Refugee: Force Heretic II (24 page)

“Do you think he will be safe here if the Chiss don’t join uz in the war?”

The expression on Syal’s face told Saba everything she needed to know. The woman knew that the Chiss had no hope if the rest of the galaxy fell to the Yuuzhan Vong; within years, the alien invaders would be replenished and able to overwhelm even the strongest Chiss defense.

“Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the Yuuzhan Vong,” Danni suddenly put in from the other end of the aisle. All eyes turned to her. Saba hadn’t heard the scientist arrive, and wasn’t sure how long she’d been listening in. Her expression was heavy with tiredness, but her words were uttered with the clarity of personal experience. “Too many of us have already paid a terrible price for doing just that. The New Republic, the Empire, the Hutts, the Ithorians, the Rodians—the list keeps getting longer with every year this war continues. You obviously know what’s been going on; you must realize how serious a threat these invaders are. Do you really think that hiding out here will save you forever? They may decide to wipe you out on a whim, just like they tried to do with the Imperial Remnant.”

“Your position iz untenable,” Saba added. “Denying it will not make it otherwise.”

“I don’t want to lose him,” Antilles whispered, her expression one of someone caught between two conflicting emotions. “I can’t take it anymore. I can’t …”

“Mom …” The daughter looked frightened.

“Do not be afraid,” Saba said, putting as much compassion as she could into her rough, reptilian voice. “We are not your enemies; we understand your fearz.” Wyn looked up at her with wide, staring eyes. “But there iz no easy solution to this war. Turning your back on it won’t make it go away. We need long-term solutions; we need
to work together. Of that, this one iz absolutely certain, Syal Antilles.”

Syal nodded, then, although her uncertainty clearly remained.

“You’re Syal Antilles?” Danni asked, coming closer.

“Yes,” the woman replied. “Why?”

“Baron Fel just arrived,” she said. “But he didn’t mention that he was expecting you.”

“He wasn’t,” she said, confirming Saba’s earlier suspicion of Wyn’s lie. “We just heard that someone had come from home, and we wanted to see them.” Gone was the frightened mother and wife; in her place stood a composed and confident woman beaming a pleasant smile to a stranger who might not have heard every doubt she’d just expressed. “And now that we have seen you, perhaps we should be moving along.” Her eyes met Saba’s briefly, exchanging all manner of emotion—the most prominent of which was gratitude. “Thank you for your words, Saba. And please accept my apology for mine.”

“There iz no need,” Saba said, effecting a slight bow.

Syal Antilles returned the gesture. “Come along, Wyn.”

“I think I might stay and help them, if that’s all right?” The girl directed this to Saba and Danni, both of whom nodded.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Wyn,” her mother said. “They don’t need you getting in their way while they’re trying to work.”

“No, it’s fine,” Danni said. “Actually, we could use the help.”

“Are you sure?” Syal asked. There still seemed to be a residue of embarrassment for her earlier outburst.

But Saba knew that an injection of youthful enthusiasm from Wyn would be just what they needed. “This one iz certain that Wyn would not be a burden.”

Wyn’s face immediately lit up. “You won’t regret it. I
know these records better than most people—including Tris!”

“That I seriously doubt,” her mother said.

Wyn didn’t respond; instead she faced Danni and asked: “Is it true that one of the Solo twins is here with the Skywalkers?”

Danni nodded and smiled. “Jacen Solo, yes.”

“And will I get to meet him, too?”

“I’m sure you will,” Danni said.

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, Wyn,” her mother said. She still seemed hesitant about her daughter staying. “We still have to clear this with your father.”

“He’ll be fine with it, Mom,” Wyn said, fairly bouncing on her toes. Her enthusiasm suggested that not much in the way of excitement had happened in her life for a long, long time.

“This one will mind her while you check, if you wish.”

Syal nodded, still with some uncertainty, as Danni led her away.

“Thank you so much for this!” she exclaimed once her mother and Danni had disappeared down another aisle. “This will be fantastic!”

“It will also be hard work,” Saba cautioned. “And it iz very important work, too.”

“Oh, I understand that,” Wyn said, forcing herself to settle down. Then, looking around, she spread her arms as if to encompass the entire library and said: “So where did you want to start?”

Jaina followed as quickly as she could as Salkeli slithered down the pipes and vines to the bottom of the Stack. The entire structure shuddered as it lowered slightly to make their drop to the ground less severe. She looked around to make sure the area was clear. It was. However close the Bakuran guards were, thankfully they hadn’t yet breached the ground floor.

Salkeli waved for her to follow. With the bug tucked deep in one of her jumpsuit pockets and her deactivated lightsaber in hand, she did so. Her feet fell silently among the plant debris and rubble that made the abandoned building look more like ruins in a jungle than an abandoned office block. The Rodian led her out of the atrium space and through a series of short corridors. They entered what had once been a public refresher and, after a brief pause to listen for sounds outside, pushed out the window.

“After you, this time,” Salkeli said. Jaina slipped through the narrow space and into the darkness outside.

She found herself standing in a long and very narrow alley. She was grateful that there were no guards waiting for them, because there wouldn’t have been much room to fight if there had been.

It was still night by the look of the sky. She hadn’t yet adjusted to local time, but she suspected that dawn wasn’t far off. If Malinza and the other members of Freedom were going to make a clean getaway, they’d have to do it soon.

“What sort of distraction does Vyram have in mind, anyway?” she whispered to the Rodian as he emerged from the window beside her.

“Wait and see,” he answered with a wink.

He hurried up the alley, moving carefully but quickly. Jaina followed, alert to the slightest change in the environment around her. A fitful wind blew from ahead of her, throwing up dust and rustling discarded paper and rubbish. She was acutely aware of the fact that the guards didn’t have to be supersleuths to find her. All they had to do was follow the signal from the bug in her pocket. Ideally, what she needed was a feral cratsch or a lost droid to which she could attach the bug, after which she could make her own escape. Until then, though, she would just have to keep moving and stay attentive.

Salkeli was within ten meters of the end of the alley when an aircar suddenly swept over them, landing lights and powerful arcs flashing down the narrow gap between the buildings. In a second it was gone. Jaina could hear the whine of its turbines as it circled to come back around and pinpoint them again.

Through the Force, Jaina sensed the blaster come up from behind her before the woman holding it had even had chance to fire. In one smooth motion she wheeled around in midstep and activated her lightsaber, bringing it up between her and the guard at the distant end of the alley at the exact instant the laser bolt fired. There was a bright flash as the bolt discharged into the wall beside her, spraying chips of stone into the air. More bolts followed, but the smoke in the air spoiled the guard’s aim, and Jaina was easily able to back away after Salkeli, providing cover.

The Rodian hissed for her to hurry. Sensing no one lying in wait for them, she turned and ran full tilt for the exit from the alley. Salkeli had his blaster out, ready to fire at anyone who got in his way. Jaina, on the other hand, wasn’t so committed to attacking people who, despite her current situation, were supposed to be her allies.

Out of the alley, she found herself on a wider, more exposed street. Salkeli was already halfway across it, heading for a smashed window in a building on the far side. Jaina followed without hesitation, deactivating her lightsaber as she went. She dashed across the road and dived headlong through the window just seconds after Salkeli. She rolled as she landed, coming up into a crouch to examine her surroundings. A quick look around told her they were in the remains of an open-plan office, long abandoned, with broken furniture strewn about the floor.

Salkeli was clambering to his feet just as the guards emerged from the alley across the street.

“Keep moving!” he urged, dashing from the room with his head low.

He took her deep into the building, then down into one of its sub-basements. Kicking open a stuck door, he revealed a long tunnel that, judging by its length, stretched to several other buildings along the street. They hurried along it, passing entrances to other basement levels.

“I trust you have a plan?” Jaina said.

“More or less,” he called back to her. “We’ll go back up in a second, to throw them off track. Once we’re sure Malinza and the rest are safely away, I’ll take any suggestions you have.”

Footfalls came from the corridor behind them. Jaina spun around, igniting her lightsaber and deflecting a handful of blaster bolts that had been aimed at their fleeing backs. Salkeli took the next stairwell on their right; Jaina followed.

He didn’t stop at the ground floor, but instead continued on to the top of the building. When they emerged, the aircar was waiting for them, hovering above the roof like the remotes she’d once trained with—only much larger, and much deadlier. Two guards hung over its sides, blaster rifles pointing down at Salkeli and Jaina. Dodging and deflecting laser bolts, the two of them took cover behind a ventilation shaft. Jaina used the Force to rock the aircar while the Rodian returned fire. That evened the score, but they were still in a no-win situation because they had nowhere to run.

She was about to point this out when a loud explosion from nearby brought a halt to the firing from the aircar. The attention of the guards in the vehicle suddenly turned to a huge ball of burning gas rising up from a nearby building—the same building, Jaina noted, that had contained the Stack. She was so surprised by the turn of events that she barely noticed the arrival of other guards from the stairwell. Thankfully, though, they were also
attracted to the spectacle, staring in amazement at what was emerging from the newly formed hole where the building’s skylight had once been.

The Stack itself—its ragtag jumble of containers loosely tied together with scaffolding and hidden by vines—rose gracefully into the predawn sky, glinting shards of shattered transparisteel falling like silver rain onto the building below. Propelled by repulsors, the entire structure was as buoyant as a hot-air balloon, and moved in much the same way. As soon as it had cleared the top of the building, it began to drift with the prevailing wind, trailing a spreading cloud of smoke and debris beneath it.

The aircar sped away to intercept the floating structure, leaving the guards on the rooftop staring at the spectacle.

“Now’s the time for suggestions,” he hissed. “Before those guards over there remember what they’re here for. Right now they stand between us and our only means of escape.”

“There is one other,” Jaina said, staring at the edge of the roof a dozen or so meters away.

Salkeli laughed, following her gaze. “Don’t tell me that Jedi can fly, too?”

She shook her head and smiled at him. “No, but we can jump. Come on!”

With that, she bolted for the edge of the rooftop, not stopping to check that the Rodian was following. Then, trusting in her instincts and the Force, she threw herself into the air.

Instead of landing on another rooftop, however, she found herself plunging into a deep and wide aqueduct half filled with fast-moving water. The current instantly grabbed and held her down. Her limbs flailed as she struggled to orient herself and come up for air. Lungs burning, she finally broke the surface, desperately trying to suck in some oxygen while at the same time coughing
up some of the water she’d inhaled. Then, from somewhere nearby, above the sound of rushing current, she heard the wheezing laughter of the Rodian.

“Over here!” he called as the current swept them along into a high-ceilinged tunnel. He was paddling strongly a meter or so away from her.

She spat out some more water and swam to his side. “I presume the Stack was the distraction you mentioned. It was empty, right?”

“Right.” His voice echoed in the tunnel. “While the guards chasing us split up to check, the others would have slipped out through the basement.”

“But all that equipment,” she said. A loss like that for a small group such as Freedom had to hurt. “All that data!”

“Data and equipment are replaceable; lives are not.” An open shaft passed by overhead, briefly affording them some light. It reflected off Salkeli’s multifaceted eyes. “Okay, we’re there,” he said. “Swim for the edge.”

“You actually
know
where we are?” She was genuinely surprised.

“A Rodian always has an escape plan,” he said, kicking vigorously for the edge of the tunnel. “I thought everyone knew that.”

“But it was my idea to jump!”

The Rodian snorted, a nasal bleat that sounded unusually loud in the tunnel. “I had already thought of it; I just wanted to check out your mettle.”

He reached the wall and found purchase on its slimy surface. Jaina wasn’t far behind. Her fingers dug into the gaps between bricks where ancient mortar had eroded away.

“Up there,” Salkeli said. “See?”

Jaina looked up and to her right, and saw an open access cover. Descending from it was a rusting metal ladder. She followed Salkeli’s lead and began to edge her way toward it. The current was stronger here than it had been
before, and she had to fight not to be swept away. From farther down the tunnel she could hear a faint rumbling sound, like that of a distant roaring. She guessed that either the tunnel continued to narrow the farther it went, or it ended in an underground waterfall of some kind. Either way, she didn’t particularly want to find out.