“Yes,” Leia nodded. “Where are you going?”
The maitrakh paused at the door, her dark eyes locking onto Leia’s. “You speak truth, Lady Vader: they must listen. I will be back.”
The maitrakh returned twenty minutes later, five minutes ahead of Chewbacca. The Wookiee had collected a double handful of the kholm-grass from widely scattered sites and retrieved the analysis unit from its hiding place in the decon droid shed. Leia got the unit started on a pair of the ugly brown plants and they set off for Nystao.
But not alone. To Leia’s surprise, a young Noghri female was already seated at the driver’s seat of the open topped landspeeder the maitrakh had obtained for them; and as they drove through the village at a brisk walking pace a dozen more Noghri joined them, striding along on both sides of the landspeeder like an honor guard. The maitrakh herself walked next to the vehicle, her face unreadable in the dim reflected light from the instrument panel. Sitting in the back seat next to the analysis unit, Chewbacca fingered his bowcaster and rumbled distrustingly deep in his throat. Behind him, wedged into the luggage compartment at the rear of the vehicle, Threepio was uncharacteristically quiet.
They passed through the village into the surrounding cropland, running without lights, the small group of Noghri around them virtually invisible in the cloudshrouded starlight. The party reached another village, barely distinguishable from the cropland now that its own lights were darkened for the night, and passed through without incident. More cropland; another village; more cropland. Occasionally Leia caught glimpses of the lights of Nystao far’ ahead, and she wondered uneasily whether confronting the dynasts directly was really the wisest course of action at this point. They ruled with the assistance or at least the tacit consent of the Empire, and to accuse them of collaboration with a lie would not sit well with such a proud and honor-driven people.
And then, in the northeast sky, the larger of Honoghr’s three moons broke through a thick cloud bank : and with a shock Leia saw that she and her original escort were no longer alone. All around them was an immense sea of shadowy figures, flowing like a silent tide along the landspeeder’s path.
Behind her, Chewbacca growled surprise of his own. With his hunter’s senses he had already been aware that the size of their party was increasing with each village they passed, through. But even he hadn’t grasped the full extent of the recruitment, and wasn’t at all certain he liked it.
But Leia found some of the tightness in her chest easing as she settled back against the landspeeder’s cushions. Whatever happened in Nystao now, the sheer size of the assemblage would make it impossible for the dynasts to simply arrest her and cover up the fact that she’d ever been there.
The maitrakh had guaranteed her a chance to speak. The rest would be up to her.
They reached the edge of Nystao just before sunrise : to find another crowd of Noghri waiting for them.
“Word has arrived ahead of us,” the maitrakh told Leia as the land speeder and its escort moved toward them. “They have come to see the daughter of the Lord Vader and to hear her message.”
Leia looked at the crowd. “And what is the message you’ve told them to expect?”
“That the debt of honor to the Empire has been paid in full,” the maitrakh said. “That you have come to offer a new life for the Noghri people.”
Her dark eyes bored into Leia’s face in unspoken question. Leia looked in turn over her shoulder at Chewbacca, and raised her eyebrows. The Wookiee rumbled an affirmative and tilted the analysis unit up to show her the display.
Sometime during their midnight journey the unit had finally finished its work:and as she read the analysis, Leia felt a fresh stirring of her earlier anger toward the Empire at what they’d done to these people. “Yes,” she told the maitrakh. “I can indeed prove that the debt has been paid.”
Nearer now to the waiting crowd, she could see in the dusky light that most of the Noghri were females. The relative handful of males she could spot were either the very light gray skin tone of children and young adolescents or the much darker gray of the elderly. But directly in line with the landspeeder’s path were a group of about ten males with the steely-gray color of young adults. “I see the dynasts have heard the word, too,” she said.
“That is our official escort,” the maitrakh said. “they will accompany us to the Grand Dukha, where the dynasts await you.”
The official escort-or guards, or soldiers; Lela wasn’t quite sure how to think of them-remained silent as they walked in arrowhead formation in front of the landspeeder. The rest of the crowd was alive with whispered conversation, most of it between the city dwellers and the villagers. What they were saying Leia didn’t know; but wherever her eyes turned the Noghri fell silent and gazed back in obvious fascination.