Star Wars - [New Jedi Order 17] - [Force Heretic 03] - Reunion (by Sean Williams & Shane Dix)

VIP免费

2024-12-20 0 0 494.49KB 164 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

Star Wars

Force Heretic III

Reunion

Sean Willians

Shane Dix

The New Jedi Order faces triumph and disaster as the Galactic Alliance battles back from the edge of

defeat . . .

"Beware, Jedi Master, lest through carelessness and inattention you loose on the galaxy a monster . . ."

-BODO BASS, Jedi Master

PROLOGUE

Neither moved; neither spoke. They stared unflinchingly into each other's eyes.

Surrounding her, hidden by shadows, Tahiri could sense an alien landscape. She could tell from its pull

that it was big, yet at the same time not large enough to contain the two of them. She wanted to look

down and see it, to understand this strange and disturbing ambiguity, but she couldn't afford to do so, not

even for a secondfor a second was all it would take to lose her purchase on this precarious balance of

power. One blink of an eye and she could be dispelled into the darkness altogether, never to returnand

she had no intention of ever allowing that to happen. This world was hers, and she would remain like this

for as long as it took to ensure that it stayed hers. It was just a matter of time. All she had to do was be

patient, be strong.

Soon, she told herself. It will all be over soon. Just another moment . . .

But that moment seemed as long as the blackness around her was deep. It was a moment that stretched

back to the explosion that had first given birth to the universe, and forward to the time when eternity

would turn all the suns cold. It didn't matter, though. She would endure a thousand such moments to

ensure that the world below did not fall to Riina.

Yes, that was it. Riina the other girl's name. She wanted to destroy Tahiri and take the world from her

Tahiri could feel the girl's intentions as though they were her own.

I will not succumb, she thought determinedly. I am Tahiri Veila; I am a Jedi Knight!

And I am Riina of Domain Kwaad, the girl said in response. I shall not succumb, either.

With that, Tahiri's mirror image finally moved her hand went to her side and removed the lightsaber from

her belt.

A lightsaber, Tahiri thought, not an amphistaff. Riina wanted everything she had, and she fought with

everything Tahiri had, too.

The light from the blade revealed something of their surroundings. To one side there was a dry and rocky

ground that stretched out forever, and to the other there was a chasm of terrible blackness, an emptiness

that pulled at Tahiri, drew her to the edge of the precipice upon which she stood. She could tell from

Riina's fearful gaze that this same emptiness was tugging at her, also. One wrong move and either of them

could fall into an embrace of eternal nothingness, leaving the darkened world to the other.

The notion renewed her resolve, and with a snap and a hiss that echoed throughout the landscape she

activated her own lightsaber.

The two advanced slowly toward one another until the two bubbles of light from their lightsabers touched

and they were standing face to face. Then, in unison, the two blades rose into the air and came down

sharply at the other's head. They connected in midair with a deadly crackle, sending sparks arcing into

the darkness . . .

PART ONE

INFILTRATION

Han Solo fought the urge to wipe a droplet of sweat from his brow, knowing that such a gesture would

be seen as a sign of nervousness, and thus give the others a clue as to what he was holding.

"What's it to be, Solo?"

Han went for a stall, his second in as many minutes. "Let me get this straight. It wasn't enough that you

guys got tired of using integersor that you weren't satisfied with just using real numbers, either. You had

to start messing with imaginary and transreal numbers as well."

The larval-stage Ruurian bounty hunter's face was locked in a sneer. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Why should there be a problem?"

"Then get on with it!"

One corner of Han's mouth curled up into a half grin. His opponents were starting to lose their patience.

That could work to his advantage.

"So you're saying that we can use any arithmetic operation we like. We can divide, subtract, multiply"

"I know what you're doing," growled a bad-tempered Givin, its skeletal jaw clicking impatiently against

its upper "lip." Given its species' predilection for mathematics, Han imagined that it was the Givin who

was responsible for the changed rules. "You can't bluff us, Solo."

"Perhaps the great Han Solo has lost his edge." The

fourth player, Talien, a Yarkora with numerous gold rings dangling from each enormous nostril, uttered a

contemptuous snort.

Han glanced down at the chip-cards in his hand. "Or perhaps it's just that my math is a little rusty."

He laid the cards on the table, resigning himself to winning the strangest game of sabacc he'd ever played.

The three 3V23 chips that the last round had dealt him stared up at the ceiling in staves, flasks, and coins.

His decision to ditch the idiot card and take a chance on fate had paid off.

"Read 'em and weep," Han said, leaning back into his chair. "Or whatever it is you guys do around here."

"A cubic sabacc?" The Ruurian's red eyes glittered dangerously in the bar's dim and smoky light as it

glared at Han. "That's not possible!"

"It's not impossible," the Givin snarled. "Just extremely unlikely."

"Solo, if you're taking us for a ride, I swear" the Yarkora began.

"Hey!" Han exclaimed, standing up and stabbing a finger at Talien's enormous nose. "You scanned me on

the way in. If I'd had a skifter on me, you'd've known about it."

The Givin's bony mouthplates ground together in frustration. "Skifter or no skifter, Solo, I still say it's

safer to believe in human nature than the kind of luck you're claiming."

"Come off it, Ren. You're saying I cheated in a game I didn't even know existed until I docked here a

couple of days ago?" He snorted derisively. "You're giving me a lot more credit than I deserve."

"That's all the credit you'll be getting," the Ruurian muttered, reaching forward with one of its many arms

to scoop up the chips.

Han grabbed the junction between the alien's two uppermost body parts and twisted sharplynot enough

to do any damage, but certainly enough to make the Ruurian think twice. "You touch my winnings, and

then you'll see just how much of my edge I've lost."

Chairs scraped across the stony floor as the other two players backed away from the sabacc table.

Shouts sounded in a dozen different tongues around the room. The Thorny Toe maintained a strict

no-weapons policy, but that didn't mean that fights couldn't be lethal. And as far as the patrons of the

Thorny Toe were concerned, the more violent the altercation, the better the entertainment value.

"Overrated muck hauler!" the Ruurian grunted, wriggling its lengthy body in an attempt get free. Han

struggled to hang on, while at the same time trying to keep the alien at arm's length. Each of the Ruurian's

body segments possessed a set of limbs that clutched at him with hostile intent.

"Who you calling overrated?" Han muttered, tightening his grip. Although low in mass, the alien could

bend in places Han couldn't, making it difficult to maintain the upper hand. The Ruurian hitched its back

end under the table and managed to tip him off balance. As he went down, a dozen sharp-tipped digits

swarmed up his legs and chest, looking for soft spots. Tiny, razor-sharp mandibles snapped at his nose.

The audience cheered, goading the antagonists on.

Just as he was beginning to think he'd taken on more than he could handle, two rough, three-fingered

hands grabbed both him and the Ruurian, hauling them off the ground and separating them in midair.

"Enough!"

Han recognized the guttural accent of a Whiphid and instantly ceased trying to kick his way out of the

creature's grasp. He knew better than to fight a Whiphid. Their claw and tusks were as mean as their

temperament.

"He's a cheat!" the Ruurian whined, snapping at Han with its nether mandibles.

The Whiphid shook the alien so hard Han swore he heard its exoskeleton rattle. "This bar isn't crooked!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell them," Han said, offering a self-satisfied smirk. "I beat them fair and

square!"

The Whiphid dropped them both roughly to the floor, then pointed one of its claws accusingly at Han.

"The boss wants to see you."

A flash of uncertainty cooled any joy he might have taken from the victory.

"Not before I collect my winnings," he said, climbing to his feet. He stepped resolutely to the table.

"You have five standard seconds," the bouncer said.

Han needed only two. Using his shirt as a catchall, he scooped the credits off the table. The Ruurian

looked on balefully, emitting a soft growl that only those in its immediate vicinity would have heard.

"You know, Talien, folks like you give sabacc players a bad name." Han couldn't resist taking the

opportunity to gloat as he packed his winnings safely in his pockets. "Back in my day"

"Spare us the glory speech." Talien made no attempt to stop Han from walking off with the winnings, but

glared at him menacingly. "Save it for your kids. Maybe they'll be impressed by the once-great Han

Solo."

"Why, you" Unreasoning anger rose in him, but before he could react, the bouncer caught him by the

back of his jacket and tugged him away.

"Enough, I said!" The Whiphid lifted Han into the air again as though he were a child. Suspended,

helpless, Han could only force his anger down and ignore the jeers of the other patrons as he was

unceremoniously "escorted" from the bar.

"You humans are always causing trouble," the Whiphid grumbled once they'd passed through a door to

the back of the Thorny Toe an d Han had been lowered to the ground once more. "If I had a credit for

every time I've bounced one of you out of here, I'd have made it back to Toola years ago."

"You see many strangers through here, then?" Han asked, straightening his jacket.

The Whiphid looked at him suspiciously. "Why? You looking for someone?"

"No; just curious." He shut up, then, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself than he already

had.

The alien took him up a flight of stairs and deposited him in an empty room containing little more than a

padded green couch and a water dispenser. Han assumed it was an antechamber adjoining the bar

owner's office. He sat himself down on the couch and was startled when a voice issued into the room

from unseen speakers.

"Han Solo, eh?" The voice's sex, species, and accent were heavily disguised, but the speaker seemed

amused underneath the camouflage. "You're a long way from home."

"Well, you know me," Han bluffed. "Never been one to sit on my hands."

A strange noise issued from the hidden speakers. It might have been a laugh. "But you've always been

one for gambling," the voice returned, more soberly. "It's good to see that nothing's changed."

Han frowned at the familiarity. He desperately tried to think whom he had known in the past who might

have ended up owning a bar on Onadax, one of the dingiest worlds the Minos Cluster had to offer, and

whether he or shemight hold a grudge against him.

"You get your thrills where you can," he said, stalling again.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions, if I may."

Han shrugged, giving in but feigning nonchalance all the same. "Fire away."

"Who sent you?"

"No one sent me."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm just passing through. Is that a crime in these parts?"

"Where are you headed?"

"Nelfrus, in the Elrood sector."

"You must be going the long way around, then."

"You can't be too careful these days. The Vong

"Are everywhere," the voice interrupted. "Yes, I know. But they're not here."

"Which is why I thought I'd come this way."

After a slight pause, the voice continued "Are you here alone? "

"What difference does that make?"

"Perhaps none. Millennium Falcon has been on Onadax two standard days, one day longer than a

Galactic Alliance frigate that docked here yesterday. Am I to assume that there is no relation between

this craft and your own?"

"You can assume what you like," Han said. "But that frigate doesn't have anything to do with me. What

did you say its name was?"

"I didn't. It's Pride of Selonia."

He made a show of thinking about the name. "Sounds familiar. You think it might be someone looking for

me?"

"Or perhaps the other way around." "I'm just here for the scenery," Han lied. He jingled the credits in his

pocket. "And whatever else I can pick up on the way."

At this, the faceless bar owner did laugh. Onadax was a sooty, inhospitable world, not dense enough to

harbor metals of any value, poorly placed even with respect to other worlds in the sector, and too small

and ancient to possess any noteworthy geography.

Its only saving graces were its lack of a policing authority and a relaxed attitude toward documentation of

all kinds.

Just because the government turned a blind eye to who passed through, though, didn't mean that the

locals were stupid.

"Okay," Han said, scanning the blank walls and ceiling, wishing there were some reference point on

which he could focus his attention. "Let's stop playing games. You're right. I am looking for someone.

Maybe you can help me."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm asking nicely. Do you get many Ryn through here?"

"No more than usual," the voice said. "Lift up any dirty rock in the galaxy and you'll find a family living

under it. Your taste in friends must have gone downhill if that's who you're after."

"Not just any Ryn." Han fumbled, not for the first time, for the right way to describe the Ryn he was

seeking. "Just one that was supposed to meet me here on Onadax. He hasn't shown, so I'm looking for

him."

"In a bar?"

"It's not as if Onadax has much else to offer."

The voice chuckled again. "You're looking in the wrong place, Solo."

"That sounds suspiciously like a brush-off. I swear, it's nothing underhanded."

"From you, those words take on a whole new meaning."

"I'll even pay, if that's what you want."

"If that's what you think I want, then I fear you're definitely in the wrong placeand at the wrong time."

The Whiphid guarding the door stirred.

"So it would seem," Han said. "Look, I'm racking my brain here trying to work out where we've met

before. Can't you give me a name to help me out a little?"

There was no reply.

"What've you got to lose?" Han said. "You obviously know me"

He stopped when the Whiphid's clawed hand came down on his back and began to drag him away. "At

least give me a clue!"

The Whiphid hauled him out of the audience chamber and back down to the barroom. Clearly, the

interview was over, and no protest from Han was about to be considered.

"Is he always this friendly?" he asked the bouncer. He amended that to a hopeful "She?" when the

question wasn't answered.

The Whiphid collected Han in its powerful grasp once again and hoisted his feet from the floor.

The bouncer forced its way through the crowd. Laughter and applause followed them, turning to cries of

annoyance as Han's head rammed into something's foul-smelling midriff and sent a jug of ale splashing

across the floor. Recriminations flew, which the bouncer ignored.

"I think you'll find my seat was over that way," Han said, pointing hopefully in the direction of the sabacc

table where he'd been playing.

The Whiphid ignored him as well, propping him upright none too gently at the door. There was no

question that Han was being toldnot askedto leave the premises.

He smiled, taking a hundred-credit chip from his pocket and slipping it to the alien bouncer.

"For your trouble," he said.

"For yours," was the response as he was forcibly ejected into the street.

"What sort of dive is this, anyway?" Han protested to the closed door as he picked himself up and dusted

himself down once more. His shoulder was tender where he'd hit the ground, and the bouncer's claws

had left a few tears in his jacket. Still, it could have been worse. At least he'd made it out with his

winnings.

His comlink buzzed as he limped down the seedy back alley that housed the Thorny Toe. He pulled the

comlink out of his pocket, knowing before he'd answered the call that it was Leia on the other end.

"You're out?" Her voice was faint, but her concern was obvious.

"And in one piece. The bar staff aren't as tough as their jamming fields suggested they might be."

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing useful, although I'm guessing there's more going on here than meets the eye."

"There always is." Leia hesitated. "Is that fighting I hear?"

Han glanced behind him. The ruckus inside the bar was getting nastier by the second.

"My exit was none too subtle," he said, picking up the pace.

"Start making your way back, then. It's not safe out there, Han."

"On my way now."

"I'd advise against stopping somewhere else en route, even if it does allay suspicions."

Han smiled to himself. In the old days, he would've been tempted. But the choice between Leia and a

seedy dive was getting easier every year. "Will do."

The secure channel closed with a soft click. Han's smile ebbed as behind him the fight spilled noisily out

into the street. He hurriedly rejoined the stream of barhoppers cruising the settlement's main thoroughfare,

the grilling he'd received at the Thorny Toe still nagging at him. That the owner of the bar had known him

didn't bother him so much; after all, the Solo name had spread across the galaxy and back again,

especially in the quasi-legal circles to which he'd once belonged. But the complete stonewalling regarding

the Ryn did bother him. His other sources hadn't known anything, but at least they had been up front

about it. Dumb ignorance was totally different to silence.

Han rubbed his shoulder and hurried back to the Falcon, hoping Jaina had had better luck on the other

side of town.

Luke Skywalker gripped the sides of his seat as Jade Shadow emerged roughly from hyperspace. The

bulkheads groaned under the strain, while containers of stored goods in the passenger bay could be

heard crashing to the floor. Deeper into the ship could be heard the beeping and tweetling of an anxious

R2-D2.

"What was that?" he asked his wife beside him in the pilot's seat, when the disturbance had passed.

Mara was already flicking switches and checking monitors, giving her ship a quick once-over. "A hole the

size of a Star Destroyer just opened up in front of us."

Every hyperspace jump they'd made in the last couple of weeks had been fraught with danger and

uncertainty. Not even with the detailed maps of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet to guide them

could they account for every hyperspatial anomaly. But if anyone could find a way through the rips and

reefs on the other side of known space, it was Mara. He had nothing but confidence in his wife to get

them to their destination.

Luke examined the boards before him. "Let's just hope Widowmaker is okay."

Lights flickered across the displays, and a new blip appeared on the scopesshakily at first, but steadying.

"Here she is now," Mara said.

Seconds later, the voice of Captain Arien Yage sounded over the comm. "How about a warning or

something next time?"

Luke smiled to himself at the captain's comment. "Sorry about that, Arien. If we could give you a

heads-up, you know we wou ld."

"No problem. We got out in one piece, and that's the main thing."

The frigate was locked on Jade Shadow's navicomputer and would mirror every move Mara made

through the shoals of the Unknown Regions, but there was no way to communicate through hyperspace

and therefore no way to warn of any sudden exits.

"This is getting annoying," Mara muttered after doing checks on her displays. "I can't work out what I'm

doing wrong."

Luke was just as confused. Three times they'd tried and failed to jump the last parsec to where the empty

system of Klasse Ephemora lay. Thereso Jacen had deduced on Csilla, and so all evidence

supportedthey would find the living world of Zonama Sekot. But it felt to Luke as though something were

keeping them out. Mara assured him that it wasn't like that the hyperspace anomalies were a natural

phenomenon; they didn't do anything consciously. Nevertheless, it was uncanny how there seemed to be

so many of them around this particular point in space.

"Maybe it's because of the anomalies that Zonama Sekot came here in the first place," Luke suggested.

"It's safe in here, after all. Once it got in, it could be reasonably sure no one else would bother trying."

"Well, the Chiss probes managed to get in," Mara said. "And if they can do it, then so can I."

Luke sent a wave of reassurance to his wife, buoying up the flagging confidence that simmered just

beneath her show of determination. She was a much better navigator than an astromech, andwhile it was

pointless speculating on the capabilities of a world-sized intelligence like Zonama Sekothe was sure she

could match its flying abilities any day.

"It could be dark matter," Soron Hegerty said from behind them. The elderly professor of comparative

religionsa specialist on exotic alien lifehad come forward from the passenger bay, steadying herself with

one frail hand against the transparent canopy covering the cockpit.

Luke faced her. "Do you think so, Doctor?"

"Perhaps," Hegerty said. She paused a moment, obviously trying to think of a way to condense all her

studies on the subject into a few words. "Dark matter interacts only gravitationally with the rest of the

universe. It pools into clumps like ordinary matter, forming clusters and galaxies similar to the one we

inhabit. Some scientists believe our galaxy to be surrounded by a halo of such galaxiescompletely invisible

to the eye, but there nonetheless.

"Danni and I were talking about this just yesterday," she went on. "She wonders if such an invisible clump

might explain the hyperspace disturbance in the Unknown Regions. A dark matter cluster could be in the

process of colliding with our galaxy right now, passing invisibly through it, detectable only by its gravity.

Clusters aren't uniform in density they have dust lanes and empty bubblesand stars, of course. The

uneven distribution of dark matter might account for the difficulty we've had charting this region from the

'real' universe. It all comes down to a collision with another galaxy we can't even seea collision taking

place over billions and billions of years."

Hegerty looked through the forward screens, eyes glittering as though in wonder at the invisible worlds

she imagined.

Mara brushed a strand of red hair back from her face. "That's all very interesting, Doctor. Can we chart

the dark matter somehow and work out how hyperspace is folded around here?"

Hegerty returned from infinity with a shrug. "Theoretically, perhaps. You'd need some sort of large-scale

gravity detector, and a means of working out exactly how dark matter influences hyperspace."

"So it doesn't actually help us right now?"

Hegerty shook her head. "I just wanted you to know that you're dealing with a changeable phenomenon.

If Zonama Sekot can detect the gravitational passage of dark matter through our galaxy, it might have

located a bubble that was about to close. If it put itself inside this bubble, and the dark matter walls

slammed shut around it, it could guarantee its safety. Nothing would be able to get through until the dark

matter shifted and the bubble opened again."

Luke could tell from Mara's expression that she didn't like this idea at all.

"If you're right, this bubble must be big enough to enclose an entire star system," she said. "I don't believe

something that big would be totally seamless. There has to be a way inand a way out, too. If I were a

living planet on the run, there's no way I'd lock myself in anywhere. There has to be a way."

Luke put a soothing hand on her arm. "I suggest you rest first, my love. You're not going to get anywhere

when you're frustrated like this."

Mara was about to argue the point, but then something softened behind her eyes and she sagged back

into her seat. "You're right, of course. I guess I'm just in a hurry to get on with it. The sooner we find

Zonama Sekot, the sooner we can go home."

Luke sympathized with that feeling all too well. Ben, their son, was a long way away, hidden in the Maw

with the other Jedi children, safe from the Yuuzhan Vong. The last holos they'd received had revived an

ache that was never far away. The boy was growing up without his parents, just as Luke had grown up

without his. It was necessary, but not ideal.

With Mara's approval, he ordered a rest stop. Deep in the star-spangled blackness of the Unknown

Regions, the mission came to a temporary halt.

Jag Fel sat by Tahiri's bed, staring curiously at the young girl for what must have been the tenth time in

two hours. Her brow was drenched with sweat and needed to be wiped frequently. Her hands gripped

tightly at the sheets on which she lay. Every now and then she made a strange mewling noise, which

sounded to Jag almost like a suppressed scream.

Jaina had wanted to make sure that someone was at Tahiri's bedside at all times, in case she woke up.

It was Jag's shift. He just hoped it wouldn't be on his watch that Tahiri opened her eyesbecause if it was

Riina who emerged, he knew he would do whatever was necessary for the safety of all concerned.

Jag was startled out of his brooding by the buzz of the comlink. Captain Mayn of the Selonia had

installed a compact communications rig in Tahiri's room so that whoever was on watch could keep in

touch with events elsewhere. He answered it before the noise could disturb her.

He found himself in the middle of a joint conversation between Jaina and her parents.

"Something fishy is definitely going on," Jaina was saying.

"At the Thorny Toe?" That was Han, speaking from the bridge of the Falcon. He sounded slightly out of

breath. "I thought so, too. The guy I spoke towhoever it wasis definitely up to something."

"Not that," Jaina said. "The cubic sabacc gives it away. It's too unlikely. Someone let you win."

"What about that famous Solo luck?"

"No one's that lucky, Dad. Face it someone didn't want you snooping around. Rigging the table to make

it look like you cheated would have been easier than trying to expel you by force for no good reason. It's

the only explanation."

Her father reluctantly conceded her point. "It's possible, I guess."

"That still doesn't tell us who's behind it." Leia's unease wasn't so easily assuaged. "The bar owner is

clearly involved. He's either warning us off or looking for an edge of his own. Either way, we know that

we should go back."

"What about you, Jaina?" Jag broke in. "Did you find anything?"

She made an exasperated noise. "If I'd been stonewalled I'd count myself as lucky. I haven't found a

whiff of the Ryn anywhere, and I'm not likely to, now."

"Not now that they're onto us," Han said gloomily.

"Worse. There's some sort of disturbance out here. A brawl of some kind, and it's spreading." For the

first time, Jag noted the sound of the city behind her voice. He could hear shouting and what sounded like

transparisteel shattering. "Law enforcement is nonexistent here, of course, so it's getting nasty very

quickly."

"How far are you from the Falcon?" Leia asked.

"A dozen blocks, but it's getting tougher by the minute. Wait a second."

Jaina's end of the conversation went silent for a minute. Jag was prepared to wait it out with the others,

but Captain Mayn's voice came over the comm.

"We've got something of a situation here," she said. "Dock security is warning of a riot breaking out

across the city. There's a mob on our way, apparently."

That accorded with the sounds Jag at heard at Jaina's end.

"Any word on what caused it?" Leia asked.

"None as such. There are rumors of an incident somewhere in the city. They say that a Galactic Alliance

agent attempted to infiltrate a secure compound and has made off with a fortune."

"We have no agents here that I know of," Leia said.

"Apart from us," Han put in.

"Sorry," Jaina said, coming back onto the line. "Got caught in a traffic snarl. The way to the Falcon is

blocked. I'm going to try for the Selonia instead."

Jaina's footsteps were hurried over the comlink. Jag could hear the concern in Leia's voice as she said,

"Hurry, but be careful. Someone might be trying to whip up resentment against us."

"Why?"

"Let's wonder about that later," Han said. "Just get back safely."

Jag echoed that sentiment wholeheartedly as Jaina's channel went silent. "Sounds to me like someone's

covering their tracks," he said to those remaining on the line.

"You and me both, Jag," Han said. "And if Jaina wasn't out there in the middle of it, I'd happily leave

them to it."

"That's probably our best course of action," Leia said. "We've been looking for the Ryn and haven't

found them. They've had plenty of opportunities to look us up and haven't. I'm starting to think that we've

been wasting our time."

Han uttered a grunt that could have been one of agreement.

"I'll prepare for liftoff," said Mayn, ever the pragmatist. "We'll be away the moment she's on board, if

that's what you decide."

"Should I ready Twin Suns?" Jag asked.

"Not necessary, Jag," Leia said. "We can handle the Onadax defense grid long enough to get away, if it

comes to that."

"I'll wait here then." He nodded stiffly. "Thanks for keeping me posted."

"Stand by," Mayn said.

With a slight hiss of static, the line closed.

Jag resisted the impulse to pace. He hated being confined to medical quarters while Jaina put herself at

risk out in the city, but there was nothing he could do about it. Orders were orders, and his Chiss training

left him no option but to obey. All he could do was wait for Mayn or somebody else to update him.

Tahiri stirred on the bed beside him, issuing another of her strange, strained sounds.

Hurry up, Jaina, he thought as he mopped the girl's brow. Hurry back to me. . .

Jacen frowned and tried again.

"Mon Calamari Communications Control, this is Farm-boy One. Come in, MCCC. I repeat, this is

Farmboy One. Please respond."

Silence.

He sighed as he leaned tiredly back into his chair. While Luke and Mara rested, Jacen was in charge of

Jade Shadow. Sensing a familiar wistfulness in his uncle and aunt, he had decided to report to the new

capital, looking for an update on his cousin Ben. His failure to raise Mon Calamari troubled him, even

though he knew there was probably a perfectly logical explanation. Communications with the Unknown

Regions weren't ideal; all

transmissions were routed through a bottleneck on the edge of the Outer Rim. That bottleneck had never

closed before, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible.

Before jumping to conclusions, though, Jacen had wanted to test every alternative hypothesis. Jade

Shadow's comm systems were working perfectly well at short range; several conversations with the

Widowmaker proved that. And when he'd changed his target and tried to hail the CEDF network, the

crisp precise tones of a Chiss comm officer answered immediately, so it was clear that the subspace

transmitters were still working, too.

"MCCC, this is Farmboy One," he continued. "This is an emergency. We require an immediate

response!"

When there was still no reply after a couple of minutes, he decided the fault had to lie in one of the relay

bases between the Unknown Regions and the rest of the galaxy. There was no other possibility that he

could think of.

"What's the emergency?"

Jacen turned to see Danni silhouetted in the doorway. "We're out of blue milk," he lied. He didn't want to

alarm anyone until he'd had a chance to speak to his uncle. "You know how cranky Mara gets when she

doesn't get a proper breakfast."

She moved around to take position in the copilot's seat beside him.

"There is no denying that you are an amazing Jedi, Jacen Solo, but you are a terrible liar."

Jacen smiled. For all the new understanding of the Force he had received under Vergere's tutelage, all the

skill as a Jedi he'd amassed over the years spent fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, Danni could see right

through him.

"I can't raise Mon Cal," he said, his expression becoming more serious. "There seems to be some sort of

break in transmission between here and there."

"What sort of break?"

"It's hard to tell from this end. I do know, though, that if we can't contact Mon Cal, we won't be able to

tell them what we find here."

"If we find anything. There are no guarantees, Jacen."

"You saw the data"

"I did, and I agree with you. I'm just trying to encourage debate in your own thoughts." Danni's curly

blond hair framed her head like a halo, glowing in the instrument lights, and her green eyes seemed to

bore into his. "I feel your tension, Jacen. You're humming like an overloaded shield. What if we don't find

anything, or it's not what you're hoping for? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? Underneath everything

else, that's what really bothers you."

He nodded. That fear was running at the back of his mind, a steady rhythm constantly unsettling him,

encouraging him to overreact. "Perhaps you're right," he said. "I guess we're not completely cut off. We

can still reach Csilla. Maybe I should check with them to see if they can get through to Mon Cal. If not,

they can keep trying while we go ahead with our mission."

Her smile broadened. "Sometimes all we need to do is get the thoughts that trouble us out of our head

and into the open where we can see them more clearly."

She reached out to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder, but her hand never fell. Something powerful and

strange rolled through him. Jacen pulled away from her, thinking at first that what he was feeling must

somehow have had something to do with her. But the sensation persisted, and her expression echoed his

alarm.

"You can feel that?" Whatever it was, it was getting strongerand it was coming through the Force.

Danni nodded, covering both ears with the flats of her palms. "What is it?"

"I don't know." His head was starting to vibrate like a bell. He turned to the displays ahead of him,

searching for information. "But I intend to find out."

* * *

Saba started awake from a deep sleep feeling as though someone were trying to crack open her skull.

She called out in alarm, flailing wildly at the empty air before realizing where she was resting up against

the wall in one of Jade Shadow's crew quarters. She'd closed her eyes to meditate when Mara had

announced the mission had stalled, and she must have fallen asleep.

No alarms were ringing; she couldn't smell panic pheromones in the air; everything seemed completely

normalexcept for the fact that the crack in her skull seemed to be widening . . .

She sat up with a growl, sharp teeth clenched in a tight zigzag line. Her eyes peered out from under

heavy, knotted brows. She focused upon a spot on her bed, desperately trying to concentrate on who or

what was causing the intense discomfort.

Find the pain, she told herself. Trace it back to your attacker!

She breathed deeply through her nostrils and sought to find her inner calm, the still center of her being. It

had taken her years to overcome the natural instincts of her species, and in times of stresswhen every cell

wanted to slash and tear instead of contemplate and respond with careful forethoughtthe urges were

particularly hard to suppress. But she was strong, and determined.

The Force came to her bidding with familiar ease, flooding her with energy that swept the tiredness and

confusion away. And with it, too, came the knowledge that what she was feeling was coming through the

Force itself, as though something very large and powerful had been disturbed nearby.

Through the discomfort of such intense feelings, she felt the first glimmerings of excitement. It could be

only one thing!

Saba hurried forward through the ship. She could tell that the others gathered there shared her

excitement. Master Skywalker, Mara, Jacen, Tekli, Dannithey could all feel it! On a ship full of

Force-sensitives, it was impossible to hide something as powerful as this. Only Soron Hegerty seemed

immune, asleep as she was in one of the cabins.

R2-D2 tootled as Saba went past. She tapped the droid's shining dome, but didn't stop. The smell of

human uncertainty emanating from the fore of the ship was strong, and Saba breathed through her mouth

to ensure her thoughts remained clear and focused.

"can't be sure at this range," Mara was saying, addressing the others standing around in the passenger

bay. "It could be anything. Massive psychic disturbances occur for all sorts of reasons."

Master Skywalker nodded. "She's right, Jacen. When Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star,

Obi-Wan felt it from a great distance."

"I know, but this is close," Jacen insisted, his voice thick with excitement. "I can feel it. What else could it

be?"

Saba could sense the others wanting to believe but remaining reluctant to gamble on the young Jedi's

hunch.

"Jacen iz right," she said, the words emerging in a rough approximation of Basic from her stress-tightened

throat. "Zonama Sekot criez out in the void."

The Jedi Master faced her. "But why?"

"It feelz. . . distressed." The pained looks on the faces before her showed that they felt it, too. It was

impossible to keep out.

"Almost frightened," Danni ventured, hugging herself. "But angry, too."

"Okay, suppose it is Zonama Sekot," Mara said. "What then? Do we attempt to contact it?"

"That depends on whether you think you can follow this signal to its source." The red-haired woman

frowned. "It's possible, but I'm not sure I like the idea of turning up uninvited. This thing sounds agitated

as it is. Barging in there might only antagonize it further."

"Maybe," her husband replied, "but I think that turning up and showing it our intentions rather than trying

to explain them from a distance is the better option." He turned to the Barabel. "Jacen, Sabayou're our

life-sensitives. What do you think?" Jacen looked uncertain.

"I can no more read this mind than I could the entire contentz of the Chiss library," Saba told Luke, her

tail tapping restlessly against her right ankle.

"Won't going closer make the situation worse, though?" Danni asked.

Master Skywalker looked uncertain. "All I'm sure of is that this our best shot at getting where we want to

go. If we ignore it, we might never get another one."

Mara inhaled deeply. "Okay, then let's do it while we still can."

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

StarWarsForceHereticIIIReunionSeanWilliansShaneDixTheNewJediOrderfacestriumphanddisasterastheGalacticAlliancebattlesbackfromtheedgeofdefeat..."Beware,JediMaster,lestthroughcarelessnessandinattentionyoulooseonthegalaxyamonster..."-BODOBASS,JediMasterPROLOGUENeithermoved;neitherspoke.Theystaredunflinc...

展开>> 收起<<

Star Wars - [New Jedi Order 17] - [Force Heretic 03] - Reunion (by Sean Williams & Shane Dix).pdf

共164页,预览33页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

Star Wars - [New Jedi Order 17] - [Force Heretic 03] - Reunion (by Sean Williams & Shane Dix)

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: