Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 05_ Allies - Christie Golden [155]
Time stretched out like a thin, perfect line of ultimate clarity to Buwa’tu. And in that moment, he knew two things with utter certainty. He had stared Death in the face before now, and knew that if he did not act quickly and correctly, Death would win this fight.
He also knew that the men who had attacked him were not Jedi. He should never have been able to hold his own for three minutes against them if they had been.
Which begged the question, Who were they and who sent them? But there was no time for that now.
Bwua’tu reached out with his good hand, grasped his own severed arm, wrapped his living index finger around the dead one, turned, and fired the blaster point blank into the fake Jedi’s face.
Nek had only an instant’s satisfaction of staring up into a face of blackened bone and melted flesh before the corpse fell atop him. The excruciating pain of the lightsaber, still lit in the deathgrip of the human, seared across his belly. Nek Bwua’tu spasmed, trying to thrust off the corpse, and knew no more.
“MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT, I HAVE NEW EVIDENCE TO INTRODUCE.”
Tahiri stiffened. Beside her, Eramuth’s ear twitched. “At this late hour?” he murmured, then rose. “Your Honor, the defense demands to know the nature and the source of this so-called new evidence.”
“Approach the bench,” Judge Zudan said, waving them both forward. The two obeyed, and three heads bent together. There were sharp, sibilant whispers for several moments.
Eramuth’s ear twitched like mad. Tahiri felt her heart sink.
He returned, sat down beside her, and whispered in her ear, “It’s a recording that was allegedly made of your, er … conversation with Gilad Pellaeon.”
“What?” She yelped, she couldn’t help it, and he placed a furred hand on her shoulder gently to quiet her.
“It’s passed all tests, it appears to be genuine. I’ll try to stop them from playing it right now but, if I cannot, I will have my own experts examine it. And trust me, I have quite expert experts.”
He smiled, trying to bolster her. It was useless. She knew what she had said, what she had done, and her attorney’s intense efforts to play on the jury’s sympathy were about to be blasted to bits, and nothing that anyone could do or say would change their minds once this was heard.
Dekkon swept forward, his robes fluttering behind him, his voice almost, but not quite, as melodious as Eramuth’s.
“Gentlebeings of the jury,” he began. “I realize that it is late in the process, but what you are about to hear is information that is absolutely vital to your decision regarding Tahiri Veila’s guilt or innocence. I am unable to reveal my sources, but I can assure you that before I decided to bring this evidence to light, I had it verified. What you are about to hear is the genuine article.”
He paused, looked about with an imperious mein. “You are about to hear a murder, gentlebeings. The murder of a ninety-two-year-old, unarmed man at the hands of this woman!”
He pointed to Tahiri, extending a long blue finger accusatorily. She kept her face neutral somehow.
“The defense would like you to think that Tahiri was a poor, muddled, misguided, lovesick girl lured to the dark side—only temporarily, mind you—by an extremely powerful Sith Lord. My esteemed colleague would have you believe that she was merely following orders, that she is as much a victim as Admiral Gilad Pellaeon himself. What you are about to hear, gentlebeings, is the truth of the matter.”
“Objection!” Eramuth was on his feet. “Your Honor, I request a twenty-four-hour delay to verify the accuracy of this so called ‘true’ recording before it is played before the jury.”
“Objection overruled.”
“But Your Honor! If it does transpire that the recording has been falsified or tampered with in any way, the jury will have already been swayed by it! It is hard to forget something once it has been heard, even if later one knows it is false.”
Dekkon