"President," said the lieutenant, "I"ve been running the name Kueller through our database. I have nothing."
"Keep trying," Leia said.
"Try all files instead of simply current files," Admiral Ackbar said.
"Leia," Wedge"s voice was soft. "The computer identified the buildings around Luke. They"re Pydyrian."
"Pydyrian?" Wedge nodded. "That"s also in the Almanian system."
"And Leia?" Admiral Ackbar said. "We just had it confirmed. The transmission came from Almania itself."
"Almania," she said. "What would anyone so far away want with us?"
"I think that"s obvious," Wedge said. "The question is, how does this Kueller know you?"
"Perhaps you do know him," Ackbar said. "Perhaps that"s why his face was hidden by the mask."
"If it was hidden by the mask," Leia said. She still wasn"t convinced.
She was good with voices, and she didn"t recognize his. Holo-coding usually provided an accurate representation of everything, including the voice.
"We have something on Kueller," the lieutenant said. "But you aren"t going to like it."
"Tell me anyway," Leia said.
"Kueller was an Almanian army general hundreds of years ago. He overtook Almania, and then the entire sector. In his later years, he was a beloved leader, known for his compa.s.sion and his decisiveness. But early on, when he was conquering, he was one of the most ruthless people in the history of the galaxy. He would do anything to consolidate power," said the lieutenant.
"So this Kueller is someone else, invoking a historical namesake," said Wedge.
"It fits with his intentions," Ackbar said. "If he wants to take over the New Republic, he is letting us know he will do it as ruthlessly as he can. And then, he believes, he will be compa.s.sionate and decisive."
"Decisive and ruthless go together," Leia said, "but compa.s.sionate and ruthless do not. Is he tied to the Empire?"
"Not so far as I can tell at the moment," the lieutenant said. "Almania is very far away. The Emperor basically ignored it."
"But it would be a good site for Imperials to hide," Ackbar said. "I"ll check. "
"There have been reports of stormtroopers in that section of the galaxy,"
the lieutenant said.
"Stormtroopers?" Leia asked. "Will they never go away?"
"Leia," Ackbar said, "we"re now getting more reports from Auyemesh. The ships that managed to land found bodies everywhere. They were giving more details when all communication to the planet was shut down."
"Another killing?" Leia asked.
Ackbar shook his big head. "No. It was as if someone wanted just that much information out, and then stopped it."
"We have to be prepared for the a.s.sumption that this is all a hoax."
"A rather elaborate one, don"t you think, Wedge?" Leia asked. "No, this Kueller is real. I have seen his face before. He"s been haunting me for a while now. He"s real, and he means business. We need to find out as much about him as we can." The emotions she had been holding back rose inside her. She checked her own screen to see if she had had a reply from Han yet. Nothing. But he had told her he would be impossible to reach as long as he was on the Run.
The Run was far from Almanian s.p.a.ce. She hoped he was safe.
"Admiral Ackbar, will you contact Mon Mothma for me, and tell her I want to see her in my chambers?" Leia asked. She was shaking too badly to do it herself. She had to leave now. "I"ll contact you all for more information after I meet with her."
"Are you all right, Leia?" Ackbar asked.
Leia smiled tightly at him. "I don"t think any of us will be all right until we do something about this madman."
"We will," Ackbar said with complete certainty.
She wished she had the same certainty. This Kueller had more Force capability than anyone she had encountered in years. Except Exar Kun, and he had been a spirit. Kueller was alive. He was using these deaths to replenish his own well of hatred. The dark side ate people from within, but while it did so, it gave them much too much power.
He appeared to have more power than she had. More power than Luke.
Luke. The echo of his mental voice still reverberated in her mind. He was probably on Pydyr.
She would help him, if it was the last thing she ever did.
THIRTY.
A pile of chips, scorched wires, and broken metal toppled on 3PO. The weight of it activated the sensors in his chest. They flared, warning that the weight had to be moved or he would suffer damage.
"R2?" 3PO"s voice sounded m.u.f.fled.
There was no corresponding beep. R2 hadn"t even noticed when the pile fell on 3PO. R2 was chirruping softly to himself on the other side of the hallway, digging through a pile of rubble with all of his extensions.
"R2! I say, R2!" R2 whistled at him.
"Not in a moment! Now! Can"t you see I"m trapped here?" R2 chirruped.
Then R2 hurried across the floor, moving carefully to avoid the debris.
A door opened on the side. R2"s head swiveled.
"Hurry, R2!" 3PO apparently couldn"t get himself out of the pile.
A Kloperian slid inside. He was wearing a guard uniform.
Suddenly R2"s chirrups turned to submissive beeps. The Kloperian frowned at the debris pile.
"R2!" R2 moaned.
The Kloperian grunted, and swept the rubble off 3PO. 3PO sat up. "It"s about time-" He stopped when he saw the Kloperian.
"What"re you doing here?" the Kloperian asked. "This is a restricted area."
"I-ah-I was trapped," 3PO said.
"Yeah. I noticed. But before that. How"d you get in here?"
"I followed him." R2 blatted at him.
"He seemed intent on something inside. When I queried him, he said he had seen something or someone, so I thought we"d better investigate. Surely we did nothing wrong." The Kloperian crossed four tentacles over its gray chest. It frowned, making a hundred extra wrinkles on its already wrinkly face. "This place is restricted because it"s dangerous. I"m not even supposed to be inside. It could kill a living being. But since you"re a droid, I suppose there"s no harm. Unless I get killed. Just get out."
"Gladly, sir," 3PO said. "Gladly." He climbed out of the remaining rubble and toddled down the corridor. "Come along, R2." R2 whistled.
"Whatever it is, it will have to wait," 3PO said. "The good Kloperian has told us to leave, and leave we shall. No more of this heroic nonsense.
Leave that to Master Luke and Mistress Leia." R2 beeped extensively.
"Yes, yes, I agree, droids can be heroes too, but not when they"re disobeying Kloperians." R2 chirruped, then blatted.
"I suggest you save that language for the next time we"re alone," 3PO whispered. "Do you remember our last run-in with a Kloperian?"
"Is everything all right?" the Kloperian asked. He started to follow them.
"Fine, sir, fine. I"m just trying to get this astromech unit to follow me. He"s quite insistent about trouble inside."
"The trouble is that this building will collapse soon," the Kloperian said, "at least this section. I keep telling them that, when all those investigators come in here, but they don"t listen to me."
"Investigators?" 3PO asked. "Were they looking into the bombing?"
"Is there anything else?" the Kloperian asked. "But they work inside the Hall itself where it"s all unstable. There"s even openings in the roof. I keep expecting to come on to my shift at night and find a bunch of them dead because the roof collapsed."
"You mean, they never investigated the hallway?"
"At the pace they"re going, they"ll never get outside the door. At least not in my lifetime. Maybe in yours." Then the Kloperian laughed, a squishy, rather sickening sound.
It had followed them all the way out. Once they were outside, it closed what remained of the door. "You better get back to your masters before I report you missing. That"s standard, you know, for wandering droids."
"Maybe on Kloper," 3PO said, "but not on Coruscant."
"No one"s updated your files lately, have they, protocol droid? There"s a curfew for everyone at night, and that includes droids. This place has been different since the bombing, I tell you. You could trust folks once, at least the ones not a.s.sociated with the Empire. But not anymore. To attack the government like that. I"m just glad it happened during the day. If it"d happened on my shift-"
"No one would have gotten killed," 3PO said.
R2 made his little chuckling beeps.
The Kloperian blinked its fishy eyes at him, and then uncrossed two of its tentacles. "You got a point, don"t you, droid? I never thought of it that way. Guess that"s why you have logic circuits and I don"t. I"ve been thinking of myself again. The wives always accuse me of doing that too."
"I"m sure they do," 3PO said. "Ah, thank you for rescuing me. My counterpart hadn"t even noticed I was in trouble."
"He was too busy scavenging parts," the Kloperian said. "Don"t think I didn"t notice. I may not have any logic circuits, but I know when a droid works for smugglers. Next time I won"t go so easy on you two, if you catch my meaning."
"We don"t really work for smugglers," 3PO started, but R2 interrupted him with a bleep. 3PO shot him a glare. R2 bleeped again. "Really, R2-"
"I don"t care who you work for," the Kloperian said. "I was just telling you. Don"t come back here, at least not on my shift."
"Oh, don"t worry," 3PO said. "We won"t. Come along, R2." He put his hand on R2"s round head and pushed him forward. They crossed the restricted line into the street. The Kloperian watched from the doorway. "I hadn"t heard of the curfew, had you, R2?" R2 bleeped, then chirruped, and ended with a blatt.
"I"m not fond of it either," 3PO said, "but I do think we should return home." R2 swiveled his head, his own small version of no. He extended his service arm, and in it, he held four more detonators.
"R2!" 3PO yelped. Then he forced himself to lower his voice. "If we"re caught with those, you and Master Cole will be charged with sabotage for certain." R2 bleeped.
"I don"t care if they are smaller. They"re still evidence, aren"t they?"
R2 cheebled.
"I think that"s the best suggestion you"ve had all day," 3PO said. "Do let"s find Mistress Leia. She"ll be able to help us. And in the future, do not interrupt me when I"m about to give her name. Had we done that the first time we met with the Kloperians, we wouldn"t have gotten into that fix." R2 gave him a raspberry.
"And don"t use language like that with me. You"ve gotten quite persnickety in your old age. I daresay you"re even more peculiar than you were on Tatooine." R2 bleebled indignantly.
"Yes, I know you were on a mission. But you"re not on one now, are you?
You"re trying to give yourself an importance because you"re insecure now that Master Luke no longer needs you to navigate his X-wing." R2 beeped.
"There"s no guarantee that the detonator is in all the X-wings," 3PO said. "I"m sure Master Luke will upgrade when he returns. They say the new X- wings are much better." R2 whined.
3PO stopped walking. "What do you mean, if he returns?" R2 beeped an explanation.
"Oh," 3PO said. "I see. I hadn"t thought of that. But you don"t think Master Luke would take an X-wing with a detonator, do you? He would know, wouldn"t he?" R2 moaned.
"Good heavens," 3PO said. "This is a much bigger mess than I thought."
By his best guess, he had been treading water for most of a day. But he had no real way to tell time. He could only judge by how often Nandreeson ate. And Nandreeson ate a lot. A sweet fly here, a mouthful of gnats there, a garbage snipe as a snack. Lando had never seen so much disgusting food. He was using it as a barometer, a way of keeping himself occupied.
He had to. Treading water was strenuous, but it didn"t occupy the mind.
Although his mind had turned to survival a while back. He could tell because his concentration would move from his limbs to his stomach to his desperate need for sleep. He didn"t float much because he was afraid he would doze. Yet he needed to rest. When he floated on his back, he counted the watumba bats on the ceiling. They were gray, constantly shifting, and provided quite a challenge. He believed there were 350 of them, but the insect population in the room belied that. Watumba bats ate algae and rock dust. They acted as host for several flying parasitic bugs, including the parfue gnats that swarmed near the ceiling. If there were 350 watumba bats, the cavern would be black with parfue gnats.
Perhaps Nandreeson had eaten them all.
Lando"s arms felt as if they had grown in size. His legs ached, and his lungs burned. He was hungry, too. At least the water, disgusting as it was, was fresh enough to drink. No salt, which would poison him, and no other trace minerals that would make him even thirstier. The water would sustain him until he came up with a plan.
It had something to do with the watumba bats. Something about watumba bats, Glottalphibs, and sweet flies. Something he couldn"t quite remember.
But it would come to him.
Two Glottalphibs guarded the pool, as they had since the Reks had thrown him in. Nandreeson spent much of his time there, but he would leave on occasion to conduct his business. Lando saw that as a good sign. If Nandreeson truly believed that Lando was going to die, he would conduct business in front of him. But Nandreeson had enough doubt to go to a different cavern. And Nandreeson"s doubt gave Lando confidence.