Star Wars - New Jedi Order - Force Heretic III - Reunion - Book 19

by Sean Williams

  Mara had spun around, surprised, and dropped into a defensive stance.

  The corners of the woman's mouth turned up into a slight smile. "Forgive me for startling you." Her hands came up in the universal gesture of peace. "I mean you no harm. I am the Magister. I stand between Zonama and Sekot."

  Mara relaxed slightly. Luke studied the new arrival with wary fascination. He couldn't tell exactly how old she was. Her pale blue skin was wrinkled, but her hair was thick and black, tied in a tight ponytail that hung to her hips. She radiated an incredible vitality that he would have expected from a much younger person. Her Force-signature was odd, tooas if he were viewing it through a rain-coated viewport.

  There was no denying that she was in charge, though. The other Ferroans backed reverentially away and bowed their heads.

  "Then I take it that you are the one we need to speak with," Luke said.

  "If you have anything to say, then yes, your words should be directed to me."

  Luke nodded as he took a step toward the Magister. "We need to discuss the aliens you were recently fighting." He indicated the sky with a glance. "We know them as the Yuuzhan Vong, but in the past I believe you have referred to them as the Far Outsiders."

  The Magister's face tilted, an expression of fascination spreading across it. "How do you know that?"

  "A Jedi Knight who once visited here told her story to my nephew."

  "You speak of Vergere, then," the woman said, nodding. "We remember her well. And fondly."

  Some of Mara's uncertainty ebbed at the open mention of the other Jedi's name. "You do?"

  "Her story is well known to us. She drew the Far Outsiders away, for a timelong enough for us to prepare for a second assault. We are capable of defending ourselves now, as you have seen."

  Luke nodded. "The demonstration we witnessed was impressive, to say the least."

  "A demonstration implies it was put on for your benefit," the male Ferroan said. His tone made it quite clear that it had not been at all.

  "Now, Rowel," the Magister cautioned gently. "These are our guests."

  "No, Magister," the other woman said. "These are intruders. They don't belong here. We should send them away immediately and forget about them."

  "Denial solves nothing, Darak." There was no acrimony in the Magister's words, nor any hint of reproach.

  "We have tried to forget about the universe at large, but have clearly failed in this. In the space of a single day we have encountered two species who sought to find us. Our denial of them did little to deter them."

  "But Magister," said the woman, Darak, "they bring with them violent changes! We have lived in peace for decades, and suddenly the skies are filled with the fire of war!"

  "That is so," Luke said. "And I fear there may be more to come."

  "You bring ill tidings then," Rowel said, glaring bale-fully at him.

  "It is always so with these Jedi Knights," Darak added.

  "Wait," Luke said, forestalling Mara's defensive rebuttal. "Did you say Knights? Have you had other Jedi Knights here, apart from Vergere?"

  "We have entertained more than one over the years, yes." The Magister glanced reprovingly at the other Ferroans. "In the past, the Jedi Knights proved to be our friends, our allies. Why should that not be so now?"

  "We should be cautious," Darak advised. "We are but one world against millions."

  "No one is immune," Luke said. "You cannot hide from what is coming. Today's events prove that. It's a hard truth, but it is truth we bring, not lies."

  The regal woman studied the two humans before her with a piercing gaze.

  "I would very much like the chance to speak with your nephew, to exchange with him our memories of Vergere."

  "Send them away!" Darak hissed. "Don't listen to them!"

  The Magister laughed loudly at this. "Really, my friends. You go too far." To Luke and Mara, she continued "I beg you to forgive their disrespect. Their apprehensions are not unjustified. We have seen unstable times in the pastespecially during the Crossings, when we searched for a new home. Those times were hard on everyone. There were terrible upheavals deaths, famine, plagues." A fleeting sadness crossed the Magister's lined face. "There have been no visitors to Zonama for many years. We live in peace, and now conflict has returned to us . We are understandably concerned."

  Luke nodded. "As are we. The presence of the Far Outsiders here was unexpected, and is of grave concern. This is one of the many things we must talk about, and soon."

  "It shall be so," the Magister said, a stern glance at Darak and Rowel indicating that she would brook no disagreement. "The others may attend, too," she added. "They wake even as we speak."

  "You will need to come with us, then," the male Ferroan said.

  "Where to?" Mara asked, eyes narrowing. "To our village," Darak said. "That's where the meeting place is."

  "Okay," Mara said. "Tell us where it is and I'll fly us there myself."

  "That's not possible," Rowel said. "Your vessel cannot come."

  "And how do you intend to stop me from?" "I don't." Rowel pointed to Jade Shadow. "Sekot has already taken care of it."

  Mara's protest died on her lips as she glanced at her ship. The grass her yacht was resting on, along with vines that had crept unnoticed from the surrounding undergrowth, had invaded the ship, entwining around its landing struts. Green fronds peeked out of apertures and vents all along the underside, indicating that the intrusion was extensive throughout the ship.

  Mara reacted defensively, purely on instinct. She took two steps toward the ship, activating her lightsaber. The bright energy blade cut a glowing line through the crystal clarity of the day, promising a swift and indiscriminate pruning.

  Luke caught her by the arm before she could take a swing. "Easy, Mara," he said gently. He leaned in close to her as he guided the blade down to her side, whispering into the red hair covering her ear, "If Sekot can do this to the ship, it can certainly do it to us, as well. You can't hope to fight a planet, my love."

  He was already reaching out for Jacen inside the ship and, seeing that his nephew was unharmed, he sent Mara his reassurance. She relaxed in his grip, removing her thumb from the activation stud of her weapon and killing the blade. Nevertheless, she was clearly not happy with the situation. Nor could he blame her. Sekot had attacked her ship and made her a prisoner on the planet. It didn't sit well with him, either; however, he was prepared to ride it out.

  "Magister" he started, but stopped upon realizing she was gone. He hadn't noticed her leaving, but she was nowhere to be seen. Her unusual Force presence lingered on the wind, as though part of her were still around. That faded into nothing even as he clutched at it, trying to follow it. It was almost as though she had literally dissolved into thin air.

  "If you are going to come with us," Rowel said, "then we leave now."

  "Thank you," he said, recovering in order to reply as courteously as he could. If the Ferroans were trying to provoke them in any way, they would be disappointed. "But if we're not permitted to take Jade Shadow, then how are we to get anywhere?"

  The Ferroan pointed at a path visible at the edge of the landing field. "We walk, of course," Darak said with a faint smirk.

  Jaina reached Pride of Selonia's dock seconds before the mob. The journey through the streets of Onadax had been arduous, and fraught with danger. Several times she'd had to double back to avoid either fires or a fight with the locals. Whoever had stirred up the city had done a frighteningly thorough job.

  At the entrance to the dock, two guards barred her way.

  "We have orders to detain anyone attempting to enter this vessel," said one, a swarthy Selonian.

  "Orders from whom?" she responded, acutely conscious of the mob baying at her heels. "For what reason?"

  "That's not your concern. If you could just step this way"

  This way, his mind revealed, led to a pair of stun cuffs and a blow to the head.

  "You don't need to hold me," she said, taking hi
s will and bending it. "I'm exempt from the orders you've been given."

  "We don't need to hold her," the Selonian told the other guard. "She's exempt."

  Jaina smiled winningly. "Perhaps I should move through now; I'm sure you have better things to do than stand around chatting."

  "Move on through, please. We can't stand around chatting all day."

  The guards parted, allowing her access to the Selonia. She hurried up the ramp to the ship's wide air lock and keyed in the appropriate security code. Before she had finished, however, the panel hissed open.

  "We've been waiting for you," said Selwin Markota, Captain Mayn's second in command. He waved her inside. "We're ready to lift off."

  The clamor of the mob behind her rose a notch as it reached the docks. "That would be good idea."

  Exhaustion rushed through her as Markota hurried through the corridors of the frigate. A solid man with receding hair, he was an excellent administrator, ever dependable in a crisis. That he was walking so briskly confirmed their circumstances were urgent. Gravity shifted minutely beneath her feet as the frigate left Onadax behind.

  "What about my parents? Did they get away okay?"

  "They're in orbit, waiting for you to call."

  "Any sign of pursuit?"

  "Not so far. My gut feeling is that this was a warning. Someone wanted us out of the way, but didn't necessarily want us dead."

  She nodded, absorbing the information. "The riots were real enough to me."

  "I'm sure they are. Onadax, like most illegal communities, is a tinderbox ready to go up at the slightest spark." Markota cast a baleful glance over his shoulder. "We picked up some local news traffic not long ago. Someone posted a bulletin concerning the agent we supposedly sent. Eyewitness accounts describe a person leaving the supposed scene of the incident, an hour or two ago. That person matches Han's description."

  Jaina thought of her father's telling of the incident at the Thorny Toe. It certainly hadn't sounded severe enough to start a riot. But Han Solo's capacity for understatement was as legendary as his luck.

  Markota stopped outside the medical suite that Tahiri had been assigned. "They're waiting for you in here."

  The first thing she saw when she entered the suite was Jag, rising from his seat with an expression of relief on his face. He was across the room in an instant, his big hands first touching her hair, then falling to her shoulder, which he gripped firmly but warmly.

  "When we lifted off and I hadn't heard" He fell into an awkward silence, as though embarrassed. "I'm glad you're okay," he finished.

  Smiling, she touched his cheek lightly with the back of her hand.

  "I'm glad, too," she said.

  He moved aside, then, to allow her into the suite properly. With a single glance she took in Tahiri on the bed, pale and comatose, in exactly the same position she'd been in since Bakura. Numerous tubes and monitors snaked under the sheet covering her, monitoring and meeting all her body's needs. Her eyelids were red, and her lips were cracked and dry.

  "Sorry to interrupt the moment," came her father's voice from the room's comm unit.

  "Dad?" she said, surprised. "I hadn't realized there was a line open to you! Is Mom there with you?"

  "I'm here, Jaina," her mother said.

  "It's great to hear your voices," she said.

  "The feeling's mutual, sweetheart," Han said.

  Jaina sat on the edge of Tahiri's bed, taking the girl's hand loosely into her own. "Sorry things didn't go as planned."

  "That depends," Leia said.

  "On what?" she asked. "Did you find anything about the Ryn?"

  Jaina's father seemed oddly hesitant to answer that question. "Not exactly."

  "What does that mean?"

  "Well, we heard from someone, but it wasn't who we expected."

  Jaina sighed, too tired to play games. "Can someone please tell me what's going on?"

  "We picked up a passenger as we were leaving Onadax," Han explained. "Someone who said he was trying to escape the riots. We haven't had much chance to talk

  to him since we took him aboard, but I'm guessing he's not the one we're looking for."

  "He's the right species," Leia added, "but doesn't know much about what's going o."

  "And who is he, exactly?"

  "He's Droma," came a distinctly Ryn voice over the comm. "It's nice to speak to you again, Jaina."

  Jaina's eyes widened in surprise. "It's good to hear your voice," she managed.

  "Hey, I told you to wait in the hold," she heard her father say.

  "What, you think I'm going to take your secrets and sell them to the Vong or something?" The Ryn blew a rapid, lamenting tune from the chitinous, flutelike nose sported by the members of his species. Its sound came clearly down the comm. "Don't be so paranoid."

  "This has got nothing to do with paranoia! It's to do with privacy."

  Their voices slowly faded into the background, culminating in a tired sigh from Leiaas though having the two of them on board together was already proving too exhausting for her.

  "As soon as we're in orbit, I'm coming across, Mom."

  "Personally I think you're better off where you are. But, if you feel you have to, then I'll let your father know you're coming."

  Jacen helped Danni up from the floor of the passenger bay. He waited a moment as she rubbed a dull fog from her eyes. Nearby, his uncle knelt by Saba and Tekli, gently rousing them.

  "Welcome back," Jacen said.

  "How?" Danni started groggily. "How long was I out?"

  "A few hours," he said.

  "We're here?"

  He smiled broadly. "Yes, we're here, Danni. Come see for yourself."

  Seeing that she was still feeling vague and disoriented, he steadied her as she made her way to the rear of the ship to where the exit hatch hung invitingly open. Before he'd taken one step down the egress ramp, he felt his breath taken from his lungs at the sight outside.

  Knee-high grass swayed in a serene breeze beneath a magnificent deep blue sk y. The air was filled with a fine downpossibly pollen from numerous flowering plants scattered about the area. Jacen breathed in deeply, savoring the thousand exotic scents and enjoying the slight giddiness the fragrances caused in him.

  We made it, he thought as he descended the ramp and set foot on the planet's soil. We're actually on Zonama Sekot.

  After a dozen steps through the grass, he stopped to let her look up at the multicolored globe of Mobus suspended in the sky above, resembling a mighty, baleful eye bulging down upon them.

  "Incredible, isn't it?" he said softly.

  "I don't know what impresses me most," she said. "The view, or the fact that we're actually standing on a sentient planet."

  "Don't worry," he said, "I'm sure the locals will manage to dampen your excitement a little."

  "The locals?" For the first time she noticed the two tall figures standing some distance away to their left, quietly conferring with one another. "Why? What's wrong with them?"

  "Let's just say they're not particularly overjoyed to see us," another voice said. They both turned to see Mara, striding toward them across the grass.

  "What exactly happened?" Danni asked. "Did they knock us out?"

  Together, Mara and Jacen explained the situation as best they could. They told her of the space battle and the Yuuzhan Vong expedition, Jade Shadow's descent to the surface of Zonama Sekot, Luke and Mara's encounter with the Ferroans and the Magister, and the imprisonment of the ship. On hearing this part, Danni went to examine the verdant fronds that had crept up the landing struts of Jade Shadow, confirming Mara's assertion that they weren't going to leave anytime soon. There was a ferocious vitality surging through the leaves; cut one and three more would undoubtedly grow in its wake.

  "What about the Widowmaker?" Danni asked.

  "The other vessel will come to no harm as long as it remains in orbit," came the voice of one of the Ferroans from behind. Jacen turned to see the two wading through the tall g
rass toward them.

  "But how did you do this?" Jacen felt Danni reach out with her growing perception of the Force to taste the world around them. She felt what he did no mind, no thoughts; just a constant pressuresimilar to what a body would feel at great depths in an ocean, only mental rather than physical. "By the Force?"

  "Sekot has many defenses," the male Ferroan said unhelpfully.

  A groan in the direction of Jade Shadow announced the arrival of Soron Hegerty, assisted by Luke and closely followed by Tekli. Saba wasn't far behind; the Barabel's expression was suitably awestruck as the shock of displacement slowly faded. Saba's hand rested on the lightsaber at her hip while her gaze constantly scanned the tree lines around them. It was clear that the hunter in her was not going to be distracted by the splendor and magnificence of her surroundings.

  "It is time," the female Ferroan said. "We have a long walk ahead of us."

  "Why?" Danni asked. "Where are we going?"

  "We'll explain on the way," Luke said.

  "Are the treez of your forest safe?" Saba asked.

  "They are not trees," the woman said. "They're called boras, and they make up the tampasi. They will harm you only if you attempt to harm them."

  Without another word, the two Ferroans set off across the field, their pace suggesting that either the visitors keep up or they would get left behind.

  Jacen's uncle turned to the Chadra-Fan. "Tekli, would you mind staying here and keeping an eye on Jade Shadow?"

  The diminutive Jedi bowed her head in acknowledgment. "Of course, Master Skywalker."

  "We'll keep our comlinks open at all times," Luke assured her.

  Tekli bowed once more and then returned to Jade Shadow.

  Luke faced the others. "Is everyone ready?"

  "I don't think we have much choice," Jacen said, gesturing to the two Ferroans receding into the distance. "They'll be disappearing over the horizon if we don't get after them soon."

  "Like I said," Mara muttered as she headed off in the wake of their escorts. "Real friendly."

  Jaina listened with interest to Droma's simple story. Her parents had already heard it, but listened again with unflagging interest. Jaina received the distinct impression that Leia was almost hoping for an inconsistency to arise.