Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [23]
Leia took her lower lip between her teeth in disquiet. “How are you two getting along?”
He snorted. “If I didn’t owe him my life, I’d probably jettison him right here.”
“I’m sure,” Leia said quietly.
“By the way, you might want to pass along to the fleet office that a flotilla of Yuuzhan Vong ships was spotted near Osarian. Couple of destroyer analogs and—”
“Han,” she said, cutting him off. “Droma’s sister is on Gyndine.”
He sat bolt upright. “What? How do you know that?”
“Because some of his clanmates are among the group evacuated from Gyndine. There wasn’t time to take everyone, and his sister was one of at least six Ryn I was forced to leave behind. I didn’t know until we’d already transferred everyone to the transports.”
“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Han demanded.
“Because there’s nothing either of us can do about it. Gyndine’s occupied.”
“There are ways around that,” Han mumbled distractedly.
Leia compressed her lips. “You are infuriatingly predictable.”
“And you worry too much.”
“Someone has to.”
“Leia, will you be there for a while—on Ralltiir?”
She shook her head. “We’ll be leaving for Ruan, if I have any say in the matter. Then I’m going to Hapes.”
“Hapes?” Han said in incredulity. “And you accuse me of putting myself in the thick of things? Why there of all places?”
“With any luck, to enlist the Consortium’s help. The New Republic fleets are spread too thinly to defend the Colonies, let alone the Core. And now with Bilbringi, Corellia, perhaps even Bothawui endangered, we need all the support we can rally. Which reminds me, Han, Admiral Sovv has asked Anakin to go to Corellia to help in reenabling Centerpoint Station.”
He snorted. “It’s about time the New Republic started considering Corellia’s defense.”
“Then you’re all right with his going—without either of us?”
“How old were you when you agreed to carry the technical readouts of the Death Star? Which of us is watching over Jaina when she flies with Rogue Squadron?”
“But—”
“Besides, Anakin’s a Jedi.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Leia said, clearly unconvinced.
Han smiled ambiguously. “Be sure to say hello to Prince Isolder for me.”
“Why don’t you come with me to Hapes and tell him in person?”
He laughed at the idea. “What, and spoil your fun?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He started to reply but bit back whatever he had in mind to say, and began again. “Is there any hope for the folks you couldn’t extract from Gyndine?”
Leia shut her eyes and shook her head. “I’m not sure any of them even survived.”
“I am Chine-kal, commander of the vessel you find yourselves aboard,” the Yuuzhan Vong officer announced in expert Basic as he meandered slowly among the immobilized and shackled beings captured on Gyndine.
Slender and of towering height, he wore a turban in which a winged creature was nested, its round black eyes mere centimeters above Chine-kal’s own and identical to them. His command cloak, too, had a mind of its own, not so much trailing along the hold’s pliant deck as in tow. The designs that twined around his forearms were of a decidedly beastly motif, though of a menagerie unknown to any of the captives, and the fingers of his elongated hands sported curving talons.
“This vessel, which answers to the name Crèche in your traders’ tongue, is to be your world for the foreseeable future. In time, the purpose of its sphere cluster design will be made clear to you. But even while you grapple with its mysteries, I want you to think of it as your home, and of myself and my crew as your parents and teachers. For you, all of you, have been selected from Ord Mantell’s and Gyndine’s defeated multitudes to execute a singular service.”
Chine-kal stopped in front of Wurth Skidder, perhaps by chance, though Skidder preferred to think that some of his true nature, a touch of the Force, bled through the mental blanket he’d thrown over his identity. Behind the commander walked the tunic-wearing