Corellian Trilogy_ Assault At Selonia Part 19

While Tendra could see no particular reason the system could not be adapted to send visual images, the unit she had was sound only.

Very crude.

You spoke into a microphone, and your voice went out as modulations on a radio-band carrier signal, ambling out into the universe at the speed of light.

But even the speed of light was faster than a s.p.a.cecraft limited to sublight speeds. The Corellian planetary system was only a few light-hours across. If Lando were in-system, and if her anyone else-happened to 15L -gCCflgC AM switch on a radionics receiver tuned to the proper frequency, then Tendra's warning about the fleet ma.s.sing at Sacorria would reach them in only a few hours, once she was in-system. It was a long shot proposition. Tendra knew that. But even long shots paid off every once in a while.

And besides, it got her off Sacorria.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

The Tale of Rallocination II the morning after their arrival at the villa of the d.u.c.h.ess Marcha, the children had nothing more in mind than getting breakfast eaten as soon as possible so they could get started exploring the huge house and its grounds.

But Q9 was waiting for them in the kitchen, and even though he served them breakfast in a most helpful and efficient manner, the news that Ebrihim and Aunt Marcha wanted to have a little chat about the huge underground chamber that Anakin had found put a most effective damper on their enthusiasm. Breakfast suddenly took on the feel of the condemned prisoner's last meal.

There has never been a child living who did not feel that special twinge of fear when summoned in by the adults to explain something.

Even the most innocent childhood problems seem to have a way of ballooning out of control when exposed to grown-up viewpoints.

When the offense was the accidental breaking of a window, things were bad enough. Even given that accidents happen to everyone, a sensible child must ap183 NhMEMl MI OULUIWIA proach the interview armed with the knowledge that adults often have a very different idea of what an "accident" is.

When the offense was the semiaccidental discovery of a huge, ancient, alien, much-sought-after, and mysterious underground facility, the problem was, of course, far worse. Jaina instantly conjured up two or three ways that finding the chamber could get them in big trouble.

Maybe, despite their precautions, they had left a clue that had let those Human League creeps find it. Maybe it was some strange, huge, burial chamber and they had violated someone's taboo. Maybe, worst of all, finding it had been what had set off the whole war. She could not see how that could be, but that didn't mean it couldn't have happened.

An akin tried to sneak off with an excuse that he had to go help Chewbacca fix the Falcon, but that one didn't even fool Q9. None of them were getting out of it.

"So did they say what they wanted to know?" Jaina asked as she poked her spoon around her howl of diced fruit.

"Only that they wished to hear from you, in your words, all about the chamber Anakin found. I have told you that three times now. I should think the first two times should have been clear enough."

"Well, maybe I want more of an answer than that."

"Then I suggest that you ask more of a question."

"Look, Q9," Jacen said. "The one big question i are we in trouble?"

"In trouble for what?" the droid asked.

"I don't know," Jacen asked. "If I knew, I wouldn't have to ask."

"How can I tell you what you want to know when I don't know what it is?" Q9 asked.

"But I want to know if you know what I don't," Jacen said.

"But I can't know what that is if you don't tell me, ' Q9 replied.

"Yes, but-"

"Quiet!" Anakin shouted. "Too loud."

"I'm with Anakin," Jaina said. "Let's eat our breakfast and then we'll find out." The children finished eating in a nervous son of silence, and then followed Q9 from the kitchen to Aunt Marcha's study, an odd little room with a door so low that Jacen had to duck just a bit to get through it. The room was windowless, and the walls and floors were rounded, and merged one into the other, and there was a dry, loamy smell to the room. The walls were painted a swirly sort of dark brown, and the furniture consisted solely of what appeared to be big, flat rounded rocks scattered about. The rocks, however, turned out to be soft and comfortable cushions, and the children settled into them very happily.

"Why does this room look so funny?" Anakin asked.

"Anakin!" Jaina cried. "Don't be rude."

"It's quite all right," said Aunt Marcha. "There's never any harm in an honest question respectffilly asked. And though you might learn how to ask things like that a bit more politely, I'll tell you. Long, long ago, all Drall would hibernate in underground burrows during the cold, cold winter.

Some Drall still believe that Drall were meant to hibernate, and do so to this day. I don't go quite that far, but many Drall like the idea of a place that is like a snug underground burrow, warm and safe against the cold. It relaxes us. I think this is a very good place to think and talk. What do you think?"

Anakin looked around and nodded. "I kind of like it," he announced.

"Good," said Aunt Marcha. "Now then, let's get U', - started.

Children, Q9-x2 has shown us the images he recorded when you visited that cavern. But let's pretend we didn't see them. Tell me eve, ryt, bing you can about it.

Don't leave out a single thing.

"Well," Jaina said, "okay." Aunt Marcha didn't sound mad. Maybe things were not as bad as she thought.

Maybe they weren't in trouble after all. Unless Ebrihim's Aunt Marcha was one sneaky old character.

"We didn't find it, first off. Anakin did. And I don't know how, either. It was like he saw some sort of line or arrow or something we couldn't see, something under the tunnd floor, and the invisible arrow led him to it."

"Anakin does weird stuff like that," Jacen said blandly.

"I see," said Aunt Marcha, in a t0the of voice that made it clear she did not.

"All three children are very strong in the Force," said Ebrihim.

"Anakin's abilities are-ah-most unusual."

"Yeah," Jacen said. "He's spooky-good with machines. Stuff like that. Mom and Dad say he might grow out of it."

"Or I might nOt," Anakin put in. Jaina had the feeling her little brother thought they were blaming him for whatever-it-was. "I don't think anyone's mad at you for finding the chamber," she said rea.s.suringly.

"Quite the contrary," said Aunt Marcha. "It might be very, very important that you found it. But go on, please. Anakin, ah, followed this invisible guide. Then what happened?"

Jaina and Jacen told the rest of it, finishing each other's sentences and adding details to whatever the other said, in the way twins often did. Anakin chimed in now and again, but as often as not, no one quite knew what to make of his contributions. Nevertheless they managed to give Aunt Marcha a good idea of the place, in however disjointed a fashion.

They described the way Anakin had led them to one stretch of blank wall, seemingly jut like all the others, and the way he had found the hidden keypad control and opened the ma.s.sive door. They described the strange silver walkway behind the door, and the platform it led to.

And they described the huge conical chamber spread out below the platform, with six silver cones in a circle at its base, and a seventh cone in the center.

Ebrihim's Aunt Marcha stopped them now and again to ask questions.

She had Q9 project all the imagery he had recorded, and went over it with the children in detail, asking how old things looked, how hot the place had been, if they had noticed anything about the top of the conical chamber. The children answered as best they could, and Aunt Marcha generally seemed to get the answers she was expecting.

At last she seemed to decide she had all the information she was going to get from the three of them.

"Thank you, children," she said. "What you have told me is very important. More important than you could imagine. I think that Ebrihim and I need to sit down and talk about it all for a while. You may go."

Jacen and Anakin scrambled to their feet and headed for the door of the odd little den. But Jaina stayed where she was. Ebrihim's aunt might think she knew all she needed to know, but she was wrong. Jaina felt sure of that. There was something more, something besides the strange hidden chamber. It had been preying on her mind for a long time, and she was determined to say something, even if it left her in a world of trouble.

"Urn, ah, Your Grace?"

"Yes, child? What is it?"

"There's something else you should know about.

Something that we all heard, that we weren't supposed to hear."

"Jaina!" Jacen protested. "Don't!"

"We have to, Jacen. It might be real important. And we can trust her. We can. We have to."

Jacen turned away from the door and sat back down.

"I think it's a mistake," he said.

"Well, if it is, it's my mistake," Jaina said. She turned back toward the d.u.c.h.ess. "The night before the attack on Corona House, our parents had a meeting with Governor-General Micamberlecto and a lady named Mara Jade. She's a-"

"I know all about Master Trader Mara Jade," said Aunt Marcha, in studiously neutral tones. "Go on."

"Well, she brought them a message from someone who sounded a lot like Dad Jaina told the d.u.c.h.ess all about the meeting the children had overheard, and about the written message they had seen projected on the wall and the spoken message they had heard, about the threat to blow up a whole series of stars, culminating in Corell itself. Aunt Marcha listened carefully, asking occasional questions. Jaina went through the whole story, but she hesitated a moment at the end.

No. She had to go the whole way. "There's another thing. I can't quite say how, or why, but there's some sort of connection between what we heard in the message and the place Anakin found. I can't explain it, exactly, but somehow they felt the same."

"I don't see how that could be," said Aunt Marcha.

"Not if my suspicions about the place Anakin found are right-and I am almost certain they are."

"If it is any comfort, Jaina, I don't think you gave away any secrets," said Ebrihim. "Chewbacca and I heard a similar message that was broadcast to all of the planet Corellia the very next day. We didn't want to tell you about it, because we didn't want to frighten you.

Little did we know."

"But the message we heard said to keep everything a big secret!"

Jaina protested. "Why tell it to the whole world the next day?"

"That," said Ebrihim, "is an excellent question."

"I have my own questions," said Aunt Marcha. "Most of them about that list of times and coordinates. Where were they? What were the times?

If we knew the schedule, that might tell us something very important."

"I know what they are!" Anakin announced. "I could write em down for you.

Marcha smiled at him. "I'm sure you could, Anakin.

But we need the real numbers, not pretend ones that-"

"Oh, he could write down the real ones," Jacen said in a very casual tone of voice. "Do you have some paper and something to write with?"

"What?" Marcha asked. "How could he-"

"If you'll allow me," Ebrihim said. He stood up and opened the front of a cupboard built into the wall. He extracted a large sheet of paper and a pen and handed them to Anakin. Anakin put the paper on the floor, lay down on his stomach, and began writing neat, precise rows of numbers. "The boy's memory is somewhat remarkable."

"If he sees it, he remembers it," Jaina agreed. "Of course he doesn't know what it all means, but he remembers it."

"What do you mean he doesn't know what it means?"

Marcha asked.

"Well, he can't really read so well yet," Jacen said, "but he knows his letters and numbers really well." t A very long hour and a half later, Ebrihim and Marcha sent the children away, once it seemed they had gotten all they were going to get out of them-and they had certainly managed to get a great deal. Anakin, with some prompting, had been able to recite virtually the whole conversation of that night, word for word, with Marcha's office system recording and transcribing it all.

jyl They had gone over sal-solos public message as recorded by the Millennittm Falcon. They had plotted out the perfectly accurate star positions that Anakin had written down.

And they had not gotten much of anywhere.

"Nephew," said Aunt Marcha, "we have a mystery on our hands. One we must solve. And yet I do not know how to begin. One message, the one the children heard, offers proof or at least compelling evidence-that the authors were able to blow up a star.

The message demands secrecy, does not reveal the ident.i.ty of its authors, and yet offers many details concerning when and where the next attacks will come. It demands the recipients comply with instructions, and yet gives no instructions.

"The second message, the one you heard, came scarcely a day later, and told everyone on the planet the authors could destroy stars, made absolutely impossible demands, and the system-wide jamming and the interdiction field were activated immediately afterward, making it absolutely impossible for anyone to even liy to carry out the demands.

Furthermore, the second message was not transmitted to the other planets. However, given the prohuman, anti-Drall, anti-Selonian nature of the second message, I can understand why they would not want it transmitted anyplace where those races might take out their revenge on the human populace. It makes no sense. No sense at all."

"Quite true," said Ebrihim. "If you a.s.sume that both messages were sent by the same people."

"But of course they were. How could they not be?"

"I see clue in the first message that strongly suggest otherwise."

"Explain yourself."

Ebrihim picked up the printout from the transcriber.

"To do so requires a certain amount of ratiocination, of deductive reasoning. We can deduce certain things from the fact that some information is not there. 'This will be your only notification prior to events, '" Ebrihim read.

"nform no one of this message and await instructions so as to avoid the need for further action. We will be monitoring all communications. Do not attempt to call for help. Any violation of instructions will result in an acceleration of the schedule." That was all the speaker said. Consider that the first message was in two parts-a written list of times and coordinates that did not refer to the anonymous recorded voice, and a recorded voice that makes no reference to the written list.