by Timothy Zahn
She reached the creek, located the conveniently placed flat rock where she kept the small bottle of personal cleaning solution from her survival kit, and stripped off her jumpsuit. The outfit itself was one of the top-of-the-line brands that was standard issue aboard Karrde’s ships and shrugged off dirt and oils with ease. Mara herself, unfortunately, did not; and if she had company coming it seemed only reasonable to make herself presentable.
The water was shallow, swift-moving, and icy cold. Mara splashed it all over herself, trying not to sputter too much with the thermal shock. A few drops of cleaning solution rubbed vigorously into skin and hair, another agonizing dip into the liquid ice of the creek to rinse off, and she was through. An only marginally warmer breeze flowed along the same path as the water, and she stood in the draft for a few minutes, brushing off excess water and fluffing her hair until she was mostly dry. Getting back into her jumpsuit, she collected her things and headed back to her encampment.
Just in time. She was still sorting her equipment back into their proper niches in her pack when she caught the first flickers of reflected light against the rocky walls and high ceiling. Rolling up her bedroll and tucking it into her pack, she sat down on her “chair”—another mostly flat rock—and waited.
It seemed to take an inordinate amount of time before the bouncing light finally resolved itself into a Jedi Master carrying a glow rod; but when it did she finally understood the reason for the slow trip. Luke himself was burdened down with what looked like the sort of everything-but-a-set-of-alluvial-dampers survival kit Karrde’s people liked to put together; and trundling awkwardly but gamely along beside him on the uneven ground was his R2 astromech droid.
“Mara?” Luke called, his voice echoing through the cave.
“Right here,” Mara called back, standing up and waving her glow rod. “You sure took your time.”
“Sorry,” he said dryly, making his way to her. “We couldn’t find the local airspeeder-hire stand and had to walk. You look good.”
“You look terrible,” she countered, running a critical eye over him. His jacket and the jumpsuit beneath it were stained with dirt and sweat and dotted here and there with small rips and punctures. “How far did you walk, anyway? Halfway around the planet?”
“No, only about ten kilometers,” he said, shrugging the pack off his shoulders onto the ground and running a hand through his hair. “But it was cliffs and wilderness all the way.”
“And thornbushes, apparently,” Mara added, gesturing toward the tears in his jumpsuit. “You want to get cleaned up? There’s a stream right over there that doesn’t have too much ice floating in it.”
The droid gurgled. “Maybe later,” Luke said. “How have they been treating you?”
Mara shrugged. “Ambiguously,” she said. “At first I thought I was being held prisoner. But they didn’t seem to mind if I moved around the immediate area, so I thought I might have been mistaken. On the other hand, they also wouldn’t let me go too far in any direction, and they’ve still got my lightsaber and the blaster they took from me.”
“Your blaster?”
“Yes, my blaster,” Mara said, putting a drop-it tone into her voice. The aliens had taken both of her main weapons; but they’d missed the tiny backup blaster snugged in its holster against her left forearm. Up till now she hadn’t had occasion to use it, but she didn’t want Luke announcing its existence, either. “And my lightsaber,” she repeated. “So now I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“Yes, my Qom Jha guides told me you have trouble understanding them,” Luke said. Apparently, he’d gotten the message about the blaster. “It sounds to me like the reason they brought you in here was to keep you safe.”
“I was afraid of that,” Mara said, feeling her cheeks warming and hoping the chagrin didn’t show. Bad enough that someone had had to come all the way out here to the edge of Unknown Space to rescue her after she walked the side of her head into that rock. Even worse that it had to be Luke Sky walker, Jedi Master, who probably had a million better things to do with his time. But for the “rescue” to be from what was essentially an impromptu alien baby-sitting service was embarrassing beyond words.
“Don’t worry about it,” Luke said quietly.
She blushed harder. “Blast it, Skywalker, stay out of my mind.”
She felt his own flush of embarrassment at the unintended intrusion. “Sorry,” he apologized. “But I didn’t mean it that way. They say they needed to protect you because you were being hunted by the Threateners from the High Tower.”
Mara frowned, her embarrassment abruptly forgotten. “The Threateners?”
“That’s the Qom Jha name for them,” Luke said. “Beings similar to us, they say, and allied with the Empire.”
“Terrific,” Mara murmured. With her attention these past few days focused on survival and the exploration of her surroundings, the reason why she’d come to Nirauan in the first place had rather been lost in the back of her mind.
But now it was suddenly back in a rush: the mysterious spaceship she and Luke had spotted skulking around the Cavrilhu Pirate base, and the one that later had buzzed Booster Terrik’s private Star Destroyer. Alien beings and alien technology, but with a distinctly Imperial flavor mixed into the design. “So we were right,” she said. “They were hunting for Imperials at the Cavrilhu base.”
“It’s starting to sound that way,” Luke said. “Though don’t forget we only have the Qom Jha word for that. We’ll need to check it out for ourselves.”
“Um.” Mara eyed him. “So they can talk to you, huh?”
“Through the Force, yes.” Luke paused, eyes slightly unfocused as if he were listening to a faint sound. Mara stretched out to the Force herself, but aside from the creatures’ normal chirping she could still catch only the familiar almost-voices making almost-words. “You can’t hear that?” he asked.
“Not understandably,” Mara admitted. The thought annoyed her almost as much as having to be rescued. “What are they saying?”
“At the moment, not much,” Luke said. “They’re waiting for their Bargainer to arrive. I gather from an earlier conversation I had with a group called the Qom Qae that that’s the local term for leader or spokesman.”
“Ah.” Mara frowned as a ripple of displeasure ran through the almost-voices. “I get the distinct feeling they don’t like the Qom Qae very much.”
“Yes, I know,” Luke agreed, his tone a little uneasy. “Actually, it may be partially my fault. I think they’re displeased that I brought a Qom Qae in here with me.”
“Not necessarily the most politic thing you could have done.”
“He spent the last couple of days guiding me here,” Luke said, sounding a little defensive. “He wanted to come inside and see you, and I decided he’d earned that much. Besides, whatever’s going on probably concerns both groups.”
“Could be.” Mara glanced around them. “Where is this guide of yours?”
“Up there somewhere,” Luke said, playing the beam from his glow rod around the ceiling. Each of the mynocklike Qom Jha twitched as the spot of light passed, shying away from the glare.
All except one, a somewhat smaller creature whose leathery hide seemed to be a slightly different color than that of the beings clustered closely around him. Also unlike the others, who hung casually from cracks or bumps in the ceiling, he was perched awkwardly upright on a rock jutting out from the wall. “That him?” Mara asked.
“Yes,” Luke said, holding the light there a moment and then turning it back toward the ground. “He’s called Child Of Winds.”
Mara nodded, thinking back to her flight in through the deep canyon and all the small caves she’d noticed pockmarking the rock walls along the way. “I take it the Qom Qae are cliff-dwellers?”
“His nesting is, anyway,” Luke said. “His father is also their Bargainer.”
“Friends in high places,” Mara said. “That could be handy.”
“I’m not sure ‘friends’ is
exactly the word I would have used,” Luke said dryly. “They seem to have made off with my X-wing when I wasn’t looking, and Child Of Winds either can’t or won’t tell me where they took it. It must have taken a whole lot of them to even move it.”
“It did,” Mara said with a grimace. “I know because I watched the Qom Jha do the same thing with my Defender, hauling it into the cave to who knows where. Looks like they’ve got more in common with the Qom Qae than they might like.”
“Actually, your Defender isn’t very far away,” Luke said. “Artoo and I spotted it on our way in. He gave it a quick scan—it didn’t seem to be damaged.”
“That’s a relief,” Mara said, a small amount of the weight lifting from her back. The Defender might be useless for getting her home, but without it she couldn’t even get off the ground. “After everything Karrde went through to get his hands on it, he’d kill me if I lost it. When’s he getting here with backup?”
Luke winced. “Well, to be honest … I told him not to send anyone else.”
Mara felt her mouth go a little dry. “Did you, now,” she said, striving to keep her voice calm. If Luke was starting to slip back into his old omnipotent-Jedi habits … “You don’t think the two of us tackling a whole fortress full of unknown enemies is giving us too much of an advantage, do you?”
An odd look flicked across his face. “That’s not it at all,” he protested. “I just didn’t think it would be a good idea for a full battle force to come storming into the system. Especially since we didn’t know whether or not you were a prisoner.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Mara conceded, the knots untying a little. “I guess that means you don’t have a Star Cruiser skulking in the outer system, either?”
“I doubt the New Republic could spare even an armed transport right now,” Luke said, his expression turning grim. “Things are getting very nasty out there.”
“Let me guess. Caamas and the Bothans?”
“Caamas, the Bothans, and a thousand worlds using Caamas as an excuse to pick up on old grudges against their neighbors,” he told her. “And frankly, I’m starting to wonder if there’s any way at all of stopping it.”
“That’s a cheery thought,” Mara growled. “Let’s deal with one problem at a time, all right? Starting with confirming these Threateners are the same ones we’re looking for. We think we spotted one of those alien ships on its way in when we came out of lightspeed, but it was too far away for a positive identification.”
“Oh, they’re the right ones,” Luke assured her. “I had two of them escort me in, then try to shoot me down.”
Mara grimaced. “I guess that says whose side they’re on.”
“Not necessarily,” Luke cautioned. “Or at least, not permanently. We might be able to persuade them—wait a second. The Bargainer’s here.”
Mara nodded; she’d already sensed the anticipation flowing ahead of the new arrival. “You’re going to have to translate for me,” she told him. “I wish I could hear them myself.”
“It would sure make things easier,” Luke agreed, forehead wrinkling with thought. “I wonder if—here, give me your hand.”
“My hand?” Mara echoed, frowning, as she extended her left hand toward him.
“I can sense them,” he explained, taking her hand with his right and gripping it firmly, “and we can sense each other. If we can make that link strong enough …”
“Worth a try,” Mara agreed, stretching out to the Force. The aliens’ communications were indeed clearer now, like whispered words beneath the chirping just a little too soft to hear. She stretched out harder, frowning with concentration.
“Let’s try this,” Luke said, stepping close to her side and turning to face the same direction she was. Shifting her hand from his right to his left, he slipped his right arm around her waist and leaned over to touch the side of his head against hers.
And in that moment, like a faulty display whose self-tuning had just come on-line, the vague sounds and sensations she’d been picking up for the past two weeks abruptly coalesced into words.
—the Bargainer for this nesting of the Qom Jha, the words flowed through her mind. I am known as Eater Of Fire Creepers. The Qom Jha rejoice that you have come to us at last.
“We’re glad to be here,” Luke said gravely. “I’m Luke Skywalker, as you seem to already know. This is my friend and ally, Mara Jade.”
A wave of emotion swept the chamber. Why do you bring her here to us, Master Walker Of Sky? Eater Of Fire Creepers demanded, an odd sort of caution in his tone.
Luke frowned. “I didn’t bring her; she came of her own volition. Is there a problem?”
Did you not heed our message regarding this Jaded Of Mara? Eater Of Fire Creepers asked. You surely must have received it by now.
“I’ve received no messages from you,” Luke said. “When and where was it sent?”
I do not understand, Eater Of Fire Creepers said, sounding wary now. What do you mean by no messages?
“I mean no messages,” Luke said. “I’d never heard of you or this world until I was told by Mara’s friends about her capture.”
But the messages have been delivered, Eater Of Fire Creepers insisted. It was so promised by the Bargainer of the Qom Qae—
He broke off, his wings fluttering ominously. You—Qom Qae, he bit out. Stand forward and speak in your nesting’s defense.
There was a sudden commotion by the section of wall where Child Of Winds had been perched. Mara flicked her glow rod that direction, just in time to see the small Qom Qae drop toward the floor to avoid three Qom Jha attempting to pounce on him. They altered direction toward him; changing direction himself, Child Of Winds curved up and over toward a wide crack in the opposite wall near the ceiling. “Leave him alone!” Luke called sharply. “He’s just a child.”
He is a Qom Qae, the Bargainer spat as Child Of Winds dived headfirst into the crack. He bears the responsibility for his nesting’s treacheries.
Luke let go of Mara’s hand and took a long step away from her. “You will not harm or harass him,” he said in a tone of command, his words punctuated by the snap-hiss and brilliant green blade of his lightsaber. “Leave him alone, and I will question him.”
A Jedi with ignited lightsaber, in Mara’s experience, was a sight that normally caused sentient beings to pause for a moment or two of sober reflection. The Qom Jha either didn’t understand, didn’t care, or else assumed that five meters of vertical space would be adequate protection from the glowing weapon beneath them. In the green light Mara could see Child Of Winds trying to wedge himself more tightly into the limited protection of the crack, his claws slashing ineffectually toward the three Qom Jha fluttering around him. A half-felt command from the Bargainer, no longer understandable now that Luke had moved away from her, and another group of Qom Jha detached themselves from the ceiling and moved in toward the confrontation.
And it was time, she decided, to remind the aliens exactly who it was they were dealing with here. Tossing her glow rod over to her left hand, she snatched her backup blaster from its forearm holster with her right and fired three precisely placed shots into the wall around Child Of Winds’s hiding place.
With a startled screech the attacking Qom Jha shied back from the blasts and flying rock chips, fluttering for a moment before settling into new positions on the ceiling away from the besieged Qom Qae. Another half-sensed command from the Bargainer, and a taut silence descended on the cavern. “A minute ago you called him Master,” Mara called toward the aliens. “Is he a Jedi Master to be respected and obeyed, or isn’t he?”
There was a rush of almost-words. “Translation?” Mara murmured.
“He said, ‘You have no place to speak thus to the Bargainer of the Qom Jha,’ ” Luke told her, shifting his lightsaber to his left hand and stepping back to her side. Keeping a wary gaze on the ceiling, he again put his arm around her and touched his head to hers—
—indeed, even now you hang clutched to crumbling ro
ck, Eater Of Fire Creepers’s voice came into her mind again. Do you deny you are the same Jaded Of Mara who once flew with the nesting of the Empire?
Luke’s arm seemed to tense across Mara’s back. “What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.
Those in the High Tower have made great rustlings and bargainings about this being, Eater Of Fire Creepers said, his tone dark. Perhaps it is our trust in you which hangs from crumbling rock, Master Walker Of Sky.
“Or maybe the crumbling rock is in your own heads,” Mara countered before Luke could reply. “If any allies of the Empire are talking about me, it’s because I’m near the top of their list of enemies. Or didn’t you bother to listen to the entire conversation?”
The Bargainer fluttered his wings again, but this time there was a touch of uncertainty to the gesture. Their language is not easily understandable, he conceded. Yet we have been betrayed once already by the Qom Qae, and do not wish to add one betrayal to another. Master Walker Of Sky, you said you would force the Qom Qae to speak in his nesting’s defense?
“I said I would question him,” Luke corrected mildly, closing down his lightsaber. “Child Of Winds, come down here.”
There was a moment of hesitation; and then the Qom Qae worked his way out of the crack and dropped down to land on a stone beside Luke. I am here, Jedi Sky Walker, he said, keeping a wary eye on the ceiling.
“Did your nesting of the Qom Qae receive messages for me or for the New Republic from this nesting of the Qom Jha?” Luke asked. “And did your Bargainer promise Eater Of Fire Creepers your nesting would deliver those messages?”
Child Of Winds seemed to hunch his wings over his head, a heavy sense of nervous guilt rippling from him. It is not my place to bargain for my nesting, he said. Hunter Of Winds—
Hunter Of Winds is not here, Eater Of Fire Creepers cut him off brusquely. You will answer the question.
Child Of Winds sank lower into his wings. It is as you say, he conceded reluctantly.
