Most Selonians were ferociously, relentlessly, honest. If Dracmus said she would not harm him tonight, then he was safe from harm.
Until the morning, at least. Han could not help but notice she had left herself an out.
He shut his eyes and was instantly asleep.
Lady Tendra Risant of the planet Sacorria looked through her macrobinoculars at the night sky and knew something was happening. Something that was not good.
The macrobinoculars were high-powered and set up on a tripod with a sophisticated autotracking system that allowed her to track an object in orbit quite easily.
Not that she needed any such power and capacity, since the larger ships in the fleet of orbiting spacecraft were visible to the naked eye, if you knew where to look. And after a little bit of extremely quiet research, she knew exactI' where to look.
Thndra Risant had never had much to do with anything outside her own life until a few weeks before.
Then she had met Lando Calrissian, and somehow, everything had changed. She was not in love with him, nor he with her. Perhaps they never would be in love. And yet, there had been a sense of connection between luc, .og.r i-Sr- AIMn them, a sense of possibility that she had never felt before.
And then, mere hours after he and his friend Luke Skywalker arrived on Sacorria, they had been thrown off the planet by the local authorities. They had lifted off, enroute to Corellia-and vanished altogether, even as all traffic in and out of the Corellian system was stopped dead by the huge and mysterious interdiction field, and all communications with the Corellia system were jammed.
Sacorria was one of the so-called Outlier Worlds of the Corellian Sector, somewhat isolated from the rest of the sector. The planet had always assured itself that it could get along just fine without Corellia's help, and even dreamed of being free of Corellian control-but the people of Sacorria had received a pointed lesson in the dangers of getting what you wished for. And now they were scared.
Without Corellian trade, the economy had not so much stopped as it had slammed face-first into a brick wall.
Something had happened, something big-and Lando was in the middle of it.
Lando. Perhaps she was reading too much into thethe possibilities with him. Perhaps Lando had been nothing more than smooth talk.
Perhaps, even if nothing had happened on Corellia, he never would have come back, all his pretty words to the contrary. But none of that mattered now. He had gotten her started wondering and worrying. And it didn't take her long to find a lot more to worry about-starting with the Triad, the government of her own planet. The population was restive and fearful, yet the government was blandly reassuring.
According to the Triad's proclamations, they knew nothing more than the average human or Drall or Selonian in the street. Of course, if there was one word to describe the Triad, it was "paranoid." Most dictators who got to the top via plots and coups were justifiably
concerned about falling victim to more of the same. A trio of dictators, each of a different species, each forced to watch both of the others, could not help but be even more concerned about plots and schemes.
And yet there were no hysterical pronouncements, no mass arrests of enemies and subverters of the status quo. The only clue that something was not right was that the military had vanished. In normal times, it seemed as if every third person walking down the street was in uniform. Now, suddenly, they were all gone, all leaves canceled, all units on alert, if you believed the scuttlebutt. That made sense if there was a crisis, if the Triad was mobilizing against whatever mysterious threat had struck at Corellia Except, as Tendra had learned with just a little digging, the mobilization had been ordered two days befo the Corellian interdiction field went upin point of fact, jut an hour or two after Lando and Luke arrived on planet.
That would explain why they were allowed to land, but immediately required to leave, at any event. But it also suggested, very strongly, that the Thiad knew about the Corellian interdiction field in advance.
Whether that meant they were part of the plot that had caused it, or whether they had pulled off some sort of intelligence coup and gotten the word from their spies, Tendra had not the faintest ide But the thing that had her worried most was the fleet assembling in orbit.
There were too many ships, far too many-at least ten times the number the Triad admitted to publicly. Even allowing for secrecy and paranoia, it was quite a feat to hide ninety percent of your striking force. Besides, Sacorria was ndt a particularly populous world. A little quick arithmetic demonstrated that it would take something like half the adult population of the planet to provide crews for a fleet that size. Therefore, many, if not most, of the ships and crew were from
off-planet. But where were they getting them? And what did they plan to use them for?
The answer to the latter question seemed obvious, though she could not see the details clearly. It had to be that this fleet was heading for Corellia For what purpose, and under whose command, she had no idea. But it had to be Corellia Nothing else made sense.
But suppose they were part of the organization that had thrown up the interdiction field? And suppose they could turn the field on and off at will, allowing their ships, but no one else's, to move? It didn't take much imagination to see what a powerful weapon that could be.
But what was she supposed to do about it? She had no great love for the Thad. She felt only the slightest twinge of patriotic guilt over the idea of warning someone about what she had found out. After all, Sacorria was her home world. But whatever she might owe the planet, she certainly owed nothing to the Thad. They were thugs and tyrants, nothing more or less.
Then what to do? Get to Coruscant, give them a warning? A moment's thought convinced her there would be no point to such an action. Even if she were able to find someone who would listen to her, she would not be telling them anything they didn't know. New Republic Intelligence had no doubt been crawling all over Sacorria before the Corellian crisis blew, and no doubt had redoubled their effort since then. No, if NRI hadn't been able to find out everything a private citizen could discover by keeping her eyes open, then they didn't deserve to know.
But Corellia The people in the Corellia system would not, could not know. And they were the ones who needed to know. And if it just so happened that was where Lando was supposed to be, then so much the better.
Good. That much was decided. She would go to the Corellian system and warn Iandwarn everyonef the fleet gathering here.
Which only left the trifling question of how, exactly, to go about doing that.
"Are you awake, honored Solo?"
Han opened his eyes to see a mouthful of very sharp teeth very close to his throat. "I am now," he said, with the utmost sincerity.
It might not be the most pleasant way to be awakened, but the sight of that mouthful of cutlery first thing in the morning certainly was an effective means of making a person fully alert. "Why? What's happening?"
"I wished to speak with you."
"And it can't wait?"
"I think not. There is one reason of which I cannot speak. But also when they find we have not done battling during the night, t,hey might become disappointed, and separate us again.
"You could have a point," Han said, "but I'm all for disappointing them." He sat up, moving cautiously, and was pleased to find he hardly winced. He might be getting older, but it would seem that he was still a quick healer. "So what do you want to know?"
"I must know about certain lies. But it is like cousins, this lying thing," Dracmus said as she returned to her own cot and Sat back down on it.
"what?" Han said. "What are you talking about?"
"Forgive. A strange way to say it. I am meaning, I suppose, we Selonians have cousins, yes, and uncles and nieces and all such, if you look at chart of descent. At least I think we do. I am not sure of precise meaning of all those words. But though we have these relationships, we never think of them. We do not understand the ideas well."
"I g
uess not," Han said. "You don't have families that way.
"No, we do not And this idea of cousins being different and same-all Selonians in a den near identical.
Closer genes than in your brother and sister. We are more alike than that. Closer to being hundreds of identical twinses."
"That much I knew," Han said. Selonian genes did not randomize as much as human genes did. Each breeder male would father a certain portion of the sterile population, and all those with the same father were said to be in the same "sept." All the sterile females in a given sept were, for all intents and purposes, clones, with each individual's genetic structure all but identical to that of every other member.
"By way humans use word," Dracmus said, "Selonian not even haw of families. We have dens. In your terms, I have three hundred sisters and half sisters. I may have brothers, but I know not of them. They would have been sent elsewhere to breed. So I have not idea of sister and brother as you do. When we see human parents, see human woman pregnant out in public, we find it odd and some unpleasant. Breeders should be in den. We think, how strange you treat your breedersnd then we remember, all you are breeders. `Wife, husband, mother, father." We do not think in such ways."
Han looked at Dracmus. He had never really stopped to think about it. The Selonians might have breeding pairs, but they did not have husbands, or wives, or marriages. How could they? As with every intelligent species, Selonian culture was driven by Selonian biology, and marriage was not compatible with a species where one breeder queen might have a thousand sterile, asexual daughters. The human way must seem equally strange to Dracmus.
Human marriage was, of course, associated with breeding, and to Selonians, that was an extremely distasteful subject. Han knew perfectly well that many Selonians looked down on races where everyone was a breeder. "You might not think in such ways most of the time, but you're going to have to learn if you're going to deal with humans."
"A true thing," Dracmus said. "Before now, I have not gotten out much. The tasks of dealing with humans fell to my-you would saylder sister, but she died eight days ago in accident. Now I have job."
"I'm sorry your sister died," Han said.
"As am,I. My training in human dealing was not yet complete.
Han looked at Dracmus in surprise. How could she say such a callous thing? But then he stopped himself.
Thinking about it, how upset could she afford to get over one sister's death if she had three hundred? It must have been more like the death of a distant aunt to a human. And if the steriles in a given sept were all near clones anyway, how much sense of loss could there be at the death of one sister when she had twenty or fifty more, all virtually identical? "Well, it seems to me that you're doing fine, even with only partial training."
"That is most kind, honored Solo, but we are drifting away from point. We must speak of lying. Lying to us is as strange as families.
We Selonians can do lying, but we have no practice at it. We see it is a bad thing. Not a little bad thing, as with you, but a big bad thing, like murder."
"Lies can be a big bad thing," Han said, but then thought for a moment about some of the exceedingly tall tales he had told over the years. "But, ah, mostly they're not."
"You see? You have skill at lies. You understand them, know big from little. Selonians terrible sabacc players, bad at all games that require concealment of truth. I think lie for human can be small because you are so alone. Lie can touch only one, hurt only one. It
can be kept secret. For Selonian, together in den, lie touches all. All know of it. No secrets, all hurt. Do you follow?"
"Just about," Han said, trying to parse the slightly scrambled sentences. "I take it that there are some lies someone told you that you want to ask me about."
"Yes! Yes! Glad I did not kill you in the fight."
"The pleasure is all mine," Han said. "But what are the lies in question?"
"First, please, can you tell when Thrackan your cousin is lying?"
Dracmus asked.
"Sometimes," Han answered. "Last night he thought I knew less than I did. He told me things that were m direct contradiction to what I already knew. He even told me that he was telling liebut he didn't say what they were."
"But when you aren't sure. Can you tell when all you have is the words of his speaking?"
Han thought for a minute. "At times. A little. And I can make some guesses about things that might be true inside his lies."
"Like for what? Tell me some, that I get feel of it."
"Why is this so important to you?" Han asked. He wondered just how far he could trust Dracmus. So far she had behaved very well indeedut he had not the slightest idea what she was up to, or why she had been thrown in a Human League prison. About all he had to go on was the idea that the enemy of his enemy might well be his friend.
"I will give explain later, if time. But it is important.
Please." Han considered, and decided the stakes were too high. He needed more than that. "No. Tell me first. Why did you need to know about human lying?"
Dracmus hesitated. She stood up, walked toward the door of the cell, and then back to her cot, her tail lashing. "Is a terrible problem. I need to know much more of human doings than I do. It is a great trouble that my sept sister died."
"What's the problem?" Han asked.
"I ask you to explain human lying, but if can explain then is because you are skilled at it. I think you a good liar, I am sure, honored Solo."
"Thanks," Han said. "So I've been told."
"Was a deadly insult, not a compliment," Dracmus said. "But you make my point stronger by taking it so. If I tell you more, I tell you things others must not know.
But how can I trust human proud of his good lying?"
She waved her arm about to indicate the whole underground complex.
"This could all be trick to make me say what I am about to say."
Han smiled. "I see Selonians are good at paranoia, even if they are not so good at lies."
"Oh yes. Paranoia, that we are very good at."
"Then you should be careful of what you say to me in any event.
There could be all kinds of spy eyes and hidden microphones in this cell. They could be recording everything we are saying. Maybe we should switch to Selonian."
"Pointlessness," said Dracmus. "I am sure they are not snooping us, but if they were, they would record all and play back to Selonian speaker."
"mile enough. But how do you know they are not recording?"
"I must say no more about that" Interesting. Whatever else you could say about Selonians, they were clearly not much good at concealing the presence of a secret. How could a race of inept liars be otherwise? It was plain that Dracmus knew more about this place than she was supposed to, but at the moment Han figured it was best to play along.
"What can you say more about?" Dracmus stared at him, her eyes piercing and intense, but she said nothing.
Han sighed. "Would it help if I gave an oath onn the
lives of my children-that I will not reveal what you tell me to Thrackan or his people?"
"A strong oath, if you mean it. In the Selonian way of oath taking, mine is the right and duty to hunt your children down and kill them if you transgress.
Han hesitated a moment. Suppose they used torture or mind probes or drugs on him? Would that matter to Dracmus? He doubted it But Thrackan and his goons had shown no signs of wanting to interrogate himand even if he was tortured, and he cracked, and Dracmus decided to hunt down his children, she'd have to find them first-and get past Chewbacca in the process. It was Chewbacca that decided Han. No one got past him.
"I take the oath," Han said. "I will not betray you. But what of you?"
"The lives of all my sept sisters be forfeit if I betray you," said Dracmus.
"I can't ask fairer than that," Han said. "Thlk to me."
Dracmus let out a sigh and sat down on her cot. "Very well," she said. "Let me tell you a tale."
Han settled i
n to listen.
"Was a riot in Selonian enclave of Bela Vistal city that started crisis, and was Selonians who riot after intolerable and forever provocation from the Human Leaguebut I not think was we who started it.
Must admit that even I not sure if the street safle that sparked it all was real, orstaged by Human League. I believe it was League.
"It had to be," Han said. "Things spread too far too fast for it to all be chance. The timing was very convenient from the League's point of view. They probably don't even much care if everyone really believes they touched things off, as long as no one can prove it. They wanted an excuse, a justffication, not a reason."
"Yes! For many reasons, most well4imed. But I think you do not know the all of it, the biggest of it."
"How do you mean?" Han asked.
Dracmus paused again, then plunged in. "I believe this-am all but certain that Thrackan is bluffing. His Human League could not have blown star that went supernova. ThaI think, is his lie."
"What?" Han asked.
"Think of it," said Dracmus. "Their group is too small, too stupid. Yes, now they win a fight, they will grow fast, but just a little ago, League was little more than Thrackan and a few hangers-on.
Had not resources, abilityr brains-to do such a thing. Nor the money to buy those who could do it. Making starbuster system is massive breakthrough, huge endeavor. You think could these drunken fools who watched us fight make it happen?"
"So you're saying that Thrackan is bluffing," Han suggested. "You think the star when nova by itself."
"Yes and no," said Dracmus. "I believe Thrackan didn't do it, League didn't do it, but star could not have gone nova on its own.
Wrong star type. Someone set it off. Somehow. For some reason.
I believe was meant to be secret test shot."
"Secret? But everyone knows about it."
"Think, honored Solo! A messenger drone had to bring proof of the explosion to Corellia Otherwise none would notice that it had gone nova for years yet. The star was in uninhabited system. Speed-of4ight delay means light of the nova not reaching inhabited system for decades. Only came to notice because of the anonymous message sent by Thrackan's people. And was Thrackan sal-solo's people who sent message. No doubt of that."
Star Wars - The Corellian Trilogy - Assault At Selonia Page 11