Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 05_ Allies - Christie Golden [105]
“My apologies, Your Honor, I didn’t mean to disrupt,” Dab said. “I was just hoping to find a seat. If you’d prefer, I could just leave.”
“Your Honor,” Eramuth said, “A brief recess. The appearance of this … being … who bears such a resemblance to the late Anakin Solo has obviously rattled my client. I’d like to give her a few moments to compose herself before we continue.”
Zudan nodded. “Ten minute recess. You, young man, either find a seat or stand in the back and stay quiet, or else leave.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dab said, subdued. He looked apologetically at Tahiri, then away, and busied himself looking for a nonexistent seat. Tahiri’s grief and shock turned to anger. She stepped down from the bench unsteadily, ignoring Eramuth’s outstretched hand and heading straight for her chair. She lowered herself down and stared at the table, trying to calm her racing thoughts.
What was he doing here? Why had he come? Didn’t he know how she would react if she saw—
Realization crashed down on her. Eramuth had settled himself into his own seat and had just turned to look at her compassionately.
“You told him to come,” she said. Her voice was soft, but outrage simmered beneath it.
He gave her an apologetic smile. “I did, I’m afraid. He picked the perfect moment, too.”
“Why?” Her voice started to rise and she forced it down with an effort. “Why would you do that to me? Put me through that?”
“I hope when you’re a little calmer you’ll forgive me,” Eramuth said sincerely. “I told you before, the prosecution has the facts on their side. We have to have something else, and that’s the jury’s hearts. Your story, my dear child, is a moving one. I’ve not uttered a single lie, nor have you, and the jury has listened with an open ear, open mind, and an increasingly open heart.”
“You want them to feel sorry for me,” she hissed.
“More precisely,” the Bothan continued, his voice melodious and pleasant even when he spoke barely above a whisper, “I want them to empathize with you. You’ve been through a terrible amount of pain in your short life. I want them to see that, because it is only then that they will understand why you did what you did. And that what you did was inevitable. Your reaction to seeing poor Dab could not possibly have been faked. Every being here felt it, even us non–Force-users. I haven’t had to work very hard to get them to fall in love with you, metaphorically speaking, and Dab’s appearance here and your reaction to him clinched it.”
Tahiri buried her face in her hands for a moment. Her fingertips brushed against the scars on her forehead, marks of her time with the Yuuzhan Vong. She took a deep breath, then lifted her head.
“I know you’re just doing your best to win this case,” Tahiri said, composing herself with an effort. “I understand that. But I’m not sure I want to win it this way.”
“Look at it differently, my dear. When we win,” Eramuth said, “you’ll have the rest of your life to despise me and my tactics.”
ABOARD THE JADE SHADOW
BEN, LUKE, AND VESTARA GAZED THROUGH THE TRANSPARISTEEL screen at the Rockhound. Ben had been told it would be an incredibly useful thing to have, that it was big and powerful and could fly escort over the smaller ships like a protective entity. A huge, hideous, buglike protective entity.
The Rockhound was, without a doubt, the ugliest thing he had ever laid eyes on.
The thing was certainly large, his dad hadn’t misinformed him about that. More than two kilometers long, in fact. But with what looked like at least a hundred telescopic legs with which to cling to asteroids dangling from a flat “belly,” a rounded “back,” and a circular “head” at the bow where the bridge and the living quarters were, well—
“It looks like an insect,” Vestara said succinctly. Her nose wrinkled in disapproval. “How unattractive.”
“It’s supposed to hang on to asteroids,” Ben found himself saying. “It doesn’t need to