CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Corran didn’t mind the sting of sand against his face as he stared out toward where the wind had begun to unbury the Dalliance. Stretching out with the Force, he could feel Ganner and Trista deep inside the ship. Though the distance muted their emotions, the fact that he detected anything more than just their presence meant they were probably locked in a charged conversation. Not surprising, since everyone’s mood was charged since the fate of the missing students had become clear. Corran and Ganner had trekked out to the meteorological station and found the place a mess. Supplies had been scattered all over, and four sets of footprints led away from the station. There could be no other conclusion: Vil and Denna had been captured by Yuuzhan Vong warriors.
The scrape of boot on rock focused Corran’s attention back locally. “Yes, Dr. Pace?”
“I hate it when you do that. You could at least look at me.”
Corran glanced back over his shoulder. “Forgive me, but you are a very strong presence in the Force. Besides, your leather-soled boots make a particular sound. Your students wear synthetic soles that are virtually silent.”
The woman pursed her lips, then nodded. “Neat trick that, but I think this mission of yours will take more than tricks. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Corran laughed for a moment, then shook his head. “One of your students, one of the ones captured, accused Jedi of being able to see into the future. Sometimes visions do come, but not for me, not now. I don’t know if what we will do will succeed, but I know we can’t do anything less.”
Pace frowned. “I still don’t like the whole thing.”
“The whole thing?” Corran pointed toward several fiber-plast equipment crates at the mouth of the cave. “You took to packing up the Vong artifacts quickly enough. You’re even abandoning equipment to do so.”
“It was old anyway, and I have a budget surplus. I spend it or don’t get as much next year.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You know what I mean.”
“Perhaps I do.” Since the capture of the two students, Corran and Ganner had reconnoitered the alien village each day. As nearly as they had been able to determine, the Yuuzhan Vong were there taking samples of the local flora and fauna, as well as searching for something. They herded the slaves out and set up search grids. They poked and probed the sand for things, and Corran was fairly certain that what they wanted resided in the crates.
The students had determined that Bimmiel’s magnetic field shifted from time to time, which meant if the Yuuzhan Vong were using old measurements to find the cave, they would be off a bit. Of course, capturing Vil and Denna means they have a direct line to us. Corran was actually surprised that the Yuuzhan Vong had not come for them yet.
In their scouting missions Corran and Ganner had managed to determine a number of things. First, they knew the two students were being held in the large shell. They were not in good shape, but their sense in the Force had not yet begun to diminish. This everyone took as a good sign.
The prisoners, on the other hand, had deteriorated. The Jedi witnessed no more murders, but the number of slaves shrank all the same. The growths became larger, and the pain the slaves were in was all that much more obvious. There seemed to be very little peace for them at night.
Corran had seen only the two warriors and began to assume there were, in fact, only two of them. He knew that was a dangerous assumption, but he clung to it because if there were more, there just was no way the rescue mission could succeed. He felt, deep down, that they would succeed, at least partially, and he let his trust in the Force reinforce his belief about the number of Yuuzhan Vong they would face.
Ganner had seized upon Corran’s belief about the number of Yuuzhan Vong and used it to grind on him. The younger Jedi reminded him again and again that if they had just acted that night, none of the students would have been in danger and they could have all been away from Bimmiel a long time since. Corran countered that Yuuzhan Vong reinforcements could have arrived if the two stationed on the world didn’t report regularly, making things worse, but he knew that was a sham argument. If they were reporting to off-world sites, more Vong would already be here because of the discovery of humans.
He looked at Dr. Pace and let his shoulders slump a bit. “We have been over all of this, I think, and I understand your protests over parts of the plan. Ganner and I will slip into the camp and liberate your students. Trista has learned enough about flying the freighter that she’ll be able to handle getting it that far. It’s bigger than a blastboat, but her experience piloting one of them should suffice. She laces the village with stuff you’ve been synthing up, Ganner and I get out of there, and we leave.”
“Yes, we leave … We leave the slaves behind.” Pace’s eyes narrowed. “When we spray the area with the virus that will change the bacteria, we’ll also be dumping an incredible amount of killscent. From your reports the slashrats actually have tunnels running under the village basin. When the killscent gets down there, they’ll come up and will be everywhere. The slaves don’t stand a chance.”
A chill writhed up Corran’s spine. “I know that, and I know we’ve asked you to trust us, to trust the sense Ganner and I have of the slaves. They’re dying by little bits and pieces. I’ve never felt anything similar through the Force, but I know they’re very sick and won’t survive.”
His head came up. “And you know we can’t take them with us. We don’t know what the growths are, how they are spread. For all we know, it’s an infectious disease, and the Yuuzhan Vong have set up this village as something we can rescue folks from. They intend us to bring plague carriers along with us. If we do, we will do an incredible amount of harm to the New Republic and its people.”
“But what if Vil and Denna are infected?”
Corran sighed. “That’s the crux of it, isn’t it? I’ve been wrestling with it myself.”
“And your decision?”
He glanced out at the distant ship and the two figures slowly walking back toward the cave. “If they are sick, we have no choice but to leave them.”
“And if we can cure them?”
“You want to risk a planet on that chance?” Corran tapped his own chest. “I don’t. I remember the Krytos virus. I know how devastating that can be. If they are infected, they don’t make it off Bimmiel. If they aren’t, we get them out and into evac suits on the freighter. The same goes for Ganner and me, just to safeguard you against the chance that we do develop a problem.”
“And, if you do, you expect us to space all four of you?”
Corran turned and looked at her. “You know, Doctor, some choices just aren’t easy. Spacing Ganner might break Trista’s heart. I’ve got a wife and kids, and I think they’d not be too pleased at my dying; but when I have to choose between my death and the potential death of billions, I know which is the better choice. I serve the Force, and the Force is life itself. It doesn’t make the decision easy, but it makes it easier.”
Pace snorted, then shook her head. “You make it sound so simple.”
“From one point of view, it is.” Corran sighed. “I doubt, though, the Vong share that point of view, so this is going to be just plain hard and painful.”