Balance Point (31 page)

Jaina shuffled forward. He imitated her gait to keep from tripping on fallen stones. The passage dropped steadily, toward a dim glow on rough-cut rock.

Jaina rounded the corner first. Jacen followed. He thought he heard Leia behind them.

In a sizable room at the T junction of two tunnels twenty Ryn huddled. Some wore blue SELCORE flight suits under their culottes and vests, their faces almost humorously stubble-covered. A pair of glow lamps threw faint shadows on the rocky walls. Up the right branch, he heard muffled voices and saw a longer lineup of faces—many shapes, shades, and sizes—disappearing in a dark distance.

The digging noises came from up the T’s other branch. At the junction, Han stood next to another Ryn in SELCORE blue draped with culottes.

“Romany?” Jacen murmured, not quite sure.

“Hey, baldy.” Yep. Romany’s voice.

Han stepped to Leia’s side. The flap of his battered leather helmet dangled alongside his chin. “End of the line, for the moment.”

Leia pulled away, glowering at Jacen. “There’s a tunnel punched through to the old mines, from the admin building—”

Han raised a hand. “This one’s almost through, and the Vong are more likely headed there. I’m in charge of
this group. They’ve been running chewers down here day and night. Only about four meters to go, but if we run machinery now, we’ll bring sacrifice hunters down on our heads.”

Leia glanced up the tunnel. “Yes, but
we
were using the mining laser. It’s on a repulsorsled. And I’ve got a GOCU transmitter set up over there, patched through to a surface antenna. We could’ve transmitted out, over there.”

So that was why she’d kept it guarded. “Want me to go back for the laser?” Jacen offered.

“No,” said Leia—and Han.

“Now it’s pick work.” Han jerked his head up the left branch. “We’re taking shifts. We’ll be through in an hour, maybe two.”

She sank onto a rock pile. “I can’t sit and wait that long,” she muttered. “Did you hear, Han? They got the crawlers. All three.”

“I heard.” Han looked away. Jacen thought he’d seen a furry ghost peer out through his eyes.

“But Luke and Mara are topside,” Leia reported, “with Anakin. They’ll give us an escort outsystem if we can get these people to ships. And I need someone on that GOCU link.”

Jacen nodded. Along one wall of this stone chamber, the Ryn had piled water containers and crates labeled
TRAVEL BISCUITS
. Among the refugees—mostly shaved, but some as hairy as ever—he spotted two human families. A huddle of Vors, too. As usual, the mothers held their children close, away from the Ryn—but this time, they’d trusted the Ryn with their lives.

Abruptly he missed someone. “Where’s Randa?”

“He didn’t follow us?” Leia asked. “Frankly, I wasn’t watching him. Basbakhan will keep an eye on him.”

“I don’t even care,” Jaina said, and no one contradicted her.

Jacen edged toward Han and Droma, who were talking with Mezza.

“From the other end,” Mezza said, “we’ve traced a route to the SELCORE ship lot. The minute we break through this rock, there are people on the other end who can get us to a transport, thanks to Leia’s map.”

“Map?” Jacen asked.

“Of the mines. From the Duros’ archives.” Leia raised a datapad. “Listen, Han. Out below the bluffs, just out of the marshy area, we did some camouflaging ourselves, weeks ago. We’ve still got one of the five big haulers that brought in almost everything for our original building site. It’s ungainly, but it made hyperspace getting here. It’d hold about two thousand, according to my figures.”

Han sat down on the floor beside her. “What’s wrong with it? Why didn’t SELCORE take it back? Why didn’t it take off already?”

Jacen watched his mom squint, frown, and shake her head. “I don’t remember. I’m sorry. Threepio would know.”

“He’s on the
Falcon,”
Han said.

“Can we comlink him?”

“You can try,” Han said, “but I’ve got him running preflight. I’ll check out the hauler. What did you do, bury it?”

Leia nodded. “Piled harvest debris on top. Our scanners would find it in a heartbeat, but the Yuuzhan Vong might not have thought to look down there by the bluffs. And we know they don’t have the technology.”

“They’ve got technology, sweetheart. They just build it in different ways.”

“Maybe,” she said with exaggerated patience, “they won’t have found it yet. I don’t know. But it’d be a lot
faster to get there aboveground than by following this.” She brandished her datapad map of the mines.

“Skulking! Our specialty,” Droma put in.

Han broke a lopsided smile. “Not to mention ship repair. Okay, Mezza—Romany. Droma and I are going to go check out a hauler. As soon as the pick people break through, start people moving through the mines toward the bluffs, and station someone at Leia’s transmitter—but watch those side tunnels.”

“Right,” Jaina put in. “Nom Anor could still be down here. And if he is, he could Greenie-trap more ceilings.”

A few refugees stared up at the stone overhead.

All expression faded from Leia’s face. “A couple more hours, you said, till they’re through?”

Mezza nodded.

Leia stood up and brushed rock dust from the seat of her SELCORE coveralls. “Almost midnight,” she said. “There’s some time.”

“For what?” Han demanded. “Hey, Leia. Stay right here. I just found you. I want to find you again, when I get back.”

Leia compressed her lips. “Thanks,” she said. “Really, Han. Thank you—but you’re right. You’re in charge of this group, and I left something important over at admin.”

Han scowled.

Nom Anor led Tsavong Lah toward the laboratory built-thing, taking such obvious pleasure in walking unmasked that the warmaster briefly wondered what it would be like to live most of his life in an infidel’s guise, and pitied him.

They strode up the sandy main road between hideously ugly constructs, past a three-sided built-thing filled with monstrous machinery. Sgauru and Tu-Scart, the huge
Beater and Biter creatures he’d ordered released, attacked the nearest wall. This symbiotic pair could destroy artificial constructs within minutes. As soon as his own energy-creating creatures nested down and started to feed, he would put Tu-Scart and Sgauru to work on whatever abomination the infidels used to fuel the overhead lamps.

Tsavong Lah turned to an aide. “Dig the pit here,” he ordered.

A contingent of warrior escorts fell out of the group.

Near the dome’s north edge, Nom Anor led him into a construct shaped like one of their ugly bricks. In the main hall, he heard sloshing and clanking noises.

“My coworkers,” Nom Anor said proudly. “When I unmasked, I told them that those whom you found at work, helping remove poisons from the planet, would be specially honored.”

“All accepted?”

Nom Anor blinked his genuine eye. “Two refused to work any further,” he admitted. “Even when I offered them full honor, and … amnesty.”

“Amnesty.” The tizowyrm in Tsavong Lah’s ear didn’t translate anything he could comprehend. “What is this?”

Anor smiled. “A word like
peace
, with two meanings. They define it in a way we do not. Something like … 
mercy.”

The tizowyrm didn’t translate that, either. “Explain
mercy.”

Nom Anor paused at the entry to a room built around a long table. Tsavong Lah saw two infidels seated inside, wearing spotted white gowns.

“To the infidels,” Nom Anor answered, “it seems generous to let them escape destiny.”

“It is not possible to escape destiny. Death is inevitable. How it is faced … that is all-important.”

“Incredible though that may seem, they do not understand.”

Tsavong Lah shook his head. “Then we will give your coworkers better than they deserve, as thanks for their tireless efforts.”

“You speak my thoughts,” Nom Anor said.

“Perhaps some will volunteer to assist with
our
research?” There were never enough volunteers for that noble work, but his staff had brought the requisite planters and coral seeds.

“I offered that option. Sadly, all declined. Perhaps having directed research makes them reluctant to contribute as participants.”

Tsavong Lah shrugged. “Then we shall consecrate this built-thing for your future use.” He turned to his black-robed priestess. “Vaecta?”

The hunched, older woman had followed them, leading her ritual musicians. She stepped forward, carrying a translucent bivalve shell against her robes.

Tsavong Lah reached inside, wriggling his fingers, calling one of the tkun creatures to his hand. He felt the delicate touch of a furless nose, then the warmth of furry coils wrapping around his wrist.

He drew out his arm with the crimson tkun coiled around it. Master shapers had recently created the species, responding to the need for quick, efficient—but spiritually significant—individual sacrifices.

From another aide, the priestess took a wad of tishwii leaves. She arranged them in a water basin, then held a flint spark against them and dropped them into the basin to smolder.

“Bring the first researcher,” Tsavong Lah said.

Han wrapped an arm around Leia’s shoulders and pulled her close, momentarily resting his chin on her white turban. “Take care of yourself, then.”

“You, too.”

Jacen’s parents kissed each other—barely a peck at first, and then Han leaned into it. Leia went up on her tiptoes. Jacen lowered his eyes, caught Jaina’s glance, and half smiled.

She nodded.

But Han’s expression was grim as he and Droma headed back up the entry. Jacen watched until they disappeared. His memory fled back to Belkadan and a marsh full of villips, and he wondered what the Yuuzhan Vong would do with the Thirty-two reclamation project. Maybe they had creatures who could live in poisoned water.

Leia stared at her feet, grimacing.

“Mom,” Jacen said gently. “You don’t look real diplomatic.”

She raised her head. “You don’t think you three get all your grit from your father, do you?”

“Whatever you’re going to try,” Jaina said, “I’m with you.”

Leia’s smile reflected Jaina’s. For three seconds, all the
gaps and irritations between them fell away. They looked like conspirators. Sisters.

And since they thought Jacen had gone soft, he said, “So am I.”

Leia wrapped a hand around his forearm and one around Jaina’s, and squeezed. “First …” She raised her voice. “Mezza, Romany, we did drill out some other bolt-holes, and I have three maps. I need someone to get to that transmitter and someone else to pull people out of those holes. Either to here or to the admin building, and from there to the haulers. We’ll have to ask for volunteers—”

A Sullustan girl rocked forward and stood up. Her mother—or grandmother?—opened her mouth, then plainly decided against objecting. Then several others volunteered.

Leia distributed her datapads, keeping one back for Mezza and Romany. Close by, the rhythmic
tick-clink
of picks went on as the volunteers headed out.

Then Leia crouched beside Jaina and Jacen again.

“I’ve got an idea,” Jaina said softly. “We could do a lot of damage with that mining laser, if the Yuuzhan Vong haven’t found it.”

Leia nodded, then glanced up at Jacen.

“Is that too violent for you?” Jaina demanded.

“It’s rescue,” he said. “It’s defense. As long as I’m not manipulating the Force—”

“If the repulsor cart hasn’t been sabotaged, you won’t have to.” Leia peered up the side tunnel, at the refugees packed inside.

To Jacen’s surprise, Leia’s sinuous gray shadow-guard slipped forward. “Think about this,” Olmahk said in a low, mewling voice. “If the laser is fired, that will bring the Yuuzhan Vong down on us. That post should be mine. I claim it as my due, Lady Vader.”

Leia’s frown twisted sideways. “You’re probably right,” she said, but Jacen guessed she had every intention of firing it herself.

His memory served up a vivid image of the galaxy, tipping toward darkness. “Look,” he murmured, “I know you all think I’m crazy. But are you sure there’s no chance of negotiating? Mom, you’re a professional—”

“So I know when it won’t work,” Leia said wearily. “When your contact parties don’t come back alive, the enemy won’t talk. You don’t waste more contact parties.”

Still, maybe he could …

“Don’t even try it,” his mother added darkly.

Maybe she wasn’t a fully trained Jedi, but she had no trouble reading him.

She pushed up to stand again, then beckoned the Ryn clan leaders closer. “Mezza, Romany, you’ve done an excellent job of gathering people. If I don’t see you again, thank you. You’re in charge. May the Force be with you.

“Jaina, you’re with me. Jacen, you follow.”

Olmahk came alongside Jacen. They hurried back to the slabs that concealed their entryway.

Han listened carefully from under the fallen duracrete slab for two minutes before deciding to poke his head out. When he did, it was with a blaster alongside his ear.

Under the big emergency lights, nothing moved.

He knew exactly what Leia wanted to do: sabotage the Yuuzhan Vong operation herself, no matter what it cost her—or him. Call him selfish, but he wanted her alive. Not a dead hero. With or without that gorgeous hair, she had the spark that lit a fire in him.

He looked all around, then clambered out. He eyed all corners of the ruined building while Droma pulled himself out of the bolt-hole.

Then he edged close to the door and glanced out. The dome that had previously been a hive of activity was almost still. He heard clanking and crashing noises from some distance away, but the hum of voices had ended. He didn’t see any motion close by, either. He would have given a lot for a life-forms sensor.

And while he was wishing, a turbolaser would be nice.

Droma came up alongside him.

“It’d be shorter to cut close to the admin building,” Han murmured, “but …” He didn’t bother finishing the sentence. By now, he just expected Droma to do that.

“Safer along the dome’s edge.” Droma holstered his blaster.

Han did the same. The Yuuzhan Vong were probably wearing battle armor anyway. One shot, and they’d hear him—and all come down on him.