Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [84]
Skidder’s eyes, nearly swollen shut, managed to narrow slightly. “How long do you think the Yuuzhan Vong are going to tolerate your illicit ventures?”
Randa grinned. “My sense of the Yuuzhan Vong is that they have more tolerance for ‘outlaws,’ as you say, than they do for followers of the Force.” He laughed resonantly. “How does it feel to be seen as the chief impediment to progress, a purveyor of rampant evil? Soon, perhaps, you’ll know what it’s like to be hunted and preyed upon, as the Hutts have been in times past.”
Skidder returned Randa’s grin. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and the Yuuzhan Vong will turn that matter over to Borga.”
“Wouldn’t that be the height of irony—that the Hutts should be entrusted with safeguarding the peace and ensuring that justice triumphs?” Randa laughed again. “So long as we can continue to supply spice, I don’t suppose it would be too arduous a responsibility.”
“Your mother would be proud of you, Randa.”
“Your mother,” Chine-kal interrupted as he stormed into the hold, “has succeeded in spoiling my surprise.”
Perplexed, Randa pivoted to the commander.
“Actually, I have you to blame, Randa,” Chine-kal said when he reached the inhibition field. “You told Borga that I had managed to flush out a Jedi, and in turn Borga told my immediate superiors, who now wish to deprive me of the honor of presenting this one”—he gestured to Skidder—“to my superior’s superior.”
Randa’s eyes grew wide. “You mean that he is to be removed from the ship?”
“Presently.”
“But what of your plans to use him to tutor the yammosk in the ways of the Force?”
Chine-kal shrugged. “I will propose as much, and, who knows, this one may yet return to my care. In the meantime I’m certain that Supreme Commander Choka will find other uses for him.” He took a step back to gauge Skidder. “It might be prudent to break you before we surrender you to him. Early in our campaign, the Praetorite Vong applied the breaking to one of you, but that one tried to escape and had to be killed before the process was brought to completion. Did you know him, Jedi?”
Skidder tested the vigor of the dovin basals by moving to the edge of the field. “He was my friend.”
“Your friend?” Chine-kal said in surprise. “And now here you are. Perhaps you came to avenge him?” He paused, then smiled in revelation. “You did. You purposely allowed yourself to be captured on Gyndine, intent on seizing an opportunity to avenge him. But how could you have known that we had a yammosk aboard? And no wonder the yammosk took to you the way it did! Here I thought that my experiment was succeeding brilliantly, when you were effectively running your own experiment.”
Skidder said nothing.
Chine-kal looked at Randa. “I was under the impression that vengeance was outside the operating parameters of the Jedi Knights. Or is this one of the dark side?”
Randa shook his head. “He is not of the dark side, Commander. He and his kind simply take a more liberal approach to defending the peace.”
Chine-kal grew serious. “In that case, it is incumbent on me to purge him of some of his hatred before he is released. I won’t have Supreme Commander Choka getting more than he bargained for.”
Chine-kal turned and headed for the passageway. “Finish your business with him, Randa,” he added without turning around. “It’s unlikely you will see him again.”
Randa watched the commander leave the hold, then he pressed himself as close to the inhibition field as possible. “They’re planning to betray me!” he whispered harshly. “To subject me to the yammosk as they did with you! Help me, Jedi. Save me from them, and I will do anything you ask of me!”
TWENTY
“They forged what?” Han asked.
Baffle’s auditory sensors were capable of perceiving the merest whisper, but the question—-pumped up by puzzlement—could be heard over the clamor in the spaceport terminal.
“Travel vouchers of some sort,” Baffle said distractedly.