Chapter Twenty-eight
Ben ran through the hallways of the more child-friendly areas of the Errant Venture with Luke on his heels. Mara watched in amusement as Luke caught up to their son and picked him up. Ben protested, claiming he was too big to be held. Luke set him back on the floor. They were heading to the one of the many restaurants on the Star Destroyer. Luke and Mara had told Ben they would take him out to dinner. Ben had spent the entire day trying to decide what to order.
"Mom, Dad said I can eat whatever I want," Ben exclaimed when Mara caught up to the two of them. Mara shot Luke a look, which caused him to give her a sheepish smile. Mara smiled at Ben, "Within reason."
"Fine," Ben sighed, but he was still in high spirits. He pushed open the galley-style door to a low-key family style restaurant. Mara was surprised to see such a place on Booster's ship. They found a booth in the back where Mara could see the door. A server droid came to the table and took their drink orders. Ben snatched the menu and began scanning it.
"Mom, can I order off the adult menu?" he asked.
"I suppose so," Mara answered. Ben grinned in excitement.
When the server returned, Ben had finally decided on a poultry dish from Chandrilla, upon Mara's recommendation. Mara ordered a pasta entrée from Mon Calamari and Luke choose something from Tatooine.
"Dad, are you eating a Bantha?" Ben asked after the server left.
Mara smirked at Luke, who gave Ben a look of surprise and amusement, "No, son. I'm not eating a Bantha."
"But you've eaten Bantha before."
"Well, yes," Luke responded.
"Did you ever hunt one?" Ben asked. Mara started laughing. She saw a mischievous gleam in Ben's eye, one she knew she had used from time to time.
"Uh, no son, I never hunted a Bantha," Luke answered. He turned to Mara, "I'm glad you think this is funny."
Mara chuckled, "Ben, quit asking your father if he's eaten, killed, chased or raced a Bantha."
"Okay, Mom," Ben responded. Mara listened quietly as he began to tell her and Luke what Han had shown him on the Falcon.
The server approached ten minutes later with their food. Not even a minute after Luke had taken his first bite, Ben asked, "Hey dad, have you ever eaten a Krayt Dragon?"
Telma dropped a bag of plastic canisters unceremoniously on the lab table. Three of the containers fell out and rolled onto the floor. Telma growled in annoyance as she picked them up. She was exhausted. She had two more batches to make for Jag's teams. She'd been working non-stop for a week. Before that, she'd only had a break when she stumbled home to her small quarters.
Danni bound into the lab with her usual exuberance. She'd been assigned a new project; at the moment Telma was too tired to remember what it was. Telma plopped down onto a stool and glanced down at her shirt sleeve. It was stained with something, probably from one of the beakers she'd knocked over earlier in the day.
"Telma, you look awful," Danni stated. "Go get some sleep."
"I need to get this done," Telma said.
Danni gave her an exasperated look, "No one said you had to finish all that tonight."
If Telma had the ability to, she would have rolled her eyes. "I'm almost done."
Danni shook her head, "No, get out of here. I'm technically in charge here."
"Are you kicking me out?"
"Yes, you can't use any of our equipment until 0900 tomorrow," Danni ordered with a mischievous grin.
"You know, this is a double standard," Telma remarked as she pushed her away from the table.
Danni shrugged, "I know. Next time I go nuts, you can yell at me."
"Oh I will," Telma promised. She scooped her canisters into a storage crate and set it against the wall by the table. "Thanks, Danni."
Telma slipped out of the lab. She knew she didn't need to spend every waking hour in the lab or working, but she had nothing else to do. When she went back to her quarters, she was reminded of how alone she really was. She had tried to locate her niece with the limited resources available to her, but there was no response. She hadn't expected one, but it still hurt.
Telma paused as she heard chattering up ahead. She smiled when she saw Jag's daughter turn the corner. She was holding her mother's hand. Her brother was walking slightly behind them.
"Hey, Mommy, that's Daddy's friend," Davin said. Telma stood off to the side to let them pass, but Jaina stopped before passing her.
"Hello, Telma," Jaina greeted.
"Hello."
"We're going to go eat. What are you doing?" Ani asked.
"Ani, don't be nosy," Jaina said softly.
"It's alright. I'm going back to my apartment," she told the girl. "I'm very tired."
Ani said solemnly, "Oh, okay."
Jaina ushered the children down the hallway. Telma gave them a wave and then continued walking. She wondered how the offensive on Barab I was going. She hoped that the materials she had manufactured were working. She'd tested them to the best of her ability, and Nichos and Stav had reported success on Yavin IV. She had actually refitted Nichos that morning. He was traveling to another planet. She was surprised that he was able to go out and be a slave for the third time.
Telma had also worked with Britna that morning. The young woman was nervous, but ready. Telma always felt that Britna had an untapped reserve of strength and resilience. She merely lacked self-confidence.
Telma's quarters were small; not that she needed anything bigger. There was a table, two chairs, data station, kitchenette, bed and a small refresher unit. Telma didn't have many belongings. Anything she owned she had acquired during her time at the base. Before the war, she owned a richly decorated home with a collection of locally made artwork. She thought it was important to support the arts in her area. It was a crime that the Vong had eradicated so many peoples' culture.
She crawled into her bed, exhaustion increasing. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Tahiri found Jacen standing outside a shuttle in one of the many docking bays aboard the Errant Venture. The Millennium Falcon and Jade Shadow were nearby. Jacen was talking to a tech; Tahiri couldn't hear what about. She waited until the tech walked away before she spoke.
"Leaving?" she asked.
Jacen nodded, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Yeah, I'm taking samples of the seeder to Danni. Uncle Luke seems to think I'm the best one for the job, for some reason."
"What about Araneya?" Tahiri asked. She had yet to see the woman, and when she did, she wanted Jacen to be with her. Between the two of them, Tahiri felt they could get her to talk.
"I don't know. Uncle Luke said something about having you talk to her," he answered, clearly annoyed by the situation. "She shouldn't be as hostile now that the implants are gone."
"But she responded to you," Tahiri blurted out.
"I know," Jacen said. "I'm going to try to hurry back."
"Do you think she knows anything important?"
"No," he responded, "But leaving her broken isn't an option. She's worse than all the other former slaves, I heard. The medics were amazed she survived. The coral replaced some of her skeleton."
Tahiri's eyes grew wide with shock. Part of her wanted to wince at how painful that would be. The other part of her was amazed that the coral implants had been able to do that and began to speculate on how it may have happened. Tahiri had often wondered where her Riina-memories came from. They were Shaper-related, and her domain participated in those activities. Before her Shaping she had had no interest in biology or science, but she now she had a minor interest in it.
Jacen glanced over to the Falcon. Han was crawling on top of the ship, fixing something. Tahiri wasn't a mechanic and had no idea what he was doing. Jacen chuckled to himself, and then said, "Ben's inside. He's 'helping' Dad."
"Is he actually fixing anything?"
"It's the Falcon. He's always fixing something," Jacen responded with an amused look on his face. "Dad would always hook up a comlink and have us read displays for him. Well, Jaina and Anakin more than me."
Jacen glanced down at his wrist chronometer, "I better go say goodbye to Mom, Dad and Ben. I'll see you later Tahiri."
"Goodbye, Jacen," she said. She gave him a quick hug, "Thank you for everything."
Jacen shrugged, "You'd do the same for me."
Attack alarms blared through the Bespin base, waking most of the inhabitants. Jaina rolled out of bed and pulled a flightsuit out of the closet. Her comlink beeped as she was yanking on her boots. She snatched it off the bedside table and switched it on. It was Syal informing Jaina she was on her way over to stay with the children.
Jaina grabbed a hair band from the table. She braided her hair quickly to keep it out of her face. Ani and Davin were standing in their bedroom doorway. Jaina dropped to one knee in front of them and hugged them tightly. She heard Syal enter the apartment as she whispered reassurances to her children. She slipped out of the way to let Syal take them back to bed. She called the command center on her comlink as she ran to the hanger to find out what was going on. Her squadron was to go out first, along with Wes Jansen's Yellow Aces and the Imperial Razor Squadron.
Jaina saw the members of her squadron scramble into their fighters. Jaina climbed into hers quickly and shoved on her helmet. Within minutes, the entire squadron had started up their ships. She flipped the comm to address the pilots, "All right, Dozen, it looks like we have a-"
Jaina's voice was cut off by a priority message from Tycho, "Jaina, it's a Worldship."
Jaina gasped, "A Worldship? I thought all those had died."
"So did we. "
"Get Danni," Jaina stated. "She may be able to tell if it's aged or weakened by the sensors."
"Until we find out, concentrate on defending the base. We don't know what they want," Tycho ordered and clicked off the channel. Jaina relayed the orders to the rest of the squadron, and then addressed Kyp privately.
"What do you think?" she asked.
"Hanging back makes no sense. I doubt the Worldship stumbled upon the base. The Vong know we're here," Kyp responded.
Jaina didn't answer him for a moment. They were outside the planet's atmosphere by this point and had created somewhat of a perimeter. After the other squadrons, save the reserve, were launched, the base would be moved. The sensors around the rest of the gas giant hadn't detected anything. Her own sensors indicated a group of coralskippers were coming towards them.
Jaina wished for probably the millionth time since she was sixteen that she could detect the Vong with the Force. She was often jealous of Jacen and Tahiri's abilities to do so. They couldn't fight effectively until they knew exactly what was going on.
"Flights One and Two with me. The rest of you stay with Durron," she ordered. She switched to a private channel again to speak to Kyp, "I'm going to take a look at that Worldship. Stay here."
Jaina switched off the channel before he could argue. She and the two flights followed her to the Worldship.
"It looks…sick," Trent Whitley said as they approached it. Jaina had to agree. Three of its Outer Ganglia were gone; two others looked limp and rotted. Instead of a healthy green color, the Worldship looked sickly pale. It had large black and brown spots. The surface reminded Jaina of moldy bread. It was in no shape to attack. Her X-Wing's sensors showed a low amount of coralskippers. They looked just as bad as the Worldship.
She called the command center, "Tycho, is Danni there?"
"Hold on," he responded, and then Danni's voice answered, "Yeah, Jaina?"
"It's dying. The Worldship is in awful shape. Even the coralskippers guarding it are unhealthy. Any ideas?" she asked.
"Most of the Worldships were dying when the Vong first invaded. After Shimirra stabilized the World Brain on Yuuzhan'tar, the Worldships were emptied. The Shapers tried to save them, but failed. At least, that was the last I heard," Danni rushed out. "Did you capture any images of the dovin basals?"
Jaina relayed the request to her astromech, who in turn uploaded images. While Danni looked over them, Jaina led the squadron on another pass.
"Several look dead," Danni stated. "It's amazing it was able to travel through hyperspace."
Jaina heard muffled voices on the end. Tycho's voice replaced Danni's a moment later, "The Razors and Aces are coming around to back you up. Defensive actions only."
Jaina passed along the orders. She wondered exactly what was going on. If Danni was right and the dovin basals were dying or dead, then the Worldship wouldn't last long. She wondered how many Vong were aboard it. Jaina hadn't been inside of a Worldship since Myrkr. She had no inclination to see the inside of this one.
"Aces, Dozen and Razors," Tycho's voice called over the command channel. We're in the process of contacting the Worldship. Stand-by for further instructions."
Jaina's eyes narrowed. Something was wrong. "Kyp."
"I sense it too," he said. He had brought the rest of the squadron to her position, which was now halfway between the Worldship and Bespin. "I'm going to check out the far side again."
"Take your wingmates," she suggested. She watched as they peeled away from the group.
Jaina and the rest of the Dozen took the right side. The Razors and the Aces had created a protective line between the Worldship and planet. The alternating pattern of A-Wings and TIE Fighters looked somewhat misplaced.
The feeling of danger and uneasiness grew. Jaina leaned forward to get a better look at the ship. Something was moving on the surface. It looked as if something just under the surface was boiling. The remaining ganglia were quivering. She glanced down at her sensors. Kyp was far on the other side.
The Worldship began to shake and split. Jaina flipped open the comm and ordered urgenty, "Get away from the Worldship. Now."
The Worldship exploded, releasing a shock wave that sent many of the members of the Dozen tumbling through space. The force of the shockwave caused Jaina to knock her head against the console, and she blacked out for a few seconds. When she came to, she straightened her fighter out and searched for the other members of her squadron. Half had survived. At least two had gone EV, others reported. None of them could find Kyp. Jaina reached out with the Force, but couldn't sense him.
Jaina turned on a private line, desperate to find him. "Kyp!"