Read Online Star Wars: Crosscurrent by Paul S. Kemp - Free Book Online Page A

communicators. Relin used a telekinetic blast to slam both men against the far wall and they slumped to the floor, out of sight.
    Relin had seen a hyperdrive bisected once for engineers to study. The complexity of the circuitry, the odd geometry of its inner workings, had left him nauseous. And now that complexity, that geometry, began to do its work. Machinery clicked, connected, turned. The power conduits squirmed like snakes as more energy coursed through them. The hum increased in volume. Relin felt light-headed. Radiation filled the room, he knew. He would need treatment for radiation poisoning if he survived.
    If.
    He placed a hand on the hyperdrive. The metal felt warm, as slick as talc. It pulsed like a living thing, seeming to shift, to flow under his touch. A headache rooted in his left temple, intensified. His stomach flirted with nausea.
    He removed three of his mag-grenades from the pocket of his flexsuit, attached two of them to the face of the hyperdrive, a third to the main power conduit connection. He checked his chrono to mark the time and rapidly set the timers.
    The grenades began ticking away the remaining moments of Harbinger 's existence.
    He turned for the door, activating his communicator. "Charges are set. Heading out now, Drev."
    "Understood. The Blades have cleared out. Perhaps I have frightened them."
    Relin heard the beginning of a smile in his tone.
    Drev went on: "I am alone out here. Well, except for the two hulking dreadnoughts bristling with weapons."
    Relin stood amid the Massassi he had slaughtered. "Jump out of the system. With their ships clear, the cannons may fire."
    "They're preparing for a jump, Master. They won't risk firing."
    "They may. Jump out, Drev."
    "I am not leaving you."
    "Jump, Drev. That is an order."
    "No."
    Relin cocked his head. "No?"
    "I'm not leaving, Master. Both ships are in jump prep. Neither will risk firing."
    Relin shook his head, incredulous at his Padawan's stand. "You are leaving. Harbinger will not be able to jump, but Omen will. There's nothing we can do about that now. But we can warn Odan-Urr and Mernit Nadill about the ore and what it can do. That is your task."
    "No, I won't. We go together or not at all."
    Relin lost his calm for the first time since coming aboard the dreadnought.
    "You will do it and do it now. That is a direct order."
    "You're breaking up, Master."
    "Blast it, Drev! You heard—"
    "Understood, Master. I will get in close, scrape the surface of the ship. The laser cannons from Omen will not be able to engage me there, and for Harbinger it will be like using a club to swat a fly. Get to an escape pod and we'll dock. Out. And they won't fire anyway. Out, again."
    The link went quiet. "Drev? Drev?"
    His Padawan did not respond.
    "Blast!"
    "You have a way of losing your Padawans," said a coarse voice behind him, a voice that Relin still heard in the quiet, solitary moments of his life when he had only his failures for company.
    "Saes." The word came out a curse, and Relin accompanied its pronunciation with the sizzling sound that came with activation of his lightsaber.
    The Sith entered from the same corridor Relin had used. He wore the loose browns and blacks favored by dark side users. The red blade of his lightsaber filled the space between them. His scaly, reddish brown skin was the color of blood. He strode among the scattered Massassi parts that littered the bloody floor of the chamber, his eye ridge cocked, a sneer curling his lip over one of the small horns that jutted from the side of his jaw. His long hair, bound into a rope with bone circlets, hung to his waist.
    "I should have known it was you on my ship. Who else but a Jedi? Who else but Relin Druur? I learned such things from you." He shook his head, poked a Massassi corpse with a toe. "It seems long ago now."
    "You destroyed every life-form on that moon. You learned nothing from me."
    Saes laughed, the sound fat with contempt. "I learned much from you, but it was not what