[Legacy Of The Force] - 07(110)

Caedus regarded her. “Who allowed the shuttle to land?”

“I did, sir. It broadcast all correct identification and passwords.”

“It was full of assassins, saboteurs, and criminals, and yet you allowed it to land.”

She fidgeted under his gaze. “Yes, sir. I was following security protocols.”

“Do the protocols say for you to allow assassins, saboteurs, and criminals aboard?”

“No, sir.”

“Then you were not following security protocols. You did not follow security protocols, and because of it many people have died, and I could not coordinate our attack on Centerpoint Station, and this mission is a failure. Correct?”

Her next words were quiet and halting, as though she were giving directions in a language she did not speak very well. “Sir, anyone in my position would have done exactly the same. This is what the protocols are for. To define responses and procedures. I believe my actions were correct, under the known circumstances…”

Caedus gestured, raising a hand, and under his exertion of power Tebut floated up in the air, putting her slightly above his level. Her eyes grew wide. “Sir …”

Caedus closed his hand into a fist. Now no more words came from her, just pained gasps. She grasped with increasing desperation at a choking hand that just was not there. He continued, his voice still level, controlled. “Lieutenant, we can’t have that. Gross incompetence. Gross insubordination. The deliberate contravention of orders and top-level plans. Nor can we let it go unpunished. Can we?” Captain Nevil approached. “Sir, this is not the time or the way…”

Not looking at the Quarren, Caedus gestured with his free hand and Nevil was suddenly flying backward, skidding across the raised walkway, fetching up against the blast doors through which the Skywalkers had so recently left.

Amazingly, Tebut was still trying to talk. “Sir. … can’t… loyal …”

“Loyal?” The word exploded out of Caedus, raising his voice a screechy octave. “How dare you use that word? You may not say that word ever again. Loyal officers do not betray their command, their comrades, their oaths!” His outrage turned everything he saw a reddish hue, even Tebut’s face.

And there was only one way to restore everything to its proper color. He tightened his grip.

The sound of Tebut’s neck breaking was startlingly loud over the hum of the bridge’s monitors and computer gear. Caedus dashed his hand down. Tebut’s body slammed to the deck plates below her. More bones snapped. She lay behind her security station, bent at an odd sideways angle at the waist, her eyes fixed open, staring at the ceiling.

Caedus breathed out all his rage. Colors returned to vibrant normalcy.

He turned and walked toward the stern. As he passed Nevil, still lying where Caedus had thrown him, he said, “I’ll be in my quarters.”

Nevil stared at him with-what? Fear? Anger? Obsequious acceptance? Caedus couldn’t tell. The fishy folk were so hard to read, Mon Cals and Quarren alike. He didn’t like them anymore.





Chapter 38


REFUELING STATION, GYNDINE SYSTEM

The Rakehells, the Broadside, and the Millennium Falcon put in at an abandoned repair and refueling satellite. It orbited the world of Gyndine, burned and ruined by the Yuuzhan Vong during the war named for them. Owned by Tendrando-the corporation headed by Lando Calrissian and his wife, Tendra Risant-it had been decommissioned and shut down, but Han and Leia still carried the codes that would open its air locks, reactivate its life-support systems.

There they swapped personnel around, putting everyone bound for Endor on the Broadside, giving the X-wing pilots a brief respite.

In the Millennium Falcon’s main hold, which had mostly served as a crew lounge for most of the years Han had owned the freighter, Leia and Han sat Allana down on a sofa and bent to face her more at eye level.

“We’re going to take you back to Hapes now, “Leia said. Seeing Allana up close for so long, it was hard for her to concentrate. The little girl was so familiar, staring up at her with eyes Leia knew so well.

The realization of where she knew Allana from was like rising from a pool after too long underwater. Suddenly Leia could breathe again, could think again. Allana had Tenel Ka’s coloration-the fair skin, red hair, gray eyes-but her face, her expressions, her lively intelligence, were so like his when he was a child, before Yuuzhan Vong and voxyn and Vergere and who-knows-what twisted all the happiness out of his life. Leia found she could not speak.

But Allana wiggled, happy. “You’re Leia Organa Solo.”

Leia nodded, mute.

“You’re Jacen’s mommy.”