Baltke considered all this for a moment, then said, “It does sound plausible.” He stood, shaking his head and turning to the display screen. “But I can see we’re going to have to cut something else off your husband.”
“What?”
The display screen showed a Chiss medic bandaging Han’s ear-and, by the looks of it, enduring the cussing-out of his life.
“Your story doesn’t hold together,” Baltke told Leia.
“Attacking one of our command centers contributes nothing to this plan.”
“That’s because the Jedi don’t see the Chiss as an enemy,” Leia said. “Luke never wanted to cause the Ascendancy harmonly to make a point.”
“Is that so?” Baltke asked. “I’m afraid we fail to see it.”
The lights flickered as the vessel began to fire its heavy weapons. Leia checked the display screen again, wondering why Han was still there. The Noghri should have had him free by now.
She turned her attention back to Baltke. “The point was to show that the Killiks are capable of infiltrating even your most secure facilities. The Alliance learned that the hard way with the Ackbar. The Killiks stole it right out from under the nose of our best fleet admiral.”
“Bwua’tu might be your best,” Baltke said. “But I can assure you that no Chiss admiral would make such a mistake-if, indeed, it was a mistake.”
“I don’t think you’re very sure of that,” Leia said. In the display screen, the medic stepped away and made some sort of joke that caused Han’s tormenter to laugh. “If you were, you wouldn’t have been so curious when I described the Falcon’s mission.”
“Merely being prudent,” Baltke countered. “An abundance of caution is never wasted.”
“If you really believe in caution, then you’ll think about what I’m telling you,” Leia said. “Killiks can sneak into anyplace. They’re insects. All they have to do is lay eggs in a few wounded soldiers and let you take them home aboard a medical frigate, and a whole base will be infiltrated. Or they could stow away in a returning supply freighter and then infest an entire planet. Before you know it, your whole society will be swarming with Killiks-and I don’t have to tell you what that means. You’ll become an empire of Joiners.”
“And the Jedi think we would be better off letting the Colony mass nests on our border until they are ready to attack?”
“We think the Chiss would be better off ending the war our way,” Leia said. “You’ll never win the war your way. It’s not possible to wipe out the Killiks. They were building nest cities on Alderaan twenty thousand years before the Chiss empire was born, and they’ll be building nest cities on your frontier twenty thousand centuries after it’s gone.”
A confident smirk flashed across Baltke’s face, and Leia felt something disturbing in the Force-something cold and menacing and final. Deciding to give up on the Noghri, Leia reached out to Saba, concentrating on the bloody image of Han in the display screen, allowing her alarm to flood her thoughts.
Saba’s emotions were oddly reassuring-at least for a Barabel-and Leia received the distinct impression that Han was safe. Unfortunately, Leia was not assured.
Baltke cocked his head again and briefly turned toward the hidden vidcam, then faced Leia. “I’ll pass your warning on to my superiors.” He started toward the door. “But now I’m afraid I must be off to my duty station. We’ll be expecting casualties soon.”
“You’re a medic?” Leia could not conceal her surprise.
“A battle surgeon, to be precise.” Baltke removed his eye patch, revealing a perfectly sound organ underneath, and started toward the door. “Interrogations are a secondary duty.”
“Wait!” Leia commanded.
Baltke stopped-clearly in spite of himself. He glared at her angrily.
“When I told you the Killiks would outlast the Ascendancy, you smirked,” Leia said. “Tell me why.”
“What are you doing? Using a Jedi mind trick?” Baltke demanded. “It will be your fault if I have to hurt Captain Solo again.”
Leia glanced at the display screen and saw that the medic was still standing next to Han, laughing with the torturer. Something did not make sense. Saba had clearly meant to reassure her about Han, and yet Leia could see that he had not yet been rescued-in fact, that he did not even look close to being rescued.
The remaining guard started to step forward behind Leia. She grabbed him in the Force, then hurled him into the corner with the vidcam. He hit headfirst with a loud thunk, then dropped to the floor and did not move.