Dark Nest_ The Joiner King Part 16

"Ubrub ubru Ruur!"

"They just want to see the Crash!"

"Then how come they're coming after us?" Mara demanded.

They reached the bottom of the slope and found the gate blocked by blue-black insects. Nanna shifted Ben to one arm and opened the other at the elbow, revealing her built-in blaster cannon.

"That means move," Han said, stepping past Nanna to confront the insects in front of them.

The insects began to crowd forward to meet him.

"The other way."

Han raised his blaster pistol and flicked the power setting from stun to lethal.

"Not yet, Han." Luke glanced in Han's direction, and Han's hand slowly fell to his side. "Let me handle this."

"Then you'd better handle it quick," Leia said, looking back up the crater slope. Two dozen of the blue insects had emerged from the ma.s.s and were slowly creeping closer. "It's getting crowded back here."

Leia felt a brush of rea.s.surance from Luke, then an astonished booming erupted behind her. She glanced back to see several dozen insects hanging in midair, their legs and arms wiggling wildly as they attempted to make contact with the ground. The group began to move forward again, and she backed out the gate under the dangling insects. Luke was standing to one side, holding his hands palms-up above his shoulders.

"Not bad," she said.

"Impressive, even."

Luke winked at her, then turned toward the rest of the blue insects, who were still attempting to follow. He lowered one of his hands and stretched it toward them... and the insects immediately began to back away, dipping their heads and clacking their mandibles.

"They're apologizing, Master Luke," C-3PO said. "They didn't mean to make you feel hunted."

"No harm," Luke said. He waited until Leia, C-3PO, and their guide were past, then lowered the first group of blue insects down inside the gate. "As long as the feeling doesn't come back anytime soon."

They followed Mara and Nanna back to the lot where Yoggoy had left their transport, then climbed aboard the battered hover-sled. Their guide slipped behind the controls and turned her head all the way around to the pa.s.senger compartment, then thrummed a question.

"Yoggoy asks what you would like to see next," C-3PO said.

"The Falcon," Han said.

"Rurr ur uu buubu."

"Yoggoy suggests a stop at a membrosia vault," C-3PO said. "You seem rather tense."

"That's 'cause I am," Han growled. "And getting-"

"I think we've seen enough for one day," Leia said tersely. She could tell that the other Jedi shared the same feeling she did, for they were still holding their lightsaber handles in their hands and scanning the surrounding area. "I think we'd all like to go straight back to our vessels."

"Ububu."

The guide slipped the hoversled into motion so quickly that Leia and the others were knocked into their seats, and a moment later they were gliding onto a broad, traffic-choked boulevard flanked by looming insect spires.

The uneasy feeling Leia had been experiencing only grew worse. She slid forward and leaned over the low wall separating the driver's compartment from the pa.s.sengers.

"Yoggoy, who were those blue insects?"

"Ububub bur?"

"The blue Kind who accosted us at the Crash," C-3PO explained helpfully. "Actually, they were more of a deep indigo, if that helps."

"Bubu bur ub."

"Why of course there are blue Kind," C-3PO protested. "We just saw them at the Crash!"

"Ur ub bur."

"What do you mean you don't remember that?" C-3PO demanded. "We all saw them."

The street ahead suddenly grew clear, and the unease Leia had been feeling blossomed into full-fledged danger sense.

"Stop the hoversled!" Leia cried.

Mara's approach was more direct. She was already leaping over the driver's wall, wresting the controls from their guide. She brought the hoversled to an instant halt, drawing a chorus of surprised oofs from Leia and the others.

"Not good," Han said, coming forward. "Bad, even. These streets never- "

Leia did not hear the rest of Han's observation, for suddenly her danger sense was turning somersaults in her stomach and Mara was backing the hoversled up the street. When their guide protested and tried to retake the controls, Mara used the Force to push the insect off the hoversled.

"Mom!" Ben cried. "You just dumped-"

A deafening crackle echoed through spiretops, then chunks of mosaic- covered wall began to rain down on both sides of the boulevard.

Leia instinctively turned to protect Ben, but Nanna already had him on the deck, shielding him with her laminanium-armored body. Luke and Saba were standing beside the droid, using the Force to push falling rubble away from the hoversled.

Realizing that she still had a little honing to do before her instincts were up to full Jedi speed, Leia tipped her head back and began to look for chunks of falling building.

"a.s.sailants at forty degrees!" Nanna reported.

The droid's arm rose and opened at the elbow. The entire hoversled shuddered as the warrior-nanny cut loose with her blaster cannon.

"Astral!" Ben yelled, peering out from under her arm.

Nanna gently pushed his head back, then fired again. More pieces of wall crashed down in the street, and Leia glimpsed the inky shape of half a dozen dark blue insects diving for the interior of the tower.

"Did you see that?" Han raised his blaster pistol and began to fire into the dust. "Kriffing bugs!"

In the next instant, the hoversled pivoted around and started up the avenue away from the ambush.

"They were trying to kill us!" Han cried from the floor of the hoversled. He hauled himself up and, as Mara swung down a side street and left the billowing dust behind, caught Leia's eye. 'Wow can we try my plan? "

TWELVE.

For the first twenty minutes of the trip to the hangar, Han remained silent about Mara's piloting. She was racing down the insect-choked boulevard, using the Force to weave and jink and at times bounce through the traffic as though she were flying an X-wing instead of an ancient hoversled with a repulsor drive that sounded like it might come apart at any second, and most of the time he was just too scared to talk.

But when she suddenly swung into a packed alley and slowed to a more sustainable speed, he could not help himself.

"Don't tell me you're losing your nerve," he said, leaning over the half wall into the pilot's compartment. "We've got to get back to the ships before Raynar finds out we survived!"

Mara continued at the same sane speed. "He already knows."

"The collective mind," Leia reminded him. "What one Yoggoy knows, they all do."

"Great." Han's stomach began to churn. "There ought to be a nice bunch of bugs waiting when we get back to the hangar."

"Maybe not," Luke said. "I can't believe Raynar would turn on us like that. He was one of the most earnest students at the academy."

Han and Leia shot Luke simultaneous looks of astonishment.

"Raynar Thul is no more," Han quoted. "He's one of them now.

UnuThul. A Joiner."

"Raynar's still in there," Luke said. "I felt him."

"Yeah? Well, it's the other guy I'm worried about," Han said. They left the alley, flashed across a boulevard, and shot into another alley.

Han had no idea where they were-their guide had stuck to the main boulevards on the way to the Crash-but he a.s.sumed Mara knew where she was going. Jedi were not the only ones who could trust the Force. "And if his bugs try knocking another building down on us, I'm gonna blast him."

An amused twinkle came to Luke's eye, and Han suddenly realized how ridiculous his declaration must have sounded after describing how easily Raynar had destroyed BD-8, disabled the Falcon's laser cannons, and neutralized Leia's Noghri bodyguards.

"Or something."

"Of course, dear," Leia said, patting his arm. "But I don't think that will be necessary. Raynar had to know that attack would never work-not with three Jedi Masters aboard."

"And a Jedi Knight of much experience." Saba nodded at Leia, though it was impossible for Han to guess whether this was a gesture of agreement or to indicate whom she meant. Barabels were blasted hard to read. "This one thinkz it was just a warning, a way to make us to leave."

"I hate giving in to bullies," Han said. "But I'll make an exception in this case. We can use the Force and Juun's datapad to track down the twins."

Leia nodded. "I think it's time to move on. We've found what we came for."

"We have?" Han asked.

"The Force-vision," Luke surmised. "What did you see?"

"Just Jacen," Leia said. "But he gave me the name of a planet and a system. I don't recognize them, but maybe Juun-"

"Jacen told you the system name?" Mara asked from the pilot's seat.

"That's right," Leia said. "He looked straight at me and said it.

Why? "

"That is a strange kind of vision," Saba said.

"More of a sending," Luke agreed. "But across time instead of s.p.a.ce."

The three Masters fell silent, leaving Han and Leia to look at each other in puzzlement.

Finally, Han said, "I don't get it. What's the problem?"

"I've never heard of a Jedi using the Force that way," Luke said.

"So he's creative," Han asked. "He's my kid. What'd you expect?"

"I think I understand," Leia said, beginning to sound worried. "The future is always in motion..."

"But not yourz," Saba said. "When Jacen spoke acrosz time, you became destined to be there."

"He fixed your future," Luke said. "At least for those few moments."

Leia was silent for a moment, then said, "Well, I seem to have survived it. And my future is my own again."

"I don't like it," Mara said. "Not at all. What exactly was he learning while he was gone?"

It was a good question-one Han had been asking himself since Jacen was a teenager.

Mara brought them out of the alley onto a busy avenue of zooming landspeeders and almost managed to keep up by pushing the repulsor drive beyond its top rating. The avenue snaked through the brightly decorated insect spires for perhaps five kilometers, then spilled onto the great boulevard that encircled the Unu's complex of red towers, and a few minutes later the hoversled was sliding down the long golden throat of the Prime Hangar.

The bugs were clattering about their business, durafilling micropitted hulls, off-loading bales of some spicy-smelling resin, tapping rivets on starships that should have been sc.r.a.pped when the Empire was a glimmer in Palpatine's eye. Han began to hope that Saba was right about the attack- that it had just been an impolite invitation to leave.

Then they reached the bay where the Falcon and Shadow had been left, and Mara stopped short.

A trio of rocket shuttles had been squeezed between the two vessels. Maintenance crews were busy stringing webs of fueling hoses across the entire alcove, thwarting all hope of a quick departure. Even worse, Raynar was standing at the foot of the Falcon's ramp, surrounded by an entourage of bug attendants and huge Unu soldiers. He was looking toward their end of the bay, clearly awaiting their return.

"So much for thinking he was just sending us a warning," Han said.

"I really hate being right all the time."

Meewalh and Cakhmaim, who had remained behind to watch the ships and begin repairs on the Falcon's weapons turrets, were peering out from the top of the ramp. The pair hadn't made much progress. Both sets of the blaster cannons remained pointed at the ship's aft.

"We should send the Noghri to fetch Tarfang and Juun," Leia said softly. "Do you think I can risk a comm call?"

"We'll have to," Han whispered. "Unless Jacen gave you coordinates to go with that name."

"Just the name," Leia said.