Part 21 (1/2)

”Stang!”

Jet's warning forgotten, Ula stubbed his toe on the top of the ramp.

The Auriga Fire was by no means a luxury vessel. From above, the stocky freighter was almost perfectly triangular, with hyperdrives at the base; sensor arrays, s.h.i.+eld generators, and comms at the upper point; and a c.o.c.kpit slightly off-center in the middle, above the main holds. Its low, cramped corridors were arranged in a rough Y, with main hold, crew quarters for five, and a cramped engineering bay at the termini. The c.o.c.kpit was one level up, accessed by a ladder. Additional holds filled every available piece of s.h.i.+p s.p.a.ce, including some, Ula was sure, that weren't visible to the naked eye. Jet claimed to have had a crew of ten on the run that had encountered the Cinzia. Ula wondered how they had all fit in.

The s.h.i.+p was hardly understocked in terms of equipment. On the short journey back from the refresher, Ula spotted a tractor beam, a crude interdiction device, and power supplies for no less than four tri-laser cannons. Thick cables suggested that the s.h.i.+elds were well supplied with power, too. Jet might talk down its capabilities, Ula decided, but the s.h.i.+p could undoubtedly hold its own.

There was just enough room for everyone in the c.o.c.kpit. s.h.i.+gar had the copilot's seat. Larin had clocked more flight hours, but until her hand was properly treated she was relegated to astrometrics. Clunker had patched himself in to the s.h.i.+p's flight-control systems and shut down his photoreceptors. That left Ula and Hetchkee to ride out the short hop to orbit in the pa.s.senger seats.

As the brown atmosphere faded away to stars, Ula instantly felt lighter, both physically and in spirit. Jet deftly guided the s.h.i.+p into a stable parking orbit and put it on autopilot. Then he swiveled in his seat and folded his hands behind his head.

”Now for the ten-trillion-credit question, ” he said. ”Where to?”

Everyone looked at s.h.i.+gar, who s.h.i.+fted awkwardly in his seat.

”Easier asked than answered, I'm afraid, ” he said. ”Ta.s.saa Bareesh thinks we're going after Stryver, so I guess that's what we have to do. ”

”Why don't we just run?” Ula asked.

”I can't, ” said Jet.

”Because of a made-up contract?”

”Because she'll hunt me down and nail me to her wall if I do. She's planted a homing beacon somewhere on this old bucket. I'm sure of it. That's what I'd do in her shoes. ”

”So we go looking for Stryver” said Larin. ”He'll head for the hexes' home, for sure. ”

”If we had the navicomp, ” said s.h.i.+gar, ”we'd do the same. ”

”He has to crack the cipher first, ” said Jet. ”We had a go or two at it on the way to Hutta, without any luck. ”

”Is there any other data we haven't been given? For instance, when you interdicted the Cinzia, could you tell from its trajectory where it originated?”

Jet shook his head. ”We tried that, too. Project the s.h.i.+p's route back, and you get empty s.p.a.ce to the edge of the galaxy, and then a lot more empty s.p.a.ce after that. Same with everything else we picked up. It all points nowhere. ”

”They were smart, ” said Larin. ”And they really wanted to stay hidden. I wonder why. ”

They pondered that question for a moment, in silence. Ula had no insight to offer into the psychology of Lema Xandret. The hexes were remarkable and strange, but that alone didn't reveal anything about the people who had made them.

Or did it? On Panatha, Ula's great-great-grandfather had been fond of collecting ancient Palawan sayings. ”What you do speaks louder than what you say” was one of them. Another was ”What you make makes you. ”

Applying that philosophy to their present situation seemed impossible to Ula, until he remembered something Yeama had told him.

”The thing that built the hexes, ” he said. ”The nest. It was made of a strange alloy. What was it?”

”Lutetium and promethium, ” said let.

”So they're rare metals. There can't be many worlds where both are found, right?”

Jet poured cold water on this spark of an idea. ”There isn't a single surveyed world with those metals in abundance. ”

”What about Wild s.p.a.ce? There are lots of unsurveyed worlds in there. ”

”Sure, but it's a big place and they don't call it wild for nothing. ”

Ula sagged back into his seat. ”How did you convince Ta.s.saa Bareesh you had the slightest chance of finding this place?” he asked s.h.i.+gar. ”It seems hopeless to me. ”

s.h.i.+gar looked embarra.s.sed. ”I reminded her that I'm a Jedi. I told her we have our ways. ”

Larin reached into one of her suit's compartments and lifted out a strip of silvery metal. ”This is how we're going to find the planet, ” she said triumphantly, offering it to s.h.i.+gar. ”This, and your mysterious ways. ”

s.h.i.+gar's eyebrows went down in confusion, then down even farther in a frown. ”No, ” he said, pus.h.i.+ng the metal away from him. ”It won't work. ”

”It has to, ” she insisted. ”You told me about your psychometric ability...”

”My unreliable psychometric ability, Larin. ”

”...and that your Master thinks you can tame it. What better time to try than now?”

”No better time, ” he agreed, ”but you can't make it work just by wanting it to. ”

”I trust you, ” she said with unaffected candor. ”And you haven't let me down yet, not even once. I don't expect you to start now. ”

That stopped his protests. He reached out, took the shard of metal from her hand, and held it up to the light. It gleamed like a metallic diamond.

”Is that what I think it is?” asked Ula.

”It's a piece of the nest, ” she confirmed.

”And s.h.i.+gar can use his mind to find out where it comes from?”

”I can try, ”said s.h.i.+gar, sternly. ”That's all. I can't promise anything. ”

”Well, it's a start. How long will it take?”

”I don't know. I'll talk to Master Satele, first. She might be able to guide me through this. Can you put a call through to Tython?”

”Faster than you can ask me to. ”

”I'll take it in the main hold, ” he said. ”There's a holoprojector there. ”

s.h.i.+gar got up from the copilot's seat. Jet fiddled with the instruments in front of him, opening up comm channels and shunting data through the s.h.i.+p.

Larin was sitting thoughtfully, eyes staring blankly at the ladder down which s.h.i.+gar had disappeared. A tiny worry line creased the bridge of her nose.

Ula leaned in to whisper, ”You don't really think he can do this, do you?”