Star Wars_ Splinter of the Mind's Eye - Alan Dean Foster [11]
“And recent,” Luke added, excited by the plausibility of his own supposition. Just talking about such a possibility made him, made them both feel better. “If that’s the case, then even an automated station that’s only used on occasion ought to contain an emergency shelter and survival provisions. Heck, there might even be a subspace planetary relay for contacting Circarpous IV when the scientific team is operating here.”
“A cry for help would be a poor way for me to announce my presence,” the Princess observed, brushing at her dark hair. “Not,” she added quickly, “that I’m going to be particular. I’ll settle for arriving in a medical cocoon.”
They walked on in silence for a while before another question entered Luke’s mind. “I still wonder, Princess, what caused our instruments to go crazy. That enormous volume of rising free energy we passed through … bolts jumping from sky to ship and ship back to sky again … I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“Nor have I, sir,” commented Threepio. “I thought I might go mad.”
“Neither have I,” admitted the Princess thoughtfully. “And I’ve never read of a natural phenomenon like it. Several colonized gas giants have bigger storms, but never with so much color. And big thunderheads are always involved. We were above the thick cloud layer when it happened. Still,” she hesitated, “the whole thing seemed almost familiar, somehow.” Artoo beeped his agreement.
“You’d think whoever established that homing beacon in this area would also have put a message in the transmission warning ships away from the danger.”
“Yes,” the Princess agreed. “Hard to imagine a scientific expedition, or any other kind, being that negligent. The omission, it’s almost criminal.” She shook her head slowly. “That effect … I can almost remember something like it.” A diffident smile, then, “My head’s still full of the conference.”
It should be, Luke thought, full of one thing only—making it to that homing beacon and hoping there was more there than just a pile of machinery. What he said was, “I understand, Princess.”
Not the Force, but a more ancient, more highly developed sense in man half convinced him they were being watched. He found himself turning rapidly to scan the trees and mist behind them and at each side. Nothing looked back at him, but the feeling refused to go away.
Once she spotted him peering hard at a dank copse. “Nervous?” It was part question, part challenge.
“You bet I’m nervous,” he shot back. “I’m nervous and frightened and I wish to hell we were on Circarpous right now. Anywhere on Circarpous, instead of trudging through this swamp on foot.”
Turning serious, the Princess told him, “One learns to accept whatever events life has in store with the best possible spirits.” She stared straight ahead.
“That’s just what I’m doing,” Luke confessed, “accepting them in the best possible spirits—nervousness and fear.”
“Well, you needn’t look at me as if this is all my fault.”
“Did I imply that? Did I say that?” Luke countered, a touch more tightly than he intended. She glanced sharply at him and he cursed his inability to conceal his feelings. He would have been, he decided, a rotten card-player. Or politician.
“No, but you as much as …” she began hotly.
“Princess,” he interrupted softly, “we still have a long way to go, according to your plotted location. Just because something full of teeth and claws hasn’t pounced on us from every tree doesn’t mean such creatures don’t thrive here.
One thing we haven’t got is time to fight between ourselves. Besides, responsibility is a dead issue now. It’s been superseded by survival. Survive we will, if the Force is with us.”
There was no reply. That in itself was encouraging. They trudged on, Luke stealing admiring glances at her when she wasn’t looking. Disheveled and caked with mud from the waist down, she was still beautiful. He knew she was upset, not at him, but at the possibility they might miss the scheduled conference with the Circarpousian underground.
There’s no night so dark as a night filled with fog, and every night on Mimban was