Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 04_ Backlash - Aaron Allston [16]
Luke’s presence was steady and distant, and Leia had no sense that he was in immediate danger. But this feeling was not as accurate or specific as a homing beacon, and Leia could follow it in only a meandering, imprecise fashion, now correcting more to the northwest, now to the northeast.
The two vehicles moved through the Dathomiri rain forest at what, to Leia, seemed a maddeningly slow rate. They flew at an average of three or four meters above the forest floor, the sports vehicle in front, both pilots being very careful not to scrape against tree branches and conceivably knock passengers free. The cargo speeder sometimes had to stop, backtrack, and circle to find passages when Han’s speeder could easily navigate shorter routes, but Yliri did seem to be a more-than-competent pilot.
Occasionally Leia would get flashes of other presences in the Force: Dathomiri forest predators lying in wait as the two speeders passed. No attacks came, and she assumed that most wildlife on this planet would steer clear of tangling with humans and other humanoids, so many of which here carried deadly weapons and made use of Force powers. None of these brief Force flashes was familiar to her; none carried the unmistakable stamp of Luke or Ben.
A couple of hours in, Leia’s sense of direction failed her. She could still feel her brother in the Force, but her perception of him was divided; he was distant, but his emotions were near, lingering in this area, probably because of some encounter. “I’ve lost him,” she told Han.
He thumbed the dilapidated speeder’s comm board. “Mark this spot for a possible muster point, then commence spiral search. Report anything out of the ordinary.”
Yliri acknowledged and her speeder banked away to starboard, beginning its spiral pattern. Han banked to port. Their two spiral searches would overlap to a considerable degree, offering double coverage to the area Leia most wanted to search.
A short while later, when the two speeders had come within view of each other for the third time, Leia saw the cargo speeder halt. There was discussion among the four people aboard, then Tribeless Sha dropped over the side, landing nimbly on the forest floor four meters down. She looked right and left, then set off at a trot to the right, a course that would carry her past the red speeder’s current path. When she’d moved forty paces, the cargo speeder followed at a slow pace.
Leia activated her speeder’s comm. “What’s happening? Over.”
Yliri’s voice came back, “Sha spotted blood on a bush. Now she’s spotted rancor footprints. She’s tracking back to where the beast was injured. Over.”
“Thanks. Out.”
Within a few minutes, Sha had found the spot, ground that was charred everywhere as if by a broad-ranging but not very intense fire. Within a hundred meters of it were two wrecked speeder bikes. Tarth looked over the registration numbers engraved in their engine compartments and gave Han a nod.
Han sighed. “Luke and Ben are going to lose their deposits.”
Leia elbowed him in the ribs. “Not funny. Where are they?”
“Hard to track.” That was Sha, one of the few times she’d spoken since she’d been hired. She gestured to the northwest, at a distinct angle from their previous course. “That way. There’s another set of tracks. Dathomiri woman, I think.” Her hand transcribed an arc, then ended up pointing in the same direction. “Went off at an angle, then went that way, too.”
“Who was leading and who was following?” Leia frowned. While she didn’t like the idea of anyone tracking or trailing Luke and Ben, she knew that her brother might merely be allowing an enemy to do so.
Sha shrugged. “Impossible to tell. Too long ago.”
“Can you track them?”
Sha nodded. “Yes. But slow. Walking speed.”
“Let’s do it, then.”
“Electronics are fried.” That was Tarth, still rummaging around in the mechanical insides of one of the speeder bikes.
Han frowned. “How’s that again?”
“Electronics are fried. Both speeders. I also found a comlink by the other one. Burned clear through and discarded.”
“Char