THE BLACK FLEET CRISIS #3 - TYRANTS_TEST

by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell

  They were unfamiliar in form and did not sing. But they did not move

  toward the vagabond, or reach out to touch it, and so it left them

  alone, no imperatives having been invoked.

  Still, it noted them and watched them closely.

  After the appointed time for waiting, the vagabond began singing. And

  for the first time in all its journeys home, an answer came.

  But the answer did not come from Brath Qellamit came from one of the

  tiny eggs sharing the circles. And the answer was sung harshly,

  without the gentle strength of Brath Qella. The vagabond searched its

  memories and knew the answer to be form without substance, a deception,

  a predator's lure.

  And there were imperatives concerning predators.

  When the vagabond finally broke its-silence and broadcast a

  fourteen-second interrogative, only Taisden was on the flight deck to

  hear it.

  Hammax was napping in his cabin, wearing all but the boots and

  gauntlets of a combat suit. Pleck was on the observation deck trying

  to coax what he considered a more realistic measure of the vagabond's

  displacement from what he suspected was a faulty magnetometer.

  Pakkpekatt and Eckels were behind closed doors in Lando's suite,

  engaged in a heated discussion prompted by Eckels's belated discovery

  that an NRI team was aboard the Qella vessel.

  Taisden's alarm roused all of them from their other pursuits, and

  brought all but Pleck running forward to the flight deck.

  "Don't know what the question was, but we are responding," Taisden told

  them. "And the target is changing orbit and accelerating."

  "Toward us?"

  "Toward the relay satellite."

  "She sure can motor when she wants to," Hammax said, shaking his

  head.

  "Is this good?" Eckels demanded. "Is this what you expected?"

  "Maybe," Taisden said. "If she's going over there to make nice, next

  time we can transmit our reply directly from Lady Luck--" At that

  moment a blue glow appeared at the vagabond's bow, making it suddenly

  bright both through the viewscreens and on the monitors.

  "The scythe," said Pakkpekatt.

  "Impossible," said Taisden. "The satellite's three thousand klicks

  away from it--" Three slender but brilliant beams of energy slashed

  across the darkness and came together at a point 3,409 kilometers ahead

  of the vagabond. Where they converged, there was a small explosion

  intense enough to leave an afterimage in their eyes.

  Then the glow vanished, and the lances disappeared, leaving a spreading

  cloud of atomized plasteel and metal glittering in the light of N'oka

  Brath.

  "She did not go there to make nice," Hammax said in awe. "What kind of

  weapon is that?"

  Even before the vagabond turned back, Taisden had shut down the

  autoresponder. At the same time, Pakkpekatt pulled the throttles back,

  dropping them into a lower, faster orbit that would carry them away

  from the vagabond and over its horizon.

  "She could have taken out the whole task force at

  Gmar Askilon at any time," said Taisden, shaking his head.

  "Give me voice to Calrissian," said Pakkpekatt.

  "Run it through one of Penga Rift's regular satellites."

  "Ready," said Taisden. "Comm two."

  "General," said Pakkpekatt, "this is Lady Luck. Why are you firing on

  us?"

  "It wasn't our doing," Lando said. "What did you say to it? Why are

  you running away?"

  "If your yacht has a sensor cloak or a shield of invulnerability,

  General, this would be a very good time to inform us."

  Lando's answer was lost in a blast of static as the vagabond reached

  across nearly eight thousand kilometers and vaporized Penga Rift's

  ORS-2.

  "Going over the horizon from that thing looks better all the time,"

  said Pakkpekatt.

  "Six minutes."

  "Colonel---" Eckels's voice had a tremble. "Perhaps it is time to

  transmit it all while there is still an operational satellite that can

  be used to relay it. Whatever message we sent just now was not taken

  well. Perhaps we need to be more convincing--or more confusing."

  Pakkpekatt looked to Taisden. "I have no better ideas, Colonel."

  "Then do it," he said. "Doctor--" "Yes. Let me speak to Penga

  Rift."

  Captain Barjas's voice answered the hail. "Doc-tor-thank goodness.

  We're showing two satellites have suddenly gone dead, and we were

  concerned."

  "The vagabond has turned hostile," Eckels said.

  "Is everyone back on board?"

  "Except for you. We just got the last of them up."

  "Good. I order you to leave orbit immediately, and jump out to the

  agreed coordinates for rendezvous one."

  "Very well, Dr. Eckels. Good luck, sir."

  "We'll be all right. Get out of here--take care of my people."

  "Eight minutes to horizon," said Taisden.

  "What? How are we losing ground?"

  "The target is accelerating toward ORS-One, which is currently relaying

  the Qella database."

  Hammax shook his head. "Keeping the rock between us and it might not

  be all that easy to do."

  "Penga Rift is getting under way," said Taisden.

  "Perhaps the reply should be coming from the surface--" Eckels began.

  Pakkpekatt ignored him. "Is there any spare bandwidth on ORS-One?"

  "I can make some," said Taisden.

  "I want to talk to Calrissian."

  The agent's fingertips danced over the controls.

  "Ready on two."

  "General, this is Pakkpekatt."

  "Colonel," said Lando. "Looks a little warm out there. Is this a good

  time to mention that my yacht's uninsured? Perhaps you might consider

  running away just a little faster--" "General Calrissian, I don't know

  how long we'll be able to talk. Is there anything you can do to put a

  stop to this?"

  "I don't think so," said Lando. "We just had a little mutiny over

  here--about ten minutes ago, my good friend Lobot drained the power

  cell on our only blaster into one of the droids. The droids are

  backing him up."

  "Do you know of any weakness or vulnerability of the vagabond that we

  can exploit?"

  "Yes. Blaster cannon, cruiser-weight and up. The hull's not armored,

  and there don't seem to be ray shields, at least not at those

  frequencies. You can hole it and hurt it. But you have to get in the

  first shot, and make it good."

  They could hear a second voice saying, "Lando, it does not deserve

  this--" Then Eckels found his voice in protest, drowning out Lobot.

  "This is completely unacceptable, Colonel.

  This artifact is unique, irreplaceable--" "And deadly," said

  Pakkpekatt. "Acknowledged,

  General. Stand by." He gestured to Taisden. "Hyper-comm, secure, to Rieekan and Collomus."

  "Go."

  "This is Colonel Pakkpekatt, commanding, Teljkon task force at Maltha

  Obex," he said. "Confirming: We've found the vagabond and made contact

  with the team aboard. But the target has turned hostile, and we can't

  get anywhere near--" The flight deck was suddenly and momentarily

  flooded with light, marking the precipitous disappearance of the thi
rd

  satellite.

  "--it. I believe we could jump out using the planet as our shield, but

  only at the cost of losing contact with the vessel. I am opting to try

  to maintain contact, and requesting immediate assistance and support to

  secure the target and recover our people." He paused as though

  listening, then added, "Don't bother with a cruiser--send a Star

  Destroyer, or two. We're going to need a heavyweight to stop her."

  Chapter 11

  The morning after the Battle of N'zoth, the Kell 1 Hath Corporation

  liner Star Morning entered the . system and requested a rendezvous

  with Intrepid for the purpose of picking up passengers.

  Since the news did not directly involve Luke, he knew nothing of it

  until Wialu sent him a message requesting that he come to the cabin she

  and Akanah had been sharing. He found the women putting the cabin in

  order, preparing to leave. Akanah greeted him with an eager embrace.

  "Did you hear? Our ship will be here in about an hour."

  Luke turned to Wialu. "You're going back to J't'p'tan?"

  "We are going away," she said. "It is time for us to find a quieter

  place. We need to grieve, and heal--and-to absorb the lessons of

  J't'p'tan, and find a new focus."

  His gaze narrowed; "Then the rest of the Circle--they're on the ship

  already?"

  "We are no longer needed at J't'p'tan," she said.

  "And so the Fallanassi disappear again."

  "We do not require or desire the attention of outsiders," said Wialu.

  "And events have already cost us

  much privacy. We will go away long enough and far enough to earn it

  back."

  "I don't suppose I was expecting an invitation to come along," Luke

  said, turning his gaze on Akanah.

  "I wish there were more time," she said, showing a sad smile. "I wish

  that I could finish what I started. It was unfair to you for me to

  make that promise, not knowing if there would be a chance to keep

  it."

  "Unfair," Luke repeated. "I'm not sure that's a strong enough word.

  Because when you made me another promise, the one that brought me on

  this journey, you must have known that you couldn't keep it--that I'd

  run into a wall of silence if we found the Circle." He looked back

  toward Wialu. "Unless you asked me here to tell me more than

  good-bye."

  "You can't ask that of her, Luke--" "Why not?" he said, his gaze

  hardening. "She went to the trouble of scattering signs and markers

  across five sectors so that one child could come home. But she won't

  even come to the door when another one's standing outside knocking.

  Can you explain that to me, at least--why Akanah is welcomed back, and

  I'm being turned away?"

  "Akanah is of the Fallanassi, by blood and affinity both," said

  Wialu.

  "We do not claim you, Luke Skywalker."

  "You do not claim--what are you saying? That Nashira isn't my

  mother?

  That my mother wasn't of the Circle?"

  Wialu nodded toward Akanah. "This is the one who must provide your

  answers."

  Blinking, Luke stared at Akanah questioningly. She looked away

  uncomfortably, then sank down onto the edge of the bunk as though it

  were something fragile.

  "I know nothing about your mother, Luke," she said in a small voice.

  "And I have not told you the truth about mine."

  All of Luke's emotions save for curiosity were numbed by her words.

  "What does your mother have to do with this?"

  "You remember what I told you of how it was for me, living on the

  underside on Carratos, and how my caretaker took my money and left me

  there--" "Talsava," Luke said. "I remember."

  Akanah looked up and met his eyes. "Everything I told you about her is

  true, save one--her name was Isela Talsava Norand, and she was my real

  mother," she said in a whisper. "And she was the one who brought the

  Empire down on the Circle."

  Wordlessly, Luke sank into a chair. Wialu took up the narrative.

  "We could not allow Isela to remain with the Circle after her

  betrayal," she said. "We could not trust her to know where we were

  bound when we left Lucazec. She was banished from the Circle before

  that decision was made. But Akanah was not banished--we would have

  kept her with us, cared for her, continued her training.

  She would have been loved.

  "But Isela refused our offer, and took Akanah away with her. Isela's

  decision distressed us all. She was punishing Akanah for her own

  transgression. There was much grief and anger in the Circle on the day

  they left.

  And in my own grief, I made Akanah a promise--that the way back to us

  would be marked for her, so that when the choice was hers, she could

  rejoin the Circle."

  She looked at Akanah with an affectionate smile. "So many years went

  by that I thought we would never see her again."

  "And I thought I would never leave Carratos."

  "Why didn't you?" Luke asked.

  "What I told you of my life there was the truth. The war came, and

  then I was left alone, with nothing," Akanah said. "I had to learn the

  way of a world run by different rules, with no one to guide me or

  protect me. I have already admitted to Wialu how I misused what they

  taught me, to survive. How I became like the ones who had what I

  needed."

  Akanah looked down at her hands and smiled as though at a fond and

  tender reminiscence. "Then there was the miracle of Andras, who

  created a safe place for

  me, and brought love back to me--and though I could have left Carratos

  then, I did not want to."

  "So why did you make me part of it when you finally did leave?" Luke

  asked. "You didn't need me to find the Fallanassi, or to get to

  them--though you tried to make me think that you did. The Imperial

  agents on Lucazecmthey were another lie, weren't they? We were never

  being hunted."

  "No!" she admitted. "They were never there. It was a test. I had to

  know who you were--what I could expect from you, where to begin."

  "The blood," Luke remembered.

  "A mistake," she said. "I felt your surprise and thought I had

  betrayed myself. I had never seen a light-saber strike flesh. I had

  to draw your attention to me, to Nashira, or I would have lost you

  then."

  "Lost me for what? I still don't understand. What was the deception

  meant to gain you?"

  Sad-eyed, Akanah shook her head slowly. "It was not for me, Luke.

  What you gave me, what this has meant to me-that just happened,

  unexpected-that wasn't planned."

  "Then why?"

  "Because I have been afraid of you," she said simply.

  "I don't understand."

  "Luke, I have seen the underside of war, where there are no heroes,

  only victims. I've seen what power is about, how it's used, what it

  means not to have it in a world where that's all that matters." The

  weight of her words was echoed in her sad eyes. "I was ten years old

  when the Emperor's stormtroopers swept across half the galaxy--I had a

  childhood in paradise and an adolescence in hell. I have good reason

  to f
ear power."

  "You thought think I'm the same kind of threat the Emperor was, the

  same as the stormtroopers?"

  "It is not just you," Akanah said. "You are training others to follow

  your path. Where there was one, there are now many, and there will be

  many more. I had to know you. I had to see what inside you balances

  the power you have--I had to see what I could give you of what the

  Circle had given me. I did not lie to you about my purpose. Something

  has been missing, something of the Light, something of peace, of

  acceptance. I tried to help you find it."

  "By lying to me," Luke said, his restless emotions bringing him to his

  feet.

  Akanah smiled ruefully. "As you have seen, the Fallanassi are not

  above using deception."

  "So Nashira was nothing but your fantasy? A reflection of what I