[Legacy Of The Force] - 04(86)

They had to have recorded this shortly before he started this mission.

“Hi, Mom,” he said. “Hi, Dad. For my fourteenth birthday, I killed a little girl.”

He sat down, his lower back resting against the astromech. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his knees.

And he began to cry.



Kiara stabbed at the ground with the knife. It was an eating utensil, not a vibroblade, and when it hit the ground, it made a ringing noise. Sometimes it scraped away a little of the ice-hard soil. Sometimes it didn’t. After more than an hour of digging, punctuated by fits of sobbing, she had dug J hole a little larger than her hand.

Rut she’d keep digging. Her father was dead, and she had to put him in the ground so the animals wouldn’t come and eat him.

Through the snowfall, she could see that there were booted feet in front of her. She looked up into the face of Ben Skywalker. The waddling astromech was entering the clearing from the far edge.

Ben didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then he took a look around. “I think,” he said, “we need to wrap him in one of the blankets, then pile rocks on top of him. That will keep the animals away.”

“They won’t eat him?”

“They won’t eat him. I’ll wrap him up and find tile rocks. You put the other blanket around you and go sit with Shaker.”

Kiara did as she was told. Her tears didn’t stop flowing, but now she knew her father would be safe under the rocks.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN


CORUSCANT


The weeks after the military disaster at Corellia did not argue for a quick resolution to the conflict.

Fondor, a world well known for its orbital shipyards-a world whose economy had been chafing under Galactic Alliance military production restrictions-announced its resignation from the Alliance and signed articles of friendship with Corellia and her allies. It was just one more world, increasing the size of the Confederation-no longer being referred to as the Corellian Confederation, at the indignant insistence of Bothawui and Commenor-from three systems to four. But of those four systems, two, Corellia and Fondor, possessed ship construction yards that were critical to Alliance military development. Fondor’s loss lit up the holonews services. Soon after, Bespin, with its crucial production facilities for Tibanna gas, and Adumar, with its ammunitions industry, also joined the Confederation.

And other worlds were wavering. The worlds of Hutt it space made no secret of their preference for the Confederation-or of their willingness to remain staunch, warm friends of the Alliance, so long as they received special trade and aid privileges that would pour wealth into their accounts. Several planets of the Imperial Remnant, long uncomfortable with being part of the Alliance, suggested that they favored the Confederation, but the Moff Council continued to abide by its treaties with the Alliance. Grand Admiral Pellaeon, recently retired and returned to the world of Bastion, participating in the ongoing process of rebuilding and repopulating the Imperial throneworld, spoke openly and often of the Empire’s need to remain associated with the Alliance.

During these weeks there were only sporadic clashes between the Alliance and the Confederation. Admiral Limpan’s task force at Corellia made frequent raids against the Corellian shipyards, the still-intact Centerpoint Station, and industrial facilities on the other worlds allied with Corellia, though these were largely inconclusive. The Confederation forces in the Bothawui system succeeded, with minimal effort, in driving Alliance observation vehicles into retreat.

Neither side pressed an assault. The Confederation worlds sat back, tightened their defenses, sent diplomats with offers of friendship to scores of systems, and cranked up their ship production to epic levels. The Alliance brought military forces back from distant stations and patrols, gathered information, and enhanced security. Mostly the war was fought in the news feeds, with analysts predicting where the next major action would be fought, who would start it, and how it would end.

Admiral Matric Klauskin, recently vanished from a hospital on Coruscant, turned up on his homeworld of Commenor. His handlers transmitted to Coruscant the resignation of his commission with the Galactic Alliance military. At a dinner on Commenor, he was recognized as a hero of his planet and was ceremoniously retired. He was not observed to speak much during the celebration, and close observers described him as unresponsive and glassy-eyed.

GALACTIC ALLIANCE

MILITARY HEADQUARTERS, SENIOR OFFICERS’ BRIEFING ROOM

“The so-called Chasin Document,” said General Tycho Celchu, “is authentic.” A tall, elegantly handsome man with blond hair frosting to white, he radiated confidence and competence.