A vicious dark, roiling cloud was coalescing in the kilometer or so between the museum and the Palace. Golden lightning shot through it, then arced up into the air. A brilliant energy thread linked the cloud with the lowest of the planetary shields, then seconds later an explosive rumble of thunder sent a tremor through the building. More lightning flashed at the heart of the cloud's dark depths and the cloud began to drift toward them.
Wedge looked over at Iella. "That's a nasty-looking storm. Are we safe here?"
"Sure," she said, taking her hands off the steel railing. "A compressor probably blew in one of the buildings down there. Water vapor escapes into the air, condenses, and starts spitting energy. There's lightning rods all over the place on these towers and skyhooks, so we should be safe. You'll know it's a really bad storm when the skyhooks detach their tethers and move off."
Down below Wedge saw all sorts of people streaming into the foyer as the storm approached. Beneath the dark cloud he saw a shimmering sheet of rain scourging the buildings. "Such quickly developing storms must make weather prediction here very tough."
<b>"I've heard it said that any meteorologist who is right thirty percent of the time here on Coruscant is barred from shipping on the submarine gambling vessel Coral Vanda or from any other casino because she's just too lucky. In reality, though, no one has any reason to actually go outside, so the weather matters little."</b>
A bolt of lightning struck very near the museum and the lights dimmed for a moment. Pash smiled. "That could be an inconvenience."