Part 37 (2/2)

C'baoth was still gazing at the alien s.h.i.+ps as Lorana joined him. ”So, Jedi Jinzler,” he greeted her. ”We meet our first challenge.”

”Why does it have to be a challenge?” Lorana asked. ”Maybe all he wants to do is talk.”

”No,” C'baoth said, his voice dark. ”I can sense a deep malice out there, malice directed at my s.h.i.+ps and my people.”

”They're alien minds,” Lorana reminded him, feeling her pulse starting to pick up its pace. She'd seen C'baoth in this stiff-necked mood before.

”Perhaps you're simply misreading them.”

”No,” he said. ”They intend trouble, and I intend to be fully prepared to deal with it before I talk to them.”

”Command, this is Ma'Ning,” a voice came from the command chair speaker.

”We're standing ready at D-Four's weapons systems.”

”Acknowledged,” C'baoth said, giving Lorana a tight smile. ”Dreadnaught-Four was the last. Now we're ready to talk.”

Deliberately, he lowered himself into Pakmillu's command chair and touched the comm switch. ”Alien force, this is Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth, commanding the Outbound Flight Project of the Galactic Republic,” he announced.

Lorana looked back at Pakmillu, wincing to herself at C'baoth's casual preemption of his command authority. But there was no resentment in the Mon Cal's expression or stance, only a quiet sense of resignation.

Apparently, he'd bowed to the inevitable.

”Master C'baoth, this is Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo,” the cultured voice replied promptly.

”Let me see your face,” C'baoth ordered.

There was a brief pause; then the comm display came to life, showing a near human with blue skin and blue-black hair and glowing red eyes. He was dressed in a black tunic with silver bars on the collar. ”There are matters of great importance we need to discuss at once,”

Mitth'raw'nuruodo said. ”Would you care to join me in my flags.h.i.+p, or shall I come to you?”

C'baoth snorted gently. ”I will discuss nothing until you stand away from my path.”

”And I will continue to hold here until we have spoken,”

Mitth'raw'nuruodo replied, his voice as firm as C'baoth's. ”Are the Jedi afraid of talk?”

C'baoth smiled thinly. ”The Jedi fear nothing, Commander. Come aboard, then, if you insist. A hatchway will be illuminated for your shuttle.”

Mitth'raw'nuruodo inclined his head. ”I shall be there shortly.” He gestured somewhere offscreen, and the image vanished.

”You're going to allow him aboard?” Pakmillu demanded.

”Of course,” C'baoth said, an odd glint to his eve. ”Or don't you find it curious that this supposed resident of the Unknown Regions spoke to us in Basic?”

Lorana felt her breath catch. To her chagrin, she hadn't even noticed the oddness of that fact. ”No, there's something more here than meets the eye,” C'baoth continued. ”Let's find out what that something is.”

”Come aboard, then, if you insist,” C'baoth's voice echoed from the D-4 reactor monitor room speaker. ”A hatchway will be illuminated for your shuttle.”

There was a click. ”D-Four?” a different voice called. ”Any progress?”

With an effort, Uliar pulled his thoughts back to focus. ”Still negative here, Command,” he reported, running his eyes again over his displays.

”There's plenty of power going to the hyperdrive. It's just not doing anything once it gets there.”

”That's confirmed, Command,” Dillian Pressor's voice seconded from the hyperdrive monitor room half a dozen meters away. ”The readouts still insist we're in a gravfield.”

”So do everyone else's,” Command growled. ”All right. Keep running your diagnostics, and stand by.”

There was a click, and Command was gone. ”This is insane,” Pressor muttered.

”Maybe more insane than you think,” Uliar said, his mind racing. This might finally be their chance. ”Or didn't you notice that Commander Mitth-whatever was speaking Basic?”

There was a short pause. ”You mean he's from the Republic?”

”Well, he's sure not from the Unknown Regions,” Uliar said. ”We've got to find a way to talk to him.”

”Who, us?”

”Of course us,” Uliar shot back. ”You, me-the whole committee. If this guy's from the Republic, maybe he's got the authority to get C'baoth and the rest of the Jedi kicked off”

”It's not all the Jedi,” Pressor argued. ”Anyway, what would some hotshot from the Republic be doing way out here? It's more likely a pirate who found out about Outbound Flight and decided to grab some easy pickings.”

In his mind's eye Uliar saw the firing scores from C'baoth's Jedi meld tests. ”Trust me, Pressor, this thing is not easy pickings,” he said grimly. ”But whoever he is, we still have to try.”

”Fine,” Pressor said. ”But how? We're on duty.”

”To what?” Uliar countered. ”A reactor that's working perfectly and a hyperdrive that isn't working at all?”

”Yes, but-”

”But nothing,” Uliar cut him off. ”Come on-this may be our last chance to get Outbound Flight back to what it was supposed to be.”

There was a short pause. ”All right, I'm game,” Pressor said at last.

”But if this Mitth-whatever's already on his way, we don't have much time. Not if we're going to collect everyone and get all the way over to D-One.”

”You just collect them,” Uliar said. ”I'll make sure he stays put until you get there.”

”How?”

”No idea,” Uliar said. ”Just collect everyone, all right? And don't forget to bring the children. There's nothing like children when you're playing for sympathy.”

”Got it.”

Uliar keyed off the comet, and for a moment sat gazing unseeingly at his displays as he tried to think. D-1 was indeed a long way away, and if he knew C'baoth the conversation was likely to be short and unpleasant. If he tried to walk or even run, he was likely to miss Mitth-whatever completely.

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