Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [43]
The shuttle passed through huge blast doors between a pair of monstrous guard towers, and into a vehicle bay permeated with the familiar military odors of fuels and machinery.
At a speeder bike deck swarming with maintenance techs, the troopers parked their skiff. Luke felt curiosity prickle at him from all sides. Sorry, I’m not a prisoner. Not yet. As he disentangled Artoo, the curious became hostile. He lifted a finger and spun a line of the Force. Something toppled from one side of the speeder bike deck.
Techs dashed toward the noise. Ignored, Luke passed through, following the trooper who steered Artoo’s repulsor disk. They passed down a narrow corridor with bare walls that sloped toward a narrower ceiling, then into a highspeed turbolift. Luke’s stomach dropped as the turbolift rose.
He stepped off on another level at the end of a long straight hallway. Almost everything was gray—walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, faces—so he noticed the contrasts quickly. An officer in black hustled across from one door to another. Stormtroopers stood at every doorway, white-armored guardians. Luke strode past them, eyes forward but Jedi senses on 360-degree alert and one hand near his lightsaber.
In a circular reception area, Luke spotted a man approaching up the far hallway. His erect posture and measured stride gave him away. Narrow face and thin, curly hair confirmed Luke’s guess. Luke walked to meet him. “Commander Thanas.”
“Commander Skywalker.” Thanas peered down an aquiline nose. “This way, please.” He turned on one heel and sauntered back the way he had come. Tall and pike thin, he exuded an unthreatened self-assurance that warned Luke Imperial eyes surrounded them—as if he’d needed warning. Counting weapons visible in the corridor, Luke steered the repulsor disk after Thanas.
At the far end of the hallway, Thanas stepped into an office. Luke followed. Simply furnished except for a curious flooring like deep tangled moss, it looked like a place where business, not pleasure, was conducted. Even the clean-lined gray walls were bare of mementos, as if Thanas had no past. His plain rectangular desk had only one inset key panel that Luke could see.
“Sit down.” Thanas waved at a repulsor chair. Leaving Artoo shut down, Luke took the seat. Thanas gestured toward a servo unit. “Something to drink? The local liqueur is astonishingly good.”
Luke hesitated. Even if it weren’t drugged, it might be strong enough to muddy his head. Anyway, it just didn’t sound good. “Thank you, no.”
Thanas sat without pouring for himself. He folded his hands over bent elbows. “I will confess, Skywalker, I didn’t expect you to come. I expected you to ask to meet me somewhere else.”
Luke shrugged. “This seemed practical.” He reached out for Thanas’s sense. Watchful with a twinge of admiration, suspicious but free of deception: trustworthy for now, with tangible goodness underlying.
“True.” Thanas touched a panel on his desk. Retracted projection antennae glided up through the desktop. Above them appeared a large blue-green globe. “Shall we observe the battle you so boldly interrupted?”
“That would be excellent. May I?” Luke gestured toward Artoo with the restraining-bolt Owner.
“By all means.”
Luke switched the little droid back on. Artoo’s dome spun once, then came to rest with the blue photoreceptor facing Thanas’s hologram.
The battle had begun with a sweeping attack launched by the entire Ssi-ruuvi line. It was, as Luke had guessed, a final push against weakened adversaries toward planetary invasion. His forces had arrived barely in time.
“May I see that again?” Luke asked as blue Imperial pips regrouped for a counterattack.
Thanas shrugged and reran a few seconds of holo.
“Is that a standard maneuver?” Luke asked.
Thanas tapped fingers together. “Forgive me if I decline to answer.”
Luke nodded and mentally filed the maneuver under Top Security.
“Tell me,” Thanas said, “are my forces’ scanners in error, or did one of your pilots bring a space freighter into the battle?”
Luke barely smiled. What Thanas didn’t know about the