Star Wars - Truce at Bakura Page 22

  Leia reached for the entry hatch. Captison laid a hand over hers. "Wait," he

  said softly.

  Ten minutes after that, Captison's chauffeur and bodyguard took off again

  in the government speeder while Leia stepped into the front passenger's seat

  of a smaller rental craft, Hoth-white with ice-blue cushions and console. "Do

  you do this often?" she asked, amused but pleased by their subterfuge.

  "Never done it before." Captison steered out into traffic. "It was

  Belden's idea."

  "It's safe to assume that the speeder pool's not secured for talking."

  The senior senator leaned forward between them and patted his bulging breast

  pocket. "This will help, too. We are now inaudible."

  Captison frowned and switched on a music channel. Tuned percussion filled

  the cabin. "You must understand we're taking some risk speaking with you at

  all. In public, we're even forbidden to console you on the loss of Alderaan.

  However, in private..."

  Not his voice amplifier, then. "What do you have, Senator?"

  Belden covered his pocket with one hand. "A relic from pre-Imperial

  Bakura. Corporate infighting crippled our government, but it made our

  ancestors into survivors. This creates a bubble impenetrable by sonic

  scanners. Under the Empire, no faction has dared to manufacture more of them."

  Mentally Leia calculated the instrument's value at somewhere near the

  Falcon's. "Better not lose it, then. Gentlemen," she said, clearing her

  throat, "I'd be intrigued to know why the Empire hasn't pushed Bakura into the

  Rebellion camp."

  "Nereus has been subtle, I suppose," guessed Captison. "Applying pressure

  slowly. Like boiling a butter newt."

  "Beg your pardon?" asked Leia.

  "They're too primitive to react to slow stimuli," creaked Belden. "Put

  one in a pot of cold water, bring up the heat slowly, and he'll boil to death

  before he thinks of jumping out. And that's what'll happen here, unless--" He

  poked Captison's shoulder.

  "Easy, Orn."

  Leia glanced starboard and down into a hilly park. "What would it take to

  push you, Prime Minister?"

  "Not much," Belden interjected. "He's smarter than he lets on."

  "Is there an underground, Senator Belden?"

  "Officially, no."

  "A hundred members? Ten cells?"

  Belden cackled. "Close enough."

  "Are they ready to rise?"

  Captison smiled sidelong and thumbed a steering rod to turn right. He

  seemed to be circling just inside city limits. "Lovely Leia, this isn't the

  time. We have Ssi-ruuk on our minds. We're hoping that the Empire will save

  us, not subdue us."

  "But it is time," Leia insisted over the background music. "The Ssi-ruuk

  have united your people. They're ready to follow a leader to freedom."

  "Actually," said Belden, "three years of the Empire have united our

  people. Nowadays they know what they lost when they lay down too quickly, and

  that they'll have to cooperate to get it back and keep it."

  "They believe in you, Prime Minister," Leia urged him.

  Captison stared ahead. "And you, Princess Leia? What is your true goal

  here?"

  "To bring Bakura into the Alliance, of course."

  "Not to defend us against the Ssi-ruuk?"

  "That's Luke's goal."

  Captison smiled slightly. "Ah. The mission's defined objective depends on

  who defines it. The Alliance begins to mature."

  One more round for division of labor. "Prime Minister, how much power do

  you and the senate truly have?"

  Captison shook his head.

  "If you could choose freely and without risk to your people," she

  pressed, "which side would you wish Bakura to support?"

  "The Alliance," he admitted. "We are displeased with Imperial taxation,

  with offworld rule and sending our young men and women into Imperial service.

  But we are afraid. Belden's right We've learned to appreciate each other, now

  that we've seen what it's like to be subjugated--to lose our identity because

  we couldn't stand together."

  "Isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't it worth spending the lives of free

  persons? Prime Minister, I don't expect to see... fifty," she said, guessing

  at his age. "But I would rather lay down my life for others' freedom than die

  quietly in slavery."

  Captison sighed. "You're exceptional."

  "All free people are exceptional. Let me talk to your cell leaders,

  Senator Belden. Give your people a chance to fight for their freedom, and

  they'll--" Out of long habit, Leia glanced over her shoulder. A double-podded

  local patrol craft followed ten lengths back. "Those are Imperials behind us,

  I think," she said quietly.

  Captison checked a sensor screen and pushed his throttle forward.

  Leia searched the instrument panel for communications equipment. Han

  would be on his way to the Falcon by now, en route and unreachable. "They're

  still on us. Head for the spaceport."

  "One more, coming up from below. I can't turn south from this lane."

  "Looks like an escort," Leia observed. Captison swung the speeder

  northwest in a long arc. Then the escorts let him straighten out again. "Where

  are they herding us?"

  "Back across town." Captison frowned. "Complex, I think."

  "Are either of you armed?" she asked quietly.

  Captison slid one hand under his jacket, showed her a hold-out blaster,

  then concealed it again. "But that's going to be useless if we're outnumbered.

  Belden, can you lose the generator?"

  "Under a seat, maybe." Belden's voice came muffled.

  Leia thought quickly. "It might be safer to wrap it in... here, in my

  shawl... and drop it, rather than be caught with it."

  "No," Belden said stiffly. "It's too delicate. Too fragile. People are

  used to seeing me carry a voice amplifier. I'll keep it in my pocket."

  The modal percussion pounded on.

  Cloistered in a bare, tiny windowless room lined with recording banks and

  communication setups, Threepio expelled a dramatic sigh. "Every time I feel

  certain they've come up with one last way of making us suffer, they invent

  another. They're so difficult to fathom."

  Artoo-Detoo squalled disdainfully.

  "I am not stalling, you mismated collection of crosswired nanochips.

  There was nothing in that last recording that was not in any of the others.

  Six million forms of communication, and they find a new one. Nonmechanicals

  are quite impossible."

  Artoo stretched a manipulator arm toward the playback machine.

  "I'll do it," blustered Threepio. "You can't reach high enough."

  Artoo thbb'd like a seven-year-old human with his tongue out.

  Threepio removed one recording rod and inserted another, carefully

  replacing the old one in the prime minister's array case. "Even Prime Minister

  Captison, an admitted droid hater, simply has to agree that we serve a useful

  purpose now. We've been on the job for seven hours without so much as a break

  for lubricants." The speaker twittered and chirped. Threepio leaned his head

  closer. "Quiet, Artoo."

  Artoo, who.was being quiet, thbb'd a little softer.

  "There's something different on top of this one." At a human-inaudible

/>   whine, a series of electronic bursts followed the Ssi-ruuvi birdsong. His

  automatic scanners compared the code with millions of others. Before the

  recording ended, "That's it!" he exclaimed. "Artoo, run that one again."

  Artoo chirped wryly.

  "Of course I can reach it better than you can. Don't blame me for your

  shortcomings." Threepio turned his upper body, pressed a repeat key, then held

  the awkward position. Automatic programming preset his left auditory sensor to

  follow the Ssi-ruuvi language, his right auditory sensor to record the

  electronic code, and a central processing unit to compare the two. It noted a

  decisecond delay, repeated tonal patterns, and inhuman labialstguttural

  modifiers.

  The recording ended. Threepio ran it again. Another circuit, programmed

  to deduce logical variables out of context, supplied alternate readings and

  compared them with similar statements he had recorded during the years since

  his last memory wipe--a long, long time ago.

  "Excellent!" Threepio exclaimed. "Now, Artoo. We must begin at the

  beginning and listen through all the recordings. They'll provide Princess Leia

  with all kinds of useful information."

  Artoo whistled.

  "Yes, Prime Minister Captison too. Don't get impatient." Threepio tapped

  Artoo's dome. "I realize this isn't your specialty. Think of the hours I spent

  shipboard, functionless."

  Artoo tweaked his memory.

  "That's not funny." Threepio pressed the play key. "Be quiet and listen.

  I'll translate for you."

  The recordings began again, all seven hours at high speed. Threepio

  listened, and Artoo listened to Threepio. Most of what was said was

  inconsequential Realign your ship with the squadron and schlike.

  But abruptly Threepio exclaimed, "Oh, no. Artoo, you must call Master

  Luke at once. This is dreadful--"

  Artoo was already rolling toward a communications interlock.

  Leia slid out of the rented aircar into a cool, gusty breeze and stared

  around the Bakur complex's roof port, mentally counting stormtroopers.

  Eighteen, with weapons drawn. This was no friendly welcome committee. Now she

  wished she'd been able to bring Chewie--even though she wouldn't have, to

  please the Bakurans. Belden bumped her and mumbled, "Be sure you give

  Commander Skywalker that message, Your Highness."

  "Get ready to move," she mumbled back. She reached up one sleeve for her

  little blaster. She could probably take three or four before they stunned her.

  Flinging herself onto the permacrete rooftop, she started shooting.

  Five stormtroopers toppled before someone seized her right elbow from

  behind. She wriggled violently and almost won free before a white gauntlet

  pried her blaster from her hand.

  Half the battle is knowing when you're beaten. Where had she heard that?

  Alderaan, she guessed, slowly getting to her feet with both hands clasped over

  her head. She wasn't beaten yet. But it was important that they think so.

  Governor Wilek Nereus strode out of the lift shaft, followed by four

  naval troopers in black helmets. "Prime Minister Captison," he said smoothly,

  "Senator Belden. Going for a little drive?" He pointed at the aircar, and two

  stormtroopers climbed aboard.

  The trooper who'd confiscated her blaster took something away from Prime

  Minister Captison. Another seized his arms and locked on a pair of

  wristbinders. "You have just run out of good sense," Belden wheezed, red-faced

  and already cuffed. "This is a preposterous maneuver."

  "Why so much effort to escape observation, if you're doing nothing wrong?

  "

  Leia stepped in. "There is such a thing as a right to privacy, Governor."

  "Not when it endangers an Imperial world's security, my dear princess."

  One trooper emerged from the aircar. "Negative, sir."

  "Take it apart. y. You, and you." He pointed at three other troopers.

  "Search them."

  Leia stoically endured scanning and then a thorough physical frisking.

  The trooper took her empty wrist holster and pocket comlink, then cuffed her

  hands. Another walked swiftly from Belden to Governor Nereus, carrying the

  small gray box. "What have we here, Senator?"

  Belden raised his bound hands and shook a finger at Governor Nereus. "My

  voice amplifier is a personal item. Give it back."

  "Ah. Righteousness, maligned." Nereus smiled. "I've suspected for some

  time that you or your wife had possessed illegal devices, Belden... but since

  you're so certainly innocent of wrongdoing, I'm sure you won't mind our

  detaining you until my people ascertain the nature of this instrument."

  Leia groaned. Belden's forehead shone wetly over scarlet cheeks, and his

  breathing had become shallow. He looked as if he might keel over. At his age,

  these were danger signals.

  Yet this incident could set Bakura aflame. Butter newt, she reminded

  herself. Prime Minister Captison hurried to Belden's side, reaching him just

  before one naval trooper. "Governor Nereus, you have overstepped--"

  "Guards," Nereus called, "these three are under arrest. Suspicion of

  subversion will do. Put them in separate parts of the complex."

  Leia stepped toward Nereus, deliberately drawing attention. "This was a

  pleasure drive, Governor."

  Nereus lowered his stare. "I made you a promise over dinner that

  concerned subverting Imperial peoples, my dear. Believe me, I keep my

  promises. When a speeder full of people goes silent on sensor fields, it

  rouses curiosity." A stormtrooper stuck his blast rifle in Belden's back. "No

  talking," Nereus ordered. "Interview each one separately."

  Leia had to prove to Captison that she'd meant every ^w about sacrificing

  herself. She lowered her head and took a run at Governor Nereus. She caught

  him right at his generous midsection.

  With a puff of surprise, he went down. Leia climbed onto his chest,

  wedged his head between her knees, and pushed her wristbinders onto his nose.

  "Get back, all of you, or we'll see whose head is harder." Stormtroopers

  backed away, but she didn't spot the one who stunned her from behind.

  CHAPTER 14

  Han braked his speeder just long enough for Luke to vault out at the

  spaceport gate, then he spun it around, raising a black cloud of dust. He

  disliked leaving Luke out here alone, but Luke had insisted he'd be fine. The

  Flurry's shuttle was due any minute, and meanwhile, Luke should have plenty of

  cover at the spaceport cantina. Probably reinforcements, too Alliance pilots

  bunking in temporary scramble shelters. They'd sure outnumber the crew of a

  single Imperial shuttle grounded close to the cantina, just outside Pad 12.

  Anyway, Luke was Luke, lightsaber and all.

  Speeding north, he spotted smoke near the Bakur complex. Several seconds

  later, a glimmering face appeared in midair over his head-up city map. "Alert,

  all residents. A curfew has just been imposed. Leave the streets and the air.

  Security forces will shoot to kill leaders and stun their followers to

  incarcerate them. The curfew will take effect immediately."

  What.was this? A second face appeared. "This follows the arrests of Prime

  Minister Captison
and Senior Senator Orn Belden on suspicion of subversion,

  along with Rebel ringleader Leia Organa. Imperial leadership demands full

  cooperation. Ssi-ruuvi invaders could attack at any moment. Any collaboration

  with outside forces will be punished severely and immediately."

  Leia, under arrest? Han ignored the rest of the disembodied heads'

  messages about shortened business hours and prohibited districts. Obviously

  the Imperials were worried about causing an uproar.

  But he had an uproar of his own to start. He accelerated to full

  throttle, muttering, "I'll get you for this, Nereus."

  But how? He didn't even know where Leia was.

  Although filtered through the speeder's intake, the air smelled smoky. He

  streaked to a landing on the Bakur complex's roof port, then took the nearest

  drop shaft down. As before, two stormtroopers stood guard outside his

  apartment. Their helmets swiveled as he strode inside past them. They probably

  didn't mean to let him back out.

  Threepio stood inside, waiting with infinite mechanical patience.

  "General Solo," he exclaimed. "Thank goodness you've come. Senator Captison

  returned me here, but she took Artoo to her office. His restraining bolt--"

  "Not now. Find Leia."

  "But, General, the Ssi-ruuk are coming for Master Luke--and then

  attacking--immly!"

  "We know that. He'll be all right--" Han skidded to a halt halfway across

  the common room. "Wait, did you say, "attacking"'?"

  "Within an hour. We must--"

  "How do you--no. It'll keep. Where's Leia?"

  The tall droid straightened. "She left us in Prime Minister Captison's

  office, translating--"

  "I know where she left you." Han paced across the lounge pit, bouncing

  off repulsor fields all the way. "She and Captison have been arrested. Have

  you warned Luke about the attack?"

  "I've been trying, sir--"

  "I left him at the cantina next to Pad Twelve. Tap into the central

  computer. Find out where they've got Leia--nowffwas

  "General Solo, Artoo is equipped for direct interfacing. I am not."

  Han's cheeks heated. "Then stand there and punch the panels like a human.

  That's why they built you like one."

  Threepio waddled to the main terminal. Han watched over his shoulder for

  a few moments, but Threepio worked too quickly to follow. Han checked the