“But there is more about them that you may not know,” Lusa said. “Sometimes Nolaa Tarkona sends assassins to … ‘deal with’ those she believes are traitors to the Diversity Alliance. Nonhumans.”
“Well, well, well. I thought Nolaa Tarkona preached that humans were the only enemies of the Diversity Alliance,” Raynar said.
“True. And that’s one good reason none of you should go to Ryloth,” Lusa answered. “But there’s more. Once, when I had been with the Diversity Alliance for less than a year, a close friend of mine, a Talz, decided to quit. He never told me why he left, though I suspect I now know his reasons. He simply disappeared. A few days later Nolaa Tarkona invited us all to a ‘demonstration’ in her private grotto chambers.”
Lusa’s voice grew rough as she spoke, as if she strained against strong emotions. “She gave a great banquet for several of us whom she called her most loyal followers and told us that we would be promoted, given greater honor and responsibility in the Diversity Alliance. Throughout the meal, her Adjutant Advisor Hovrak did not eat. But when we had all finished, Nolaa Tarkona surprised us by having her Gamorrean guards bring in my friend, the Talz. Then, as we all looked on”—she shuddered—“Hovrak made his dinner out of my friend. He killed and ate him right in front of us!”
Jaina gave a wordless cry of disbelief.
Tears trickled from the corners of Lusa’s eyes, but she continued speaking as if she did not notice. “While … while Hovrak fed, Nolaa gave a speech. ‘So it shall be with all traitors to the Diversity Alliance,’ she said. She praised us again for our loyalty and ended with these words. ‘I believe that the lesson here is simple enough. If you are not a friend to the Diversity Alliance, then you are a friend to our enemies—and a traitor to us all.’”
“So it’s true,” Jacen said. “Lowie may not be able to leave the Diversity Alliance, even if he wants to.”
Lusa nodded. “That was one of the reasons I came here with Master Skywalker—because of the security the Jedi academy and its guardian force could offer.” She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, as if the air in the tiny infirmary had suddenly turned icy. Raynar hated to see the tortured look on her face and wished he could comfort her.
“Nolaa Tarkona is very … idealistic,” Lusa went on. “She believes that all aliens must band together, that only by doing so can they defeat the humans who subjugated them for generation upon generation. If Lowbacca decides to return to his human friends, he will be in danger. He is already trapped.”
“But I’m sure Lowie never actually joined the Diversity Alliance. His parents said he only went there to see if he was interested,” Jaina objected.
Lusa shrugged. “Nolaa might not see it that way. If Lowbacca rejects her beliefs once he understands them, it could be enough for her to brand him a traitor.”
“Then we have no choice but to go after him,” Jacen said. “We can’t leave him in the clutches of the Diversity Alliance.”
“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka confirmed.
Raynar sat up. “It’s all settled, then.” Lusa sighed in resignation. “In that case, you will need my help.”
3
Neither the aching cold nor the searing heat from the two intemperate halves of Ryloth’s surface penetrated to the Diversity Alliance headquarters deep beneath the surface. But in the narrow region where hot met cold, an almost habitable zone of moderate temperature encircled the planet. This strip of mountainous land, only a few kilometers wide, was neither fiery nor frigid, light nor dark, but existed in a perpetual twilight between the extremes. The blast-shielded entrance to Nolaa Tarkona’s grotto space dock opened out of a mountainside into this twilight zone.
Lowie couldn’t help but be impressed by the variety and quality of ships that passed through the entrance, going about the business of the political movement. Other Twi’lek cities occupied sections of the mountains to the north and south, but Nolaa Tarkona had taken over all the prime areas, including tunnels in and around the main ryll mining centers. Here in Tarkona’s headquarters, computer operators, pilots, mechanics, and all manner of workers kept busy night and day.
Lowie’s sister Sirra crooned her amazement and complimented the Diversity Alliance on its wonderful fleet of ships. Raaba, who was conducting the tour of the starship grotto, hastened to assure them that not all of the ships belonged to the Diversity Alliance—only the best ones. The remainder were owned by trading partners, diplomats, bounty hunters, political allies, and the occasional mercenary who came looking for work.
Sirra pointed to a clunky, meteor-scarred old vessel clearly used for hauling freight of some sort. The big freighter was just entering the cavernous grotto dock, coughing exhaust and groaning as it extended its landing struts. Sirra joked that the old scow must belong to a garbage trader.
Raaba gave a comradely bark of laughter and leaned closer to her friends. Those battered-looking ships, she explained, came and went regularly. Despite their appearance, on their outward-bound journeys they carried ryll spice ore, a valuable mineral resource belonging to the Diversity Alliance. Though the ryll mined on Ryloth was substantially different in form and potency from the glitterstim spice found on Kessel, it still brought a high price on the open market.
A grin of pride appeared on Raaba’s chocolate furred face. It was part of Nolaa Tarkona’s special genius that when she had overthrown the Twi’lek government, she had also taken control of their spice mines.
Without the income from ryll, the Diversity Alliance would have had to rely completely on donations from supporters. As it was, credits from the sale of the valuable mineral were used to rescue the downtrodden and to spread the word about unifying all nonhuman species. The Diversity Alliance would fight for alien rights as no government ever had.
The bulky ore hauler hummed past them and down a side passageway that led to a secured loading area. Half a dozen workers struggled with its cargo containers, while a small traffic-controlling lizard waved brilliant glow-rods to direct the large ships and keep them away from each other.
Although Lowie and Sirra had seen the starship grotto and its various hangar bays before, they had never had a full-fledged tour. Since neither he nor his sister had yet expressed a desire to join the Diversity Alliance, Lowie suspected that Raaba was trying to impress on him the worthiness of Nolaa Tarkona’s ambitions.
Raaba probably thought that the flashy new ships and their excellent docking and repair facilities might entice Sirra to join the Diversity Alliance. She was probably right, Lowie thought.
But as the tour continued, his own uneasiness did not dwindle. This place, these attitudes just did not ring true to him. In fact, the docks only served to remind Lowie that he and Sirra did not have their own ship and could not leave Ryloth whenever they chose. If he asked to go back to Yavin 4, he suspected Raaba would find some excuse to delay him.
Feeling a tingle of his Jedi senses, Lowie turned to find Adjutant Advisor Hovrak watching them intently from one of the small bays. He stood beside Raaba’s star skimmer, the Rising Star, as if guarding it.
Noticing that he had been seen, Hovrak motioned the three friends over.
The wolfman stroked a clawed hand over the Rising Star. He suggested that Raaba might want to train Sirra to fly the star skimmer.
He advocated that all their members learn everything they could, to reach their fullest potential.
Guessing correctly, he said that Sirra had probably never flown such an agile, modern craft before. “Who knows?” the Adjutant Advisor added in a sly voice. “If Sirra proves herself an able pilot and decides to join the Diversity Alliance, I might just need to get her a new star skimmer of her own.”
With a sinking sensation in his stomach, Lowie watched Sirra’s patchwork-shaved fur bristle in delight as she looked over the ship with shining eyes. She traced her fingers over the Rising Star’s hull.