The Black Fleet Crisis_ Tyrant's Test Part 29

You've been hiding this from the Yevetha--" "Yes," said Wialu.

"Akanah must have thought this important for you to know."

Luke shook his head in disbelief. "The Fleet memorandum called this a cult colony--they have no idea- - look at what they've done! How long have the H'kig been here?"

"Not even fifty years," said Wialu. "Just in the time since we arrived, we have seen it grow almost beyond belief. It is a constant wonder."

A quartet of H'kig dragging a heavily laden sledge pa.s.sed between Wialu and Luke. "They're doing this work by hand?" he asked. "No fusion cutters, no droids?"

"That is the meaning of it--the purpose in it. The building of it is a way of giving honor. That work cannot be given to a machine," Wialu said. "The temple embodies their vision of the universe, of the mystical essences--the immanent, the transcendent, the eternal, the conscious."

"How long until they finish?"

"They may never finish," she said. "It is the life's work of a community united by the purpose that defines them."

"Is this why you're here?"

"Yes," she said. "And it is why you must leave."

"You're protecting them. Protecting this."

She nodded. "It became necessary."

"How long are you prepared to keep doing it?"

"Until it is no longer necessary." Wialu stepped closer. "Please-your s.h.i.+p-is resting in what will be the Inner Court of the Transcendent.

It is distracting the H'kig, and disrupting the work. It is time for you to go."

"Wait," Luke said. "The day of the attack. The bombardment, the planetary blasters--those weren't illusions."

"Then what happened here?"

"As I have already said. We protected ourselves, and these people, and the others where we could. I will not say more."

"Protected them with illusions," Luke said. "Wialu, you know that this isn't the only construction project under way on this planet.

There's a Yevethan colony s.h.i.+p in sync orbit on the other side of this planet and a colony city being built on the surface. Akanah knew that, so I'm sure you do, too. The Yevetha think this is their world now."

"They are mistaken," said Wialu.

"Not necessarily," Luke said. "They claim all the stars in their sky, and all the worlds of those stars. What you were able to prevent from happening here happened on a dozen other planets where there was no Fallana.s.si Circle to provide a s.h.i.+eld and deceive the Yevetha. The bodies on those worlds were real."

"We know what happened there," said Wialu.

"Then let me ask you what you know about what's about to happen,"

said Luke, a harder edge coming into his voice. "What the Yevetha did here has been challenged by my sister. Their claim to this planet and all the others will be contested--with force. Two opposing fleets are gathering up there--hundreds of s.h.i.+ps, tens of thousands of soldiers.

If this war comes, it will be long, brutal, and b.l.o.o.d.y. And it will come here.

He saw that his words had reached her fears. "I have seen it coming."

"Will you help me try to stop it?"

"We cannot allow ourselves to be used that way.

Our loyalty is to the Light, and our way is of the Current.

Nothing has changed."

"If nothing has changed, then you're divided among yourselves, as you were on Lucazec," Luke said, looking past Wialu, searching for other Fallana.s.si faces among the H'kig. "There must be at least some of you who believe that you must do what you can do, just as you protected these people."

"It is not our war. It is yours, and theirs."

"Neither was this your war," he said. "But you intervened, and saved these lives, and this treasure."

Then he pointed at Akanah. "She challenged me to put down my weapon and try to find other ways to serve my conscience. What she asked isn't easy for me, but I've seen the worth in trying. Now I challenge you to give up your isolation, and be the water that quenches the flame."

At that moment another woman, slender and larger eyed, appeared beside Wialu, surrendering her concealment to take part in the colloquy.

"Can this be done?" she asked.

"Of course it can," said a voice from another direction.

Luke turned to find two more Fallana.s.si standing by-the temple wall.

"The Yevetha are vulnerable to us," said the shorter of them. "If we wished for the invaders to crash their s.h.i.+p into the city they are building, any one of us could accomplish it, at any time."

A young Duu'ranh female appeared nearly at Luke's elbow, startling him for a moment. "But can it be done without such violence?" she asked.

"The goal is to prevent a war, not to join it, or decide the victor.

We cannot choose sides."

"You must," Luke said. "It's not enough to simply prevent the fighting-- there has to be a resolution to the conflict behind it. You must choose to frustrate the will of one side or the other--the Yevetha, or the New Republic. "

"The difference between them is immaterial," said a new voice, behind Luke. He turned to see a round-bodied Ukanis woman holding a child.

"To build a war fleet is to accept the morality of violence and coercion.

They are equally guilty."

"When war comes, the price is paid by the guilty and 'the innocent alike, " Luke said.

"And we are paying the price instead of the H'kig," said Akanah.

"We will never be free to leave here so long as the Yevetha remain."

"Not unless you're prepared to see these people and this place destroyed, " Luke said. "And the Yevetha will never leave of their own accord. They believe that they are the rightful inheritors of all the worlds they conquered--including J't'p'tan."

Turning in a slow circle, Luke found that more than twenty Fallana.s.si had revealed themselves. "You have to decide whether to affirm their belief or reject it," he said. "You must choose."

"And what would we be choosing if we chose to involve ourselves?"

asked Wialu. "If they are as resolute as you say, how can the will of the Yevetha be frustrated without force?"

Luke turned quickly toward her. "I don't know for certain that it can," he said. "What I'm asking is, are you willing to try? Are you willing to use your gifts in an effort to prevent the war--a war that will surely come if you do nothing? There's very little time left.

Once both fleets are committed to the fight, any chance there was will be gone. There'll be too much fire, and too little water."

"A chance to try what?" asked Norika. "What can we do?"

"You can deceive them, as you have here--but on a grander scale."

He advanced a step toward Wialu, holding his open hands out before him.

"I don't know the limits of your power to project illusions. But if the Fallana.s.si are capable of creating an illusion of a vast New Republic fleet, a projection with the same depth of reality as what I saw when we first arrived here--" Wialu raised an eyebrow questioningly. "You believe that if the Yevetha face overwhelming odds, they may yield."

"I have to think that their lives mean something to them--more, I hope, than their claim to J't'p'tan does," said Luke. "Whether they surrender or just withdraw, many lives on both sides would be saved."

"Would the New Republic accept their surrender or simply use it as an opportunity to exterminate the Yevetha?"

asked Norika.

"Leia would never allow such a thing," Luke said.

"I stake my honor on it."

"Perhaps we should first see if we can drive one Yevethan s.h.i.+p away with this trickery," said another woman.

Luke spun on his heel, searching for the face that belonged to the voice. "No--no, that would be a mistake.

Not without at least one real wars.h.i.+p available to back up the bluff," said Luke. "We have to give them every reason to believe--and only one chance to decide, with everything at stake."

"Then it will be necessary for the fleet commander to be part of this plan," said Wialu.

Turning back, Luke nodded hopefully. "Yes."

"Do you know where he is, or how to find him?"

"I can find the fleet," Luke said. "I can take you to General A'baht."

"Then I will go with you," said Wialu. "And we will see how great a fire is burning." She turned and directed a hard look at Akanah. "You will come, too."

There were no walls or guards at the perimeter of Mon Mothma's estate in Surtsey. Though she was still under the protection of Ministry Security, their presence on her property was limited to a sensor grid monitored by two fast- response teams based just off the grounds. A special traffic patrol kept the airs.p.a.ce near the estate swept clear of possible threats.

Even though Leia had been neither invited nor asked to visit, none of those precautions was any hindrance to her arrival. She landed her orbital jumper neatly on the smaller of the two landing pads in the northeast corner of the estate, then began the long walk through the outer gardens and the tree moat to the house itself.

The outer gardens had vivid patches of purple, cobalt blue, and pale orange--intybus, commelina, and anagallis were in bloom, and centaurea pods were everywhere, promising an eruption of pink in the next day or two. The air in the tree moat was cool, shadowed, and rich with complex scents. Leia felt the deep peacefulness of an old forest envelop her.

Inside the circle of the tree moat were the house and inner gardens, and both were more modest than what surrounded them might lead a visitor to expect.

The low, squarish house had but three rooms, all with transparent walls and ceilings, and the inner gardens were little more than accents for patches of soft ground cover and walking paths.

Mon Mothma was inside, sitting in what she called her salon with her feet up and a datapad on her lap. She looked up as Leia neared the entry door, and motioned her inside.

"Leia," she said with a smile. "It's been months.

Come in."

Leia was taken aback by Mon Mothma's appearance.

Her short hair was now startlingly silver, and the fine lines around her eyes were visible from across the room. "Mon Mothma," she managed to say. "I hope you'll forgive my intruding--" "It's hardly that," she said. "But you're staring," she added gently.

"This is not the mark of Furgan's treachery you see lingering on me."

The allusion was to the Caridan am ba.s.sador's nearly successful attempt to poison her--an attempt that had precipitated Mon Mothma's retirement.

"I've earned every line and white hair, Leia. Just as you are starting to earn some of your own. Now, it's true--I refuse to paint my face and pretend to youth and inexperience. Do you think that vain of me?"

"I think you're still full of surprises, Mon Mothma--and still teaching little lessons at every opportunity."

A little laugh lit the older woman's eyes. "Get yourself a drink and come sit with me. The afternoon sun will have the thrann tree dripping sap before long, and then the barbary birds will come out to feed. They're so tiny and so swift--I can watch them for an hour and never be bored."

Mon Mothma's pantry contained a legendary array of potent and aromatic drinks collected from all over the galaxy, but Leia contented herself with a tall flask of cold fallix water.

"So tell me what's driven you away from' Imperial City," Mon Mothma said when Leia had settled in the chair beside her. "I don't keep up with capital affairs these days, but I know it wasn't my gardens that drew you here."

"Do you know what's happened to Han?"

"That particular bit of bad news has been inescapable, I'm afraid,"

Mon Mothma said, resting her hand gently on Leia's. "How are the children coping?"

"Jaina is angry. Jacen is afraid," Leia said. "Anakin is mostly confused- -he can't understand why anyone would want to hurt his daddy.

We've managed to keep them from seeing the recording, but I had to tell them--too many other people know, and I didn't want them to hear talk."

"And you," Mon Mothma said, giving Leia's hand a squeeze. "How are you doing?"

"I'm having trouble seeing my way."

Nodding silently, Mon Mothma set her datapad on the floor beside her and sat back in her chair, waiting.

"Tomorrow afternoon, I have to go before the Senate to face a recall pet.i.tion," Leia went on. "The Ruling Council thinks that with Han being held by the Yevetha, I can't be trusted with the power of the Presidency."

"How foolish of them."