Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [97]
On her first recon pass she had recognized the shuttle for what it was, but only just barely. The landing gear were extended and the wings locked up. Because the shuttles were never seen in flight that way, it seemed out of place drifting there.
That impression was aided by the fact that all sorts of growths covered the shuttle. Jaina made runs close enough for visual contact—to see if there was a pilot at the controls—and the growths reminded her of algae and barnacles, just crusty things spreading over the shuttle’s hull. A fairly thick concentration of them covered the landing ramp’s outline, leading Jaina to wonder how the recovery team would open it.
Once the shuttle was pulled into the landing bay, the X-wings were ordered to land, then technicians in biohazard suits had hustled Anni and her from the bay. The both of them got scanned for alien life-forms, were pronounced clean, and allowed to wait in the ready room or head into one of the galleys to get something to eat. Anni ran off, and Jaina was fairly certain she’d have found a sabacc game somewhere and in no time at all would be stripping crew members of whatever the Remnant used for credits.
Jaina decided to stay and watch. She remembered Elegos well from traveling with him, her mother, and Danni before she joined the squadron. The quiet calm he possessed amazed her. It didn’t seem so much that he ignored the outside world, or was able to override emotions through logic, but that he looked at any problem, saw the core of it, and dealt with that instead of getting detoured by distractions.
In flying recon on the shuttle she’d heard the continuous looping of Elegos’s voice. It sounded normal and even happy, but something about it disturbed her. She was hoping she’d see Elegos at the controls, or be able to sense him on board the shuttle, but nothing. Of course, before the appearance of the shuttle, she’d not known about Elegos’s mission to the Yuuzhan Vong, and she was pretty certain that part of her shock at learning about it was what was tainting her feelings about the shuttle.
“What they have done there is unusual.”
She turned as Jag Fel entered the pilot room. He wore a black flight suit with red stripes on the sleeves and legs. He wasn’t as formal as he had been at the reception, but neither did he seem casual. Looking at him, she would have refused to believe he was Wedge’s nephew if not for the resemblance around the eyes and nose.
“Pretty much everything the Yuuzhan Vong do is unusual, as far as I’m concerned.” Jaina folded her arms across her chest and looked back at the deck. “They’ve spent an hour scanning the thing. I can’t imagine there is much more they can learn without cracking it open.”
“There isn’t. That’s not what they are doing.” Fel came and stood beside her, his reflection easily visible in the transparisteel over the viewport. “They don’t know what is in there, and they’re just making sure that if it’s harmful, they don’t get blamed for releasing it.”
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing to be cautious.”
He shook his head. “They know they cannot be certain of what is in there. All they can do is reduce uncertainty to statistically insignificant levels. What they are wasting is time. We are at war. There is no absence of risk. There are times when one just has to do what needs to be done to win.”
Jaina turned and looked at him. “In theory you’re only two years older than me, but you’re talking like you’re old enough to be my dad.”
He nodded once. “Forgive me. I was judging you based on your accomplishments, not your age.”
She blinked and felt anger spike. “What is that supposed to mean?”
The flesh around Fel’s eyes hardened. “You are a Jedi. You are a superior pilot in an elite