Nashira that Luke is here, and let her decide what to do." He looked
past her, sweeping his gaze across the ruins. "Or let me tell her.
Bring her here and let her see. She can choose."
"That is impossible," Wialu said. "You speak a name, and if I give
that name meaning, I have given you power over she who carries it. I'm
sorry. I cannot help an outsider."
"He's not an outsider," said Akanah, letting go of Norika's hand and
advancing on Wialu. "He asked to learn the ways of the Current, and I
have taken him as my student."
"This is also impossible," said Wialu, "for you are but an untrained
child yourself."
Akanah's eyes flashed anger. Her hand shot out and grabbed Luke's
wrist. "You do not understand the importance of his presence," she
said darkly. "You do not understand the importance of his quest."
"Do not do this, Akanah." It was said with sadness rather than
threat.
"What choice have you left me?" Closing her eyes, she threw her head
back and drew a sharp breath.
The air trembled. The bodies, the ruins, began to shimmer and
dissolve. Akanah let out a little cry of pain, or surprise. Standing
beside her, Luke felt her anger drawing on the Force--controlling, not
merging, hurling it against something he could scarcely perceive.
Then, in an eyeblink, everything before him, everything surrounding
him, was transformed. The burned bodies vanished. The scorching was
bleached from the cutstone, the shattered stones healed, the toppled
walls and towers restored, the scarred hills painted and smoothed. The
tragedy of the ruins was transformed into a glorious work in progress,
filling the valley in
every direction and filled with the vitality of thousands of solemnly
industrious H'kig.
Akanah gazed defiantly at Wialu, whose answering look mixed gentle
reproof and regret.
"My stars," Luke breathed. "It wasn't destroyed?
You've been hiding this from the Yevetha--" "Yes," said Wialu. "Akanah
must have thought this important for you to know."
Luke shook his head in disbelief. "The Fleet memorandum called this a
cult colony--they have no idea-- look at what they've done! How long
have the H'kig been here?"
"Not even fifty years," said Wialu. "Just in the time since we
arrived, we have seen it grow almost beyond belief. It is a constant
wonder."
A quartet of H'kig dragging a heavily laden sledge passed between Wialu
and Luke. "They're doing this work by hand?" he asked. "No fusion
cutters, no droids?"
"That is the meaning of it--the purpose in it. The building of it is a
way of giving honor. That work cannot be given to a machine," Wialu
said. "The temple embodies their vision of the universe, of the
mystical essences--the immanent, the transcendent, the eternal, the
conscious."
"How long until they finish?"
"They may never finish," she said. "It is the life's work of a
community united by the purpose that defines them."
"Is this why you're here?"
"Yes," she said. "And it is why you must leave."
"You're protecting them. Protecting this."
She nodded. "It became necessary."
"How long are you prepared to keep doing it?"
"Until it is no longer necessary." Wialu stepped closer. "Please-your
ship-is resting in what will be the Inner Court of the Transcendent.
It is distracting the H'kig, and disrupting the work. It is time for
you to go."
"Wait," Luke said. "The day of the attack. The bombardment, the
planetary blasters--those weren't illusions."
"Then what happened here?"
"As I have already said. We protected ourselves, and these people, and
the others where we could. I will not say more."
"Protected them with illusions," Luke said. "Wialu, you know that this
isn't the only construction project under way on this planet. There's
a Yevethan colony ship in sync orbit on the other side of this planet
and a colony city being built on the surface. Akanah knew that, so I'm
sure you do, too. The Yevetha think this is their world now."
"They are mistaken," said Wialu.
"Not necessarily," Luke said. "They claim all the stars in their sky,
and all the worlds of those stars. What you were able to prevent from
happening here happened on a dozen other planets where there was no
Fallanassi Circle to provide a shield and deceive the Yevetha. The
bodies on those worlds were real."
"We know what happened there," said Wialu.
"Then let me ask you what you know about what's about to happen," said
Luke, a harder edge coming into his voice. "What the Yevetha did here
has been challenged by my sister. Their claim to this planet and all
the others will be contested--with force. Two opposing fleets are
gathering up there--hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of soldiers.
If this war comes, it will be long, brutal, and bloody. And it will
come here.
He saw that his words had reached her fears. "I have seen it
coming."
"Will you help me try to stop it?"
"We cannot allow ourselves to be used that way.
Our loyalty is to the Light, and our way is of the Current.
Nothing has changed."
"If nothing has changed, then you're divided among yourselves, as you
were on Lucazec," Luke said, looking past Wialu, searching for other
Fallanassi faces among the H'kig. "There must be at least some of
you
who believe that you must do what you can do, just as you protected
these people."
"It is not our war. It is yours, and theirs."
"Neither was this your war," he said. "But you intervened, and saved
these lives, and this treasure."
Then he pointed at Akanah. "She challenged me to put down my weapon
and try to find other ways to serve my conscience. What she asked
isn't easy for me, but I've seen the worth in trying. Now I challenge
you to give up your isolation, and be the water that quenches the
flame."
At that moment another woman, slender and larger eyed, appeared beside
Wialu, surrendering her concealment to take part in the colloquy. "Can
this be done?" she asked.
"Of course it can," said a voice from another direction.
Luke turned to find two more Fallanassi standing by-the temple wall.
"The Yevetha are vulnerable to us," said the shorter of them. "If we
wished for the invaders to crash their ship into the city they are
building, any one of us could accomplish it, at any time."
A young Duu'ranh female appeared nearly at Luke's elbow, startling him
for a moment. "But can it be done without such violence?" she
asked.
"The goal is to prevent a war, not to join it, or decide the victor.
We cannot choose sides."
"You must," Luke said. "It's not enough to simply prevent the
fighting--there has to be a resolution to the conflict behind it. You
must choose to frustrate the will of one side or the other--the
Yevetha, or the New Republic."
"The difference between them is immaterial," said a new voice, behind
&nbs
p; Luke. He turned to see a round-bodied Ukanis woman holding a child.
"To build a war fleet is to accept the morality of violence and
coercion.
They are equally guilty."
"When war comes, the price is paid by the guilty and 'the innocent
alike," Luke said.
"And we are paying the price instead of the H'kig," said Akanah. "We
will never be free to leave here so long as the Yevetha remain."
"Not unless you're prepared to see these people and this place
destroyed," Luke said. "And the Yevetha will never leave of their own
accord. They believe that they are the rightful inheritors of all the
worlds they conquered--including J't'p'tan."
Turning in a slow circle, Luke found that more than twenty Fallanassi
had revealed themselves. "You have to decide whether to affirm their
belief or reject it," he said. "You must choose."
"And what would we be choosing if we chose to involve ourselves?"
asked Wialu. "If they are as resolute as you say, how can the will of
the Yevetha be frustrated without force?"
Luke turned quickly toward her. "I don't know for certain that it
can," he said. "What I'm asking is, are you willing to try? Are you
willing to use your gifts in an effort to prevent the war--a war that
will surely come if you do nothing? There's very little time left.
Once both fleets are committed to the fight, any chance there was will
be gone. There'll be too much fire, and too little water."
"A chance to try what?" asked Norika. "What can we do?"
"You can deceive them, as you have here--but on a grander scale." He
advanced a step toward Wialu, holding his open hands out before him.
"I don't know the limits of your power to project illusions. But if
the Fallanassi are capable of creating an illusion of a vast New
Republic fleet, a projection with the same depth of reality as what I
saw when we first arrived here--" Wialu raised an eyebrow
questioningly. "You believe that if the Yevetha face overwhelming
odds, they may yield."
"I have to think that their lives mean something to them--more, I hope,
than their claim to J't'p'tan does," said Luke. "Whether they
surrender or just withdraw, many lives on both sides would be saved."
"Would the New Republic accept their surrender
or simply use it as an opportunity to exterminate the Yevetha?" asked
Norika.
"Leia would never allow such a thing," Luke said.
"I stake my honor on it."
"Perhaps we should first see if we can drive one Yevethan ship away
with this trickery," said another woman.
Luke spun on his heel, searching for the face that belonged to the
voice. "No--no, that would be a mistake.
Not without at least one real warship available to back up the bluff,"
said Luke. "We have to give them every reason to believe--and only one
chance to decide, with everything at stake."
"Then it will be necessary for the fleet commander to be part of this
plan," said Wialu.
Turning back, Luke nodded hopefully. "Yes."
"Do you know where he is, or how to find him?"
"I can find the fleet," Luke said. "I can take you to General
A'baht."
"Then I will go with you," said Wialu. "And we will see how great a
fire is burning." She turned and directed a hard look at Akanah. "You
will come, too."
There were no walls or guards at the perimeter of Mon Mothma's estate
in Surtsey. Though she was still under the protection of Ministry
Security, their presence on her property was limited to a sensor grid
monitored by two fast-response teams based just off the grounds. A
special traffic patrol kept the airspace near the estate swept clear of
possible threats.
Even though Leia had been neither invited nor asked to visit, none of
those precautions was any hindrance to her arrival. She landed her
orbital jumper neatly on the smaller of the two landing pads in the
northeast corner of the estate, then began the long walk through the
outer gardens and the tree moat to the house itself.
The outer gardens had vivid patches of purple, cobalt blue, and pale
orange--intybus, commelina, and anagallis were in bloom, and centaurea
pods were everywhere, promising an eruption of pink in the next day or
two. The air in the tree moat was cool, shadowed, and rich with
complex scents. Leia felt the deep peacefulness of an old forest
envelop her.
Inside the circle of the tree moat were the house and inner gardens,
and both were more modest than what surrounded them might lead a
visitor to expect.
The low, squarish house had but three rooms, all with transparent walls
and ceilings, and the inner gardens were little more than accents for
patches of soft ground cover and walking paths.
Mon Mothma was inside, sitting in what she called her salon with her
feet up and a datapad on her lap. She looked up as Leia neared the
entry door, and motioned her inside.
"Leia," she said with a smile. "It's been months.
Come in."
Leia was taken aback by Mon Mothma's appearance.
Her short hair was now startlingly silver, and the fine lines around
her eyes were visible from across the room. "Mon Mothma," she managed
to say. "I hope you'll forgive my intruding--" "It's hardly that," she
said. "But you're staring," she added gently.
"This is not the mark of Furgan's treachery you see lingering on me."
The allusion was to the Caridan am bassador's nearly successful attempt
to poison her--an attempt that had precipitated Mon Mothma's
retirement.
"I've earned every line and white hair, Leia. Just as you are starting
to earn some of your own. Now, it's true--I refuse to paint my face
and pretend to youth and inexperience. Do you think that vain of
me?"
"I think you're still full of surprises, Mon Mothma--and still teaching
little lessons at every opportunity."
A little laugh lit the older woman's eyes. "Get yourself a drink and
come sit with me. The afternoon sun will have the thrann tree dripping
sap before long, and
then the barbary birds will come out to feed. They're so tiny and so
swift--I can watch them for an hour and never be bored."
Mon Mothma's pantry contained a legendary array of potent and aromatic
drinks collected from all over the galaxy, but Leia contented herself
with a tall flask of cold fallix water.
"So tell me what's driven you away from' Imperial City," Mon Mothma
said when Leia had settled in the chair beside her. "I don't keep up
with capital affairs these days, but I know it wasn't my gardens that
drew you here."
"Do you know what's happened to Han?"
"That particular bit of bad news has been inescapable, I'm afraid," Mon
Mothma said, resting her hand gently on Leia's. "How are the children
coping?"
"Jaina is angry. Jacen is afraid," Leia said. "Anakin is mostly
confused--he can't understand why anyone would want to hurt his
daddy.
We've managed to keep them from seeing the recording, but I had to tell
them--too
many other people know, and I didn't want them to hear
talk."
"And you," Mon Mothma said, giving Leia's hand a squeeze. "How are you
doing?"
"I'm having trouble seeing my way."
Nodding silently, Mon Mothma set her datapad on the floor beside her
and sat back in her chair, waiting.
"Tomorrow afternoon, I have to go before the Senate to face a recall
petition," Leia went on. "The Ruling Council thinks that with Han
being held by the Yevetha, I can't be trusted with the power of the
Presidency."
"How foolish of them."
Leia shook her head. "To tell the truth, after seeing that last
transmission from N'zoth, I'm not sure they aren't right. My first
impulse was to give Nil Spaar what he wants, to recall the fleet if
only he'll send Han back to me alive. My next was to go ask Special
Operations for the most horrible weapon they have, something I could
send to N'zoth to kill every last one of them--preferably in lingering
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