Outbound Flight (звёздные войны)

by Timothy Zahn

  "Let's dispense with the pleasantries, Chancellor," C'baoth said stiffly, pulling a datapad from his belt pouch as he strode forward. "This isn't a social visit."

  The young man beside Palpatine straightened up, his eyes flashing. "You will not speak to the Supreme Chancellor in that tone," he said firmly.

  "Mind your tongue, underling," C'baoth growled. "Take your bureaucratic trivia and get out."

  The young man didn't budge. "You will not speak to the Supreme Chancellor in that tone," he repeated.

  "It's all right, Kinman," Palpatine said soothingly, holding out a restraining hand to the young man as he rose to his feet. "I'm sure Master C'baoth doesn't mean any disrespect."

  For a moment C'baoth and Palpatine stared at each other across the wide expanse of the desk, an almost visible tension rippling the air between them. Then, to Lorana's relief, the Jedi Master's lip twitched. "No, of course not," he said in a marginally more courteous voice.

  "As I said," Palpatine said, smiling fondly at the young man. "You haven't met my new assistant and adviser, have you, Master C'baoth? This is Kinman Doriana."

  "Pleased and honored," C'baoth said, in a tone that made it clear that he was neither.

  "As am I, Master C'baoth," Doriana replied. "It's always a privilege to meet one of those who've dedicated their lives to safeguarding the Republic."

  "As it is for me, as well," Palpatine agreed. "What can I do for you, Master C'baoth?"

  "You know very well what you can do for me," C'baoth growled. Without waiting for an invitation, he seated himself in one of the chairs and set his datapad on the desk. "In a word: Outbound Flight."

  "Naturally," Palpatine said tiredly, gesturing Lorana to the chair beside C'baoth as he reseated himself in his own chair. "What is it now?"

  "This." Waving a hand, C'baoth used the Force to send the datapad sliding across the desk to stop in front of the Supreme Chancellor. "The Senate Appropriations Committee has cut my funding again."

  Palpatine sighed. "What do you want me to say, Master C'baoth? I can't dictate to the Senate what it should do. I certainly can't force a stiff-necked group like Appropriations to see things our way."

  "Ourway?" C'baoth echoed. "It'sour way now, is it? I seem to remember a time not very long ago when you weren't at all enthusiastic about this whole project."

  "Perhaps you should examine your memory more closely," Palpatine said, a slight edge creeping into his tone. "It's the Jedi Council, not me, that's been backing away from Outbound Flight for the past few months. In fact, I was under the impression Master Yoda had even changed his mind about allowing more than one or two Jedi to join the expedition."

  "I will deal with Master Yoda when the time comes," C'baoth said firmly. "Meanwhile, you're the one holding the project's fate in your hands."

  "And I've done everything in my power to assist you," Palpatine reminded him. "You have your ships-six brand-new Dreadnaughts, straight off the Rendili StarDrive assembly line. You have the central storage core you wanted, and the turbolift pylons ready to connect the whole thing together. You have the crews and passengers in training on Yaga Minor-"

  "Ah!" C'baoth interrupted, jabbing a finger at the datapad still sitting untouched in front of the Supreme Chancellor. "In fact, I donot have my passengers, not at all. Some idiot bureaucrat has changed the population profile to consist of crews only, with no families or other potential colonists."

  Reluctantly, Lorana thought, Palpatine picked up the data-pad. "A cost-saving decision, most likely," he said, scrolling through the data. "Having all those extra people aboard would mean more supplies and equipment."

  "What it would mean is a cancellation of the entire project," C'baoth countered. "What sense does it make to send an expedition to another galaxy if there's no chance of planting any colonies once we're there?"

  "Perhaps that's the committee's point," Palpatine suggested quietly. "The political situation has changed considerably since You and the Council first proposed this project."

  "Which is what makes Outbound Flight all the more important," C'baoth said. "We need to find out what dangers or threats might be lurking out in the Unknown Regions, or poised to invade us from another galaxy."

  "Dangers?" Palpatine echoed, lifting his eyebrows. "I was under the impression that Outbound Flight's purpose was to search for new life and potential Force-users outside our borders. Certainly that was the rationale given in the original proposal."

  "There's no reason it can't do both," C'baoth said stubbornly. "For that matter, I would think adding a security angle to the mission would make itmore acceptable to the Senate, not less."

  Palpatine shook his head, his gray-white hair glinting in the light from the window behind him. Lorana could remember when that hair had been mostly brown, with only touches of gray at the temples. Now, after five years of carrying the Republic's weight on his shoulders, the brown had all but vanished. "I'm sorry, Master C'baoth," the Chancellor said. "If you can persuade the Senate to override Appropriations' cuts, I'll be more than happy to support you. But at the moment, there's nothing more I can do."

  "Unless," Doriana put in, "Master C'baoth is able to do something about the Barlok situation."

  "There's nothing more I can do," Palpatine repeated, throwing a cautioning look at his assistant. "At any rate, the Council's hardly going to send him out to Marcol sector when there are so many pressing matters to be attended to here."

  "Not so fast," C'baoth rumbled. "What exactly is this problem?"

  "It's hardly even worth mentioning," Palpatine said reluctantly. "A small dispute between the Corporate Alliance and one of Barlok's regional governments over some mining rights. Those Brolfi who left as you came in were just presenting their case and asking for assistance in negotiating a settlement."

  "And you didn't immediately think of me?" C'baoth said drily. "I think I've been insulted."

  "Please, Master C'baoth," Palpatine said with a smile. "I have far too many enemies on Coruscant already. I don't wish to add you to their number."

  "Then make a bargain with me," C'baoth offered. "If I can resolve this dispute for you, will you instruct Appropriations to restore Outbound Flight's full funding?"

  Lorana stirred uncomfortably in her seat. This was, it seemed to her, perilously close to the sort of under-the-desk speeder swapping that was steadily corroding the whole concept of justice in the Republic's government. But she didn't dare suggest that to C'baoth, certainly not in the presence of Palpatine and his aide.

  "I can't make any promises," Palpatine cautioned. "Certainly not where the Senate is concerned. But I believe in Outbound Flight, Master C'baoth, and I'll do everything in my power to make sure your dream is realized."

  For a long moment C'baoth didn't reply, and again Lorana felt the tension between the two men. Then, abruptly, the Jedi Master gave a short nod. "Very well, Chancellor Palpatine," he said, rising to his feet. "We'll be on our way to Barlok before the end of the day."

  He leveled a finger at Palpatine. "Just make certain that when I come back I have my funding. And my colonists."

  "I'll do my best," Palpatine said, giving the other a small smile. "Good day, Master C'baoth; Padawan Jinzler."

  Lorana waited until they had passed through the outer office and were striding down the wide corridor before speaking. "What did you mean we'd be off to Barlok tonight?" she asked. "Doesn't the Council have to approve any such trips?"

  "Don't worry about the Council," C'baoth said brusquely. "Back there, on our way into Palpatine's office, you broke stride for those two Brolfi."

  Lorana felt her throat tighten. "I didn't want to just run them down."

  "You wouldn't have," he countered. "I'd already measured the gap between them. Neither would have needed to move aside for us."

  "Yet theydid move," Lorana pointed out.

  "Because they wished to do so, out of respect," he said. "Understand this, my young Padawan. Someday you will be a Jedi, with all the power and respons
ibility that it entails. Never forget that we are the ones who hold this Republic together-not Palpatine, not the Senate, not the bureaucracy. Certainly not the small-minded people who can't make it through the day without running to Coruscant for help. They must learn to trust us-and before there can be trust, there must be respect. Do you understand?"

  "I understand that we want them to respect us," Lorana said hesitantly. "But must they fear us as well?"

  "Respect and fear are merely two sides of the same coin," C'baoth said. "Law-obeying citizens hold the coin one way; those who wallow in lawlessness hold it the other." He lifted a finger. "But with neither group can you appear weak or indecisive. Ever."

  He lowered the raised finger, tapping it against the lightsaber tucked into her belt. "There are times when you'll wish your identity to remain unknown, and at those times you'll hide your lightsaber and all traces of who and what you are. But when you travel openly as a Jedi, you mustbehave as a Jedi. Always. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, Master C'baoth," Lorana said, only half truthfully. Certainly she understood the words, but some of the attitude was still incomprehensible to her.

  For a moment C'baoth continued to stare at her, as if sensing her partial duplicity. But to her relief, he turned away without demanding any more. "Very well, then," he said. "I'll go to the Temple and speak with the Council. You call the spaceport and arrange transport for us to the Barlok system. Once you've done that, go and pack."

  "For how long?"

  "For a simple mineral-rights dispute?" C'baoth scoffed. "Travel time both ways plus three standard days. I'll have this sorted out in no time."

  "Yes, Master," Lorana murmured.

  "And then," C'baoth continued, half to himself, "we'll see to Master Yoda and his shortsighted fears." Picking up his pace, he strode off down the corridor.

  Lorana slowed to a halt, watching as the messengers and bureaucrats walking along on their own business moved hastily out of the way for the tall, white-haired Jedi Master. C'baoth, for his part, never even slowed, as if he simply expected others to make room for him.

  When you travel as a Jedi, you must behave as a Jedi.

  She sighed. It didn't seem right to her, this firm belief in the inherent superiority of Jedi over all others.

  Still, C'baoth had studied long and hard through many years, delving deeply into the mysteries and subtleties of the Force as he grew in power. Lorana, in contrast, was a young Padawan learner, barely started on her own path. She was hardly in a position to challenge him on any of these things.

  In any event, her Master had given an order, and it was her task to obey him. Stepping to the side of the corridor, out of the way of the bustling pedestrians, she pulled out her comlink.

  She was about to key for the Jedi Temple's transportation service when, across the corridor, an all-too-familiar face caught her attention.

  She froze, her breath catching in her throat, her eyes and mind and Jedi senses stretching out through the crowd of people between them. She'd seen this man many times before in the past few years, generally in the public areas of the Senate chamber but occasionally other places as well. He was young, probably a year or two younger than her, of medium height and build with short-cropped dark hair and a strangely bitter set to his mouth. She'd never gotten close enough to see what color his eyes were, but she assumed they were dark as well.

  And every time she'd seen him, she'd had the distinct sense that he was watching her.

  He was doing so now, studying her out of the corner of his eye as he pretended to work with a wiring panel he'd opened. She'd often seen him at wiring panels or fiddling with droid modules, but whether he actually knew his way around circuit boxes or whether he just used them as a pretext to hang around, she'd never figured out.

  At the beginning, she'd assumed it was all coincidence. Even now, she had no actual proof it was anything else. All she had was the fact that, as her Jedi skills had grown, she'd been able to stretch out even through crowded corridors like this one to sense his mind.

  And as she did so now, she found the same simmering resentment that she'd always felt before. Resentment, and frustration, and anger.

  Directed at her.

  Someone she'd harmed or slighted in a past so distant she couldn't even recall the incident? But she'd been in the Jedi Temple since she was an infant. One of the non-Jedi employees at the Temple, then? But surely her instructors would have taken action if they'd sensed any threat from him.

  The man looked in her direction. Then, deliberately, he turned his back on her and gave his full attention to his wiring panel. Lorana watched him work, fighting against her own flurry of discomfiting emotions. Should she go over and try to find out what he had against her? Or should she go first to the Senate records and see if she could track down his identity, holding off on any confrontations until she had more information?

  Or should she let it go entirely, and assume that the meetings were a coincidence and that his anger was merely directed at Jedi in general?

  She was still trying to make a decision when he closed the panel, collected his tool kit, and stalked away. He glanced back once as he reached the corner, then disappeared around it.

  There is no emotion; there is peace. Lorana had been taught that dictum from her earliest days in the Temple, and she'd tried her best to incorporate it into her life. But as long as the question of that man remained unresolved, she knew somehow that she could never have complete peace.

  She also knew that now was not the time. Taking a deep breath, lifting her comlink again, she keyed for the spaceport.

  The door closed behind the two Jedi, and for a moment Kinman Doriana gazed at the spot where they'd exited, a sour taste in his mouth. As a general rule, nearly all Jedi struck him as pompous and arrogant and obscenely sure of themselves. But even with that head start Jorus C'baoth was in a class by himself.

  "You really don't like him, do you?" Palpatine asked mildly.

  Setting his expression carefully back to neutral, Doriana shifted his attention back to the Chancellor. "I'm sorry, sir," he said. And he meant it. Whatever his personal feelings, it was bad policy to let emotions of any sort rise to the surface. Especially where Jedi were concerned. "I just think that with all the other problems facing the Republic, a massive exploration and colonization project should be relegated to the bottom third of the priority list. And for Master C'baoth to insist that you personally do something about it-"

  "Patience, Kinman," Palpatine interrupted soothingly. "You must learn to permit people their passions. Outbound Flight is Master C'baoth's."

  He looked across the office toward the door. "Besides, even if they find nothing of real value out there, it may be that just the news of their expedition will spark the imaginations of people across the Republic."

  "If they everdo actually announce it," Doriana said. "The last I heard, the Jedi Council still had the whole project wrapped in secrecy."

  Palpatine shrugged. "I'm sure they have their reasons."

  "Perhaps." Doriana hesitated. "But I'd like to apologize to you, sir, for speaking out of turn during the meeting."

  "Don't concern yourself about it," Palpatine assured him. "Actually, it was an inspired suggestion. Master C'baoth is quite good at the sort of mediation the Barlok situation so sorely needs. I should have thought of it myself."

  He snorted under his breath. "And to be perfectly honest, I'll be just as happy to have him off Coruscant for a couple of weeks. It'll give me a chance to consider how I'm going to persuade the Appropriations Committee to restore Outbound Flight's funding."

  "As well as find a way to persuade the Council to give Master C'baoth all the Jedi he wants?"

  "That one I can do nothing about," Palpatine said. "If C'baoth wants more Jedi, he's the one who'll have to persuade Yoda and Windu."

  "Yes, sir," Doriana murmured. "Well. . maybe he'll succeed so well at Barlok that they'll have no choice but to give in."

  "Or else they'll give in
simply to get him off their backs," Palpatine said drily. "He's as persistent with them as he is with me. At any rate, that part is in C'baoth's hands now. Speaking of matters in hand, when are you leaving for your own trip?"

  "Tonight," Doriana said. "I have a ship reserved, and all the necessary files and documents are prepared and packed. I just need to stop by my apartment after work to pack my personal items and I'll be ready to go."

  "Excellent," Palpatine said. "Then you might as well go now. There's nothing more I need from you for the rest of the day."

  "Thank you, sir," Doriana said. "I'll keep you informed on what happens at the various meetings."

  "Yes, do that." Palpatine raised his eyebrows. "And be sure you deliver those data cards to Governor Caulfmar personally."