Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 04_ Agents of Chaos 01_ Hero's Trial - James Luceno [33]
“Where are Reck and his crew now?” he asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know, Han. But I know where we could go to find out. First stop would be—”
Han threw up his hands. “Don’t say anything. If I don’t know where we’re going, then I can’t tell anyone.”
“We’d have to leave while the scent is fresh,” Roa said.
Han tugged at his lower lip and thought for a moment. “Your ship’s here?”
Roa looked surprised. “Of course. But you want me to pilot you? Now that’s a switch.”
“Yes or no, Roa?”
Roa made a placating gesture. “Don’t get me wrong, son, I’m more than happy to oblige. I just naturally figured you’d want to take the Falcon.”
Han shook his head. “As an occasionally smart-mouthed droid I know once said, the Falcon’s better configured for running away than engagement. And besides, she’s become a ghost ship.”
EIGHT
“Aggressive postures are somewhat problematic when you haven’t the slightest notion of your enemy’s battle plan,” Colonel Ixidro Legorburu told the commanders of the New Republic Defense Force and a melange of high-ranking officers. “Only now, with the fall of thirty planetary systems, the destruction of Helska, Sernpidal, and Ithor, and the more recent loss of Obroa-skai, are we beginning to have some sense of the path the Yuuzhan Vong are intent on cutting through the galaxy.”
Legorburu’s upbringing on agrarian M’haeli belied a shrewd intellect and urbane wit. A former intelligence officer, he had served as a tactical aide during the Yevethan crisis and had since been promoted to director of the Home Fleet’s Battle Assessment Division.
“Let me emphasize, though, that the strategy underlying their incursion remains as much a mystery as their ultimate objective.”
Exigency had dictated that the briefing be held on Kuat rather than Coruscant, though several officers and specialists were participating via real-time hologram from the New Republic capital and a host of other worlds.
“What have we been able to conclude regarding their origin?” Admiral Sien Sovv asked. Fulcrum of the Defense Force command staff, the Sullustan sat at a data console adapted to his smallish hands and capable of filtering background noise, which might otherwise have proved irritating to his keen hearing.
“As you know, the first world to fall to the Yuuzhan Vong—to be razed by them, I should say—was Belkadan, where the ExGal Society had a listening post.” Legorburu manipulated a parabolic holoprojector to fashion a 3-D view of the galaxy’s Tingel Arm. “However, despite talk of an extragalactic arrival, our initial supposition was that they were native to some unknown stellar system, here, in the central Tingel, midway between the Corporate Sector and Imperial Remnant space.”
“Does that hypothesis remain viable?” Brigadier General Etahn A’baht asked. Former commander of the Fifth Fleet, A’baht had also been involved in the Yevethan crisis. A Dornean, A’baht had tough aubergine skin and eyefolds that swelled and fanned out.
Legorburu looked to the representative from the Institute for Sentient Studies, headquartered on Baraboo. But before the Ithorian could respond, Sovv rose to his feet.
“I know I speak for everyone here in expressing my extreme sorrow at what has befallen your homeworld,” the admiral said. “The galaxy is greatly diminished.”
Tamaab Moolis acknowledged Sovv’s sentiments with a motion of his long, upward curving head. “I thank the admiral,” he said out of both mouths.
Attentiveness replaced the sadness in his widely spaced eyes. “Pursuant to the supposition that the Yuuzhan Vong originated in the Tingel Arm, we conducted a thorough search of our databases, but were unable to discover corroborating evidence. A protocol droid at Dubrillion stated that the Yuuzhan Vong language is reminiscent of Janguine, but that trail has led nowhere. We are continuing to investigate the possibility that the Yuuzhan Vong are a long-vanished