by Kathy Tyers
Gaeriel's wide eyes looked scandalized. Trying to pacify her, he said,
"Artoo, put Gaeriel on your recognize-and-obey program. And her friend Eppie
Belden," he added on impulse. "Okay?" Artoo tweeted up the scale, approving.
"Good. Now see if you can find Prime Minister Captison."
Artoo rolled toward the corner table.
"Not much good without translators, are they?" Gaeriel asked.
Luke followed Artoo. "I understood some of that. He's an astromech droid-
-a pilot's aide, I guess you'd call him--but you'd be surprised what he can
handle groundside." Luke glanced at the kitchen doors. The cooks were taking
an awfully long time. "Han's already gone looking for Leia," he said.
"Luke..." Gaeriel clasped his arm just above the elbow. Warmth and
determination flowed through that touch. "Come back when it's over. Talk to
me. There's no time now, but we've got to--"
Luke tugged free. A vague sense of aggression arose in the kitchens.
Almost instantly, it resolved into three distinctly alien presences and one
that mystified him--human, but alien-scented. He covered his lightsaber with
his right hand. What was that about not endangering other people?
And hadn't he wished Gaeriel needed rescuing? He drew his blaster left-
handed and flipped the grip toward her. "Can you shoot?" he murmured. "There
are Ssi-ruuk in the building. I'm sorry I can't help your uncle now. Take it,"
he urged. She closed her hand around it uncertainly. "Have Artoo get ^w to the
Flurry, up in orbit, and tell them what's happening. Then find your uncle. Get
out of here. Now."
Fear throbbed out of her. "I'm not hiding behind Jedi abilities. I want
to help the Rebellion."
Exasperated, he stretched out a hand and steadied himself to use the
Force on her. "No one else has any trouble letting me--"
The front and side doors blew open simultaneously. The muzzle of a heavy
blaster rifle appeared through each one. Then a white-armored stormtrooper.
This time, Luke guessed they weren't on his side. He seized Gaeriel's
shoulders and swept her behind him. The handful of Bakuran customers dove
under tables.
Three Ssi-ruuk pushed through the kitchen door, large smooth-scaled
creatures with long, muscular tails to balance massive upper bodies. Two of
different sizes were glossy brown, one intense blue. The heads looked
birdlike, with huge toothy beaks and all-black eyes. Each wore a shoulder bag
slung across its body under one forelimb. They towered over the frightened
service staff. Artoo froze in position beside the corner table.
Luke had to narrow his perception to keep Gaeriel's revulsion from
pulling him under. Cautiously, he stretched toward the aliens. Their feelings
leaked into the Force, strengthening the dark side. He'd felt less hostility
in Jabba the Hutt's ravenous Rancor.
He held his lightsaber down at his side. "What do you want?" he asked,
sweeping the Force against that hostility, probing for weaknesses.
A human in striped robes stepped around the counter after the aliens.
"Fortunate one!" he hailed Luke, squinting. "You are the Jedi, Skywalker. I
will translate for you."
Luke recognized Dev Sibwarra from the hologram recording. He focused deep
into the Force, drawing on all Yoda had taught him. He was at peace. He.was
peace. "I am Skywalker," he said. "How did you get down here?"
"Quietly. Subtly." The young man whistled to the aliens, then flattened
long brown hands in front of his chest. The left hand moved stiffly. "Governor
Nereus dispatched a shuttle to us, then ordered the orbital net to allow it
through on official business... which is to receive you. You are to be the
guest of Admiral Ivpikkis, as you begin a new kind of life you have only
dreamed of before. Give my companions your weapon, and come gladly with me."
In person Dev Sibwarra looked younger, perhaps fifteen. Luke reached out
with the Force--
And recognized him a second time. This boy had also sent the dream
warning. Luke felt his strength in the Force, twisted and bent backward. He'd
been brainwashed or hypnotized, altered so deeply that his thoughts were no
longer his own. Luke couldn't hate him. He must try not to kill him in self-
defense, either, because the boy was young enough to apprentice--if Luke could
win him and heal him.
"Thank you for your invitation," Luke said quietly. "I would rather stay
here. Ask your masters to sit down. We will talk."
"They do not sit, my friend. We would be honored to accept your companion
too, as our guest. But you must hurry." Gaeri's cheeks whitened as the blue
Ssi-ruu stomped forward, but she stood her ground. It reached a clawed
forelimb toward her shoulder. Something black slithered out of its nostrils.
She gasped and brought up Luke's blaster.
"Back," Luke ordered. The alien's head turned. A deep black eye focused
in his direction, and the nose-tongues flicked toward him. He channeled Force
energy into his ^ws. "Get away from her." The eye seemed to swirl like a dark
storm, beckoning for attention, sucking at his will. Unquestionably this one,
or another like him, kept Dev Sibwarra leashed.
Dev whistled at the blue alien, sounding surprisingly like Artoo. The big
blue Ssi-ruu's forelimb dropped from Gaeri's shoulder. He clicked and whistled
in a deeper, more flutelike voice than Dev's, with greater range and a more
resonant tone. "He says that a female's companionship will doubtless bring you
comfort," Dev translated, "and I sense that your feelings are strong for her.
Please ask her to cooperate. We must hurry."
Artoo rocked back and forth, chirping electronic fury. Luke wondered what
he was telling the Ssi-ruuk. Two stormtroopers eased forward, blocking Artoo's
path to the door.
Luke called to the troopers, "You have no business with this woman. It's
me they want. Let her leave."
"The Fluties want her," answered a trooper's filtered voice. "This time,
the Fluties get what they want."
Luke ignited his lightsaber and got a solid, two-handed fighting grip.
"Not necessarily."
Dev backed away. "Stun them!" he cried to the stormtroopers.
Four blast rifles leveled at him, black holes framed by white helmets.
Luke crouched and turned his body sideways, presenting a smaller target. "Get
down!" Gaeri dropped prone. She hadn't used his blaster. Just as well From
all signs, she'd lose a firefight. Apparently she knew it, too. This wasn't
her element.
Standing ninety degrees apart, the troopers opened fire. Luke stretched
deeper into the Force, willingly dependent on the energy that surrounded him.
He felt his body whirl and his saber leap, and vaguely sensed energy bolts
splashing on gritty cantina walls. He eased closer, dodging tables, toward a
point between his attackers. Suddenly the blasts stopped coming, as the
Imperials realized they were sighting past Luke at each other.
He stretched out with the Force, touched two hostile minds, and leaped.
Blue-white stun bolts crackled through the air beneath him. Troopers
dropped on both sides. Luke spun back toward the aliens. He felt slow, s
till
slightly sluggish from the Emperor's attack. He coughed, then caught his
breath. "Artoo," he shouted, "get her out of here. Get help."
Artoo rolled toward Gaeriel. She lurched up to her hands and knees and
then edged toward the front door.
Dev Sibwarra spread his hands. "Friend Skywalker, you rob her of
incomparable joy."
"She prefers her freedom."
"Freedom?" Dev arched his eyebrows. "We offer you freedom from hunger."
He waved a hand over a stack of abandoned plates, raising a cloud of flying
insects. "From disease, from--" Luke felt a whiskery swirl of the Force brush
his body. "Ah," Dev exclaimed, and his voice sounded genuinely friendly. "Is
it true that your entechment has already begun?"
Luke stepped backward. "What?"
"Your hand. The right one."
Luke glanced down. Repaired back at Endor, the prosthetic hand looked
entirely lifelike again. "This was not my choice."
"Is it not better than the biological hand? Stronger, less apt to pain?
See how you hope to rob so many humans of real life. Real happiness." Dev
sidled toward the wall. The Ssi-ruuk had pulled off their shoulder bags. Each
held a paddlelike object that had hung outside. What had appeared to be
handles projected forward, while the aliens grasped rim-guarded grips.
Luke stepped sideways. "Dev, warn them I can't stun them with a
lightsaber. I'll have to kill them if they come at me."
"You mustn't!" Dev cried. "If they die here, away from a consecrated
world, it is eternal tragedy. They certainly will not kill you if they defeat
you. Swear that you won't kill them."
"No," Luke insisted. "Warn them."
Dev whistled frantically.
The aliens sighted on him. Gaeri had crawled closer to the door, but not
close enough. They'd get her unless he attacked first.
Then it was time to use the Force for defense. Hers.
CHAPTER 16
One alien raised a paddle. A thin silver beam shot out of its narrow
point. Confidently Luke stepped toward the beam and swung his saber into it.
It didn't deflect. It only bent slightly. Before he could react, the beam
swept through him. It left his midsection tingling. Relieved that it didn't do
worse, he adjusted his grip on the lightsaber. The second alien moved out from
behind the first and added his beam, aiming low, shooting for his legs. The
first shot hadn't injured him noticeably, but a second might. He pivoted
aside, setting one brown Ssi-ruu in front of the other. One beam snapped off.
The other tracked him, closing.
Big Blue stepped to one side and projected a beam down the room's central
aisle, halving Luke's space.
"No!" Gaeri raised up onto her elbows and shot at the blue alien. Her
blaster bolt missed. The alien trained its beamer at her. Silver light
illumined the hollow of her throat. She gave a little cry, crumpled, and lay
still.
Luke charged the small, V-crested brown and swung his saber at its
mysterious weapon. The Ssi-ruu lost a foreclaw with his paddle-beamer. Fluting
wildly, he spun away from Luke.
"Don't!" Dev wrung his hands. "Don't harm them!"
"What has he done to Gaeriel?"
"She's not harmed. She'll recover."
But she wasn't moving. Unless Luke killed or disarmed them all, they'd
abduct her. The larger brown stomped toward him, muscular legs pumping like
pistons. Even if he destroyed its weapon, it could physically crush him or
Gaeri. Luke flung the saber in a long spinning arc. The big brown Ssi-ruu fell
headless as the saber spun back into Luke's hand. "Stop!" Weeping, Dev dashed
toward the fallen alien.
Big Blue projected his beam through Luke again... or, rather, where Luke
had been. Luke somersaulted over the beam, thrust out a hand, and tried to
wrest the weapon away.
That pulled the Ssi-ruu's forelimb toward him. The beam focused at the
top of Luke's right leg.
It collapsed, nerveless. Staggering, Luke tried to jump backward. He
struggled to balance, to regain full control of the Force. The weapon
scrambled nerve centers, then. Gaeriel was probably conscious. "Artoo, drag
her out of here!" he cried.
As the little droid rolled toward her, both aliens pressed their
advantage. They swept forward, backing him between beams against an upturned
table. He caught a whiff of their weird acrid odor.
He leaped left-legged almost into one alien's arms and swept up the
saber. As he did, he relaxed deep into the Force and spun without thought. The
hum of his saber didn't change pitch as it sliced through the blue giant's
weapon. Big Blue dropped both halves and backed away, whistling energetically.
One more weapon down. Artoo reached Gaeri, seized her by the leather
waistband of her belt, and dragged her toward the front door. Luke hopped
crookedly onto the nearest orange tabletop. His numb right leg twisted as his
full weight landed on it. That'll probably hurt, later. He had to use the
Force to stay upright.
Artoo's shrill whistle spun Luke around. Dev aimed an Imperial blaster
upward at his body, a classic stun shot.
Luke loosened one hand from his saber and Force-yanked the blaster from
Dev's hand. It sailed to him with slow grace. Easily he spun and sliced. Two
halves of the weapon clattered onto the table. Now, urged his inner sense. He
reached deep into the Force and felt for the hypnotic control that twisted Dev
Sibwarra to the aliens' will. The shadow of something enormous darkened most
of Dev's memories.
The boy had tremendous strength in the Force, though. Luke wrapped his
will around the dark, roiling blockage and blasted it with Light.
Dev tottered backward against another table. In an instant, his mind had
flooded with horrific recollections. His anger coalesced, small and stunted
but as fierce as a P'w'eck invasion army. Disoriented, he blinked. The
monstrous Skywalker had suddenly become fellow human. He didn't feel
depressed, just furious. He couldn't need renewal... unless...
He stared up at Skywalker, who still stood on the tabletop, and caught a
glint of keen eyes and the grim set of his chin.
Dev stroked his throbbing, clumsy left hand, remembering how he'd injured
it. Firwirrung! His master had bound him with tender loyalty over years of
abusive manipulation. Dev opened his eyes wide to the world, forsaking his
squint. He'd never felt such agony or regret, yet so glad to be human. Despite
everything they had done... had done... he was battered but whole.
"Are you all right?" whistled Bluescale.
A shiver shook him. He remembered everything now, including the speech
habits he'd picked up during his imprisonment. "I'm all right. Are you, Elder?
"
"Tell the Jedi to hurry along with us. Promise anything."
Realization flashed through him The Ssi-ruuk meant to reduce humankind
to breeding animals and energy sources. They would lie, kill, torture, and
maim to achieve domination. They deserved nothing but hatred.
Luke Skywalker called down from the tabletop, "Hate is the dark side.
Don't give in to it."
Had the J
edi plunged him through depression into total release?
"What?" asked Master Firwirrung. "What is he saying to you?"
Confused, Dev answered automatically. "He apologized for killing one of
our kind, Master."
"Tell him to precede us outside. He must hurry."
Dev looked back up. In human speech, he said, "They want you to--"
A piercing siren echoed through the cantina. Abruptly Dev remembered the
most terrible moment of his childhood, a civil defense scramble alarm.
Invasion under way.
He snapped back to the present and stared at his masters, stricken. Had
Admiral Ivpi kkis attacked the orbiting ships after all? He'd promised that the
Ssi-ruuk would withdraw if Skywalker came with them. One more link in their
twisted chain of lies!
Luke glanced out the far window, thoughts roiling. The Ssi-ruuk had
probably hit that big saucer-shaped orbital station. That would've been his
first strike, if he were invading. Beyond the fence surrounding Pad 12, the
gantries hadn't rolled away, so he still couldn't see the Millennium Falcon.
Chewie probably waited on board. Han would be trying to spring Leia from
custody (or by now, Leia might be trying to free Han).
Artoo rolled back in without Gaeriel. He hoped Artoo had left her
somewhere safe. And how badly had he wrenched his numbed leg?
Dev's confusion also worried him. This young potential apprentice carried
deep scars on his psyche. Yet he'd proved his strength. His sufferings under
the darkness might make him more loyal to the light. Luke glanced down at Dev
again.
Abruptly the room tilted. He flailed and fell.
Caught up in his own thoughts, Dev almost missed the swift sweep of
Bluescale's tail. Struck on the head, the Jedi collapsed. His lightsaber flew
loose, sliced through the table, and into black flooring. There it hung
diagonally for an instant. Then the pommel dropped. The green blade sliced
back up and lay hiss-humming.
He stood motionless, maintaining the masquerade of obedience, but his
mind shrieked, Skywalker! Can you hear me?
Bluescale stalked forward, pointing his beamer at Skywalker's upper
spinal cord. Dev forced himself to hurry close and simper, "Well done,
Masters. What can I do? Is he stunned?"
"Mild concussion, I think," whistled Bluescale. "The human skull is