Star Wars: Lightforce

Chapter 8

"Not that ancient, General. It's a fake," she informed General Kobar without looking at him. He began to argue, but she held up her hand in an authoritative manner and he thought better of it. Han always found it amusing and a little exciting when she used her well honed regal authority to shut people down.

Turning back to the light, she held the page up, turning it over and over in her hands so that the light permeated through the ink of the wording. She had taken a big risk on the fact that she was right. Just as she was beginning to doubt, she spotted a very small section of ink that was denser than the rest. Reaching up and removing one of the metal clips from the braid in her hair, she used it to scrape gently at the ink, revealing a very small data strip, no larger than her fingernail, which she held up between her thumb and forefinger. Han was impressed and Luke moved to get a closer look at the tiny object.

"General. This is your code," Leia announced. "A message hidden in the text of the historically inaccurate page. Can we read this with the equipment we have? If not, get Artoo to help you."

She placed the tiny strip in Madine's hand and he crossed to a computer console where Artoo had trundled over to assist. General Kobar joined them, more subdued now.

Leia folded her arms and frowned.

"That's not all is it?" Luke knew something else was troubling her and spoke quietly so that just she and Han could hear.

"No," she admitted, equally quietly. "There is no one on this base who could read that text, and no one who would know that the historical information contained in it was inaccurate, except me." She paused to let them think about what she was saying. "My father was the only one who knew what he was asking the Bothans to do and, subsequently, me. It must mean something." She felt very uneasy.

"Do you think it's a message for you?" Han asked, reading her face.

"How can it be?" she quizzed. "It looks like it was written before I was born and yet, I am the only one that can decode it. It doesn't make sense." Han put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.

#

Artoo emitted a series of beeps which disturbed them all from their deliberations. They crowded round the computer display as a stream of strange symbols that Han had never seen before wrote themselves onto the screen. Madine looked up from his chair at Leia.

"It's an old Rebel code. Over to you." He rose to let her sit in his place. She studied it for a moment. It was indeed an old code. One that had been replaced a very long time ago, just as they were always replaced, to ensure the Empire wouldn't be able to keep up. She knew the key, however, and began typing it onto the control board. The symbols systematically translated themselves into Basic and she scanned the message quickly. It was a report by Rebel spies on the discovery of covert Imperial activity and Leia read it out to the others.

"It says here that they discovered an Imperial facility where they appeared to be carrying out experiments on slaves which were being brought in from Rattatak, Thyfeera, Takodana and some other Outer Rim planets. Presumably they thought that, by using outlying planets, they would escape scrutiny and the slaves wouldn't be missed."

"What were the experiments?" Luke asked.

"It seems the spies weren't able to ascertain the exact nature of the experiments, but it confirms here that the slaves were all children."

Han read over her shoulder.

"It mentions that the facility was abandoned soon after the Rebel's discovery but, if we have seen this same activity, does that mean someone's started it up again?" Concern crossed Leia's face again.