[Dark Nest] - 1(44)

“Oh, dear!” C-3PO exclaimed. “It seems that when Yoggoy attempted to collect Ben, Nanna threatened to open fire!”

“I apologize, Yoggoy,” Luke said, addressing the driver. “But why were you trying to collect Ben?”

The driver drummed an excited explanation.

“Because you and Mistress Skywalker said it would be good for him to see the Crash,” C-3PO translated. He tipped his head, then added, “As a matter of fact, Master Luke, I do recall hearing you say that only one point seven minutes ago.”

“Yes, but how-“

“Collective mind,” Leia said, suddenly understanding how their guide had been eavesdropping on their conversation earlier. “What one Yoggoy hears-“

“-they all do,” Han finished. “Kind of a new twist on being bugged, isn’t it?”

“It certainly is,” Leia said. As the constant stream of insects droned past, Yoggoy had been eavesdropping on them one word at a time. She took Han’s hand and stepped aboard the hoversled. “As I said, we have a lot to learn about the Colony.” The others climbed aboard as well. They stopped at the Shadow to pick up Ben and Nanna, then began a harrowing ride-it was very nearly a flight-through the congested avenues that wound through the skyscraping spires of the Yoggoy nest.

An hour later, they were still in the “city,” standing in a long line of insects and Joiners outside the Crash. The site seemed part tourist attraction and part shrine, with thousands of insects waiting patiently in line, looking across a low stone wall up toward a wrecked light freighter. The crater slope was mottled with wadla and lyris and a dozen other kinds of flowers that Leia did not know, and the air was heavy with the vanilla tang of bond-inducing pheromones. Even the constant drone of several thousand drumming, ticking insect pilgrims had a strangely soothing effect.

Despite the ambience, Leia was growing increasingly uneasy. She felt as though the half-buried YV-888 were still burning down through the atmosphere, as though something huge were about to come smashing down atop her head. And the other Jedi felt it, too. She could sense Luke’s disquiet through the Force and see Mara’s wariness in the sudden economy of her gestures. Even Saba seemed tense, watching the surrounding insects out of the corner of her eye and testing the air with her forked tongue.

Or maybe the Barabel was just getting hungry.

Leia stretched out into the Force, hoping to learn more. But reaching into the immense, diffuse presence that pervaded the insect nests was like looking into a room filled with smoke. There was something going on, but it was impossible to tell what.

The Skywalker-Solo group finally reached a gate in the stone wall, where their escort motioned them to stop and wait.

“Would anyone object to our visit, Yoggoy?” Leia asked. She still found it a little awkward to address every insect in a nest by the same name, but it certainly cut down on the need for introductions. “I keep having the feeling we’re not welcome here.”

Yoggoy rumbled a reply.

“Yoggoy assures you that your feeling is wrong,” C-3PO said. “Everyone is welcome to partake of the Crash.”

“Partake?” Han asked. “What are we going to do, eat the dead?”

“Uburu buu,” Yoggoy replied. “Bubu uu.”

“There weren’t any dead,” C-3PO translated. “She apologizes.”

“Uh, thanks,” Han said. “But no need. I wasn’t hungry anyway.”

Leia felt a gentle tug through the Force. She turned slowly and found herself looking at her sister-in-law’s slender face.

“Do you think Ben’s too young for this?” Mara asked. Her green eyes slid toward her right shoulder, indicating to Leia that she was asking another question entirely. “I don’t want him to see anything that would scare him off space travel.”

“I’m old enough!” a small voice said from Luke’s side. “Nothing’s going to scare me.”

“That’s a good question,” Leia said, ignoring Ben’s protest. “I guess it depends on what we see.”

As Leia answered, she was looking past Mara’s ear toward a large, single-colored insect ten places back in the line. So blue it was almost black, it stood nearly the height of a man, with short bristling antennae and barbed, sharply curved mandibles. She could not tell whether its huge, bulbous eyes were focused on the Solo-Skywalker party, but when her gaze lingered an instant too long, the creature slipped out of sight behind a tan-and-gray insect the size of a landspeeder.

“We’ll just have to keep an eye out,” Leia said, “and take off if this starts to look disturbing.”