Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 10_ Jedi Bounty - Kevin J. Anderson [19]
The ship's computer had apparently been coded with unbreakable passwords, though Corrsk suspected that the Diversity Alliance's expert slicers could dig out all the information he needed. They would rip the answers from the Rock Dragon's memory banks.
The stench of humans was strong, heating his blood, increasing his desire to kill. Everything around him took on a reddish tinge as his stalking lust increased. His claws flexed like durasteel talons; his muscles pumped like the pistons of an Imperial walker.
He had waited too long to fightmwaited too long to kill. He needed to find a victim soon or he would go into a murderous frenzy and slaughter everything in sight.
Corrsk inspected the Rock Dragon again, searching for any shred of evidence. Then, focusing on his olfactory senses, he returned to the copilot's chair and inhaled deeply. A familiar scent, delicious... and infuriating.
He hadn't been certain before, but now he knew that he detected more than just the pungent, overpowering smell of human.... Mingled with it was the incredible, distinct aroma of Wookiee.
But not just any Wookiee. This was the unmistakable scent of the gingerfurred one Nolaa Tarkona had welcomed into the Diversity Alliance, the one Ruaha had recruited and brought to Rylotb Lowbacca.
He smelled Lowbacca, here in the impounded ship. The lanky Wookiee had some connection with this mysterious passenger craft.
The Trandoshan growled deep within his throat.
He sensed a deadly plot here: danger and betrayal.
Lowbacca must have something to do with the Rock Dragon. What treachery was he planning?
Corrsk growled again as he climbed back out of the small ship. He would keep this information to himself for now. He would have to be content in the knowledge that the time for bloodshed would be soon.
Very soon.
He would get his chance to kill humans. And at least one Wookiee..
TENEL KA LED the way through the dim and winding tunnels, her warrior senses alert, every muscle taut and ready. She was acutely aware of the danger they faced: anyone who noticed the companions would immediately recognize them as intruders in the realm of the Diversity Alliance.
Nolaa Tarkona would not tolerate the presence of humans.
Jacen clung close beside the warrior girl, and together they used their Jedi senses, casting out through the Force like a net for any glimmer of their friend Lowbacca.
Raynar struggled to keep up with Jaina, who hung back a bit, staying close to him in case he needed her help. He limped a little on his healing leg, but made no complaint. The little translator droid hovered between them at shoulder level, bobbing along as part of the expedition.
With whispering footsteps as quiet as spring?
????? leaves brushing together, the young Jedi Knights hurried down one long corridor to an intersection.
Tenel Ka paused, studied the adjacent corridors, and listened.
Finally, detecting a slight tingle of Lowie's presence, she chose a corridor that led in that general direction. "This way."
She touched her rancor-tooth lightsaber, fingering the carvings on its hilt. "If we are seen," Tenel Ka said, "we should return to the Rock Dragon. We must use our lightsabers--the fight will be for our very lives."
"I propose that we not allow ourselves to be seen in the first place," Em Teedee said. "It would be entirely too dangerous."
"Great suggestion," Jacen said, rolling his eyes.
"Now why didn't we think of that?"
They saw alcoves chopped out of the rock walls, and passages that plunged steeply down into deeper rock. The entire mountainous region of Ryloth was a tangled warren dug out by the Twi'leks over thousands of years.
Many of the tunnels were now unused, the sites of battles in ancient clan wars.
In her training as a princess of Hapes, Tenel Ka had learned about many distinctive civilizations, including the Twi'leks. Short on resources and living space, the Twi'lek