Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [35]
Skidder glanced at Roa. “Did you know about this?”
The old man returned a grim nod.
“As the yammosk becomes more accustomed to your touch,” Chine-kal was saying, “it may wish to touch you back, especially on the chest, upper back, neck, and face. You will allow it to do so. It may take no interest in some of you; with others it may find a deep affinity. In either case, I caution you not to resist its telepathic probes, for you risk injuring yourself as much as the yammosk. Resistance could very well result in madness or death. Laugh, cry, scream if you must, but do not resist.”
“He’s not kidding,” Roa said with sudden solemnity. He looked intently at Sapha, then Skidder. “Try to keep your mind blank, otherwise it will pursue your thoughts like a predator chasing the first meal of the day. That’s where you can lose your way. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen more than once.”
Skidder had been doing his best to hide his Jediness, his strength in the Force, the events that had motivated him to be captured, his wish to avenge his fallen comrades. Faced with Chine-kal’s revelation, however, he suddenly couldn’t help but recall what Danni Quee had told him of the way the Yuuzhan Vong had used a yammosk to break Miko. Nor could he suppress his urgency to make contact with his fellow Jedi and apprise them of the enemy’s latest plan.
He turned slightly to gaze at the yammosk’s eyes, and those ink-black organs seemed to gaze back at him. The tentacle beneath his hands rippled, and its blunt tip rose from the nutrient to wrap around Skidder’s shoulders.
Roa, Sapha, and the others fell back in surprise.
“Why, Keyn, you fortunate soul,” Roa said after a moment, “I do believe the yammosk has taken a liking to you.”
EIGHT
From the rear of Lorell Hall on Hapes, Leia was a bright white speck against the blue-black of the night sky, visible through the towering panoramic windows at her back. Rising at a sharp angle from the ramparts of the sandstone bluff that dominated the capital city, the assembly hall enjoyed a breathtaking view of the Transitory Mists and, just now, four of the planet’s seven moons. So seamless was the illusion, that people seated in the lower-tier seats might have easily imagined themselves aboard a space vessel, advancing on the star that was Ambassador Organa Solo.
“Esteemed representatives of the Hapes Consortium of worlds,” she began in a voice that surrendered none of its resolve even in the farthest reaches of the hall. “Eighteen years ago, following the New Republic’s conquest of Imperial Center, I came before you to solicit financial support for a fledgling government bankrupted by war and plagued by an insidious virus that was killing thousands of nonhumans with each passing day.
“That visit unlocked a gateway between our respective regions of space that had been sealed for the previous three thousand years but has remained open ever since. In fact, not long after my initial visit, the Consortium graced Coruscant with a stay, during which you bestowed upon us treasures we had scarcely dreamed existed—rainbow gems, thought puzzles, and trees of wisdom, along with a dozen Star Destroyers you had captured from Imperial warlords who had sought to intrude on your domain.
“It was thought then that the New Republic and the Consortium might enter into an alliance through matrimony—though destiny had other unions in store for the would-be partners in that marriage.”
Gracious laughter and hushed exchanges swept through the audience, and scattered clapping modulated to extended applause.
Leia took the opportunity to glance behind and to the right, where Prince Isolder was leaning forward in expectation of just such an acknowledgment.