[Legacy Of The Force] - 07(38)

Meanwhile, the war raged on. With the Hapans back in play, the Alliance no longer had to worry about staging a fighting retreat. The balance of power was now once again slightly in the Alliance’s favor. Caedus personally led new fleet operations at Kuat and on the outskirts of the CorelHan system, commanding elements of the Fifth and Second fleets, respectively, and his Sith battle meditation ability helped his forces inflict heavy losses in both theaters of operation.

Commenor retaliated for the asteroid bombardment, and in savage fashion. The first sign of it was a statistical spike in the number of head colds among humans who had recently passed through Galactic City Spaceport-civilians and military personnel alike. Within days those head colds developed into raging fevers and dangerous dehydration, and the infection spread like Kashyyyk’s forest fires through the ranks of the armed forces and lower social classes. Left untreated, the illness could kill. It was affliceria, caused by an airborne bacterium, the cure for which had been discovered a century before, with the illness pronounced extinct not long after.

There were no stores of affliceria-specific antibiotics; there had been none needed in a hundred years. Quantities were cultured and rapidly distributed … to the military. There was not enough to protect the civilian population, and, by the third week of the outbreak, when the first doses began to filter into the civilian distribution network, the illness had reached epidemic proportions, causing massive personnel shortages in critical fabrication industries.

Spies captured and interrogated by the Guard confessed to being Commenori-and to spreading the bacteria. The Alliance-controlled portions of the HoloNet howled with outrage. Civilian space traffic was severely curtailed as quarantine measures were put into effect.

The war raged on.

There were other annoyances. Caedus’s subordinates reported that Dr. Seyah, failed spy of Centerpoint Station, had disappeared minutes before they moved in to arrest him. In subsequent days, no sign of him turned up, suggesting strongly that Caedus had been right to suspect him-he was obviously a double agent and had been rushed to safety by his Corellian masters.

Allana was responding with less and less enthusiasm to her time with Caedus. He had to keep his frustration in check and wait for her to get over missing her mother. Perhaps it was time to work on her a bit, to diminish her affection for Tenel Ka by judiciously erasing some of her memories here and there. Some faint misgivings stayed his hand for the time being, but if the situation continued worsening, he would take that step.

And the war raged on.



KASHYYYK, MAITELL BASE, HANGAR HOUSING THE MILLENNIUM FALCON

Han eased the Falcon off the duracrete roadway and into the shadow of her usual hangar. The ship, he knew, was covered in soot from the firefighting mission they had just concluded-no firebreak mission, this time they had gone in to rescue a unit of Wookiee firefighters who had been cut off by fire moving more rapidly than expected. He was sure the freighter was covered in soot because Leia, in the copilot’s seat, certainly was, from head to foot, except for a goggle-shaped patch of pink around her eyes and a breather-mask-shaped oval around her mouth. The Wookiees she had brought aboard were similarly discolored by, and stank of, smoke.

As soon as the Falcon entered the hangar and Han’s eyes adjusted to the deep shadow there, he and Leia spotted a new visitor. Parked in the bay next to the Falcon’s was a long yacht with curved lines and a swirling sky-blue-and-green hull. Its exterior, too, was marred with patches of soot and burn, evidence of its own recent contribution to the firefighting mission.

Han winced. “Do you suppose, when Lando’s back is turned, we could get some Wookiee teenagers to vandalize her? Put graffiti all over her hull?”

Leia’s tone was more thoughtful. “I thought Lando was stationed halfway across Kashyyyk.”

“He was.”

Lando was nowhere in sight. Han and Leia had set the Falcon down, ushered the Wookiee firefighters off, and called in for routine refueling before Lando made his appearance. The boarding ramp of the Love Commander came down and he stood at its top, clad in purple synthsilk and a flowing velvet hip cloak in black.

But it wasn’t the same old Lando. His face was fixed, nearly emotionless, his complexion waxy.

Leia didn’t wait for him to descend. She started up the ramp toward him. “Lando, what’s wrong?”

“I have to go.” Lando managed two faltering steps down the ramp before Leia reached him. She held him there, steadied him on his feet, then turned and assisted him down the ramp.

Han tried to keep his own voice steady, unperturbed, but Lando’s appearance set off alarm bells in his head. “What’s going on, old buddy?”