Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [79]
“You ready?” the Weequay named Erf asked in slurred Basic.
Jadak gave the suit jacket a downward tug. “Good to go.” He nodded to Poste, who scowled but managed to pull himself away from the refresher's full-length mirrpanel.
Erf pulled two blasters from the roomy pockets of his longcoat. “Safety engaged. Already set on stun.” He flicked the selector switches to make sure, then handed the blasters to Jadak.
Jadak hefted them, then passed the more powerful one to Poste, who rechecked the selector switches, checked the battery charge and gas levels, and slipped the weapon into a shoulder holster.
“Here the case,” the other humanoid said. “Inside is data card.”
Jadak took hold of the small alloy case and experienced what he initially took to be a déjà vu moment. In fact, memory transported him to the docking berth in the lowest tier of the Senate Annex on Coruscant, where he had delivered a similar case to Senators Des'sein, Largetto, and Zar. In Jadak's mind, the memory felt no more than a month old.
“The Antarian Ranger who will take possession of the ship is called Folee. You will find her in Salik City, which is the capital city of the western regions. She is expecting you. The phrase we've provided—”
“You all right?” Poste said.
The memory receded and was gone.
“Lost you there for a moment.”
Jadak looked away. “Just running through the plan.”
“Second thoughts?”
Jadak shook his head. “Thoughts.”
They grabbed their small rucksacks, located the rented airspeeder in the hotel garage, and folded themselves into the bucket seats. A forty-year-old Incom T-11 with a stylish body and sloping prow, it was fully tricked out with a powerful repulsorlift and wide thruster nozzles. Jadak's hands went instinctively to the proper controls, and within moments they had lifted off and were slicing through the planet's thick air, merging with traffic in the thirty-meter lane.
A world of varied terrain, Holess was home to a species of portly humanoids thought to be related to the long-eared Lannik. The native population was clustered in towering cities built on wealth derived from the planet's rich deposits of duranium, which had been mined and exported for thousands of years. With more disposable income and free time on their hands than most species would know what to do with, the Holessians had elevated their innate reverence for law to what amounted to a religion. As a result Holess had more petty laws than just about anywhere in the galaxy, and the native population was litigious to a fault. Laws were enacted simply for their sake, in the surety that someone would break them and be forced to mount a legal defense. Judges were revered as god-like figures, and lawyers—prosecutors and defense attorneys alike—were treated as celebrities. To be selected to serve on a jury was tantamount to being chosen to partake in a sacred ritual. Holessians followed cases as fervently as other species followed sports seasons. Betting on a verdict was viewed as sacrilege, but decisions were endlessly discussed, debated, and analyzed, often for years after the cases were concluded.
The center of all the legal activity was the Mount of Justice, a cathedral-like structure built atop a natural prominence in the center of the capital city and reserved for the highest-profile cases, frequently those of galactic import. Though often compared to the Tower of Law on pacific Bimmisaari, the mount was the focal point of Holessian life, and a destination for pilgrimages all natives had to undertake at least once during their lifetime. The mount was accessed by a broad ramp that spiraled from the tor's monolithic base to the massive, gaping front doors of the structure itself. Above the entrance loomed an enormous holoscreen that could be seen for kilometers distant, and on which ran live coverage of cases being tried, along with advertisements for a host of products and services.
The stately spires of the mount filled the forward view from the airspeeder as Jadak maneuvered effortlessly