Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (29 page)

The
only person Ula blamed was himself. If he hadn't run away like a
coward, he might have been able to make a difference to the mission's
outcome. Larin was very capable, but she was also wounded. And now
with Stryver and the Sith gone, one of them presumably with the
navicomp, and the guards outside babbling about the Jedi someone had
captured, Tassaa Bareesh was unlikely to show anyone involved the
slightest clemency. He himself expected a wrathful backlash. All of
Hutt space would quiver until she found a way to mitigate her losses.

A
swarthy Weequay burst into the office. He didn't knock. His face was
melted into a permanent sneer.

"Up,
" he said, poking Ula with his force pike.

Ula's
stomach sank. Here it came, the moment he had been dreading. How
would Tassaa Bareesh deal with him? If he was lucky, it would be
quick. If he got what he deserved, it would be exceedingly slow.

The
Weequay poked him again, and he rose wearily to his feet. Several
tiny lizards fell squeaking from his back and crawled off under the
couch-bed. At least, he thought, he would be leaving this ghastly
menagerie behind.

He
was led out into the spaceport, where Encaasa Bareesh and a clutch of
Gamorreans were waiting, ceremonial axes at the ready. In their midst
was a dirty, beaten man whom Ula didn't immediately recognize. A
crude bandage stanched the flow of blood from a wound on his left
arm. A dozen other small cuts and grazes had been left unattended.

"Envoy
Vii, I don't believe we've been formally introduced, " the young
man formally said. "I'm Shigar Konshi, Jedi Padawan under Grand
Master Satele Shan. "

Ula
was so surprised by the unexpected deference that it was difficult to
respond in kind.

"I
thought you'd been captured. "

"I
was. "

"So
what are you doing here?"

"I'm
waiting for-" He glanced over Ula's shoulder. "Yes, here
they come now. "

Ula
turned and took in the scene behind him. If he'd been surprised into
rudeness before, he was utterly speechless now.

Larin
Moxla led a procession of a Weequay, a Twi'lek, Jet Nebula and his
droid, and one of Potannin's surviving guards. They weren't being
shoved along; they weren't in binders. Like Shigar, they were being
treated more like guests than prisoners.

"Nice
to see you again, mate, " said Jet, tossing him a casual salute.
"If you're the one who talked us out of that mess, I owe you a
dozen Reactor Cores. "

"Not
me. " Ula turned helplessly to Shigar for an explanation.

"I
cut a deal, " the Padawan said to all of them, although his eyes
kept returning to Larin. "Tassaa Bareesh is letting us go. "

"That's
suspiciously generous of her, " she said.

"Yes,
well, there's a catch. " Shigar pulled an unhappy face. "I'll
tell you when we're on our way. "

"You
have a lift, too?" asked Ula, hope beginning to bloom.

"Better
than that, " Shigar said. "I have a ship and a captain. "

"Anyone
we know?" asked Jet hopefully.

The
Twi'lek addressed Jet in clipped, officious terms. "The great
Tassaa Bareesh has instructed her nephew to release your vessel, but
your contract with our employer remains in force. You will provide
passage for the Jedi and his companions to destinations of their
choosing. You will not cut and run the moment you leave our airspace.
You will return with the information gathered and provide said
information in full. Any fiduciary losses incurred during this
expedition will be your responsibility. "

"What
about the profits?"

"They
will be distributed the normal way. "

Jet
grimaced. Ula guessed that "the normal way" meant all for
Tassaa Bareesh and none for anyone else.

"It's
not much of a deal, " Jet said, "and, well, call me a
stickler for details if you like, but I don't remember there ever
being a contract between us. "

The
Twi'lek smiled. "There is now. "

"I
guess that's the catch, " said Larin.

"Well,
" said Jet, "at least we're alive and soon to be in motion.
There's nothing that can't be solved, I've found, with the
application of a little velocity. "

He
winked at Ula, who was still too shocked by the sudden turn of events
to manage a natural expression.

"Where
are we going, exactly?" he asked the assembled group.

"After
Stryver, " said Shigar. "And the longer we stand around
here, the bigger the lead he'll have. "

He
bowed to Tassaa Bareesh's nephew, who grunted something in reply. The
Weequay and Gamorreans dispersed, marching with heavy tread off to
pursue more important tasks. When the spaceport doors opened to allow
them admittance, Jet took the fore, whistling jauntily as he led them
to his berth.

"Don't
expect much, " he said. "The Auriga Fire is a loyal old
thing but has seen better days. Like you, eh, old buddy?" He
clapped Clunker on the shoulder, prompting a rattling noise that
disappeared down the inside of the droid's left leg. "It'll get
you from A to B, but I can't speak to anything much else. "

He
stopped at the disembarkation ramp, where a series of carrybags had
been lined up. "Hello, " he said. "Who might these
belong to?"

"I
think they're mine, " said Ula. His quarters had obviously been
emptied while he had wallowed in self-pity in Encaasa Bareesh's
office.

"So
you're joining us, Envoy Vii?" Jet asked with a knowing gleam in
his eye.

"Yes,
" he said. "If-ah, if that's not inconvenient. "

"I
can't guarantee that you'll get back to Coruscant anytime soon. "

"That's
okay. I would very much like to leave here, immediately. "

"Right
you are. "

Jet
keyed an elaborate code into his berth, then another into his ship's
air lock. The hull was pitted and scarred with dozens of
micrometeorite strikes. Ula fretted about the state of the ship's
particle fields, but supposed that if Jet had survived this long,
they couldn't be that bad.

The
air lock slid open.

Jet
waved him up the ingress ramp. "After you, then. Mind the step.
Crew quarters to your right. Guess that's what you quality as now.
Someone's got to help me fly this thing straight. "

Ula
grabbed a carrybag as he went by. His sole remaining escort did the
same. The ramp creaked and swayed. He wrinkled his nose at the stink
emanating from the ship's interior. It smelled like stale Rodian. The
Auriga Fire would undoubtedly be a far cry from the official
transport he had enjoyed on the way to Hutta.

Still,
he didn't care. Utter disaster had somehow been avoided, and for that
he was grateful. He was alive, and so was Larin; he had clean clothes
and transport; there was even a chance he might be able to return
with information for his masters on Dromund Kaas. When he thought
back to the despair he had been feeling just minutes ago, his present
circumstances seemed positively optimistic.

"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, shield generators, and comms at the upper point;
and a cockpit 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 cockpit was one level up, accessed by a ladder.
Additional holds filled every available piece of ship space,
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
ship 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 shields were well
supplied with power, too. Jet might talk down its capabilities, Ula
decided, but the ship could undoubtedly hold its own.

There
was just enough room for everyone in the cockpit. Shigar 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 ship's flight-control systems and shut
down his photoreceptors. That left Ula and Hetchkee to ride out the
short hop to orbit in the passenger seats.

As
the brown atmosphere faded away to stars, Ula instantly felt lighter,
both physically and in spirit. Jet deftly guided the ship 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 Shigar, who shifted awkwardly in his seat.

"Easier
asked than answered, I'm afraid, " he said. "Tassaa 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 Shigar, "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 ship's route
back, and you get empty space to the edge of the galaxy, and then a
lot more empty space 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 Space? 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 Tassaa Bareesh
you had the slightest chance of finding this place?" he asked
Shigar. "It seems hopeless to me. "

Shigar
looked embarrassed. "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 Shigar. "This, and your
mysterious ways. "

Shigar's
eyebrows went down in confusion, then down even farther in a frown.
"No, " he said, pushing the metal away from him. "It
won't work. "