Elzar answered her question with one of his own. “How long is it since you flew a Vector?”

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

The Elegencia

“Time to arrival?”

Chell Trambin checked his systems. “Exiting the Path in five.”

“And the other ships? Has the Tempest signaled?”

“Not yet, Runner.”

Pan grunted. This in itself wasn’t unusual. Ship-to-ship communication while on a Path was tricky, but they would all be there, he was sure of that.

“Coming up on target,” the pilot reported. “Entering realspace in three … two …”

The Elegencia thudded to a halt in front of Cyclor, a handful of Cloud and Strikeships exiting the Path at the same time.

Pan’s mouth dropped open. He leaned forward, his command lounger creaking beneath his weight.

“What is this?”

The shipyards stretched in front of them, the hangars glittering in starlight, but they weren’t alone.

“Sir, those are—”

Pan completed Chell’s sentence with a snarl. “Skyhawks.”

And that wasn’t all. There were fighters from a dozen different worlds. Hosnian Prime. Corellia. Sullust. Iskalon. Even Shili.

“Where is the rest of the Tempest?” Pan barked, checking his displays.

Chell looked to his scopes. “Multiple signals coming in. It must be them now.”

“Show me.”

Holosquares appeared in front of him, feeding images from the aft. One by one, ships jumped into the system, but none of them were Nihil. They were Republic Longbeams and Jedi Vectors. Lots of Jedi Vectors, each cradled in a triangular hyperframe.

“It’s a trap,” Pan spluttered, the splutter turning into yet another hacking cough. This time there was no hiding the blood that splattered on the deck.

“They knew we were coming,” the Strike at the comm station groaned.

“But how?” Chell asked.

It was a good question, but not the one they should be asking, mainly because Pan already knew the answer.

Where the hell was Lourna Dee?

“All wings, report in.”

A litany of names came over the comm. Nib. Burryaga. Bakari. Porter. Vernestra and Imri. Other call signs followed, the Republic commanders adding their names to the roster, as did the members of the fleet that the Cyclorrian shipmaster had assembled following the bogus communication with Tia Toon. The Nihil had taken the bait, just as Stellan knew they would.

Only one thing worried him, a concern that Porter Engle immediately put into words: “Is that it?”

“Must admit, I thought there’d be more of ’em,” Nib chimed in from her own Vector.

“Maybe there aren’t as many as we thought?” Vernestra offered.

“Or they lost more over Valo than first estimated,” Engle added.

“Then how about we add to that number?” said a new voice. It was the commander of the lead Togruta warship, keen to get the fight under way, but Stellan couldn’t give the word, not until the Nihil took the first shot.