Part 24 (2/2)

”I've cracked the code, my lord, ” said the specialist.

Ax hurried to peer over her shoulder. Scrolling through a holopad was a list of symbols-the blocks from which the hex's mind and all its actions were built. None of the commands, language rules, and algorithms, however, looked remotely familiar to Ax.

”These controlled the hex? The droid, I mean. ”

”Yes. ”

”Could we use them to control others?”

”I fear not. These particular commands are generated within the device itself-a unique and purely internal system for coordinating its many parts. Each droid would have a different system, so what we've gained is merely the language for this droid, which is now dead. ”

”All right, but you have translated it, in this case?”

”Yes. ”

”So find me what I'm looking for. Time is short. ” I have a Mandalorian to heat, she said silently to herself, and if I lose, you are going to pay dearly.

The specialist bent low over the section of the hex she had exposed, remotely operating manipulators capable of tinier measurements than any human could make. Data scrolled dizzyingly in all directions through the holopad, too fast for Ax to follow. Her head soon ached from concentrating too hard on something she didn't really understand.

”You have one minute, ” she told the specialist.

”My lord, I've found it, ” Pedisic said. ”Name, hypers.p.a.ce coordinates...”

”Give them to me. ” A sudden upwelling of excitement filled her. ”Now!”

Where are you, Mother?

Specialist Pedisic rattled off a long string of numbers. Ax closed her eyes, visualizing roughly where the location fit into the galactic disk.

It didn't. It was well above the Mid Rim, in the middle of nowhere.

Ax opened her eyes. ”Are you sure that's what's in its head?”

”Positive, sir. Although it doesn't make sense, does it? There's nothing out there. Nothing at all. ”

Well, Ax told herself, that wasn't entirely true. There were cold dwarfs and orphaned gas giants and all manner of strange stellar beasts. And it was an undiscovered world, after all, fit for traitorous droid makers on the run from the Sith. It wasn't unreasonable that people desperate to keep their location a secret might have traveled pa.r.s.ecs out of their way to obscure any chance of pursuit.

But what had led Lema Xandret to that isolated haven in the first place? What had encouraged her to look in that direction? The odds of her taking a s.h.i.+p on a long jump to nowhere and just happening to arrive at a habitable world were minute.

”Run the coordinates through Imperial records, ” she told the specialist. ”I'm guessing we'll find something in there. ”

The request went to the s.h.i.+p's data banks. Ax tapped her finger on the dissection table as she waited for the response. It took longer than expected, and she had time enough to observe just how much the baked organic residue looked like dried blood...

With a chime, the holopad produced a single line of information.

”Now, that really is impossible, ” said the specialist.

”Try again. ”

The specialist repeated the procedure from scratch, extracting the embedded data and feeding it into the records.

The same result came back.

”It must be a bluff, ” the specialist said. ”A false location to throw us off the scent. ”

”I don't think so, ” said Ax. ”Everything about it looks wrong, but that tells me we must be right. I told you we'd find something, didn't I?”

”But it's a black hole, ” said the specialist.

”I know. I can read it with my own eyes. ”

Ax felt as though that distant, dead star had reached out and clutched her with its irresistible gravity. She was absolutely certain that this was where she would find Lema Xandret, builder of droids who spoke with her own voice.

”I think you'd better give me the name, now, ” she said. ”We'll be leaving as soon as the course is plotted. ”

PART FOUR.

SEBADDON.

CHAPTER 27.

It was an una.s.suming name. Ula thought as the Auriga Fire shook around him, for a colony that shouldn't exist.

Sebaddon.

”You know we're insane, don't you?” Jet said over the sound of the s.h.i.+p's straining hyperdrives. ”If the black hole's ma.s.s shadow doesn't tear us to pieces, its gravity will suck us in when we arrive. ”

”We plotted the course to account for either possibility, ” said s.h.i.+gar. ”We'll be okay. Probably. ”

”I'll try not to think about it ”said Ula through ground teeth.

”I'm just trying not to throw up, ” said Larin.

Ula twisted in his seat to look back at her. She winked.

”How much longer?” s.h.i.+gar asked.

His calm confidence was infuriating. Ula didn't know how Jet put up with it.

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