Part 14 (2/2)
”Easily done, my lord,” Doriana a.s.sured him. ”Palpatine is so tied up with other matters that he'll welcome the chance to pa.s.s this one onto my shoulders.”
”Excellent,” Sidious said. ”You have done well, my friend. Contact me when you return to Coruscant, and we'll discuss the final details.”
The image vanished, and Doriana keyed off the connection. A simpler man, he reflected, even a master of the Dark Side like Lord Tyra.n.u.s, might have tried to eliminate C'baoth directly through a genuine a.s.sa.s.sination, utilizing a more potent attack from more competent conspirators.
But as Sidious himself had pointed out, Doriana was more subtle than that. After all, why simply dispose of a powerful troublemaker like Jorus C'baoth when you could dispose of him and as many other Jedi as he could talk into accompanying him on Outbound Flight?
Smiling to himself, Doriana began to disa.s.semble his holo-projector.
Jorus C'baoth, Jedi Master and potential threat to Darth Sidious's plan for the Republic, was dead.
He just didn't know it yet.
It had been a long, frustrating day at the Preparation Center, one more of an endless series of them stretching back to the beginning of time, and as Chas Uliar keyed open his apartment door he wondered yet again if all of this was ever going to be worth it.
He'd been fresh out of school when he'd been approached by Outbound Flight's recruiters, and in the excitement and optimism of youth had instantly signed up to go along. But now, after two years of ever-slowing preparations and ever-lengthening delays, the s.h.i.+ne had begun to fade.
The latest rumor was that the Senate Appropriations Committee had decided to scratch all the families off the voyage, which would essentially turn Outbound Flight into little more than an extended military reconnaissance mission.
Which would, of course, take away the one thing which had made this whole project unique. But then, what did the corrupt bureaucrats of Coruscant care about anything as trivial as history or glory or even a vision for the Republic's future?
The glowplates in the common room were off, but as he switched them on he spotted a sliver of light coming from beneath the doors of both sleeping rooms. At least two of his three roommates were home, then. The planners had deliberately packed the recruits tightly together this way to simulate the close quarters that would exist aboard the six Dreadnaughts once Outbound Flight set off on its mission. Some people, mostly those from the more spa.r.s.ely settled Mid Rim worlds, hadn't been able to handle the lack of privacy and had dropped out, but Uliar himself hadn't had any problems.
Though if all the families were tossed out like the Senate wanted, he thought sourly, he would probably get a suite this size all to himself.
He was looking through the pantry, trying to decide what to have for dinner, when one of the doors opened behind him. ”Hey, Chas,” Brace Tarkosa called from behind him. ”You hear the news?”
Uliar shook his head. ”I've been on D-Five all day trying to run down a fuel line problem,” he said, turning around. ”Let me guess: the Senate's decided to close us down completely?”
”You've got it backward,” Tarkosa said, grinning. He was a strongly built man, two years older than Uliar, and allegedly one of the first hundred people to have signed up with the project. ”Not only are they not closing us down, they've restored full funding and authorized the final a.s.sembly of the Dreadnaughts and reversed themselves on dropping the families.”
Uliar stared at him. ”You're kidding,” he said. ”Did someone on Coruscant have spoiled sh.e.l.lfish for lunch and start hearing voices?”
Tarkosa shook his head. ”Rumor has it that it's all Jedi Master C'baoth's doing. He came roaring back from some negotiation session two days ago with enough momentum to crush-roll this whole thing straight through committee.” He lifted a finger. ”And it looks like we're going to get some more Jedi, too.”
”How many?”
”Don't know,” Tarkosa said. ”As many as C'baoth wants, apparently.”
”Wouldn't that be nice,” Uliar murmured, a faint wisp of hope tugging at him. Rumors around here were as cheap as hardware problems, and he certainly wasn't ready to take any of this at face value. But if the Jedi had genuinely signed on to the project, maybe things would finally start to turn around. After all, a solar wind drove all wisp-sails, and everyone knew that Jedi always got the best of everything. ”So when is this all supposed to happen?”
”Any day now,” Tarkosa a.s.sured him. He grinned lopsidedly. ”Hey, have a little faith. Come on-let's go get Keely, and hit the tapcaf for dinner.”
”You go ahead,” Uliar told him, turning back to the pantry and pulling out a packaged s.h.i.+p's ration. ”I'll save my celebrating until the Jedi are actually here.”
”Six of them?” Obi-Wan repeated disbelievingly.
”Including C'baoth himself, yes,” Windu confirmed, his back rigid as he stared out the Council Chamber window at the evening Coruscant skyline.
”And eleven Jedi Knights have signed on to go along, as well.”
Obi-Wan grimaced. Six Jedi Masters, plus eleven Jedi Knights, was not an insignificant number in these increasingly dark days. ”I thought you and Master Yoda told him he could have no more than two other Jedi.”
”That was before Barlok,” Windu said ruefully, turning to face him.
”After Barlok . . . well, let's just say that not even the Council is completely immune to pressure.”
”Yes, I heard some of it,” Obi-Wan said, nodding. ”He was pus.h.i.+ng his arguments to anyone who would listen.”
”And he can be highly persuasive when he wants to be,” Windu said. ”I just wasn't expecting so many to get caught up in his excitement.”
Obi-Wan felt a frown crease his forehead. Jedi Master Mace Windu, as closely attuned with the Force as any Jedi in the Republic . . . and yet he hadn't foreseen something this dramatic? ”Couldn't you refuse them permission?”
”Of course we could,” Windu said. ”But I'm afraid that at the moment that would just cause more dissension. We can't afford that, not in these times of turmoil. And to be honest, there are good arguments to have a strong Jedi presence aboard Outbound Flight.” He paused, studying Obi-Wan's face. ”Tell me, did the investigators on Barlok ever locate or identify the human whom the Brolf conspirators claimed had helped with their missile attack?”
”Not as of when Anakin and I left,” Obi-Wan said. ”I haven't heard anything since then, either. Why?”
”It just bothers me somehow,” Windu said. ”We have a human help to launch a missile, which is then stopped in the nick of time by another human.
Coincidence?”
Obi-Wan felt his eyebrows creeping up his forehead. ”Are you suggesting C'baoth might have set the whole thing up himself?”
”No, of course not,” Windu said. But he didn't sound entirely certain.
”Only a Jedi who'd turned to the dark side would be capable of such cold-blooded manipulation. I can't believe he'd do that, not even for something he believes in this strongly.”
”On the other hand, we suspect there may be a Sith out there somewhere,”
Obi-Wan pointed out. ”Maybe . . . no. No, I can't believe it, either.”
”Still, we can't afford to take chances,” Windu said. ”That's why I asked you here tonight. I want you and Anakin to find C'baoth and ask to go along with him. Not all the way to the next galaxy,” he hastened to add as Obi-Wan felt his jaw drop. ”Just through the Unknown Regions part of the exploration.”
”That could take months,” Obi-Wan protested. ”I have work to do on Sulorine.”
”Sometimes a Jedi's most important duty is to stand and wait,” Windu countered mildly. ”I presume you've mentioned that to Anakin on occasion?”
Obi-Wan grimaced. ”Not more than twice a day,” he conceded. ”Did you have any suggestions on how to convince C'baoth to turn around when we reach the edge of the galaxy and take us back?”
”That would be an interesting conversation to sit in on,” Windu said drily. ”But no, my thought was to put a Delta-Twelve Skysprite aboard one of the Dreadnaughts for you. It's a bigger, two-seat version of the Delta-Seven Aethersprite you've been training on, only with the weapons packs stripped off. Kuat Systems is hoping to put them on the civilian market sometime in the next few months.”
”No internal hyperdrive, I take it?”
Windu shook his head. ”It uses the same TransGalMeg hyperdrive ring as the Aethersprite.”
”I don't know,” Obi-Wan said doubtfully, running the numbers in his head.
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