Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [75]
“The Solo kids have arrived on Drall. Anakin Solo is the one who originally enabled the repulsor there, and the Centerpoint technicians have high confidence he’ll be able to do the same with the station. At this point they’re down to fine-tuning the thing anyway, making certain it will perform as expected, in lieu of running actual tests, for fear of alarming Corellia, Drall, Selonia, and the rest. Although that hardly matters, since rumors of all sorts have been circulating. Riots have broken out in Coronet, Meccha, and L’pwacc Den Port, and there’s widespread talk of ousting Governor-General Marcha.”
Brand nodded glumly. “Well, if this works, Corellia will be seen as the galaxy’s savior, and any hard feelings should disappear.” He turned back to the slowly gyrating 3-D map. “Alert Core Command on a need-to-know basis that elements of the Third Fleet should be prepared to jump for Kuat on my order. Likewise, that elements of the Second Fleet should be prepared to jump for Ralltiir.” He inserted his hand into the holoprojector’s cone of light. “Furthermore, I want the hyperspace routes linking Corellia to Kuat, Ralltiir, and Bothawui swept for the Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of mines or mass-shadow weapons.”
Brand turned and glanced around the room. “With Centerpoint’s interdiction field holding them fast and a full fleet at their back, the Yuuzhan Vong will regret the day they entered this galaxy.”
EIGHTEEN
Archon Thane’s words could barely be heard for all the outcries of shame and disapproval. Regardless, he stood tall before his sixty-two peers, most of whom were female, proudly displaying the bruises he had earned in the honor duel with Isolder and convincingly unapologetic for having gambled away Vergill’s vote on the outcome of that contest. Thane’s audacity was not surprising, but where Leia had expected bitterness and sarcasm, his words in support of the New Republic sounded almost sincere.
Many in the vast hall were certain that Vergill’s vote would provide Teneniel Djo with the majority she needed to mandate military action against the Yuuzhan Vong, but Leia no longer had a clear sense of her own objectives. While the Consortium’s entry into the war might turn out to be pivotal, allegations of personal interest and conspiracy threatened to undermine not only the political process, but also the long-standing alliance between the Consortium and the New Republic.
To the exasperation of C-3PO, who insisted on trying to match her long strides and divine her sudden about-faces, Leia paced nervously behind the scenes in a small chamber that looked out on the speaker’s rostrum. If nothing else, she told herself, the vote would at least conclude her visit to Hapes, which had become more trying as the days had worn on, both at Reef Fortress and the Fountain Palace. She felt hopelessly removed from the activities that had become most important to her. Hapes had begun to seem a place of exile, and an imaginary one at that—a land of dragons and rainbow gems, of trees of wisdom and Guns of Command—and the brawl between Isolder and Thane had been one thing too much.
She had yet to spend any private time with the prince, and if she had her way, she wouldn’t. From the start she had feared that Isolder had misconstrued the nature of her mission to Hapes, and Ta’a Chume’s telling her that she would have been an ideal wife for him had only made things more awkward and complicated. The fate of the galaxy no longer turned on courtly intrigues, and Leia wanted no part of the Hapans’ enslavement to them.
Marooned in the past, in a swirl of distant memories, she longed more than anything to hear from Han. She knew that Jaina was with Rogue Squadron, and that Anakin and Jacen were bound for the Corellian system—if they weren’t there already—but she had no idea where Han was. Countless times each day, he would come swaggering into her thoughts, quick to bring disarray. Although it wasn’t the Han of