"What now?" Saba asked, interrupting his thoughts.
He faced her in the dark. "Now we wait."
"Do you have a plan?"
"None at the moment, except to demonstrate to Senshi that we don't mean them any harmno matter how much they try to provoke us."
"We don't have to cause them harm," Saba said. "This one could carry Danni while you free the Magister. Together"
"Too difficult," Jacen responded. "There are too many of them. Someone's bound to get hurt. We can afford to be patient a little longer."
Saba wasn't so sure.
"Danni haz been unconscious a long time, Jacen," she reminded him. "She will need medical attention soon."
Jacen looked down at the unconscious scientist. One hand reached out to brush damp strands of hair from her face. "She'll be all right," he said. The Force stirred at his touch, to help promote healing. "I'm sure she will."
But he couldn't look at Saba as he said it, and he didn't sound convinced.
* * *
Tahiri trembled as she felt the shadow of Jaina, lost in the prison of her mind.
Let's kill her! Riina said, her voice full of eagerness. She's vulnerable in here, and we'll take her by surprise.
No, Tahiri said simply. No, we mustn't. I mustn't. To do so would not relieve me of my grief; it would compound it. To kill her would send me to the dark side. And that's what you'd like, isn't it, Riina? That's why you clouded my sight, so I couldn't see!
The Yuuzhan Vong girl seemed infinitely smaller than she had a moment earlier.
You spoke the truth when you said we could never be separated, but you feel that if I embrace the dark side then I will become a prisoner of these shadow lands, allowing you to become the dominant personality.
Riina said nothing in return.
Tahiri shook her head. I would sooner we both stay here forever than unleash you upon my world!
Riina snarled and tried to pull away, but Tahiri held tight. Their fingers were slick with blood, but her will was strong.
It's time, she said. I'm tired of being lost.
The ragged edges of their wound sought each other and sealed as though it had never existed. Tahiri gasped at the unsettling sensation, and heard Riina do the same. She watched with alarm as their entwined fingers melted into each other, as though their skin had wrapped around both hands, binding them together. Tahiri met Riina's eyes and recognized the horror she saw there. Then the two of them stared as the lumpy knot of flesh that was their combined hands began to spread along their arms. Tahiri could see the bones moving beneath, testing their new environment. Then the knot began to move up their forearms, drawing them closer together.
Riina continued to try to fight it, but Tahiri refused to relenteven though she shared the Yuuzhan Vong girl's fear and revulsion for what was happening to them.
There's still time to change your mind, Riina cried as she struggled. We don't have to do this!
You're wrong, Tahiri said. We do have to do this. It's the only way.
Despite her determination, though, the words didn't ease the dread tightening in her chest. While she felt sure that this was what needed to be done, she really didn't know what the result was going to be.
The knot reached their elbows, and Tahiri felt her hand sliding under the skin to Riina's shoulder. It felt as though an outside force were at work, pulling the mirror image of herself into a tight embrace.
Tahiri met Riina's wide-eyed stare again.
We must embrace, she told her Yuuzhan Vong counterpart. Our cultures, our beliefs, our knowledge.
Some of the fear ebbed from Riina's gaze, then. We must embrace, she concurred. Our emotions, our lives, our selves.
Tahiri took a deep breath as the knot of skin reached their heads and slowly pulled them together so that their noses were almost touching.
The good and the bad, Riina said, her lips brushing lightly against Tahiri's own.
The light and the dark, Tahiri said. We must embrace...
"It's a trap!" Droma's cry of alarm was echoed by C-3PO, who threw himself backward as the floor tipped beneath them and Millennium Falcon was sucked down into the gaping maw.
Leia hung on desperately while Han struggled to reach the controls in front of him. From his annoyed expression, she knew that he was about to blast their way out of dangerand he wasn't about to consult with the aliens before doing so, either.
But there was something about the unfolding space ahead of them that caught Leia's eye. Still gripping her seat, she leaned forward in the hope of getting a better look.
"I think I know what it is!" she said.
"I don't care what it is! Anything intending to eat us is trouble!"
"That's not what it's doing. Look!"
All eyes in the cockpit turned to the display just as the maw fell shut around them. The light-enhancing algorithms adjusted to this new level of darkness, searching out infrared and other frequencies for information on their new environment. The Falcon seemed to be surrounded by numerous vertical columns, like teeth in an enormous mouth.
But if it was a mouth, it wasn't eating them. There was no rending, no crushing, nothing at all to indicate that they were about to be ingested into the belly of some giant subterranean beast.
"See those columns?" Leia said, pointing at the display. "They're legs. And as for the eyes..." She watched carefully as the sensors scanned the ceiling.
Han chuckled before she could finish what she'd been about to say. "Portholes, right?"
"The relay base?" Droma sounded as though he could hardly believe his eyesor his luck.
"It was here all along," Han said, cutting power to the repulsors and letting the Falcon settle to the bottom.
"Perhaps not." Leia watched as a slender wire snaked out of the gloom and attached itself to the hull of the battered freighter. "Don't go giving your Solo luck any medals just yet."
"This is Commander Ashpidar of Esfandia Long-Range Communications Base," came an emotionless, female voice
from the comm. Leia identified its speaker as a Gotal, which seemed appropriate. The bi-horned, energy-sensitive beings would perfectly suit a gloomy place like Esfandia. "I'm sorry we took so long getting here. Word travels slowly among the Cold Ones."
"You know who we are?" Leia asked, making sure to reply the same way Ashpidar's communications arrived along the wire. The Yuuzhan Vong search parties were too close to risk any sort of broadcast.
"We know you came to help us, and that's all that matters. We were sheltering in some nesting plains several dozen kilometers from here when word arrived. The tunnels connecting the plains are cramped but easy enough to negotiate. We came as soon as we could."
"How many are there under your command?"
"Fifteen," Ashpidar replied. "We lost two when the bombardment began. They were servicing one of the detectors when the Yuuzhan Vong destroyed it. The rest of us are in here, thoughsafe for the moment."
Leia hoped that remained the situation. Taking in the Falcon had been a calculated risk with the Yuuzhan Vong searching so fervently above. She would hate to be responsible for any more lives lost.
She quickly identified herself, Han, and Droma, and put a name to the ship. Then she explained what they were doing there, and who they'd brought with them to defend the base.
"Imperials?" the Gotal said, surprised. "They're the last people I expected to see you working with."
"Times change," Han said. "But listen, we're going to need to work out what we're going to do next."
"I will organize a docking umbilical to enable us to meet and discuss this in person."
"That's a good idea," Leia said. "We'll have to find a way to keep you safe until the Yuuzhan Vong leave."
"We're safe enough right where we are," Ashpidar said tonelessly. "Unless we break comm silence or expose ourselves, we could hide here indefinitely."
"Assuming their tactics don't change, of course."
"Speaking of which," Droma said, waving for sil
ence. "Listen."
Leia and Han did so, but the only sound to be heard was that of the air scrubbers recycling air through the cockpit.
"I don't hear anything," Han said.
The Ryn nodded, his tail sweeping the floor behind him. "The bombardment has stopped. And that can only mean one thing."
"They've given up?" Han said.
Droma frowned. "Actually, I was thinking more along the lines that they're coming down for a closer look."
Leia's stomach sank. She liked the sound of her husband's suggestion better, but she knew Droma was right.
"Commander, you'd better get that umbilical across fast," she said. "I think we're going to be having company real soon."
Luke and Mara stayed up with the Ferroans as they attempted to locate the kidnappers. Airships came and went throughout the night, moving across the stormy sky like ghostly clouds. A vast root system covered the entire planet, Luke learned, linking boras to boras, tampasi to tampasi in a vast organic network. Communications traveled along the network with representatives of far-flung sections of the globe getting involved in the discussion of the abduction. Some had suggestions to make; others just called to express their fear and uncertainty at the thought that the Magister might be in any danger.
Darak and Rowel assured them all that everything would work out in the end. Their voices were calm, but Luke knew that they were more worried than they were prepared to admit.
That worry only increased as hints began to emerge from the boras network, reports of missing people and notes offering the first hints into the minds of the kidnappers. A sketch of a conspiracy formed, one that had acted exceedingly quickly to take advantage of the Jedi Knights' arrival. Almost too quickly, Luke thought...
"Any idea what this Senshi might want?" Mara asked.
Rowel shook his head. "None, I'm afraid."
"I know of Senshi," Darak said. "He comes from one of the settlements farther north. He has a plantation up there where he grows rogir-bolnsthe white fruit whose pulp you were served earlier. He's known for his talks on the Crossings and what it was like. He's also very vocal about his ideal of a perfect and pure Zonamawhich involves the exclusion of any outsiders."
"Does he have any history of active dissent?" Luke asked.
"Not that I'm aware of," Darak said. "But he does have a lot of supporters. He'd certainly have the resources and contacts to put such a plan into motion."
"Is it possible he's taking the hostages to his plantation?" Mara asked.
"No." Darak was firm on this. "The plantation is in the opposite direction from the one we know they took. We have people waiting there, in case they've doubled back, but I don't expect them to find anything."
Luke sighed tiredly. The occasional wave of reassurance came from Jacen, but his nephew's presence in the Force was still weak and indistinct. Nevertheless, that he was getting anything at all was a good sign, and for that he was thankful.
After a seemingly endless night, a greenish dawn finally began to filter through the treetops. The rain eased slightly, and some of the forest's fauna emerged from hiding. Gleaming birds swooped through the long branches, while lithe, long-limbed climbers emerged from shelters in the nooks of tree trunks to collect and munch on fronds and flowers. Sinuous tentacles swayed around the bases of the massive boras, almost as though licking at the mobile fungi that moved around the trunks in search of sunlight.
Everywhere Luke looked, he saw life stirring. Resources moved up the food chain as one creature ate another, then back down via waste and decay. There was a dynamic joyousness to the scene that put some of his concerns in perspective. No matter what happened to Jacen, Saba, and Danni, or even Jabitha, life here would continue to go on, much as it had before.
Captain Yage called from the Widowmaker as Zonama's terminator rolled westward around the planet, bringing dawn wherever it touched.
"Everything's quiet up here," she said. "I'm maintaining the orbit we've been given, not deviating a centimeter. I've sent probes across the system, but there's no sign of the Yuuzhan Vong."
"Any word from Mon Calamari?"
"Not a peep. Either they're ignoring our hails or someone's cut communications between here and there."
"I'll give you one guess who that someone might be," Mara said.
"Have the Chiss reported any concerted troop movements on the border of the Unknown Regions?" Luke asked.
"Not on their side," she said. "But if someone's taken out the relay bases between here and home, they wouldn't need to come that far."
"Well, here's hoping someone else is doing something about it," Mara said. "I'd hate us to have good news and no one to tell it to."
Luke clicked his comlink and called Tekli. The Jedi healer was awake and had little to report. Jade Shadow was still held fast by the planet's vegetation, but nothing had made a move on her so far, which Luke was thankful to hear. It seemed that the policy of nonaggression was having exactly the response that he and Jacen had hoped for. Sekot clearly wasn't about to do anything unless they attacked first. . .
As the light of day strengthened, it became apparent that the kidnappers weren't about to be found in a hurry. Even with the storm easing, they were still no closer to finding Jabitha or Jacen, Saba, and Danni.
After nibbling at slices of fruit that had been served in bowls for breakfast, Hegerty stood up to stretch. The doctor looked weary and haggard after the long and troubled night. Luke had suggested she try to get some rest on a couple of occasions, but she had said there was no way she could sleepnot with the others still missing and the kidnappers still at large. The doctor was no fighter, and the attempt on her life the night before had left her understandably rattled.
"Are you okay, Soron?"
The doctor nodded. "Just thinking."
"What about?"
She stepped back up to the group around the fire. "Well, Senshi has to have kidnapped the Magister for a reason, right?"
"Right."
"Well, it seems to me that, if it wasn't to harm her or ask for a ransom, then it could have only been for one reason."
"Which is?"
"He wants to talk to her." She nodded thoughtfully for a moment. "Maybe she didn't want to give Senshi the implied approval that would bring before now. Maybe she did listen, but ignored him. But since all of our attempts to locate his group have so far failed, she may now have no other choice."
"You sound like that would be a bad thing," Luke said.
"That depends entirely on what he's got to say, I guess." Hegerty rubbed the bump on her head left by the attempted kidnapping. "And on how convincing he can be..."
Pellaeon stood on the bridge of Right to Rule, savoring the silence but in no way relaxed by it. The withdrawal of the Yuuzhan Vong to a geosynchronous orbit high above the western hemisphere of Esfandia was fortunately timed, allowing exhausted Imperial pilots to return to their base ships and restock. But it was only a temporary reprieve, prompted by Jag Fel's superb disruption of the northern flank. Commander Vorrik still had the superior force and could wield it whenever he wished. Once he had regrouped, Pellaeon had no doubt that he would do just that. For now, though, a tense but stable stalemate persisted.
The surface of Esfandia was safe from heavy bombardment, at least. With the chaos of battle behind them, it was much easier for both sides to detect and intercept anyone trying to reach the surface. That meant, effectively, that it was off limits to both sides, and that whoever was currently down there was safe for the time being. And stuck there.
"Excuse me, sir," said Pellaeon's aide, standing patiently to attention behind him. "I have the information you requested."
He didn't know how long she'd been there. It could have been minutes; he'd been so caught up in his thoughts. "Go on," he said without turning.
"Close analysis of telemetry reveals at least two surface landings during the battle," she said. "One was almost certainly Millennium Falcon."
"I should have known that's where they'd
go. Right into the thick of it, as usual." He nodded, hiding his relief at the news. "And the other?"
"A yorik-trema landing craft. The Seventy-eighth destroyed two other such craft also attempting to land, but lost this one during the fighting. It was assumed to have burned up on entry. We now suspect otherwise."
He faced the aide. "Do we know where it put down?"
"We have an approximate region, one hundred kilometers across. But it is possible that it has since moved under the cover of the atmosphere."
"So we've lost it?"
"Yes, sir."
"And Millennium Falcon?"
"The same. We weren't actively looking for either, sir, otherwise"
"I suggest we start looking for them immediately."
"Yes, sir."
"What about that concentrated bombardment we saw? Could that be related?"
"That is possible, sir. It's equally possible that the Yuuzhan Vong detected some sign of the relay base in the region."
He nodded thoughtfully. "I guess the main thing is that we've stopped them firing on it."
"Yes, sir."
"Good work." He looked the aide over briefly, and saw deep lines of exhaustion on the woman's face. "And now I'd like you to excuse yourself from the bridge and get some rest."
"Sir?"
"I'll summon you when things heat up again. Of that I can assure you."
"But"
"That's an order. I need my crew fit and alert, first and foremost. That applies to everyone. See to it that all crew are rotated so that they receive both rest and nourish-
ment. It might be some time before we have another breather like this."
She saluted, but the formality didn't hide the gratitude in her eyes.
Star Wars - New Jedi Order - Force Heretic III - Reunion - Book 19 Page 19
