“There you have it, then,” Han said. He looked back to Juun. “You have to answer me.”
“I do?”
“Yeah.” Han allowed some of the impatience he was feeling to show in his voice. “The Smuggler’s Code says so.”
Juun looked back to his work and casually asked, “The Smuggler’s Code? “
“Item seven?” Han prompted. “I swear to help other smugglers, as long as it don’t cost me?”
“Yes, of course.” Juun’s beady-eyed gaze flicked back and forth across the master control board. It was impossible that he actually knew the Smuggler’s Code-Han was making it up - but nothing embarrassed most Sullustans more than admitting they did not know proper procedures. “Item seven. I’d almost forgotten.”
“I think that clears things up,” Leia said. She flashed Han an approving smile, then sat on her haunches beside Juun. “So what’s Lizil trying to hide?”
Juun began to solder the forward loading door’s powerfeed to the forward loading door’s control circuit. “You have seen the Joiners?”
Han expected Leia to shake her head, but she seemed to sense something from her brother and allowed Luke to respond for her.
“You mean Lizil’s translators?”
“Not translators,” Juun said. “Joiners. They’re Lizil, too.”
Saba lowered her scaly brow. “How can that be?” she rasped. “Most of them do not even have six limbz!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Juun said. “They’ve been absorbed.”
“Absorbed?” Han was having trouble following the conversation now, probably because he had not yet seen any of these “Joiners.” “Absorbed how? “
“Mentally, I suspect,” Luke said, keeping his eyes on Juun. “Is it some sort of brainwashing?”
Juun shrugged. “All I know is that when someone spends too long in a nest, he gets absorbed.”
“You’re saying that my daughter thinks she’s some kind of bug?” Han demanded, taking a step forward. “And you weren’t going to tell me?”
Juun jumped up and stepped behind Leia. “It’s not my fault!”
“Take it easy, Han,” Luke said. “We don’t know that has happened.”
“Do we know it hasn’t?” Han countered.
“Now you are being a rockhead,” Saba said. “We know nothing, not even where they are.”
Saba’s intervention reminded Han that he and Leia weren’t the only ones with a child at risk. Her son, Tesar, was one of the Jedi Knights who had followed Jaina into the Unknown Regions.
“Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” Han touched Saba’s back-then swallowed hard, remembering that touching a Barabel uninvited was a good way to lose an arm. “Sometimes, I forget they’re Jedi.”
“Not to worry.” Saba thumped a scaly hand down on his shoulder. “This one forgetz sometimez, too.”
A moment of silence hung in the air as they recalled all they had lost at Myrkr, Anakin and Bela and Krasov and the others, and Han thought he could almost feel Saba reaching for him in the Force, trying to lend him the strength to have faith in his daughter’s abilities, to recall that she was a Jedi Knight and an ace star pilot and a hero as big in her war as he and Leia had been in theirs. It was not an easy thing for a father to keep in mind, but it was true, and-as Leia always said-in truth there was strength.
“All right already,” Han said, motioning Juun back to the control board. “You can go back to work. I’m better.”
Leia gave him an understanding wink, then turned back to Juun. “What does Lizil need with a group of Jedi Knights?”
“I don’t know,” Juun said. “But they left with Unu.”
“Unu?”
“The central nest,” Juun said. “Your daughter and the others were met by an escort of Unu guards.”
“More bugs?” Han had a sinking feeling. “Great.”
“Then there’s an organization of nests?” Leia asked Juun.
The Sullustan nodded. “The Colony.”
Han thought he was beginning to understand. “How big?”
Juun pulled a datapad from beneath his utilities, then began punching keys. “I have heard three hundred and seventy-five names.”
Luke whistled. “Enough to stretch from here to the Chiss frontier. Now this is beginning to make some sense.”
“How do you figure?” Han asked.
“The situation isn’t complicated,” Leia said. “The Colony is rubbing borders with the Chiss empire. It’s pretty clear why the central nest might want a team of Jedi Joiners on their side - especially this particular team.”