Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [101]
At the rubble pile’s edge, Jaina tripped and went down, scraping her hands and knees. Jacen helped her back to her feet.
“I’m all right,” she insisted. She scrambled inside.
Jacen stood in the roofless entry, momentarily at a loss.
Then he heard scrambling and puffing noises from his left. He spun in that direction, following Jaina, who’d heard them first.
Two fallen duracrete slabs lay on the floor. He saw a gap between them, wide enough to squeeze through. The scrambling sounds were coming from down there.
“Jacen,” his mother’s voice called. “Jaina?”
“Coming.” Jaina dropped to hands and knees beside the gap, slipped in feetfirst, then vanished.
Jacen followed, dropping into darkness. He almost pitched forward, but someone caught him.
“Thanks,” he puffed.
His mom’s voice answered. “Go. Hurry.”
Jaina shuffled forward. He imitated her gait to keep from tripping on fallen stones. The passage dropped steadily, toward a dim glow on rough-cut rock.
Jaina rounded the corner first. Jacen followed. He thought he heard Leia behind them.
In a sizable room at the T junction of two tunnels twenty Ryn huddled. Some wore blue SELCORE flight suits under their culottes and vests, their faces almost humorously stubble-covered. A pair of glow lamps threw faint shadows on the rocky walls. Up the right branch, he heard muffled voices and saw a longer lineup of faces—many shapes, shades, and sizes—disappearing in a dark distance.
The digging noises came from up the T’s other branch. At the junction, Han stood next to another Ryn in SELCORE blue draped with culottes.
“Romany?” Jacen murmured, not quite sure.
“Hey, baldy.” Yep. Romany’s voice.
Han stepped to Leia’s side. The flap of his battered leather helmet dangled alongside his chin. “End of the line, for the moment.”
Leia pulled away, glowering at Jacen. “There’s a tunnel punched through to the old mines, from the admin building—”
Han raised a hand. “This one’s almost through, and the Vong are more likely headed there. I’m in charge of this group. They’ve been running chewers down here day and night. Only about four meters to go, but if we run machinery now, we’ll bring sacrifice hunters down on our heads.”
Leia glanced up the tunnel. “Yes, but we were using the mining laser. It’s on a repulsorsled. And I’ve got a GOCU transmitter set up over there, patched through to a surface antenna. We could’ve transmitted out, over there.”
So that was why she’d kept it guarded. “Want me to go back for the laser?” Jacen offered.
“No,” said Leia—and Han.
“Now it’s pick work.” Han jerked his head up the left branch. “We’re taking shifts. We’ll be through in an hour, maybe two.”
She sank onto a rock pile. “I can’t sit and wait that long,” she muttered. “Did you hear, Han? They got the crawlers. All three.”
“I heard.” Han looked away. Jacen thought he’d seen a furry ghost peer out through his eyes.
“But Luke and Mara are topside,” Leia reported, “with Anakin. They’ll give us an escort outsystem if we can get these people to ships. And I need someone on that GOCU link.”
Jacen nodded. Along one wall of this stone chamber, the Ryn had piled water containers and crates labeled TRAVEL BISCUITS. Among the refugees—mostly shaved, but some as hairy as ever—he spotted two human families. A huddle of Vors, too. As usual, the mothers held their children close, away from the Ryn—but this time, they’d trusted the Ryn with their lives.
Abruptly he missed someone. “Where’s Randa?”
“He didn’t follow us?” Leia asked. “Frankly, I wasn’t watching him. Basbakhan will keep an eye on him.”
“I don’t even care,” Jaina said, and no one contradicted her.
Jacen edged toward Han and Droma, who were talking with Mezza.
“From the other end,” Mezza said, “we’ve traced a route to the SELCORE ship lot. The minute