Star Wars_ The New Rebellion - Kristine Kathryn Rusch [152]
Nothing.
Just as there was no one in this bay.
The planet felt deserted. That was what had bothered her.
Even the bay, now that she looked at it closely, appeared unattended, as if no one had been in it for a long, long time. Tiles were falling out of the wall, and the Alderaan had kicked up dust as she slid into place. No one monitored the doors, or the nearby skies. If she had flown into a building, no one would have warned her.
For a planet that had just declared war on the New Republic, that seemed decidedly odd.
Unless Kueller was using the tricks that the Rebels had used during the fight against the Empire. Do the unexpected. Always catch them off-guard.
It would mean that he had an inferior fighting force. Small forces always used commando tactics. It gave them the advantage.
She suddenly wished she could contact Wedge. His attack would be different if he knew that Kueller had few resources. She would order an all-out fight. But if Wedge thought Kueller had a lot of ships, he might try strategy, he might start working according to all the battle orders that the military on Coruscant had developed over the years.
She could sense no one around. She took her lightsaber, and her blaster, and set the Alderaan’s internal alarms. She also set the self-destruct, should anyone other than the handful of authorized people overpower the alarms. Luke and Wedge were the only people nearby who could use the ship.
Then she got out.
The air smelled stale. Every movement she made kicked up dust. The equipment was rusted; the computer panels were ripped open. This bay was not abandoned; it had been murdered. Someone intended it never to be used again.
Leia went to the bay doors. They were jammed open. Tiny footprints in the dust showed that some creatures had gotten use out of the area, but probably not the creatures the area had been designed for. She stepped outside into the fading light, and saw dozens of buildings, all in a state of disrepair.
It looked as if no one had lived on Almania in a long, long time.
Yet she could feel Luke. He seemed much closer. And she could feel other presences as well. They seemed far away, and she couldn’t tell how many of them there were.
She would have to follow the feeling to find him.
Someone was watching her.
She whirled, the feeling as startling as if she had seen someone run across the street. But she was alone. She could see no one, feel no one, hear no one. Nothing had changed except the sudden crawling of her skin; the way the hair on the back of her neck rose. She dropped her hand so that it was close to her blaster, an old, practiced, nervous move.
The shadows in the bay were deep, but they didn’t move. She heard no breathing, saw nothing glinting in the darkness.
She was alone.
Someone was watching her.
Surveillance? But all the obvious signs of it were ruined. The broken walkways around the doors, the shattered glass. Something terrible had happened to this place, and she didn’t know what it was. But she knew it precluded the standard forms of surveillance.
She took a deep breath, unwilling to leave the Alderaan, but knowing that she had to. Maybe the sense she had gotten had come from Luke.
Maybe it had come from Kueller.
It had probably come from Kueller. He wanted her here. He had shown her Luke, had sent her messages right from the start. And her arrival had been too easy.
Perhaps that made her the most nervous of all. Someone should have noticed her. Someone should have prevented her from flying onto Almania. Someone should have come after her by now.
But she had no choice. She was on this course. Together she and Luke would be stronger than Kueller.
She had to remember that.
The key, of course, would be to find Luke.
Before Kueller killed him.
Forty-one
Wedge stood in the command post of the Yavin, his legs spread, his hands clasped behind his back. His station was on a slight