He gestured, and for the first time Leia noticed the homes built directly into the tree beside them. Some of them were multistoried and quite elaborate; all of them seemed to open up directly onto empty space. “Chewbacca understands my preferences,” she told Ralrra, suppressing a shiver. “I was wondering why the liftcar went this far down past the village proper.”
[The liftcarr is used mainly forr cargo transportation orr the ill,] Ralrra said. [Most Wookiees preferr to climb the trees naturally.]
He held out a hand to her, palm up; and as the muscles under the skin and fur flexed, a set of wickedly curved claws slid into sight from hidden fingertip sheaths.
Leia swallowed hard. “I didn’t realize Wookiees had claws like those,” she said. “Though I suppose I should have. You are arboreal, after all.”
[To live among trees without them would be impossible,] Ralrra agreed. The claws retracted again, and the Wookiee waved the hand upward. [Even vine travel would be difficult without them.]
“Vines?” Leia echoed, frowning up through the liftcar’s transparent roof. She hadn’t noticed any vines on the trees earlier, and didn’t really see any now. Her eyes fell on the cable running from the liftcar up into the leaves and branches above …
The dark green cable.
“That cable?” she asked carefully, nodding toward it. “That’s a vine?”
[It a kshyy vine is,] he assured her. [Do not worry about its strength. It is strongerr than composite cable material, and cannot even by blasterrs be cut. Too, it is self-repairing.]
“I see,” Leia said, staring at the vine and fighting hard against the sudden sense of panic. She’d flown all around the galaxy in hundreds of different types of airspeeders and spaceships without the slightest twinge of acrophobia, but this hanging out on the edge of nowhere without a solid powered cockpit around her was something else entirely. The warm sense of security she’d been feeling at being on Kashyyyk was starting to evaporate. “Have the vines ever broken?” she asked, trying to sound casual.
[In the past, it sometimes happened,] Ralrra said. [Various parasites and fungi, if unchecked, can erode them. Now, we employ safeguards which ourr ancestorrs did not have. Liftcarrs such as this one contain emergency repulsorlift systems.]
“Ah,” Leia said, the momentary discomfort easing as she once again found herself feeling like a raw and not very bright diplomatic beginner. It was easy to forget that, despite their somewhat quaint-looking arboreal villages and their own animalistic appearance, Wookiees generally were quite at home with high technology.
The liftcar rose above the level of the village floor. Chewbacca and Salporin were standing there waiting for them, the former fingering his bowcaster and giving the little twitches that Leia had learned to associate with impatience. Ralrra brought them to a stop at the level of the wide exit ramp and opened the door, Salporin stepping forward as he did so to offer Leia his hand in assistance.
[We have made arrangements forr you and Chewbacca to stay at Salporin’s home,] Ralrra said as they stepped out onto relatively solid ground again. [It is not farr. Therre arre transports available, if you wish.]
Leia looked out across the nearest parts of the village. She wanted very much to walk, to get out among the people and start getting the feel of the place. But after all the effort they’d put into sneaking her onto Kashyyyk in the first place, parading herself in front of the whole population would probably not be the smartest thing to do. “A transport would probably be best,” she told Ralrra.
Chewbacca growled something as they came up to him. [She wished to see the village’s structurre,] Ralrra told him. [We arre now ready to go.]
Chewbacca gave another growl of displeasure, but returned his bowcaster to his shoulder and strode off without further comment toward a repulsor sled parked at the side of the road perhaps twenty meters away. Ralrra and Leia followed, with Salporin bringing up the rear. The houses and other buildings began right at the edge of the matted branches, Leia had already noted, without anything more substantial than a few twisted kshyy vines between them and empty space. Ralrra had implied that the homes clinging to the trees themselves were the more prestigious ones; perhaps those here at the edge belonged to the upper middle class. Idly, she looked at the nearest of them, glancing into the windows as they passed. A face moved into view in the shadows behind one of them, catching her eye-
“Chewie!” she gasped. Even as her hand darted for her blaster the face vanished. But there was no mistaking those bulging eyes and protruding jaw and steel-gray skin.
Chewbacca was at her side in an instant, bowcaster in hand. “One of those creatures who attacked us on Bimmisaari is in there,” she told him, reaching out with all the Jedi sense she could muster. Nothing. “At that window,” she added, pointing with her blaster. “He was right there.”