Fate Of The Jedi_ Outcast Part 18

They moved on, Han keeping a sharp eye on the spider. But it never rose from the perch it was feeding upon, never turned their way. It did not even pay attention to the centipedes moving across the tops of adjacent fungi, and realizing that, only then was Han half certain the thing had to be disinterested in animal life.

Another kilometer farther on, Leia made a noise of surprise. Another bogey emerged, this one from a silver-gray structure the size of the building where the Solos kept their quarters on Coruscant. It had a darker color scheme, its lights a more muted arrangement of violets and reds. The noise it made was quite musical, like a harp being played by a Kowakian monkey-lizard.

Leia did not hesitate, but approached it and brushed her hand across its outer nimbus. Again she crackled with static electricity; again her hair stood out in a display that suggested electrocution.

"Start talking, Princess. I need to know you're not unconscious on your feet."

"Looking," she said, her tone distant. "Variables. Unimaginable numbers of them. Maintaining."

"Maintaining what?" Reluctantly, Han turned his back on Leia and the bogey, once again keeping guard against the sea of fungi and the life-forms within it.

"I don't know ... The data will be lost. Cycle ending, cycle winding down."

That had an ominous sound to it. But Han was distracted by something in the distance. If they were following a north-south wall-and he had no reason to believe they were, for the speeder's sensors were long gone, but he called it north-south because he had to call it something something of his own-then off at an angle, maybe a kilometer away due northwest, there was something in the middle of the fungus field. It looked like a mound of-he wasn't sure. Steel barrels, lashed together, like an improvised fuel dump in a wartime encampment. of his own-then off at an angle, maybe a kilometer away due northwest, there was something in the middle of the fungus field. It looked like a mound of-he wasn't sure. Steel barrels, lashed together, like an improvised fuel dump in a wartime encampment.

"Centerpoint ... Oh. Oh." Leia gasped. Han turned to see her staggering back, the musical bogey disappearing into the stone at their feet.

Han grabbed her, held her upright while she recovered. "Why did you say Centerpoint Centerpoint?"

"I saw Centerpoint Station! As clear as a holo." Her eyes darted back and forth as she reviewed what she'd just experienced. "Han, that image I had before, the millions of random intensities?"

"Yeah?"

"Gravity wells, I'm sure of it. A galaxy's worth of gravity wells."

"Huh. Is this thing one gigantic astronomical observatory?"

"Maybe." She straightened, recovered, but did not break his embrace. "But for what purpose?"

"Centerpoint Station was all about gravity. Its super-tractor-beam was gravitic in nature." Han glanced along the seemingly endless row of machinery. "Could this be from the same makers? The so-called Celestials? It doesn't look that old."

"Neither did Centerpoint."

Han gestured at the distant mound of barrels. "Something different to look at."

"Let's eat first. Communing with energy blobs is hard work."

Half an hour later, fortified by travel rations, they reached the mound.

Traveling through the fungus forest to get there had not been safe. Most of the life-forms fled at their approach, but the red-and-yellow centipedes were aggressive and fast moving. Fortunately, they were also loud, skittering forward with all the subtlety of a two-year-old flying a speeder bike. Han shot two before they approached closer than ten meters, and Leia cut one in half with her lightsaber when it reared up over the fungus ahead of them.

And then they were there, at the foot of the apparatus Han had seen.

It rested on a disk of something like durasteel, six meters in diameter and a meter thick. Rising from that was a central pole with something like a broad sensor antenna stretching out from it. The antenna was curved like a dish; given the way it was situated, Han was certain it was meant to rotate. Piled up against the back of the dish, strapped to it by metal cabling, were the numerous barrel-like objects he had seen, each large enough to hold a full-grown bantha. The whole structure towered some fifteen meters into the air.

Leia looked at him. He shrugged. "You got me."

"I-hey!" Leia's deactivated lightsaber suddenly stretched out toward the apparatus, as if leaping toward it, and she staggered in that direction.

So did Han. It was as though his weapons and backpack were suddenly caught in a tractor beam, dragging him along.

Then the pull ceased. Resisting it, Han and Leia were abruptly stumbling in the other direction.

Leia straightened. "Magnetic pulse. Why don't we, um-"

"Move back a ways, yeah."

They did so, observing the apparatus from what they felt was a safer distance: thirty meters.

Han was unsurprised when a bogey emerged from the base of the apparatus. "Call for you, sweetie," he said.

Leia shot him a half-amused look and approached the bogey.

"Ask it what the gizmo is for and if there are any good bars or clubs around here."

"Your sense of humor is returning-ah." She offered a little gasp as her hand came in contact with the bogey. Again her hair whipped up into an electrocuted nimbus.

"Draw in," she said. "Push out. Deactivate. Next. Next. Next. Acceleration. Interaction." Clearly pained, Leia kept up the contact.

"Leia-"

"Not now, Han. I can see the sequence. They're everywhere, it's huge huge. Evaluations almost complete, then terminus." Finally, she staggered back. This time she did fall, sprawling on the mulchy cavern floor, eyes open but glazed.

"Leia!" Han knelt over her, torn between making sure she was unhurt and keeping a wary eye out for centipedes. He decided to rely on his ears for the latter danger and bent over his wife.

She was panting, the meter on her breath mask indicating the increased demands on its processing, but her vision was clearing. She sat up almost as abruptly as she had fallen. "We've got to go."

"Where?"

"The surface."

"I knew that already." A cold suspicion formed in Han's gut. "Why?" knew that already." A cold suspicion formed in Han's gut. "Why?"

"This cavern is going to blow up, and then another few, and then the rest all at once, and that's the end for Kessel."

As they ran, she explained. "That antenna-thing is an electromagnet. A super-electromagnet. When it starts spinning, it will yank the machinery off the walls and drag it all to itself."

"Not a chance. Across all those kilometers?"

"Han, the makers of this place might also have built Centerpoint Station. Remember how powerful it it was?" Centerpoint's gravitic tractor could, in theory, move planets and suns; could collapse and destroy whole solar systems. Han didn't miss its presence in the universe. was?" Centerpoint's gravitic tractor could, in theory, move planets and suns; could collapse and destroy whole solar systems. Han didn't miss its presence in the universe.

"Point taken. Super-destructive."

"No, that's only the start." They charged through the fungi toward the nearest wall, almost heedless of the dangers. Leia had her lightsaber in hand, and twice had to cleave red-and-yellow centipedes as they struck at her. Once they raced by a fungus with a crimson spider atop; they were ten meters past before the adrenaline hit Han and gave him a burst of speed, but the spider did not follow.

"Those barrels are explosives," Leia continued. "I didn't get a sense of how they functioned, whether they're protonic or nuclear or something we don't even understand, but when all the machinery is encrusted onto the antenna, they blow up and incinerate it all ... and collapse the cavern."

"Making getting out of here an especially especially good idea." They reached the cavern wall and the banks of machinery they had already pa.s.sed on the way in, and ran toward the entrance, still kilometers away. "How long before it happens?" good idea." They reached the cavern wall and the banks of machinery they had already pa.s.sed on the way in, and ran toward the entrance, still kilometers away. "How long before it happens?"

"I don't know. Minutes?" Leia put on a burst of speed.

From long experience, Han knew that when a Jedi was running for her life, normal folk needed to try very hard to keep up.

The antenna, not visible until Han used his macrobinoculars, was already spinning by the time they reached the cavern entrance. As he watched, a piece of machinery the size of a small refueling station shivered, tore itself off the cavern wall, trailing cables and a field of debris, and rolled across the fungus forest, finally fetching up, deformed, against the antenna.

The antenna was not slowed by the gigantic apparatus now obscuring it. The thing kept spinning, the huge machine spinning atop it. A moment later, when Han imagined that the antenna was pointing toward the cavern mouth, he lurched forward, pulled by his backpack and metal gear. The pull wasn't strong enough to drag him back into the cavern, but it was exerting considerable force.

Then the sensation pa.s.sed as the antenna kept turning. "Got any ideas, lady?"

"Yes." Leia shucked her backpack. From within it, she drew out a small holocam, one that Lando had provided them. "Got any strapper tape in your bag?"

"Leia, you're joking."

She shook her head. "I'm going to set it to record and transmit. If we can get any visual images from this to take back to the surface, it might help persuade Lando what's going on down here."

Han set his pack down and began rummaging through it. "What is is going on down here?" going on down here?"

"Something caused the complex-and Han, the complex is planetwide-to end its sensor operations. Systematically, caverns have been self-destructing. These explosions are tests, sort of proofs of concept, making sure that the ancient program is still achievable."

"You got all that from kissing a glowing ball of light?"

She glared but nodded. "Because I asked direct, specific questions this time, I think. And because I'd gotten better at communicating with them through practice. Anyway, there are going to be a few more caverns blowing up as the tests come to an end. Then they'll blow all the remaining caverns in a sequence that will crack the world into pieces."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Han, Kessel has less than a week to live."

Leia got the holocam strapped into place on the stone wall, oriented more or less toward the center of the cavern and set to maximum zoom. She set it to broadcast. Han confirmed that he was receiving its signal on the holocam in his own bag.

Then they ran, their great bounding, low-gravity steps carrying them rapidly away from the source of the explosion to come.

"Got any idea how to get out of here?" Han asked between breaths.

Leia nodded. "Sensor leads up to the surface. Shafts concealed topside, but I know what to look for down here. If we survive."

They pa.s.sed the mound of rocks and then the wreckage of their speeder.

Han suddenly felt warmth on his back. He saw the tunnel walls all around and ahead of him illuminated, the shadow of the rock mound cleaving the light into two halves. He grabbed Leia's hand and hauled her back, crashing with her to the stone floor just in front of the speeder.

A thunder like he had never known, and a howling wind driving stone and metal roared past, rocking the wrecked vehicle.

Allana awoke, frightened out of a dream she couldn't remember. She pulled her covers tighter around her and looked out the viewport. It showed only the sky above Kessel: a glittering starfield, a sliver of a moon, an empty patch where the Maw was.

R2-D2, at the foot of her bed, offered a questioning tweetle. She wasn't sure exactly what he said, but she had a sense of it. "I don't know," she said. "But it isn't good."

Three minutes later, after she lay down and tried to go back to sleep, the groundquake hit.

At first it was just a low rumbling and a sense of dread. She distinctly heard C-3PO say "Oh, dear" from an adjoining room.

Then there were crashes from throughout the building as items fell off shelves and furniture toppled. The walls shook; dust filtered down from the tiles overhead. Allana drew the covers over her head and clamped her hands over her ears, willing it all to go away. She desperately wanted to be in her own little bunk on the Falcon Falcon. She'd be safe there, even with Han and Leia gone. She liked Lando and Tendra, but they were almost strangers. She wanted to be with her family.

Before the rumbling had quite subsided, the door to her room crashed open and light sprang up, visible at the edges of and through her cover. She flipped her blanket down and saw Lando, groggy and disheveled, wearing only sleep pants decorated with the insignia of Tendrando Arms. His voice was not as smooth as usual. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "Can I sleep on the Falcon Falcon from now on?" from now on?"

He thought about it. "Yes, you can. In fact, I wish I I could." He began to draw the door closed. could." He began to draw the door closed.

"Good night, Uncle Lando."

"Good night, sweetie."

CITY OF DOR'SHAN, DORIN.

THE CITY WAS OVERCAST AND VERY WINDY ON THE MORNING OF LUKE'S second day of training. Ben could see that the Kel Dors on the streets were agitated; they walked briskly, said little to one another, and all but ignored the humans. second day of training. Ben could see that the Kel Dors on the streets were agitated; they walked briskly, said little to one another, and all but ignored the humans.

As they came within a block of the Baran Do temple, Ben learned why. A wail, mechanical and unsettling, rose in the distance from several points in the city. Kel Dors immediately ran for nearby doorways and gateways. As far as Ben could tell, they were rushing to homes that were not their own; no one ran farther than two buildings from his or her current position, and residents of those buildings were opening the outer doors and urging them in as they arrived. Some waved for Luke and Ben to enter. A general announcement in the Kel Dor language sounded across both the Skywalkers' comlinks.

Luke and Ben put on a burst of speed and rushed to the temple. Curiously, the walls there were retracting into slots in the ground, leaving the estate seemingly undefended. Luke and Ben made it into the main building's antechamber, running past Tistura Paan, who was on front-door duty, peering outside and urging pedestrians in.

The general announcement switched to Basic, recited by a woman with a p.r.o.nounced Corellian accent. "This is a general announcement. A force-four storm front is approaching the city of Dor'shan. All residents and visitors should seek shelter immediately. The storm is approaching from the south and will be at the outskirts of Dor'shan within seven standard minutes. All s.p.a.ceport traffic is suspended for the duration of the storm event. A force-four storm is characterized by winds of up to one hundred eighty kilometers per hour, periodic funnel clouds in cl.u.s.ters, and rapid lightning strikes."

She hadn't mentioned rain, but outside the doors the sky was now almost black, and sheeting rain descended as rapidly and unexpectedly as a giant foot. One minute it was dry; the next, rain was. .h.i.tting the pathway and street beyond so hard that drops seemed to explode upon contact. As Ben watched, the roof of a landspeeder went spinning by as if hurled by a rancor.

Ben whistled. "You don't mess around with your storms, do you?"

Tistura Paan shook her head. "In the old days, the people only had the sages to warn them of storms. Today there are weather stations and satellites, but a storm can still coalesce in moments. Sometimes a sage will know in advance of the most modern instruments."

"Did you lower the wall to keep it from blowing away?"

"Yes. Most of the time it's up to keep people from wandering around on the grounds, but at times like this we want people to be able to rush in. Besides, a wall is nothing but a big wind sail. One good gust, no matter how strong your welding is, and a section of wall could go flying. And n.o.body wants to be where it lands."

She had her attention on the outdoors through her entire speech, constantly scanning for travelers in need of immediate shelter. But the street, now dimly illuminated by lights, was empty of traffic.

The side pa.s.sage through which they had been conducted on their first night now opened for the Skywalkers. Luke headed through it to his lesson. Ben found a lounge area, packed with Baran Do and a few trapped pedestrians, where a large wall monitor alternated between satellite views of the storm front and holorecordings of the effects of weather around the capital city.

It was a spectacular show, and one that went on for hours. Lightning descended from the clouds, mostly striking harmlessly against lightning rods and shielded antennas, but occasionally hitting the tall, leafy plants that served the Kel Dors as trees; such a strike superheated the fluids within the plant, causing it to explode and spray burning cellulose in all directions. Funnel clouds touched down at several points, twisting and dancing their way along streets or across rooftops, often damaging but not destroying the buildings; but on one occasion an especially vicious funnel swept across a large theater, grinding it into unrelated chunks of permacrete, shredding lengths of tapestries and recognizable padded seats, spraying all the debris out across the surrounding few blocks. One of the non-sage Kel Dor present said something in his own language, then, for Ben's benefit, translated: "I hope they were in their bas.e.m.e.nt levels."

Ben nodded. "Me, too."

By midafternoon, the storm front had pa.s.sed. Several injuries were reported, but no deaths. The visitors to the Baran Do temple thanked their hosts and returned to their lives.