Star Wars - Black Fleet Crisis - Shield Of Lies

by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell

  could be rescued from a hostile neglect by the Skywalker name. Perhaps

  the reputation of those who had been driven from there could even be

  rehabilitated.

  But that would have to come later, when there were fewer secrets to

  protect. For now, Luke would have to count on the shame of the

  Fallanassi to shield Ialtra from being further disturbed.

  Let the nackhawns take the bodies, he thought, and the shadows keep

  Ialtra undisturbed. Let her memories sleep until I can return to

  awaken them.

  When Luke heard Akanah moving in the bunk behind him, he planted a bare

  foot on the control console and pushed off, spinning the couch around

  to face aft.

  "Hey--are you awake?"

  "It's hard to sleep," she said, invisible behind the privacy curtain.

  "Perhaps we should change places."

  Luke looked back over his shoulder at the displays.

  "It's only two hours to the end of the jump," he said.

  "And there'll be plenty of chance for me to rest up during the crawl to

  Teyr."

  "Couldn't we use your military waiver, now that you've disconnected the

  interlock?" Her voice was clear and unmuffled, and Luke pictured her

  lying on her back.

  "We could microjump right in, couldn't we?"

  Luke's s urprised laugh was a loud noise in the confined space. "Not in

  this bucket. The navigator won't take microjump parameters. And even

  if it would, chances are the resonances would shake her to pieces.

  There's an entry shock wave in hyperspace, and when you microjump you

  have to let it catch you just when it's at its strongest. We'd arrive

  at Teyr as a bright smudge in the sky."

  "Oh," she said. "But we could have jumped all the way in if we'd

  planned to back at the last waypoint."

  "Right. If we were willing to answer all the questions and deal with

  the extra attention. I hate the crawl as much as you do, but, trust

  me, this is better."

  Akanah sighed. "I'll try to sleep, then. It's the easy way to make

  the time pass."

  "Good luck," he said, and started to turn back to the console.

  Then he realized it had almost happened again--the conversation he had

  started for a specific purpose had wandered away and disappeared before

  he could get to his question.

  "Akanah?"

  "Yes?"

  "Before you fall asleep--there's something I've been wondering

  about."

  "What is it?"

  "Back at Ialtra--was there a date in that message you found?"

  "A date? No."

  "Could you tell how long it had been there? Maybe scribing fades with

  time, or something like that--" "No--not if it's done well. I can't

  tell you when the message was left--except that I'm sure it was left

  before the Fallanassi left Lucazec. Why?"

  "I'm wondering how two Imperial agents could hide for so long in a

  place where everyone knows everyone else and nothing changes very

  quickly," Luke said.

  "I'm wondering why they would."

  "Why--because they still want us--want the White Current as a

  weapon."

  "But why would they think anyone would be coming back there? Why would

  they be expecting you?"

  She was quiet for a time. "I've been asking questions for a long time,

  trying to find the circle," she said. "I haven't always been as

  careful as I should have been, either in what I asked or who I

  asked."

  "Who did you tell that you were planning to go to Lucazec?"

  "Only you," she said. "But I tried sending messages to the circle, to

  Wialu. I talked to the customs and immigration office on Lucazec. I

  applied for every starliner job posted on Carratos, hoping to get a

  working passage.

  I checked open ticket prices constantly, every time new rates were

  posted."

  "So people started to know who you were, and something about what you

  were interested in."

  "More than that," she said. "I made rather a pest of myself. I hung

  around the spaceport dives when a ship came in, hoping the crews might

  know something. I found ways of getting passenger lists. I talked to

  everyone I could who might know anything." Her smile was full of

  regret. "It wasn't until later that I thought to be more discreet."

  "The people you'd been left with--" "I didn't get any help from them,"

  she said. "They forbade me to speak to them about the circle, and

  punished me for looking on my own."

  "They must have been afraid for you--maybe for themselves, too. They

  were supposed to hide you, weren't they? And you refused to stay

  hidden."

  "It's easier to understand than it is to forgive," she said. "They

  kept me from being where I belonged. I can't forgive that until I find

  the circle again. If I never do, I don't think I can ever forgive

  her."

  "Her?"

  "Talsava," she said. "My guardian on Carratos. But if I start talking

  about her now, I'll never get to sleep."

  "All right," he said. "Sorry."

  "You didn't know," said Akanah. "I'll tell you about it, sometime."

  "When you're ready."

  He thought that had ended the conversation. He heard Akanah changing

  position and pictured her lying on her side, her head on her folded

  arms. He was surprised when she spoke his name.

  "What?"

  "What do you think the chances are that someone will be looking for us

  on Teyr?"

  "Greater than zero," Luke said. "But we'll be careful.

  Go to sleep, now."

  She did not argue or answer, and Luke lapsed into silence as well,

  wondering why he felt as though none of his questions had been

  answered, and the most important ones had never been asked at all.

  Where Lucazec was rustic, Teyr was bureaucratic.

  Located near the juncture of three busy spaceways and wearing a

  spectacular four-thousand-kilometer-long canyon like a dueling scar,

  Teyr was one of the New Republic's boom worlds. Most of the boom was

  in visitors and vacationers. Fearing unbridled growth, Teyr's leaders

  purposefully discouraged would-be immigrants with a maze of

  regulations, a series of successively higher application hurdles, and a

  determinedly officious Citizen Services Corps. The unofficial tourism

  motto was "Come see spectacular Teyr Rift. Then go home."

  While still inbound, Luke and Akanah were offered the unattractive

  choice of parking their craft at one of the vast orbital parking areas

  and shuttling down to the surface, or paying four times as much in

  landing fees to bring the skiff down at a spaceport of Teyr's

  choosing.

  "I don't like the idea of being down there and having to depend on

  third parties to get back to our ship up here," Luke said. "If someone

  should decide they want to delay our departure, I like our chances

  better if we don't have to jump quite so high."

  "But I don't have that kind of money, Luke," said Akanah. "You know

  that."

  "I think Li Stonn is good for it," Luke said. He flashed a wry smile

  that disappeared behind his illusion of age, then tapped the comm

  key.

  "Teyr Flight Control, thi
s is Mud Sloth--I'd like to request landing

  authorization."

  "Copy, Mud Sloth, your queue number is alpha-three-nine, confirm."

  "Confirm, alpha-three-nine," Luke said. "Could you tell me, is there

  any chance that we could possibly put down at Turos Noth? We're going

  to be meeting some friends--" "Landing sites are allocated on a

  space-available basis according to standard protocols. Ground

  transportation is available at all spaceports. The Rift Skyrail

  connects all spaceports with all major population centers and with

  visitor centers, trailheads, and resort destinations in the Rift

  Territory. Monitor this channel for further landing instructions.

  This is Teyr Flight Control, end transmission."

  Luke and Akanah exchanged bemused looks.

  "They wouldn't have dared give Luke Skywalker number thirty-nine," she

  said.

  "Too bad he couldn't join us for this trip," Luke said, allowing his

  disguise to dissolve.

  "I wonder how many times a shift they have to recite that," Akanah

  said.

  "I don't think they care," said Luke, then explained, "It was a

  droid.

  I couldn't touch it." He nodded past Akanah. "Are any of the stuffed

  koba left? I think we might have time to eat before the skids get

  dirty."

  As Luke had suspected, there was more than enough time. Following

  directions from Flight Control, Mud Sloth joined a long queue of yachts

  and liners in a high orbit over Teyr. Six full revolutions later, they

  were still there, though most of the ships in front of them--and

  several behind them as well--had already made their descent and been

  replaced by newer arrivals.

  "Nice view," Akanah said. "Do you think they'll ever let us any

  closer?"

  "No," said Luke. "I knew we should have told them we had eighty-two

  paying customers aboard, all eager to start shopping."

  "Eighty-two?" she said, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

  "Ewoks," Luke said, shrugging. "You should see the way they live.

  It's nothing like in the holos. Twenty-four to a room, stacked in

  layers, boy, girl, boy, girl--" "You've been in space too long," she

  said, with a disapproving frown. "Maybe we didn't hear our call."

  "--Queue number alpha-eight-one, proceed to approach-" "Eighty-one!"

  Akanah exclaimed indignantly.

  "Why is everyone going before us?"

  "Because whatever kind of priority list they're using, they put people

  who own Verpine Adventurers at the bottom of it," Luke said.

  "Will you please stop making jokes?"

  "Sometimes there's no other recourse," said Luke.

  "What happened to your implacable calm?"

  "This is making me crazy," Akanah said.

  "I can tell."

  "Can't we just disguise ourselves as some other ship and take its

  landing instructions?"

  "There's a little problem about two objects occupying the same space at

  the same time."

  "Luke--" The tone of her voice made him look toward her.

  He saw anguish on her face, anxiety in her pleading eyes.

  "Do you think they might be holding us up here until they can get

  everything ready to grab us, or follow us?" Please do something! her

  expression cried.

  "No," Luke said, and reached across to touch her hand. "Teyr runs the

  shuttles themselves, and the space-lines have contracts with Teyr for

  priority landing access.

  They get to go first--we get to wait for an opening. It's all

  right--they're treating us the way we want them to.

  No special treatment, no special notice. They'll get around to us

  soon. They want our money, too."

  "--Queue number alpha-three-nine, proceed to approach corridor for

  landing at Prye Folas--" "There--see?" He squeezed her hand

  reassuringly, then moved his own hands back to the flight controls.

  Relief was evident on her face. "Prye Folas--that's good. It's a long

  way from the Rift, but that doesn't matter to us--it's only one stop

  east of Turos Noth."

  "I'm glad someone studied their geography," Luke said. "Snug up those

  straps, Lady Anna. Did you know that most crashes take place within

  sixty seconds of liftoff or touchdown?"

  She frowned crossly at him. "Did you need to tell me?"

  "I think I did," Luke said, firing the braking thrusters to drop the

  skiff out of her parking orbit. "You seem to need something to worry

  about--I thought it might as well be something real." He looked

  sideways at her and grinned. "One w ay or another, we'll be on the

  ground in ten minutes."

  "You think this is helping, don't you?"

  "It's just my way of saying, relax--" "I can't," she said with a

  nervous sigh. "I've been waiting too long. I have too much at

  stake."

  Luke nodded understandingly. "In that case, I promise to try for the

  soft landing."

  For just a moment, he thought Akanah was going to punch him.

  Luke's landing at Prye Folas was better than soft. It was flawlessly

  smooth, the kind pilots call a first kiss.

  It also put Mud Sloth right back in a line this time, the long taxi

  line leading to the vast field of open-air tie-down berths. Teyr's

  exorbitant landing fee didn't buy "Li Stonn" a spot in a docking bay,

  or even secure covered stowage, for his ship.

  "One good storm, and the shipbuilding trade has a record year next

  year," Luke said, surveying the expansive, and expensive, assortment of

  vessels.

  When the tow droid finally reached the assigned berth and backed Mud

  Sloth into its space, its port wing nestled under the thrustpods of a

  big Toltax Starstream, the port manager's official voice--another

  droid--came over the open channel.

  "Welcome to Prye Folas. In order to help ensure the safety of all

  visitors to Teyr, port regulations forbid occupancy of vessels in

  tie-down berths," the droid said.

  "Please remove whatever personal articles you will need during your

  stay and seal your vessel, then wait for the arrival shuttle. In order

  to help ensure the safety of your vessel, access to this parking area

  is limited to arriving and departing visitors. This area is patrolled

  by port security.

  Thank you for including Teyr in your travel plans--" "I'm ready,"

  Akanah said impatiently.

  Luke powered down the skiff's primary bus. "Let me grab my bag and put

  on my face."

  The arrival shuttle, a low-riding, slow-moving land-speeder, was

  piloted by still another late-model droid.

  Akanah and Luke caught two of the last three open seats, and the third

  was taken by the Elomin who emerged from the airspeeder parked across

  the towpath from Mud Sloth. When the shuttle was full, it rose several

  meters above the ground and sped off in the direction of the

  terminal.

  An empty shuttle immediately moved in to take its place.

  "Quite an operation, don't you think, dear?" Luke said. The voice of

  "Li Stonn" had a little tremble, a little added huskiness. "When you

  see this many droids, you know someone's doing well."

  Akanah seemed inhibited by the other travelers close around them--the
>
  Elomin, immediately to her right, towered over her by more than a

  head.

  She answered only with a glance and a polite smile.

  Luke patted her hand reassuringly. "I know, you don't like open

  landspeeders. But we're almost there," he said. "Look--you can see

  the track for the Rift Skyrail.

  The guidebook said it's the fastest aboveground train in five

  sectors--" The last hurdle was Arrival Screening--another line, a droid

  greeter, an IRR screening for their bags, a discreet security sweep of

  their persons, and three questions from a human examiner who had much

  the same demeanor as the district censor on Lucazec.

  "How long do you plan to stay on Teyr?"

  "We're not sure, are we, dear?" Luke asked. "How long does it take to

  really see the Rift at its best? Our reservation is only for three

  days, but we're hoping that we can extend it now that we're here."