by Timothy Zahn
Luke turned to look. There was the rock wall, and the furniture beneath the plastic sheet, and the upper equipment balcony running around the dome above it. "What exactly am I looking at?" he asked.
"The water damage," she said, pointing again. "On the wall across from the tunnel mouth. See?"
"I do now," Luke said, nodding. The wall over there was subtly but definitely discolored, the stain marked with multiple vertical lines where water had seeped through the rock and dripped down. In fact, now that he was paying attention, he could see water oozing slowly through the rock in a dozen places. "Child Of Winds said the lake had been expanding," he said. "Looks like it found a way in through the caverns."
He turned back. "I'd say our clone reached his ten-year mark just in time."
"What do you think he'll be like?" Mara asked, her voice sounding odd. "I mean, how close to the original Thrawn will he be?"
Luke shook his head. "That's an argument that's been going on for decades," he said. "With the same genetic structure plus a flash-learning pattern taken directly from the templet, a clone should theoretically be completely identical to the original person. But despite that, they're never exactly the same. Maybe some of the mental subtleties get blurred over in transition, or maybe there's something else unique inside us that a flash-learning reader isn't able to pick up."
He nodded toward the clone. "He'll presumably have all of Thrawn's memories. But will he have his genius, or his leadership, or his single-minded drive? I don't know."
He looked at Mara. "Which I suppose leads us to the question of what we do with him."
"Funny you should ask that," Mara said pensively. "Ten years ago, I'd have said flat out we blast our way in and get rid of him. Maybe even five years ago. But now... it's not so simple anymore."
Luke studied her profile, trying to sort through the mixture of emotions swirling through her. "You really were spooked by all that talk about distant threats, weren't you?"
To his mild surprise, she didn't take offense. "Fel and Parck are worried about it," she reminded him. "You willing to bet they're both wrong?"
"Not really," Luke conceded, looking back at the clone. "I'm just trying to imagine what having Thrawn suddenly show up would do to the New Republic. Widespread panic would be my guess, with Coruscant scrambling to find enough ships for a preemptive strike at what's left of the Empire."
"You don't think they'd listen to what he had to say?"
"The way Thrawn carved his way through the New Republic the last time?" Luke shook his head. "They wouldn't trust him for a minute."
"You're probably right," Mara said. "Parck said there were rumors he'd returned, though how a rumor like that could get started I don't know. But he didn't mention what the reaction had been."
"And rumors are a lot different than if he actually walked in the door," Luke pointed out.
For a minute they stood there in silence. Then Luke took a deep breath. "I suppose it's an academic argument, really, when you come down to it," he said. "Whatever the original Thrawn might have done, this particular being hasn't done anything wrong. Certainly nothing that deserves a summary execution."
"True," Mara agreed. "Though I imagine you'd have trouble convincing some people of that. Next question, then do we leave him here to wake up normally and join our friends upstairs? Bearing in mind that they're not too happy with either us or the New Republic at the moment? Or do we see if we can speed up the growth process and take him back to Coruscant?"
Luke whistled softly under his breath. "You sure know how to find the hard questions, don't you?"
"I've never had to find a hard question in my life," she countered tartly. "They've always found me first."
Luke smiled. "I know the feeling."
"I'd rather you knew the answer," she said. "Bottom line could Coruscant handle it?"
From across the room came a sudden flurry of warbling. Luke turned, to see Artoo bouncing back and forth excitedly on his stubby legs. "What is it?" he called. "You find the Unknown Regions data?"
The droid twittered impatiently. "Okay, okay, I'll be right there," Luke soothed him, heading for the nearest ramp down to the main floor. He started to pass the sheet-covered furniture
And paused, looking at the collection. There were half a dozen chairs of various types under there, plus a bed, a table, and a couple of things that looked like storage end tables. "What do you suppose this is all about?" he called back to Mara.
"Looks like the stuff he'll need to make this place into a cozy little apartment once he's out," Mara suggested, dropping down to the main floor and coming up beside him. "He'll want some time to recover, maybe get caught up with what's been happening out there over the past ten years. In fact, I'd run you ten to one that console ring's got a direct feed from whatever news/data links they've got upstairs."
"Yes, but why is it all piled here instead of laid out waiting for him?"
Luke asked. "It's not like Thrawn wouldn't have known what kind of arrangement his clone would like."
"Interesting point," Mara agreed, her voice suddenly uneasy.
Luke threw her a look. "What is it?"
"I don't know," she said slowly, looking around. "Something just suddenly felt wrong."
Luke looked around the room, too. Nothing seemed threatening... but suddenly he was feeling it, too. "Maybe we ought to get Artoo and clear out of here," he suggested quietly. "Take whatever he's got and just go."
"Let's first see how much he's got," Mara said. She turned back toward the droid and took a step
"Who dares disturb the sleep of the Syndic Mitth'raw'nuruodo?" a deep voice thundered from above them.
Luke dropped into a half crouch, lightsaber reflexively raised above him. He looked up
To an extraordinary sight. Above the railing and second-level equipment balcony, a large ovate section of the stone ceiling was undulating like some sort of rocky fluid. Even as he watched, it slowly formed itself into a giant face looking down at them. "Who dares disturb the sleep of the Syndic Mitth'raw'nuruodo?" the voice repeated.
"Now that's a nice trick," Mara murmured. "Well, go aheadanswer it."
Luke took a careful breath. "We're friends," Luke called. "We mean the Syndic Mitth'raw'nuruodo no harm."
The fluid eyes seemed to focus on him. "Who dares disturb the sleep of the Syndic Mitth'raw'nuruodo?"
Luke looked at Mara. "A recording?"
"Sounds like it," she agreed tightly. "But what good does a recordingwatch it!"
But Luke was already spinning around, lightsaber flashing out into defensive position in front of him, as his own senses flared a warning.
There were two of them, standing there on the upper section of floor a pair of large, thickset sentinel droids on treaded bases, each with a heavy blaster gripped in its right hand.
"Get behind me!" Luke snapped to Mara, taking a short step in front of her.
Just in time. Even as he stretched out to the Force, both sentinels opened fire.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he heard Mara snarl from behind him. "A big fat diversionthe oldest trick on the list. And I fell for it like some dumb farm kid."
"Watch your language," Luke warned. The sentinels were good, laying out a systematic targeting pattern that would have quickly taken out most opponents. So far, though, he was easily staying ahead of them. "Can you do anything about them?"
Her reply was a spitting of blaster fire over his shoulder raking across the sentinels' joints and glowing eyes. But there was no effect. "No goodthe armor's too thick for my blaster," she said. "Let me try"
"Watch ithe's moving," Luke cut her off. The sentinel on the left had suddenly started rolling on its treads along the raised floor ring toward the far end of the room, blaster still firing. Luke clenched his teeth, stretching out harder to the Force, feeling sweat breaking out on his forehead. With the source of the blaster bolts now coming from two different directionsand with the separation between them growing ever widerit was becoming h
arder and harder for him to physically get the lightsaber blade back and forth fast enough to block the shots. Behind him, he heard the snap-hiss as Mara ignited her own lightsaber
Followed by a sudden yelp and a muffled thud.
"What happened?" Luke snapped, not daring to take his attention off the sentinels.
"Don't try to walk," Mara warned, her voice inexplicably coming from the floor beneath him. "Thrawn left another surprise for unwanted guests."
Luke frowned. "What do you mean?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blue-white blade of her lightsaber cut across one of the shots from the more distant sentinel, now at the far end of the room. "Okay, I've got this one," she said. "If you can spare a second, take a look at the floor."
Letting the Force guide his hands, Luke risked a quick look down at his feet.
One glance was all he needed. The floor had sprouted loops of green-black cord that had formed themselves into a tangled mass around their feet. "Looks like they extruded themselves out of the cracks between the tiles," Mara went on. "First step I took my foot tried to catch in one of the loops."
"Clever," Luke agreed tightly. "I guess that rules out any chance of running for it."
"At least we know now why all the furniture's stacked off to the side," Mara added. "You don't want to clutter your killing field with a lot of stuff the victims might be able to hide behind. Luke, this other sentinel's still coming."
Luke risked a glance. The second sentinel had rounded the far end of the room and was now rolling steadily around the other side.
And in maybe ten seconds it would reach a point directly across from Mara.
"Quickbefore it gets any closer," he told her, easing a little to his left so he could again defend against both sentinels. "Use your lightsaber on it."
"Right," Mara said, and through his haze of concentration he felt her emotional twinge at the memory of her less than perfect handling of the weapon back in the chamber where they'd taken out all of the stalactites and stalagmites together.
But the moment passed; and as he leaned hard into the effort of blocking the barrage of shots he saw the flash as her lightsaber windmilled across the room toward the sentinel. It sliced cleanly into the intersection of head and body
And then, abruptly, the blue-white blade vanished.
"What happened?" Luke demanded.
"Blast it!" Mara snarled. Out of the corner of Luke's eye he saw the blade reappear, swing into the sentinel, and again vanish. "He put a layer of cortosis ore under the armor."
"Then go for the blaster," Luke said.
"Right."
The blue-white blade sizzled out againthere was a crackle of broken metal and plasticand suddenly that point of danger faded from Luke's mind. "Good job," he called to Mara, shifting his full attention to the sentinel in front of him. "Now get around here and do the same thing to this one"
He swiveled back again, getting his lightsaber blade around just in time. Suddenly the sentinel on Mara's side had started shooting again
"Watch it," Mara snapped a belated warning. "It had another blaster holstered for its left handoh, shavit."
"What? Never mind," Luke growled. In response to Mara's attack, the sentinel facing him had now drawn a second blaster from concealment with its left hand.
"He's got a second blaster for the right, too"
"I got it, I got it," Luke cut her off, leaning still harder into his defense. With twice as many shots coming in now from each of the sentinels, they were in worse shape than they had been before. A missed blaster bolt sizzled painfully across the top of his left shoulder
"Sorry," Mara said, her back pressing against his now, the hum of her lightsaber like an angry insect behind him. "What do we do now?"
Luke grimaced. The row of ysalamiri-equipped Chiss he'd faced up in the fortress had been bad enough; but at least there they'd had the option of shooting their opponents if defense became too difficult. Here, trapped in the middle of an open room, caught in a crossfire from two tireless droids who couldn't be killed, with tangling cords around their feet precluding any chance of fast escape...
"Luke?" Mara called again over the sound and fury. "You hear me?"
"I heard you, I heard you," he snapped back.
"So what do we do?"
Luke swallowed hard. "I have no idea."
* * * Beneath Leia, the Predominance's great bulk shuddered as another proton torpedo got through the Ishori defenses, its violent explosion ripping another piece out of the hull. Ahead out the main bridge canopy, the sky was a tangle of turbolaser blasts splashing across their shields or occasionally burning through to vaporize layers of metal or transparisteel.
But in that sudden, heart-stopping moment, none of that mattered; not the battle, not her own life, not even the terrible threat of civil war. With that flicker of distant emotion, that sudden tremor in the Force, one thing alone had surged to overriding importance for her.
Somewhere out there, Han was in deadly danger.
"Captain Av'muru!" she shouted over the din of the bridge, crossing quickly toward the command console. Two guards raised their blasters warningly; without thinking, Leia stretched out with the Force to turn the weapons aside as she passed. "Captain, I must speak with you right away."
"I am busy, Councilor," the Ishori captain snarled, not even bothering to look at her.
"You'll be busier than you care to be if you don't listen to me," Leia bit out, straining with all her strength toward the wispy, unclear sensation that was Han. His emotions were still seething with danger and threat and helpless fury; but try as she might, she couldn't penetrate through the emotion and the distance to his underlying thoughts.
But there was one thing that was very clear. "There's some new threat waiting out there," she told Av'muru. "One you're completely unaware of."
"Other threats are meaningless!" Av'muru all but screamed. "There can be no other concern but the Diamalan attackers around us."
"Captain"
She broke off at a feathery touch on her arm. "It's no use, Councilor," Gavrisom said, his long face tight and almost bitter. "He can't and won't think that far ahead. Not with his ship under immediate attack. Can you tell me what this threat is?"
Leia looked out the canopy, trying to pierce the dazzlingly lethal light show outside. "Han's in danger," she said.
"Where? How?"
"I don't know," she said, her stomach twisting with her own sense of helplessness. "I can't pick up his thoughts clearly enough."
"Who else might know?" Gavrisom asked.
Leia took a deep breath, forcing calmness into her mind. Gavrisom was right what Han needed was for her to put aside her emotions and think clearly. "Elegos was with him on the Falcon," she said, stretching out again with the Force. But there was nothing. "I can't even sense him."
"Who else might know?" Gavrisom persisted. "Someone closer at hand?"
Leia looked out at the battle again, a sudden tentative flicker of hope stirring in her. "Lando. Han might have said something to Lando."
"Then we must talk to him," Gavrisom said firmly. "I will go speak to the captain about piercing the Diamalan jamming. In the meantime, is there anything your Jedi skills can do about it?"
Leia took a deep breath. "I don't know," she said. "Let me try."
* * * "I tell you, this can't wait," Lando insisted, throwing every bit of urgency and intimidation he could muster into his voice. "I have to speak to High Councilor Organa Solo right away. The whole fate of the New Republic might well hang on the edge. Not to mention your own lives."
"Really," Senator Miatamia said, his voice icy calm. Diamala, Lando knew, were notoriously hard to read, but it was abundantly clear the Senator wasn't impressed. "And what is the nature of this threat?"
"My friend Han went out to take a look at that comet out there," Lando said. "I was watching him on macrobinoculars... and he just vanished."
Miatamia's cheeks creased. "You mean he crashed?"
"Yet how truly open is the region around a comet?" the Diamal pointed out, an ear twitching. "He may have veered into the gases of the tail, or you may have lost sight of him briefly in the glare of sunlight from the surface."
Lando grimaced. Not only was Miatamia not convinced, he wasn't even going to give it a fair hearing.
But Lando knew what he had seen. "All right, then," he said between clenched teeth. "In that case, I'm calling in the favor you owe me."
Both ears twitched this time. "What favor is this?"
"I gave you a ride to Coruscant from Cilpar, remember?" Lando reminded him. "You've never paid me back for that."
"You stated at the time that you would not require any payment other than our conversation."
"I lied," Lando said evenly. "And I want my favor now."
Miatamia eyed him darkly. "We are in a combat situation."
"This won't jeopardize that." Lando gestured at the bridge, lying beyond the transparisteel wall of the observation deck he and Miatamia were standing on. "All I want is for the jamming of the Predominance lifted, just on Councilor Organa Solo's personal comlink frequency. Just that one frequencythat's all."
The Diamal shook his head. "I cannot gamble that such an action would not create additional danger for Diamalan lives and goods."
He turned away, facing the battle again. Lando swallowed a curse, looking past him and the besieged Ishori ship at the comet glowing with such deceptive serenity out beyond the fighting. Han had asked for his help. Had trusted him.
And he did know what he'd seen.
"All right," he said, stepping squarely in front of Miatamia again. It was time to put his money where it counted. "A gamble, you say? Finelet's gamble."
He pointed out the viewport at the Ishori ship. "Here's the bet. You let me talk to Leia right now; and if the threat turns out not to be as serious as I claim it is, you and the Diamala will get my mining and casino operation on Varn."
The Senator's ears twitched. "Are you serious?"
"Deadly serious," Lando said. "My friend's in danger, and I'm the only one who can help him."