Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [102]
Unexpectedly, a graphic display appeared in the air over the handle—a hollow wire-frame cube made up of smaller, transparent cubes five high, five across, and five deep. As Anakin manipulated the joystick, the grid of smaller cubes began to take on color—greens and purple—to the accompaniment of activation tones.
Everyone but Thrackan was speechless. “You’ve done it, boy, you’ve done it,” he enthused.
Anakin moved the control stick forward, and a cube of blazing orange appeared. He experimented with minute adjustments that made the cube flicker or brighten. Then he pulled the stick down as hard as he could.
Indicators registered an incredible burst of power, and the control room began to shudder. In Hollowtown, Glowpoint came alive and a display of blinding lightning blazed from it to the South Conical Mountains.
“The station is reorienting!” a technician reported.
“It’s armed!” Antone exclaimed in awe. “It’s capable of firing!”
A dozen separate conversations broke out in the control room, silenced only by the arrival of the New Republic officer in command of the project.
“An urgent message from Commenor,” the colonel announced to Sal-Solo and Antone. “Yuuzhan Vong advance elements are departing Hutt space. Fleet Intelligence estimates thirty-six standard hours until they’re at our doorstep.”
In groups of three and four, at times escorted by gunboats and squadrons of Miy’til fighters or vintage X-wings, the warships of the Hapan fleet reverted to realspace over the planet Commenor, on the Rimward edge of the Core. Arrayed in a sweeping arc, the sleek Nova-class battle cruisers and Olanjii/Charubah double-saucered Battle Dragons were a vibrantly colored counterpoint to the New Republic’s fleet of Star Destroyers, lumpish Mon Calamari vessels, and unembellished Bothan warships.
Gazing at the assembled armada from the shuttle that was conveying her and Isolder from the prince’s deep-carnelian Song of War to Commodore Brand’s flagship, Leia felt as if she and everyone she held dear were trapped in the current of a tumultuous river that was sweeping them into unknown regions, scattering some, leaving many abandoned on ravaged shores, and carrying others over the falls to oblivion … The feeling had accompanied her from Hapes, troubling her through all the long hours of talk with Isolder, who was seemingly as enthralled by the prospect of going to war with the Yuuzhan Vong as he had been by the chance to trade punches and kicks with Beed Thane.
“True to our pirate roots, the Hapans prefer swift, ruthless strikes,” he had told Leia more than once during the voyage. “Hurt an enemy at the start of an engagement and he is yours, for as the fight progresses, his fear of you will intensify and will become your ally.”
Each time he said it, Leia had recalled Ithor and Gyndine, and the ruthless tactics the Yuuzhan Vong had employed. But the real source of her apprehension was the vision she had had following the Consortium’s vote. Whenever she shut her eyes, vague images of destruction played at the edges of her awareness, as if massing for a full-scale assault. Anyone else might have been able to explain the dark images as owing to concerns for the lives of close friends and loved ones, but Leia was too attuned to the Force to dismiss them so expediently. She was convinced that the Force had shown her a possible future, while declining to provide her with a clear sense of just which paths were to be avoided. It helped slightly to be home, but in fact, proximity to Coruscant had not alleviated her anxiety. And she had yet to hear from Han, not even by a message delivered through the kids or Luke.
“What power we have marshaled,” Isolder said from the shuttle’s passenger cabin window, where he stood with his fingers pressed to the transparisteel panel. “I doubt that even the Yuuzhan Vong would fail to be impressed.”
“Oh, they’d be impressed,