[Dark Nest] - 1(116)

“… careful,” Leia’s image said.

The image grew motionless, obviously waiting for a reply.

“Tell the comm officer to acknowledge and ask for a repeat,” Luke instructed R2.

“… tell if…,” Leia said. “… again later.”

The image winked out, leaving R2-D2 buzzing in frustration.

“It’s okay, Artoo. We heard enough.” Luke turned to find Formbi eyeing him with an expression halfway between smugness and concern. “I’m afraid we’ll have to cut our tour short.”

“Of course,” Formbi replied. “It sounds as though you’ll be quite busy… as will I.”

‘Is that so?” Luke used the Force to summon a pair of apprentices out of the Skorch game to escort Formbi and look after R2-D2. “Can the Jedi be of any assistance?”

“Not really,” Formbi said. “Chief of State Omas was kind enough to send an escort to accompany me to his office on Coruscant.”

“I see,” Luke said. “I assume you’ll be discussing the situation at Qoribu.”

Formbi smiled and dipped his head in acknowledgment. “Discussing would be the wrong word, I’m afraid.”





TWENTY-SEVEN


Leia had heard it said that no captor could imprison a Jedi longer than the Jedi wished to be imprisoned, and she was beginning to understand how true that was. Even with Alema lying unconscious in the number two hold, with all four limbs shackled to cargo tie-downs and two angry Noghri guarding her with T-10 stun blasters, Leia constantly found herself limping back with a new way to confine their prisoner. Her head and ankle were throbbing harder by the minute, and the last thing she wanted was to start fighting the Twi’lek again.

Now Leia was holding a pair of LSS 1000-series Automatic Stun Cuffs from the security locker-highly illegal, of course, but standard equipment aboard the Falcon. After checking the vital-signs monitor on Alema’s wrist to make sure the Twi’lek was still unconscious, Leia limped around behind her head.

A sudden shudder ran down Alema’s lekku. Her eyes started to move beneath their lids, and she began to mumble in a frightened, high-pitched voice. At first, Leia thought the Twi’lek was crying out incoherently in a dream, but then she recognized a couple of Twi’leki words-those for “night” and “herald”-and realized Alema was actually talking in her sleep.

Leia turned toward the intercom panel. “Threepio, activate audio recording in hold two.”

“As you wish, Princess,” he said. “But I will need to leave Master Sebatyne unattended for a few moments.”

“As long as she’s still stable,” Leia said.

“Oh, she’s quite stable,” C-3PO said. “Her vital signs have been hovering close to zero for hours.”

A moment later, a red light activated on the intercom panel. Alema continued to mutter in her native language-something about “the Night Herald”-and her limbs began to jerk against their restraints. Leia glanced at the vitals monitor and saw that the Twi’lek had slipped into the REM state. She motioned for the Noghri to cover her, then squatted on her haunches and clamped the stun cuffs on Alema’s lekku.

“You’re a hard woman, Leia Solo,” Han said, stepping into the hold. “I kind of like it.”

“Just being careful,” Leia said. She set the power to maximum, then slowly rose and backed away. “I doubt we could trick her twice.”

“Sure we could,” Han said. “Teamwork and treachery will beat youth and skill every time.”

“Alema isn’t that young-and I’d say she beats us hands-down in the treachery department,” Leia said. She crossed the hold-emptied so Alema would have nothing to fling with the Force-and stopped at Han’s side. “I thought you and Juun were plotting the next jump.”

“We’ve been trying,” Han said.

“Trying?” After repairing Alema’s sabotage, they had emerged from the nebula to find themselves staring into the creamy heart of the Galactic Core, no more than twenty light-years from the Galactic Alliance. “You said we’d be on the Rago Run in one more jump.”

“We will,” Han said. “But every time we engage, the navicomputer detects a mass fluctuation and shuts us down.”

“You’re sure we’re in the right place?” Leia asked. Worried about the possibility of an escape, she had insisted on supervising the security precautions while Juun filled in as copilot. “Jae didn’t plot a bad jump?”

Han shook his head. “It’s definitely the same place we stopped on the way out. Rago is five light-years ahead, and the star charts match what we stored in the navicomputer. The only difference is the fluctuation.”