Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [103]
She wanted to throw it at him, but resisted. She might cause more effective damage later. “I hope you can add a set of Ssi-ruu teeth soon.” She tried to sound cool.
“Yes, interesting that they have beaks with teeth.” He cleared his throat. “I prefer taking specimens from individuals I have hunted down myself, of course. The Rebel princess seems to have left my hospitality for the moment. She must be punished for defying orders. My dental specialist is not gentle.”
Fiend, she thought at him. She’d play along, and she’d be the snake in his picnic basket for now, but Wilek Nereus would pay for his crimes. She swallowed hard to choke down a cough. This was the wrong time to catch a virus. He opened his hand, and she tossed back the crystal.
“Admirable diplomacy, Senator. Outstanding reserve under pressure. Did you get a good look at the weapon they shot you with?”
Gaeriel described it while Nereus passed the crystal from hand to hand. As she finished, she thought of Eppie Belden again. If this Ssi-ruuk attack failed, Eppie would need another opportunity. “Governor, please reconsider allowing a public funeral for Senator Belden. Bakura needs—”
“It does not need any more public gatherings. No. The curfew stands.” He stared, abruptly giving her the impression he was waiting for something.
“What did the Empire do to Madam Belden?” she asked, to distract him.
He arched a thick eyebrow. “Did the Empire do something to her? Let me check my records.” His fingers skated over an inset desktop panel. Gaeri leaned forward. “What do you think of my desk?” he asked. “A single slab of tooth ivory.”
That was a tooth? A meter and a half in diameter, it implied a monstrous mouth. “Sea-going creature?” she asked at a guess. The urge to cough was getting stronger.
Nereus nodded. “Now extinct. Here we are. Ah.” He smiled slowly. “Madam Belden was scheduled for termination. Her husband agreed to permanent incapacitation as the price of keeping her companionship.”
Gaeriel clenched her hands. Orn Belden had … agreed … to let the Empire …? She didn’t want to believe it. She was suddenly thankful Orn Belden had died, so she couldn’t ask him if it were true.
“And evidently she submitted to protect him. Oh, yes,” he added, studying his screen. “I had forgotten specifics. We used a tiny creature native to the Jospro sector, which parasitizes the neocortex of the brain. It scars the region, suppressing long-term memory to a comfortably moderate extent. Easy and painless to introduce, and she and her husband could go on keeping company. Quite the loving couple, for their age. Go ahead and cough, my dear. Your forehead is turning pink.”
“I don’t need to.” She gulped.
He folded his hands on the ivory desktop. “How much of that meal did you share with Commander Skywalker?”
The pit of her stomach turned to lead. That meal … “What do you mean?” she asked.
He flipped one hand. The gesture looked careless and calculating, but his fingers quivered. “When Skywalker’s apartment guards reported that you’d gone inside, I naturally began tracing signals attributed to your ID number. I intercepted your request for a meal, sent to your quarters … good try, my dear, but you failed. I had the main dish inoculated at the kitchens. Your actions, like your questions, mark you as a Rebel collaborator.”
What had Nereus done? Was she going to die? Was Luke? Surely he wouldn’t have told her what he’d done, if he simply meant to kill her. Once she’d steadied herself, she asked numbly, “What is it? Another parasite?”
He smiled slowly. “The Olabrian Trichoid lays pods of three eggs in ripening fruit. Larvae hatch in a host’s stomach, then migrate to the lungs while the host sleeps. They remain there for a day or two, while they grow and the mouthparts develop. Then they start nibbling