Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 04_ Agents of Chaos 01_ Hero's Trial - James Luceno [54]
“Just a moment,” Tolik Yar broke in, one hand entering a flurry of commands into a datapad. “One report—I can’t locate it just now—suggests that these war coordinators have telepathic abilities.” Yar stopped doing input to glance at Kalenda. “Suppose this putative defector is telepathically linked to the creatures and is busy sending them intelligence about us?”
“The report you refer to was filed by an ExGal scientist who spent a brief time in Yuuzhan Vong captivity,” Kalenda supplied. “In any case, the possibility of a link between the defectors and the Yuuzhan Vong—whether telepathic or otherwise—is the reason we’ve been keeping them essentially blind. They’ve been kept isolated from anything that could be of strategic value to the enemy. Even if the Yuuzhan Vong somehow manage to reclaim them, they’ll have nothing vital to present.”
“Why are these two so eager to defect?” Senator Shesh asked.
“Elan hinted at dissension among the Yuuzhan Vong ranks. Some disagreement as to the legitimacy of the invasion. Seemingly, she wants to help us.”
“In return for what—wealth, a new identity, a hiding place? I’m not convinced that she doesn’t have some ulterior motive. Even a vornskr that loses its teeth doesn’t necessarily lose its nature.”
Kalenda’s eyes narrowed. “Elan does have one request.” She looked pointedly at Skywalker. “She wishes to meet with the Jedi Knights.”
Skywalker gave the disclosure his full attention. Even Anakin perked up. “Did she say why?” Skywalker asked.
“She said it has to do with some sort of illness the Yuuzhan Vong introduced in advance of the arrival of their worldships. She refused to elaborate. She said the Jedi would understand.”
Skywalker and his nephew traded astonished glances. “Nothing more?” the elder Jedi said, clearly intrigued.
Kalenda shook her head. “As I told Senator Miatamia, feel free to review the recordings of the debriefing. In fact, I’d welcome your comments. Maybe you can pick up on something we missed.”
“Master Skywalker,” Gron Marrab interrupted, one bulging eye fixed on the Jedi while the other continued to regard Kalenda. “This probably doesn’t need to be stated, but I want it made clear that you should feel under no obligation in this matter.”
“Of course not,” Senator Praget added, with a twisted grin. “After all, it’s not as if the Jedi were in service to the New Republic.”
“That was uncalled for, Senator,” Shesh said in rebuke.
But Skywalker appeared indifferent to Praget’s remark. “We will discuss it,” he said at last. “Personally, though, I can say that I’m eager to meet with the priestess.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment, then Shesh spoke up once more. “Colonel Kalenda, what is the nature of the intelligence Elan furnished?”
“The Yuuzhan Vong’s next target—Ord Mantell.”
With her back to the gentle sea that washed Worlport’s sand-fringed southern coast, Leia took a moment to gaze at the buttes that soared from the smog-blanketed northern wastes, out past the expansive junkyards, all the way to Ten Mile Plateau. Her view from the transparisteel crown of Ord Mantell’s Government House—site of the Conclave on the Plight of the Refugees—encompassed much of the vertiginous capital city as well, with its once grand examples of Corellian classic-revival architecture. However, most of the ornate spires, great sweeping colonnades, and huge rotundas, with their tall round-topped arches, monolithic lintels, and carved entablatures, were now engulfed by a sprawl of ersatz rococo domes and obelisks, which catered to the banal tastes of the gamblers and hedonists who frequented the planet in droves, and the whole of it was fissured by a labyrinth of narrow stairways, curving ramps, sheltered bridges, and dank tunnels.
Easy to lose your way in that maze, Leia told herself, as indeed she had