"Good." Tesar was almost whispering now. "Then this one will tell you something else his Master would not wish. There will be bacta tankz at the rendezvous...and a safe place to use them."
The frigate"s laser cannons reached their maximum depression, then disappeared out of sight behind the curve of the ship"s hull.
"Now, Captain?" a sister asked.
Han ignored her and asked Tesar, "How safe?"
"As safe as a nest in a ferrocrete den."
They reached the entrance to the hangar bay. The lights out side the c.o.c.kpit rippled as the: frigate"s shields were lowered to admit the Falcon. Han hit the directional thrusters, and the ship began to ircnhk as it struggled to pivot in the tractor beam"s grasp. The c.o.c.kpit pa.s.sed into the bay.
"Now, ladies!"
The sisters were already bringing their turrets around. Given the vibrating ship, the precision timing, and the swift targeting, the shot would have been impossible for any typical pair of gunners.
The two Barabels were not typical. In the same second, two volleys of laser bolts sneaked out...and scorched holes through the opposite side of the bay.
Then the Falcon was pulled completely inside the frigate, and Han saw two little Vigilance starflghters...one hiding in each of the near corners...swinging then weapons in his direction. He brought the shields up, then another volley lashed out from his own laser cannons and hit the tractor beam projectors.
The bay walls spun past in a blur-Sheets of red flame washed over the c.o.c.kpit canopy. Han thought the sisters had missed their timing, that the Falcon was tumbling out of control. A familiar whumpf reverberated through the c.o.c.kpit, and blazing streaks of light lanced out from the cannon turrets to blossom against the walls in disks of fire. Han tipped the yoke against the spin and slowed the revolutions, then saw laser bolts stabbing starry darkness ahead and jammed the throttles.
He knew they had escaped by the suddenly webbing webbing the darkness around them. Not bothering to check the tactical display, he knew the Y-wings and X-wings were coming.Han pushed the nose down and, corks.c.r.e.w.i.n.g wildly, transferred shield power alt.
"Okay,Tesar, give me our heading."
The Ranhd read off a set of familiar-sounding coordinates "Not those." Han cleared the navicomputer and called up the second set. "The new ones. A ferrocrete den sounds good right The Barabel smiled, baring, a set of teeth that could have stripped a rancor to the bone. "You will not regret this, Captain."
The Falcon began to shake beneath the volley of the frigate"s belly cannons.
"1 won"t have time if you don"t hurry."
Tesar gave him the new coordinates, and Han swung the Falcon onto the bearing-He was just about to make the jump to lightspeed when Leia"s voice came over the intercom.
"Han? Han I..."
"I"m sorry, Captain Solo," C-3PO interrupted. "But she"s just awakened and insists she must speak with you this instant."
"Han?" Leia"s voice was raspy and weak, and she sounded con fused. "Han, I"m so thirsty. Could you bring me some water?"
Chapter 5.
Though contaminants had long since fouled the monitoring electrodes and the bacta had turned so murky and green Eelysa could hardly he seen, Leia knew the Jedi Master had awakened. She could feel Eelysa inside the cramped tank, a strong presence in the Force, isolated from those around her, aware of her danger and curious about it, yet patient and calm and utterly at peace with her helplessness. Leia filled her heart with rea.s.surance and reached out through the Force, and she felt the Barabels...
Tesar Sebatyne and the Hara sisters, Bela and Krasov*do the same. Eelysa held the contact for what might have been seconds or minutes, filling the Force with a sense of grat.i.tude and love, then continued to embrace them as she sank into a Jedi healing trance. Leia and the Barabels remained with her until her thoughts and emotions grew as quiet as a pond on a windless day, then, one by one, gently withdrew.
When they were done, Leia was surprised to find that she her self felt stronger and more at peace than she had in a long time. It was by far the most intimate Force touch she had ever experienced, not because the Barabels were stronger than other Jedi, but because they shared themselves so freely and innocently. She saw now why Eelysa had taken it upon herself to train their Master*Tesar"s mother, Saba Sebatyne*even when doing so had endangered her and her mission on Barab I.
"Leia?" Han asked-"You all right?"
"Fine, Han." She did not look at him as she answered, though only because he was changing her bandages and the last thing she wanted to see...even to glimpse...was the blackened, oozing ma.s.s that was her legs. "But Eelysa . . . we have to do something."
"Haven"t I been saying that?" Han grumbled.
They had arrived at the rendezvous point almost a full day ear lier, then began a monotonous waiting game that had Han ready to push their pa.s.sengers out an air lock.- Though Izal Waz and the Barabels were at a loss to explain the delay, they kept a.s.suring Han they would know if the meeting were canceled.- It did not help matters that when Han asked how they would know, Izal always looked to the Barabels, and the Barabels just shrugged and said they would know.
Leia looked to Bela...or maybe it was Krasov...and said, "We need to comm your Master." Though it was hard to envision ordering a Barabel to do anything, she .spoke in the voice of com mand that she had used to such good effect during her tenure as the New Republic Chief of State. "Give us the transceiver address." The two sisters looked from each other to Tesar, then they simply seemed to come to an agreement.
"As you wish," Krasov...or maybe Bela...said. "But if you use it, the rendezvous will be canceled.- Master Saba has learned to be careful about Peace Brigade eavesdroppez.""
Tesar,who was both larger and darker than the females shrugged. "But do what you think is best. She is already going to be displeased with us."
"A lot of that going around," Han said darkly.
Tesar"s shoulders sagged. "This one apologises for his advice. You may blast him anytime."
"Don"t tempt."
Leia laid a silencing hand on her husband"s shoulder-"I"m sure Tesar is as worried about Eelysa as we are-She is his mother"s Master."
The hardness that came to Han"s eyes was as surprising as it was subtle, but he nodded curtly and, without looking up, used synth-flesh to secure the edge of a bactabandage. The adhesive wasn"t supposed to hurt, but it felt like fire against Leia"s inflamed skin. Han lowered her foot onto the footrest, then gathered up the discarded bandages and stood. "Forget trying to reach Tesar"s mother."
"Master Saba," Krasov corrected.
Han ignored her and continued, "If it stops her from coming, that only makes our situation worse." He turned to Tesar-"How do you know your mother*Master Saba*is still coming?"
"Because we have not felt otherwise," Bela answered.
Han turned to Leia "What does that mean, felt otherwise?"
"Your mate understandz," Tesar replied, looking to Leia.
"Through the Force."
"Then she must be very near," Leia said, unsure whether to be confused or impressed. "I know of only a few Jedi who can feel what others are doing, and even then they must be near one another."
Krasov shook her head. "Not like hatchmates."
"We feel nothing has happened to her,"" Bela added "I see." Leia"s head was be.girming to spin from the way the conversational thread roamed from one Barabel to another. "So you"re saying you haven"t felt her die?"
"And that"s how you know the rendezvous is still on?" Han demanded. "Because Master Saba isn"t dead yet?" Tesar smiled broadly. "Exactly! If Master Saba isn"t dead yet, .slie will be here."
Han"s face grew stormy...alarm ingly so, at least to Leia.
"That"s it." He stared at the floor for a moment, then turned to Leia. "We"re going to Talf.a.glio."
"Talf.a.glio?" Leia waited for one of the Barabels to object-When none did, she asked, "Are you serious?"
"As a hungry Hutt," Han replied. "We can"t risk waiting around here for bacta that might be coming someday."
He threw the soiled bandages down the disposal chute and started to leave Leia"s repulsor chair barely turned fast enough to keep him in view.
"Han, wait!" Leia made a point of staying where she was; once she started moving, she would find herself following him clear into the c.o.c.kpit. "Let"s think this through."
Han turned in the door. "What"s to think through?" There was that hard look again*hardly unknown, but oddly out of place-"We need bacta."
"We do," Leia admitted. "But how long will it take to reach Talf.a.glio?"
"Ten and a half hours," Han said confidently. "I had Izal plot the course."
Leia glanced toward the portable tank "We don"t have ten hours, Eelysa will be dead in half that time."
"And you in twenty."
"We don"t know that."
"Well, I"m not taking chances." Han turned and vanished through the door Leia hastened after him, but her chair was no match for his angry stride. He was already disappearing around the curve of the corridor as she floated out of the crew quarters, and by then she finally understood the hard look in his eye.
"Han!"
Han stopped, but did not turn.
"We can"t go." Leia wondered if she still knew this man at all, if he could have been so hardened by Chewbacca"s death and the treachery of the Duros that he had truly become the selfish cynic he had fancied himself when they met. "We have to wait . . . and hope."
"We have to get you to a bacta tank." Han turned, his eyes filled with tears he refused to shed-"If we don"t, you may not walk again."
"Then at least I won"t be walking on corpses." Leia started her chair down the corridor. "Han, haw you forgotten who I am?" Do you think I want to walk at the cost of someone else"s life? Would you want me to?"
Han shook his head weakly. Then tears began to escape his eyes, and he hurried up the corridor. Leia did not follow. She still understood him well enough to know when to leave him alone.- He could face no more loss, and Leia was coming to comprehend*or was it fear? That when he looked at her in the repulsor chair, he saw another loss, something else taken by the Yuuzhan Vong.
And, Leia was astonished to realise, she saw the same thing in him. After Chewbacca"s death, he had shut himself off from his family and disappeared into the galaxy to grieve alone. She had believed he just needed room, and she had given it to him. But now she realized he had left for another reason as well, to shield her and the children from a fury he could not control. Would he haw gone, she wondered, if she had tried harder to reach him, just kept pushing and weathered the storm when he finally unleashed his anger? Would he still feel like such a stranger now?
Deciding only a fool makes the same mistake twice, Leia started up the corridor. This time, she would not let him suffer in privaie.
"Ship incoming," Izal Waz announced.
A vast sense of relief came over Leia, and not only because she knew the bacta had arriwed. She steered her chair quickly into the main hold and was overtaken by the three Barabels, the two Hara sisters rushing for the cannon turrets and Tesar the the c.o.c.kpit. She paused at the engineering station to send C-3PO to watch over Eelysa, then went to her new post behind the flight deck bulkhead. Han and Izal were already sitting in their chairs. Tesar loomed behind their seats, blocking Leia"s view of almost everything.
"Tlie transponder"s on," Han said. "That"s a good sign."
"The Star Roamer," Izal Waz reported. "Damorian medium freighter, armed. Registered to CorDuro Shipping."
"Out here?" Han asked-The rendezvous was taking place at the edge uf the Corellian sector, in a never-to-be-surveyed system con sisting of little more than a few asteroids, a dust ring, and the core of a collapsed star "What"s CorDuro doing ill a place like this?"
"They are the ones we have been waiting for, " Tesar explained.
"That is where we are getting our bacta tankz."
"From CorDuro?" Leia asked, disappointed. At the least, CorDuro Shipping was guilty of appropriathig supplies intended for refugees. "Master Saba has an arrangement with them?"
"Yes, but CorDuro docs not know it yet." Tesar turned to face her, and a pinhead of crimson brightness*the collapsed star as seen from inside its dust ring*appeared outside the c.o.c.kpit. "They will learn soon."
"Are you guys s.p.a.cesick?" Han demanded.- He looked from Tesar to Izal Waz. "You can"t buy bacta tanks from CorDuro! They"re collaborators. They might even be a front for the Peace Brigade."
Izal Waz shared a grin with Tesar, then asked, "Does anyone have proof of that?"
"Jacen sent a report to New Republic Intelligence," Leia said.
"But it outlined a circ.u.mstantial case-There isn"t anything solid." Tesar sissed, then said, "There will be soon."
As Leia pulled ower the Barabel"s remark, the CorDuro freighter slowed and entered an unconcealed orbit in the dust ring.
A few minutes later, the proximity alarm sounded-Han silenced it and frowned at his display, but lzal merely activated the Falcon"s data recorders.
"I"m getting nothing but ma.s.s readings." Han buckled his crash webbing "That new ship"s Yuuzhan Vong!"
Tesar sissed again, then looked back at Leia. "Not long now, this one thinkz."
He moved aside to give her a better view of the displays. Leia smiled her thanks and started to palm her hold-out blaster*this could still be a trap*then decided against it and left the weapon in her sleeve. The Barabel"s insistence on total comm silence had pre vented her from confirming even a small pan of their story with Luke, but the feelings they had shared in the crew quarters had contained no hint of decepdon.
Han and Izal Waz quickly identified the Yuuzhan Vong vessel as a corvette -a.n.a.log picket ship, then they all waked while the Star Roamer maneuvered into docking range "The Yuuzhan Vong want to know about bacta," Tesar explained. "Before Master Eelysa was injured, she told Master Saba about this rendzvous."
"And Master Saba decided you need a set of your own bacta tanks," Han finished.
Tesar bared his fangs in a smile-"It seemed fair."
"What if something goes wrong?" The worry in Han"s voice was so foreign to the Han Solo that Leia remembered that she thought for a moment someone else was speaking. "Eelysa"s the one who will pay the price."
"And Leia, too, you"re thinking," Izal Waz said.
"The thought had crossed my mind," Han admitted Tesar covered Han"s shoulder with a black-scaled claw "Han Solo, you worry too much. What could go wrong?"
Leia had to smile "At least Jacen will feel better," she said, trying to take Han"s mind off all the things that could go wrong.
"His report was going nowhere without solid... ?"
Leia let the sentence trail off, for her thoughts were whirling through her mind like hawk-bats above a thermal exhaust vent.
Why would someone contract an a.s.sa.s.sin to kill her? Why bribe a CorSec guard to steal her datapad? Why send an entire combat flotilla to prevent her from retuniing home?
"Proof!" she gasped. "Someone thinks I have proof."
"Proof?" Han turned in the pilot"s seat. "Of CorSec"s collaboration?"