Enemy Lines II_ Rebel Stand - Aaron Allston [26]
“Well, it’s not as simple as that.” Tam shrugged, surprised that he wasn’t annoyed by the boy’s prying. “What they did to me makes my head hurt when I refuse. My head hurts, my blood pressure goes as high as if my body were a compression chamber. That can give me really bad nosebleeds. But the pain is the more dangerous part.”
“That’s why you have to wear the stupid helmet?”
“That’s why I have to wear the stupid helmet.” Tam extended his hand. “I’m Tam.”
The boy took it. “I’m Tarc. It’s not my real name. That’s just what everybody calls me. Nobody calls me Dab anymore.”
“What are you in here for, Tarc?”
“You know the other day, when the scarheads made their big attack, and Lusankya bombarded their guts out?”
“I know about it. I fell unconscious just as it was starting.”
“Well, they got close enough to shoot at the main building, and some plasma stuff burned through the shields and the wall where I was, and some of it splashed on me. My leg got burned.” Tarc whipped his sheet off, displaying the bandage on his right calf. “But I get out today.” His tone suggested that he was making a break from prison rather than leaving a hospital.
“I get out—well, I guess I can leave whenever I want.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“No place to go, I guess. No one trusts me. Anyone who does, shouldn’t.” Tam leaned back, grimacing at the painful reality of those words.
“But you fought back! You won. That’s what everyone says.”
“I should have fought back from the start. I should have let it kill me before I did anything bad.”
Tarc looked at him, wide-eyed, and then his expression turned to one of scorn. “Does everybody just get stupid when they grow up?”
“What?”
“You heard me. That’s a stupid thing to say.”
“Tarc, listen. I’m just some guy who was of no use to anybody, and then the Yuuzhan Vong grabbed me, chewed me up, and spat me out in one of their plots.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Tam gave him a closer look. “Huh?”
“Me, too. The Yuuzhan Vong grabbed me, chewed me up, and spat me out, just like you said.” Tarc leaned back, his weary posture an imitation of Tam’s. “I look just like Anakin Solo. You know, Han Solo’s son. The dead one. On Coruscant, this lady spy for the Yuuzhan Vong made me go with her to the Solos so they’d be weird and distracted, so she could kidnap Ben Skywalker. Then I guess I was supposed to die, but the Solos brought me here, even though it hurts their feelings to look at me.” He looked away and his face became very still. “I don’t know where my real family is. Maybe still on Coruscant.” He didn’t have to add, Maybe dead.
“There aren’t a lot of kids here. Not a lot of civilians of any sort. What do you do when you’re not recovering from burn wounds?”
Tarc grinned. “I stay with Han and Leia Solo. ’Cept they’re gone a lot, like now. So I explore.” He lost his smile; his expression became melancholy. “And I have to study.”
“Not even having a world knocked out from under your feet can change some things, Tarc. How would you like to learn to be a holocam operator?”
“What’s that?”
“Well, anytime you see a holocast, the image is being recorded by a holocam. The holocam is worked by a holocam operator. That’s what I do.”
“That’s … interesting.” Tarc sounded dubious.
“Give it a try. I need to find Wolam Tser and see if he needs my services. Want to come along?”
Tarc’s eyes got bigger. “You know Wolam Tser? My parents used to watch him.”
Tam mocked his tone. “You know Han and Leia Solo? Sure, kid. I’m Wolam’s holocam operator.”
“I’ll come along.”
“Good.” Tam leaned back and shrugged to himself. Well, at least it would give him something to do.
Yuuzhan Vong Worldship, Coruscant Orbit
The shaper, Ghithra Dal, looked upon Tsavong Lah’s arm and hesitated.
The warmaster knew the news would be unfavorable. He could feel the increased activity of the carrion-eaters