Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 10_ Jedi Bounty - Kevin J. Anderson [28]
"Hey, leave her alone? Jacen said, trying to push his way forward.
Hovrak dismissed the tousle-haired young man with a snort, then looked pointedly at the stump of Tenel Ka's other arm.. "Wou are lucky the Esteemed Tarkona considers you too important to kill. You are sure to be a burden down in the spice mines. We won't get much work out of a one-armed female. Worthless."
Tenel Ka reacted with spring-loaded reflexes, whirling about to slam the flat of her hand full force against Hovrak's snout. The impact made a sound like ripe fruit struck with a hammer.
Continuing her spin, Tenel Ka brought her booted foot up and kicked the wolfman unmercifully in the abdomen. Then she lashed out with her other foot to smash him sharply in the knee.
Hovrak fell.
It all happened in two seconds. The Adjutant Advisor yowled in unexpected pain even before the blood began to spurt from his smashed snout.
The other Jedi Knights could not leap to her aid before Hovrak's guards dragged Tenel Ka away from him but she was finished.
One eyebrow arched, the warrior girl shot Hovrak a look of challenge.
"Perhaps a one-armed female is not quite as helpless as a complacent wolfman," she said coldly.
Hovrak coughed blood and got back to his feet while the guards chuckled at her retort. They froze, looking sheepish, when Hovrak glared at them.
Struggling to regain his dignity, he wiped a sleeve of his uniform across his snout. Blood smeared the meticulously clean cloth.
"Throw them in with the other mine slaves.
And if this girl's production is one gram less than the requirement... we shall see how well she can work with no arms."
Many Twi'lek caves began as natural formations that were hollowed out over centuries of labor into a larger and larger underground labyrinth.
As the civilization expanded and the population grew, they dug deeper into the mountain ranges.
By accident the Twi'lek people had discovered veins of the precious mineral ryll, a form that was sometimes called spice. Ryll had numerous uses--medicinal and otherwise--and the Twfieks immediately became important suppliers, often working with smuggler lords and contraband shippers.
Small cracks and tunnels in the living rock had been expanded by slaves into echoing chambers until the mines grew huge and unsupported.
Finally the walls had collapsed--freeing new veins of ore at the expense of the poor, crushed workers. Their Twi'lek masters had not deemed this expense unreasonable.
As Tenel Ka and her friends were led into the mines, she let her gray eyes adjust to the harsh, uneven light. The majority of labor parties she saw around them consisted of human prisoners.
Apparently proud, Hovrak pointedly explained to his new workers, "Those slaves are pilots and smugglers that crossed Nolaa Tarkona, not to mention a few hapless captives taken from small craft we found in nearby systems. If anybody noticed their disappearance, it would have been dismissed as a mere space accident. Now, working for the Diversity Alliance gives meaning to their pitiful lives."
A few of the downtrodden miners were Twfieks who looked emaciated and beaten. Tenel Ka watched them with interest, recognizing that these must have been outcasts or survivors from the Twi'Lek clans Nolaa had squashed during her takeover of the government. The lucky ones, it seemed, had died during the fighting.
To illuminate the ryll excavations, the slave masters had brought in wide glowpanels powered by self-contained generators. The portable units shed their garish light onto the main work areas. The stark contrast between this highpowered brilliance and the shadows in the walls, corners, and jagged ceiling hurt Tenel Ka's eyes.
Clusters of strange, lumpy fungus grew from crevices in the walls like melted, foaming plastic.
The pale fungus oozed a sickly, sweetish odor that turned her stomach.
The ceiling