the cockpit seat. 'Master C'baoth's calling me.
He shut down the displays, but not before the translation of Artoo's worried jabbering scrolled across the computer display. 'Relax, Artoo,' Luke told him, leaning back over the open cockpit canopy to pat the droid reassuringly. 'I'll be all right. I'm a Jedi, remember? You just keep a good eye on things out here. Okay?'
The droid trilled mournfully as Luke dropped down the ladder and onto the ground. He paused there, looking at the dark mansion, lit only by the backwash of the X-wing's landing lights. Wondering if maybe Artoo was right about them getting out of here.
Because the droid had a good point. Luke's talents didn't lean toward the healing aspects of the force-that much he was pretty sure of. Helping C'baoth was going to be a long, time consuming process, with no guarantee of success at the end of the road. With a Grand Admiral in command of the Empire, political infighting in the New Republic, and the whole galaxy hanging in the balance, was this really the most efficient use of his time?
He raised his eyes from the mansion to the dark shadows of the rim mountains surrounding the lake below. Snowcapped in places, barely visible in the faint light of Jomark's three tiny moons, they were reminiscent somehow of the Manarai Mountains south of the Imperial City on Coruscant. And with that memory came another one: Luke, standing on the Imperial Palace rooftop gazing at those other mountains, sagely explaining to Threepio that a Jedi couldn't get so caught up in galactic matters that he was no longer concerned about individual people.
The speech had sounded high and noble when he'd given it. This was his chance to prove that it hadn't been just words.
Taking a deep breath, he headed back toward the gate.
CHAPTER
15
'Tangrene was our real crowning achievement,' Senator Bel Iblis said, draining the last of his glass and raising it high above his head. Across the expansive but largely empty headquarters lounge the bartender nodded in silent acknowledgment and busied himself with his drinks dispenser. 'We'd been sniping at the Imperials for probably three years at that point,' Bel Iblis continued. 'Hitting small bases and military supply shipments and generally making as much trouble for them as we could. But up till Tangrene they weren't paying much attention to us.'
'What happened at Tangrene?' Han asked.
'We blasted a major Ubiqtorate center into fine powder,' Bel Iblis told him with obvious satisfaction. 'And then waltzed out right under the collective nose of the three Star Destroyers that were supposed to be guarding the place. I think that was when they finally woke up to the fact that we were more than just a minor irritant. That we were a group to be taken seriously.'
'I'll bet they did,' Han agreed, shaking his head in admiration. Even getting within sight of one of Imperial Intelligence's Ubiqtorate bases was a tricky job, let alone blasting it and getting out again. 'What did it cost you?'
'Amazingly enough, we got all five warships out,' Bel Iblis said.
'There was a fair amount of damage all around, of course, and one of them was completely out of commission for nearly seven months. But it was worth it.'
'I thought you said you had six Dreadnaughts,' Lando spoke up.
'We have six now,' Bel Iblis nodded. 'At the time we only had five.'
'Ah,' Lando said, and lapsed back into silence.
'So after that was when you started moving your base around?' Han asked.
Bel Iblis eyed Lando a moment longer before turning back to Han.
'That was when mobility became a top priority, yes,' he corrected. 'Though we hadn't exactly been sitting still before that. This place is, what, our thirteenth location in seven years, Sena?'
'Fourteenth,' Sena said. 'That's if you count Womrik and the Mattri asteroid bases.'
'Fourteen, then,' Bel Iblis nodded. 'You probably noticed that every building here is built of hi-state memory plastic. Makes it relatively simple to fold everything up and toss it aboard the transports.' He chuckled. 'Though that's ben known to backfire on us. Once on Lelmra we got hit by a violent thunderstorm, and the lightning strikes were hitting so close to us that the edge currents triggered the flip-flop on a couple of barracks buildings and a targeting center. Folded them up neat as a set of birthday presents, with nearly fifty people still inside.'
'That was terrific fun,' Sena put in dryly. 'No one was killed, fortunately, but it took us the better part of the night to cut them all free. With the storm still blazing on around us.'
