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Star Wars - Black Fleet Crisis - Shield Of Lies

Page 16

by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell

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."

 

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