“Blast!” Han sounded as though he might imitate the larva. “Don’t tell me that was dinner.”
“It’s not that unusual,” Jacen said. He guided them to one side of the entrance, so they would not impede the constant flow of Killiks entering and leaving the nursery. “There are bees and wasps across the entire galaxy that feed this way. It produces a very stable social structure.”
Han turned to Leia. “Didn’t I tell you this would happen? We let him have too many weird pets when he was a kid.”
“But it does explain why the Chiss captives are starving,” Mara surmised, ignoring Han’s joke. “Without larvae, the prisoners can’t eat.”
“You make it sound like an accident, and it’s not.” Zekk’s voice was sharp with outrage. “The Chiss are trying to starve all of the Qoribu nests into leaving.”
“But they can’t leave.” Alema’s voice was bitter. “Even if they had someplace to go, each nest would need a vessel the size of a Star Destroyer, and it would take months to prepare. They’d have to build a whole new nest inside the ship.”
“That’s not the answer, anyway,” Jaina said. “This isn’t Chiss space. The Killiks are innocent victims here.”
“Victims, possibly,” Mara said. She was growing alarmed by the wholehearted naivete with which her niece and the others appeared to be embracing the Killik cause. “But hardly innocent.”
Jaina’s eyes flashed at the challenge, but her voice remained steady. “You don’t know the situation. This system-“
“I know that on the way in here, the Shadow was jumped by Killiks,” Mara said.
“The trouble you had on the way in?” Jacen asked. “I’ve been wondering about that.”
“So have we,” Han said dryly.
“And you think it was Killikz?” Tesar asked.
“We know what a dartship lookz like,” Saba said. “But these were better than the craft that met us at Lizil. These were powered by hydrogen rocketz.”
“Hydrogen?” Zekk echoed. “That can’t be right.”
He exchanged a confused glance with the others, then Jaina explained, “We’ve been trying to get them to convert to hydrogen rockets, but they produce the methane themselves.”
“What are you saying?” Leia demanded. “That those weren’t
Killik dartships attacking the Shadow? Or that we’re making this up?”
The young Jedi Knights all looked uncomfortable, then Tahiri finally said, “We’re saying none of this makes sense. The Kind wouldn’t attack you, you wouldn’t lie, none of the Kind nests have hydrogen rockets-“
“And those blast craters in my hull armor didn’t get there by themselves,” Mara finished. She kept her gaze fixed on Jaina. “Do you think maybe you’re wrong about these insects?”
Jaina met her gaze squarely. “That’s just not possible.” She motioned a passing Killik over, then asked, “Our friends were attacked by a swarm of flying hydrogen rockets. Are any of the nests-“
An earnest thumping began to resonate from the Killik’s chest.
“She claims it was the Chiss, pretending to be Kind,”
C-3PO translated. “They’re trying to make the Protectors leave.”
“It wasn’t Chiss,” Mara said. “I could see the pilots. They were insects.”
The Killik drummed a reply, and C-3PO translated, “There are a lot of space-faring insects in the galaxy. The Chiss could have hired some.”
“Not very likely,” Leia said. “The Chiss are arrogant… elitist.”
“These were Killiks,” Luke agreed. “We’re not mistaken.”
A series of sharp booms reverberated from the Killik’s chest.
“She asks if there’s anything you will believe?” C-3PO translated.
“The truth,” Mara answered.
The Killik rumbled a short reply, then dropped to all sixes and started down the corridor at a trot.
“She said she doesn’t know the truth,” C-3PO said. “And she sees no reason to think of one, since you won’t believe it anyway.”
Luke turned to Jaina. “We’ve seen enough. Take us back to the hangar.”
“Not yet,” Jaina said. “You still don’t understand-“
“We understand all we need to.” Luke glanced at Mara and Saba, silently asking if the council’s representatives had reached a consensus. When they both nodded, he took a step back so he could address all of the AWOL Jedi. “The situation here is as confused as it is volatile, and your team has lost the neutrality required of Jedi Knights. The Masters ask for your return to Coruscant.”