Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 04_ Agents of Chaos 01_ Hero's Trial - James Luceno [115]
Shortly, the vaguely humanlike droid projected the results as animated holograms of the liquid’s chemical composition and its interaction with cells scraped from the inside of Mara Jade Skywalker’s cheek.
“The chemical structure reflects what might be expected from tears,” Tomla El said, leaning forward on his great buttressed feet, “but we’ve no way of determining whether they are indeed characteristic of Vergere’s species.”
“Yes, but look here,” Oolos said excitedly, gesturing to the interaction hologram. “See how the substance is being drawn into the cells, almost as if being sponged up. And look how the cell reacts! Like an infusion of nutrient!”
Taller than a Wookiee, though rail-thin, Oolos had a broad, lipless mouth and a serpentine crown of stubby tresses, brilliant with red and violet scales. Like Tomla El, he wore a long white coat, which set the pair apart from Cilghal, whose homespun tunic and trousers were the color of fine sand.
“I’m encouraged,” Oolos said to the laboratory’s other two occupants. “Come, see for yourselves.”
Hand in hand, Luke and Mara stepped closer to the droid’s holographic projections and made a pretense of regarding them with the same scientific captivation demonstrated by the Ithorian and the Ho’Din. Luke was keenly aware that one of Cilghal’s bulbous eyes was trained on Mara rather than on the displays.
Tomla El turned his sinuous head toward Luke and said out of both mouths, “I’m uneasy.”
Everyone waited for him to continue.
“The priestess Elan was a weapon, dispatched by the Yuuzhan Vong to assassinate the Jedi. Why think that Vergere wasn’t an accomplice, equally involved? Han Solo obviously believed that she was, or he wouldn’t have sought to return her to the enemy.”
“Han wasn’t sure about Vergere,” Cilghal said, answering for Luke.
“Why would Elan be harboring a deadly toxin, while her own familiar harbored an antidote to Mara’s illness?”
“Perhaps Vergere was not what she seemed,” Luke said, “even to Elan.” He paused briefly, then added, “Han admits that he was tempted to destroy the drink bulb, until he began to think about what Vergere said to him before she jettisoned in the escape pod. She thanked him for giving her the chance to return to her own people.”
“Naturally,” Tomla El said, in a kind of lilting stereo. “The Yuuzhan Vong.”
“But Han said that earlier Vergere had reacted to hearing my name. And Droma claimed that he once encountered a member of Vergere’s species in the Corporate Sector.”
“That means little,” Tomla El argued. “Yuuzhan Vong agents infiltrated our galaxy as far back as fifty standard years. Vergere’s species could be an extragalactic client race of the Yuuzhan Vong.”
“Tomla El is correct about one thing,” Oolos said, turning from the holograms. “We can’t be sure this ostensible gift isn’t part of a plan to instill us with false confidence and inadvertently do greater harm to Mara.”
All eyes fell on her. As wan as she had become over the course of only a few weeks, she continued to reveal boundless grit and defiance. “I’m finding it pretty hard to swallow that the Yuuzhan Vong would go to all this trouble to kill one Jedi—namely, me—when Elan was out to assassinate all of us.”
Oolos told the MD droid to deactivate the holograms; then he spent a moment in deep contemplation. “We should proceed cautiously.” He looked at the drinking bulb. “We don’t even know whether the liquid is supposed to be injected, ingested, or applied.”
“We do have a clue,” Luke said. “Vergere used her tears to mend a blaster wound suffered by an intelligence officer aboard the Queen of Empire. She applied them by hand.”
“Topically,” Oolos clarified.
Cilghal studied him with one eye. “But Mara’s illness isn’t topical, it’s systemic.”
All at once Luke called the