Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 04_ Agents of Chaos 01_ Hero's Trial - James Luceno [43]
Xenobiologist Joi Eicroth leaned toward the window to have a look. “It started out that way. Now there are close to ten thousand living in the immediate area. Myneyrshi, Psadans, and humans, in addition to the five hundred or so Noghri that founded the place.”
“And everyone gets along?”
“So far.”
Kalenda laughed, mostly to herself. “The Noghri despise anything related to Palpatine, but they’re fine living on a world he named.”
“It has never been documented that Wayland was Palpatine’s code name for the planet,” Dr. Yintal said from the seat behind the two women. “I submit that human colonists conceived the appellation long before the Emperor decided to use Mount Tantiss as a treasure vault.”
An analyst for Fleet Intelligence, Yintal was a small pensive man, and the suddenness of his outburst prompted Kalenda and Eicroth to exchange secret smiles of amusement.
“And where else would the Noghri get to pile dirt on anything that belonged to Palpatine, right, Doc?” Eicroth asked over her shoulder.
“That’s certainly a contributing factor to their contentment with the arrangements,” he observed coolly.
The shuttle circled, then settled down on a landing pad in the center of New Nystao. The three passengers gathered their belongings and waited at the hatchway. Wayland greeted them with resplendent light and crisp, sweet-smelling air.
A hodgepodge of wattle huts, wooden buildings, and stone mansions, the burgeoning city reflected its mix of cultures. Perplexing, however, was the profusion of hotels and ethnic restaurants that surrounded the landing pad. Kalenda was about to quiz Eicroth when Major Showolter arrived on the scene perched atop an old SoroSuub Corvair landspeeder. Out of passenger compartments missing their folding access panels climbed two Noghri.
Showolter was sporting tinted driver’s goggles and a locally purchased poncho. He saluted Kalenda and shook hands with Eicroth and Yintal. Then he introduced everyone to Mobvekhar and Khakraim of clan Hakh’khar, who were attached to NRI’s safe house. The pleasant sunshine did little to soften the savage brawn and vampiric hideousness of the gnomish gray beings.
Kalenda peered dubiously into the passenger compartment of the battered landspeeder. “Is there room for all of us in this thing?”
“I thought we’d walk,” Showolter said, making it sound like a question. “It’s not far.”
Kalenda made an ushering motion with her hand. “Lead on, Major.”
The Noghri insisted on carrying the bags. The narrow pressbonded lanes were crowded with spindly Myneyrshi, armored Psadans, humans, and Noghri, but interspersed among them were small groups of Bimms, Falleen, Bothans, and other species, lingering in front of hotels or sipping drinks at streetside café tables.
Baffled, Kalenda finally asked about it.
“A serendipitous result of the Debble Agreement,” Showolter said while they walked. “The agreement stipulates that any works of art—formerly the property of Palpatine—found in or around Mount Tantiss can be reclaimed by the cultures that produced them. Ever since it was put into effect, curators and acquisition types from hundreds of worlds have been coming here to retrieve artifacts that survived the explosion and have since been discovered in the course of New Nystao’s expansion. Off-worlders need to be housed and fed, of course, so hotels and restaurants started springing up, which in turn has led to the growth of the town.”
“And to the discovery of yet more cultural artifacts,” Yintal added.
Showolter nodded. “Treasure hunters have become as common as vine snakes.”
As the NRI team neared the Noghri section of the settlement, the primitive dwellings of the Myneyrshi and the rock fortresses of the Psadans gave way to basic but well-constructed huts of lumber and stone. The village had been transplanted from Honoghr after the official razing of Mount Tantiss had commenced.
A short but steep uphill walk brought them to an