“My lord has no right to bring such accusations against a son of the clan Kihm’bar,” the maitrakh spoke up stiffly.
The Grand Admiral shifted his gaze slightly. “You would be well advised to keep your counsel to yourself, maitrakh. This particular son of the clan Kihm’bar has lied to me, and I do not take such matters lightly.” The glowing gaze shifted back. “Tell me, Khabarakh clan Kihm’bar, about your imprisonment on Kashyyyk.”
Leia squeezed her lightsaber hard, the cool metal ridges of the grip biting into the palm of her hand. It had been during Khabarakh’s brief imprisonment on Kashyyyk that he’d been persuaded to bring her here to Honoghr. If Khabarakh blurted out the whole story-
“I do not understand,” Khabarakh said.
“Really?” the Grand Admiral countered. “Then allow me to refresh your memory. You didn’t escape from Kashyyyk as you stated in your report and repeated last night in my presence and in the presence of your family and your clan dynast. You were, in fact, captured by the Wookiees after the failure of your mission. And you spent that missing month not meditating, but undergoing interrogation in a Wookiee prison. Does that help your memory any?”
Leia took a careful breath, not daring to believe what she was hearing. However it was the Grand Admiral had learned about Khabarakh’s capture, he’d taken that fact and run in exactly the wrong direction with it. They’d been given a second chance : if Khabarakh could, hold on to his wits and poise a little longer.
Perhaps the maitrakh didn’t trust his stamina, either. “My thirdson would not lie about such matters, my lord,” she said before Khabarakh could reply. “He has always understood the duties and requirements of honor.”
“Has he, now,” the Grand Admiral shot back. “A Noghri commando, captured by the enemy for interrogation-and still alive? Is this the duty and requirement of honor?”
“I was not captured, my lord,” Khabarakh said stiffly. “My escape from Kashyyyk was as I said it.”
For a half dozen heartbeats the Grand Admiral gazed in his direction in silence. “And I say that you lie, Khabarakh clan Kihm’bar,” he said softly. “But no matter. With or without your cooperation I will have the truth about your missing month : and whatever the price was you paid for your freedom. Rukh?”
“My lord,” the third Noghri voice said.
“Khabarakh clan Kihm’bar is hereby placed under Imperial arrest. You and Squad Two will escort him aboard the troop shuttle and take him back to the Chimaera for interrogation.”
There was a sharp hiss. “My lord, this is a violation-“
“You will be silent, maitrakh,” the Grand Admiral cut her off. “Or you will share in his imprisonment.”
“I will not be silent,” the maitrakh snarled. “A Noghri accused of treason to the overclan must be given over to the clan dynasts for the ancient rules of discovery and judgment. It is the law.”
“I am not bound by Noghri law,” the Grand Admiral said coldly. “Khabarakh has been a traitor to the Empire. By Imperial rules will he be judged and condemned.”
“The clan dynasts will demand-“
“The clan dynasts are in no position to demand anything,” the Grand Admiral barked, touching the comlink cylinder pocketed beside his tunic insignia. “Do you require a reminder of what it means to defy the Empire?”
Leia heard the faint sound of the maitrakh’s sigh. “No, my lord,” she said, her voice conceding defeat.
The Grand Admiral studied her. “You shall have one anyway.
He touched his comlink again—
And abruptly the interior of the dukha flashed with a blinding burst of green light.
Leia jerked her head back into Chewbacca’s legs, squeezing her eyelids shut against the sudden searing pain ripping through her eyes and face. For a single, horrifying second she thought that the dukha had taken a direct hit, a turbolaser blast powerful enough to bring the whole structure down in flaming ruin around them. But the afterimage burned into her retina showed the Grand Admiral still standing proud and unmoved; and belatedly she understood.
She was trying desperately to reverse her sensory enhancement when the thunderclap slammed like the slap of an angry Wookiee into the side of her head.
She would later have a vague recollection of several more turbolaser blasts, seen and heard only dimly through the thick gray haze that clouded over her mind, as the orbiting Star Destroyer fired again and again into the hills surrounding the village. By the time her throbbing head finally dragged her back to full consciousness the Grand Admiral’s reminder was over, the final thunderclap roiling away into the distance.