Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [84]
Now, as they entered the projection room, Gantoris stared at the giant windows that filled the walls with broad vistas of Coruscant and the centuries-old buildings that girdled the world. The two of them were not really high enough for such a view, Leia knew; the projection room was actually a deep internal chamber, and the “windows” were high-resolution screens displaying images from cameras mounted at the top of the Imperial Palace.
“What is this place?” Gantoris asked.
Leia smiled, folding her arms over her robe. “Right now this is just a room. In a moment, though, I’ll give you a new world.”
She stepped to the control dais in the middle of the room and called up images she had compiled from the archives, records left over from Old Republic surveys and the dossiers compiled during the Alliance occupation.
The window screens flickered, and the images changed, startling Gantoris. He whirled as the landscape suddenly showed a completely different planet. His eyes grew wide and panicked, as if Leia had just transported him across the galaxy.
“I’m showing you a new home. This is Dantooine, the place we have chosen for the people of Eol Sha.”
Around them the window screens displayed vast plains of grassland and spiky trees. Purplish hills rolled across the distant horizon. A herd of small, hairy beasts roamed across the savanna; in the air a cluster of bright balloonlike things, either plants or rudimentary animals, drifted about; a few had snagged on pointed branches of the spiky trees. Two moons, one lavender and one greenish, soared overhead.
“We established one of our first Rebel bases on Dantooine. It has a mild climate, abundant life-forms, plenty of water. A few nomadic tribes roam up and down the coasts of the ocean, but for the most part the planet is uninhabited.”
Leia had used Dantooine as a decoy when Grand Moff Tarkin interrogated her aboard the Death Star. To save her beloved planet of Alderaan, Leia had divulged the location of the old Rebel base on Dantooine rather than naming the real base on Yavin 4; but Tarkin destroyed Alderaan anyway, because Dantooine was too remote for an effective demonstration of the Death Star’s power. Now, though, Dantooine could be put to use again, as a home for the refugees of Eol Sha.
“Do you think your people would like to live on a place like this?” Leia raised her eyebrows.
Gantoris, who had so far seen only his own blasted world, the gas planet of Bespin, and the city-covered surface of Coruscant, seemed impressed. “This looks like a paradise. No volcanoes? No earthquakes? Plenty to eat, and no sprawling cities?”
She nodded. Before Gantoris could say anything else, the door to the projection room opened. Leia turned, surprised to see the Chief of State, Mon Mothma, coming to join them.
The auburn-haired woman walked with a sure step that made her glide across the floor. The leader of the New Republic extended a hand to Gantoris. “You must be one of Luke Skywalker’s first Jedi trainees. Please let me welcome you to Coruscant and wish you the best of success in becoming part of a new order of Jedi Knights.”
Gantoris took Mon Mothma’s hand and nodded to her with a slight bow; but Leia caught a fleeting impression that he considered himself a leader meeting an equal.
“Mon Mothma,” Leia said, “I was just showing Gantoris some images of Dantooine. We are considering moving the refugees from Eol Sha to our old base there.”
Mon Mothma smiled. “Good. I’m aware of the plight of your people, and I would like to see them safely on Dantooine. I always thought it was one of our most pleasant bases, not quite as rigorous as Hoth or Pinnacle Base, without the dense jungles of Yavin 4.” She turned to Gantoris.