Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [12]
“We would love to meet them. But we won’t deny you this joy.” Dev let his spirit center float over the stranger’s fear, then pressed it down like a comforting blanket. Once the P’w’ecks had securely anchored the restraint bands, Dev relaxed his grip and rubbed his back. Firwirrung’s right foreclaw jabbed upward, placing one IV. He had not sterilized the needles. It was unnecessary.
At last, the prisoner sat helpless and ready. Clear liquid dripped out of one eye and a corner of his mouth. The servopump sent magnetizing fluid up the IVs.
Another liberated soul, another droid ship ready to help take the human Empire.
Trying to ignore the prisoner’s wet face and enervating terror, Dev rested a slim brown hand on his left shoulder. “It’ll be all right,” he said softly. “There’s no pain. You have a wonderful surprise ahead of you.”
At last all the day’s prisoners were safely enteched—except one female, who slipped free of the servant P’w’ecks and dashed her head against a bulkhead before Dev could catch her. After several minutes’ effort at revival, Master Firwirrung’s head and tail drooped. “No use,” he whistled regretfully. “Sad waste. Recycle it.”
Dev cleaned up. Entechment was noble work, and he keenly felt the honor of involvement, even if his role was merely that of a servant who could Force calm the subjects. He slipped his paddle-shaped beamer into the underside of an overhead storage shelf, with its flattened topside up, then pressed its pointed projection end into the sheath notch until it clicked. The knurled handle, specially made for his five-fingered hand, dangled beneath the flat paddle and behind its rounded handguard.
Firwirrung led Dev back up spacious corridors to their quarters and poured soothing ksaa for both of them. Dev drank gratefully, seated in the circular cabin’s only chair. Ssi-ruuk needed no furniture. Hissing contentment, Firwirrung settled his broad tail and hindquarters comfortably onto the warm gray deck. “Are you happy, Dev?” he asked. Liquid black eyes blinked over the ksaa mug and reflected the bitter red tonic.
It was an offer of solace. Whenever life saddened Dev, whenever he missed the sense of wholeness he’d had when his mother Force linked with him, Firwirrung took him to blue-scaled Elder Sh’tk’ith for renewal therapy.
“Very happy,” Dev answered truthfully. “A good day’s work. Much kindness.”
Firwirrung nodded sagely. “Much kindness,” he whistled back. His scent tongues flicked out of his nostrils, taste-smelling Dev’s presence. “Stretch out, Dev. What do you see tonight in the hidden universe?”
Dev smiled weakly. The master meant it as a compliment. All Ssi-ruuk were Force blind. Dev knew now that he was the only sensitive, human or otherwise, they’d ever met.
Through him, the Ssi-ruuk had learned of the Emperor’s death moments after it happened. Because the Force existed in all life, he’d felt the shock wave of power ripple through spirit and space.
Months ago, His Potency the Shreeftut had responded immediately when Emperor Palpatine offered prisoners in exchange for tiny, two-meter droid fighters of his own. Palpatine couldn’t have known how many dozen million Ssi-ruuk lived on Lwhekk, in their distant star cluster. Admiral Ivpikkis captured and questioned several Imperial citizens. This human Empire, he learned, stretched out for parsecs. Its star systems lay like nesting sands, fertile for the planting of Ssi-ruuvi life.
But then the Emperor died. There would be no bargain. The traitorous humans had abandoned them to get home as best they could, with the fleet’s energy almost spent. Admiral Ivpikkis had come ahead with the battle cruiser Shriwirr and a small advance force, only half a dozen attack ships with supporting entechment equipment. The main fleet hung back, waiting for news of success or failure.
If they could take a major human world, that entechment equipment—Master Firwirrung’s domain—would give them the human Empire. Bakura, when it fell, would provide the technology