Apocalypse (28 page)

The
Falcon
continued through the barge tunnel. It wasn’t long before they began to encounter boxy barge-silhouettes moving in both directions. Undulating through the darkness, they ducked beneath all oncoming traffic and flew up and over the ones they were overtaking.

Leia kept expecting the barge traffic to come to a standstill as the control center initiated a safety shutdown—but the operators were either panicking or not paying attention. A few tense minutes later, the
Falcon
finally shot out of the tunnel and entered the cluttered darkness beneath Fellowship Plaza, and Leia breathed a sigh of relief.

After a series of evasive maneuvers designed to detect anyone trying to follow them, Leia ran a thorough signal analysis to make sure the ChaseXs had not tagged the
Falcon
with a tracking device. After that, she ran a powerful degaussing current through the outer hull—just to be certain she hadn’t missed anything. Then she checked again for unauthorized transmissions, and finally she decided that the
Falcon
was, indeed, clean.

“Artoo, bounce a burst message to Jedi Command,” Leia ordered. “Tell him we’re en route, and we need safe-approach charts.”

R2-D2 tweedled a response, and Han began to thread his way into the lowest levels of the undercity. Just half a kilometer down, the structures were so crusted in yorik coral that it was impossible to see the buildings themselves. Curtains of moss dangled hundreds of meters from pedbridges, and ten-meter stalks of fungi grew on balconies. Strange four-winged reptiles soared through the darkness, their claws clutching still-struggling rodents—or limbs torn from decaying corpses. In many ways, it looked as though the Yuuzhan Vong had never left this part of the planet—and in some ways, that was true. With its attention focused on rebuilding the rest of the galaxy—and just keeping order—for most of the last two decades, the Galactic Alliance had never had the political will to repair what the extragalactic invaders had done to Coruscant’s hidden slums.

R2-D2 chirped an alert, and then a map of the undercity appeared on the copilot’s display. They were closer to the rendezvous point than Leia had imagined, and it took only a few minutes to slip through the tangled labyrinth to a dark hollow in the yorik coral. At first, she mistook the cavity for a cavern entrance, but when the
Falcon
’s floodlights illuminated it, she saw that it was actually a hangar door painted matte black.

Leia felt a welcoming brush in the Force, and she knew they were being watched by a group of Jedi sentries. She replied by reaching out in the Force herself, allowing them to sense her relief at having arrived. The door retracted into the wall. On the other side was a loading bay. It looked deserted, but Leia could sense several Jedi presences lurking in hiding places.

“I don’t know about this,” Han said, holding the
Falcon
outside the entrance. “Are you sure it’s the right place?”

“Yes.” Leia and Jayk both responded at the same time.

“Dad,” Allana added. “The Jedi are at war. You don’t expect them to post a
sign
, do you?”

“Don’t be silly.” Han eased the
Falcon
across the threshold, raising a thick cloud of dust as they moved toward the berthing circles. “I’m just saying … would it’ve killed them to do some cleaning?”

He shut down the cooling fans, then lowered the struts and quickly set the
Falcon
down near the back of the small chamber. Behind them, the doors closed with a muffled clang. By the time Leia and the others had unbuckled and traveled down the access corridor to the main cabin, their Jedi passengers had lowered the boarding ramp. They had arrayed themselves in a neat line and were awaiting the captain’s permission to debark. Han rolled his eyes at their formality, then motioned for them to fall in behind him and led the way down the ramp.

As soon as the Solos stepped foot on the floor of the loading bay, the entire rear wall began to rise. Beyond lay a much larger, brightly lit hangar that was bustling with combat-support activity. Maintenance crews were reloading dozens of assault cars with ammunition and fuel, while repair droids swarmed the exteriors applying hasty battlefield patches. There were even medical droids on the floor, evaluating injuries and dressing minor wounds.

In one corner, Admiral Nek Bwua’tu was interrogating a platoon of soot-stained space marines, no doubt trying to put together an accurate picture of combat conditions. Scattered around the chamber were half a dozen Jedi Masters, each speaking quietly with a small band of Jedi Knights in color-shifting robes.

Leia was starting to wonder why there were so many Jedi in the hangar, instead of out fighting, when she sensed her former Master approaching. She turned to find Saba Sebatyne emerging from a doorway on the near side of the room, her scaly face showing none of the surprise that Leia could feel in the Barabel’s Force aura.

Accompanying Saba were Bazel Warv and Mirax Horn. Bazel wore a combat harness loaded with a couple of casefuls of grenades. Mirax wore space marine battle fatigues, with a general’s insignia attached to
the collar. The rank, Leia assumed, was provisional—no doubt bestowed by Nek Bwua’tu so Mirax would have the proper authority to oversee the search for Sith sleeper agents.

When Saba had approached to within a couple of paces, she stopped and peered over Leia’s head toward Jayk, Ramud, and all the other new Jedi Knights.

“This one thought apprentices were to go to Shedu Maad,” she said.

“That was the plan,” Leia admitted. “But these apprentices have been promoted. They’re Jedi Knights now.”

“The Masters Solusar say they’re ready,” Han added. “And since we had to drop by anyway, we thought we’d bring you some reinforcements.”

Saba shifted her gaze to Han, her forked tongue flicking out between her lips. “Yes, reinforcementz are good.” She looked back to the Jedi Knights, giving them a slit-eyed Barabel appraisal. Finally, she nodded and pointed across the hangar to where a towering wall of Yuzzem fur stood dressed in a Jedi robe. “Master Barratk’l is charged with lair security. Present yourselves to her.”

The young Jedi Knights bowed as one. “Yes, Master.”

Saba waited until they were gone, then pointed a talon in Allana’s direction. “This one is surprised to see your foundling with you. She is small for a fight, is she not?”

Han nodded. “Yeah, but she’s stubborn enough to be a teenage Wookiee.”

Allana smiled, clearly recognizing a compliment when she heard one. She stepped closer to Saba and said, “I need to talk to you about something.”

Saba studied the girl with a huge eye. “Yes?”

Allana didn’t flinch. “I can’t tell you here.” She glanced past Saba toward Bazel’s mountainous green bulk, then spoke more quietly. “That would be breaking a promise.”

“What promise?” Saba asked, following Allana’s gaze toward Bazel. “Does it concern Jedi Warv?”

“It’s the reason we came to see him,” Allana answered. “Grand Master Skywalker was
supposed
to tell him to meet us.”

Saba turned her head and studied Allana out of one eye, a gesture of Barabel suspicion. “To meet you?” she asked. “Really?”

Allana let her chin drop, clearly realizing she had been caught in an exaggeration. “Well, to meet my parents,” she corrected. “Master Skywalker wasn’t expecting me to be here, but I
had
to come. I’m the one who had the vision.”

“And Jedi Warv was in your vision?” Saba asked, going from suspicious to confused. “A vision about breaking a promise?”

“Actually, Amelia’s vision concerned a Barabel nest,” Leia said. The time had come to cut to the chase. “The Sith were attacking it.”

Saba’s scales bristled, and she glared down at Allana with bared fangs. “
What
nest?”

Allana surprised Leia by ignoring the menace in Saba’s voice. Instead she stepped forward until she was nose-to-abdomen with the Barabel, then said, “I think you
know
what nest. Do I need to say names?”

“Tesar?” Saba gasped. “Dordi?”

Allana nodded. “And Wilyem and Zal.
Now
can we talk?”

Saba stumbled back a step, clearly astonished. “You know?”

“Master Sebatyne,” Leia said, “we
all
know.”

Most Jedi understood why the younger Barabels had disappeared, and Leia had assumed that Saba realized that. But it was growing apparent that the Master had been fooling herself about how well the secret of the nest was being kept.

“It’s really not that difficult to figure out,” she added.

“Yeah, give us some credit,” Han added. “Your son disappears with a bunch of other Barabels for a few months. You get all grouchy and nervous. What else could it be? They’re making a nest.”

Saba let her shoulders slump. “This one hoped that you would believe they were on a secret mission.”

“I’m afraid we know you too well for that, Master Sebatyne,” Leia said. “You’d never go around the chain of command and launch a secret mission.”

Saba eyed Leia as though she were a shenbit, then finally asked, “
Everyone
knowz?”

Leia nodded. “All of the Masters,” she confirmed. “And a fair number of Jedi Knights.”

“So it’s no use trying to silence everyone who knows,” Han replied. “You can’t kill
all
of us.”

Saba glared at Han as though contemplating the truth of his assertion, then finally nodded and turned back to Allana. “And you came here to warn Tesar and his nestmates of your vision?”

Allana nodded. “I can’t just let it happen,” she said. “Tesar is my friend.”

Saba let her head drop. “And Tesar is this one’s son,” she said. “But she is sorry—this one does not know where to find the nest.”

Allana frowned. “Really?” she asked. “You don’t where it is?”

Saba shook her head. “Barabelz do not tell nest locationz to anyone,” she said. “Especially motherz.”

Allana exchanged glances with Bazel. They both fell silent, and then Allana glanced away, looking guilty.

Saba’s head bobbed forward. “You know?”

Allana reluctantly said, “I don’t think I can tell you that without breaking my promise.”

The Barabel folded her scaly brow and looked from Allana to Bazel, her head cocking ever farther sideways as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.

Finally, she drew back. “This one does not understand. You are a strange pair to make a life-promise.” She looked to Bazel, then dropped her snout and bared her fangs, presenting the huge Ramoan with the nearest thing to a sympathetic gesture that Barabels had. “This one does not think it will work.”

“We’re
not
a promise pair!” Allana exclaimed. “We didn’t
mean
to find the nest. It was just a big accident!”

“But I can find it again,” Bazel rumbled, “if you think I should?”

“Yes, it must be you,” Saba said, not even hesitating. She looked back to Allana, turning her head to study her out of one eye again, then returned her gaze to Bazel. “
This
one has not been accepted into the nest.”

The note of admiration in Saba’s voice was hard to miss, and Leia was suddenly hit by the magnitude of what her granddaughter had achieved. Barabels were by nature a fierce and cautious species. Yet Allana had coaxed four of them into trusting her
and
Bazel—and with a secret they would not share with their own mothers. If Allana could achieve that at nine, perhaps there was hope for a peaceful galaxy, after all. Perhaps
Allana
was that hope.

After a moment, Bazel nodded. “Good. Then I volunteer.” He paused a moment, then glanced over at Leia. “But how am I going to get into the Temple?”

Han smiled and reached up to slap him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about that, big fella,” he said. “After all the trouble we had smuggling supplies in during the Mando siege, Luke had me set up a secret entrance. We can drop you at the other end of the evacuation route. It won’t be fast going in, but it will get you into the lower levels with no problem.”

“Speaking of problems,” Leia said, eager to change the subject before Allana decided she had to go with Bazel, “I see a lot of Jedi here still being briefed. I thought they would all be inside the Temple fighting by now.”

Saba nodded. “This one, too. The shieldz are not yet down. The blast doorz are still closed.”

“Our first wave of attackers ran into a Sith ambush,” Mirax explained. “We haven’t been able to insert the rest of the company.”

Leia’s stomach went hollow. “How bad was the ambush?”

“Bad,” Saba replied. “We lost ten Knightz … so far.”

“But Luke and Jaina escaped the initial attack,” Mirax added. “We’re
sure
of that. Ben, too.”

Leia did not sense any grief in Mirax’s voice, so she felt comfortable asking, “Corran and your children, too?”

Mirax nodded. “They’re okay, the last time they checked in.”

“But no one else remainz,” Saba added. “Master Skywalker and his team are alone.”

“You’re telling me there are six Jedi in there on their own?” Han demanded. “Against four thousand Sith?”

Leia could feel how frightened Han was growing, and she understood why. Jaina was their last surviving child, and the thought of losing her—and Luke, too—was almost more than she could bear.

“And you aren’t doing anything about it?” Han continued.

“This one
is
doing something, Captain Solo,” Saba said. “She is obeying orderz. Master Skywalker has told her he needz more time to open the blast doorz.”

“And if that doesn’t happen?” Han demanded. “You could be waiting for—”

“Then they go in the hard way,” Mirax said, putting a little durasteel in her voice. “But you know as well as I do, that has to be a last resort. If we start lobbing baradium bombs into the Jedi Temple, no one has control over who gets killed.”

Mirax’s stern tone and good sense seemed to bring Han back to his senses. He fell silent for a moment, then spoke in a calmer tone. “Okay. You gotta wait for Luke—when it comes to long shots, nobody is better than him. But six against four thousand is pretty bad. Why don’t we use the evacuation tunnel and send in a little help?”