Dark Nest_ The Joiner King Part 38

"Sound judgment is a warrior's best weapon," Formbi agreed. "Though I don't understand what the Jedi have against laughing."

The slidewalk carried them past the centering exercise, and R2-D2's presence began to fade. Luke looked back and, finding the confused droid facing the wrong direction, used the Force to lift him back to the group.

Mara was already grilling Formbi again. "... convinced the Ascendancy the Killiks are dangerous?"

Formbi hesitated a moment, then asked, "Do you recall our first meeting, when I welcomed you aboard the Chaf Envoy to examine the wreck of the Outbound Flight?"

"How could we forget?" Luke said. "The whole mission was a gambit to lure the Vagaari into attacking, so you could carry the war to them legally."

"The choice was theirs," Formbi said defensively. "But yes. And do you happen to remember how many ruling families there were at the time?"

"Nine," Mara said instantly. When it came to politics, she rarely forgot a fact. "But five years later, when we visited Csilla, the number was four. I a.s.sumed the discrepancy to be a result of a war with the Vagaari."

"Not directly," Formbi said. "But the Third Vagaari War did leave us with a labor shortage, and that led to the discrepancy."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Luke said. "Were the losses of some families so heavy-"

"Several families began to hire entire nests from the Colony. It seemed the perfect solution. The insects were plentiful, industrious, and not averse to risk. This was a couple of years before your Raynar arrived, and they began to care about surviving." Formbi winced at how that sounded, then hastened to add, "Of course, we were careful not to take advantage."

"Of course." Luke had the unhappy feeling that he saw where this was leading. "Didn't you know about the Joiners?"

"We took precautions," Formbi said. "Very stringent precautions."

"That still didn't work," Mara surmised.

"They worked," Formbi replied. "Until someone started sabotaging them. "

"The Killiks?" Luke asked.

Formbi frowned. "We value fools no more than the Jedi, Master Skywalker. The precautions remained solely under our control."

There was a moment of silence, then Mara asked, "And?"

"We don't really understand," Formbi admitted. "It may have been interfamily rivalries. All we know is that the precautions broke down, and before we realized it, two entire families had become Joiners."

"Only two?" Luke asked. "What about the other missing families?"

"Three of the families had become critically dependent on insect labor," Formbi replied. "There was a dispute over the best course of action."

"The Ascendancy had a civil war?" Luke gasped.

"Chiss do not have civil wars, Master Skywalker," Formbi replied.

"We have disagreements. The matter was resolved before your visit to Csilla- though I do believe you were witness to some reverberations."

"The attack on Soontir Fel?" Mara asked. "I thought that concerned the aid he provided the Galactic Alliance against the Yuuzhan Vong."

"It is easy to disagree with the policies of someone who has destroyed your family," Formbi said. "Fel has a habit of being too merciful for his own good."

The slidewalk carried them to the training field that had been Luke's destination all along, a jumbled course full of traps, hazards, and obstacles. Two teams of senior apprentices-one team large and strong, the other small and quick-were running back and forth through the course, using long-handled rackets, stunblasters, and Force telekinesis to pa.s.s half a dozen crackling jet-b.a.l.l.s to each other through the air. In the midst of the cras.h.i.+ng bodies and acrobatic power plays, a single referee was struggling to maintain order.

Motioning Formbi and Mara along, Luke stepped off the slidewalk-then reached out with a mental hand and pulled R2-D2 to his side. Luke did not launch into a description of the game, however; he still had some questions about the trouble the Killiks had caused the Chiss Ascendancy.

"I'm beginning to see why the Ascendancy doesn't want the Colony encroaching on its frontier," Luke said. "Were the Killiks also responsible for the destruction of the Empire of the Hand?"

Formbi turned and, in a surprised voice, asked, "What makes you think the Empire of the Hand has been destroyed?"

Luke wasn't fooled for a moment. He could feel the Aristocra's dismay through the Force-and so could Mara.

"Baron Fel, for starters," she said. "He wouldn't have abandoned his duties while the Empire of the Hand stood."

"Perhaps it was merely absorbed," Formbi suggested.

"After being battered into nothingness," Mara said. "We know that Nirauan has been abandoned. Something must have happened."

Formbi sighed in resignation. "The Empire of the Hand served the purpose Mith'raw'nuruodo intended-though it was not against the Colony, as you suggest."

"The Vagaari, then?" Mara pressed. "The Yuuzhan Vong?"

"That's really all I am at liberty to say," Formbi answered wearily. "Except, perhaps, that the Colony is only one of the Terrors remaining to the Unknown Regions. Do not be surprised to see the Empire of the Hand rise again, when there is need."

"I see," Luke said, saddened to have confirmed what he had only suspected until now. "I know that three of the Fel children survived, but what of Chak-"

"Only two survived," Formbi said. "Jagged and Wyn. Chak, Davin, and Cherith are all dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Luke said. "I liked Chak very much."

"But what of Cem?" Mara asked, picking the question off the top of Luke's head. "Was she killed, too?"

"Cem?" A sly smile came to Formbi's mouth. "Cem is a son's name."

"Excuse me," Mara said. "We never actually met."

"I should think not." The smile grew wider and s.h.i.+ftier. "Cem would be the Fels' shadow child."

'Shadow child?" Luke asked.

"Publicly unacknowledged," Formbi explained. "Secret, in fact. It's a common Chiss precaution to keep enemies from wiping out an entire ruling family."

Luke began to have a guilty feeling in his stomach. "How secret?"

"Quite," Formbi replied. "In fact, this is the first time I've heard of a Cem Fel. I imagine you heard the name from Wyn."

"Jacen did," Mara replied. "How could you know?"

"Wyn is notorious for spilling secrets," he said.

"And now we've compounded it," Luke said. "I hope you'll hold the name in confidence."

"Of course." Formbi's voice was sincere. "And you shouldn't feel bad- Soontir Fel is a clever one. I often suspect that Wyn reveals only what he wishes her to."

"Thank you."

Luke returned the smile, hoping to conceal his doubt about the Aristocra's rea.s.surances. He waved at the training field, where the small team had won control of all six jet-b.a.l.l.s and was driving deep into opposition territory. "And now, perhaps you'd allow me to explain the game we're watching."

"Please," Formbi said. "It looks refres.h.i.+ngly riotous."

"We call it Skorch," Luke explained. "It's actually the referee who's being trained. Each team has a set of secret goals-such as collecting three b.a.l.l.s or sending two into one goal and one into another-and it's the referee's job to discover those goals and see that both sides win."

"If that's possible," Mara said. "In some Skorch scenarios, the goals are mutually exclusive. Then the referee must see that both teams achieve an equivalent level of victory."

The referee, a black-furred Defel with eyes as red as Formbi's, popped up from behind a wall and sent a small Rodian sprawling. He intercepted the jet-ball that had been coming in her direction and sent it sailing toward the other end of the course.

"The referee can also arrange complete losses for both sides," Luke said. "Though that's a last resort. It's considered barely adequate."

"What an odd game," Formbi said.

R2-D2 emitted a discordant series of beeps, then raised his transceiver antenna and began to move off.

Luke scowled and called, "Artoo, come back here." When R2-D2 continued toward the Skorch field, Luke excused himself and caught up to the droid. "Didn't you hear me? We're in the middle of some very important business."

R2-D2 whistled a sharp reply.

"I'm sure your business is important, too," Luke said. "But you'll have to conduct it over there, with us."

R2-D2 pivoted on a tread, then tweedled a question.

"If it can't wait, you'll have to," Luke answered. "You're in no condition to wander around the training grounds alone."

Another question.

"Yes, on Ossus," Luke said. "Where did you think we were?"

R2-D2 gave a confused sigh, then reluctantly returned with Luke.

Mara was explaining the theory behind Skorch as two players-a Wookiee and a Squib-wrestled with the Defel referee in an attempt to keep him from interfering with the game.

"The only rules are the ones the referee can persuade the players to accept," she was saying. "And his only rule is that he can't use his lightsaber on any of the players."

"It sounds like a dangerous game," Formbi observed. "How many students are killed playing it?"

"These are senior apprentices," Luke said. "They can take care of themselves."

"And there are always healing trances," Mara added.

"Healing trances are good," Luke agreed. "The idea is to teach our Jedi Knights to look for secret agendas and develop solutions that work for everyone." He turned to Formbi. "That's what we hope to do at Qoribu."

"Very n.o.ble." Formbi turned away from the game. "But I have seen nothing to convince me that you understand the Killiks any better than we do. Quite the opposite, in fact."

"We haven't had as long to study them as you have," Mara retorted.

"But our senior scientist has already developed a theory about how Joiners are created-"

'And about how the Killiks' collective mind functions," Luke said.

"Which is?" Formbi asked.

Luke sensed that the question was a test. "We believe Joiners are created when Killik pheromones alter the basic structure of the corpus callosum," he said. "Those changes allow the Joiners to receive signal impulses directly from the Killik brains, which-we presume-have a similar capacity."

"And what is the transfer agent?"

Luke hesitated. He could sense that they were close to winning Formbi's support, but they were crossing from theory to guesswork here, and he did not want to undermine their progress by making a wild-sounding a.s.sertion.

Mara disagreed. He could feel her through their Force-bond, urging him to take the chance.

"We think the impulses are transferred through auras," Luke said.

"But we're having trouble identifying exactly which part."

"All of them," Formbi said. "Heat, electric, magnetic, probably chemical-at least that's what our scientists think. But that doesn't explain the Will."

"The Will?" Mara asked.

"As far as we know, only individuals from the same nest share a truly collective mind," Formbi said. "Our scientists describe it as a sort of very advanced telepathy, where an individual has access to the thoughts and sense impressions of the entire nest."

Luke nodded. That was just as Tekli and Tahiri described the experience-though he was not going to admit that to Formbi. "That's what our investigations suggest."

"But insects from different nests must communicate with each other via language, just as we do," Formbi said. "The collective mind doesn't seem to extend far beyond the confines of the nest."

"Which is exactly what you'd expect, if the communication medium is their aura," Mara said. "To partic.i.p.ate in the collective mind, an individual would always have to be within range of another insect's aura, and that one would have to be close to another-"

"Precisely," Formbi agreed. "The collective mind can extend over quite a large area, as long as the chain of insects remains unbroken."

R2-D2 began to beep for attention.

"Not now, Artoo," Luke said. He did not want to give Formbi time to reconsider what he was about to tell them. "Please continue, Aristocra."

Formbi glanced at the droid, then nodded. "But the entire Colony seems to be subject to a single Will. We've noticed that nests all across the sector are acting in concert, pursuing a single, unified purpose."

"Let me guess," Luke said. "Expanding the Colony."

"Very good," Formbi said.

"And this Will appeared about six years ago?" Mara asked. "When they started to develop hospitals and interstellar trade?"

"Right again," Formbi replied. "And, frankly, we're puzzled."

"How so?" Luke asked. "Perhaps we can help clear something up for you. "