Star Wars: The New Jedi Order XVII: Force Heretic I: Remnant by Sean Williams & Shane Dix

Author:Sean Williams & Shane Dix [Williams, Sean & Dix, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: my-books
ISBN: 9780345428707
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2003-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

PART FOUR

CONSCRIPTION

It was amazing, Jaina, thought, just how quickly governments could jump when they wanted to.

Within five hours of the destruction of the two slaveships, not only was the link to the nearest deep space transceiver open again, allowing information to once more flow freely into Galantos from the local subspace network, but Councilor Jobath had emerged from his pressing business on the far side of the planet, professing his deep and undying loyalty to the Galactic Alliance.

Jaina could imagine her father’s reaction to that. Her mother would have no doubt shared his sentiments, too, but hid her feelings beneath a more gracious and temperate response. Her parents worked well that way, maintaining a pretense guaranteed on the one hand to intimidate the most ingratiating of local governors, but at the same time capable of wooing them without actually using force.

Jaina hadn’t seen the exchange, though. After docking with Pride of Selonia and having a few minor bruises treated, she had retired to one of the frigate’s berths and slept solidly for almost five hours. It had been cramped and uncomfortable, but it was better than trying to sleep upright in her X-wing—even though she’d had hundreds of hours practice doing just that over the years.

In her deep sleep she had dreamed fitfully of Anakin’s last mission to the worldship around Myrkr to destroy the voxyn queen, as well as the cold fury she had felt upon his death that had turned her, for a time, to the dark side. While her body rested, her mind relived the fear that Jacen, too, had died, and the aftertaste of that awful grief she would carry with her for the rest of her life, she was sure.

But even as she was dreaming, she found herself wondering: Why now? Why here? What is the dream trying to tell—?

She woke with a start, sucking air in sharply as a hand gripped her shoulder and shook.

“What—?” She rolled over, eyes blinking open to peer up at the dark blur leaning over her.

“Relax, Jaina, it’s just me.” Through the haze of sleep she recognized Jag’s solid, calming presence as he sat down on the edge of the narrow bunk beside her.

“Jag?” She sat up, brushing loose strands of hair back from her face. She yawned, knuckling her eyes. “You want to be careful, you know. People will talk.”

“Let them,” he said. “Besides, you do know where you are, don’t you?”

It sank in then that she wasn’t in her quarters on Mon Calamari, but instead tucked into a space in a communal bunkroom, with little more than a flimsy curtain separating her bunk from the fifteen other identical beds. She had a better chance of finding a Kowakian monkey-lizard at the helm of a starship than of getting any privacy here.

“Why are you waking me up?” she asked after orienting herself. “Has anything happened?”

“No,” he said, laughing. “You requested a standard field nap, and I volunteered to do the dirty work when time came to wake you up.

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