Star Wars_ Children of the Jedi - Barbara Hambly [102]
It seemed like a thousand years ago. Returning last night to find a soaked and exhausted Han patching Chewie’s cuts had driven from her mind the web of speculation fed by the records themselves, and after Mara’s subspace call, her mind had been on other things.
“Not … what I was looking for,” said Leia slowly. “No mention of the Jedi, or of Plett himself, though it’s obvious they were behind the different kinds of plants growing here and that they set up the archiving programs—the Municipal Records time-shares off the Brathflen/Galactic/Imperial Fruits computer, but all the archiving programs look like they were originally designed for some kind of four-sixty model, which puts it back to the date the Jedi were here. Naturally, nobody knows where that original computer went to but my guess is it got sold for chips and wire to Nubblyk when the new one was put in.”
“Good guess,” muttered Han. “Not what I want to hear, but a good guess. Any record of what happened to Nubblyk?”
She shook her head. “He just disappeared one night about seven years ago. His nightclub was taken over by his ‘associate’ Bran Kemple, who also took over his import and export business on Pandowirtin Lane. Slyte’s on the record as having bailed out Drub McKumb twice from charges of running stuff in through the Corridor. Kemple never bailed out McKumb at all. After Kemple took over, McKumb is listed as having been bailed out once by Mubbin the Whiphid—this was right after Slyte disappeared—though at no time is McKumb ever listed as having legally landed a ship at the port. Now the interesting thing is …”
Chewbacca appeared in the doorway with an interrogatory growl, and gestured out into the front room, where a signal was coming in on the subspace.
The code was for Leia, and the image was scrambled.
Leia punched in the unscrambler sequence, and the dazzling buzz of green, brown, and white pixels resolved itself suddenly into the image of Admiral Ackbar.
“This may not mean anything, Princess,” said the Calamarian in his soft, rather sibilant voice. “Still, I thought you ought to know about it. I’ve received reports from operatives in the Senex Sector and the adjoining portions of the Juvex Sector. They say that the heads of six or seven of the old Houses—the ones who’ve been lying low, staying out of the border fighting and not committing to the warlords of the Empire—have all gone ‘on vacation’ … without taking their families or their mistresses.”
“Oh, yeah?” Han raised his brows. “Now, that’s serious.”
The admiral folded his squamous hands, a ghostly image in the subspace holo, like a statue wrought of mist in the receiver cubicle. “This is curious enough, but it coincides almost exactly with the ‘vacations’ taken by the uncommitted ex-governors of Veron and Mussubir Three, and with representatives of the Seinar Corporation and a high-up member of the Mekuun family. Drost Elegin—the head of House Elegin—evidently took his family but left them on Eriadu.”
“That’s a sort of epidemic of rudeness all of a sudden,” remarked Han, standing behind Leia with folded arms. “Any troop movement?”
“None so far.” The Calamarian touched the slim stack of report wafers on the desk just visible at his side. “Nothing from the larger warlords, but our operatives on Spuma seem to think there’s increasing recruitment in basic trooper levels into Admiral Harrsk’s fleet, and sources within the Seinar Corporation say there’s some kind of major funding in the wind—Seinar is ordering new equipment to produce energy cells and stepping up thermal fabric production. But nothing concrete. Still, considering how close Belsavis lies to the Senex Sector, Your Excellency, you may want to consider coming into a more protected area.”
“Thank you, Admiral,” said Leia slowly. “We’re … almost finished here.” She brought the words out reluctantly. Her chief of staff was right, she knew. If the self-styled Lord High Admiral Harrsk was