They were unfamiliar in form and did not sing. But they did not move
toward the vagabond, or reach out to touch it, and so it left them
alone, no imperatives having been invoked.
Still, it noted them and watched them closely.
After the appointed time for waiting, the vagabond began singing. And
for the first time in all its journeys home, an answer came.
But the answer did not come from Brath Qellamit came from one of the
tiny eggs sharing the circles. And the answer was sung harshly,
without the gentle strength of Brath Qella. The vagabond searched its
memories and knew the answer to be form without substance, a deception,
a predator's lure.
And there were imperatives concerning predators.
When the vagabond finally broke its-silence and broadcast a
fourteen-second interrogative, only Taisden was on the flight deck to
hear it.
Hammax was napping in his cabin, wearing all but the boots and
gauntlets of a combat suit. Pleck was on the observation deck trying
to coax what he considered a more realistic measure of the vagabond's
displacement from what he suspected was a faulty magnetometer.
Pakkpekatt and Eckels were behind closed doors in Lando's suite,
engaged in a heated discussion prompted by Eckels's belated discovery
that an NRI team was aboard the Qella vessel.
Taisden's alarm roused all of them from their other pursuits, and
brought all but Pleck running forward to the flight deck.
"Don't know what the question was, but we are responding," Taisden told
them. "And the target is changing orbit and accelerating."
"Toward us?"
"Toward the relay satellite."
"She sure can motor when she wants to," Hammax said, shaking his
head.
"Is this good?" Eckels demanded. "Is this what you expected?"
"Maybe," Taisden said. "If she's going over there to make nice, next
time we can transmit our reply directly from Lady Luck--" At that
moment a blue glow appeared at the vagabond's bow, making it suddenly
bright both through the viewscreens and on the monitors.
"The scythe," said Pakkpekatt.
"Impossible," said Taisden. "The satellite's three thousand klicks
away from it--" Three slender but brilliant beams of energy slashed
across the darkness and came together at a point 3,409 kilometers ahead
of the vagabond. Where they converged, there was a small explosion
intense enough to leave an afterimage in their eyes.
Then the glow vanished, and the lances disappeared, leaving a spreading
cloud of atomized plasteel and metal glittering in the light of N'oka
Brath.
"She did not go there to make nice," Hammax said in awe. "What kind of
weapon is that?"
Even before the vagabond turned back, Taisden had shut down the
autoresponder. At the same time, Pakkpekatt pulled the throttles back,
dropping them into a lower, faster orbit that would carry them away
from the vagabond and over its horizon.
"She could have taken out the whole task force at
Gmar Askilon at any time," said Taisden, shaking his head.
"Give me voice to Calrissian," said Pakkpekatt.
"Run it through one of Penga Rift's regular satellites."
"Ready," said Taisden. "Comm two."
"General," said Pakkpekatt, "this is Lady Luck. Why are you firing on
us?"
"It wasn't our doing," Lando said. "What did you say to it? Why are
you running away?"
"If your yacht has a sensor cloak or a shield of invulnerability,
General, this would be a very good time to inform us."
Lando's answer was lost in a blast of static as the vagabond reached
across nearly eight thousand kilometers and vaporized Penga Rift's
ORS-2.
"Going over the horizon from that thing looks better all the time,"
said Pakkpekatt.
"Six minutes."
"Colonel---" Eckels's voice had a tremble. "Perhaps it is time to
transmit it all while there is still an operational satellite that can
be used to relay it. Whatever message we sent just now was not taken
well. Perhaps we need to be more convincing--or more confusing."
Pakkpekatt looked to Taisden. "I have no better ideas, Colonel."
"Then do it," he said. "Doctor--" "Yes. Let me speak to Penga
Rift."
Captain Barjas's voice answered the hail. "Doc-tor-thank goodness.
We're showing two satellites have suddenly gone dead, and we were
concerned."
"The vagabond has turned hostile," Eckels said.
"Is everyone back on board?"
"Except for you. We just got the last of them up."
"Good. I order you to leave orbit immediately, and jump out to the
agreed coordinates for rendezvous one."
"Very well, Dr. Eckels. Good luck, sir."
"We'll be all right. Get out of here--take care of my people."
"Eight minutes to horizon," said Taisden.
"What? How are we losing ground?"
"The target is accelerating toward ORS-One, which is currently relaying
the Qella database."
Hammax shook his head. "Keeping the rock between us and it might not
be all that easy to do."
"Penga Rift is getting under way," said Taisden.
"Perhaps the reply should be coming from the surface--" Eckels began.
Pakkpekatt ignored him. "Is there any spare bandwidth on ORS-One?"
"I can make some," said Taisden.
"I want to talk to Calrissian."
The agent's fingertips danced over the controls.
"Ready on two."
"General, this is Pakkpekatt."
"Colonel," said Lando. "Looks a little warm out there. Is this a good
time to mention that my yacht's uninsured? Perhaps you might consider
running away just a little faster--" "General Calrissian, I don't know
how long we'll be able to talk. Is there anything you can do to put a
stop to this?"
"I don't think so," said Lando. "We just had a little mutiny over
here--about ten minutes ago, my good friend Lobot drained the power
cell on our only blaster into one of the droids. The droids are
backing him up."
"Do you know of any weakness or vulnerability of the vagabond that we
can exploit?"
"Yes. Blaster cannon, cruiser-weight and up. The hull's not armored,
and there don't seem to be ray shields, at least not at those
frequencies. You can hole it and hurt it. But you have to get in the
first shot, and make it good."
They could hear a second voice saying, "Lando, it does not deserve
this--" Then Eckels found his voice in protest, drowning out Lobot.
"This is completely unacceptable, Colonel.
This artifact is unique, irreplaceable--" "And deadly," said
Pakkpekatt. "Acknowledged,
General. Stand by." He gestured to Taisden. "Hyper-comm, secure, to Rieekan and Collomus."
"Go."
"This is Colonel Pakkpekatt, commanding, Teljkon task force at Maltha
Obex," he said. "Confirming: We've found the vagabond and made contact
with the team aboard. But the target has turned hostile, and we can't
get anywhere near--" The flight deck was suddenly and momentarily
flooded with light, marking the precipitous disappearance of the thi
rd
satellite.
"--it. I believe we could jump out using the planet as our shield, but
only at the cost of losing contact with the vessel. I am opting to try
to maintain contact, and requesting immediate assistance and support to
secure the target and recover our people." He paused as though
listening, then added, "Don't bother with a cruiser--send a Star
Destroyer, or two. We're going to need a heavyweight to stop her."
Chapter 11
The morning after the Battle of N'zoth, the Kell 1 Hath Corporation
liner Star Morning entered the . system and requested a rendezvous
with Intrepid for the purpose of picking up passengers.
Since the news did not directly involve Luke, he knew nothing of it
until Wialu sent him a message requesting that he come to the cabin she
and Akanah had been sharing. He found the women putting the cabin in
order, preparing to leave. Akanah greeted him with an eager embrace.
"Did you hear? Our ship will be here in about an hour."
Luke turned to Wialu. "You're going back to J't'p'tan?"
"We are going away," she said. "It is time for us to find a quieter
place. We need to grieve, and heal--and-to absorb the lessons of
J't'p'tan, and find a new focus."
His gaze narrowed; "Then the rest of the Circle--they're on the ship
already?"
"We are no longer needed at J't'p'tan," she said.
"And so the Fallanassi disappear again."
"We do not require or desire the attention of outsiders," said Wialu.
"And events have already cost us
much privacy. We will go away long enough and far enough to earn it
back."
"I don't suppose I was expecting an invitation to come along," Luke
said, turning his gaze on Akanah.
"I wish there were more time," she said, showing a sad smile. "I wish
that I could finish what I started. It was unfair to you for me to
make that promise, not knowing if there would be a chance to keep
it."
"Unfair," Luke repeated. "I'm not sure that's a strong enough word.
Because when you made me another promise, the one that brought me on
this journey, you must have known that you couldn't keep it--that I'd
run into a wall of silence if we found the Circle." He looked back
toward Wialu. "Unless you asked me here to tell me more than
good-bye."
"You can't ask that of her, Luke--" "Why not?" he said, his gaze
hardening. "She went to the trouble of scattering signs and markers
across five sectors so that one child could come home. But she won't
even come to the door when another one's standing outside knocking.
Can you explain that to me, at least--why Akanah is welcomed back, and
I'm being turned away?"
"Akanah is of the Fallanassi, by blood and affinity both," said
Wialu.
"We do not claim you, Luke Skywalker."
"You do not claim--what are you saying? That Nashira isn't my
mother?
That my mother wasn't of the Circle?"
Wialu nodded toward Akanah. "This is the one who must provide your
answers."
Blinking, Luke stared at Akanah questioningly. She looked away
uncomfortably, then sank down onto the edge of the bunk as though it
were something fragile.
"I know nothing about your mother, Luke," she said in a small voice.
"And I have not told you the truth about mine."
All of Luke's emotions save for curiosity were numbed by her words.
"What does your mother have to do with this?"
"You remember what I told you of how it was for me, living on the
underside on Carratos, and how my caretaker took my money and left me
there--" "Talsava," Luke said. "I remember."
Akanah looked up and met his eyes. "Everything I told you about her is
true, save one--her name was Isela Talsava Norand, and she was my real
mother," she said in a whisper. "And she was the one who brought the
Empire down on the Circle."
Wordlessly, Luke sank into a chair. Wialu took up the narrative.
"We could not allow Isela to remain with the Circle after her
betrayal," she said. "We could not trust her to know where we were
bound when we left Lucazec. She was banished from the Circle before
that decision was made. But Akanah was not banished--we would have
kept her with us, cared for her, continued her training.
She would have been loved.
"But Isela refused our offer, and took Akanah away with her. Isela's
decision distressed us all. She was punishing Akanah for her own
transgression. There was much grief and anger in the Circle on the day
they left.
And in my own grief, I made Akanah a promise--that the way back to us
would be marked for her, so that when the choice was hers, she could
rejoin the Circle."
She looked at Akanah with an affectionate smile. "So many years went
by that I thought we would never see her again."
"And I thought I would never leave Carratos."
"Why didn't you?" Luke asked.
"What I told you of my life there was the truth. The war came, and
then I was left alone, with nothing," Akanah said. "I had to learn the
way of a world run by different rules, with no one to guide me or
protect me. I have already admitted to Wialu how I misused what they
taught me, to survive. How I became like the ones who had what I
needed."
Akanah looked down at her hands and smiled as though at a fond and
tender reminiscence. "Then there was the miracle of Andras, who
created a safe place for
me, and brought love back to me--and though I could have left Carratos
then, I did not want to."
"So why did you make me part of it when you finally did leave?" Luke
asked. "You didn't need me to find the Fallanassi, or to get to
them--though you tried to make me think that you did. The Imperial
agents on Lucazecmthey were another lie, weren't they? We were never
being hunted."
"No!" she admitted. "They were never there. It was a test. I had to
know who you were--what I could expect from you, where to begin."
"The blood," Luke remembered.
"A mistake," she said. "I felt your surprise and thought I had
betrayed myself. I had never seen a light-saber strike flesh. I had
to draw your attention to me, to Nashira, or I would have lost you
then."
"Lost me for what? I still don't understand. What was the deception
meant to gain you?"
Sad-eyed, Akanah shook her head slowly. "It was not for me, Luke.
What you gave me, what this has meant to me-that just happened,
unexpected-that wasn't planned."
"Then why?"
"Because I have been afraid of you," she said simply.
"I don't understand."
"Luke, I have seen the underside of war, where there are no heroes,
only victims. I've seen what power is about, how it's used, what it
means not to have it in a world where that's all that matters." The
weight of her words was echoed in her sad eyes. "I was ten years old
when the Emperor's stormtroopers swept across half the galaxy--I had a
childhood in paradise and an adolescence in hell. I have good reason
to f
ear power."
"You thought think I'm the same kind of threat the Emperor was, the
same as the stormtroopers?"
"It is not just you," Akanah said. "You are training others to follow
your path. Where there was one, there are now many, and there will be
many more. I had to know you. I had to see what inside you balances
the power you have--I had to see what I could give you of what the
Circle had given me. I did not lie to you about my purpose. Something
has been missing, something of the Light, something of peace, of
acceptance. I tried to help you find it."
"By lying to me," Luke said, his restless emotions bringing him to his
feet.
Akanah smiled ruefully. "As you have seen, the Fallanassi are not
above using deception."
"So Nashira was nothing but your fantasy? A reflection of what I
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