Star Wars - Crystal Star

by The Crystal Star (by Vonda McIntyre)

  "Thank you, Mr. Iyon," Leia said, grateful for the interruption. "But you haven't brought yourself a cup. There's another, on the sideboard." "I've eaten already, madam." "I insist," Leia said, suddenly, reflexively suspicious, and embarrassed at herself for her reaction.

  The aide fetched another cup, poured the tea, and withdrew. Leia picked up her cup, and a cookie.

  "These are Chef's best sweets," she said.

  "Have you had them?" She bit into one, confident that the chef would no more let someone adulterate his recipe than he would swing from the sconces above a state dinner. The cookie vanished in her mouth like air, leaving a sweet, spicy flavor and taking the edge off her hunger.

  "I cannot eat sweets, madam." He sighed.

  "But I will join you in a cup of tea." He drank the cupful in one gulp.

  Surprised, still suspicious, even wondering if she had made a mistake by eating the cookie, Leia sipped her tea. She was amazed at her ability to perform any normal action. She felt like she should be running, blaster in hand, chasing the enemy.

  In the old days, she thought, we knew who the enemy was.

  "It is good of you to bring the latest Coruscant fashions to Munto Codru," the chamberlain said, trying to change the subject.

  "News travels so slowly, this far from the center of government." "What--?" She remembered what she was wearing: hiking trousers and a soft leather shirt and heavy boots. She started to explain that she had not been able to face putting on another fancy court dress. Then she wondered if he was subtly chiding her for her choice in clothing.

  But he was perfectly sincere. Leia blushed.

  She searched for a way to explain without having him suspect she was making fun of him.

  "It isn't quite the height of fashion," she said. She sipped her tea again. "But it's comfortable, and--" She shrugged.

  Mr. Iyon yawned. His thin lips pulled back from his prominent teeth. He snapped his mouth shut.

  "I beg your pardon, madam!" Leia accepted his apology with a nod, then she yawned too.

  "We should have had pepper tea," she said, "instead of this. Delicious though it is." Leia struggled to remember the question she was trying to answer. Mr. Iyon had said that the children must be near. Leia doubted that was possible.

  If they were hidden nearby, she thought, wouldn't I know it? Wouldn't I feel it? They must have been stolen by a master of the dark side..

  Maybe it isn't the dark side after all, Leia thought, desperately seeking comfort.

  Maybe the castle's built on some unique mineral, maybe it disrupts my perceptions. If ysalamiri can disturb the Force, why not a phenomenon from the depths of a planet?

  Leia yawned again. Like a mirror image, so did Mr. Iyon. Sleep drew Leia irresistibly.

  "We must..." Her ^ws trailed off. She could not recall what she had been about to say.

  "Good night, madam," the chamberlain said. His voice was kindly. He rose, pushing himself from the couch like a man exhausted, levering himself with all four arms. He stumbled once on the way to the door. Leia was too sleepy to be surprised by his lapse in grace.

  Her need for sleep overtook her dread. She told herself to get up, but the chair was so comfortable.

  I'll just rest here a moment, she thought.

  Chapter 2

  "Just like old times, hey, kid?" Han Solo said to Luke Skywalker.

  Sitting in the copilot's seat of the Millennium Falcon, Luke grinned.

  "Just like old times except the Empire isn't trying to shoot us out of the sky--" "You got that right." "And Jabba the Hutt isn't after your hide for dumping that spice load--" "Yeah." "And nobody is trying to collect old gambling debts from you." "Also true," Han said, thinking, But I might get around to running up some new gambling debts. After all, what's a vacation for?

  "Finally, you can't ogle every beautiful woman who comes by." "Sure I can," Han said, then hurried to defend himself as Luke chuckled. "Nothing wrong with looking. Leia and I know where we stand with each other, we trust each other, she's not jealous." Luke burst into outright laughter.

  "And you wouldn't mind," he said, "if she flirted with the Kirlian ambassador.

  Good-looking guy, that Kirlian ambassador." "Nothing wrong with looking," Han said stubbornly. "Or a little innocent flirtation. But the Kirlian ambassador better watch his hands. All four of them. Hey, kid, listen, flirting is one of the best inventions of civilization." Han grinned.

  Luke hated it when Han called him "kid." That was why he did it. He stared out into hyperspace.

  "You ought to do more flirting yourself," Han said.

  "If I might be of service, Master Luke," See-Threepio said, leaning forward from the passenger seat. "I have an extensive library of love poetry at your disposal, in several languages suitable for the human tongue, as well as etiquette, medical information, and--" "I don't have time for flirtations," Luke said, "or love poetry. Not right now..." Threepio sat back in the passenger seat.

  At the corner of Han's vision, the droid looked like a shadow. To disguise himself, See-Threepio had covered his glossy gold finish with a coat of purple lacquer. Han had not yet gotten used to the change.

  "Don't be so damned dedicated," Han said to Luke. "Don't Jedi Knights get to have any fun? Little Jedi Knights have to come from somewhere. I'll bet old Obi-wan--" "I don't know what Ben would have done!" Luke spoke in a tone of distress, not anger. The fundamental loneliness of the young Jedi struck Han deeply.

  "I don't know what other Jedi Knights did," Luke said softly. "I didn't know Ben long enough, and the Empire destroyed so many records, and... I just don't know." Han wished Luke could find someone to share his life and his work. Han's marriage to Leia grew and strengthened with each year, with each day. As his own years of happiness continued, Han was increasingly troubled by his brother-in-law's solitude.

  "Take it easy, Luke," Han said.

  "Take it easy. You're doing great--" "But the traditions--" "So if you have to make them up as you go along, that's not so bad, is it?" Han asked. "We always were pretty good at bluff+. In the old days." "In the old days." Luke sounded glum.

  "And who knows what we'll find when we get where we're going? Maybe some more Jedi Knights to help with the school." "Maybe," Luke said. "I hope so." The Millennium Falcon swept out of hyperspace, diving through streamers of light into normal space.

  The alarms shrieked and the radiation shields snapped into existence around the Falcon.

  Han swore. He had expected a heavy radiation flux in this region--he had outfitted the Falcon to withstand it--but nothing as powerful as the X-ray storms raging around them.

  When he had checked the ship's systems to make sure none were damaged, Han took a moment to look outside. He whistled softly in awe.

  A dense, brilliant starfield spread all around his ship. Two star clusters collided: Bands of red giant stars, like veins of glowing blood, meandered through regions of white dwarf stars. The stars clustered so closely that they formed one huge chaotic system, spinning around each other, pulling each other into different dances, one snatching star-stuff from the surface of another.

  Chaos reigned in the impossible circle-dance of stars; no one could predict the changes each star's pattern would take--if anyone could find a pattern to start with. Soon, measuring by astronomical time, the cluster's stars would fly off in all directions. Or perhaps the whole cluster would collapse in upon itself. It would squeeze its mass into the size of a planet, a moon, a fist, a pinprick. And then it would vanish.

  "If I may be so bold..." See-Threepio said. "Despite the extra shielding I can feel X rays penetrating my outer shell, all the way to my synapses. I can hardly imagine what they might do to your more delicate biological structure. Crseih Research Station was constructed to withstand this assault.

  Might I suggest that we get beneath the spaceport's shielding as soon as possible?" As if to punctuate See-Threepio's comment, a bright flash of light with no apparent source streaked across Han's vision; he recogniz
ed it as a cosmic ray traveling across his retina.

  "Good thinking, Threepio," he said.

  He laid a course for the Crseih Research Station.

  Han piloted the Millennium Falcon through the strangest star system he had ever approached. An ancient, dying, crystallizing white dwarf star orbited a black hole in a wildly eccentric elliptical path.

  Eons ago, in this place, a small and ordinary yellow star peacefully orbited an immense blue-white supergiant. The blue star aged, and collapsed.

  The blue star went supernova, blasting light and radiation and debris out into space.

  Its light still traveled through the universe, a furious explosion visible from distant galaxies.

  Over time, the remains of the supergiant's core collapsed under the force of its own gravity.

  The result was degenerate mass: a black hole.

  The violence of the supernova disrupted the orbit of the nova's companion, the yellow star. Over time, the yellow star's orbit decayed.

  The yellow star fell toward the unimaginably dense body of the black hole. The black hole sucked up anything, even light, that came within its grasp. And when it captured matter--even an entire yellow star--it ripped the atoms apart into a glowing accretion disk. Subatomic particles imploded downward into the singularity's equator, emitting great bursts of radiation. The accretion disk spun at a fantastic speed, glowing with fantastic heat, creating a funeral pyre for the destroyed yellow companion.

  The plasma spiraled in a raging pinwheel, circling so fast and heating so intensely that it blasted X rays out into space. Then, finally, the glowing gas fell toward the invisible black hole, approaching it closer and closer, appearing to fall more and more slowly as relativity influenced it.

  It was lost forever to this universe.

  That was the fate of the small yellow star.

  The system contained a third star: the dying white dwarf, which shone with ancient heat even as it froze into a quantum crystal. Now, as the Millennium Falcon entered the system, the white dwarf was falling toward the black hole, on the inward curve of its eccentric elliptical orbit.

  "Will you look at that," Han said. "Quite a show." "Indeed it is, Master Han," Threepio said, "but it is merely a shadow of what will occur when the black hole captures the crystal star." Luke gazed silently into the maelstrom of the black hole.

  Han waited.

  "Hey, kid! Snap out of it." Luke started. "What?" "I don't know where you were, but you weren't here." "Just thinking about the Jedi Academy. I hate to leave my students, even for a few days. But if I do find other trained Jedi, it'll make a big difference. To the Academy. To the New Republic..." "I think we're getting along pretty well already," Han said, irked. He had spent years maintaining the peace with ordinary people. In his opinion, Jedi Knights could cause more trouble than they were worth. "And what if these are all using the dark side?" Luke did not reply.

  Han seldom admitted his nightmares, but he had nightmares about what could happen to his children if they were tempted to the dark side.

  Right now they were safe, with Leia on a planetary tour of remote and peaceful worlds of the New Republic. By this time they must have reached Munto Codru. They would be visiting the beautiful mountains of the world's temperate zone.

  Han smiled, imagining his princess and his children being welcomed to one of Munto Codru's mysterious, ancient, fairy-tale castles.

  Solar prominences flared from the white dwarf's surface. The Falcon passed it, heading toward the more perilous region of the black hole.

  Han set the shields as high as they would go, and sped through the dangerous radiation. The accretion disk blazed wildly, its light harsh and actinic.

  Neither white dwarf nor black hole possessed natural planets, only a few bits of distant debris and a halo of frozen comets. But the white dwarf did possess one artificial planetoid.

  Crseih Station had been a secret Empire research facility. During the rule of the Emperor, it had moved from covert place to hidden location to secret destination. Wherever it went, it carried with it a reputation of evil.

  Most of the records of its work had been destroyed when the Empire fell. Its researchers had fled, to surrender to the New Republic or to disappear. Han knew only one thing about Crseih for certain. It had been sent to this star system to adapt the destructive power of the black hole to the martial ambitions of the Emperor.

  Crseih had failed, but it still existed, hidden out here on the edge of civilization, isolated by the disruption of the exploding, dying stars. Some inhabitants remained, content to be free of the Empire. They also lived outside the New Republic, without the protection of its justice.

  Without the protection, or the restraints.

  Han plunged the Millennium Falcon into the shadow of Crseih Station. He breathed a sigh of relief. Light from the white dwarf still illuminated his ship, but the station blocked the intense X rays of the black hole.

  Like a patchwork umbrella, powerful shielding covered half the irregular artificial planetoid of Crseih Station. As the station had grown, the patches had spread. Shielding formed the residence domes, and the corridors of the airlinks. Transparent to the visual spectrum, it protected the equipment and the inhabitants from high-energy radiation. The shielding shimmered in patterns of shadow. Wherever a particularly intense burst of radiation assaulted the shielding, it darkened.

  Han set the Millennium Falcon down on a bare patch of blasted stone. Crseih had nothing much in the way of a spaceport. A few itinerant hyperdrive mechanics and refuelers.

  A rental company that specialized in shielding.

  Han made arrangements for an extra shield for the Falcon. A few minutes later, a crawler shuffled toward them, towing the big transparent sheet.

  "Efficient," Luke said.

  "Or bored. Sure isn't much traffic." He scowled. "Wouldn't you know? First vacation I ever get, and I come to a backwater." "Threepio, where's your contact?" Luke asked.

  A few dozen other ships of various types and vintages hunkered down on the blasted rock.

  Most were shielded. A few had been left naked and exposed in the cosmic weather, decaying to derelicts.

  "Here to meet us, I'm virtually certain, Master Luke." See-Threepio peered nervously through the viewport. "Perhaps riding out on the crawler?" See-Threepio fidgeted. A few weeks ago, Han had begun to receive incomprehensible messages. But Threepio recognized the language; he said it was nearly extinct. The messages passed on rumors of strange events at Crseih Station.

  "It is my fault we've set out on this investigation," See-Threepio said.

  Han had charged Threepio with replying to the messages, using the same obscure language, andwith setting up a rendezvous. Now Threepio, being Threepio, took full responsibility for the entire expedition.

  "I do hope we are not following a hoax," Threepio said.

  "It's all right, Threepio," Han said.

  "It wouldn't be your fault." "But I could hardly survive the embarrassment if the rumors turned out to be of no account.

  ..." Han gave up listening to Threepio's worries. Han would be sorry for Luke, of course, if he failed to find the lost Jedi. But Han was content to be here, whether the trip turned out to be vacation or adventure.

  He turned his attention to the outpost. The low, oblate airlinks covered and protected and connected the districts of the station, some rich and well kept, some collapsing into piles of rubble. Though the Empire's research facilities had been abandoned, the community that had sprung up around them had continued. Some of the inhabitants had found other ways to thrive, without the presence of the Empire or the attention of the New Republic.

  Representatives and ambassadors concentrated their attention on more populous worlds closer to the center of power.

  And that's a relief, Han thought. No ambassadors, no court dress. No formal dinners.

  The crawler hesitated.

  "How will you be wishing to pay for this service?" its operator asked.

  "Lett
er of resources," Han said.

  "Hard credits only." The crawler started to back away.

  "Wait a minute!" Han shouted. "Do you--" He stopped. He had been about to say, "Do you know who I am?" But he was traveling incognito. Of course the operator did not know who he was.

  The thought gave him a feeling of freedom.

  "The letter of resources must be deposited, Master Ha--" See-Threepio's memory programming cut off the use of Han's real name just in time. "Sir. Otherwise it cannot be drawn upon." "I know that." Han grinned. "I guess I just wanted to flash it around. All those seals and signatures." And a fake identity.

  The crawler headed for the airlinks.

  "Come back here!" Han said. "Cash money." "Show your coin." Han displayed the rainbow edges of a few bills of New Republic currency. He was glad, for old times' sake, for the sake of his smuggling days, that the Senate had failed to pass a law abandoning physical currency. Smuggling would have been a whole lot harder without hard-to-trace cash money. Of course, that was why the Senate wanted to abandon it.