Galaxy's Edge Read online

  Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  DEL REY and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  ISBN 9780593128381

  International edition ISBN 9780593156810

  Ebook ISBN 9780593128398

  randomhousebooks.com

  Book design by Elizabeth A. D. Eno, adapted for ebook

  Cover art: Darren Tan

  Cover design: Scott Biel

  v5.4

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  The Del Rey Star Wars Timeline

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Chapter One: Hidden Resistance Base, D’Qar

  Chapter Two: Hidden Resistance Base, D’Qar

  Chapter Three: Cerea, Four Months Later

  Chapter Four: Batuu

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen: On the Penumbra, A First Order Star Destroyer

  Chapter Fourteen: Batuu

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Chapter Fifty-four

  Chapter Fifty-five

  Chapter Fifty-six

  Chapter Fifty-seven

  Epilogue: Several Weeks Later

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  By Delilah S. Dawson

  About the Author

  A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

  At the edge of the galaxy

  So far away

  Black was the spire

  That called me to stay.

  A beacon for drifters

  Forgotten and lost

  The spires summoned those

  Broken and tossed.

  Come stay here forever

  Or just pass on through.

  The spirit of Black Spire

  Will forever change you.

  —old Batuuan ballad

  THE LIFE OF A RESISTANCE SPY was all about excitement—or at least, that’s why Vi Moradi signed up. That, and the chance to do some good and strike back at tyranny. As Vi stood outside the office of General Leia Organa, she was anxious to see what her next assignment would be. She was getting that old restless feeling and needed something to do, something real. On Major Kalonia’s orders, she’d spent the past several weeks recuperating from her last mission, and she was itching for activity beyond debriefing pilots and gathering intel from their droids on enemy firepower and fighting prowess. They knew the First Order was out there and supposedly unbeatable; did they really need to keep reaffirming that through numbers? Vi liked being an underdog, but she didn’t necessarily want to know the odds.

  “Come in, Magpie.”

  Vi smiled at the way Leia always used one of her call signs and stepped inside the makeshift office, taking a seat on an old red crate. “Good to see you, General.”

  Every time Vi was in the presence of General Organa, once Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, it felt a little like going home. Leia had a calm, steady presence, motherly but tough as nails, and no matter how dire things got, the older woman had a way of looking at each member of the Resistance as if they were the hero that could turn the tide against their enemy, the dreaded First Order that had risen from the Empire’s ashes. Leia returned Vi’s smile, her eyes twinkling.

  “I have a mission for you,” Leia said, her attention flicking from various holos to Vi and back. Leia’s mouth fell into a familiar grim line, which told Vi she wasn’t necessarily going to like her assignment. That was fine—she didn’t particularly like how her last mission had gone, either. It wasn’t her job to like it.

  “As you know, we’re massively outgunned. We don’t know what the First Order is planning, but it’s something big. Some kind of attack. I’m leaving immediately for Takodana to collect some valuable intel, so I wanted to meet with you personally and underline how very important your work will be.”

  “If you brought me in just to tell me it’s important, it sounds like it might not be that important. I’m ready to work, General. Major Kalonia signed off. I’m back in top form.”

  Leia’s gaze was unwavering. “I wouldn’t blame you if you just disappeared, after what happened to you on the Absolution. You were captured by the enemy, Vi. Tortured. Beaten. Shocked. Injured. I’ve read your med charts and your reports. Downplay it all you like, but an experience like that changes people. I should know.”

  Vi shook her head. “But I’m still me. So put me on a Star Destroyer and let me—”

  “No.” Leia cut her off, almost apologetic, and Vi’s mouth snapped shut. “This assignment might sound like a vacation, but I assure you, it’s of vast strategic importance. If you’re ready.”

  Vi shifted on the crate, her back aching. Leia was right—she’d taken a beating on her last assignment, and although most of her wounds had healed, her body wasn’t getting any younger. Leia had sent her to a forgotten planet called Parnassos to gather intel on the First Order’s Captain Phasma, which was challenging enough. But on her way home, Vi had been captured by a different First Order officer, Captain Cardinal.

  Instead of interrogating her through official channels or turning her over to Kylo Ren or General Hux, Cardinal had secretly taken her to a dank chamber in the ship’s lower levels and tortured
her for the information she’d collected on his rival in the First Order, Captain Phasma. In the end, Vi had managed to manipulate him into letting her go, and Cardinal had gone out to face Phasma in combat. Vi made it out of the enemy ship and back to the fleet, and for the last few weeks she’d struggled to process all that had happened to her and heal in body and mind. But despite what she’d told Kalonia and now Leia, was she really ready to go back to work?

  Well, was anyone ever ready to move on from trauma?

  It would never leave her, but she couldn’t stay still any longer. It wasn’t in her nature.

  “I’m ready,” she told Leia, putting the full force of conviction in her words.

  “Good.” Leia’s smile returned. “Should the First Order succeed in their attack, or should they find us here on D’Qar, we need two things most of all: allies and places to hide. So I’m looking for suggestions on a place so out of the way that the First Order would never even think of it, a place where we could set up camp and put down roots. Specifically, we need an inhabited planet with an active port and resources, but not anything big, not anything the First Order would find advantageous.”

  “Castilon isn’t safe anymore,” Vi thought out loud. “Not Pantora. Nowhere in the Core or Mid Rim, or any place where we’ve had a base before. Definitely not Parnassos.”

  “Definitely not. Think, Magpie.”

  Vi raised an eyebrow; Leia was not in a patient mood. “Batuu, maybe? I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never been there. It’s out on the edge of Wild Space. The main settlement is called Black Spire Outpost. It’s rough. Primitive. Seedy. Exciting. Smugglers consider it a good place to hide or hop a ship that can’t be tracked.”

  At that, the general nodded. “I knew I could count on you. Batuu is perfect.” She chuckled. “Han told me all about it.”

  Leaning forward, Vi gave her a suspicious look. “That can’t be the only reason you called me in here—just to ask me a question. You have strategists for that.”

  “But I don’t need strategists.” Leia likewise leaned forward. “I need you, Magpie. I trust you. And what I need you to do is go to Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu, establish an outpost for the Resistance, and collect as much support as possible among the locals and visitors. We need bodies. We need friends. We need skills. We need ships and food and fuel. We need eyes and ears on the ground. We need a place we can go if everything falls apart, a place so far off the map that the First Order has forgotten it even exists. To them, Batuu will seem strategically useless. But to us, it’s another spark of hope. I need you to cultivate that spark, to keep the fire burning.”

  Vi leaned back, letting her head fall to the side. “So why do I feel like you’re promoting me out of harm’s way? Protecting me? Maybe even coddling me?” She held Leia’s gaze, never an easy task. “Use me, General. I have skills no one else has. I’m your best spy. So why are you sending me to what’s basically nowhere?”

  “Because nowhere is what might save us. You’re not the only valuable person being sent out to nowhere.” Leia gave her a significant look, blew out a sigh, and took on an air of urgency, as if Vi had already been excused. “That’s your assignment. Take it or leave it. I’m needed on Takodana immediately. They’re holding the ship for me, and I’m out of time to convince you. The great thing about the Resistance is that you always retain free will. I hope you’ll trust me when I tell you that your work on Batuu is part of a larger plan. So do you trust me, Magpie?”

  The general’s eyebrows went up, her graying hair in a perfect crown. Yes, Vi did trust her. And Vi wasn’t going to walk away, even though she knew it was always an option.

  “I trust you, General,” she finally said.

  Leia nodded. “Good. Dismissed. Report to the hangar tomorrow morning. Lieutenant Connix will provide further details and a manifest of your cargo. You’ll be assigned a droid to help with the heavy lifting and logistics. We’re giving you the materials, and we need you to scout the ideal site, connect with the local population, recruit new bodies to join the cause, and establish communications so we can discuss next steps.”

  Vi stood. “I’ll do my best, General.”

  The smile she gave Leia was resigned. Yes, she would do her duty. In this case, Vi didn’t think she would like it, but she was a soldier, and she would do whatever it took to resist the First Order and keep the galaxy safe.

  But as Vi headed for the door, the general said, “Oh, and Magpie? One more thing.”

  Vi couldn’t help chuckling as she turned around. “Of course. There’s always one more thing, isn’t there?”

  Leia stood, looking grim and regal and certain. Vi steeled herself for what she knew would be unwelcome news.

  “I’m assigning you a partner for this mission, and again I need you to trust me.”

  Vi leaned against the door and crossed her arms. “Uh-oh. That doesn’t bode well. You know I prefer to work alone. And if it was somebody I liked, you would’ve led with that.”

  “Perceptive as ever.” Leia rolled her eyes as if to suggest Vi had caught her out. “Before you head for Batuu, I need you to make a quick stop on Cerea to pick up someone. Archex.”

  “Who’s Archex?”

  The general’s gaze went dark, serious. “The man you knew as Captain Cardinal has chosen to return to his childhood name.”

  Cardinal.

  Archex was Cardinal.

  Vi went cold all over as images flipped through her mind—unwelcome ones. Cardinal pulling her from her ship, putting her in binders, strapping her into an interrogation chair he wasn’t quite certain how to use. His face when she’d first convinced him to take off his shining red helmet. The conviction in his eyes, the unwavering faith in his calling. The way her vision went red each time he’d used that chair to shock her, pushing her further toward the edge of desolation, toward betraying all that she stood for.

  She’d turned him against the First Order, sure—but just barely.

  Cardinal had gone out to face his rival, Phasma, who’d nearly killed him. And then Vi did something unusual, something she still didn’t quite understand: She’d saved him. Dragged Cardinal’s dying carcass across the Absolution, stole a ship, and hightailed it back to D’Qar with her enemy and torturer by her side.

  She’d seen something in Captain Cardinal, something she’d thought impossible: a good man who believed in the First Order with all his heart. And she’d used that good to convert him—if not into a Resistance fighter, then at least away from the First Order’s lies.

  She hadn’t seen him since they’d landed on D’Qar and he’d been hurried to the medbay.

  She hadn’t wanted to.

  “Archex,” she said woodenly, dumbly. The name tasted like blood in her mouth, like the metallic burn left behind by his interrogation chair’s repeated shocks.

  But Leia went on as if she hadn’t noticed Vi’s discomfort. “I sent him to Cerea for…well, let’s call it a restful retreat with gentle deprogramming while we monitored his recovery. He’s as healed as he’ll ever be and cleared for work. Although he hasn’t fully committed to our cause and will continue to wear a monitor, he needs something to do. You two are more alike than you know.”

  Vi barked a bitter laugh. “I bet we are.”

  “Look, I need him with someone we can trust, someone he can trust. You were the first one who told me he might be worth saving, after all.”

  “Yes, I was. And I’m starting to regret it.”

  Vi still couldn’t quite process what she was hearing, couldn’t understand why Leia would do this. “Am I being punished for something?” she asked, voice rasping.

  Leia swiftly moved around the desk and grasped Vi by the shoulders. “No. Of course not. I’m doing what I’ve always done: putting the best person on the job. You have the skills to command, to think on your feet. You’re the one who turned Cardinal,
who made that connection. I believe you can use that skill to help our cause. You’re a great spy, Vi, but you’re also a leader, and I know you’re going to succeed. We need places like you’re going to build on Batuu, and we need Archex, and as hard as it might be for you to hear, I think Archex needs you.”

  But what about me? Vi wanted to ask. What about what I need?

  What she needed was a job that would bring back that old beloved zing of excitement, the thrill of going undercover, collecting intel, foiling bad guys, and returning a hero. Instead she was being sent to the far end of nowhere with her enemy, the man whose visage haunted her when she woke at night, screaming and covered in a sheen of sweat.

  “Vi?”

  Leia still held her shoulders, looking concerned. Vi shook off her misgivings, exhaled, and met the general’s gaze.

  She could do this. She would do this. For Leia, for the Resistance, she would do anything.

  “Yes, General,” she said. “I’ll do my best.”

  Finally, Leia smiled that smile that made it seem like anything was possible.

  “I know you will,” she said. “That’s why I chose you. Good luck on Batuu, Magpie. And may the Force be with you.”

  THE NEXT MORNING, BEFORE SHE WAS due in the hangar, Vi stopped in the medbay and asked for Major Kalonia. She’d seen a lot of the doctor since returning to D’Qar, and her wounds had healed as much as they ever would, inside and out. Today, however, she had a different reason for visiting.