Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [105]
Furgan looked around the enclosed Skydome, making certain he had everyone’s attention. Even the patchy rain had ceased. “To all gathered here, I wish to be heard. As ambassador of Carida, I have been empowered to speak for the Imperial military training center, my planet, and my entire system. Therefore, I must deliver a message to you all.”
He raised his voice and raised his glass. “To Mon Mothma, who calls herself leader of the New Republic—” With a vicious sneer he hurled his drink into her face. The honey-green liquid splashed on her cheeks, her hair, her chest. She staggered back, appalled. Jan Dodonna caught her shoulders, steadying her; his mouth gaped open in astonishment.
The New Republic guards at the door immediately drew their weapons but somehow refrained from firing.
“—we denounce your foul rebellion of lawbreakers and murderers. You have tried to impress me with the number of other weak-minded systems that have joined your Alliance, but no amount of rabble can erase your crimes against the Empire.”
He smashed his empty glass on the floor and ground the shards under his boot heel. “Carida will never surrender to your so-called New Republic.”
With a flourish Furgan took his entourage and stormed off. At the doorway the gathered stormtroopers triumphantly placed the white helmets back on their heads, hiding their faces, and followed the ambassador out. The New Republic guards stared after them, weapons ready but not knowing what to do.
After a shocked silence the crowd erupted into a babble of outraged conversations. Leia ran to the Chief of State. Dodonna was already swabbing at Mon Mothma’s damp robes.
The sticky drink drying on her face, Mon Mothma forced a smile for Leia. Into the rising hubbub of indignation she said, “Well, we didn’t lose anything by trying, did we?”
In her disappointment Leia could not answer.
The tinny voice of Threepio burst over the background noise. “Excuse me, Mistress Leia?”
Leia frantically looked around for the twins, afraid Furgan had somehow kidnapped them during his diversion, but was relieved when she saw Jacen and Jaina standing with their faces pressed against the curved window looking out at the skyline of Imperial City.
Finally, from the corner of her eye, she noticed a golden arm flailing about in alarm. Somehow Threepio had gotten tangled in the tentacle-cactus exhibit; even from across the room Leia could see how badly scratched his plating had become. Hors d’oeuvres lay scattered about the floor.
“Could anyone assist me in getting free from this plant?” Threepio cried. “Please?”
21
Han Solo Beamed to be drowning in a syrup of nightmares. He could not escape the drugged and painful interrogation, as the hardened and porcelain-beautiful face of Admiral Daala stared at him and pummeled him with questions.
“Just put him over here,” a woman’s trilling voice said. Not Daala.
His body was being dragged like luggage across a floor.
“We have been ordered to stand guard,” said a fuzzed voice filtered through a stormtrooper helmet.
“Stand guard, then, but do it outside my lab. I want to talk to him in peace.” The woman’s voice again.
“For your own protection—” the stormtrooper began. Han felt himself dropped to the floor. His limbs didn’t seem to remember how to bend.
“Protection? What is he going to do—he doesn’t seem to have the energy to sneeze. If you left any unscrambled memories in his head, I want to pick at them without any interference.”
Han felt himself hauled upright again, his arms wrapped behind him. Cold, smooth stone pressed against his back. “Yes, yes,” the woman’s voice said, “chain him to the column. I’m sure I’ll be safe. I promise to stay out of reach of his fangs.”
He heard the marching boots of stormtroopers leaving the room. His mind became active long before his body figured out how to respond. He remembered parts of the interrogation, but not all of it. What had he told Admiral Daala? His heart began pounding