mother--and your mother was of our people. There is an emptiness
inside you where memories of your mother should be, a weakness where
what she would have taught you would have strengthened you."
Presumptuous words, but knowing words. In that moment, he felt that
emptiness acutely, unable even to imagine what might fill it, or even
that it might ever be filled.
Perhaps Nashira has stayed away because she's ashamed, Luke thought.
Perhaps she sees too much of Father in us, just-as this woman does.
You may have been right, Leia. If I do find the truth, I may not find
it to my liking-Then Luke's sense skill tugged at his consciousness,
calling his attention to a change in his surroundings.
Clearing all other thoughts from his mind, he swept his awareness and
his gaze together across the darkened rail-train.
Both quickly fixed on the same point--an Elomin passenger, sitting near
the front of the car on the opposite side. The Elomin's back was
turned toward Luke, his horned skull-crown just visible over the top
cushion of his tour couch.
Now, where did you come from? Luke thought, intent with suspicion.
You weren't there ten minutes ago--how could I have missed you coming
in? Something doesn't feel right about this-He stole a quick look at
Akanah, reassuring himself that she was sleeping blissfully. He
wondered how badly his attention had wandered, whether he had let his
mask slip.
Everything I know about you says that this isn't really your sort of
vacation spot, he thought, staring at the back of the Elomin's couch.
Even if the Teyria share your fetish for order, they keep letting in
all these unpredictable alien types. And I can count on the fingers of
one hand the number of times I've seen a solitary Elomin out in mixed
company. Two of you in one day--or the same one twice-This feels like
more than a coincidence. What I can't figure out is what would make an
Elomin go rogue and hook up with Imperial agents--or why someone else
might be interested in us. And I just may have to have a few
answers-Just then the Elomin left his seat and moved forward with slow,
long-limbed strides. He was empty-handed, as the Elomin at the
spaceport had been. At the end of the aisle he paused for a moment and
looked back into the cabin. Then, ducking his head, he passed through
the connecting doorway and was gone. Luke waited, torn between wanting
to follow and not wanting to leave Akanah.
The Elomin had still not returned when the porter droid made an
appearance, trundling down the aisle reciting a soft-spoken warning.
"Attention, passengers. If you are not continuing to River District
Spur destinations, please move into one of the forward cabins. This
car will be separating from the train at Podadun. Attention,
passengers--" Still the Elomin did not return. As the chime sounded
and the status light above the connecting door changed to yellow, Luke
reached out with his senses and searched the train for the Elomin. But
Luke could not find him. Fearing a bomb, he rushed forward to where
the Elomin had been sitting.
Luke stared. There were no bags or articles there--just a sleeping
Gotal infant.
The chime sounded again. Luke looked up as the connecting doors slid
shut and the status light turned red. There was an almost
imperceptible deceleration as the cars separated and the lights of
Podadun began to flash through the unfiltered viewpanes.
The infant stirred in its sleep, and Luke retreated. What is wrong
with me? he demanded silently as he made his way back to his seat, the
aisle tilting under him as the car swung off the main line and onto the
banked spur to Sodonna. Why am I jumping at shadows?
Akanah had slept through it all, oblivious. When she finally woke to
the spectacular salmon-and-pink sunrise warming her face, Luke said
nothing to her about it.
He didn't know what he could have said, except that he had had another
waking dream and still didn't know its meaning.
The name Kell Plath no longer appeared in the Sodonna directories, but
not because Teyr's winds had ripped it from the map or because the name
had become burdened by shame. An hour at the city library uncovered
not only its location, but also the petition under which its new owners
had asked for the more marketable name of River Gardens.
Kell Hath had been a commonal---a walled and gated space enclosing a
group of small residences surrounding a common green space. The design
was popular in Sodonna. Standing in front of the gate to River
Gardens, Luke and Akanah could see more than a dozen other commonals
along the road winding along the high bank above the river.
According to the traveler's aid card, the commonal was a piece of the
region's history, as well--a reminder of rougher days when the walls
and gates protected un-mated children and other valuables from the less
refined types who came to Sodonna to work the docks.
As a matter of form, Luke and Akanah approached the security droid at
the gate and asked after Trobe Saar, Norika, and the other children.
In each case, the answer was the same "I am unable to identify the
resident requested."
"I'm interested in purchasing a share in River Gardens," Luke said,
trying another tack. "Who could arrange a tour of the facilities for
us?"
"No shares are currently available for purchase," the security droid
said. "When shares become available, they will be listed with Indal
Properties of Sodonna."
Akanah stepped forward. "I'm researching the history of commonals for
Teyr Tours subscribers," she said.
"I'd like to know more about the history of this site--is the property
manager available to talk to me for a few minutes?"
Directed for a second time to Indal Properties, they retreated to the
other side of the street to regroup.
"So much for the front door," Luke said with a sigh. "I hate trying to
wiggle past a security droid.
They're too dumb to deceive and too single-minded to finesse."
"We have to get inside."
"They're not theretoyou know that. They've been gone for fifteen
years."
"But they were here," she said. "And the way will be marked."
Luke looked back over his shoulder. "You don't think they were
considerate enough to leave their mark on the outside of the commonal,
do you?"
The wall of the commonal was three meters high and slippery smooth,
curving slightly outward and topped with a line of sharp-edged
fracturest one that was both decorative and functional.
"I can vault this," Luke said. "It isn't a problem."
"It is for me."
"I can get us both over."
"Give me a chance to read here first."
She moved down the wall at her own pace, trailing her fingertips along
the surface. Luke followed a few steps behind, trying to sense the
interaction between her and the wall, to understand what opening she
was looking through in search of the Fallanassi scribing.
When they rounded the third corner, Akanah cried out in su
rprise and
fell back a step. With two quick strides, Luke was beside her. It was
then that he saw the security droid blocking her way.
"This is your only warning," the droid said. "You are loitering on
private property. Your likeness has been recorded. Your suspicious
behavior has been documented.
Remove yourself from this vicinity immediately.
If you do not, you will be detained, and a complaint will be made
against you. If you return to this vicinity, a complaint will be made
against you. This message constitutes a lawful and sufficient notice
under Article Eighteen of the Criminal Statutes of the Sodonna
Syndic."
Akanah opened her mouth to protest, but Luke knew better than to
argue.
"We're leaving," he said, pulling her along by the arm.
Unswayed by the promise, the droid followed them back to their
landspeeder and waited until they moved off to return to its post by
the gate.
"Have I mentioned that I hate security droids?"
Luke grumbled. "How are you going to check the other side and a half
now? Did you find anything?"
"There was writing by the front gate," Akanah said.
"It marked this place as Kell Plath."
"That's all?"
"That's all. What we need is inside." She looked back to see if they
were out of sight of the gate at River Gardens. "Stop here."
"Why?"
"I have to go back."
"And do what?"
"What I did the night we met," she said. "Or have you forgotten?"
"I haven't forgotten that you never explained how you got into the
sanctuary without me sensing you."
"Are you going to stop?"
Frowning, Luke brought the landspeeder to an abrupt halt.
"Thank you," she said, and tipped open her door.
"You're not going to explain?"
"No, I do not intend to explain."
"Wait--" he said. "What can I do?"
"I do not expect to need anyone killed," she said, clambering out. "Do
what you just said wait. And try not to attract the suspicions of any
droids in this neighborhood.
Our ship is halfway around the planet, and it might be difficult to get
back to it if we're criminal fugitives."
He stared after her as she strode back down the street, wondering how
many different women he was traveling with, and whether he would ever
learn all their stories.
"Let's go," she said as she climbed in.
"Did you get inside?"
"Let's go," she repeated insistently.
Luke looked back along the street. "Is someone following you?"
"I got inside. No one is following me--yet. Now, can we go?"
The landspeeder surged forward. "And?"
"I found it," she said. "We're done here."
"Are you going to tell me this time?"
"When we're away from here, and I know it's safe."
"So it's not me you don't trust."
"These things are never to be spoken to one who cannot read them,"
Akanah said. "To tell you at all violates an oath. To tell you now,
here, when there are so many ways a secret can escape, compounds that
offense with needless risk."
Luke frowned. "Is there any reason we can't return by Skyrail?"
"No," she said, looking out her side viewpane. "I wasn't seen."
She seemed determined not to talk, but there were things Luke needed to
say before they reached the terminal.
"You weren't the only one who was successful," he said. "I turned up
some information, too. And I'll even tell you now."
"Please don't. Whatever it is, it will keep," she said.
"All that matters now is to get away from here."
"Knowing where we're going next matters a tiny bit," Luke said. "I got
curious about how your friends left."
"It's of no consequence. We leave no trail that an outsider can
follow."
"You may think so," Luke said. "But I found out some interesting
things, all the same. Like the reason they sold the commonal."
She looked at him disdainfully. "That's no mystery-to buy passage.
They had no more use for it except for any value they could take with
them."
"Akanah, they bought a starship." Luke waggled the traveler's aid
card. "Can't judge things by their size.
In addition to the maps, the food guides, the attraction lists, and the
ads, this has a wireless link to the Teyr Commerce Bureau and an
information hotline. Your friends may be long gone, but there's still
a corporation registered here called Kell Plath. And it owns a
starship named Star Morning."
"It must have taken everything they had," Akanah said.
"And a little more," Luke said. "Star Morning is a Koqus liner--the
better part of fifty years old, mind you, and too small to compete with
the big Expo ships, but still no small purchase."
"How many could it carry?"
"A Koqus? Maybe sixty, depending on the cargo allocation."
Akanah nodded. "That would be enough."
"You don't seem overly surprised by this," Luke said, raising an
eyebrow. "I was. I thought we were trying to track down refugees, not
stockholders."
"Just because we choose to live simply doesn't mean that we're without
resources," Akanah said. "To be poor is to be powerless. The
Fallanassi are as old as the Jedi, and we've hidden and husbanded our
resources well."
"Then why were you left on Carratos?" Luke asked.
"I can see that they might not want to risk bringing their ship there
to pick you up, but why couldn't passage be bought for you?"
"You forget that Carratos fell under Imperial control soon after I was
sent there," she said. "There were head taxes that had to be paid at
the port by anyone leaving--high taxes, to discourage people from
fleeing the planet."
"Then why couldn't the tax have been sent for you?"
"I don't know that it wasn't," said Akanah, her eyes misting. "I don't
know that Talsava didn't keep it for herself."
"Your foster mother?"
"My custodian. She was never more than that." She tried a smile,
which fell short of conviction. "There was a morning, you see, when I
woke up and she was gone."
"Gone?"
Bitterness owned her voice. "Her clothes, her little precious geegaws,
every personal possession small enough to pack in a bag and carry away
in the night, all gone. I never saw her again. She abandoned me there
to fend for myself--at fifteen, in a port city that made your Mos
Eisley look quiet and genteel."
The unvoiced suspicions behind Luke's questions left him feeling
ashamed.
"We'll find them," he said firmly as the Rift Skyway appeared ahead of
them. "When we get back to Mud Sloth, I can access the New Republic
Ship Registry's traffic logs. We should be able to find out where Star
Morning has been, and when. We can surely find out where she is
now."
"That isn't necessary," Akanah said. Reaching out, she laid her hand
across his, as though she were trying to reassure him. "Atzerri. We
need to go to Atzerri now.
And I know that it may not, but I pray this ends there."
Ch
apter 7
For hours after Mud Sloth lifted from Teyr, Luke sat at the pilot's
station studying the traffic leaving the planet behind them.
The traveler's aid card helpfully informed him that there was no direct
regular service between Teyr and distant Atzerri by any commercial
spaceline. So Luke concentrated on the private vessels, monitoring and
logging the ID profiles their transponders sent as they passed the
inner Flight Control buoys Star Hummer, RN80-440330, owner ]oa Pqis,
registry Vobos, Tammuz-an-Rode to Ruin, RN27-382992, owner Fracca,
registry Orron III Amanda's Toy II, RN18-950319, owner Unlimited
Horizons Inc., registry Kalla-"What are you looking for?" Akanah
finally asked him. "No one bothered us on Teyr. No one saw me in the
commonal."
"I'm just being cautious," Luke said, keeping his eyes on the code
reader. "Just because no one confronted us doesn't mean no one was
aware of us."
Star Wars - Black Fleet Crisis - Shield Of Lies Page 16