Star Wars - The Crystal Star (by Vonda McIntyre)

Star Wars - The Crystal Star

by Vonda n. McIntyre

Chapter 1

The children had been kidnapped.

Leia ran headlong toward the glade, leaving behind the courtiers and the chamberlain of Munto Codru,

leaving her attendants, leaving the young page who--completely against protocol--had stumbled into

Leia's receiveg room, bleeding from nose and ears, incoherent.

But Leia understood her: Jaina and Jacen and Anakin had been stolen.

Leia ran, now, through the trees and down a soft mossy path that led into her children's playground.

Jaina imagined the path was a starship course, set to hyperspace. Jacen pretended it was a great

mysterious road, a river. Anakin, going through a literal phase, insisted that it was only a path through the

forest to the meadow.

The children loved the forest and the meadow, and Leia loved exclaiming in wonder at the treasures they

brought her: a squirmy bug, a stone with shiny bits trapped in its matrix--rare jewels, perhaps!--or the

fragments of an eggshell.

Her vision blurred with tears. Her soft slipper snared in the tangled moss. She stumbled, caught herself,

and plunged onward, holding the skirts of her court robe high.

In the old days, she thought, in the old days, I'd be wearing boots and trousers, I wouldn't be hampered

and tripped by my own clothing!

Her breath burned in her throat.

And I'd be able to run from my receiveg room to the forest glade without losing my breath!

The green afternoon light shifted and fluttered around her. Before her, the light brightened where the

forest opened into a water-meadow, the meadow where her children had been playing.

Leia ran toward it, gasping, her legs heavy.

She was running toward an absence, not a presence, toward a terrible void.

She cried out to herself, How could this happen? How is this possible?

The answer--the only way it could be possible --terrified her. For a short time, her ability to sense the

presence of her children had been neutralized. Only a manipulation of the Force could have such an

effect.

Leia reached the meadow. She ran toward the creek where Jaina and Jacen had splashed and played

and taught little Anakin to swim.

A crater was ripped into the soft grass. The leafy blades had been flattened into a circle around the raw

patch of empty dirt.

A pressure bomb! Leia thought in horror.

A pressure bomb had gone off, near her children.

They aren't dead! she told herself. They can't be, I'd know if they were dead!

At the edge of the blast area, Chewbacca lay sprawled in a heap. Blood flowed bright against his

chestnut coat.

Leia fell to her knees beside him, oblivious to the mud. She feared he was dead--but he was still

bleeding, still breathing. She pressed her hand against the deep gash in his leg, desperate to stop the flow

of blood and save his life. His powerful pulse drove the blood from his body. Like the page, he also bled

from ears and nostrils.

A dreadful, grieving, keening sound escaped him, not a groan of pain but a cry of rage and remorse.

"Lie still!" Leia said. "Chewbacca, lie still! The doctor is coming, you'll be all right, what happened, oh,

what happened?" He cried out again, and Leia understood that he felt such despair that he wanted to die.

He had adopted her family as his own, his Honor Family, and he had failed to protect the children.

"You can't die!" He must live, she thought.

He must. Only he can tell me who stole my children. "Come back! Come back to me!" Her aides and the

chamberlain hurried out of the forest, trampling the delicate high grass, exclaiming in outrage when the

slender blades cut them. Leia's children had wandered the meadow at liberty, neither leaving footprints

nor receiveg any harm. The grass parted before them like magic.

Magic, for my magic children, Leia thought. I thought I had protected them, I thought they could never

come to any harm.

Hot tears ran down her cheeks.

The courtiers and advisers and guards gathered around her.

"Madam, madam," said the chamberlain of Munto Codru. Out here in the wild sun and the wind, Mr.

Iyon's face was flushed and he looked uncomfortable.

"Did you bring the doctor?" Leia cried.

"Get the doctor!" "I sent for her, madam." Mr. Iyon tried to make her get up, tried to take over

staunching the flow of blood from Chewbacca's wound, but she pushed him away with a sharp ^w.

Chewbacca's pulse faltered. Leia feared he was failing.

You will not die, she thought. You must not die. I won't let you die!

She drew on her inadequate knowledge to strengthen him. She bitterly regretted the responsibilities of

statecraft that had prevented her from being properly trained in the ways of the Force.

Leia knew that if she allowed Chewbacca's hot blood to gush past her hands, his life, too, would stream

away.

The doctor ran across the field. Her wyrwulf loped behind her, carrying her equipment and supplies. The

doctor's wyrwulf reminded her that Mr. Iyon's wyrwulf had been playing with her children.

It had disappeared as well.

Dr. Hyos knelt beside Leia. She observed Chewbacca's wound and Leia's first aid with a glance. "Ah,"

she said briskly. "Good work." "Come away, now, Princess," the chamberlain said.

"Not yet!" Dr. Hyos exclaimed. "I have only four hands, after all. The princess is quite all right where she

is." The wyrwulf sat on its haunches between Leia and Dr. Hyos. Leia shuddered. The wyrwulf turned its

massive head, slowly, gently, staring at her with great limpid liquid blue eyes. Its coat was thick and

brown, with long coarse black guard hairs.

The doctor's wyrwulf panted and slavered, its tongue lolling over its pitted fangs. Its face was grotesque.

Its hot bitter breath made Leia flinch.

Dr. Hyos's four hands, so languid at rest, moved quickly over the panniers strapped to the wyrwulf's

sides.

"Do you see what I am doing, my dear?" she said softly. "The bleeding is most important.

Our princess has stopped it." The doctor spoke to the wyrwulf, explaining everything she did.

Dr. Hyos drew pressure bandages from one compartment as she chose the proper medicine from

another. Always, she told the wyrwulf what she was doing. Her long gold fingers were deft and sure.

Leia allowed herself a moment of hope, even with her hands covered with Chewbacca's hot blood.

He had closed his eyes; he had stopped moving.

"As the bandage seals itself, my princess," Dr. Hyos said, "move your hand from the wound." Leia

obeyed. Dr. Hyos pressed the bandage to Chewbacca's flank. The bandage pressed itself against Leia's

hand, clasped itself to Chewbacca, and wound its connectors through his fur.

The wyrwulf watched, its tongue lolling.

Leia sat back on her heels. Her hands were sticky and her robes were smeared and she viewed

everything in the clarity of horrified belief.

Dr. Hyos examined Chewbacca, frowning over the drying streaks of blood that had trickled from his

nose and ears.

"Pressure bomb..." she said.

Leia remembered, as if from a distant dream, the sound of a single clap of thunder. She had thought-- her

thoughts had been so slow--t the morning must have turned from fair to rain; she had thought, fondly, that

Chewbacca would soon bring the twins and Anakin in from the meadow. She could take a moment from

her duties to cuddle them, to admire their newest treasures, to see that they had their lunch.

Now it was mid-afn. How could it be so late in the day, when such a short time ago it had not yet been

lunchtime?

"Madam--" Chamberlain Iyon said. But he did not try again to make Leia come away.

"Close the port," Leia said. "Block the roads. Can the page be questioned? Check the port controller--is

there any chance the kidnappers have left the planet?" As she spoke, she feared any measures she might

take would be useless, and if not useless, too late.

But if they've fled, she thought, I could chase them in Alderaan. I could catch them, my little ship can

catch anything-- "Madam, closing the port would not be wise." She glared at him, instantly suspicious of

a man she had trusted only a moment before.

"They took your--" She hesitated, unsure what to say.

"My wyrwulf, madam," he said. "Yes." "Your wyrwulf. Don't you care?" "I care very much, madam. And

I understand our traditions, which you--I beg your pardon--d not.

Closing the spaceport is unnec." "The kidnappers will try to escape Munto Codru," she said.

Mr. Iyon spread his four hands.

"They will not. There are traditions," he said.

"If we follow them, nothing will happen to the children-- that too is the tradition." Leia knew of Munto

Codru's traditions of abduction and ransom. That was why Chewbacca had been staying so close to the

children. That was why extra security surrounded and guarded the ancient castle. For the people of

Munto Codru, coup abduction was an important and traditional political sport.

It was a sport in which Leia did not care to participate.

"It's a most audacious abduction," the chamberlain said.

"And a cruel one!" Leia said. "Chewbacca is wounded! And the pressure bomb--my children--" She

fought for control of her voice andof her fear.

"The coup-counters detonated a pressure bomb only to prove that they could, madam," Mr.

Iyon said.

"But no one is supposed to be injured, during your coup abductions!" "No one of noble birth, Princess

Leia," he said.

"My title is "Chief of Stateea"' sir," she said angrily. "Not "Princess."' Not any longer. The world where I

was a princess is long destroyed. We live in a Republic, now." "I know it, madam. Please forgive our

old-fashioned ways." "They must know they haven't a hope," Leia said. "Of receiveg a ransom, of

escape. And if they should..." She could not bring herself to say the ^w harm.

"Please allow me to advise you in this matter," the chamberlain said. He leaned toward her, intense. "If

you apply the rules of the Republic, disaster--tragedy--w be the result." "The ransomers," Dr. Hyos said,

with every evidence of approval, "must be very brave. But young and inexperienced as well. The family...

which would it be?" She glanced at Mr. Iyon. "The Sibiu, perhaps?" "They have insufficient resources,"

the chamberlain said.

Whoever it was, Leia thought, needed only the resources of the Force. The dark side of the Force.

Mr. Iyon gestured to the broken ground, to Chewbacca. "This required a skiff, a tractor beam.

Connections with arms smugglers, to obtain the pressure bomb." "Ah. The Temebiu, then." "It could be,"

the chamberlain said. "They are ambitious." "I'll show them ambition," Leia muttered.

"Madam, please. Your children will not be harmed-- cannot be harmed, for the ransomers to achieve

their goals. They may look upon the event as a great adventure--" "Our friend Chewbacca has been

wounded nearly to death!" Leia cried. "My children will not find that amusing. Nor do Iffwas "It is a

shame," the chamberlain said. "Perhaps he did not comprehend the information on our traditions? He was

meant to surrender." "Close the port," Leia said again, her voice tight. She was too angry to respond to

the chamberlain's comment. "I won't take any chances that they'll leave Munto Codru." "Very well," Mr.

Iyon said. "It is possible... but we must do it carefully. We must do it... in a way to amuse rather than

offend.

..." His voice trailed off thoughtfully.

Dr. Hyos checked Chewbacca's pulse at the large vein the wound had come so close to piercing.

"Stable. There. Good. To the surgery with you." Chewbacca, barely conscious, gazed at Leia with

uncomprehending eyes.

"Battlefield medicine," Dr. Hyos said. "Haven't done any in a long time.

Didn't think I'd ever have to see a battlefield again." "Neither did I," Leia said.

The wyrwulf howled.

Leia had seldom worried about the safety of Jaina and Jacen and Anakin.

Thought about it, made arrangements for it, certainly; talked about it, with the children's nanny, Winter,

andwith Han and Luke andwiththe supreme worrier, See-Threepio. But Leia herself had seldom worried.

She would be aware of any danger. Her lack of training would not hamper her perception of her children.

Besides, if she somehow did not know of the danger, Luke surely would. Winter would protect the

children with her life. And when Chewbacca accompanied Leia's family, as he so often did, he spent

much of his time with the young ones. Who better to ensure their safety?

And Han, Leia's dear Han, had helped orchestrate the spreading peace. All children, not just the children

of the people who brought down the Empire, should be safe.

Or so Leia had thought.

Leia followed Dr. Hyos's assistants as they carried Chewbacca back to the surgery in the ancient Munto

Codru castle.

She felt very alone. Han and Luke had left on an adventure, with her blessing. Winter had taken the

opportunity of this peaceful tour to attend a conference on runaway children. She too was worlds away.

The coincidence did not amuse Leia.

She waited outside the surgery, where Dr.

Hyos and her assistants worked to heal Chewbacca's wounds. Courtiers and aides hovered until Leia,

with careful courtesy, sent them away.

The wyrwulf sprawled before the surgery doors. Dr. Hyos had spoken to it, told it that it could not enter

the surgery until it was older, and left it on guard. It dozed, and its head tipped forward until it balanced

on the tips of its awful fangs.

Chamberlain Iyon hurried into the stark stone waiting room.

"There's no sign," he said. "No sign.

They are very bold, very clever. Madam, we must wait for them to communicate." "Wait?" Leia

exclaimed. "That seems... unwise... to me." When she was younger she would have chosen a more

intemperate description: Stupid. Ill-advised. Idiotic.

"The ransom demand will come in the morning," the chamberlain said, trying to reassure her.

"Morning! By morning the kidnappers could escape!" "They cannot escape, madam. The port is closed.

And furthermore, they will not escape.

They have no reason to." "But it's been two hours," Leia said. "The people who stole my children also

stole two hours!" Mr. Iyon frowned. "How, stole?

Madam, you worked through the noon hour. The chronos are correct, the sun is in its proper place..." He

let his voice trail off, aware that his feeble joke had failed to lighten the mood.

"They stole two hours," Leia said again.

"These were no ordinary kidnappers! Ordinary kidnappers could never get through our defenses, they

couldn't get past Chewbacca, they couldn't steal time from us!" "But, madam, as I explained--Munto

Codru produces kidnappers of rare quality." He looked at her sadly.

He thinks I'm reacting from fear and grief, Leia thought. If I tell him I suspect a follower of the dark side

is responsible for this outrage, he'll believe I've lost my mind.

The doors of the surgery opened; Dr. Hyos patted the wyrwulf's heavy head, came to Leia, and took her

hands. The doctor held each of Leia's hands pressed between two of her own.

"Chewbacca," she said. "He'll be fine. His hearing will take time to recover from the effects of the

pressure bomb. He'll be weak while he builds up his blood." "Did he tell you--" "He's not in any shape to

tell anyone anything. Leia, my princess, he must sleep or he'll be in danger." "Did you send my message

to Han and Luke?" Leia asked the chamberlain.

"Yes, madam, but I regret--they are too close to Crseih Station. The star system is most violent. The

black hole, its quantum crystal companion--theirthe influence blocks communication." "Then we must

send a ship out after them." "Madam, the port is closed." "I closed the port! I can order a ship to leave

the planet!" Concerned and gentle, he touched her hand in comfort.

"We must maintain an illusion," he said.

"The port is closed because of a malfunction in the tracking equipment. If a ship leaves, if the emergency

is revealed publicly to be a sham, we will have offered the ransomers a mortal insult." "But you said

they'd know--" "The kidnappers," Dr. Hyos said. "They know, and we know. Everyone else may guess.

No matter. Perception, that's what matters.

Not reality." "Dr. Hyos is correct, madam," the chamberlain said. "I beg you, madam, carry on with your

afternoon's appointments as if nothing had happened. Call on the bravery for which we all honor you. For

the sake of the children." Leia struggled to hide her trembling, struggled to think clearly.

By the time a ship could reach Han, she thought, whatever happens will have happened. I gain nothing by

sending for him.

"I'll go back to the receiveg room," she said.

"I'll finish my appointments. If we haven't heard from--if we haven't heard anything by sundown--" "By

morning, please, madam." The chamberlain's face was anxious. "By morning, I assure you, we'll have

instructions." "I'll finish my appointments." Leia left the waiting room.

"Leia--" Dr. Hyos said.

"Madam--" the chamberlain said.

"What!" She faced them both, glaring.

Mr. Iyon gestured, unhappily, ^wlessly, at her bloody hands, her muddy skirt.

I've met ambassadors and heads of state in worse clothes than this, Leia thought. Worse clothes, and

dirtier.

Leia scrubbed Chewbacca's blood from her hands. Her gown was a lost cause, bloodied and mud

stained, its delicate fabric slashed by the grass blades. She threw it into the recycler, and her slippers

after it. In her bathing room, as she stood in her shift, she started to tremble. She lowered her eyelids,

blotting out the reflection of her own disarranged hair and stark face and staring eyes, reaching for calm,

reaching for certainty.

The fluting warble of Artoo-Detoo drifted into the room. The droid came closer. At the same time, Leia

heard a person's voice, high and childish and uncertain.

"No, I don't remember, I don't remember..." Artoo-Detoo sang.

Leia hurried toward the voices. As she entered her bedchamber, the silk rugs soft beneath her bare feet,

a young Codru-Ji, a native of this world, backed erratically into the room.

"I don't know, I don't remember," she said.

Artoo-Detoo's front foot preceded his cylindrical body; finally his domed head and his rear feet appeared

in the doorway. He was herding the Codru-Ji to her.

"I only saw that the small ones were gone, and the large one was hurt, I only ran for help." It was the

page who had reported the kidnapping. The blood had been washed from her face, and her abrasions

treated, and her torn clothes replaced by a hospital gown.

Leia hurried forward. "Oh, my dear--" The page did not react. Leia touched her upper shoulder.

Startled by the touch, the page jumped straight up and turned around in the air. She came down with all

four hands clenched into fists behind her, and backed rapidly away.

She saw Leia. Her eyes widened.

"Forgive me, forgive me--" Leia took her gently by one lower arm and urged her into the room.

"Why are you out of bed?" Leia asked. "You should be resting--healing." "The small droid came to me,

and I saw I must beg your forgiveness--" "Artoo, how could you?" Leia said. "Fetch Dr.

Hyos--qklyffwas The droid warbled, backed up, came forward, hesitated.

"Hurry!" With a descending trill, the droid scooted through the doorway.

Leia led the page to a couch and tried to help her to sit. At first the page resisted.

"No, I mustn't sit--" "It's all right," Leia said. "Please don't stand on ceremony." Leia tried to urge her to

sit, but the page's knees locked. Leia allowed her to remain standing, and stood beside her. "You saved

Chewbacca's life," Leia said. "And you gave the alarm--" The page stared at her, uncomprehending.

"Milady, I'm sorry, I cannot hear..." She put her hands to her ears. She started to cry, her sobs shaking

her silently.

"I don't know what happened," she said, her ^ws broken by tears. "They were there, playing, and then--"

She shuddered and flinched; Leia wondered if she was experiencing the pressure bomb all over again.

"I... I must have fallen asleep, madam. I should be exiled! And when I awoke the small ones were gone,

and--" She touched the shells of her ears. She made a high-pitched whistling sound in her own language.

"That is to say, Mr. Chewbacca was hurt, and--and I cannot hear, madam!" Leia held her--awkwardly,

because of the difference in their forms, but tenderly--and tried to soothe her.

Dr. Hyos arrived, indignant that her patient had been disturbed.

"I can't imagine what Artoo was thinking, to bring her here," Leia said. "Of course she shouldn't be up--"

"She shouldn't be down," Dr. Hyos said cryptically. "But you are correct, she must rest and recover."

The page broke away from Dr. Hyos and grasped Leia's hands.

"I am so sorry," she said.

"I forgive you," Leia said, slowly and carefully. "I forgive you. Do you understand me?" The page

hesitated, then nodded, and allowed the doctor to take her away.

Artoo-Detoo remained in Leia's apartment, whistling unhappily and arcing back and forth while Leia

dressed. His noise irritated her, but he would not stop and he would not stay still and he would not tell

her what was wrong. He followed her from her apartments. When they came to an intersection of

corridors, he rolled along one that led outside, while Leia squared her shoulders and trudged toward the

meeting room.

Artoo-Detoo whistled insistently.

"I can't," Leia said. "I have to. pretend." She walked into the receiveg room. The herald, usually so

efficient, glanced at her, dismissed her with his gaze, took a step toward her to show her out, then

snapped to attention, recognizing her at last despite her rough clothes.

"Chief of State of the New Republic, daughter of--" "No time for the whole li/!" Leia said. The herald fell

silent. Everyone in the room, her aides and advisers and native Codru-Ji alike, stared at her in confusion.

The chamberlain took a hesitant step toward her.

Leia crossed the receiveg room, her boots loud on the polished stone floor. She took her place in the

circle of chairs, leaned back, and crossed her legs. The heavy fabric of her stiff new hiking trousers

rasped against itself. She forced herself to look relaxed.

"Your pardon, Ambassador Kirl," she said to the representative from the province of Kirl. "Thank you

for your patience. We had a slight... a slight domestic upset." She forced her most charming smile. "You

know how it is--" Her voice suddenly failed her.

The handsome Kirlian ambassador, who took his name from his province, spread all four hands.

He returned her smile.

"I do know how it is," Kirl said. "Many's the time I've interrupted my work--z you say, for a slight

domestic upset. No apology is necessary, though you are notably gracious to offer it!" Always before, his

grandiose manner had amused and sometimes even charmed her. Now it felt to Leia as if his ^ws went

on forever, each one dragged out like molasses.

The day continued, interminably. Munto Codru's convoluted politics meant that she had to receive

ambassadors from an endless number of independent political entities. No wonder the world lay at the

edge--outside the edge--of importance to the Republic. It spent most of its energy facing its own

international disagreements.

Its citizens had little time or attention left over for the larger questions of interplanetary cooperation.

They had taken years to agree to choose a chamberlain, another year to settle on Mr.

Iyon.

When the evening bell rang, the ambassador bowed and withdrew. As the aides shut the doors of the

receiveg chamber, the people left in the waiting room whistled and sighed in the native language. The

doors closed, shutting off the sound.

"Any ^w?" Leia asked, her voice tight.

"No, madam," the chamberlain said.

"But we must not expect to hear before morning. That is the tradition." "Those other people," Leia said.

"What did they want? Are you sure they weren't the kidnappers, trying to talk to me?" "What other

people?" "The people still in my waiting room." "Nothing and no one of importance, madam," Mr. Iyon

said. "Small matters--many invented so the petitioner may go home and say, "I met the princess--I spoke

to the Chief of State of the New Republicffby '" "Nevertheless, I'd like to speak with them." "They will

return. Come, now, you must eat.

Tomorrow you'll negotiate with the ransomers, and the children will come home, and everything will be as

it was." Leia forced herself to unclench her hands from the arms of her chair.

Her fingernails had torn small crescents into the heavy satin upholstery.

Leia hurried toward the silent surgery.

Inside, Dr. Hyos stood at her desk. The doctor's eyes were closed. She dozed, standing up, with all four

arms slightly extended, shifting subtly as if in a slow-motion dance or a soft breeze, balancing her. Leia

had never seen a native of Munto Codru sleep.

What an odd position, Leia thought. Is that normal? Or unique to Dr. Hyos? Maybe she just fell asleep

standing up. I'm about to do the same.

The wyrwulf lay at the doctor's feet.

It raised its horrible head and gazed at Leia with its horrible bright eyes. It snorted and laid its head back

on its frontmost paws. But it did not close its eyes. Leia had no reason to be frightened of the wyrwulf,

but it disconcerted her nonetheless.

Leia let the doctor sleep. Walking softly, giving the wyrwulf a wide berth, she entered Chewbacca's

sickroom.

He lay in a hammock that cradled his huge form. Regeneration bandages covered his leg. Leia had been

afraid she would find him immersed in a bacta tank, suspended and unable to communicate.

Leia sat in a chair nearby and watched him, impatient with his sleep. His breathing was shallow and fast.

She wanted him to wake. She wanted to talk to him, to find out what he had seen, to find out if he too

had lost two hours or if he had observed what had happened and could confirm her suspicions about

these events.

Andof course she wanted to reassure him, to tell him she did not blame him-- A wave of fury rushed

across her, so powerful that she gasped.

She did blame him. She was furious at him. There was nothing at all in the world that she could say to

him.

Leia rose and backed out of the room. She closed the door, turned, and very nearly ran into Dr. Hyos.

"Oh--! I saw you sleeping, I didn't want to wake you." "Did you speak with Chewbacca?" "No, I--"

How could she admit how she felt about her husband's oldest friend? "Isn't he sedated?" "Of course. He

is badly injured." "Have you treated Wookiees before?" "No, Chewbacca is the first of his kind to visit

our world." "Then how did you know how to treat him?" "It's my job to know. I have never treated a

human, either, but when your mission was announced, I made it my business to learn something of the

people who would visit us." "He's lucky," Leia said. He has no worries, she thought, just oblivion. By the

time he's healed, and awakes, I'll know... and I'll have lived through every hellish moment.

Star Wars - The Crystal Star (by Vonda McIntyre)

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