Star Wars - Mist Encounter by Timothy Zahn

Author:Timothy Zahn
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 1995-08-13T17:58:58+00:00

Barris had half expected the transport and troop carriers would be attacked as they lifted from the forest and headed for the sky. But no missiles or laser pulses followed them up, and soon they were once again inside the shelter of the Strikefast’s hangar bay.

Captain Parck was waiting beside the transport as Barris emerged “Colonel,” he nodded gravely in greeting. “I don’t recall giving you permission to leave your position.”

“No, sir, you didn’t,” Barris said, hearing the weariness in his own voice. “But as you yourself pointed out earlier. I was the commander on the scene. I did what I deemed best.”

“Yes,” Parck murmured. For a moment he continued to look at Barris, then shifted his gaze to the transport itself. It seemed to Barris that his eyes lingered for a moment on the minor blast damage caused by the impossible explosion that had disintegrated that stormtrooper … “Well, what’s done is done. I’m told you brought the alien encampment up with you.”

“Yes, sir,” Barris said, frowning slightly as he tried to read his commander’s expression. He would have expected Parck to be angry, or at least pointedly dissatisfied with the troopers’ performance. But instead, he seemed merely thoughtful. “Do you want me to have the techs get back to work on it?”

“There’s no hurry,” Parck said. “For now, everyone is to report to debriefing. Those smuggler attacks were far too effective; I want to know everything about what happened down there.” He brought his gaze hard onto Barris. “As for you, Colonel, I want you to accompany me back to my office.”

So he was going to drop the hammer on Barris in private. A small favor, at least. “Yes, sir,” Barris sighed.

They left the hangar bay; but to Barris’s surprise they didn’t go to Parck’s office. Instead, the captain led the way up to the hangar bay control tower, the lights of which had been inexplicably darkened. “Sir?” Barris asked as Parck stepped to the observation window.

“An experiment, Colonel,” Parck said, gesturing to the man at the control board. “All right, dim the lights in the hangar bay.”

Barris stepped to Parck’s side as the lights outside the observation window faded to nighttime levels. The transport and troop carriers they’d just left were prominently visible directly below; beyond them at the other end of the bay were three Kappa-class shuttles and a Harbinger courier ship. No one was in sight anywhere. “What sort of experiment?” Barris asked.

“The testing of a theory, actually,” Parck said. “Make yourself comfortable, Colonel. We may be here a while.”

They’d been there nearly two hours when a shadowy figure emerged stealthily from the transport. Silently, it slipped across the darkened hangar bay toward the other ships, taking advantage of the sparse cover along the way.

“Who is that?” Barris asked, straining his eyes to try to penetrate the dim light.

“The source of all your troubles down on the surface, Colonel,” Parck said with obvious satisfaction. “Unless I’m mistaken, that’s the alien whose home you invaded.”

Barris frowned. One alien? One alien? “That’s impossible, sir,” he protested.

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