Star Wars_ Darksaber - Kevin J. Anderson [11]
Perhaps that was the message: Obi-Wan’s silence, proving to him that Luke was a Jedi Knight himself. He could not rely on Ben Kenobi or Yoda or others to help him. He controlled his own destiny. He was no longer just a student. Luke would have to solve his own problems.
His resolve hardened within him. No, he had not tried everything. He would search the galaxy with Callista. He would find the answer one way or another.
Luke stood up and clipped the lightsaber to his belt again. He had no need to draw it. He looked around with one last twinge of hope that he might see a glowing outline, the old man nodding to him, reaffirming that Luke’s answer was the correct one. But he sensed nothing.
When he stepped back out, the blazing sunlight washed over him like a cleansing flood. He took a deep breath and went to meet Han.
Han Solo stood in the shade beside his floating swoop and wiped sweat from his forehead. “Well, kid?” he asked. “Find what you were looking for?”
“No …” Luke said, “and yes.”
Han shook his head. “Leave it to a Jedi never to give you a straight answer.”
“In this case, there is no straight answer, Han. I’m done with Tatooine,” Luke said. “We can go back to Mos Eisley now. We have to warn the New Republic what the Hutts are up to.”
HOTH ASTEROID BELT
CHAPTER 4
A storm of rocks swept across space, colliding and smashing with enough force to crush boulders—or spaceships—to powder.
The Hoth Asteroid Belt was a nightmarish hazard to navigation. A few fragments collided with the Orko SkyMine ship’s forward deflector shields, then vanished into bright plumes of vaporized dust.
On the foredeck Durga the Hutt rested on his levitating platform like a slab of raw flesh, watching through the command viewports. Durga saw only one thing as he watched the colliding asteroids: resources. Vast untapped resources containing every sort of metal and mineral that could be of use to the Hutts’ new secret project.
“Increase deflector shields,” Durga said, puffing his cheeks and stretching the smeared birthmark across the left side of his head.
His minions scrambled to do his bidding. Weequays, Gamorreans, human slaves, and others clustered about the expeditionary ship’s controls, bickering about how best to implement the order. Durga was not impressed with the intelligence or the free-thinking abilities of his contracted employees—but he had not hired them for those qualities.
Beside the sluglike Hurt, Imperial General Sulamar turned from a status screen and snapped to attention. Always obsessively attentive to protocol, the general kept his uniform trim and pressed, with edges that could have cut Mandalorian iron. The left breast of his uniform was plastered with a treasure chest of medals from previous campaigns he had won (about which he never ceased blabbering). He smiled grimly, a sallow-faced, flinty-eyed man who looked somehow small inside his uniform, as if he were actually no more than a frightened boy trapped in a grown-up disguise.
“Mineral Exploiter Alpha has already begun its hunting and processing routine,” General Sulamar said. “Mineral Exploiter Beta has just been unleashed.” He clicked his black heels together. “I trust the profits for Orko SkyMine will be up this quarter?”
“They better be,” Durga said. “Move us forward so I can observe the mining activities.” He gestured with one small, slimy hand.
Orko SkyMine was merely a sham corporation that the Hurt crime empire had put together to disguise their expenses—a false commercial venture that would exploit the untapped Hoth Asteroid Belt. They had wanted a remote location and limitless resources for their secret project. The incredibly complex and expensive Mineral Exploiter was the first step in what would be the Hutts’ eventual domination of the galaxy.
“We’re tracking Beta, sir,” one of the human technicians said. “Moving forward to get within view.”
“Make sure you steer clear of those asteroids, Navigator,” General Sulamar