Part 28 (2/2)

He dropped it into the slot of the player set into the tabletop.

The display screen suddenly stopped being a heroic Corellian scene and went blank.

Mara stepped out of the way.

”Everybody ready?” There was a murmur of a.s.sent, and Han pressed the play b.u.t.ton.

Without any preamble, a screenful of numbers appeared, and stayed on the screen. A male human voice began to speak in Corellian-accented Basic. ”This will be your only notification prior to events,” the voice said. ”Inform no one of this message and await instructions so as to avoid the need for further action. we will be monitoring all communications. Do not attempt to call for help. Any violation of instructions will result in an acceleration of the schedule.” The numbers stayed on the screen, but the voice said nothing more. Han frowned.

”That voice almost sounded like me,” he said. ”why would they want to simulate my voice?”

”If they did want to, they didn't do a very good job,” Mara said.

”It's close to your voice, but it's not you exactly.”

”What are those numbers?” Leia asked, looking up at the screen.

”Are they another code? what are they supposed to tell us?”

”Those on the right are static stellar coordinates,” Han said. ”And with three extra decimal places. The Imperial Navy used to do that, but the only people who have them that accurate is the New Republic Navy.

Whoever wrote this got their data from the navy's secret data sets. Must have sliced a computer, or done some good old-fas.h.i.+oned bribery, or else the opposition has friends in high places.

And that's recent data, too.” The stars were in constant motion as they orbited the core of the galaxy. It was therefore necessary to note not only where an object in s.p.a.ce was, but when it had been there.

Han looked harder at the numbers. ”If I've got this right,” he said, ”those are all points in a rough sphere around the Corellia star system-and the last set of coordinates is for the star Corell itself. I recognize it from setting our navicomputer on the way in. At a g ue s, the other coordinate sets are all star positions, too.”

”The numbers on the left are time notations in astronomical format,” Mara said. ”Not astrogational notation, but the time format astronomers use. Those are extremely accurate time notations as well.

The first one is about sixteen standard days ago. The others are all in the future.”

”In other words,” Han said, ”something is going to happen at these places at these times, unless we do whatever the guy who sounds like me says in his next message.”

”Burning skies,” said Micamberlecto as he stood up to his lull height. ”Burning, burning skies. Three days ago a probot droid came out of the sky and set off a CDF beacon signal. The CDF picked it up, and found a message for me. An image of a star explosion, with s.p.a.ce-and-time coordinates. Nothing else. The time data was sixteen days ago.

Han shrugged. ”So someone got imagery of a star blowing up. So what? Mara-when did you get this message?”

”Fourteen days ago,” she said. ”After the star blew up.”

”But Luke was supposed to get the message,” Leia said.

”Allowing for time for them to discover he wasn't there, and to find Mara, and get the cube to her, and it would have gotten to him before the star exploded.”

”Unless it's a big-time con,” Han said. ”The sort of thing Lando might have done in the old days. Suppose somebody spotted the explosion, faked up the message cube to look like it was intended for Luke, and just got there late? They could make it look like they had caused it, if they were really sharp.”

”But my scientists tell me the star in the image was of a type that could not possibly undergo a supernova explosion,” Micamberlecto said.

”They were quite at a loss to explain how it could be. They wanted to dispatch a s.h.i.+p at once to get a look at it. I said we could not afford the mission-”

”But you'd better afford it now,” Mara said. ”Solo's right, it could be an extremely clever con jobr it could be that someone is better at blowing up stars than sending messages. I don't think you can afford to a.s.sume it's a trick.”

”No, we can't,” Han agreed. He was punching the stellar coordinates into a data pad. ”The first star on that list is in an uninhabited system. All the rest of them have inhabited planets. It looks like they are listed in order of population.

The second star just has a small outpost, but the next one on the list-” Han checked his numbers and shook his head. ”One inhabited planet, population eight million at the last census. And, like I said, the last star on the list is Corell.” 'Do what we say,' ”Leia half whispered.” 'Do what we say or we'll kill everybody.” At the back of the room, at the top of the stairs, inside the shadows of the entryway, three small scared children listened in horror.

In a secret bunker deep under the city of Coronet, the Hidden Leader of the Human League read over the latest reports with a stern and hard-edged calm. Perhaps his underlings would have expected him to show some sign of jubilation that the moment had finally come, that the last piece of the puzzle was finally in place. But that was why he was the Leader, and they were underlings. Let them show their every reaction and emotion. The Hidden Leader would hide his emotions, as well as his ident.i.ty.

But for all of that, the time had come. All was in readiness.

Everything he had worked for, schemed for, plotted for, was in place. It was time.

The Hidden Leader dropped the report on his desk and leaned back in his chair.

”Begin it”, he said.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Uprising an! Han! Wake up and come to the window.” Leia was shaking him hard.

Han lurched up into a seated position and stumbled out of bed.

”What? What is it?” He glanced at the wall clock and confirmed his suspicion that he hadn't gotten much sleep. It had been a very late night indeed, trying to hash out the implications of the threat message, trying to come up with some answer, some plan of action. And none of it had come to anything.

”Leok out the window!” Leia said again. ”There, to the south of us.”

Han went to the window and looked out-and swore to himself. ”Devils in s.p.a.ce,” he said. ”It's started. It's staned.” A thick plume of black smoke was rising up out of the city, about three kilometers away. He pulled open the window and heard, far off but distinct, the sounds of sirens, of shouts, of blasters being fired.

”What's started?” Leia asked.

”That's the Selonian Enclave on fire down there,” Han said, his voice sad, bitter, tired. ”Something has touched it off-and now it will spread from there.”

There was a loud, far-off thud, and a second or two later a slight tremor that sent just the tiniest of shakes through the window. ”Wide-area concussion grenade,” Han said.

”About three kilometers away. Probably right in the middle of all that.” Even as they watched, another plume of smoke began climbing lazily into the air, followed by another, and another. ”This isn't a coincidence,” he said. ”It can't be.

There are people watching. Once they knew Mara had gotten the message to us, they touched this off. Has to be.”

”Come on,” Leia said. ”We have to find the governorgeneral.”

”What about the kids?” Han asked.

”chewbacca's with them, and so are Ebrihim and Q9.

They're all right. Come on.”

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