[Legacy Of The Force] - 04(97)

“Smuggler economics,” Leia whispered.

“I’m on the Errant Venture under my own name. There’s someone else here, too. A Twi’lek by the name of Alema Itar.”

Han glanced at Leia. Her face set into hard lines.

“I think she has plans for you, and I don’t think they’re nice ones. So I’m sending you this message. I’m betting that she’ll kill me, too, when I’m of no more use to her. So I’m hoping you’ll do her first. She says she’s a Jedi, otherwise I’d try myself … but in my experience, it doesn’t pay to try to knock off a Jedi.

“And I have a favor to ask. There are rumors that there’s an important meeting planned of Confederation bigwigs. For personal reasons, I really need to get somebody there. I don’t know what your affiliations are, and I don’t care, but I don’t plan to do anything to disrupt the meeting.

“You’re one of the best-connected people in the galaxy. If you could let me know the where and when, I’d appreciate it.

“Please erase this message once you’ve reviewed it. A hunch of people would kill me if they knew I’d sent it.”

The message ended, fading to black.

“Huh,” Han said. He glanced at Leia. “What do you think?”

“Hard to tell with a low-resolution message,” Leia said. “I’d need to speak to her in person to get a real sense of whether she’s telling the truth. But her story makes sense. That would explain the presence I felt aboard Errant Venture. After our last talk with Luke, I’ve been wondering if it might have been Alema, or Lumiya.”

Han nodded. “Let’s go back to the Errant Venture.” Lando sounded hurt. “You’re not asking my opinion?” Han sighed. “Lando, should we go back to the galaxy’s largest mobile gambling and shopping enterprise?”

“What kind of stupid question is that?”





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


ZIOST


Ben dreamed of red eyes springing across the fire he had built, and the dream was so powerful, so immediate, that he woke up out of it in midkick.

His foot connected with something muscular. His blow deflected it in the air, but Ben took enough of the force of the impact that he was rolled backward, away from his blanket.

Shaker was tweetling sounds of alarm. Ben could see the droid’s lights, dim glows where the fire was dying-nothing rise. There was darkness all around. He grabbed his lightsaber from his belt and activated it, casting a soft blue glow 011 his surroundings.

Kiara was still wrapped up in her blankets, just now coming awake, her eyes wide. Two meters beyond, between her and the nearest tree, a shape struggled back to its feet and whipped around to face Ben.

It was extremely broad in the chest, with four stubby legs that ended in three-toed feet. Its neck was protected by ;t bony plate or ridge that circled it like a collar, and its head was dominated by a long jaw filled with triangular, pointed teeth. It looked a lot like holos Ben had seen of neks, but there were no cybernetic enhancements to be seen, and this example was covered in short gray fur.

The fur did not make it look like a plush toy. It crouched and roared at Ben, a roar that echoed from several directions, outside the light cast by the lightsaber.

When it roared, Kiara turned involuntarily to look. The creature glanced over, and, instead of jumping for Ben, lunged at her.

Ben jolted forward, but his reflexes were dulled by sleep and exhaustion. He could not reach her in time.

Shaker’s protruding arc-welder arm touched the nek’s side. There was a flash of light and the beast howled. It twisted, biting Shaker, taking the droid’s extended arm off with a snap of its jaws.

And then Ben reached it. With a hard downward stroke of his lightsaber, he cut through the nek’s armor and into its neck. He only sliced halfway through, but that was enough to sever the spine. The beast collapsed, leaving others out there in the dark, close. He could hear them moving, hear their little growls and yips.

They were communicating.

Ben’s initial flush of anger began to fade and he started to think.

He reached out through the Force, looking for his enemies. He found them, six in all, circling. He sensed that they were waiting for a moment’s inattentiveness on his part, waiting for the lightsaber to go out. They understood that it could only bite them when they were close to him.

He offered them the Jacen Solo you’ve-underestimated me grin. Left-handed, he drew Faskus’s blaster. Aiming through the Force, he fired.

There was a howl of pain out in the darkness, and he could both hear and detect through the Force the wounded nek bounding away.

He chose another target, not bothering even to look in that direction, and fired a second time. The result was the same: one animal wounded and fleeing.