The Hand Of Thrawn Duology_ Specter Of The Past Part 4

"It'll just take a minute," Leia a.s.sured him.

"But I'm bored," he insisted. He looked at Lak Jit again, and Leia could sense the effort as the child reached out with his limited abilities in the Force. "Are you my mom's business?" he asked.

"Yes," Lak Jit said with another thin smile. "And she is right: it will only take a minute. Councilor Organa Solo, it should be clear that historical datacards are precisely the sort of thing the Debble Agreement was created to protect. Therefore-"

"We have only your statement that the datacards are historical," Cakhmaim put in. We must study them ourselves."

"Agreed," Leia said before the Devaronian could object. Unfortunately, that kind of examination could take hours, and the children were waiting. "Here's the offer, Lak Jit.

I'll take the data-cards, paying you five hundred now as earnest money. After I've examined them, the New Republic will pay you whatever they're worth."

"And who will decide that value?" Lak Jit demanded.

"I will," Leia said. "Or, if you prefer, I can take the datacards back to Coruscant and ask Councilor Sien Siev or another historical expert to evaluate them."

"And if I refuse?"

Leia nodded toward Cakhmaim. "Would you prefer I let the Noghri set the price?"

Lak Jit grimaced, an expression that came across as just an-other Devaronian smile, only thinner. "I seem to have no alternative." He stepped forward, thrusting out a stack of datacards. "Here, then. Evaluate. Since you have not brought me food, would you and your hosts object if I went and foraged while you work?"

"You said just a minute, Mom," Jacen spoke up.

"Quiet, Jacen," Leia said, gingerly taking the stack of data-cards and doing a quick count of the edges. Six of them, all right, as filthy and dirt-stained as Lak Jit's clothing.

They'd probably been blown out of Mount Tantiss with the general cloud of debris when Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian set off the base's power reactor, and had been lying buried in the Wayland soil ever since.

Lak Jit cleared his throat. "May I-?"

"Yes, go," Leia cut him off. She hadn't realized Devaronians foraged for food, and she certainly wasn't interested in the details. "Jacen, be quiet. It'll just be another minute. I promise."

"Please be quick," Lak Jit said, and disappeared out the door.

"Mom-"

"If you're bored, why don't you ask Cakhmaim to show you the history they're carving in the walls here," Leia suggested, gingerly brus.h.i.+ng at the dirt covering the top datacard.

"Or go join the Noghri children in their fighting cla.s.s. I think Mobvekhar was going to be teaching them leverage holds today."

Jacen sniffed. "Jedi don't need that stuff. We have the Force."

"You're not a Jedi yet," Leia reminded him, giving him a stern look. She wasn't exactly happy about this interruption in their vacation either, but all his whining was accomplis.h.i.+ng was to drag it out further. "If you were, you'd know that just because you have the Force doesn't mean you can ignore the condition of your physical body. The Noghri combat cla.s.ses are good exercise."

"So's hiking up the mountain," Jacen countered. "So when are we going?"

"When I'm done," Leia said firmly, finis.h.i.+ng her cleanup job and peering at the datacard's label. Listings of the Fourth Pestoriv Conference, it said. Nothing important there, one way or the other: the Pestoriv Conferences had been completely open, and just as completely doc.u.mented.

Unless the Emperor had had his own private version of what had gone on there. Something to check out later, though the datacard would have to be thoroughly cleaned before she would be willing to risk it in her datapad. s.h.i.+fting the datacard to the bottom of the stack, she peered at the label of the second. Equally innocuous: something about Ri'Dar mating dances. The third datacard&mdash She stared at the label, a sudden chill running straight through her.

Four words, with the dirt already brushed off. The Hand of Thrawn.

"Mom?" Jacen asked, his voice not much above a whisper. Young and inexperienced in the Force, he nevertheless was keenly attuned to his mother, almost as closely attuned as he was to his sister Jaina. "What's wrong?"

Leia reached out to the Force, calming herself. "I'm all right," she told her son.

"Something on this card just startled me, that's all."

Jacen craned his neck to look. "The Hand of Thrawn.' What does that mean?"

Leia shook her head. "I don't know."

"Oh." Jacen frowned up at her. "Then how come you were so scared?"

It was a good question, Leia had to admit. Could the simple if unexpected appearance of Thrawn's name really have thrown her so hard? Even coupled with her memories of his near victory, it didn't seem likely. "I don't know that, either, Jacen," she said. "Maybe I was just remembering the past."

"Or seeing into the future," Cakhmaim said softly. "The Mal'ary'ush has great powers, secondson of Vader."

"I know," Jacen said gravely. "She's my mom."

"And don't you forget it," Leia admonished him mock-severely as she ruffled his hair. "Now be quiet a minute and let's see what this is all about" Pulling her datapad from her pouch, suddenly not caring at all about possible dust contamination, she slid the datacard in.

"What does it say?" Cakhmaim asked quietly.

Leia shook her head. "Nothing," she told him. "At least, nothing legible." She tried a different section of the card, then another. "Looks like the whole datacard has been scrambled. I guess ten years of exposure will do that. Maybe the experts on Coruscant can-"

She broke off. Jacen's face and thoughts&mdash "Mom!" he blurted. "Jaina and Anakin!"

"It's Lak Jit," Leia snapped, stretching out through the Force and catching the sudden flash of fright from her children. She caught a secondhand image of the Devaronian charging through the clearing and a sudden cloud of billowing white smoke&mdash "Cakhmaim!"

But Cakhmaim was already through the door, screaming the alert in the warbling Noghri combat code. Jamming the datapad and datacards back into her hip pack, Leia grabbed Jacen's hand and followed Cakhmaim outside, clearing the doorway just as an answer trilled through the trees. "They are unharmed," Cakhmaim said, his tone icy with grim relief. "The Devaronian has stolen a speeder bike."

All around them, armed Noghri were pouring out of the houses in response to Cakhmaim's alert. "Which way was he going?" Leia asked, heading across the settlement On both sides of them, Noghri were falling into escort positions; ahead, through the trees, she could see glimpses of the smoke as it dispersed. Stretching out through the Force, she sent rea.s.surance to her children.

Cakhmaim warbled again, was answered as they reached the edge of the settlement.

"Unknown," he reported. "They could not see his departure."

Most of the smoke had cleared by the time they reached the clearing a minute later. Of the nine Noghri Leia had left there, six remained, pressing in a tight defensive circle around the children. "Jaina, Anakin," she breathed, dropping to one kite beside them and giving them each a quick but tight hug. There was no need to ask if they were all right, her Jedi senses had already confirmed that, "Khabarakh, what happened?"

"He surprised us, Lady Vader," the Noghri said, his face set in the quiet agony of a warrior who has failed his duty. "He walked casually into the clearing and dropped his digging tool onto the ground between us. Part of the handle was a disguised smoke grenade, which exploded with the impact. We could hear him as he activated one of the speeder bikes, but I would not allow any to try to seek him out in the smoke. Should I have acted differently?"

"No," Cakhmaim said firmly. "The machine is of no consequence. Only the safety of the Lady Vader's firstchildren is important. Your honor is not compromised, Khabarakh clan Kihm'bar."

Jaina tugged at Leia's sleeve. "Why did he run, Mother? Was he afraid of the Noghri?"

"In a way, honey, yes," Leia said grimly. Suddenly, with the clear vision of hindsight, the whole deception was obvious. Pulling the Devaronian's datacards from her hip pack, she fanned them in her hands.

All of them, as she'd already noted, had dirty edges. On one, though, it was only the edges that were dirty.

"Lady Vader?"

Leia turned. From the brush at the edge of the clearing, two Noghri were helping up a dazed-looking Threepio. "Oh, my," the droid breathed. "I must have taken a bad step."

"Threepio!" Anakin squealed, ducking between his mother and Cakhmaim and racing across to help. "You all right?"

Threepio briefly examined his arms. "I appear to be undamaged, Master Anakin, thank you,"

he a.s.sured the child.

"We've got to find him," Leia said, turning back to Cakhmaim and Khabarakh and holding up the clean datacard. "He's still got one of the datacards he found at the mountain."

"I will send out more searchers," Cakhmaim said, pulling out a comlink. "Perhaps I can also arrange an unexpected surprise for our thief."

"Your Highness?" Threepio called. "I don't know if this is of any use to you-or indeed whether or not you already know it-but before I tripped and fell-"

"Speak quickly," Cakhmaim snapped.

Threepio shrank back slightly. "I observed the stolen speeder bike leave in that direction." He pointed.

"Hey, yeah," Anakin said. "Threepio was outside the smoke!"

"He's making for the northern side of Mount Tantiss," Cakhmaim said decisively.

"Undoubtedly where his s.h.i.+p is located. Khabarakh, your group will take the airspeeders and remaining speeder bikes and pursue. I will take the Lady Vader and her firstchildren back to the settlement."

"Just the children, Cakhmaim," Leia corrected, heading for one of the airspeeders. "I'm going with Khabarakh."

Thirty seconds later the group was airborne. "Do we have any idea where his s.h.i.+p might be?" Leia asked as the vehicles tore across the landscape.

"The Myneyrs.h.i.+ will know," Khabarakh said. "They watch all movements near the forbidden mountain. Perhaps that is the surprise Cakhmaim spoke of."

Leia pulled out a set of macrobinoculars from the airspeeder's storage compartment, and for a few minutes she scanned across the forest below and ahead. Nothing. "He's probably staying right down at ground level," she said.

"That will slow him," Khabarakh said. "Still, if we cannot locate his s.h.i.+p, he will likely be able to lift off before we reach him."

And unless the Noghri airspeeders were lucky enough to be right on top of him at the time, the Devaronian would be out of their firing range in a matter of seconds. Pressing her face tighter against the macrobinoculars, Leia stretched out as hard as she could through the Force, trying to locate Lak Jit's presence.

There was nothing she could detect from the forest ahead of them. But even as she tried to focus her thoughts more tightly, she caught a flicker of something else nearby. Something unexpected, yet definitely familiar, and coming steadily closer. Lowering the macrobinoculars, she half closed her eyes and tried to focus on the sensation&mdash "Hold on!" Khabarakh snapped, and the airspeeder curved sharply around to the left. Leia grabbed for a handhold, nearly losing her grip on the macrobinoculars. Ahead and below them, an old Gymsnor-2 freighter had appeared above the trees. Half closing her eyes again, she stretched out toward the freighter, finally catching the Devaronian's presence.

"That's him," she confirmed. "Can we stop him?"

"We will try," Khabarakh said.

Leia grimaced. Do; or do not. There is no try. Luke had quoted that Jedi dictum to her over and over during her training.

And it was quickly becoming clear that here, too, there was no try. Even with the airspeeders running full throttle, the Gymsnor was steadily pulling away from its pursuers. Ahead of it, there was nothing: no s.h.i.+ps, no hills, no obstacles of any sort, nothing that would slow it down. Already it was above the speeder bikes' maximum height limit; a few minutes more and it would be leaving the airspeeders behind, as well.

There was a sudden gravelly mewing of Noghri words from the comm speaker. Khabarakh answered; and abruptly the air-speeders slowed. Leia turned to him, opening her mouth to ask why they were giving up the chase&mdash And with a terrific roar, a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p shot past them on their right, heading straight for the Gymsnor.

"Khabarakh!" Leia snapped, wincing as the airspeeder bucked in the other s.h.i.+p's slipstream.

"It is all right, Lady Vader," Khabarakh a.s.sured her. "It is an ally."

"An ally?" Leia repeated, frowning at the newcomer. A Corellian Action VI bulk freighter, by the looks of it. Nearly four times the size of Lak Jit's s.h.i.+p to begin with; and if the rate it was closing on the Devaronian was any indication, it had undergone a substantial engine upgrade.

Lak Jit had apparently come to a similar conclusion. Banking hard to the right, he dipped back down toward the trees and then cut sharply up and around, settling into a new vector and clawing hard for s.p.a.ce.

It was a maneuver that Leia had seen used time and again in the war against the Empire, and it was one that nearly always worked against the larger and more ungainly pursuer. But in this case, it didn't. Almost before Lak Jit had even begun his turn, the Action VI was moving to counter; and by the time the Gymsnor had straightened out, the larger s.h.i.+p was right back on top of him, forcing him to abandon his climb or risk a midair collision.

Slowly but inexorably, the Devaronian was being forced down.

"Well done," Khabarakh said.

"Yes," Leia murmured . . . and finally she understood the odd sensation she'd felt a few minutes ago. "So this is the surprise Cakhmaim promised."

"Yes," Khabarakh said. "The Wild Karrde, with your allies Talon Karrde and Mara Jade aboard." He eyed her, almost furtively. "I trust you are not displeased?"

Leia smiled tightly. Talon Karrde: genteel smuggler chief, onetime ally of the New Republic, considered untrustworthy by the majority of the High Council. Mara Jade: former agent of the Emperor, Karrde's second-in-command, and aside from Leia herself, Luke's first attempt at teaching the ways of the Force. Also considered untrustworthy. "No, Khabarakh, I'm not displeased at all," Leia a.s.sured him. "Like the Noghri, I too remember the past."

The Gymsnor squatted in the clearing, canted slightly to one side on a crumpled landing skid, its hatchway open and surrounded by a group of Noghri. "I wouldn't have believed you could force a s.h.i.+p down like that," Leia commented, running a critical eye over the freighter. "Not without wrecking half of it in the process."

Beside her, Talon Karrde shrugged modestly. "Cakhmaim said relatively undamaged,'" he told her. "We do try to please."

"And you generally succeed," Leia agreed. A pair of Noghri appeared at the hatchway, conversed briefly with the others standing guard outside, then disappeared back inside.

"I'm glad you happened to be on Wayland. What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Business," Karrde told her. "I've been experimenting with hiring Noghri to help protect my contact people in some of the more dangerous or unsavory parts of the galaxy."

Leia frowned. "I hadn't heard anything about this."

"We've been keeping it quiet," Karrde said. "I'm not exactly welcome on Coruscant these days; and given your close ties with the Noghri, we didn't want your reputation and influence damaged by a.s.sociation."

"I appreciate your concern," Leia said. "But I can take care of my own reputation, thank you. And as far as New Republic hospitality goes, there are still quite a few of us who haven't forgotten your part in stopping Grand Admiral Thrawn."

"I don't think any of the High Councilors or Senators have actually forgotten," Karrde countered, an uncharacteristic touch of bitterness seeping into his voice and mood. "The point is that most of them resented my organization's a.s.sistance even at the time we were providing it."

Leia looked up at him, noting the hard set of his face and the equally hard edge to his emotions. She'd been aware that official ties between Karrde's smuggler friends and the New Republic had been growing more and more distant over the past few years, but she hadn't realized he felt this strongly about it. "I'm sorry," was all she could think of to say. "What can I do to help?"

He waved the offer away, and as he did so the bitterness faded into a kind of wry resignation. "Don't try;' he said. "Smugglers are pan of the fringe, just like mercenaries and con men and pirates. Try to defend us, and all you'll accomplish will be to get muddied alongside us."

"As I've already said, my reputation is my own concern."

"Besides which," Karrde continued quietly, "drawing any attention to me at this point would also put the Noghri at risk. Or don't you think some in the High Council would consider hiring themselves out to a smuggler to be an unacceptable activity?"

Leia grimaced. But he was right, and with the Noghri still under their self-imposed cloud of penance for their years of service to the Empire, the clan dynasts would be extremely sensitive to any such charges. "I'm sorry," she said again.