Showdown At Centerpoint

by Roger MacBride Allen

  by the lock door-including two smali tanks of oxygen with breathing masks.

  Lando grabbed one, twisted the valve to stari the oxygen flowing, and threw

  it into the lock. Most-or maybe all-of the oxygen would go to waste, of

  course. But it didn't matter. Even at full flow, a bottle that size would

  last ten or fifteen minutes before it went empty. But maybe just enough oxy

  would blow around to do some good. Or maybe if they were all blinded by the

  fumes, someone would still hear the hissing noise, and someone would find

  the mask, and put it to his or her face. The door swung to, Jenica pulled

  the lever to open the Hollowtown-side door, and that was that. She turned

  around and slumped down on the floor with her back to the wall. Lando

  grabbed the other oxy tank and sat down on the floor facing her. He opened

  the flow valve and handed her the tank. Jenica put the breather mask to her

  face and breathed in deeply--and was subdued by another wave of wracking

  coughs. She tried it again, with better success. "Yuck," she said. "I didn't

  mean to breathe any of that stuff, but something must have gotten in." She

  handed the tank to Lando. He put the mask to his face and breathed in

  deeply. The cool, elean oxygen felt wonderfully pure and sweet. "Is there

  anything else we can do to help them in?" he asked. She shook her head. "Not

  really. There's a viewport in the airlock here. The safeties won't let me

  open both doors at once, but 1 might be able to set things to pop open the

  hatch on this side before the chamber re pressurises. That might get 'em in

  here a little faster. Thai's about all." It had taken all of ninety seconds

  to get them in here. Ama/ing how much longer than that it felt. But if there

  was company coming, they had best get ready. Lando took another deep breath

  off the oxy tank and handed it back to Jenica. "Come on," he said. "Let's

  get the lock set so you can pop the inner door early." "Yeah. We'd better. I

  have a nasty feeling your triends might have it a little rougher than we

  did." Jenica stood up and rubbed herface. Her hand eame away even dirtier

  than it had been. "Burning stars, but I must be a mess." "You did look

  belter before," Lando said with a smile. "Your face has about a centimeter

  of dust on it." "Oh, a little soap and water will fix that," she said. "But

  I don't even want to think what this has done to mv hair." Luke Skywalker

  watched Artoo intently, waiting for the three minutes lo be up. Me forced

  himself to calmness, to clarity, .ledi were nol impatient. Except sometimes.

  This situation was gelling out of" hand. The temperature in the car had

  jumped dramatically when the outside air had come in. All of them were

  sweating profusely. And all of them-even ihe greal Jedi Master himself-were

  having trouble brealhing. Kalenda coughed again and swore under her

  brealh-what little breath she had. "How much longer?" she asked. Either the

  smoke or the cloth over her mouth made her voice seem a bil murky, a bit

  throaty. "About anolher thirty seconds. I think," Luke said. "Let's get

  ready. Both of you out before me so I can keep an eye on you," he said.

  Gaeriel seemed about to protest, but Luke cul her off. "It's no time to be

  modest," he said. "My Jedi powers give me an edge you two won't have. If

  they didn't, I've wasted my time with all that training for all these years.

  Artoo, Threepio, you come after me. You watch me. Watch all of us. We might

  need your help- but maybe we can move faster than you two can. If we get

  there first, we're going to have to leave you on this side of the lock-but

  we'll cycle the lock again as soon as we're through. All right?" Artoo

  whistled and beeped and swung his head back and forth. "I quite agree with

  Artoo," Threepio said. "We might be immune to the poisonous atmosphere. hut

  the corrosive airborne chemicals and the rising temperatures could easily do

  us harm. Please do not delay in getting us." "I won't," Luke said. "I

  promise." Threepio nodded happily. "I am glad to hear it,"' he said.

  Apparently the word of a Jedi Master was good enough even for a protocol

  droid. "Kalenda-Gaeriel-are you ready'.1" "No, not really," said Gacricl,

  coughing just a bit. "But I doubt I ever will be ready for (his sort of

  thing. Let's go." Kalenda nodded and let it go at that. "Here we go," Luke

  said, and hit the button. A new blast of burning-hot air struck at them as

  the door opened. The winds were blowing more and more fiercely as the

  Glowpoint dumped more and more energy into the system. Gaeriel stepped out

  into the storm and was nearly blown off her feet before Kalenda could grab

  at her. Luke stepped out into it and was nearly bowled over himself. The

  heat was incredible, and the noxious gases seemed to eat into his skin, his

  eyes. For a Jedi there is no pain, Luke lold himself. There is awareness.

  There is calm. The three humans stepped around the side of the turbovator

  car-and discovered they had been in the lee of the wind. The full force of

  the corrosive gale blasted straight into their faces, utterly blinding them,

  forcing them to jam their eyes shut. The wind carried finegrained sand, and

  that slammed into them as well. Luke got one fleeting moment of good

  visibility before ihe roaring wall of dust and cinders enveloped them, one

  moment when he saw where the airlock hatch was-and saw that it was swinging

  open for them. That one moment would have to be enough It would be worse

  than useless to open his eyes in this storm. Not only would he he unable lo

  see-his eyes would be destroyed. He would have to do it by dead

  reckoning-and drag the others with him. He reached out with the Force and

  found Kalenda and Gaeriel hand-in-hand, just a meter or two ahead of him.

  They were headed in the wrong direction. They must have been turned around

  by the wind already. Luke lunged forward into the wind and, using the Force

  to guide him, grabbed Kalenda by the hand and yanked hard in the proper

  direction. Kalenda came willingly enough, and Luke could feel Gaeriel in the

  Force, feel her hesitate a moment and then follow along as well. Luke became

  aware of a burning sense in his chest. Air. He needed air. And if he fell

  the urgent need to breathe, the others must be in an agony to do so. Closer.

  Closer. In his mind's eye, he could see the hatch. He knew, with all the

  power and precision of his Jedi senses, exactly where it was. But thai did

  not get him there any faster, did not give him the power to move

  effortlessly against this deadly wind. There. They were there. He still did

  not dare open his eyes, but he knew they were at the entrance to the lock.

  He pulled Kalenda forward, pushed her in ahead of him, and shoved Gacricl in

  as well before stepping in himself-and running smack into something metal,

  something hard and angular and tall. He suddenly realized it was Threepio.

  "It would seem Artoo and I got here before you after all. Master Luke!"

  Threepio shouted over the howl of the sandstorm. A droid could speak in this

  mess without wasting air or getting sand iii his mouth. Luke couldn't, and

  he settled for a nod instead. Luke nodded and moved farther forward into the

  lock, out of the stinging wind. He wi
ped the worst of the dust from his eyes

  and risked opening them, just in time to see the lock swinging shut. There

  was a sudden Marc of orange from behind him. He turned around. Gaeriel and

  Kalenda were standing, eyes still shut, in about the midpoint of the lock

  chamber, holding to each other, coughing miserably. And Gaerici's long

  flowing w;hite dress was on fire- and Gaeriel did not know it yet. Luke

  lunged for her and threw his body on the blossoming flames, trying to

  smother them. His tlight suit was insulated and fireproof. He felt a brief

  bloom of heat on his chest, and that was all. The fire died. He stood back

  up and helped Gaeriel to her feet. A red-hot hit of debris, blown from

  someplace where things were hotter still, must have gotten itself lodged in

  the fabric of Gaeriel's dress. Rul how could it burn, with no available

  oxygen? Luke heard a hissing noise from behind him and looked around. An

  oxygen mask. Lando and Kalenda had thrown an oxygen mask into the lock

  chamber- and Gaeriel had been standing right on top of it. Her dress must

  have trapped the oxygen. A million-to-one shot, but one that had almost

  killed Gaeriel. All of that flashed through his mind even as he was grabbing

  for the mask. He tore the cloth strip off her mouth and put the oxy mask

  over her mouth and nose. Still half blinded, and probably still unaware of

  why Luke had knocked her over, she jerked away from the mask at first, until

  she realized what it was. Then she grabbed for it greedily, opened her

  mouth, and took in a deep, urgent breath. She started coughing almost

  instantly. Luke handed the mask to Kalenda, who took two deep breaths

  herself before handing it back to Luke. Luke pulled down his dust cloth,

  exhaled the last breath he had breathed in back in the turbovator car, and

  sucked in as much air as the mask had to give. He realized that he had been

  seeing spots before his eyes, there toward the end. Even Jedi Masters have

  to breathe, he told himself. He was just handing the mask on to Gaeriel when

  the inner door swung violently open, and the air in the lock blasted out

  into the chamber beyond in a lasi choking, blinding-but now harmless-cloud

  of dust. They had made it. " "I was on fire?" Gaeriel asked, looking down at

  the remains of her dress. Jeniea had led them all to a small infirmary near

  the Shell One side of the airlock. Everyone had cuts and bruises and scrapes

  and minor burns that needed attention of one sort or another. They all

  needed baths and clean clothes as well, but those could wait just a bit. ''I

  was on fire and I didn't know about it?" "A claim not many can make," Luke

  said, laughing. "I apologize for knocking you over- "And / apologize for

  throwing that oxy mask m there," said Lando. "Don't either of you

  apologi/e." Gaeriel said, a bit tartly. She went over to the sink and

  started scrubbing her hands. "The mask probably saved all our lives in

  there. I was near passing out, and if I had fainted and breathed in much

  more of that stuff than I did by accident-well, at best I'd have been in

  here widi something a lol worse than a sore throat. And I'd much rather have

  a bruised dignity than third-degree burns." "I think we were all pretty

  lucky in there," Kalenda said in more serious tones as she sprayed some

  quick-heal salve on Jenica's burned hand. "The way the temperatures were

  rising, I don't think we'd have gotten out another live minutes later."

  "What's it like in there now, Artoo?" Luke asked as Lando sprayed antiseptic

  solution into the sand burns on his faee. "Ow! That stuff stings." "Hold

  still," Lando said, dabbing ointment onto the worst of the burns. "Almost

  done." Artoo. who had plugged himself into a dataport in the infirmary wall,

  squeaked and whistled and buzzed and beeped in an agitated fashion. "Dear

  me," said Threepio. "Things are rapidly getting worse in there." "What did

  that Anoo thing say, for those of us who don't speak bird-whistle?" Jenica

  asked. "Temperatures where we were ten minutes ago are up over the boiling

  point of water and headed higher," said Threepio. "The surviving detectors

  show hot spots closer to the Glowpoint well over five hundred degrees-and

  there are probably temperatures much higher than that, except the detectors

  are not there anymore to tell us." "Not good," said Lando. "Not good at

  all." Jenica Sonsen nodded her head. "And it's also no terrorist attack,"

  she said. "Even twice didn't make a great deal of sense-but three times?" "I

  think you're very wrong there," Lando said. "Very wrong indeed. Bui I'm

  afraid your people here weren't the intended victims, I think you were more

  like innocent bystanders who got in the way." Jeniea turned and looked

  sharply at Lando as she flexed the hand with the burn salve on it. "Captain

  Calrissian-Lando-you said a few things earlier that made it sound like you

  had an idea what this was all about. Maybe now would be the right time to

  explain yourself." Lando let out a deep sigh. "1 think maybe you're right,"

  he said. "But no one's going to like it much. E might even be wrong-but on

  the other hand, it's all staring us in the face." "What is?" Luke asked.

  "Centerpoint," Lando said. "Centerpoint is right in the middle of it all.

  Think about it. There are three big, impressive, inexplicable technologies

  at the middle of this crisis. The first, and the easiest to explain, is the

  system-wide jamming. Impressive, bui all you really need for that is a whole

  lot of power. And where does the jamming come from?" "Centerpoint," Jenica

  said. "Without Fed-Dub even knowing about it-and we ran the place." "Or at

  least you thought you did," Lando said. "Second up is the interdiction

  field. Nothing incredible about it, beyond ils Size. But if you had a

  powerful enough gravitic generator, you could do it. Where does it come

  from?" "Centerpoint," Jenica said again. "And from what you were asking

  about earlier, you thought it had something to do with the way we're right

  at the balance point of gravilic potential." "Right. I have no idea how. but

  it seems to me that Centerpoint taps into the gravitic output of the Double

  Worlds. Now it seems someone has found a way to convert that power into an

  interdiction field." "And the third unexplained technology?" Luke asked.

  Lando looked straight at him. "The novamaker, of course. The starbusler. We

  all wondered how it was done. We all wondered where the starbuster was. I'm

  just about positive we're silling in it right now. I think the Glowpoint

  flare means it's jusl about to go off again."

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Meeting in Progress It was a lovely morning. The star Corell was rising in

  the east. The lovely rolling hills and clean blue sky of Selonia were laid

  out before them. The Hunchuzuc Den had put them up in a splendid hilltop

  villa, clearly purpose-built for the use of visiting human dignitaries. They

  had been comfortable and well cared for from the moment Mara Jade had set

  the Jade's Fire down. "I am tired of waiting. Dracmus," Han said. "Patience,

  Honored Solo. Waiting is not yet tired of you." "Whatever that means/' Han

  growled. "Have you ever given a straight answer in your life?" "What,

  exaetly. a
re you meaning by straight answer?" Han Solo turned to his wife,

  who was sitting placidly al the breakfast table. "You see what I've had to

  put up with?" he asked. Dracmus had come to pay her morning call, as she did

  every day. And as he did every day, Han found himself wondering what the

  point of the visit was. "Riddles. Incoherent riddles. Thai's all I ever got.

  It's all we ever get." "Take it easy, Han," Leia said. "Palienee is the

  hardest part of diplomacy." "But mine has reached its limits," Han said.

  "I'm afraid i agree with Han," Mara said. "Things are moving too fasl

  everywhere else for me to put up with waiting here any longer." "I'm still

  not even sure why we arc here," I Ian said. "Right from the moment you

  yanked me oul of that cell, I haven't known for sure if i was your partner

  or your prisoner. Arc we prisoners? Hostages, maybe? Or are we here to

  negotiate something? And if so, what?" "I'm afraid il is not that simple,"

  Draemus said. "To my people, these things--partner, prisoner, hostage.

  negotiator-are not so separate from each other as they are with your folk.

  To my people, one might lie only one of these or all of them at once, or

  some of them ehangingly over time." "So which is it?" Han asked, a very

  clear warning note in his voice. A note Draemus plainly missed. "It is not

  yet determined. You must understand that to my people consensus is being

  all. Ambiguity has much use for us. if the issue is uncertain, then the

  meeting can go on. for disagreement is more difficult if no one understands

  the problem lully." "So is agreement," Han said. "There are people with guns

  and ships out there who are shooting al our people. There is not much

  ambiguity out there." "Please! Please!" Dracmus said. "Understanding your

  impatience, but what you ask is nut our way. hoi my people- "Traditions make

  lor an awfully handy set of excuses," Mara said. "Every time I have ever

  dealt with a Sclonian who didn't want to do something, she's explained to me

  how tradition made it impossible, or the ways of her people caused it to be

  difficult to decide, or whatever excuse seemed handy. And my people always

  had to be respectful of your ways, and accept the structure of your culture.

  No more. This isn't some trade deal for luxury goods where you can leave us