The Crystal Star (42 page)

"I see that you found your "small machine,"'" Leia said.

Rillao nodded solemnly, then glanced at Luke.

"Perhaps, when we have left this place, we might spar a bit. Though I am badly out of practice." Luke

managed a smile. "I'd like that."

Han thought: We have three hours to get out of here. Three hours, more or less. It's the "less" that

bothers me. Like Threepio said, the possibilities are never all calculable.

"What about Crseih?" he said to Leia.

"What about it?" she replied.

"When the star goes--the station will get blown to dust." "Subatomic particles, more likely," Leia said

with some satisfaction.

"Leia!" Han protested.

"She is right," Rillao said. "This place is best destroyed." "People live here," Han said. "A friend of mine

lives here." "Warn her," Rillao said.

"If I can find her," Han said.

"If Xaverri does not survive," Rillao said, "it will be a shame." Leia relented. "We'll warn everyone. Of

course. But surely they keep watch on their own star. Surely they know they have to evacuate! This is

supposed to be a research station, after all." "Whatever was done here," Han said, "you can hardly call it

research." Leia slipped her hand into his.

"How could I not know about the trade?" she said.

"I thought everything was going so well, and all along the Empire still terrorized people, in secret--!" "You

sent Winter to investigate--" "I never talked to people who might have been affected. Back on Munto

Codru, I spent a whole day talking to officials and ambassadors, and when I asked about the people still

waiting to talk to me, I let myself be told they didn't have anything important to say." "Sweetheart," Han

said. He put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close. She leaned against him and embraced

him, and they walked close together. "You've been working yourself half to death--y expect too much of

yourself." "I could say the same of you," Leia said fondly.

"And I could say I should have known about the trade." "But--" "I learned a lot about Hethrir and his

followers from Xaverri," Han said. "They're careful and they're wary and they have enormous resources.

Plunder from the Empire..." "All the more reason to find them." "Yes. Now." "I always like to have an

important project," Leia said dryly.

Han chuckled, his laugh part self-deprecation.

They walked up the hill in silence, and passed into the airlink.

Han leaned toward Leia and whispered, "Did I tell you how much I like your hair that way?" He twined

his fingers in the long, smooth strands.

Her free hand flew to her head.

"I forgot it was down!" she said.

She decided to leave it that way.

Han surveyed the landing field. It was a cacophony of departing starships, shipowners arguing with field

personnel, residents seeking a passenger berth.

"Looks like some people are paying attention," Han said.

As Leia and Chewbacca divided the children into two groups, one to board Alderaan and the other to

depart on the Millennium Falcon, Han hurried over to See-Threepio.

"Can you get in touch with Xaverri?" he said.

"She never would tell me where she lived, how to reach her--" "I have already done so, Master Han,"

Threepio said. "In fact..." He pointed to a derelict-looking ship rising off the field with a precision and

speed that belied its ugliness.

"I believe that is her ship now, on a course for hyperspace." Han relaxed, and grinned. "She always did

like deceptive appearances." "Papa!" Anakin, riding on top of Han's shoulders, kicked his heels against

his father's chest. "Look at Mr. Chamberlain's woof!" The great fanged wyrwulf lay on the field, curled

up, its nose hidden by its bushy black tail, all six limbs pulled in close beneath it. Han strode over to it and

sat on his heels beside it.

"Hey, fella, are you all right?" The wyrwulf opened one eye halfway, whined, and curled up tighter.

Leia hurried over. "Oh, my," she said.

"Do you know what's wrong with it?" "Nothing," she said.

"Strange kind of nothing." The beast was sweating heavily. Its sweat was thick and blue. It flowed out

over the wyrwulf's fur, matting it down.

She smiled. "I think that when we get back to Munto Codru, we'll bring a little boy or a little girl to

Chamberlain Iyon, in place of his wyrwulf." "What?" The blue sweat solidified on the wyrwulf's body,

forming a rubbery coating.

"It's metamorphosing," Leia said. "When it wakes up again, it will be self-aware--a Codru-Ji child." The

blue sweat flowed down over the wyrwulf's face. The wyrwulf snorted; the sweat covered its nose and

mouth. The rubbery blue coating formed a seal.

"Help me carry it onto the ship." Luke joined them. "It looks like I feel," he said.

"You do look a little blue," Han said.

"I'll be all right as soon as I get out of--" Luke fainted.

Jaina waited for liftoff in Alderaan.

She held Uncle Luke's hand. Jacen sat on Uncle Luke's other side. Between them they kept watch over

him. If they could just get away from this system! Mr. Threepio had tried to explain about the resonating

star, the quantum crystal. Jaina did not understand why the white dwarf star did not look like a big jewel,

a huge diamond in space. But she did understand that it was why she could not use her abilities. She

understood that it was making Uncle Luke sick.

That it would also make her and Mama and Jacen and Rillao, and Anakin especially, sick, if they did not

leave soon.

"Almost ready, now," Mama said, her voice disembodied. She was up front in the cockpit with Rillao.

Papa and Chewbacca were over on the Millennium Falcon, with Threepio and Artoo and Anakin and

most of the other children.

Tigris was on Alderaan, but he might as well be anywhere, or no place at all, because he would not

speak to anyone.

Lusa and the wyrwulf's chrysalis lay on Mama's bed in the other cabin. Lusa was scared.

She had not been on very many space flights. Jaina wished she could be with her.

"We're all ready, Mama," Jaina said.

"How's Luke?" "He's... he's very quiet, Mama." The engines whispered.

"Leia, is Artoo with you?" Papa's voice sounded fuzzy through the comlink.

"No, I thought he was on the Falcon," Mama said.

"What? Okay, you get Luke out of here, I'll take one more look around for him."

Han could not lift off without Artoo-Detoo.

The radiation shields withdrew. Above Millennium Falcon and Alderaan, the sky was free.

But Han could not leave without the droid.

He jumped up with a curse. "Did you see where Artoo went?" Chewbacca snorted a negative.

"I just don't know what to do," Threepio said.

"That Artoo-Detoo never does as I ask--never does as expected--" "Where did he go?" Han

demanded.

"I believe--though I could be wrong, he does sometimes give me inaccurate information--" "Where?" "He

went looking for the engine controls of Crseih Station." "I ought to let him get vaporized along with the

rest of the blasted place--" Han jumped up and headed for the Falcon's exit ramp.

"If I'm not back in fifteen minutes--" Chewbacca's roar drowned out his ^ws. Han grinned. Chewbacca

was not about to leave without him.

With a musical beep and warble, Artoo-Detoo lurched from the landing field to the Falcon's entry ramp,

and rolled toward him.

"About damn time!" Han said. "We were going to leave you behind." Unperturbed, Artoo whistled and

rolled on by. Han and Threepio followed the little droid into the Falcon.

"What did you say?" Threepio said, outraged. "What do you mean, you don't care if you miss the flight?

Do you want to get vaporized? Why, we've waited so long looking for you that we might be vaporized

no matter what!" Artoo-Detoo whined and wheeped.

"Why--why, I must say, that was very clever of you." Han threw himself into the pilot's seat and strapped

in. "Let's get out of here." The Millennium Falcon came to life around him.

"Artoo-Detoo has arranged," Threepio said, "for Crseih Station to follow us out of this system so it will

not be vaporized. Many of Lord Hethrir's guests are still on board..." "And they'll be easy to round up,"

Han said.

The Falcon rose above the battered landing field of Crseih Station, and soared into space after Alderaan.

Leia headed for the hyperspace point, but her attention was behind her ship, back on Crseih Station and

the Millennium Falcon and the tumult of elemental forces that would soon explode. The crystal star raced

around the black hole, faster and faster, closer and closer, with more of its surface stripped away into

great glowing streamers of burning plasma.

Leia's head ached fiercely, as if her brain vibrated in time with the star system's resonance. Rillao, too,

looked pale and ill.

"Hold on," Leia said, as much to herself as to Rillao. "Just a little while longer, and we'll be away from this

place." "Yes," Rillao whispered.

In the distance, Xaverri's ship vanished into hyperspace. Leia was curious about her. She wanted to talk

to her, to learn more about the times in Han's life that he usually avoided discussing.

Strangely enough, she did not feel jealous of Xaverri.

I always believed, if I met her, I'd think she wasn't good enough for Han, Leia thought.

But she was. And I'm glad.

She watched intently for the Millennium Falcon.

Where are you? she cried in her mind.

"Mama?" "Yes, Jaina?" "I think... I think you better hurry.

Uncle Luke..." The burning whirlpool spun furiously, ripping the glowing crystal's surface to ribbons. The

whirlpool blasted out X rays, gamma rays, intense light. Leia closed her eyes, trying to force away the

pain.

"Han!" she cried, but no transmission could penetrate the primordial cacophony.

Suddenly, against the brilliance of the dying stars, a point of darkness appeared and expanded.

"It's the Falcon!" Leia said.

It streaked toward Alderaan. Leia accelerated, wild joy overcoming the resonating pain. The Millennium

Falcon raced Alderaan toward hyperspace.

In the far distance, the crystal star spiraled inward. Nearer, Crseih Station plunged into motion, its

engines shuddering it into flight.

The face of the crystal star reached the event horizon of the black hole.

The crystal star shattered. Ripped apart by unimaginable forces, it disintegrated into atoms, into stripped

nuclei and electrons, into subatomic particles. As they fell toward the black hole, energy burst from them.

The radiation fueled a pressure wave of gas and stripped atoms that exploded outward, to sweep away

anything in its path.

On Alderaan, Leia felt the disruption in the Force before the storm could reach her; she knew she must

escape before the light and the X rays and the pressure wave could reach her.

Hyperspace flared open before her. Her ship blasted toward safety, the Falcon at its side, Crseih Station

just behind.

The disruption of the crystal star lifted from Leia's shoulders.

She was free.

She was going home.

Leia piloted Alderaan from hyperspace into the normal space of the star system of Munto Codru. Then

she waited, anxiously.

The Millennium Falcon appeared.

"Han!" Leia said.

The transmissions became clear once more.

Han replied from Millennium Falcon.

"We made it," he said.

"Are you all right? Is Anakin?" "He's okay. I was worried there at the last --but he's okay now." As Han

spoke, Crseih Station dropped into existence a few light-seconds away. It slipped into orbit around

Munto Codru's sun. Following Artoo-Detoo's instructions, its engines turned themselves off. The outlaw

station, and all its inhabitants, were stranded.

Hethrir's worldcraft spun serenely, surrounded by every ship in the Munto Codru system, as Leia's

advisers and the Munto Codru officials rescued the lost children and began the work of returning them to

their homes.

Leia unstrapped herself from Alderaan's pilot's couch and hurried back to the twins. They were excited,

exhausted, as bright-eyed as if they had a fever. She hugged them and kissed them.

"You're so brave," she said. "So smart, and so brave. I'm so proud of you." She took Luke's hand. It

was cold and slack.

"Luke--" "Uncle Lukeffwas Jaina said. "Wake up!" said Jacen.

Rillao joined them. "Let me help," she said.

She sat on her heels beside Luke. He did not stir.

"Do not leave us now," she said. "You were in the influence of the crystal star, but you survived. You

were in the influence of Waru, but you survived." She stroked his forehead.

"Come back to us, Jedi." Luke's eyelids fluttered.

"Are you going to let a little thing like a rip through space-time slow you down?" Rillao asked.

Luke opened his eyes. He looked at her, and smiled.

On the other side of the cabin, in silence, Tigris watched his mother.

Lusa clattered down the companionway and skidded around the corner.

"Are we home yet?" she asked.

The End

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