Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [83]
She caught a gust of concern out of Luke.
Jaina spoke up from beside the window. “Let me guess. All their brightest and best, suddenly taking vacations at lovely Urrdorf.”
Luke turned away from the readout.
“What?” Mara demanded.
“Jacen’s with Brarun. He could be in danger.”
Jaina pushed away from the window.
Luke raised a hand. “Not for a while, though, I think.”
“Brarun’s being cagey?” Mara demanded.
Luke nodded. “We’re all seeing the same pattern. Someone is about to sell out the SELCORE refugees and make a run for it. For the moment, Jacen wants to stay where he is.”
Mara shook her head.
“We’ve got to call for another downside evacuation, and somehow do it without tipping off the Peace Brigade. I’d guess they’ve promised the Yuuzhan Vong several thousand prisoners for sacrifice.” Luke rubbed his chin. “Unless …” He trailed off.
Mara cleared her throat.
“Unless it’s not the refugees they mean to sacrifice, but the Duros in orbit. They could use the refugees as slaves. We’ve seen that before. And think about this. If the Yuuzhan Vong occupied Duro, they could hit the Core from here.”
Mara firmed her lips. Worse and worse.
“Mara, Jaina, did you get any kind of information on SELCORE while you were down there?”
Mara frowned. “What do you mean?”
“They may have been infiltrated,” he said.
“Let me think.” Mara shut her eyes. “Nothing obvious so far. Just what seems to be a normal set of bureaucratic problems.”
Luke laid a hand on R2-D2’s dome. “Artoo, you can break into the outsystem military net, can’t you?”
The droid warbled in a major key, sounding confident.
Luke pulled a comlink out of one pocket and handed it to Anakin. “And I want you to connect this with Artoo’s manipulator arm.”
Whistling cheerily, R2-D2 plugged himself back in. Mara watched her husband. In Lando’s terms, ten to one he was going to try to contact the military on Coruscant without alerting SELCORE.
She wrapped her hand around his arm, squeezed tightly, and headed for the refresher to clean up and wash the tint out of her hair.
When she came out again, Luke was sitting close to R2-D2’s temporarily modified manipulator arm.
“Hamner,” Luke said urgently. “Kenth, are you there? This is Skywalker.”
A sleepy groan came out of the comlink. Luke smiled ruefully up at Mara, then turned back to R2-D2.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Kenth, we’re getting indications that the Yuuzhan Vong could be getting ready to hit Duro, and it’s too vital a system to lose. If millions of lives weren’t reason enough, it’s actually inside the Core. From here, they could block trade on the Spine, too.”
“I know, I know,” the sleepy voice muttered.
“Is there any way you can get a battle group sent?”
She heard another groan. “Try SELCORE—”
“There’s a good chance,” Luke said, “that SELCORE is part of the problem. I know, the forces are already spread thin. Do what you can, Kenth. May the Force be with you.”
“Right.” Hamner’s voice was heavy with static. “You, too.”
Luke thumbed off the comlink. “Good,” he grunted, straightening his legs to stand slowly. “Well done, Anakin. You, too, Artoo.”
The droid trilled. Anakin took back the comlink and sat down on the bed, fiddling with its components.
Luke slumped against the wall, bowing his head, rubbing his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Mara asked. “You got off a warning.”
He shot Jaina a glance. “Jacen,” he said simply. Then he crossed his arms. “And I’m not looking forward to flying escort to another retreat under fire.”
“I don’t even have a ship here,” Jaina complained.
“I’ve got Shadow, and I’ll need a copilot,” Mara reminded her. “Stick with me.”
Jaina nodded somberly.
Anakin snapped the cover back onto the comlink and handed it up to Luke. “Before things get wild,” Anakin said, “we ought to try to find Thrynni Vae again. We didn’t accomplish much by going out in disguise.”
Looking amused, Luke pocketed the comlink. “Do you think we’d do better, declaring ourselves?”
Anakin