Refugee: Force Heretic II (42 page)

“You have your life to lose,” Cundertol said simply. “Would you prefer entechment with the rest of us when the Fluties finally catch up?”

Harris’s glare intensified. “I can’t help you, I’m afraid. You see, there
is
no exit. They’re all blocked. Our only hope is to hide in one of the equipment lockers until the Ssi-ruuk are gone, and then try to sneak out.”

“I’m not really one for hiding,” Cundertol said, with a regretful shake of his head. The blaster in the Prime Minister’s hand fired and Blaine Harris fell back onto the floor, dead before he hit. “Sorry, my friend. But that was the wrong answer.”

Jaina stood, stunned, as the blaster came around. Harris had been guilty of mass murder, but she would never condone cold-blooded execution as punishment—and had never expected it from someone like Cundertol. Salkeli dropped to his knees in supplication, obviously anticipating a similar fate. Jaina stepped forward to prevent another travesty of justice.

However, Cundertol’s interest lay not with the Rodian. Instead, in one smooth motion he pressed the blaster directly against Malinza’s temple.

“Now, seeing as there are no other options available …”

Jaina froze. If she had thought she couldn’t be more surprised than she already was, she was quickly proven wrong when the Bakuran Prime Minister opened his mouth as wide as it would go and called out in the Ssi-ruuvi language. It consisted of just three notes, but they were so loud even the echoes hurt her ears. An answering reply came almost immediately.

Her worst fears realized, Jaina cursed under her breath for allowing herself to be caught like this. She took a step
forward, but stopped when Cundertol pushed the blaster even harder against Malinza’s temple.

Cundertol grinned in triumph. He didn’t have to move or say anything; he simply knew that Jaina wasn’t about to risk Malinza’s life. One squeeze of the trigger and the girl would be dead.

Jaina lowered the lightsaber and tried another tack. “Let her go.” The mental command accompanying the words would have made an ordinary person instantly obey.

But the Prime Minister just shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said, smiling.

“What
are
you?” Jaina asked.

The Prime Minister’s smile widened, if that was possible.

“New,” he said. “But we haven’t got time for that right now. We need to go and meet your new masters.”

Rapid footfalls came down the corridors behind and ahead of them. Deep, fluting calls passed back and forth between the two alien search parties as they converged on the maintenance area. The survivors drew closer together, moving instinctively into a corner. Jaina planted herself protectively between them and Cundertol, her eyes on both corridor entrances. Behind her, she felt her father and mother, Goure, and two security guards doing the same. If only they’d rushed Cundertol when they’d had the chance, she thought. If only—

She fought herself to stop such thoughts. They were nonproductive at best. There’d be time for regrets later. If there
was
a later, of course.

“You knew about the Ssi-ruuk,” Malinza hissed, held tight in his grip. Her voice was steeped in disgust. “You betrayed Bakura. You’re no better than Harris!”

“You’re wrong on that score, I assure you,” Cundertol said. “I am in every way better than Harris.”

There was no time for Jaina to wonder what he meant. Six Ssi-ruuvi warriors burst out of the corridor to her left, running with long, bounding strides and flicks of
their mighty tails, paddle beamers held before them in taloned hands. Their eyes and scales gleamed red in the emergency lighting. They came to a halt, hissing and screeching, at the sight of the fugitives before them.

The leader directed a series of piercing notes at Cundertol, who responded fluently in the same language.

“Threepio?” Han prompted the droid from the corner of his mouth.

“I believe it is a standard welcome,” the droid said, looking from Cundertol to the Ssi-ruu. The giant saurian indicated the body of Harris and swished its tail. “Now it is reprimanding the Prime Minister that he has wasted this one.”

The second party arrived before Cundertol could defend himself. At its head was the largest Ssi-ruu Jaina had yet seen—a beautiful red female warrior with pronounced ridges running back along her snout and across the top of her skull. She wore a black harness adorned with silver medals that jingled with each step she took, and her nostrils flared when her gaze fell upon Jaina and the others.

Behind her came five more warriors of ordinary size, protected by four golden priest-caste Ssi-ruuk as well as the Keeramak itself, its brighter colors subdued in the dim light. The large party concluded with a group of P’w’eck warriors that fanned out to cover the entrances.

The Keeramak moved forward with muscular grace, its massive jaws snapping as though at imaginary insects. Its gold-scaled servants eyed the Bakurans warily, daring them to speak. No one did.

A series of eerie, melodic notes then issued from the mutant Ssi-ruu’s mouth.

“ ‘Surrender now,’ ” C-3PO translated, “ ‘and I will ensure that, once enteched, you will be put to productive tasks.’ ”

“We were told you no longer required entechment,”

Leia said, not attempting to hide the disapproval from her voice. “I suppose that was just another lie.”

The Keeramak executed a graceful bow. “One of many, Leia Organa Solo,” it replied via C-3PO’s translation. “The truth is, however, that we have indeed perfected the entechment process. It is now possible to sustain life energy indefinitely, reducing the need for frequent replenishment. Some energies, such as your own, are too strong to resist. You will enrich us for centuries!”

Leia’s lips tightened. From under her robes, she produced her own lightsaber—something she did only when all attempts at diplomacy had failed. It cast a red light across the face of the Keeramak.

“You shall never have my life energy,” she said with menacing determination.

“Or mine,” Jaina said, adding her voice—along with her blade—to her mother’s vow.

The Keeramak backed away, fluting as the guards closed in.

“The Keeramak says, ‘As you wish,’ ” C-3PO reported.

“Don’t be fools,” Cundertol said. “Don’t you understand what you’re being offered?”

“All too clearly,” Han growled.

“You’re hearing the words, but you’re not
understanding
them! Entechment isn’t what you think it is. It’s not the end; it’s the beginning! It’s liberation, not captivity!”

“You don’t really believe that,” Leia said.

Cundertol ignored her, addressing the others instead. “Imagine being the controller of your own droid ship, the heart of an interstellar drive, the overseer of an entire city! Imagine the freedom you will achieve when you’ve been cut loose from the shackles of flesh and blood. You’ll be able to live forever!”

“Freedom?” Jaina echoed. “We’ll be slaves!”

“Immortal slaves! What are a few years of servitude in
exchange for eternity? They will pass as though mere moments!”

Suddenly it became all too clear why Cundertol had betrayed Bakura to the Ssi-ruuk.

“Is that what they’ve promised you?” Leia asked. “Immortality? You sold out your planet and people for a promise of longer life?”

Cundertol’s smile was wide and amused. “Actually, Princess, they didn’t promise me anything. I worked it out for myself. They didn’t come to me seeking a bargain; we met halfway. From there, it was just a matter of working out the details.”

Jaina shook her head. “Surely you can’t be that naive! If you think it’s going to happen like—”

“Not
going
to happen—it’s already happened! If you refuse to accept the truth of it, then I cannot help you. Your fate is already sealed.”

The Keeramak clicked its claws, and half the P’w’eck moved forward through the ranks of Ssi-ruuvi guards. If there was going to be a fight, then clearly these were to be sacrificed first. Jaina felt sick to her stomach. As bad as it was to be facing captivity and entechment, it felt worse to know that her only hope of escaping would mean having to fight and possibly kill slaves.

Lwothin, even more fidgety than usual, led the contingent. He turned to the Keeramak and inclined his head in what Jaina took to be a gesture of respect and subservience. The mighty Ssi-ruu uttered a deep, powerful warble that she didn’t require C-3PO to translate for her. As far as she was concerned, it could have meant only one thing: the Keeramak was ordering the P’w’eck guards to subdue the prisoners.

Lwothin nodded his long, reptilian head and raised himself to full height. Jaina tensed, her lightsaber igniting with a press of her thumb as she braced herself for the assault. With a cry that both surprised and terrified her
in equal measures, Lwothin brought up his paddle beamer and fired point blank.

The engines of Jag’s clawcraft were running hot. Despite that, it was still firmly tethered to the V’sett fighters that had captured him and being drawn inexorably toward a growing knot of captured Bakuran and Galactic Alliance vessels. Comprised of more than one hundred fighters, the knot was being drawn through a narrow hole in the shields of the massive carrier
Errinung’ka
. Two Fw’Sen picket ships accompanied them, making certain there was no trouble. The vast, curving sweep of the carrier’s bow loomed over him, making him and his fate seem powerfully insignificant.

Clicks came over the comm as he joined the formation of captured fighters. Bound tight by powerful tractor beams, all he and his squadronmates could do was signal each other as they were dragged to their doom. Nearby he could make out the pilot of the Y-wing in her cockpit, hands visibly poised over her controls, a grim expression on her face. Jag had no doubt from the look in her eyes as she stared through her cockpit canopy at him that, given the opportunity, she would fight back—to the death if need be. Her eyes held the same dark determination he felt in his heart.

Not that such an opportunity would eventuate. Once they were on the other side of those shields, that would be it. There would be no hope of rescue then.

I’m sorry, Father
, he thought, wishing there was some way that Baron Soontir Fel could hear him. And his mother. They’d had such hopes for him. All his life he had struggled to prove himself worthy in their eyes. The slow-maturing child of aliens in a fiercely competitive society, growing up in the shadow of Thrawn and his father’s ambition. How could he ever have suspected that he would meet such a fate as this?

“This is Captain Mayn.” The voice came clearly over the comm unit. “I’m addressing you on an open frequency. The jamming has been interrupted to let me relay orders from the ground. All fighters must stand down or planetary bombardment will begin immediately. They have paralysis weapons that can knock out an entire city. Salis D’aar will be the first target. Therefore, in the best interest of innocent civilians, I am asking for all resistance to cease.”

Jag listened to the words with growing amazement. Could this really be Todra Mayn speaking? The thought of just giving in to the Ssi-ruuk turned his insides to water.

“If we stand down now, Captain, then they’re as good as dead anyway,” Jag said over the same frequency.

“We have an assurance from the Ssi-ruuk that, once the planet is under Imperium control, we shall be treated fairly.”

Jag jerked the yoke of his ship to fight the dreadful tug of the tractor beams. “Like the P’w’eck were, you mean? As breeding stock for droid fighters?”

“Anything is better than dying.”

He could tell by the way his engines were shrieking that they weren’t going to last much longer at full throttle. If he was going to blow them, to end it quickly rather than in the mental cage of a droid fighter, then he was going to have to do it soon—while he still had engines to do it with!

“You have to trust me, Jag.” Captain Mayn’s voice was thick with tension. “They have Jaina.”

So?
he wanted to yell back at her.
Is one life worth more than that of an entire planet?

But he couldn’t say it. His heart tore at the idea that Jaina might be hurt. With numb fingers, he throttled back and let the alien shield slip over his craft. The shield
itself was invisible to all but his instruments, but he imagined it as the maw of some mighty beast waiting to swallow him. Once ingested, fierce gastric juices would remove his soul and dispense with his useless carcass afterward …

Then the barrier slammed shut behind them, and they were inside. In the awkward stillness and silence, it felt like an entirely different universe. Outside, beyond the barrier, skirmishes lit up the starry backdrop as pockets of resistance still fought the Ssi-ruuvi invaders. The picket ships, once they had delivered their cargo, returned to patrolling the area. Inside the
Errinung’ka
’s shield there was only stillness. Caught in the web cast by droid and V’sett fighters, the captives could do little more than curse their misfortune. And wait.

Everything suddenly stopped as the Keeramak, without a single noise of complaint, crumpled to the floor.

There was a split second during which the Ssi-ruuk were so stunned by Lwothin’s actions that they did nothing at all. They simply stood there gawping at the Keeramak lying on the ground, oozing a gray, viscous fluid from the paddle beamer wound in its chest. The P’w’eck were quick to take advantage of the Ssi-ruuk’s confusion, and other paddle beamers began to flash in the dimly lit tunnel. For a moment, Jaina was confused, too, but that didn’t last. It was obvious what was happening: Lwothin and the P’w’eck were rebelling against their Ssi-ruuvi masters!

The Ssi-ruuk were better trained and better equipped than the P’w’eck, though, and they soon regained the advantage, fighting back with frightening ferocity. Jaina had no doubt as to whose side she was on, and when a Ssi-ruuvi warrior leveled his beamer at Lwothin, she quickly slashed out with her lightsaber and knocked the
weapon from the creature’s hand. It swung around, attacking her with three raking claws, and she barely managed to duck a decapitating blow. The saurian was
huge
—but she had sparred with Saba Sebatyne enough times to know the kind of things a tail could do in combat. And there was still the Force, guiding her every move, tweaking her instincts. Fighting the Ssi-ruuk, thankfully, wasn’t like fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, whose every intention was hidden from view.