Showdown At Centerpoint

by Roger MacBride Allen

  hanging for six months on the off chance that your convenient traditions

  will get us so frustrated that we give up and offer a better price. This is

  war. This is survival. There is no time. It is time for you to accept the

  ways of our culture before we are all wiped out. It is our way to speak

  plain, to speak true, to choose a course, and to follow it." "Please!" said

  Dracrnus. "You must endure. Things are being complex. Take time to solve

  all." "But there is no time," Mara said, putting a hard-edged emphasis on

  her words. "We cannot take what no longer exists, and we have run out of

  time. Or rather, you have. I may be many things, but I will not be your

  prisoner." "What is the meaning of your words?" Dracmus asked. "Inform

  whoever it is you should inform that 1 am leaving. Jn one hour, I am going

  to walk around to the landing pad on the other side of this villa. I am

  going to get aboard the Jade's Fire and 1 am going to l]y away. My

  companions are welcome to join me if they wish, but I will be leaving in any

  eveni, I would also remind you that Leia and 1 escaped from the Human League

  and flew the Jade's Fire off Corellia, while we were facing much heavier

  opposition than anything I have seen here so far. Besides which, as my ship

  is the one that brought the Chief of State of the New Republic to this

  planet, the case could be made that an attack on it constitutes an attack on

  the New Republic that you claim to recognize and support. In short, I would

  not suggest trying to stop me. You will not succeed, and 1 will not be

  responsible for any damage from the attempt." "But-but- "The only way to

  prevent my departure is to have our group meet with someone in authority,

  someone who will provide clear answers to our questions, someone with the

  power to make decisions before that hour is up. If such a person does not

  appear, I will leave- "And I'll be with her," said Han, and turned toward

  his wife. Leia looked troubled and angry, but she nodded. "And so will I."

  Dracmus looked from one of them to the other. "But-but- "But you have one

  hour;" Mara said. "Vanish. Go make things happen." Dracmus looked positively

  frantic. "I will be seeing what I can do. Please! Do not go." "One hour,"

  Mara said. "Go. Move." Dracmus nodded, turned, dropped to all fours, and

  rushed away as fast as she could. "It I didn't believe in the power of a

  united front, I would have refused to go along with you," Leia said, her

  voice testy, "You did some damage, but it would have been worse if I had

  refused to play along. I'm a diplomat, and you're not. You should have let

  me do the talking." "I've been letting you do the talking, and all it's

  gotten us so far is an enforced vacation at this villa. I'm a businesswoman,

  a trader. Negotiation is my stock in trade." "Do you call insulting our

  hosts negotiating?" "Negotiating is the art of getting what you want," Mara

  said. "It's not the arl of making the oilier side feel better." "They aren't

  the 'other side.' They're our partners in this negotiation." "If they were

  our partners, we wouldn't need to negotiate," Mara said smoothly. Han

  noticed something. Mara's sharp tone, her apparent anger, her impatience,

  had all vanished at the same time Dracmus did. They had all been

  performance, posturing, for Dracmus's sake. Now she was calm, relaxed, as

  she spoke. "Partners or opponents, I still don't think we'll get anywhere

  pushing them around like that," Leia said. "We'll find out in about

  fifty-seven minutes," Mara said as she poured herself another cup of tea.

  "I've dealt with the Selonians before. Have you or Han?" "I speak the

  language, and I've dealt with them socially. Rut I haven't done any real

  negotiating." said Leia. "I haven't really dealt with them at all" said Han.

  "Not since I was a kid back on Corellia." "Then there is something you both

  have to understand/' Mara said. Leia seemed about to protest, but Han held

  up his hand, asking her not to do so. "Go on, Mara," he said. "It's a little

  hard to explain." Mara paused for a moment. "Think-think about a sabacc

  game, where each player knows the other is bluffing, but they both keep

  shoving chips into the pot, just to save face. Neither of them can back

  down. Or two armies fighting each other, throwing endless troops into a

  vicious battle over a useless bit of land. There are cases when humans

  forget about the purpose of the competition, and the competition itself

  becomes absolutely vital. Sometimes it's irrational. Sometimes it makes

  sense. Sometimes it has survival value, or evolution wouldn't have given us

  the tendency. Maybe, sometimes, you're thinking about the next hand in the

  game, the next battle. Maybe if she knows you just won't quit, your opponent

  will decide the fight isn't worth the cost. She'll give up-and you'll win

  the next fight without even having to fight. Of course, most of the time,

  it's not even a conscious decision. We do that sort of thing without even

  thinking about it. It's a blind spot." "None of that sounds much like

  Selonians," Han said. "No, it doesn't," Mara agreed. "I was talking about a

  human blind spot. We're much more competitive and individualistic than the

  Selonians are. All that stuff about consensus isn't just talk. They really

  are that way. To oversimplify just a bit, they have a compulsion to reach

  agreement, whether or not it makes sense, just as we sometimes feel we have

  to win. whether or not it makes sense. It's something the Selonians can't

  help doing in a situation like this. It's a blind spot ihcy have. If we just

  waited until they were ready lor us, they could lake weeks or months or

  years just 10 decide what they want tu ask us for. I had lo let them know

  they'd lose everything; if they didn't ask for something right now." "Are

  you sure lhat was wise'.'" Leia asked. "No. I'm not. Rut sometimes the

  important thing is to make something happen. It almost doesn't matter what."

  That 'almost' can cover a lot of ground." Han said. "1 suppose so. But maybe

  it means we have the chance to choose our ground. Maybe il we can ligure out

  what's going on around here, we can make some good decisions," Mara said.

  "There's something we need to consider. Dracmus told us that all ihese

  worlds have repulsors. and that someone from the outside was helping to

  organize the search for them, Fine and good. You can use one to shoot down a

  ship. Even better, from a military point of view. But you can shoot down a

  ship with a lot of things that are a lot easier to get at, easier to

  control, easier to aim and use. 1 don't think we have the whole reason

  behind the scramble to grab the repulsor on CoreIlia. And don't forget

  Dracmus said ihe rebels on the other worlds arc searching tor them-or else

  they've found them already, and they are putting them to use." ''Using them

  lor what?" Han asked. "I haven't the faintest idea," Mara said. "But you

  don't try that hard to grab something you don't need urgently. Not in the

  middle o! a war where you're trying to save your strength for when you need

  it. We've seen all sorts of indications that the various rebellions regard

  the repulsors as being hugely valuable. I'm starting to think the repulsorsr />
  are the whole reason there are rebels. In a sense, I don't think there are

  any rebels at all. They're a front, a smokescreen, for the real enemy."

  "What do you mean?" Leia asked. "I have a huneh that the repulsor searches

  aren't because of the revolts," said Mara. "My guess is that the revolts are

  happening as a cover for the repulsor searches. We're all fairly certain the

  revolts were organized from the outside. Dracmus said as much, for what

  that's worth. Besides, what are [he odds against rebellions on five planets

  simultaneously just by coincidence? There had to be some coordination. We've

  all agreed on that. I'm saying the organizing principle was the need to get

  at the repulsors." "That makes sense if it's someone from outside doing the

  organizing, an external force." said Leia. "I can't quite see our Human

  League acquaintances making a first approach to their close personal friends

  in the Selonian Overdcn to put this together. If some outside force did the

  organizing, they could approach a dissident group on each planet, supply it

  with money and expertise and so on. And we know the rebels are coordinating

  with each other, at least to a certain extent. All of them participated in

  that coordinated attack against the Bakuran ships." "But why would the

  rebels cooperate with each other, and with this external force?" Han asked.

  "What's in it for them?" Leia shook her head, "I can't say for sure, hut if

  I were setting up the deal, I'd say something like, take our money and

  information, cooperate with us. use your local people to dig up the repulsor

  for us, hand it over to us, and when we kick the New Republic out. live you

  a free hand on your own planet. But in we exchange we get your help-and

  ultimate control over your planet's repulsor." "Except then you run the risk

  of the rebels deciding that the repulsors are worth something," Han said.

  "At a guess, something like that is what happened with the Human League,"

  Mara said. "If this external force idea is right, then the externals would

  be the ones running the starbuster-not the Human League. When the Human

  League started tossing threats around, the external force couldn't have been

  too happy about it." "If they even knew about it." Mara said. "They may be

  completely external lo this star system. They'd have some representatives,

  some observers, in-system. but once the jamming comes on, you can throw the

  observers in jail and say whatever you want without anyone outside hearing

  il. And once the interdiction iield goes on, outsiders can't get at you to

  do anything about it. Sooner or later, the interdiction Held and the jamming

  are turned off-but by then, Thrackan Sal-Solo is running the planet, maybe

  the whole slar system, and the external forces can do what they like. And if

  he's managed to grab a few of the repulsors by then, maybe he's got some

  serious bargaining chips. Or maybe not. We don't even know what the

  repulsors can be used for. let alone why they are so important.'' Leia

  thought for a moment. "If all this is true, then the rebels themselves

  aren't the problem. It's the repulsors, and the people who got the rebels

  searching for them, [he external forces. It's obvious the externals don't

  care about the rebel causes-the rebels are all against each other. The Human

  League i.s mostly anii-Selonian and anti-Drall. as much as it is for

  anything. So the externals are supporting them for some other reason-as a

  way to get at the repulsors. Cut the links between ihe rebels and Ihe

  external forces, gain con-trol ofl the repulsors, figure out how to use them

  against the externals, and the rebellions ought to dry up and blow away."

  "Fine," Han said. "Very nice and neat. But you've just given yourself a huge

  lisi of jobs [here. I don't see how we could even start to accomplish any of

  them." "But al least they're political jobs, intelligence jobs, not military

  jobs," Leia said. "Considering we have no military assets at all in system,

  that's good news. There's a military aspect, of course, but we're hoping to

  get some help on that angle from the Sclonians." She glanced at Mara.

  "Unless the Selonians call your bluff in another forty-five minutes." "1

  wasn't bluffing," Mara said. "Do you have any clear idea of how the

  Selonians lit into all this?" Han said. "Are the Overden and the Hunchuzuc

  even still fighting each other? I haven't seen any signs of battle, 'or any

  mention of it from Dracmus-and she's not so good at keeping secrets."

  ugrave;'It wouldn't surprise me if they had stopped lighting," Mara said,

  "but if they have, that's probably bad news for us. My impression is that

  the Overden has indeed seized control of the repulsor-- and the repul-sor is

  a very powerful weapon. Selonians aren't much for lost causes. A lot of

  times we humans fight on even when all hope is lost. Honor requires it, or

  we're hoping for a miracle, or we're praying that a million-to-one chance

  breaks our way. Not the Selonians. Typically, a fight between two groups

  ends when one side or the other demonstrates they have a massive advantage

  over the other. The Selonians on the losing side will then see there is no

  point in going on, and request a negotiated settlement. More than that. They

  will want to ally themselves with the winners." "And you think our noble

  Hunchuzuc allies have decided that they've lost," Han said. "You think

  they're dickering with the Overden. and we're part of the deal?" "Something

  like that. Maybe the Overden wants us as bargaining chips, maybe as

  hostages, maybe they want to negotiate directly with Leia. Of course we

  don't even know for sure that it's the Overden and not the Hunchu/uc who

  have the repulsor. Maybe our side won." 'It is most regrettable," said a new

  voice, "but 1 fear that is not the case. The inestimable Mara Jade has

  described the situation exactly." Han looked behind himself in surprise. The

  newcomer had arrived in utter silence from inside the villa. She was an

  older-looking Selonian, tall, but a little stooped over, her fur shot

  through with gray, but her eyes bright. "1 am Kleyvits," she said, "and 1

  speak for the Overden. We have won our Hunehuzuc sisters over to our cause."

  She paused, and then smiled, displaying an unpleasantly impressive

  collection of teeth. "And that means thai we have also won all of you."

  Tendra Risant had had just about enough of waiting. It was time for a little

  doing. The Gentleman Caller would be stuck in normal space, moving in toward

  the first-distant inner planets of the Coieiiian star system for months yet.

  assuming the interdiction field stayed up. Bui suppose it didn't stay up?

  The Gentleman Caller was nol the fastest ship in the universe, but even a

  slow ship would need only a minute or two in hyperspace to cover the

  remaining distance to the inner system, 'Ten-dra knew belter than anyone

  about that fleet waiting in orbit around Sacorria. It seemed quite likely

  they would be headed this way. They would need the field to come down for

  that to happen. They might or might not reactivate it once they were in. The

  field might be down for just a very brief period. Therefore, it seemed

  likely there would be a moment, maybe on
ly a lew minutes, perhaps longer,

  when she could activate her hyperdrive and get to where she was going-if

  only she knew when that moment was. The navieomputcr had a gravitic field

  indicator, one that was very definitely showing the effects of the

  interdiction field. All she had to do was rig an alarm that would go off

  when the field went down. Then it would merely be a question of computing

  and making the jump before the field came on again. There were dozens of

  things that could go wrong, any number of perhaps unwarranted assumptions.

  But if she did nothing for much longer, she would go mad. She knew she had

  to take charge of her own situation if she was going to hang on to her

  sanity. But for the most part, she didn't think of it in those terms. She

  just wanted to do whatever would get her off the ship. "Freen?! Zubbit!

  Norgch! Norgchal. Normal. Normal processing resumes. Resumes? Reset! Reset!

  Normal processing resumes! Wowser! Freen!" The stream of babble continued as

  Q9-X2's head spun around three times, and a perfect forest of probes and

  sensors and manipulator arms popped in and out of their compartment;,. "Not

  quite," Anakin said, frowning a hit. He pushed the droid's main power button

  off. All of the manipulators abruptly retracted into their compartments, and

  his status lights went off. Anakin reached into Q9's interior and unplugged

  a cable. "This one was in backward,'" he said. He plugged the cable back in

  a nd turned the power back on. This time the droid powered up a bit more

  sedately. His head spun around exactly once, his status lights came on, none

  of his probes or arms came out. and he simply beeped twice and announced,

  "Normal processing resumes." 'Well, I should hope so." said Ebrihim. "after

  all the trouble we have been to in order to get you fixed." "Frixed? Flough

  wuz I broken?" Q9 asked. "Expuse me. Voder sybems not quite stabilized. Once

  moment." About half of his status lights went out for a few seconds and then

  came back on again. "Let's try thai again. Fixed? How was i broken?" "Anakin

  turned the repulsor on, and there was some sort of power surge," said

  Ebrihim. "We were afraid we had lost you altogether-but Anakin and Chcwbacca

  got you working again." Ebrihim found himself wondering if Q9 had actually

  needed any substantial repair at all. It hadn't taken Anakin more than an