Lords of the Sith Read Online Free

Cham’s eyes followed hers to the viewscreen. They couldn’t see the hijacked freighter, of course, but Cham could imagine it in his mind’s eye. And now he imagined Vader aboard it.
    “Situation, Pok.”
    For a moment, Pok didn’t answer. Perhaps his attention was onsomething else, then, “Engines are dead, Cham. Weapons are destroyed. We’re…boarded somehow. You heard.”
    “How’d he board?” Cham asked. “Is he alone?”
    “I don’t know,” Pok said, then to someone on the bridge, he added, “I need that information now,” then, “Cham, there are twenty-six of us here. We can fight. Make them pay, at least.”
    “Pok…,” Cham began, but Pok spared him the need to say it.
    “Don’t worry. We won’t be taken. My crew knew the risks when they volunteered for this. Unfortunately I can’t self-destruct with the engines offline, but I’ve got a team of my best on the way to the cargo hold. We can use the weapons there as a fail-safe…What? Hold, Cham.” Some background chatter that Cham could not make out, then Pok’s voice: “Well, raise them. Raise them right now.”
    A pause, then someone in the background said, “They’re not responding, Pok.”
    Cham muted the comm and said to his engineer, “Keep us hidden and tell me instantly if any of those V-wings so much as heads in our direction.”
    Cham knew V-wings had little in the way of long-distance sensors, but he had moved the freighter to the edge of the rings. Even the V-wings would pick it up if they got close enough.
    “Yes, sir,” the engineer said. “They look like they’re holding formation around the weapons transport.”
    “We can’t just let him kill himself,” Isval said to Cham, her voice tense. “Let’s get out there and help them. We can fight our way out.”
    “They’re dead in space,” Cham said, and instantly regretted his choice of words.
    “Cham—”
    Cham ignored her and unmuted the connection. “Pok?”
    Pok cleared his throat. His bridge was quiet. “I’ve lost the team I sent to the hold, Cham. I don’t know what…they’re not answering their comms. Vader must have intercepted them.”
    Cham clenched a fist but kept his calm. “Understood.”
    Isval spoke through clenched teeth, slow for emphasis. “We should help them.”
    Cham muted the connection and whirled on her, the thread of his patience finally snapping.
    “Help them how, Isval? They’re without engines and surrounded! Even if we could destroy every V-wing, and you know we can’t, it would take time to get them from their ship to ours. There’s a Star Destroyer on the way, and some…man is aboard who managed single-handedly to wipe out a group of Pok’s best people!”
    She held her ground in the face of his outburst. The rest of the crew buried their faces in their stations.
    “Vader’s not a man,” she said tightly. “Not from what I’ve heard.”
    “Yes, he is,” Cham said, loud enough for the entire bridge crew to hear him. “He has to be. But there’s nothing we can do to help that won’t end with all of us dead, too. Pok knows it; they all know it. And we all know it.” He sagged and looked back at the viewscreen. “We don’t like it, but we all know it.”
    Pok’s voice came over the comm. “Cham is right, everyone. We knew the risks. We took them willingly.”
    Cham cursed. He thought he’d muted the connection. “Pok, I’m sorry.” Emotion choked his voice. “I thought…”
    “I know,” Pok said, and chuckled—actually chuckled. “Is that Isval over there?”
    “It is, Pok,” she said.
    “Still blowing in like a sandstorm, I see,” Pok said. “That’s good. I’m glad we got to say good-bye. You keep Cham on course, all right? He’s too damn principled for his own good.”
    “It doesn’t have to be good-bye,” Isval said, and stared at Cham.
    “It does and it is. We’ll see if we can’t kill this Vader first, though. I’ve got an ambush set up…”
    Someone on Pok’s bridge crew