Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 04_ Backlash - Aaron Allston [121]
JAGGED FEL, DRESSED IN A RICH BUT UNDERSTATED BLACK UNIFORM-STYLE ensemble, spun away from the two GAS security officers waiting outside the dining room he had reserved at Pangalactus, then spoke softly to their Rodian host.
“I’m sorry,” Jagged said. “Our reservation was to be held in the strictest confidence. I’d appreciate it if you could set up another room. Any other room.”
The Rodian’s voice, singsong with the difficult task of forming Basic words with its Rodian vocal cords, carried no hint of unhappiness. “Of course. There may be a considerable wait—”
“Pardon me, sir,” interrupted the Rodian’s protocol droid, a male model with a dull bronze finish. He displayed a small datapad in his hand. “There is one other room free at the moment. The party that reserved it are wonderful customers who might be willing to switch this evening, and we could have it set up as requested in just a few minutes.”
“We’d be most grateful,” Jag said. “Please extend my thanks, and add their bill to mine.”
“Of course, sir.”
The host waited while the protocol droid made the arrangements, then led Jag and his party toward their new dining room.
Jaina fell into step beside Jag. “Very smooth of you. The teenage pilot you were back in the Yuuzhan Vong war didn’t have all those social graces.”
He tucked her arm through his. “You might have been surprised. High-ranking Chiss military families learn a lot more than warfare.”
They filed into the new chamber—first two Imperial security agents, then Jag and Jaina, then Han and Leia, Allana, C-3PO and R2-D2, and finally two more security agents. The rest of Jag’s security detail was posted at the entrances into Pangalactus. The chamber featured a central table in golden wood that seemed drenched with sunlight—in fact, it glowed faintly—and matching padded chairs. The walls showed a vista of green meadows, purple and blue mountains in the distance on three sides, a modern city in the distance on the fourth side. Airspeeders of slightly archaic design flew in orderly lanes above the city.
Leia stopped as she recognized the scene, and a slow smile spread across her face. “It’s Alderaan. Jag, you shouldn’t have.”
“Of course I should have.” Jag held a chair for Jaina, then sat himself. “None of the rest of us grew up in anywhere near as pretty a place. Not consistently, anyway.”
The bronze protocol droid was last in, entering as the security agents began their sweeps of the chamber and the droids situated themselves against one of the mountain walls. The protocol droid took drink orders, promised the immediate arrival of a server, and waddled out.
Allana examined her table knife as though inspecting a lightsaber. “What do they serve? I hope it’s not all Corellian food like Han cooks. That’s too spicy.”
Han looked hurt. “Give it a few more years. It’ll grow on you.”
Jag grinned and swept a hand over the tabletop. “They have all sorts of things here, Amelia. Corellian, traditional meat cuts and fixings, Mon Cal–style seafood dishes, some fine-dining adaptations of military ration packs for old soldiers like me, Hapan—”
“Hapan?” Allana brightened.
“Best outside the Consortium.”
“House holocam feeds disabled.” That was one of the security operatives, a Chiss man, his tone low and unobtrusive. “No observing devices present.”
“Pathogens nil.” The dark-skinned human female with the electronic sniffer in her hands looked a little uncertain. “So many exotic spices in the air I had to broaden the range of acceptable toxicity.”
Jag heaved a sigh.
Leia smiled at him. “Get used to it.”
On the monitor, Lecersen and Treen watched the Fel party enter the chamber, watched the bronze droid follow them and then, a couple of minutes later, depart. “We have no holocam feed from inside,” Lecersen explained. “To set one up would have invited discovery. We’ll have renewed sight and sound in a few minutes.”
“Ah.”
“Give us our lead operative, please.”
The monitor switched back to a view of Kester Tolann’s chamber. The Death Star re-creation he was watching had changed, and he leaned forward