Star Wars: Survivor's Quest

CHAPTER 9

"There's really nothing to tell," Jinzler protested as Mara led him to one of the lounge's couches and gave him a not-entirely-gentle push down onto it. "I was sitting right here, watching the stars, when the lights went out."

"Were you alone?" Luke asked, stretching out with the Force. The man clearly knew he was in trouble, yet was amazingly calm for all that. It was the sort of calm Luke had seen before, sometimes in a person who no longer had anything to lose.

Unfortunately, he'd also seen it in people with hidden tricks up their sleeves, or in people who fully believed they could lie their way out of anything. So far, he still couldn't tell which category Jinzler fit into.

"By then I was," Jinzler said. "A little earlier I'd been talking with one of the Geroons—Estosh, the young one—but he left when the engines started acting up. He said he was worried there was going to be another fire. I stayed here until the lights went out, as I said, at which point I decided something serious must be happening and started back toward my quarters."

In the ceiling above them, the lights abruptly came back on. That part, at least, was apparently fixed. "Why did you go through the Chiss quarters?" Luke asked. "Why didn't you use one of the outer corridors? They're better lit."

"Yes, I know." Jinzler shrugged. "I didn't really think about it, I suppose. At any rate, I heard someone moving around in the darkness and went to investigate."

"Like a complete idiot," Mara pointed out, standing behind him. "Suppose he'd taken a shot at you?"

Jinzler's lips compressed briefly. "I guess I didn't think about that, either."

Mara glowered a look over his head at Luke. Luke shrugged microscopically: he couldn't detect any lie either.

Which, unfortunately, wasn't conclusive proof one way or the other. "All right, so you heard someone," he said. "What did you see?"

Jinzler shook his head. "Nothing, I'm afraid. Whoever it was must have heard me coming, because there was no one in the generator room when I got there. I was looking around, trying to see if I could spot anything out of place, when all of you burst in on me."

Luke looked back at the lounge door, where the stormtrooper and the two Chiss were silently observing the interrogation. The Chiss, he noted, had made a point of standing as far away from the armored Imperial as they could without abandoning the doorway entirely. "Thank you all for your assistance," he told them. "Jedi Skywalker and I will handle it from here. You may return to your other duties."

"He was found in a restricted area," one of the Chiss said stiffly. "He must answer to General Drask."

"He's an ambassador from the New Republic government," Luke countered. "There are certain rights and privileges associated with that title. Furthermore, I don't remember General Drask or Aristocra Formbi saying anything about any part of the ship being restricted."

"What about him?" the other Chiss demanded, jabbing a contemptuous finger toward the stormtrooper. "He cannot claim ambassador's privileges."

"He was with me," Mara said. "Or were you planning to deny ambassador's privileges to me, as well?"

The Chiss looked at each other, and Luke held his breath. Technically, neither he nor Mara had any official standing here, apart from being Formbi's guests. He still didn't know what had gone wrong with the Chaf Envoy's lights and engines, but he suspected Drask would be perfectly justified in declaring a state of emergency and confining all non-Chiss to their quarters.

In which case, Mara's attempt to pull rank might be looked upon very suspiciously, reflecting not only on them but on Formbi as well. In the subtle pull-war going on between the two Chiss leaders, that might have long-reaching consequences.

But for now, at least, the crewers didn't seem inclined to make a challenge out of it. "We will wait in the corridor," the first Chiss said. "When you are finished here, we will escort you back to the public areas of the vessel."

He looked at the stormtrooper. "The faceless soldier is invited to return to his proper place right now," he added.

The stormtrooper stirred, as if choosing from among the various possible responses. "Go ahead," Mara said before he could pick one. "Please thank Commander Fel for your assistance."

"Acknowledged." Swiveling in a crisp military about-face, the stormtrooper disappeared out the door. The two Chiss gave short bows and followed.

Quietly, Luke let out the breath he'd been holding. One of the best things about stormtroopers, he reflected, was their willingness to instantly and unquestioningly obey orders. It was, of course, also one of the worst things about them. "All right, Jinzler," he said, pulling a chair up in front of the older man and sitting down facing him. "We've been very patient with you up to now. But game time is over. We want to know who you are and what you're doing here."

"I know you've been patient," Jinzler said, nodding. "And I very much appreciate it. I know you've both stuck your necks out for me—"

"Stalling time is over, too," Mara interrupted, coming around from behind the couch to face him, remaining on her feet as she leveled the full weight of her stare down at him. "Let's hear it."

Jinzler sighed, some of the stiffness going out of his shoulders as he dropped his gaze to the deck. "My name's Dean Jinzler, just as I told you," he said. "I work sort of on the edges of Talon Karrde's intelligence organization—"

"We know all that," Mara cut him off again. "What are you doing here?"

"A gentleman came to me a little over eight weeks ago," Jinzler said. "A rather old gentleman, flying a spacecraft of a type I'd never seen before."

"What was his name?" Luke asked.

Jinzler hesitated. "He said he didn't want me spreading it around... but I suppose you two would be all right. He said his name was Car'das."

Luke looked at Mara, feeling a ripple of shock from her that echoed his own surprise. That was a name he remembered quite well.

"Car'das?" Mara demanded. "Jorj Car'das?"

"That's the one," Jinzler said, nodding. "He said he'd once been an associate of Karrde's. Do you know him?"

"Never met the man," Mara said, her voice carefully neutral. "Though not from lack of trying. How do you know him?"

"I don't, really," Jinzler said. "I'd never seen him before that day. He came to me and suggested—strongly—that I put in for a transfer to the sector relay post at Comra. He said there would likely be a message coming through soon that would be of great personal interest to me."

"And you just went?" Luke asked. "Not even knowing who he was?"

"I know it sounds crazy," Jinzler admitted. "But frankly, I had nowhere else to be just then. Besides, there was something about him..." He trailed off.

"Okay, so you transferred to Comra," Mara said. "I take it this message he mentioned was the transmission addressed to Luke that you filched?"

Jinzler winced. "Yes," he admitted. "It showed up about, oh, I guess it was a little over a week ago now. I—" He looked up at Mara, his lip twitching in a slightly shamefaced smile. "—I filched it, grabbed one of our courier ships, and headed for the rendezvous point Formbi had specified."

"Only the ship didn't make it," Luke commented.

Jinzler blinked. "How did you know that?"

"We're Jedi," Luke reminded the other pointedly. "What happened?"

"The hyperdrive gave out in the Flacharia system," Jinzler said. "It would have taken me more than a week to repair it by myself, and I didn't have enough money to hire out the job. Fortunately, at that point Car'das showed up again and offered me a lift."

"Really," Mara said. "What an intriguing coincidence."

Jinzler lifted a hand, palm upward. "Maybe he was following me to make sure I got here okay. I never saw him on my sensors, but with a courier that doesn't mean a whole lot. He did say—" He broke off.

"He did say what?" Luke prompted.

"It didn't make any sense to me," Jinzler said. "All he said was that he was trying to fulfill a promise he'd been neglecting for a very long time."

"Did he say what that promise was?" Mara asked. "Or to whom it had been made?"

"Neither," Jinzler said. "Actually, the way he said it, I had the odd impression he wasn't talking to me so much as he was talking to himself."

"Okay," Luke said. "Go on."

"That's all there is, really," Jinzler said. "We came into the outer Crustai system and Car'das sent a message in. Formbi came out in the Chaf Envoy's glider and picked me up."

"What did he think of Car'das?" Mara asked. "Or had Car'das left by then?"

"Actually, the two of them had a long talk together while I was transferring across to the glider," Jinzler said. "I didn't understand the language, but it sounded a lot like the one the Geroons were speaking when they first arrived. They finished their conversation, I introduced myself as Ambassador Jinzler from Coruscant, and Formbi brought me back to the ship. And that was that."

Luke nodded. Straightforward enough, and they could presumably confirm some of the details with Formbi. Assuming Formbi was willing to talk about it, of course. "Okay, that's the how," he said. "Now let's hear the why."

"There was a Jedi aboard Outbound Flight," Jinzler said. "Well, actually there were several Jedi aboard. This particular one was named Lorana Jinzler."

He seemed to brace himself. "She was my sister."

He stopped. Luke frowned at Mara, caught her own suspicious puzzlement. "And?" he prompted.

"What do you mean, and?" Jinzler asked.

"So your sister died with Outbound Flight, and you wanted to go pay your respects to her memory," Luke said. "So what was so dark and personal that you couldn't tell us earlier?"

Jinzler lowered his eyes, his hands wrapping tightly together in his lap. "We didn't part on... very good terms," he said at last. "I'd rather not say any more if you don't mind."

Luke felt his lip twist. More evasion, which seemed to be an integral part of this man.

But at the same time there was the sense of truth to his pattern of thought and emotion. He glanced a question at Mara, caught her reluctant agreement. "All right," he said. "We'll let that part sit for now. But."

He let the word hang in the air a moment like a threatening sandstorm in the distance. "We may need to hear more before we're done here," he continued. "If and when that time comes, you will tell us everything. Clear?"

Jinzler straightened up. "Clear," he agreed. "And thank you."

"Don't thank us yet," Luke warned, nodding toward the door. "The Chiss are waiting. Go back to your quarters."

"And the next time you think you hear something suspicious, use one of the corridor comm panels to call it in," Mara added. "If you'd done that, we might have caught him."

"I understand," Jinzler said. "I'll see you in the morning."

He crossed the lounge and disappeared into the corridor. "Well?" Luke asked as the door slid shut behind him. "What do you think?"

"For starters, I'm getting tired of this piecemeal approach," Mara growled, stalking over to the viewport and leaning against it as she stared out at the stars. "I'd like nothing better than to sit him down and drag the whole story out of him. With hydrogrips, if necessary."

"You really think that's the best way to approach it?" Luke asked, crossing to the viewport to stand beside her.

"No, of course not," she said with a sigh. "I just wish we could, that's all."

"At least we've got a few new puzzle pieces to work with," Luke pointed out. "Let's start with Jorj Car'das. You think this is the same man Karrde asked you and Lando to try to track down ten years ago?"

"Who else could it be?" Mara countered. "Contacting someone working for Karrde's organization and flying a ship that wasn't a New Republic design? No, it's got to be him."

"What makes you think his ship wasn't a New Republic design?"

"Jinzler has a certificate in hyperdrive tech," Mara reminded him. "If he didn't recognize the ship, it had to be something pretty exotic."

"Mm," Luke said. "I don't suppose you ever got Karrde to open up about who Car'das actually was."

"Karrde, no," Mara said. "But I was able to coax a bit out of Shada a couple of years ago. Apparently sometime in or around the Clone Wars era Car'das started up a smuggling operation, building it up into something that rivaled even the Hutts' organizations. A few years after that, he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, and one of his lieutenants took over for him."

"Karrde?"

"Right," Mara said. "No one apparently heard anything of or from Car'das until you found that beckon call on Dagobah after Thrawn's return and Karrde sent Lando and me out hunting for him. When the Caamas Document crisis hit three years ago and the New Republic started to tear itself apart over what to do about the Bothans, Karrde and Shada took the Wild Karrde and went out hunting for him themselves."

"Did they find him?"

"Shada was rather evasive on that point, but it seems clear that they did," Mara said. "Reading between the lines, I'd also guess Car'das had something to do with the dramatic collapse of that Return-of-Thrawn hysteria that happened while we were out on Nirauan. She also mentioned a huge data card library that she said rivaled the official New Republic archives on Coruscant."

"Karrde's former mentor," Luke murmured thoughtfully. "And Karrde with his deep and abiding interest in gathering information. It fits, I suppose."

"What fits?" Mara asked. "The bit about Car'das knowing something was in the works and pointing Jinzler to exactly the right place at the right time to intercept an incoming message?"

"Guessing the right place, at least, wouldn't have taken anything special," Luke pointed out. "Comra's the logical spot to pick up a transmission coming from Nirauan or Chiss space. If Car'das knew or guessed Formbi would be contacting us, that's where the message would come through."

"That assumes he knew the message was on its way," Mara pointed out.

"Right," Luke agreed. "And that part would have taken something special. Though even there you'll notice he seemed to be a bit off on his timing. Jinzler was at the station a good seven weeks before the message came through."

"Maybe Formbi had to argue with the Nine Families longer than he expected before he got permission to contact us," Mara suggested. "You can't dock Car'das points for someone else's bureaucracy."

"I suppose not," Luke conceded. "There's also the question of how he could have found out about Jinzler and his sister."

"Yes—Jinzler's sister," Mara growled. "I presume you've noticed that up until a couple of days ago there would have been a perfect way to check out that part of his story."

Luke nodded. "Fel's Outbound Flight operational manual and its personnel lists."

"Except that it was stolen," Mara said. "And now all of a sudden he comes up with a sister. Convenient timing, wouldn't you say?"

"I might," Luke had to admit. "But that's not proof that he took the manual."

"We're not exactly rolling in proof on any part of this," Mara pointed out. "Still, if Jinzler didn't take the cards, who did? And why?"

"I don't know," Luke said, half turning to look back toward the lounge exit. "Right now, I'm more intrigued by the question of what someone was doing lurking in the dark up here. Unless you think Jinzler made that part up to try to deflect suspicion from himself."

"Oddly enough, I don't," Mara said slowly. "He strikes me as being too smart to trot out such a lame story without dressing it up a bit."

Luke frowned. "Dressing it up how?"

"Suppose he wanted to do some mischief in the shield generator room," Mara said. "Say, someplace over at the starboard end. The first thing a real professional would do when he got inside would be to go to the portside end and open one of the storage cabinets there. Not too obviously, but enough to see if you were looking for it. Then, if he gets caught, he still spins his story about chasing down an intruder, but adds that he got a glimpse of someone over by the portside cabinets before he took off."

"The investigators go to look, and they find the open cabinet," Luke said, nodding his understanding.

"Right," Mara said. "Not only does it make his story play better, but it also automatically shirts attention away from his real target."

Luke nodded. "Simple, but effective."

"All the best tricks are," Mara agreed. "It's basically the same thing we assumed our saboteur was doing right from the start: drawing attention to the engines, then going and hitting something in the bow."

"Right," Luke said. "Assuming the engine thing was a diversion."

"Also true," Mara admitted. "It could just as well be that that was a genuine accident, and that Jinzler or someone else simply took advantage of it to do some late-night skulking."

Luke shook his head. "This is starting to make my head hurt," he said. "If Jinzler set the fire to steal Fel's Outbound Flight data, shouldn't that have been the end of it? What would he have needed to do up here?"

"Who knows?" Mara said. "He may be on some special mission, either for Car'das or someone else, and had to steal the operational manual first so that we couldn't crack his story."

"And since most of what we know comes solely from him, we wouldn't even be able to guess from that what he's really up to."

"Actually, everything we know about him comes solely from him," Mara corrected. "Karrde told us about Dean Jinzler's background, but we only have our gray-eyed friend's word for it that he really is Dean Jinzler."

Luke hissed between his teeth. That one hadn't even occurred to him. "Which means what I said about us having a few more puzzle pieces is meaningless, isn't it?"

"They could be pieces to an entirely imaginary puzzle," Mara agreed. "And it gets worse. It could even be we have two different sets of late-night skulkers, each with different agendas, working either parallel or at cross-purposes to each other. Don't forget, we had not only Jinzler up here but at least two Chiss crewers and one of Fel's stormtroopers, as well."

"And if Jinzler's telling the truth, one of the Geroons," Luke reminded her. "All we're missing is Formbi and Drask to round out the suspect list."

"Right," Mara said. "On the other hand, Jinzler's the only one who got caught where he wasn't supposed to be. How does that story about just happening to head through the Chiss quarters strike you?"

"It's actually not as far-fetched as it sounds," Luke said. "If there was a Jedi in his family, he could easily be Force-sensitive enough to be nudged to the right place at the right time without knowing how or why he'd done it. Not many people know enough about Jedi family patterns to spin that sort of subtlety into a lie, either."

"Car'das might have known," Mara said. "And whatever he senses or doesn't sense, Jinzler still needed Car'das's advice to get himself transferred to Comra in time." She waved a hand. "Yes, I know that's not the same thing."

"Still, we do keep coming back to Car'das, don't we?" Luke murmured. "I wonder what he and Formbi might have had to talk about."

"No idea," Mara said. "As far as I know, Karrde himself never did any work out in the Unknown Regions. If Car'das made it out this far, it was before he and Karrde met."

"Or after Car'das disappeared," Luke pointed out. "We don't know anything about him during that period, either."

"Maybe we should go ask Formbi," Mara suggested.

"Sure, why not?" Luke said. "We need to warn him to check the shield generators, anyway."

Mara shook her head. "I don't think the generators were the target," she said. "I think it was something else."

"Any idea what?"

"Not really," Mara conceded. "But if I had to vote, I'd vote for someone putting a tap on the sensor lines. Remember when we were called into the command center earlier this evening and Formbi was listing all the dangers we would be facing inside the cluster?"

"Yes," Luke said, wondering where she was going with this.

"Among the various natural hazards to life and happiness, he also mentioned something called firepoints," she went on. "I've been meaning to ask him what exactly those are, but I think I may have figured it out." She pointed out the viewport. "You see that asteroid over there? The one with all the dark spots?"

Luke peered out into the brilliant starscape. A spotted asteroid... "Yes," he said as he picked it out of the shadows.

"Ten to one it's either a missile cluster or a fighter nest," Mara said. "Those dark spots are almost certainly the ends of launching tubes."

"A firepoint," Luke murmured, studying the asteroid. There were a lot of dark spots on it, too. "Aptly named."

"Very aptly named," Mara agreed. "An unfriendly ship that stops here for a nav check is going to be in for a world of hurt."

She looked at Luke, her expression grim in the reflected starlight. "Anyone who might be thinking about taking on the Chiss would have a definite interest in locating as many of those defenses as possible."

Luke felt his stomach tighten. "Fel?"

"Or the Geroons might have an interested client with an unused planet to swap them," Mara said. "Jinzler could be fronting for someone, too."

"Car'das?"

She shrugged. "Could be. We do know that Car'das likes collecting information. This would certainly come under that heading."

"Point," Luke said, taking one last look around at the stars. The last refuge of the Chiss people, Formbi had called it. Who out there would be interested in learning its secrets? "I think we've pushed this set of puzzle pieces around as much as we can. Let's go see if we can pick up another piece or two."

Mara pushed away from the viewport. "Formbi?"

Luke nodded. "Formbi."

They found the Aristocra in a service corridor midway between the control center and the main engines, watching in silence as a pair of Chiss crewers dug into an open conduit access panel with long, tonglike probes. A third crewer stood expectantly by with a sealed metal container. "Ah, our noble Jedi," Formbi said as they maneuvered past the workers in the cramped space and came to his side. "I understand you've been busy this evening."

"I see you have, too, Aristocra," Luke pointed out. "Have you found the problem?"

Formbi nodded. "Line creepers, as we suspected."

"Line creepers?"

"Long, slender creatures that chew their way into power and control systems and live on the electrical power generated within," Formbi explained. "They're a vermin we've worked very hard to destroy or contain."

"Sounds like conduit worms," Mara commented. "That's a type of vermin we've tried hard to destroy."

"With no more success than we've had, I suspect," Formbi said.

"True," Luke said. "What was this particular batch working on? The engine control lines?"

"Yes," Formbi said. "That's what caused the flutter you apparently felt earlier. We're clearing them out now."

"What about the lights in the forward part of the ship?" Mara asked. "Did they get in there, too?"

"No," Formbi said. "It appears someone merely shut them down."

"Accidentally?" Mara asked.

Formbi's glowing eyes seemed to blaze a bit brighter as he looked at her. "What do you think?" he countered.

"We think the Chaf Envoy has some serious problems," Luke said. "We're not sure everyone aboard wants this mission to succeed."

He stretched out to the Force, hoping for a telling reaction. But Formbi merely shook his head. "You're wrong, Master Skywalker," he said quietly. "Everyone aboard very much wishes the mission to succeed."

"Maybe so," Mara said. "But it may not be the same mission as the one you have scheduled."

"I presume you've heard of the incident in the bow a few minutes ago?" Luke asked.

"I have," Formbi said. "Captain Talshib is already searching for damage or theft in that part of the vessel."

"Good," Mara said. "What did you and Jorj Car'das talk about?"

Luke had been trying, without success, to spark a reaction from the elderly Chiss. Mara's attempt was just as futile. "Jorj Car'das?" Formbi asked, lifting his eyebrows politely, his composure not even flickering.

"The human who brought Ambassador Jinzler to Crustai," Mara said. "The ambassador said you two spoke at length."

Formbi smiled faintly. "And you suspect something sinister about it?" He shook his head. "Not at all. He introduced the ambassador to me and listed his credentials and honors. I greeted him in turn, and welcomed him on behalf of the Chiss Ascendancy."

"And you did all this in that trade language, Minnisiat?"

"At the time I doubt he was aware I could speak your New Republic Basic," Formbi said.

"And you'd never met Car'das before?" Mara persisted.

"How could I possibly know anyone from the New Republic?" Formbi asked patiently. "I've never been farther than a few light-years outside Chiss space. Ah."

He pointed over Luke's shoulder. Luke turned to see one of the workers pull a long, segmented worm from the conduit with his tongs. The third Chiss had his container open, and the first eased the worm carefully into the opening. "A line creeper," Formbi identified it as the third crewer sealed the container again. "A young one, too, from its size. If left undisturbed long enough, they can grow to be as long as an adult Chiss and thick enough to nearly fill a conduit that size."

"I can see why you don't want them around," Luke said. "Any idea how it got in there?"

"Not yet," the Aristocra said. "We'll begin a thorough search of the vessel in the morning." His eyes bored into Luke's. "Of our vessel, and all others associated with it."

"Of course," Luke said, sensing Mara's sudden wariness. "May I ask exactly what this search will entail?"

"For you, it will most likely be noninvasive," Formbi assured them. "Line creepers exhale a distinctive mixture of gases that is quite easy to detect. If none of those gases is detected in your vessel's compartments, that will be the end of the procedure."

"And if you do detect any?" Mara asked.

"Then we will of course need to examine those areas more thoroughly," Formbi said. "But you should have nothing to be concerned about. If you haven't opened your vessel elsewhere in this region of space, it's highly unlikely you could have picked up any vermin. But we must check nevertheless."

"We understand," Luke said. "Actually, if one of these things is aboard the Sabre, we'd be just as glad for you to get rid of it. Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Thank you, but no," Formbi said. "We'll alert you before entering your vessel, of course."

"We thank you in turn," Luke said, sensing the dismissal in his tone. "We'll see you in the morning, then."

"One other thing," Formbi said as they turned to go. "I'm informed that both you and Jedi Skywalker activated your lightsabers during your search this evening."

"Yes, we did," Mara said. "We were hunting a possible saboteur, if you recall. Not to mention defending ourselves against a Chiss warrior with a twitchy trigger finger."

"Yes—that," Formbi said, sounding embarrassed. "An unfortunate occurrence. The warriors have been spoken to, and it will not happen again."

Something seemed to flicker through the Aristocra's eyes too fast for Luke to catch. "But in return, I must ask you not to activate your weapons again as long as you are aboard a vessel of the Chiss Ascendancy."

Luke frowned. "Not at all?"

"Not at all," Formbi said flatly.

"What if we're in danger?" Mara demanded. "Or if you or one of your people is in danger?"

"Then of course you may do whatever you deem necessary," Formbi said. "But General Drask has insisted that the casual waving of alien weapons aboard the Chaf Envoy will no longer be tolerated."

"Casual?" Mara echoed disbelievingly. "Aristocra—"

"We understand," Luke hurriedly cut her off. "We'll do our best to comply with the general's order."

"Thank you," Formbi said, dipping his head slightly. "Until the morning, then."

The corridors were deserted as they made their way back. Just the same, Luke waited until they were in the privacy of their quarters before breaking the silence. It made for better security, and also gave his quietly seething wife time to cool down. "What do you think?" he asked when the door was solidly sealed behind them.

"My low opinion of General Drask just dropped a few points," she said darkly. "Of all the stupid, childish—"

"Take it easy," Luke soothed, sitting down on the bed and pulling off his boots. "And don't blame Drask, at least not directly. I don't think he was the one who gave the order."

Mara frowned. "Then who did? Formbi?"

Luke nodded. "That's the feeling I was getting."

"Interesting," Mara murmured thoughtfully. "And the reason?"

"No idea," Luke said. "But don't forget how annoyed Drask was when we helped the Five-Oh-First put out the fire. Formbi may be playing politics again, trying to give Drask fewer things to complain about."

"Terrific," Mara muttered as she started again to get ready for bed. "It's so nice to spend time with an honorable people like the Chiss."

"It could be worse," Luke pointed out. "We could be doing this with Bothans. What did you think about his story?"

"The one about Car'das?" Mara snorted under her breath. "He's lying through his teeth on that one, too. There's no reason to let Car'das rattle off Jinzler's list of alleged credentials in an exotic trade language when he understands Basic. He could have switched languages anywhere along the way, just as soon as it was his turn to speak."

"I was thinking that, too," Luke said. "The obvious conclusion is that they didn't want Jinzler to know what they were talking about."

"Exactly," Mara said. "You'll also notice Formbi never actually answered my question as to whether he knew Car'das from somewhere else. And don't forget that they held their little rendezvous in the outer Crustai system where Drask and the rest of the Chiss couldn't eavesdrop."

She shook her head. "They're planning something, Luke," she said darkly. "Something devious. Possibly devious and nasty."

"I know," Luke said, pulling her down onto the bed beside him and wrapping his arm around her. "Do you want to leave?"

"Of course not," she said. "I still want to see Outbound Flight, assuming that part of the story isn't a lie, too. Besides, if there's some trap being spun here—whether for us, Fel, or Drask—we're really the only ones available to stop it."

She shifted position to nestle herself more comfortably against his side. "Unless, of course, you want to leave that to the Geroons?" she added.

Luke smiled at the thought. "No, I think we'd better handle it," he agreed. "Pleasant dreams, Mara."

His last mental image, as he drifted off to sleep, was a darkly amusing one of Bearsh and Estosh and the other Geroons shaking in terror as they stood huddled in one of the ship's corridors, trying desperately to hold blasters steady.

Fel looked up from his desk as Grappler sat down across from him. "Yes?"

"It is in place," the other said, his large eyes reflecting the light from Fel's desk lamp. "Tapped into the navigational repeater lines."

Fel laid aside the datapad he'd been reading. "That was quick," he commented. "Any chance of the Chiss spotting it?"

The orange highlights of Grappler's green skin faded to yellow, the Eickarie equivalent of a head shake. "Not by any casual search," he said. "It is in a conduit behind a cabinet, not directly behind an access panel."

Fel nodded. "Nicely done," he said. "What about our Jedi? Do they suspect anything?"

"Of course they suspect," Grappler said, the highlights becoming orange again. "But they know nothing." His mouth opened in a sardonic grin. "Jedi Skywalker asked me to thank you for my assistance to her."

"Don't underestimate them," Fel warned. "I've heard stories about these two, both from my father and from Admiral Parck. They're sharp, they're quick, and they're very, very deadly."

"I would have it no other way," Grappler assured his commander, stiffening his shoulders proudly. "I look forward to learning their full measure in combat."

Fel took a deep breath. So the game had begun. Time to sit back and let it play. "You'll get your chance," he promised Grappler softly. "I guarantee it."