Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 11_ Dark Journey - Elaine Cunningham [38]
A crack fissured through the pod, and a chunk of coral tumbled into Tenel Ka’s lap. She pushed it aside and un-clipped her lightsaber from her belt.
“Stand aside,” she ordered, marveling at how cool and controlled her voice sounded.
A rich, glowing turquoise light leapt from Tenel Ka’s lightsaber. She made short work of cutting through the hull and then rose quickly, her weapon held unthreateningly low but ready, just in case.
At least a dozen people gathered around the pod, all of them human, all of them recognizably Hapan. Tenel Ka’s long-ago ancestors had been pirates who vied with each other to find and capture the most beautiful mates possible. What started as a peculiar measure of cultural status became a sort of selective breeding. In general, the people of Hapes were taller and more attractive than inhabitants of other worlds in the Hapes Cluster. All of her rescuers were tall and fair, though some looked decidedly the worse for wear.
They stood silent, perhaps from the surprise of finding a Jedi warrior instead of the expected Yuuzhan Vong. Tenel Ka’s cool gray eyes swept over them.
Several of the crew wore crimson, which proclaimed them members of the royal guard. She noted several hard-knock civilians, too, all of them wearing worn or faded red clothing. Even those who sported the white uniform of the Consortium Navy had some bit of red about them, even if just an enameled pendant or a bandanna. This ersatz statement of solidarity set off warning sensors in the back of her mind.
“What is this ship?” she demanded.
One of the men, a tall blond man who bore a faint resemblance to her father, gave her a mocking bow. “Welcome to the Starsprite, Princess. You’re aboard a Beta Cruiser, formerly of the Hapan navy.”
Tenel Ka’s eyes narrowed as she took this in. The Beta Cruiser was a small battleship, far more maneuverable than the much-larger Hapes Nova-class cruisers. They’d been employed in large numbers at Fondor. Few had survived. Most likely the crew of this one was a diverse company of survivors: deserters from the Battle of Fondor as well as smugglers who saw their livelihood being swallowed by the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.
She wasn’t surprised at his greeting. Not many Hapans would fail to recognize a one-armed Jedi with redgold hair as their reluctant princess. Since they were pirates and deserters—not exactly men and women of honor—Tenel Ka assumed they planned to ransom her for the best deal they could get. But even as this thought formed, it was pushed aside by the animosity that radiated from them all.
Understanding flooded her in a quick, scalding rush. “You are Ni’Korish,” she snarled, naming the faction inspired by her great-grandmother, a queen mother who hated the Jedi and had done her best to eradicate them. “I heard rumors of an attempted coup, an attack by cowards who lurk in shadows. That would be you?”
Her captor responded with a mocking bow.
“Tell me, how did the Ni’Korish fare? Is my mother yet alive?” she demanded.
“Regrettably, yes,” the leader returned. “But she won’t hold the throne for long.”
Tenel Ka sent him a grim smile. “You do her an injustice if you think she will abdicate in exchange for my return, and you insult me if you suggest I would buy my freedom at that price.”
He returned her smile, but his was even harder and held a reptilian leer. “We would never insult the queen mother or her Jedi daughter. The Yuuzhan Vong, however, are not so concerned with matters of honor and protocol.”
His meaning was clear. Tenel Ka’s lightsaber snapped up to guard position. “I will not be taken.”
“Princess, you wound me!” he protested, placing one hand over his heart. “We will return you to Hapes unharmed. Although we might be deserters, we are not traitors. All we require is your assistance in hunting down Jacen and Jaina Solo. If you’re a true princess of Hapes, you’ll gladly help us repay those who turned Centerpoint upon the Hapan