THE BLACK FLEET CRISIS #3 - TYRANTS_TEST
Page 1
The Black Fleet Crisis: Tyrant's Test
by
By: Michael P. Kube-McDowell
BANTAM BOOKS NEW YORK TORONTO LONDON SYDNEY AUCKLAND
Dedication
For the stalwart crew, Russ Galen Tom Dupree Sue Rostoni Lynn Bailey
And the bold captain, George Lucas
Acknowledgments
Writing "The Black Fleet Crisis" has been either the most grueling fun
or the most enjoyable marathon of my writing career. Either way, the
last seventeen months have been amazingly full--a new home, two new
babies (Amanda and Gavin), and more than three hundred thousand new
words of fiction.
Though I was on my own in the many long hours I spent with my old
friend Qwerty, I couldn't have had those hours, or done nearly as much
with them, without the help of a grand conspiracy of allies.
First among them are my immediate family, Gwen Zak and my son Matt, and
my de facto extended family, Rod Zak and Arlyn Wilson. With unflagging
grace and good humor, they pitched in wherever they were needed, doing
whatever had to be done to keep the home fires burning and the dragons
at bay.
The seasoned professionals of this conspiracy were SCG superagent Russ
Galen, Bantam editor Tom Du-pree, BDD Audio producer Lynn Bailey, and
Lucasfilm's Sue Rostoni. Working their mysterious ways through such
arcane media as the fax, the telephone, and E-mail,
they skillfully
managed the more far-reaching elem of the master plan.
Then there were the many sympathizers, who, though not formally part of
my cell nevertheless fered their knowledge or services to further our
cause.
Prominent on that long list are DanWallace, Craig ert Carey, Timothy
O'Brien, R. Lee Brown, Mic Armstrong, Jim Macdonald, Daniel Dworkin,
Ev.
Cainto, and Mike Stackpole.
Meanwhile, John Vester, Dave Phillips, and nifer Hrynik took the point
on a fiendishly clever' information campaign.
Though security concerns limit my freedom to name names, I also want to
acknowledge the aid and comfort I drew from the volunteer flyspeckers
in CompuServe's SF Media Two forum (GO SFMEDTWO) Genie's SF Roundtable
Three (SFRT3), and from the cals of RASSM.
I offer my most earnest salute to the chief archi of the Rebellion,
George Lucas, without whose inspiration none of us would be here.
Finally, I want to thank the true believers of cause--Star Wars fans
around the globe--for coming along on this journey. Your boundless
enthusiasm and vocal support have meant a great deal to me.
--Michael Paul McDowell: August 31, 1996
Okemos, Michigan
Dramatis Personae
On Coruscant, capital of the New Republic:
Princess Leia Organa Solo, President of the Senate an- Chief of State
of the New Republic
Alole and Tarrick, aides to Leia
Admiral Hiram Drayson, chief of Alpha Blue
General Carlist Rieekan, head of New Republic Intelligence
Brigadier Collomus, operations senior staff for NRI
First Administrator Nanaod Engh, administrative director of the New
Republic
Mokka Falanthas, minister of state
Senator Behn-Kihl-Nahm, chairman of the Defense Council and friend and
mentor to Leia
Senator Rattagagech of Elom, chairman of the Science and Technology
Council
Senator Doman Beruss of Illodia, chairman of the Ministry Council
Senator Borsk Fey'lya of Kothlis, chairman of the Justice Council
Senator Tig Peramis of Walalla
Belezaboth Ourn, extraordinary consul of t] Paqwepori
With the Fifth Battle Group of the New Republic Defense Fleet, in
Farlax Sector:
General Etahn A'baht, Fleet commander
Colonel Corgan, staff tactical officer
Colonel Mauit'ta, staff intelligence officer
Captain Morano, commander of the flagship Intrepid
Plat Mallar, sole survivor of the Yevethan raid on Polneye
Aboard the Teljkon Vagabond:
General Lando Calrissian, Fleet liaison to the expedition
Lobot, chief administrator of Cloud City, on vacation
See-Threepio, protocol droid
Artoo-Detoo, astromech droid
Aboard the yacht Lady Luck, in pursuit of the Vagabond:
Colonel Pakkpekatt, expedition commander Republic Intelligence
Captain Bijo Hammax, foray commander Pleck and Taisden, NRI technical
agents
Aboard the Obroan Institute research vessel P Rift, at Maltha Obex: Dr.
Joto Eckels, senior archaeologist
On N'zoth, spawnworld of the Yevetha, in Kc Cluster, Farlax Sector:
Nil Spaar, viceroy of the Yevethan Protectorate
Eri Palle, aide to Nil Spaar
Dar Bille, proctor of the Yevethan flagship Tal Fraan, proctor cogent
to the viceroy
General Han Solo, a prisoner
Aboard the skiff Mud Sloth, en route to J't'p'tan, in the Koornacht
Cluster, Farlax Sector
Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Master
Akanah, an adept of the White Current On Kashyyyk, homeWorld of the
Wookiees:
Chewbacca, participating in coming-of-age ceremonies for his son
Lumpawarrump
Tyrant's T est
(Chapter 1
Three levels down from Rwookrrorro and eighteen kilometers northeast
along the Rryatt Trail, the Well of the Dead appeared as a solid green
wall ahead of Chewbacca and his son Lumpawarrump.
This deep in the wroshyr jungle of Kashyyyk, the tangled web of trunks
and branches was ordinarily almost barren. So little light penetrated
the dense canopies overhead that any leaves that sprouted quickly
withered. Only the gray bridal-veil sucker and the pad-dle-leafed mock
shyr, both parasites, and the ubiquitous kshyy vines decorated the runs
and paths.
But neither the bridal-veil nor the mock shyr was abundant enough to
block those runs and force the Wookiees to the underside of the web of
branches.
They--and the creatures that made their homes at that level--could move
freely over the top of the tangled maze. Despite the dim light,
sightlines of up to five hundred meters were the norm, with the trunks
of the wroshyr trees themselves providing the only cover.
It was the Shadow Forest, the realm of the nimble rkkrrkkrl, or
trap-spinner, and the slow-moving rroshm, which helped keep the paths
clear by grazing on bridal-veil.
tongued needlebugs, whose sucking proboscides could pierce the tough
wroshyr bark and draw on the juices within.
The most dangerous inhabitants were the elusive kkekkrrg rro, the
five-limbed Shadow Keepers, which preferred to roam the underside and
even more strongly preferred the taste of meat. The Shadow Keepers
would not attack an adult Wookiee, but long history, now mostly
forgotten, had made the kkekkrrg rro the personification of the
/> skulking unseen enemy, and it was the rare Wookiee who would not reach
for his weapon on seeing one.
All this and more Chewbacca had shown and explained to his son as they
journeyed down from the hunting ground of the Twilight Gardens, a level
above.
The whole time, memories had swirled around him on the stagnant air.
Some were memories of his own journey of ascendance in the company of
his father, Attitch-itcuk, of the tests that had earned him the right
to wear his baldric, to carry a weapon in city, to choose and confirm
his name.
Two hundred years, and the forest is still the same--only I am the
father now, not the son ....
Chewbacca also vividly remembered the foolish expedition he and
Salporin had made to the Shadow Forest in advance of their
coming-of-age. Unarmed but for a single ryyyk blade Salporin had
pilfered from his eldest brother, Chewbacca and his friend had left the
nursery ring and descended into realms forbidden to the children they
still were.
They had thought to prepare themselves for the unknown, but managed
only to scare themselves with it.
Their courage had faded with the failing light, and by the time they
reached Shadow Forest, all it took was a skittish trap-spinner to send
them fleeing back to the safety of the familiar.
And what we thought we saw filled our nightmares until our tests of
ascension finally came--poor Salporin!
I only had to wait six days.
If Attitchitcuk knew--then or later--what they had done, he had never
let on.
Chewbacca looked at his son appraisingly. He doubted that there were
any secret journeys concealed behind those nervous eyes. Years ago, a
very young Lumpawarrump had gone alone into the forest near Rwookrrorro
in search of wasaka berries and gotten himself lost--a misadventure
that had grown much in the retelling, until it became a family fable
populated by every monster of the dark depths of both jungle and
imagination. But the scare had been real even if the danger had not,
and since then his son had been content to stay close to the nursery
ring and the home tree.
And Mallatobuck and Attitchitcuk had been content to allow it, to let
him be different. Neither, it seemed, had pushed him to take part in
the toughen-ing--the unstructured rough-and-tumble play of the nursery
ring, where young Wookiees learned their fearlessly headlong fighting
style. When Chewbacca had greeted his son with a fierce growling rush,
Lumpawar-rump had turned from it, yielding as though he were already
wounded.
It had been a difficult moment for everyone. But in the aftermath,
Chewbacca realized that he was seeing part of the price his son had
paid for his absence.
In honoring a life debt to Han Solo, Chewbacca had left his son to be
raised by mother and grandfather.
He could not fault their love or their care, but something had been
missing--something to spark the rrakktorr, the defiant fire, the eager
strength that was a Wookiee's heart. Lumpawarrump did not even have a
friend like Salporin to test himself against in daily clinches and
slap-fights.
The calendar said that it was time. Lumpawarrump had sprung up to
adult height. But he had only begun to fill out that tall frame, and
it was clear that he did not yet. feel the power of his size. It was
also not difficult to see that Lumpawarrump was in awe of his famous
father, and paralyzingly anxious for his approval. Beyond that,
Chewbacca was still trying to take his measure.
His son had talent in his hands. Though he had dragged out the task
through nine days, Lumpawarrump had done a skillful job constructing
his bow-caster--its weaknesses were the kind that only experience would
teach him to correct. And he had shown a steady hand in downing a
kroyies with it, the first of the hunting tests.
But the second test, trapping and killing a big-eyed scuttle grazer on
level three, had taken even longer and not gone as well. And the test
waiting ahead, inside the Well of the Dead, promised to ask more of
Lumpy than he was ready to face.
[Explain to me what we see,] he said to his son.
[It is a wound in the forest, where something fell from the sky long
ago. It is the bottom of the great pit of Anarrad, which we see from
the high lookouts of Rwookrrorro.] [Why did Kashyyyk not heal the
wound?] [I do not know, Father.] [Because she needed a home for the
katarn. The light falls to the depths and calls forth the young
vitality of the wroshyr. The green leaves shelter the daubirds and
sustain the sprites and mallakins. The daubirds invite the netcasters,
and the mallakins call the grove harriers.
And the katarn, the old prince of the forest, comes to the feast.] [If
Kashyyyk has given the katarn this place, why must we hunt them?] [It
is our pact with them, from long ago.] "I do not understand.] [Once
they hunted us, and the richness of the high forest was theirs for a
thousand generations. But their hunting did not destroy us. Nothing
of this world is to be squandered, my son. The katarn gave the Wookiee
its strength and courage, and allowed the Wookiee to find the
rrakktorr. Now we hunt them to repay the gift.
Someday it will be their turn again.]
The fleet carrier Venture loomed ahead of Plat Mallar like a rugged
gray island in an endless, empty sea.
Snub fighters of the interceptor screen orbited it like hunting birds
on the wing.
"Looks awfully good to me," said Ferry Four.
"It's a mirage," said Ferry Six. "They're going to have our heads for
losing the commodore."
"Cut the chatter and clean up the formation," said Lieutenant Bos, the
ferry flight leader. "Venture flight operations, this is Bravo Flight
leader. Requesting landing vectors on the ball. I have ten birds
ready to roost."
Under ordinary circumstances, the air boss would have handed the
squadron over to the landing officer of the active landing bay, who in
turn would have activated the landing alignment system's four tracking
lasers to guide the fighters in. But all of Venture's landing bays
appeared to be locked up tight. "Hold at two thousand meters and stand
by, ferry leader."
"What's going on, Venture?"
"I have no further information for you at this time.
Hold at two thousand meters and stand by."
"Understood. Bravo Flight, it looks like they're not quite ready for
us. We're going to parallel the carrier at two thousand meters, single
file, landing spacing, until they wave us in."
"Is it just me, or are there guns pointed at us?"
Ferry Nine whispered over combat two, the addressable ship-to-ship
frequency. "I'm looking right down the quads of an AS battery."
Lifting his eyes from the controls, Plat Mallar studied the flank of
the fleet carrier through the recon optics.
It did, indeed, seem to him that quite a number of the gun batteries
were trained on the ferry flight.
"It might not be about us,"
Plat whispered back.
"We don't know what's been happening out here."
"Venture flight ops to Bravo Flight leader. Advise all fighters to
shut down engines and thrusters. Recovery will be by tractor."
"Copy," Lieutenant Bos said. "Bravo Flight, you heard the man--turn
'em into rocks."
"Lieutenant, this is Ferry Five--even station-keeping thrusters?"
"Ferry Five, they're going to reel us in on a line.
Don't you know what'll happen if you've got the 'keepers running when
the tractor beam grabs on?"
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. I just don't understand--why are they doing
this, Lieutenant? Why won't they let us land our ships ourselves?"
"Ours not to reason why," Bos said. "Just do as they ask."
"I know why," said Ferry Eight grimly. "They're not sure who's out
here in 'em. For all they know, the Yevetha yanked us out during the