The Joiner King (24 page)

Jaina tolerated the scrutiny for only a few seconds, then stepped forward to give Mara a tentative hug.
“This
is a surprise.”

“I’m sure,” Leia said, arriving from the
Falcon
with Han, C-3PO, and Saba. “Raynar didn’t make it easy for us to find you.”

The glance of silent thanks that Leia flashed to Jacen did not go unnoticed by Jaina or the others, but Mara saw no sign that anyone seemed upset by it.

“Raynar is afraid you’ll try to take us back.” Tahiri Veila said. Over the last five years, she had matured into a sinewy blond woman—so much so that Mara might not have recognized her, if not for her bare feet and the three vertical scars the Yuuzhan Vong had left on her forehead. “And isn’t that why you’ve come?”

“It’s good to see you, too, kid,” Han taunted. “What do you say we let Luke answer that and just say hello?”

Tahiri’s face melted into an expression of joy and chagrin. “Sorry—we were kind of in the middle of something.” She opened her arms and went to Han, giving him a big, Wookiee-style hug. “It
is
good to see you, Han.”

When she started rubbing her arms across his back, Han shuddered and looked vaguely nauseated. Tahiri released him with a grin and embraced Leia as well, and the awkwardness finally faded between the two generations of Jedi. Han and Leia hugged Jacen and Jaina long and hard, fondly telling them both
they had a lot of explaining to do and making them promise to do so later aboard the
Falcon.
Then the group exchanged greetings all around, and when they were done, Jaina quickly seized the initiative again.

“So what
are
you doing here? Without us, I didn’t think the council would have any Jedi to …”

The sentence trailed off as her eyes drifted back to Luke’s weary face, and her expression changed to one of dismay and fear.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Are you sick?”

“I’m fine—just a little worn,” Luke said. “We came to, urn,
talk
about what’s going on here.”

Jaina’s relief was obvious—as was that of her companions. Only Jacen’s expression did not change—and he had seemed unconcerned in the first place. He had been gone five years, and still he seemed less surprised than anyone by Luke’s temporary appearance.

Though Mara was being careful not to stare, Jacen gave her a small smile, letting her know that he had sensed her scrutiny. There was nothing menacing in the gesture, but it sent a cold prickle down her spine. As Palpatine’s assassin, her life had often depended on her ability to hide her thoughts—both physically and in the Force. Yet Jacen had sensed her attention casually, the way he might have caught a young woman studying him from afar.

Mara pretended not to notice and kept her gaze riveted on Jaina. “You’ve let down the entire order,” she said, deliberately forcing the younger Jedi to try to excuse their actions. “Losing one of you would have been bad enough, but there’s no way we could fill the holes left by all five of you.”

As Mara had expected, Jaina would not be intimidated. “Then how could the order spare
four
Jedi to come ‘talk’ to us?”

“The council felt the situation warranted it,” Luke said. “And now the order is short
nine
Jedi.”

“Situation, Master Skywalker?” Tesar rasped. “Has something happened?”

“You first,” Mara demanded. This was not the way the council normally dealt with its Jedi Knights, but she did not want
this group taking advantage of Luke’s patience—or his regret over the outcome of the Myrkr mission. “What, exactly, are you
doing
here?”

Jaina and the others shared a moment of silent communion, then, to everyone’s surprise, Alema Rar stepped forward.

“We’re trying to prevent a war,” she said. “Isn’t that what Jedi are supposed to do?”

Luke would not be baited into making this a discussion. “Go on.”

Zekk spoke next. “You know about the call we’d all been feeling …”

Luke nodded.

And Tahiri continued, “It wasn’t something we could ignore, especially at the last.”

“We
had
to come,” Tesar rasped. He looked to his mother. “It was like the Mating Call. We could think of nothing else until it was answered.”

They stopped, as if that had answered the question.

“That explains
why
you came,” Leia said. “It doesn’t explain what you’re
doing.”

A chest-high Killik with a green thorax and tiny wings came over and brushed Jaina’s arm with an antenna, then thrummed something with its chest.

“She says the StealthXs are fed and rested,” C-3PO translated proudly.

“Fueled and armed,” Jaina corrected. She ran her arm down the Killik’s antenna, then said to it, “Thanks. We’ll be leaving shortly.”

“Lowie had to go EY” Zekk explained. “We’re getting ready to bring him back.”

“With shadow bombs?” Mara asked. She pointed to a rack of proton torpedoes being dragged away from the StealthXs by several Killiks. Even from ten meters away, it was apparent that the propellant charges had been replaced with packed baradium. “That’s not exactly rescue equipment.”

“We might need to create a little diversion,” Alema admitted.

“No kidding?” Han scoffed. “You mean to get past all those Chiss?”

“Nobody’s going anywhere.” Mara directed this to Jaina. “Not until we have some answers. Things are too far out of control.”

Jaina’s face grew hard. “I’m sorry, but I’m not leaving Lowie out there another minute—”

“Lowbacca has dropped into a Force-hibernation,” Luke interrupted. His eyes were half closed, his chin raised. “He’s safe for now.”

Jaina scowled and looked as though she wanted to argue, but she knew better than to doubt her uncle’s word.

“The sooner we get those answers, kid, the sooner we get to Lowbacca,” Han said.

Jaina and the others exchanged a few tense looks, then she nodded. “Fine. You want to see what this is about, come with us.”

She led the way deeper into the hangar cavern, past rack after rack of dartship berths. Stacked a staggering fifteen berths high, they were strewn with fueling lines and swarming with Killik technicians. Their technology was unsophisticated, but the insects were incredibly efficient, working a dozen at a time in cramped spaces that would have had just two human technicians throwing hydrospanners at each other. The fuel-tinged air was permeated by a low, rhythmic rumble that sounded like machinery, but Mara soon realized it was coming from the creatures themselves.

She turned to Tahiti, who was walking beside her, and asked, “That sound … are they singing?”

It was Alema—walking at Luke’s side—who answered. “It’s more like humming.”

“They do it when they concentrate,” Tesar added. “The harder they work, the louder it growz.”

“It’s their part in the Song of the Universe,” Tahiri explained.

“Doesn’t sound like any song
I’ve
ever heard,” Han said from a step ahead of Mara. “In fact, I’ve heard more rhythm in a bantha stampede.”

“That’s because you can’t hear the whole song,” Zekk explained helpfully. “Only insect species hear it all.”

“Yeah?” Han scowled and turned to Jacen. “Can
you
hear it?”

“No.” Jacen flashed an imitation of Han’s roguish smile. “Then again, I’ve only been here about a month.”

“Relax, Dad,” Jaina called from the front of the group. “We don’t hear it, either.”

Han let out an audible sigh of relief, then Jaina suddenly stepped into an empty berth and ducked down a waxy passage that led out the back.

C-3PO stopped outside the berth. “That doesn’t look like a proper corridor, Mistress Jaina.”

“You could always stay here, Threepio,” Han said, watching six Killik workers carry a damaged dartship past. “I’ll bet these guys are always looking for spare parts.”

“I was just commenting, Captain Solo.”

C-3PO dropped into an awkward crouch that was half squat and half hunch, and they all followed Jaina into the passage.

“Sorry about this,” Zekk said from behind Mara. “They weren’t thinking of larger species when they dug these tunnels.”

“No problem. We’re not that old.” Mara was bent over nearly double, so Zekk had to be crawling on all fours. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he said. “We’re almost there.”

The Force ahead grew heavy with pain and fear, and the humid air began to smell of blood, burns, and bacta. A moment later, they emerged into a large oblong chamber lined by hundreds of hexagonal wall bunks. In the open areas of the room, hand-sized Killik healers were swarming over casualties from both sides, spitting antiseptic saliva into their wounds, spinning silk sealant into cracked chitin, slipping tiny pincers into torso punctures to pull shrapnel from internal organs. Low purrs of gratitude reverberated from the chest plates of the insect patients, but the Chiss—those who were still conscious—were staring at the creatures in horror.

As the rest of the group stepped into the chamber behind Mara, a green triage nurse rushed over and brushed its antennae across Jaina’s arm, then looked at Luke and thrummed a question.

“Oh, dear,” C-3PO said. “She doesn’t seem to know what’s wrong with Master Luke!”

“Nothing’s wrong with him, Taat,” Jaina said to the insect. “We’re all fine. We just wanted to see the infirmary.”

The triage nurse stepped closer to Luke and scrutinized him with its bulbous gaze, then clicked its mandibles doubtfully.

“I’m sure.” Jaina glanced at Mara. “Right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mara said. Even had there been something wrong with him, she would not have trusted the insects to fix it—not after what had become of Raynar.

“I’m just a little burned out,” Luke assured the Killik.

The nurse spread its antennae in doubt, then scurried off to hold down a screaming Chiss. The patient did not seem pleased to have three Killik healers rummaging around inside his torso.

“They are not being cruel,” Tesar said. “But the Taat are very stoic. They don’t use anesthesia themselvez.”

“And when they have it available for other species, they never get the dosage right,” Jaina added. “They’ve decided that it’s just faster and safer to do without.”

“I’ll bet,” Han said, eyeing the carnage. “Because it kind of looks like they’re enjoying it.”

“They’re not,” Zekk assured him. “The Kind are the most gentle and forgiving species I’ve ever met.”

“They have no malice,” Alema added. She pointed to a nearby bunk, where a trio of Killik nurses clung to the wall, hovering over a half-conscious Chiss, holding a casted leg in traction. “Once the fighting’s over, they care for their attackers as their own. They don’t even imprison them.”

“I can’t imagine that works very well with
Chiss
,” Leia said. “What happens when the prisoners attack?”

“Their escortz bring them here for evaluation,” Tesar rasped. “They think other speciez are aggressive only because they can’t stomach pain. So they look for the
source
of the pain …”

“Eventually, the Chiss figure it out and stop attacking,” Tahiri said.

“Yeah, well, a little bug-probing would stop
me
,” Han said. His gaze was fixed on a Killik healer, whose four limbs were straddling a Chiss face as it extracted something from the patient’s red eyeball. “At least until I could escape this creep show.”

“Dad, the Chiss don’t need to
escape
,” Jaina said. “They’re free to leave whenever they like, if they can find a way.”

Han nodded knowingly. “There’s always a catch.”

“Always,” Alema agreed.

“But it’s not what you think,” Zekk added.

“The Chisz won’t take back their MIAz,” Tesar finished.

“I’m sure,” Mara said. The young Jedi Knights’ habit of talking fast and completing each other’s thoughts was beginning to make her edgy. It was almost as if they were sinking into a permanent battle-meld. “I can’t imagine the Chiss are much for prisoner exchanges.”

“Oh, we’re not talking about exchanges,” Jaina said.

“The Chiss won’t take them back at
all
,” Tahiri explained.

“Before we got here, they used to steal transports and try to go back on their own,” Alema said. “The Chiss just turned them away.”

“How awful for them,” C-3PO said sympathetically. “What happens to prisoners now?”

“A few hitch rides out, then who knows what happens to them,” Jaina said. “Most end up staying with the nest.”

Alarm bells began to ring inside Mara’s head. She glanced toward the heart of the chamber, where Tekli and several Chiss medics had set up a makeshift surgical theater beneath the jewel-blue glow of a dozen shine-balls, then looked back to Jaina.

“Doesn’t that worry you?” Mara asked.

“No,” Zekk said, frowning. “Why should it?”

“Because they’re
Joiners
,” Han said. “They don’t have their own minds.”

“Actually, they have
two
minds,” Jacen said, speaking for the first time since entering the infirmary. “They still have their own mind, but they share the nest mind as well.”

Han grimaced, but Mara was relieved. At least
Jacen
still sounded as though he were considering matters from outside the Killik perspective. Maybe his Odyssey had given him an extra resistance to the Killik influence … or maybe he had just arrived later than the others. Either way, it made him an asset when dealing with the rest of the strike team.

After a moment, Han said, “You’d better not be trying to tell me this is a
good
thing.”

“It’s not a good thing or a bad thing, Dad,” Jacen replied. “It just
is.
What disturbs you is that the Will of the nest mind is more powerful than the will of the individual mind. They appear to lose their independence.”

“Yeah.” Han’s eyes flashed to Jaina and the other young Knights. “That disturbs me. A lot.”

“And it would certainly disturb the Chiss,” Leia said. “They would feel very threatened by anything that limits their self-determination.”

“That doesn’t justify speciecide,” Jaina countered.

“Speciecide is a harsh accusation,” Luke said. The calmness of his voice, and the fact that he had been even more quiet than Jacen so far, commanded the attention of the entire group. “It doesn’t sound like the Chiss. They have very strict laws regarding aggression—especially outside their own borders.”