Star Wars_ Planet of Twilight - Barbara Hambly [161]
“Did you send my message to Han and Luke?” Leia asked the chamberlain.
“Yes, madam, but I regret—they are too close to Crseih Station. The star system is most violent. The black hole, its quantum crystal companion—their influence blocks communication.”
“Then we must send a ship out after them.”
“Madam, the port is closed.”
“I closed the port! I can order a ship to leave the planet!”
Concerned and gentle, he touched her hand in comfort.
“We must maintain an illusion,” he said. “The port is closed because of a malfunction in the tracking equipment. If a ship leaves, if the emergency is revealed publicly to be a sham, we will have offered the ransomers a mortal insult.”
“But you said they’d know—”
“The kidnappers,” Dr. Hyos said. “They know, and we know. Everyone else may guess. No matter. Perception, that’s what matters. Not reality.”
“Dr. Hyos is correct, madam,” the chamberlain said. “I beg you, madam, carry on with your afternoon’s appointments as if nothing had happened. Call on the bravery for which we all honor you. For the sake of the children.”
Leia struggled to hide her trembling, struggled to think clearly.
By the time a ship could reach Han, she thought, whatever happens will have happened. I gain nothing by sending for him.
“I’ll go back to the receiving room,” she said. “I’ll finish my appointments. If we haven’t heard from—if we haven’t heard anything by sundown—”
“By morning, please, madam.” The chamberlain’s face was anxious. “By morning, I assure you, we’ll have instructions.”
“I’ll finish my appointments.” Leia left the waiting room.
“Leia—” Dr. Hyos said.
“Madam—” the chamberlain said.
“What!” She faced them both, glaring.
Mr. Iyon gestured, unhappily, wordlessly, at her bloody hands, her muddy skirt.
I’ve met ambassadors and heads of state in worse clothes than this, Leia thought. Worse clothes, and dirtier.
THE OLD REPUBLIC
(5,000–33 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE)
Long—long—ago in a galaxy far, far away … some twenty-five thousand years before Luke Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star at the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars: A New Hope … a large number of star systems and species in the center of the galaxy came together to form the Galactic Republic, governed by a Chancellor and a Senate from the capital city-world of Coruscant. As the Republic expanded via the hyperspace lanes, it absorbed new member worlds from newly discovered star systems; it also expanded its military to deal with the hostile civilizations, slavers, pirates, and gangster-species such as the slug-like Hutts that were encountered in the outward exploration. But the most vital defenders of the Republic were the Jedi Knights. Originally a reclusive order dedicated to studying the mysteries of the life energy known as the Force, the Jedi became the Republic’s guardians, charged by the Senate with keeping the peace—with wise words if possible; with lightsabers if not.
But the Jedi weren’t the only Force-users in the galaxy. An ancient civil war had pitted those Jedi who used the Force selflessly against those who allowed themselves to be ruled by their ambitions—which the Jedi warned led to the dark side of the Force. Defeated in that long-ago war, the dark siders fled beyond the galactic frontier, where they built a civilization of their own: the Sith Empire.
The first great conflict between the Republic and the Sith Empire occurred when two hyperspace explorers stumbled on the Sith worlds, giving the Sith Lord Naga Sadow and his dark side warriors a direct invasion route into the Republic’s central worlds. This war resulted in the first destruction of the Sith Empire—but it was hardly the last. For the next four thousand years, skirmishes between the Republic and Sith grew into wars, with the scales always tilting toward one or the other, and peace never lasting. The galaxy was a place of almost constant strife: Sith armies against Republic armies; Force-using Sith Lords against Jedi Masters and Jedi Knights; and the dreaded nomadic mercenaries called Mandalorians bringing muscle