[Dark Nest] - 3(107)
Pellaeon’s expression began to change from indignant to reluctant. “I guess I carry a little more Thrawn with me than I’d like to believe.” He sighed again, then looked out toward Tenupe, now just as heavily blanketed with dartships as it was with green clouds. “The Chiss will lose a lot of ships, you know-and this is a dangerous part of the galaxy, even without the Colony.”
“I know.” Luke did not like the idea of abandoning so many Chiss to their fates, but the alternative would have meant killing even more Killiks. “The Ascendancy may have to rely more heavily on its friends for a while-and that will be good for the Alliance.”
“Yes, I suppose it will be-provided they still consider us friends.” Pellaeon stood staring out the dome for another moment, then sighed regretfully and turned toward the lift. “Come along, Master Skywalker. Before you join the boarding parties, I’ll need a few minutes of your time in TacCon.”
TWENTY-FOUR
The strength of the living Force in the jungle overwhelmed Leia’s physical senses. Her ears hummed with its energy, her skin prickled beneath its warm pressure, even her vision had begun to cast the rain in a soft green glow. She found herself perceiving with her spirit rather than with her body, becoming a part of the jungle rather than a visitor to it.
Saba was reacting a little differently. She was creeping along the vine-swaddled mogo branches with all the stealth of a hungry rapard, barely stirring the thick foliage except when she suddenly fell on some hissing rodent or popped out of hiding to snatch a passing buzzbird.
Leia might have been bothered by the trail of death that her Master’s predatory instinct was laying behind them had she not felt like half the jungle was trying to eat her. Through the Force, she could sense everything from tiny bloodbats to packs of Ewok-sized spiders-all of them on the hunt, stalking her through the canopy, watching and waiting for an opportunity to attack.
The prevalence of predators made Leia worry about Jaina and Zekk, who had gone down in their crippled StealthXs. She could feel them somewhere out there in this same ravening jungle, badly battered, but still alive, together, and apparently holed up in a safe place. They actually seemed more worried about Leia than she was about them, and they were pouring reassurance into the Force, encouraging Leia and Saba to deal with the parasite bombs first and them second.
That was easier said than done, of course. Han was doing his best to draw the enemy out of the area by flying top cover over a different part of the jungle, but it would not be long before the Chiss realized it was a ruse. Their sensor sweeps would eventually confirm that there was no metal-and therefore no bomb-in the area Han was protecting.
The soft beeps coming from Leia’s scanner finally fused into a single long whine. She checked the display and saw that the metal signature she had been following for the last half hour was in the center of the small screen, indicating she was now on top of the source. She stopped and crouched down on the mossy mogo branch, her lightsaber in hand in case one of the predators stalking her decided to try its luck.
“Master Sebatyne,” she called. “Perhaps you could tear yourself away from your fun?”
Saba popped out of a nearby bough, her mouth ringed by half a dozen bloody feathers.
“Do not be disapproving, Jedi Solo,” she said. “This one can eat and search at the zame time. Who found Alema Rar’z StealthX?”
“You did, Master,” Leia said.
Saba had found the starfighter hidden high in a mogo tree, camouflaged as a giant curtain of beard-moss and suspended nose-down with its rear landing struts carefully hung over a thick branch. They assumed that the Twi’lek was doing the same thing they were-trying to destroy the parasite bombs before the Chiss arrived to recover them-but it was not a task that either Master or student wished to entrust to someone else, especially not a Dark Nest Joiner.
“Have you checked your scanner recently?” Leia asked.
“Of course.” Saba sneaked a look toward her utility belt, and her dorsal crest rose in surprise. She grinned sheepishly, then said, “This one was merely giving her student a chance to find the bombs first.”
Allowing Leia no chance to challenge the statement, Saba leaned out of her hiding place and peered down into the jungle-then sissed in frustration. Leia clipped the scanner to her utility belt, then grabbed hold of an offshoot and leaned away from her own branch until she could see what Saba had found.
The defoliator’s wing lay about twenty meters below, bent backward over a mogo branch. Both weapon mountings were empty, and the bombs were nowhere in sight.
“Bloah!” Leia yelled.