Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 2)

Chapter 24: "Tusker? Rip her arms off."

"We've been cooped up in here for more than five hours!" Hal complained from the bunk above Ella. "Surely, wherever we are going, we must be there soon?"

Ella closed her eyes and didn't answer. She understood the need for Lance's secrecy and whilst she broadly accepted it, she was very rapidly beginning to think that many secrets were kept that would have been better shared.

If Jish had told her the truth! That was a thought that she couldn't let go, and the possibilities of what that would have meant for her training, to allow her to better master whatever potential she had, kept on leaving tantalising clues that rapidly overwhelmed her when she started to dwell on them.

And that was even before she recalled that she now had a sister! Ella reached into her jacket pocket and found the sample that contained Neerada's blood. She hadn't yet run a comparison, for on the Nova there was no privacy for her to do so.

Hal leaned over the bunk and stared down. His bruised face from when he had knocked himself cold on the tram looked grim.

"Can't you . . . ?" he asked.

"What?" she said impatiently.

"Use the Force?"

"What?"

"To find out where we're going?"

"No Hal. I can't. I don't know if it even works like that. And besides, if Lance and Sal think it's best us not knowing, then perhaps it's best to accept that."

The engineering console bleeped from the passageway beyond. The engine's constant thrum changed into a deeper timbre.

"We've come out of hyperspace," Ella observed. "Wherever there is, we'll find out soon."

Hal turned back onto his bunk in a sulk. "It's because of me," he said. "I know it is. Still, I suppose they have to take precautions against ex-Imperials. Even those of us who have committed at least two treasons in as many days."

Ella sighed and didn't answer. The events at the spaceport had left her exhausted, and she had bruises of her own to nurse.

The 'trip-trap' of Cor's claws on the flooring announced her coming. The Corvian glanced briefly at Hal and then took a longer look at Ella.

"We'll be landing very soon," she told them. "Lance is going to try to persuade the Alliance to offer what ships they can for the mission to Taneeth."

"So he believes me then?" Ella asked.

"Believes you, yes. But this Assayer. Who is she, Ella? Why did she let us go? And why did she tell us about the Taneeth system? These are questions that the Alliance will ask of you. If you want to get their help to try to save Tayre and get justice for your planet, you are going to have to give them better answers than you have given us."

Cor turned and left them alone to get ready.

Hal leaned over once more. His bruises made his expression appear even uglier than he intended.

"Perhaps it's not just me they don't trust then," he said.

Twenty minutes later, Ella followed Lance down the ramp of the Nova and into a dingy hangar that was sealed against the vacuum of space by two huge doors. Coming out of the ship's artificial gravity and into that of the hangar, she had to adjust slightly as she crossed over.

"We're on a space station?" she asked.

"Not quite," Lance answered. "An asteroid. This was a former mining base that went out of business before the Clone Wars. Now, it is used by the Alliance as a command and control centre for this sector." He offered her a sympathetic gaze. "Which is why it is too dangerous to let anyone know where it is."