"What is it?" Khedryn asked.

"Sith," Jaden answered.

"Sith? Get us clear, Marr!" Khedryn glared at Jaden.

"I thought you said this was not a Jedi grand scheme?"

Relin slowed the pod only at the last instant, slamming on the reverse thrusters and hitting the ship in a crush of booming metal. He activated the magnetic seal on the pod's docking port, hoping that it would hold as he scrambled out of his seat and opened the air lock.

He had a tiny leak in the seal between ships-he could hear its hiss, but not see it-but he had some time before the pod would be depressurized and out of oxygen. He left the pod's inner air lock doors open to increase the amount of oxygen in the linkage. His damaged flexsuit would not protect him from a vacuum-Saes's lightsaber had taken off both arm and suit below his left elbow-but it still functioned enough that it would maintain his body temperature for a time.

He double-checked his gear: his lightsaber, a few more mag-grenades, his overrider, and his blaster. Good enough.

He knelt before the other ship's emergency external air lock control panel-the writing used an odd, stylized version of the Galactic Standard alphabet, but he could make it out-and attached his overrider to it. He had to strip the overrider's tines and improvise a connection because the panel's architecture was nonstandard. He activated it and waited, willing the red light to turn green. He figured he'd blow the inner doors with his remaining grenades.

"I had no idea," Jaden protested.

Marr started to bring Junker around when it shook with an impact, knocking Khedryn to his rump and slamming Marr's head against the console. Alarms sounded.

"What was that?" Jaden asked.

"Unknown," Marr said, dabbing at a bleeding gash in his forehead and tapping keys.

"Something hit us," Khedryn said.

"Debris, maybe," Marr said.

"Not debris," Jaden said, and activated his lightsaber.

"What are you doing?" Khedryn said, backing away from the green line of Jaden's saber.

A second alarm rang out. Marr spun in his seat. "Something has attached to the port docking ring. Someone is trying to board us."

"Stang!" Khedryn cursed, and drew his blaster.

CHAPTER NINE

Khedryn and Jaden sprinted through the ship's corridors, Khedryn leading, alarms blaring along the way.

Marr's voice sounded over Khedryn's comlink. "They are docked and have overridden the external doors. They are in the air lock."

"The cruiser?"

"Now at a full stop. It still has not scanned us as far as I can tell."

Jaden imagined the tiny freighter facing the huge cruiser across the void of space, a lava flea staring down a rancor.

"Keep me updated," Khedryn said.

They sped through the cargo hold, down a hall, and into a side compartment. Jaden could see the black of space through the occasional viewport. Ahead, he saw the twin hexagonal pressure doors that opened onto the air lock and the docking rings. Both remained closed. The green light above the far door indicated a successful dock.

Jaden put a hand up to slow Khedryn. He pressed his cheek against the nearest viewport and tried to get a look at the ship docked on the ring, but the angle provided poor visibility. The docked ship looked tiny, a small sphere like an escape pod, but no make that Jaden recognized.

To Khedryn, he said, "Probably best you keep your distance-"

An explosion blew the inner air lock door from its fittings and knocked Khedryn and Jaden to the ground. The impact of the falling door sent vibrations through the deck. Smoke filled the corridor, the sizzle of exposed, severed wiring.

Jaden's ears rang, but he still heard the dull clarion of the alarm and, through it, the hum of an activated lightsaber. Adrenaline allowed him to climb to his feet, groggy, his lightsaber in hand. Beside him, Khedryn did the same, blaster in his fist, his other hand on the bulkhead for balance.

Marr's voice crackled over Khedryn's comlink. "What was that? Khedryn?"

A human male in silver armor bounded through the breached doors, a green-not Sith red-lightsaber glowing in his fist. Oddly, a cable attached the hilt of the lightsaber to a power pack on his belt. His left arm was a stump below the elbow, the suit-not armor-black and frayed at the joint, as if it had been recently cut.

Khedryn did not hesitate and fired a series of blaster shots. The intruder's lightsaber turned from line to blurred circle as he weaved a defense that deflected each shot into the bulkheads.

"Stay back," Jaden said to Khedryn. He augmented his speed with the Force and rushed forward, feinting high and stabbing low.

Parrying the low stab as he sidestepped, the intruder spun into a reverse strike at Jaden's head. Jaden interposed his blade, met the man's hard eyes through the transparisteel of his helmet, and put a Force-augmented kick into his abdomen.

The impact slammed the intruder into the wall, elicited a wince and a grunt of pain. He doubled over for a moment, favoring his side. Taking advantage of the opening, Jaden unleashed an overhand slash, but the man spun aside and Jaden's blade cut a black groove in the bulkhead.

Jaden backflipped high into the air to avoid the intruder's reverse backslash and landed on the other side of the corridor, three meters away, trapping the intruder between Jaden on the one side and Khedryn on the other.

Jaden could not quite place the man's fighting style. He had seen nothing like it before.

Khedryn, now with another clear shot, leveled his blaster to fire but the intruder, his eyes on Jaden all the while, gestured with the stump of his left arm and the weapon flew from Khedryn's hand and skittered along the floor until it reached the man's feet.

Jaden and the man stared at each other, eyes narrow, blades held before them. The intruder's breath came hard, and his hunched posture indicated that Jaden's kick had done lasting damage to his ribs. His eyes moved alternately between Jaden's face and his blade.

Surprisingly, Jaden felt no additional pressure against his mind from the dark side. He would have expected a more acute thrust in the presence of a Sith.

Khedryn smashed the glass on an emergency tool bin and removed a hand sledge and ax. Jaden gave him credit for courage if not sense.

The intruder held his ground, breathing heavily, favoring his side. Seconds passed and no one moved to attack.

"How's this going to go, then?" Khedryn said, hefting hammer and ax.

The rhythm of the alarm kept time with Jaden's heartbeat, his breath. He felt the man testing his Force presence, as Jaden did the same to him.

Instead of the bitter tang of a Sith, he felt the kindred nature of an advanced light-side user, perhaps polluted a bit by anger, but definitely a light-side user. No doubt the intruder felt something similar from Jaden, though Jaden knew it was doubt and not anger that infected him.

"Who are you?" Jaden and the man asked simultaneously.

Both lowered their blades, puzzled looks in their eyes. The man touched a button on the control pad on his chest and threw back his helmet. Long black hair streaked with gray contrasted markedly with pallid skin. Dark circles under his eyes tried to bridge the hues of hair and skin.

"You are a Jedi," Jaden said, the words only half question.

"As are you," the man said, his voice a thickly accented dialect.

"Now it's a party," Khedryn said, lowering the hammer and ax.

Jaden deactivated his saber. "Did Grand Master Skywalker send you?"

Perhaps R6 had contacted the Order without Jaden's orders- "I know no Grand Master Skywalker." The man glanced around the ship. "Where am I? What system? I do not know this make of ship and you both speak oddly."