Dark Nest_ The Joiner King Part 17

"I don't think this will come to a fight," Luke said. He rose and joined Han behind Mara, hiding Leia so she could comm the Noghri without being seen. "But Ben, you-"

"I know... stick close to Nanna," Ben said. "I know."

"Right," Luke said, smiling. "Nanna, get Ben aboard either ship as quickly as you can."

"But don't try anything pushy," Han advised. "You'll only get a brain- melt."

"I am not programmed to be pushy, Captain Solo," Nanna said.

"Will we get to shoot that blaster cannon in your arm again?" Ben asked enthusiastically.

"Only if someone threatens your life," Nanna said. "You know all my routines are strictly defensive, Ben."

Mara threaded the hoversled through the tangle of fueling lines, but had to stop ten meters from the Shadow because a rocket shuttle blocked their way. Nanna immediately took Ben and headed for the boarding ramp, which was still down because of the bugs' mistrust of closed doors.

Everyone else remained on the hoversled, their hands out of sight and grasping their weapons, their gazes fixed on Raynar and his entourage.

Han felt as though he were aging a week for each second it took Ben to reach the Shadow. By comparison, Luke and Mara seemed downright calm.

And why shouldn't they? Having seen all the times Han and Leia's kids had been kidnapped or threatened when they were supposedly hidden safely away, Luke and Mara had decided that-short of an actual battle-Ben would always be safer if they kept him close. So they had repeatedly rehea.r.s.ed with Ben exactly what to do in circ.u.mstances like these, and weekly "protect-the- kid" drills were standard procedure for all traveling companions. Given whom they usually traveled with-Jedi Knights and veteran soldiers-Han thought they had probably made the right decision.

When Mara failed to start the hoversled toward the Falcon, Raynar c.o.c.ked his earless head in bewilderment, then started across the hangar floor.

"That's my signal," Mara said. "I'm out of here."

She stepped out of the pilot's station and, still moving casually, started up the Shadow's boarding ramp. Raynar's eyes followed her progress, but he made no attempt to stop her. That was good, since it meant Han didn't have to blast him yet.

Han slipped into Mara's place at the pilot's station, then frowned as he tried to pick out a path to the Falcon. This was going to be difficult, at least until Mara distracted them with her blaster cannon-provided Raynar didn't twist that around as he had the Falcon's turrets.

Han's palms started to sweat, and he began to wish he hadn't left their thermal detonators aboard the ship. Nothing distracted a big, bad, all-powerful enemy like one of those little silver b.a.l.l.s rolling around at his feet.

Raynar stopped two paces from the hoversled. "Was anyone injured?"

"No," Han answered. "Sorry to disappoint you."

"Disappoint us?" Raynar's eyes grew confused. "When you left Yoggoy to be crushed, we thought someone must have been-"

"Yeah, well, sorry about the guide, but that's what happens when you start dropping buildings on people," Han said. Daring to hope that Raynar would actually make this easy, he gestured toward the Falcon. "Do you mind? We need to clean up."

Raynar lowered his melted brow, then shifted his gaze to Luke and Saba, who were waiting at opposite ends of the hoversled with their hands hidden behind the durasteel sides. His scarred lips twitched in a mockery of a smile.

"Of course." Raynar gave no discernible command, but a path opened through the soldier bugs at his back. He stepped onto the hoversled beside Han. "You believe the building collapse was an attack?"

"It wasn't exactly friendly." Trying to hide his uneasiness, Han started the hoversled toward the Falcon. "And we saw your killer bugs."

"Killer bugs?" Raynar asked.

"They were solid blue-dark blue," Saba said from the back of the sled. "They blasted the wallz just before we pa.s.sed beneath."

"You're mistaken," Raynar said. "If any of our nests had attacked you, we would have known."

Saba rose and came forward, and Han was a little unnerved to realize that she was not large enough to loom over Raynar the way she did most beings. "This one saw the ambusherz with her own eyez. Ben's Defender droid killed two."

"The Kind did not lose anyone in the accident," Raynar said.

"It was no accident," Han snapped, beginning to grow angry.

"Someone tried to kill us. You, I'm thinking."

"If we wanted to kill you, we would not make it look like an accident, " Raynar said. "We would just do it."

They reached the Falcon. Han stopped the hoversled, then faced Raynar and found himself staring at the underside of a white-blotched chin.

"Remember who you're talking to, kid," he said. "This is Han Solo.

I've been sticking my finger in the eyes of two-credit dictators like you since before I broke your mother's heart, so show a little respect when you threaten me. And don't lie. I hate that."

Raynar was no more intimidated than he had been by Saba. He simply glared down at Han, his breath coming in slow, angry rasps.

Luke leaned close to Leia and whispered, "Han dated Raynar's mother?"

"You'd be surprised at the women Han's dated. I always am." Leia stepped to Raynar's side, then said, "You must admit the collapse looks suspicious. If it was an accident, how did the Yoggoy nest know to evacuate the area? And what about the blue Kind we saw? The ones we killed?"

Raynar's breathing softened to a wheeze, and he turned to face Leia. "The only dead Kind we have found at the site was your guide."

"The otherz must have taken the bodiez," Saba said. "There were more than the onez Nanna killed."

"You were mistaken," Raynar said. "The dust was thick, the rubble was still falling. What you saw were shadows."

"Who're you trying to convince here?" Han demanded. He glanced at the attendant bugs, wondering whether they could have more say than he realized. Perhaps they were the reason Raynar was trying to deny the Colony's responsibility. Perhaps they didn't approve of murdering guests.

"Because we know what we saw."

Raynar turned back to Han. "Eyes can deceive, Captain Solo. What you say you saw is impossible."

"Or our interpretation of it." Luke's voice was thoughtful. "What if it wasn't the Kind who attacked us at all?"

"Others aren't allowed to wander Yoggoy alone," Raynar said. "We would know even if someone else attacked you."

"What if you didn't know they were here?" Leia asked.

Raynar's eyes narrowed in thought, then he shook his head in a gesture that-for a change-seemed more Raynar than insect. "You said Yoggoy was warned to evacuate. Why would Others do that?"

"And if they did, you'd certainly know they were here," Luke said.

Han frowned at Luke. "Don't tell me you're buying this?"

"Not that it was an accident," Luke said. "But that Ray-er, UnuThul- believes it was."

Leia caught Han's eye, then gave a curt nod that suggested he should believe it, too. "I think we can all agree on that much," she said. "If the Colony wanted us dead, they wouldn't have given up after one try. The attack was supposed to look like an accident, which means somebody was trying to hide it from the Unu."

"We're glad you believe us, Princess," Raynar said. "But there's no evidence to support your theory."

"How could you know?" Han demanded. "There hasn't been time. The attack was less than thirty minutes ago!"

"Yoggoy workers have already cleared much of the rubble," Raynar answered. "The only body they have-Kind or Other - is your guide's. The evidence suggests the towers just collapsed. We are sorry it happened when you were about to pa.s.s beneath them."

"Does that happen often?" Leia asked. "That a spire just collapses?"

"Once, when there was a quake," Raynar said. "And sometimes storms- ".

"Not what I asked," Leia said, stepping off the hoversled. "Let me show you something."

She took Raynar's meaty hand, then led him up the boarding ramp into the Falcon. Han followed with Luke and Saba, but fortunately only a small part of Raynar's entourage-the bug with the really long antennae and another covered in furry bristles - joined them. They caught up to Leia and Raynar in the Solos' sleeping quarters. The pair were standing in front of the bunk, staring at the famous moss-painting hanging on the wall.

"This is Killik Twilight," Leia said to Raynar. "Do you recognize anything?"

"Of course," Raynar said. "Lizil was very excited about the painting."

Raynar stepped to the side of double bunk-the Solos had installed it when they had realized the Falcon was going to be their primary home-then leaned closer to the painting and began to run his gaze over every detail.

"Thank you for showing it to us," he said. "We wanted to ask, but our meetings have gone so badly that we didn't want to presume."

Han raised his brow. Maybe there was less Raynar left in that seared body than he thought. The Raynar Thul whom Han remembered had been a decent-enough kid, but his wealthy family had never taught him to do anything but presume.

Leia appeared less stunned than Han by Raynar's politeness.

She smiled graciously, then said, "Sometimes, art helps us know each other better. Do you know what this painting depicts?"

Raynar nodded. "It shows an arm of the Lost Nest." He still did not look away. "We remember it well."

"The Lost Nest?" Luke asked.

"Remember it?" Han gasped. "It's ancient!"

Raynar finally tore his gaze from the moss-painting.

"We remember the nest." He fixed his eyes on Leia. "When humans came to Alderaan, they called it the Castle Lands. But we knew the nest as Oroboro. Our Home."

Han shook his head in disbelief. He liked to say that all bugs were alike, but not even he had a.s.sumed that the Kind and the Killiks were actually the same. Sure, they shared the same general body shape and had the same number of limbs, but beyond that, the Kind looked like the Killiks in the painting about as much as humans looked like Aqualish. The towers, on the other hand, were another matter. In both the painting and the Yoggoy nest, they were crooked cones with distinctly banded exteriors.

Leia did not sound surprised at all. "So the Killiks didn't go extinct, as everyone supposed. They simply left Alderaan thousands of years ago."

"You seem less surprised at that than Lizil was to see a painting of Oroboro," Raynar said.

"I've had my suspicions since we arrived at Yoggoy," Leia replied smoothly She turned back to the painting. "Archaeologists have dated the oldest of those spires to twenty-five thousand standard years."

"Correct," Raynar said. "The Celestials emptied Oroboro ten thousand generations ago-that would be twenty thousand years, as humans measure time."

Han wanted to ask who the Celestials were-and what Raynar meant by emptied. He also wanted to ask if a Killik generation really pa.s.sed at the rate of one every two years. But he could see by the set of his wife's jaw that she was pursuing her own line of questioning.

"And yet, only three towers had collapsed before Alderaan was destroyed," Leia said. "No maintenance or repairs, exposed to the elements all that time, and only three collapse. But here, a tower just happens to collapse as we're about to pa.s.s by. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"There is more gravity here than on Alderaan," Raynar countered.

"And the ground does not make such strong spitcrete."

"This was still the first tower to collapse for no apparent reason," Luke reminded him.

"There is always a first, Master Skywalker." Raynar turned back to Killik Twilight and began to study it. "We cannot explain what happened.

Please accept our apologies."

Han exchanged looks of frustration with Luke and Leia, but Saba-who did not truly understand the concept of apology - made a distasteful grating sound in her throat.

"This one does not want your apology, young Thul. She does not eat humanz." She glanced out into the corridor, where Raynar's duo of a.s.sistant Killiks stood waiting. "And she has never cared for the taste of insectz, either."

Raynar's head snapped around so quickly that Han feared he was about to have b.l.o.o.d.y Barabel scales flying all over his sleeping quarters.

"Take it easy, kid. You remember how Barabels are." Han took Raynar by the arm and started forward. "Sorry for the misunderstanding, but we still need to get under way. Why don't you tell us about these Celestials on the way out?"

"If you like." Raynar allowed himself to guided into the corridor.

"It was after we built Qolaraloq-you Others call it Center-point Station.

The Celestials were angry-"

Saba stumbled into Han's back as he stopped dumbfounded in the corridor.

"You're saying Centerpoint was built by Killiks?" Leia gasped.

Finally, she sounded like something had surprised her.

Instead of answering, Raynar abruptly stopped. "We need to see the aft hold. Your Noghri are abducting Captain Juun and his first mate."

Han winced inwardly. "Abducting? What makes you say that?"

The m.u.f.fled whine of an angry Sull.u.s.tan drifted up the access corridor. "... will not be quiet! Let me see Captain-"

Juun's voice fell silent, but Raynar was already out the cabin door.

Han turned to Leia. "Abducting?"

Leia shrugged. "I told Cakhmaim to bring Juun and Tarfang to the Falcon. I guess they didn't want to come."

"A misunderstanding," Luke said. "We'd better go explain."

Luke led the way into the access corridor, and they caught up to Raynar and his attendants outside the aft hold. Raynar hit the touch pad, then scowled when the hatch did not open and raised his palm toward it.