Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (35 page)

Shigar
nodded. It was clear he, too, was impressed. "No sign of
Stryver?"

"That's
what the scopes say. "

"What
about the Empire?" asked Ula.

"The
only ships here are those fifteen and us, " said Jet.

"How
would the Sith know where to come, anyway?" asked Larin. "They
didn't have the navicomp. "

"They
might have thought of something else, like we did, " said Ula,
trying to keep his hopes up even though he phrased it as a warning.
"Best not to underestimate them. "

"Indeed,
" Larin said. "There it is, " she added, pointing
through the forward ports.

Ula
craned to see.

Sebaddon
was a small world, scarred by tectonic activity, just as Shigar had
predicted. Its surface ranged from gray basalt to red-glowing mantle
exposed to the atmosphere by constant plate motion. The atmosphere
was dense enough to breathe and showed signs of both clouds and
precipitation. There were no oceans, just the occasional shining
surfaces on the cooler parts of the planet that might have been
lakes.

"If
that's water, " Larin said, "the surface could actually be
habitable. "

Near
one of the "lakes" was a cluster of bright radiation
sources, indicating a city of some kind. Elsewhere on the unfolding
globe were other bright points, possibly mines or smaller
settlements.

"Someone's
been busy, " said Jet. "How long have they been here?"

"We
don't know, " said Shigar.

"I'd
guess twenty years, assuming only a small group to start with. The
infrastructure is patchy, and there are some places they haven't
spread out to yet. "

Jet
pointed at the viewscreen as he talked. There were no ships in orbit
or satellites. The tiny moon was completely untouched.

"Do
you want me to hail them?" he asked.

"No,
" Shigar told him. "Wait for Master Shan to arrive. She
should be the one to make first contact. "

"What
about Ula?" asked Larin. "He's the Republic envoy. "

"No
offense, " said Shigar, turning to speak directly to Ula,
"someone superior to both of us should handle this. I hope you
understand. "

"Completely,
" he said, with manufactured grace. He would have preferred to
bungle a Republic approach to the valuable world in the hope that his
enemy's overtures would be repulsed. But there was no way to argue
the point without making people suspicious. He would just have to
bide his time and hope another opportunity arose.

The
Auriga Fire slipped neatly into a long polar orbit around Sebaddon,
and the ship's engines fell blessedly quiet. Clunker disconnected
himself and returned to his place in the corner. It had been hours of
racket and mayhem ever since they'd commenced the last jump, and Ula
was profoundly glad it was over.

Jet
clearly shared his sentiments. The smuggler stood up and tapped at
the shielding above the instrument panels. "Come on, " he
muttered. "I know it's here somewhere... "

A
hidden panel popped open, and he slipped a hand inside. "Aha!
Those fragging Hutts didn't find everything, thank goodness. "

The
hand reappeared in view, holding a slender bottle of golden liquid.
Jet cracked the seal and knocked back a swig. "Anyone else for a
toast? To making it alive, despite crazy passengers and unreliable
directions?"

Jet's
behavior went largely ignored. For the moment, all eyes were on
Master Satele's approaching flotilla. Like Jet, she had chosen to
come around the black hole rather than try to power outward against
its considerable pull. The vast forces acting on the ships were much
more apparent from the outside. Ula was shocked by the speeds they
reached at their closest points to the black hole. One of them foiled
to make the correct insertion and drifted just a fraction off its
course. Instantly the hole snatched at it, tumbling it end-over-end
into the gaping maw. It disappeared with a scream of X-rays.

One
by one, the remaining fourteen ships came out the other side, shaken
but intact.

"See
if you can raise them yet, " said Shigar. "Code word
hawk-bat. "

"Will
do. " Jet capped the bottle and put it away before turning to
the comm. "Long-range subspace is scrambled by the singularity,
so you can't call home, but we should be able to open short-range
transmissions with them in a moment or two. "

"Weird
to think that this could all be over in a few minutes, " said
Larin as Jet attempted to hail the approaching ships. "I mean,
Stryver has either lost interest or fallen into the hole. The Empire
has no clue where we've gone. Once Master Shan gets in touch with
Lema Xandret, our job is done. "

"You've
forgotten the Hutts, " said Ula. "If they have put a homing
device on the ship, they'll soon track us down. "

"Only
if they're looking for the signal in the right direction. And who'd
think to look up here? It's the perfect hiding place. "

Jet
had a point, but Ula didn't want to admit it. Once Sebaddon was
annexed by the Republic, there was nothing he could do but report the
planet's position when he returned to Coruscant, long after the issue
of its ownership had been resolved. His mission was on the brink of
utter failure, and there didn't seem to be much he could do about it.

"That
Mandalorian seemed pretty canny to me, " chimed in Hetchkee. "I
can't see him falling into a black hole, unless he was pushed. "

"I'm
of the same mind, " said Shigar. "It would be unwise to
assume we've seen the last of him. "

"Got
her, " said Jet, falling back into his seat in satisfaction. "Go
ahead. Grand Master. "

"Very
good work, Shigar, " crackled the voice of Satele Shan from the
subspace communicator.

"Thank
you, Master. " The Padawan was clearly buoyed by the praise.

"The
Supreme Commander would like you to return Envoy Vii to Coruscant as
soon as possible. "

"With
your permission, " said Shigar, "we'd like to join the
companies you brought with you and observe the negotiations. "

"Hang
on a minute, mate-" said Jet, but Shigar cut him off.

"We've
been chasing Lema Xandret for so long. It seems a shame to come all
this way and just turn back. "

Ula
didn't know what he thought about that prospect. On the one hand, he
expected nothing more interesting than very familiar diplomatic
wrangling; on the other hand he was in no hurry to report his failure
to either of his masters.

"I
expected that, " Master Satele replied with the hint of a smile
in her voice. "Colonel Gurin has command of the fleet. I'll
suggest you fall in with Second Company and take the place of the
ship we lost. Expect a tactical feed shortly. "

"Thank
you again. Master, " Shigar said, surrendering control of the
comm to an unhappy Jet Nebula. Already instructions and telemetry
were flowing into the Auriga Fire from the approaching ships. When
Jet patched his ship's computer into the feed, it would become part
of a much larger tactical entity, no longer a free agent.

"Cheer
up, " said Shigar to Jet with a grin. "You've worked for
the Republic before, haven't you?"

"Sure,
but only for their money. Not for glory or the fun of it, like you
seem to. "

"It
won't be for long. I just want to see this. "

"You're
not fooling anyone, Shigar. I know you don't want to make good on
your deal with Tassaa Bareesh. "

Shigar
pulled down the corners of his mouth but said nothing to deny the
charge.

The
cruiser Master Satele occupied hove past them, a golden lozenge that
looked deceptively smaller than it actually was, with a command
nacelle protruding like an insect's sting from the rear and a hull
studded with turbolaser and ion cannon blisters. By craning his neck,
Ula could make out the telemetry streaming into the Auriga Fire. The
cruiser was called the Corellia. He recognized its name from Supreme
Command Stantorrs's reports.

Jet
surrendered his ship to Republic command. Soon they were just one of
eight vessels obeying instructions from Colonel Gurin. The assembly
of ships moved smoothly into a lower orbit, juggling course and
attitude changes with confident ease. Cheerfully business-like
intership chatter filled the comm, both biological and droid.
Clunker's usual blank posture became more attentive. Ula, too,
listened closely for valuable intel. In such tense times, military
protocols changed almost daily.

"I'm
registering activity down below, " said Jet. "Xandret and
her people know we're here. "

"Why
aren't they saying anything, then?" asked Larin.

"Perhaps
they're shy. "

"What
kind of activity?" asked Shigar.

"Heat
dumps, mainly, perhaps reactors firing up. A couple look like
industrial sites, but their signatures are off the scale. "

"Are
you passing the data on to Colonel Gurin?"

"He's
seeing exactly what we're seeing, unless he's admiring the view
elsewhere. "

The
galaxy formed a beautiful pinwheel backdrop as Satele Shan made her
first broadcast to the people of Sebaddon.

"My
name is Grand Master Satele Shan, " she said, broadcasting on
all frequencies, since most commonly used bands were clogged by
radiation from the black hole. "I come not in the name of the
Republic, but on behalf of the upholders of peace and justice across
the galaxy. "

"What's
that all about?" asked Hetchkee.

"It's
Jedi double talk, " said Larin. "She doesn't want the
Sebaddonites to think they're about to be invaded. "

"Even
though she's riding at the head of a fleet of Republic warships?"

"Even
so. "

Shigar
raised a hand for silence. No one had replied, so Master Satele was
trying again.

"We
have reason to believe that a diplomatic mission sent from Sebaddon
was intercepted before it could reach its destination. We are not
responsible for its destruction but I wish to convey to you our
sincerest regrets and to share with you the data we have collected
regarding this unfortunate incident. "

"More
activity, " said Jet. "Those hot spots are getting really
hot. "

"Are
you sure they're not volcanoes?" asked Larin.

He
didn't reply, and neither did the people of Sebaddon to Satele Shan's
last message.

"They
could be volcanoes, " said Ula, unwilling to dismiss any
suggestion Larin made, even one intended as a joke. "It would
make sense to tap into geothermal power on a world like this. If
they've found a way to store and release that power, that could be
what we're seeing here. "

"Or
they could be launch sites, " said Jet.

"If
they're sending up a welcoming party, why wouldn't they say so?"

"It
might not be the sort of welcoming party you're thinking of. "

"I
have come to speak with Lema Xandret, " the Grand Master tried a
third time. "I have reason to believe that she might be your
leader. "

At
last something broke the silence from the planet. A woman's voice
came over the airwaves, crackling faintly with interference.

"We
have no leader. "

"Very
well, " said Master Satele, "but am I speaking to Lema
now?"

"We
ask only to be left alone. "

"You
have nothing to fear from us. I swear it. We have come to talk, and
to offer you protection if you need it. You are under no obligation
to offer anything in return. "

"We
do not recognize your authority. "

Ula's
skin crawled. "That's what the hexes said. She sounds just like
them. "

Shigar
was nodding. "This must be Xandret. The hexes share her voice
and her philosophies because she was the one who made them. "

"We
have no wish to impose any kind of authority upon you, " Master
Satele was saying.