Chapter 10
“As you can see,” Wedge said, his voice grimly conversational as he crunched through plastic and ceramic underfoot, “the place is something of a mess.”
“That’s for sure,” Leia agreed, feeling a little sick as she looked around at the flat-bottomed, rubble-strewn crater. A handful of other Republic representatives from her party were wandering around the area, too, holding quiet conversations with their Bpfasshi escorts and occasionally pausing to pick through the pieces of what had once been a major power plant. “How many people died in the attack?” she asked, not at all sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“In this system, a few hundred,” Wedge told her, consulting a data pad. “Not too bad, really.”
“No.” Involuntarily, Leia glanced up at the deep blue-green sky above them. Not bad, indeed. Especially considering that there had been no fewer than four Star Destroyers raining destruction down on them. “A lot of damage, though.”
“Yeah,” Wedge nodded. “But not nearly as much as there could have been.”
“I wonder why,” Han muttered.
“So does everyone else,” Wedge agreed. “It’s been the second most popular question around here these days.”
“What’s the first?” Leia asked.
“Let me guess,” Han put in before Wedge could answer. “The first is, why did they bother pounding on Bpfassh in the first place.”
“You got it,” Wedge nodded again. “It’s not like they didn’t have any better targets to choose from. You’ve got the Sluis Van shipyards about thirty light-years away, for starters-a hundred ships there at any given time, not to mention the docking facilities themselves. Then there’s the Praesitlyn communications station at just under sixty, and four or five major trade centers within a hundred. An extra day of travel each way, tops, at Star Destroyer cruising speeds. So why Bpfassh?”
Leia thought it over. It was a good question. “Sluis Van itself is pretty heavily defended,” she pointed out. “Between our Star Cruisers and the Sluissi’s own permanent battle stations, any Imperial leader with a gram of sense would think twice before tackling it. And those other systems are all a lot deeper into New Republic space than Bpfassh. Maybe they didn’t want to push their luck that far.”
“While they tested their new transmission system under combat conditions?” Han suggested darkly.
“We don’t know that they’ve got a new system,” Wedge cautioned him. “Coordinated simultaneous attacks have been done before.”
“No.” Han shook his head, looking around. “No, they’ve got something new. Some kind of booster that lets them punch subspace transmissions through deflector shields and battle debris.”
“I don’t think it’s a booster,” Leia said, a shiver running up her back. Something was starting to tingle, way back at the edge of her mind. “No one in any of the three systems picked up any transmissions.”
Han frowned down at her. “You okay?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” she murmured, shivering again. “I was just remembering that when-well, when Darth Vader was having us tortured on Bespin, Luke knew it was happening from wherever he was at the time. And there were rumors that the Emperor and Vader could do that, too.”
“Yeah, but they’re both dead,” Han reminded her. “Luke said so.”
“I know,” she said. The tingling at the edge of her mind was getting stronger … “But what if the Imperials have found another Dark Jedi?”
Wedge had gotten ahead of them, but now he turned back. “You talking about C’baoth?”
“What?” Leia frowned.
“Joruus C’baoth,” Wedge said. “I thought I heard you mention Jedi.”
“I did,” Leia said. “Who’s Joruus C’baoth?”
“He was one of the major Jedi Masters back in pre-Empire days,” Wedge said. “Supposed to have disappeared before the Clone Wars started. I heard a rumor a couple of days ago that he’s surfaced again and set up shop on some minor world named Jomark.”
“Right.” Han snorted. “And he was just sitting around doing nothing during the Rebellion?”
Wedge shrugged. “I just report ‘em, General. I don’t make ‘em up.”
“We can ask Luke,” Leia said. “Maybe he knows something. Are we ready to move on?”
“Sure,” Wedge said. “The airspeeders are over this way-“
And in a sudden rush of sensation, the tingling in Leia’s mind abruptly exploded into certain knowledge. “Han, Wedge-duck!”