hanging for six months on the off chance that your convenient traditions
will get us so frustrated that we give up and offer a better price. This is
war. This is survival. There is no time. It is time for you to accept the
ways of our culture before we are all wiped out. It is our way to speak
plain, to speak true, to choose a course, and to follow it." "Please!" said
Dracrnus. "You must endure. Things are being complex. Take time to solve
all." "But there is no time," Mara said, putting a hard-edged emphasis on
her words. "We cannot take what no longer exists, and we have run out of
time. Or rather, you have. I may be many things, but I will not be your
prisoner." "What is the meaning of your words?" Dracmus asked. "Inform
whoever it is you should inform that 1 am leaving. Jn one hour, I am going
to walk around to the landing pad on the other side of this villa. I am
going to get aboard the Jade's Fire and 1 am going to l]y away. My
companions are welcome to join me if they wish, but I will be leaving in any
eveni, I would also remind you that Leia and 1 escaped from the Human League
and flew the Jade's Fire off Corellia, while we were facing much heavier
opposition than anything I have seen here so far. Besides which, as my ship
is the one that brought the Chief of State of the New Republic to this
planet, the case could be made that an attack on it constitutes an attack on
the New Republic that you claim to recognize and support. In short, I would
not suggest trying to stop me. You will not succeed, and 1 will not be
responsible for any damage from the attempt." "But-but- "The only way to
prevent my departure is to have our group meet with someone in authority,
someone who will provide clear answers to our questions, someone with the
power to make decisions before that hour is up. If such a person does not
appear, I will leave- "And I'll be with her," said Han, and turned toward
his wife. Leia looked troubled and angry, but she nodded. "And so will I."
Dracmus looked from one of them to the other. "But-but- "But you have one
hour;" Mara said. "Vanish. Go make things happen." Dracmus looked positively
frantic. "I will be seeing what I can do. Please! Do not go." "One hour,"
Mara said. "Go. Move." Dracmus nodded, turned, dropped to all fours, and
rushed away as fast as she could. "It I didn't believe in the power of a
united front, I would have refused to go along with you," Leia said, her
voice testy, "You did some damage, but it would have been worse if I had
refused to play along. I'm a diplomat, and you're not. You should have let
me do the talking." "I've been letting you do the talking, and all it's
gotten us so far is an enforced vacation at this villa. I'm a businesswoman,
a trader. Negotiation is my stock in trade." "Do you call insulting our
hosts negotiating?" "Negotiating is the art of getting what you want," Mara
said. "It's not the arl of making the oilier side feel better." "They aren't
the 'other side.' They're our partners in this negotiation." "If they were
our partners, we wouldn't need to negotiate," Mara said smoothly. Han
noticed something. Mara's sharp tone, her apparent anger, her impatience,
had all vanished at the same time Dracmus did. They had all been
performance, posturing, for Dracmus's sake. Now she was calm, relaxed, as
she spoke. "Partners or opponents, I still don't think we'll get anywhere
pushing them around like that," Leia said. "We'll find out in about
fifty-seven minutes," Mara said as she poured herself another cup of tea.
"I've dealt with the Selonians before. Have you or Han?" "I speak the
language, and I've dealt with them socially. Rut I haven't done any real
negotiating." said Leia. "I haven't really dealt with them at all" said Han.
"Not since I was a kid back on Corellia." "Then there is something you both
have to understand/' Mara said. Leia seemed about to protest, but Han held
up his hand, asking her not to do so. "Go on, Mara," he said. "It's a little
hard to explain." Mara paused for a moment. "Think-think about a sabacc
game, where each player knows the other is bluffing, but they both keep
shoving chips into the pot, just to save face. Neither of them can back
vicious battle over a useless bit of land. There are cases when humans
forget about the purpose of the competition, and the competition itself
becomes absolutely vital. Sometimes it's irrational. Sometimes it makes
sense. Sometimes it has survival value, or evolution wouldn't have given us
the tendency. Maybe, sometimes, you're thinking about the next hand in the
game, the next battle. Maybe if she knows you just won't quit, your opponent
will decide the fight isn't worth the cost. She'll give up-and you'll win
the next fight without even having to fight. Of course, most of the time,
it's not even a conscious decision. We do that sort of thing without even
thinking about it. It's a blind spot." "None of that sounds much like
Selonians," Han said. "No, it doesn't," Mara agreed. "I was talking about a
human blind spot. We're much more competitive and individualistic than the
Selonians are. All that stuff about consensus isn't just talk. They really
are that way. To oversimplify just a bit, they have a compulsion to reach
agreement, whether or not it makes sense, just as we sometimes feel we have
to win. whether or not it makes sense. It's something the Selonians can't
help doing in a situation like this. It's a blind spot ihcy have. If we just
waited until they were ready lor us, they could lake weeks or months or
years just 10 decide what they want tu ask us for. I had lo let them know
they'd lose everything; if they didn't ask for something right now." "Are
you sure lhat was wise'.'" Leia asked. "No. I'm not. Rut sometimes the
important thing is to make something happen. It almost doesn't matter what."
That 'almost' can cover a lot of ground." Han said. "1 suppose so. But maybe
it means we have the chance to choose our ground. Maybe il we can ligure out
what's going on around here, we can make some good decisions," Mara said.
"There's something we need to consider. Dracmus told us that all ihese
worlds have repulsors. and that someone from the outside was helping to
organize the search for them, Fine and good. You can use one to shoot down a
ship. Even better, from a military point of view. But you can shoot down a
ship with a lot of things that are a lot easier to get at, easier to
control, easier to aim and use. 1 don't think we have the whole reason
behind the scramble to grab the repulsor on CoreIlia. And don't forget
Dracmus said ihe rebels on the other worlds arc searching tor them-or else
they've found them already, and they are putting them to use." ''Using them
lor what?" Han asked. "I haven't the faintest idea," Mara said. "But you
don't try that hard to grab something you don't need urgently. Not in the
middle o! a war where you're trying to save your strength for when you need
it. We've seen all sorts of indications that the various rebellions regard
the repulsors as being hugely valuable. I'm starting to think the repulsors
are the whole reason there are rebels. In a sense, I don't think there are
any rebels at all. They're a front, a smokescreen, for the real enemy."
"What do you mean?" Leia asked. "I have a huneh that the repulsor searches
aren't because of the revolts," said Mara. "My guess is that the revolts are
happening as a cover for the repulsor searches. We're all fairly certain the
revolts were organized from the outside. Dracmus said as much, for what
that's worth. Besides, what are [he odds against rebellions on five planets
simultaneously just by coincidence? There had to be some coordination. We've
all agreed on that. I'm saying the organizing principle was the need to get
at the repulsors." "That makes sense if it's someone from outside doing the
organizing, an external force." said Leia. "I can't quite see our Human
League acquaintances making a first approach to their close personal friends
in the Selonian Overdcn to put this together. If some outside force did the
organizing, they could approach a dissident group on each planet, supply it
with money and expertise and so on. And we know the rebels are coordinating
with each other, at least to a certain extent. All of them participated in
that coordinated attack against the Bakuran ships." "But why would the
rebels cooperate with each other, and with this external force?" Han asked.
"What's in it for them?" Leia shook her head, "I can't say for sure, hut if
I were setting up the deal, I'd say something like, take our money and
information, cooperate with us. use your local people to dig up the repulsor
for us, hand it over to us, and when we kick the New Republic out. live you
a free hand on your own planet. But in we exchange we get your help-and
ultimate control over your planet's repulsor." "Except then you run the risk
of the rebels deciding that the repulsors are worth something," Han said.
"At a guess, something like that is what happened with the Human League,"
Mara said. "If this external force idea is right, then the externals would
be the ones running the starbuster-not the Human League. When the Human
League started tossing threats around, the external force couldn't have been
too happy about it." "If they even knew about it." Mara said. "They may be
completely external lo this star system. They'd have some representatives,
some observers, in-system. but once the jamming comes on, you can throw the
observers in jail and say whatever you want without anyone outside hearing
il. And once the interdiction iield goes on, outsiders can't get at you to
do anything about it. Sooner or later, the interdiction Held and the jamming
are turned off-but by then, Thrackan Sal-Solo is running the planet, maybe
the whole slar system, and the external forces can do what they like. And if
he's managed to grab a few of the repulsors by then, maybe he's got some
serious bargaining chips. Or maybe not. We don't even know what the
repulsors can be used for. let alone why they are so important.'' Leia
thought for a moment. "If all this is true, then the rebels themselves
aren't the problem. It's the repulsors, and the people who got the rebels
searching for them, [he external forces. It's obvious the externals don't
care about the rebel causes-the rebels are all against each other. The Human
League i.s mostly anii-Selonian and anti-Drall. as much as it is for
anything. So the externals are supporting them for some other reason-as a
way to get at the repulsors. Cut the links between ihe rebels and Ihe
external forces, gain con-trol ofl the repulsors, figure out how to use them
against the externals, and the rebellions ought to dry up and blow away."
"Fine," Han said. "Very nice and neat. But you've just given yourself a huge
lisi of jobs [here. I don't see how we could even start to accomplish any of
them." "But al least they're political jobs, intelligence jobs, not military
jobs," Leia said. "Considering we have no military assets at all in system,
that's good news. There's a military aspect, of course, but we're hoping to
get some help on that angle from the Sclonians." She glanced at Mara.
"Unless the Selonians call your bluff in another forty-five minutes." "1
wasn't bluffing," Mara said. "Do you have any clear idea of how the
Selonians lit into all this?" Han said. "Are the Overden and the Hunchuzuc
even still fighting each other? I haven't seen any signs of battle, 'or any
mention of it from Dracmus-and she's not so good at keeping secrets."
ugrave;'It wouldn't surprise me if they had stopped lighting," Mara said,
"but if they have, that's probably bad news for us. My impression is that
the Overden has indeed seized control of the repulsor-- and the repul-sor is
a very powerful weapon. Selonians aren't much for lost causes. A lot of
times we humans fight on even when all hope is lost. Honor requires it, or
we're hoping for a miracle, or we're praying that a million-to-one chance
breaks our way. Not the Selonians. Typically, a fight between two groups
ends when one side or the other demonstrates they have a massive advantage
over the other. The Selonians on the losing side will then see there is no
point in going on, and request a negotiated settlement. More than that. They
will want to ally themselves with the winners." "And you think our noble
Hunchuzuc allies have decided that they've lost," Han said. "You think
they're dickering with the Overden. and we're part of the deal?" "Something
like that. Maybe the Overden wants us as bargaining chips, maybe as
hostages, maybe they want to negotiate directly with Leia. Of course we
don't even know for sure that it's the Overden and not the Hunchu/uc who
have the repulsor. Maybe our side won." 'It is most regrettable," said a new
voice, "but 1 fear that is not the case. The inestimable Mara Jade has
described the situation exactly." Han looked behind himself in surprise. The
newcomer had arrived in utter silence from inside the villa. She was an
older-looking Selonian, tall, but a little stooped over, her fur shot
through with gray, but her eyes bright. "1 am Kleyvits," she said, "and 1
speak for the Overden. We have won our Hunehuzuc sisters over to our cause."
She paused, and then smiled, displaying an unpleasantly impressive
collection of teeth. "And that means thai we have also won all of you."
Tendra Risant had had just about enough of waiting. It was time for a little
doing. The Gentleman Caller would be stuck in normal space, moving in toward
the first-distant inner planets of the Coieiiian star system for months yet.
assuming the interdiction field stayed up. Bui suppose it didn't stay up?
The Gentleman Caller was nol the fastest ship in the universe, but even a
slow ship would need only a minute or two in hyperspace to cover the
remaining distance to the inner system, 'Ten-dra knew belter than anyone
about that fleet waiting in orbit around Sacorria. It seemed quite likely
they would be headed this way. They would need the field to come down for
that to happen. They might or might not reactivate it once they were in. The
field might be down for just a very brief period. Therefore, it seemed
likely there would be a moment, maybe on
ly a lew minutes, perhaps longer,
when she could activate her hyperdrive and get to where she was going-if
only she knew when that moment was. The navieomputcr had a gravitic field
indicator, one that was very definitely showing the effects of the
interdiction field. All she had to do was rig an alarm that would go off
when the field went down. Then it would merely be a question of computing
and making the jump before the field came on again. There were dozens of
things that could go wrong, any number of perhaps unwarranted assumptions.
But if she did nothing for much longer, she would go mad. She knew she had
to take charge of her own situation if she was going to hang on to her
sanity. But for the most part, she didn't think of it in those terms. She
just wanted to do whatever would get her off the ship. "Freen?! Zubbit!
Norgch! Norgchal. Normal. Normal processing resumes. Resumes? Reset! Reset!
Normal processing resumes! Wowser! Freen!" The stream of babble continued as
Q9-X2's head spun around three times, and a perfect forest of probes and
sensors and manipulator arms popped in and out of their compartment;,. "Not
quite," Anakin said, frowning a hit. He pushed the droid's main power button
off. All of the manipulators abruptly retracted into their compartments, and
his status lights went off. Anakin reached into Q9's interior and unplugged
a cable. "This one was in backward,'" he said. He plugged the cable back in
a nd turned the power back on. This time the droid powered up a bit more
sedately. His head spun around exactly once, his status lights came on, none
of his probes or arms came out. and he simply beeped twice and announced,
"Normal processing resumes." 'Well, I should hope so." said Ebrihim. "after
all the trouble we have been to in order to get you fixed." "Frixed? Flough
wuz I broken?" Q9 asked. "Expuse me. Voder sybems not quite stabilized. Once
moment." About half of his status lights went out for a few seconds and then
came back on again. "Let's try thai again. Fixed? How was i broken?" "Anakin
turned the repulsor on, and there was some sort of power surge," said
Ebrihim. "We were afraid we had lost you altogether-but Anakin and Chcwbacca
got you working again." Ebrihim found himself wondering if Q9 had actually
needed any substantial repair at all. It hadn't taken Anakin more than an