long before they reach the point of no return?”
    Tesar had already done the calculations. “Ten minutes,” he said. “We will reach tractor range in five.”
    Han opened a comm channel. “Hold tight,
Sureshot
. Help’s on the way.”
    “Just don’t be all day about it,” came the reply.
    Leia spent the next few minutes scarcely breathing as the
Falcon
closed. The Headhunters continued to harry the
Roamer
, though it was just harassment and everyone knew it. On Leia’s recommendation, they opened a channel to the captain and promised to broker a lenient sentence in return for cooperating with New Republic Intelligence. The captain responded by promising not to drag the
Sureshot
into the sun in return for shutting off the tractor beam, then closed the channel. Izal Waz suggested offering the crew freedom in exchange for the bacta tanks, but Leia overruled that idea. If the captain knew what they were really after, there was a good chance he would destroy the tanks out of vindictiveness.
    So they waited and watched on the tactical display as the other two flights of Wild Knights used the Yuuzhan Vong picket ship for target practice. Though the vessel was hurling an amazing amount of plasma and magma into space, the ancient starfighters always seemed to be where the enemy attacks weren’t, or to angle their shields at just the right time, or to take the Yuuzhan Vong gunners by surprise. The corvette analog disintegrated bit by bit, slowly at first, then more rapidly, and finally it simply flew apart and became indistinguishable from the dust ring.
    Han whistled. “Where were they when the Yuuzhan Vong attacked Ithor? The New Republic could use a few more pilots like those.”
    “This one does not think Master Luke would have approved,” Tesar said. “We are given to understand he does not want the Jedi to hunt as soldierz.”
    “You’re all