[Dark Nest] - 1(47)

“Ububu.”

The guide slipped the hoversled into motion so quickly that Leia and the others were knocked into their seats, and a moment later they were gliding onto a broad, traffic-choked boulevard flanked by looming insect spires.

The uneasy feeling Leia had been experiencing only grew worse. She slid forward and leaned over the low wall separating the driver’s compartment from the passengers.

“Yoggoy, who were those blue insects?”

“Ububub bur?”

“The blue Kind who accosted us at the Crash,” C-3PO explained helpfully. “Actually, they were more of a deep indigo, if that helps.”

“Bubu bur ub.”

“Why of course there are blue Kind,” C-3PO protested. “We just saw them at the Crash!”

“Ur ub bur.”

“What do you mean you don’t remember that?” C-3PO demanded. “We all saw them.”

The street ahead suddenly grew clear, and the unease Leia had been feeling blossomed into full-fledged danger sense.

“Stop the hoversled!” Leia cried.

Mara’s approach was more direct. She was already leaping over the driver’s wall, wresting the controls from their guide. She brought the hoversled to an instant halt, drawing a chorus of surprised oofs from Leia and the others.

“Not good,” Han said, coming forward. “Bad, even. These streets never- “

Leia did not hear the rest of Han’s observation, for suddenly her danger sense was turning somersaults in her stomach and Mara was backing the hoversled up the street. When their guide protested and tried to retake the controls, Mara used the Force to push the insect off the hoversled.

“Mom!” Ben cried. “You just dumped-“

A deafening crackle echoed through spiretops, then chunks of mosaic-covered wall began to rain down on both sides of the boulevard. Leia instinctively turned to protect Ben, but Nanna already had him on the deck, shielding him with her laminanium-armored body. Luke and Saba were standing beside the droid, using the Force to push falling rubble away from the hoversled.

Realizing that she still had a little honing to do before her instincts were up to full Jedi speed, Leia tipped her head back and began to look for chunks of falling building.

“Assailants at forty degrees!” Nanna reported.

The droid’s arm rose and opened at the elbow. The entire hoversled shuddered as the warrior-nanny cut loose with her blaster cannon.

“Astral!” Ben yelled, peering out from under her arm.

Nanna gently pushed his head back, then fired again. More pieces of wall crashed down in the street, and Leia glimpsed the inky shape of half a dozen dark blue insects diving for the interior of the tower.

“Did you see that?” Han raised his blaster pistol and began to fire into the dust. “Kriffing bugs!”

In the next instant, the hoversled pivoted around and started up the avenue away from the ambush.

“They were trying to kill us!” Han cried from the floor of the hoversled. He hauled himself up and, as Mara swung down a side street and left the billowing dust behind, caught Leia’s eye. ‘Wow can we try my plan? “





TWELVE


For the first twenty minutes of the trip to the hangar, Han remained silent about Mara’s piloting. She was racing down the insect-choked boulevard, using the Force to weave and jink and at times bounce through the traffic as though she were flying an X-wing instead of an ancient hoversled with a repulsor drive that sounded like it might come apart at any second, and most of the time he was just too scared to talk. But when she suddenly swung into a packed alley and slowed to a more sustainable speed, he could not help himself.

“Don’t tell me you’re losing your nerve,” he said, leaning over the half wall into the pilot’s compartment. “We’ve got to get back to the ships before Raynar finds out we survived!”

Mara continued at the same sane speed. “He already knows.”

“The collective mind,” Leia reminded him. “What one Yoggoy knows, they all do.”

“Great.” Han’s stomach began to churn. “There ought to be a nice bunch of bugs waiting when we get back to the hangar.”

“Maybe not,” Luke said. “I can’t believe Raynar would turn on us like that. He was one of the most earnest students at the academy.”

Han and Leia shot Luke simultaneous looks of astonishment.

“Raynar Thul is no more,” Han quoted. “He’s one of them now. UnuThul. A Joiner.”

“Raynar’s still in there,” Luke said. “I felt him.”

“Yeah? Well, it’s the other guy I’m worried about,” Han said. They left the alley, flashed across a boulevard, and shot into another alley. Han had no idea where they were-their guide had stuck to the main boulevards on the way to the Crash-but he assumed Mara knew where she was going. Jedi were not the only ones who could trust the Force. “And if his bugs try knocking another building down on us, I’m gonna blast him.”