Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [35]
Nereus’s strident voice carried distinctly across the chamber; he’d placed his throne at an acoustic focus point. “Princess Leia, do you understand what you are up against?”
Leia laid a hand on an inner tabletop. “No,” she admitted. “We came to answer a distress call, to show that the Alliance has no grudges against Imperial-ruled peoples, only the Empire itself.”
Nereus curled his lips. “I thought not. Ellsworth,” he ordered into the air, “run the Sibwarra recording. Your Highness, come up here and stand with me. Bring your escorts.”
Mounting the carpeted stairs behind Leia, Luke glanced left again. The young woman stared back, resting her chin on one open hand. Light brown hair swept around her face, framing pale flower-petal skin and an intent expression. Although she leaned forward, her slender shoulders set proudly straight. He didn’t dare touch her with the Force again—not yet—but her very presence electrified him. Visually striking. Not blindingly beautiful, but striking. Control! he reminded himself sharply. You’re here to help Leia!
Servomotors whirred behind him. Ahead, Leia drew even with Governor Nereus’s chair, then she pivoted to look back. Luke stopped on the step below her and took the same position. Threepio gleamed on the other side of the room. Hovering over the place where they’d stood, a holographic projection appeared. It was a young human male with muddy-cream colored skin, short black hair, and a sweet face with prominent cheekbones. He wore a white robe with blue and green side stripes.
“Humans of Bakura, rejoice!” said the … boy? man? “I am Dev Sibwarra of G’rho. I bring you warm greetings of the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium, a culture of many worlds that stretches its hand out to you. Our flagship is the mighty Shriwirr, a Ssi-ruuvi word that means ‘ripe with eggs.’ We are approaching your galaxy at the behest of your own Emperor.”
Luke glanced across at the young senator. When the invader’s image had appeared, she’d withdrawn, clenching her hands on the tabletop and pushing straight-armed back into her chair. Cautiously he brushed her with the Force again. Fear and revulsion streamed out of her, but beneath those dark emotions hid a sensation as deep as a shifting pool full of jewel-toned colors. Bemused, he shook his head. That didn’t make any sense. But that was how it felt.
He’d perceived all this in an instant. The holo image spoke on, “Bakurans, be glad! The joy that we bring goes beyond mere sensory happiness. Yours is the privilege of assisting the Ssi-ruuk to liberate”—the boy’s grasping gesture looked more like taking than liberating—“the other worlds of the galaxy. You are the first, the spearhead! What an honor!
“As humans, you have inestimable value to my masters. From them, you will receive lives without pain, without need, without fear.”
“Watch this,” Nereus muttered.
The recording shifted. Several dull brown, saurian aliens clustered around a metallic pyramid that Luke recognized instantly. Antennae and laser cannon bristled at its four corners, swiveling thrusters filled its four faces, and scanner/sensor clusters surrounded each thruster. It lay on some kind of control console.
Full recognition blasted through Luke’s mind. He recognized the creatures, too … from his disturbing dream back at Endor.
The boy’s voice kept speaking. “Here you see the most beautiful fighting spacecraft in the galaxy. Even if you never dared to dream of flying the stars, we have one of these fighters for each of you. Your life energies will leap into one of these battle droids. You will soar between planets—”
Life energies. Luke recalled the human presences he’d touched, despairing