Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [80]
“But you heard the admiral,” Bluescale sang wryly through his nose. “They want to begin on Skywalker immediately.”
Several days? Dev trembled and clenched his hands. The left one felt seared. He’d probably chipped bones and sliced tendons.
Firwirrung’s scent tongues flicked. “How they stink when they’re afraid.”
“They almost behave intelligently at times. Wouldn’t it be odd if they had souls, when our P’w’ecks do not?”
“Not a chance.” Firwirrung’s callousness appalled Dev. “Finish it.”
“Look at me,” ordered Bluescale. The eye was black and lovely and rounded, and it swirled.…
His hand ached unbelievably. As his foggy brain recognized the sensations of a fresh but partial renewal, Master Firwirrung released the last wrist restraint on the shining new bed. Blinking, Dev tried to stand upright. He tottered between two P’w’ecks, fighting a strange inexplicable weakness. Something smelled bad. Human. He sniffed himself. Phew.
“Did it go well?” he asked Firwirrung. Talking hurt his throat. “Why … renewal, why now?”
“Ah, Dev.” Firwirrung stroked his arm with an open foreclaw. “It would make you too sad, to remember coming so close to entechment and being denied the joy.”
Their kindness and forethought overwhelmed him. “But it worked? Did I give him his battle droid?”
Firwirrung wrapped a foreclaw around Dev’s head and pulled it against his scaly chest. “It worked. Now we lack only one thing.”
“Skywalker,” Dev whispered.
Firwirrung shoved him away affectionately. “Please go bathe, human.”
CHAPTER
13
Governor Wilek Nereus marched into the operations room of his suite, firmly controlling a sense of anticipation. Ceiling, bare walls, flooring and furniture were black in the Ops Room for the easier viewing of projections. At the short black conference table, standing across from Commander Thanas and beside the fraudulent “General” Solo, he found Commander Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, self-assured in his invulnerability.
“Is everything going well, gentlemen?” Nereus took the repulsor chair at the table’s head and waved his bodyguards back. The others sat down.
Commander Thanas looked appropriately serious for a man whose career rested on Nereus’s next biannual report. He was probably eager to redeem himself from the Alzoc blot on his record. “All fighters are repaired,” said Thanas. “The crews stand ready for our signal.”
That attack would not come, if the Ssi-ruuk kept their word—not that Nereus expected them to. If they took Skywalker and attacked anyway, he and Commander Thanas had brought onto line a new weapon that should take a heavy toll on battle droids. “What about that new ship-mounted, ah …”
“DEMP gun,” Thanas prompted him. Obviously caught unaware, Skywalker glanced over at Thanas and then down to his smuggler friend. “It disables droids at some distance using electromagnetic pulse,” Thanas explained. “We’ve installed two prototype super-DEMPs on system patrol craft, but they’re untested.”
Solo immediately requested DEMP guns for Rebel gunboats. Nereus stroked his chin and let Commander Thanas explain that no others existed. While they sparred, he slid a miniature medisensor out of his belt pocket, laid it on the glossy tabletop, and aimed it at Skywalker.
Concern, not remorse, made him frown. All readings indicated near-perfect health. The man had allegedly ingested a five-year-old egg pod without knowing it. Nereus needed to make certain the eggs had been viable, and quickly—but a complete medical scan would rouse Skywalker’s suspicion, and the Jedi’s ignorance was a critical factor to success.
A holographic projector whirred up to table level, creating an image midtable between Skywalker and Thanas. Surrounding a pale blue sphere, silver and gold ship dots mapped out Bakura’s defensive web. Farther out, the red Ssi-ruuk glimmered.
“You people use red for threat, too,” Solo observed.
“Probably standard wherever people bleed red,” Skywalker said softly.
Oh yes, they bleed red. Nereus smiled beneficence and leaned back, quietly touching keys on his recessed board and contacting his medical