“They’re Sith,” Jaina reminded him. “All that matters to them is power, and Abeloth had power like a nova has light—until Luke killed her.”
Lando frowned in thought. “And if they’re crazy enough to think they could take Abeloth home with them, they’re probably crazy enough to think they could take the guy who killed her.”
“Exactly,” Jaina said. “Until a few weeks ago, no one even knew the Lost Tribe existed. That’s changed, but they’ll still want to keep what they can secret.”
“So they’ll try to take out Luke and Ben,” Lando agreed. “And us, too. Contain the leak.”
“That’s my guess,” Jaina said. “Sith like secrecy, and secrecy means stopping us now. Once we’re out of the Maw, they’ll expect us to access the HoloNet and report.”
Lando looked up and exhaled in frustration. “I told Luke he couldn’t trust anyone who puts High Lord before his name.” He had been even more forceful than Jaina in trying to argue Luke out of a second bargain with the Lost Tribe—a bargain that had left the Skywalkers and three Sith behind to explore Abeloth’s savage homeworld together. “Maybe we should go back.”
Jaina thought for only an instant, then shook her head. “No, Luke knew the bargain wouldn’t last when he agreed to it,” she said. “Sarasu Taalon has already betrayed his word once.”
Lando scowled. “That doesn’t mean Luke and Ben are safe.”
“No,” Jaina agreed. “But it does mean he’s risking their lives to increase our chances of reporting to the Jedi Council. That’s our mission.”
“Technically, Luke doesn’t get to assign missions right now,” Lando pressed. “You wouldn’t be violating orders if we—”
“Luke Skywalker is still the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. I think we should assume he has a plan,” Jaina said. A sudden tingle of danger sense raced down her spine, prompting her to hit the quick-release on her crash harness. “Besides, we need to start worrying about saving our own skins.”
Lando began to look worried. “What are you saying?” he asked. “That you’re sensing something?”
Jaina shook her head. “Not yet.” She rose. “But I will be. Why do you suppose they sent us someplace easy to find?”
Lando scowled. “Oh …” He glanced up at a display, tapped some keys—no doubt trying to call up a tactical report—then slammed his fist against the edge of the brass console. “Are they jamming us?”
“That’s difficult to know with the ship’s sensor systems offline for degaussing,” RN8 replied.
“Offline?” Lando shrieked. “Who authorized that?”
“You did, ninety-seven seconds ago,” RN8 replied. “Would you like me to play it back?”
“No! Countermand it and bring all systems back up.” Lando turned to Jaina and asked, “Any feel for how long we have until the shooting starts?”
Jaina closed her eyes and opened herself to the Force. A shiver of danger sense raced down her spine, and then she felt a mass of belligerent presences approaching from the direction of the Maw. She turned to RN8.
“How long until the sensor systems reboot?”
“Approximately three minutes and fifty-seven seconds,” the droid reported. “I’m afraid Captain Calrissian also ordered a complete data consolidation.”
Jaina winced and turned back to Lando. “In that case, I’d say we have less than three minutes and fifty-two seconds. There’s someone hostile coming up behind us.” She started toward the hatchway at the back of the cavernous bridge, her boots ringing on the old durasteel deck. “Why don’t you see if you can put a stop to those false orders?”
“Sure, I’ll just tell my crew to stop listening to me.” Lando’s voice was sarcastic. “Being droids, they’ll know what I mean.”
“You might try activating their standard verification routines,” Jaina suggested.
“I might, if droid crews this old had standard verification routines.” Lando turned and scowled at Jaina as she continued across the deck. “And you’re going where?”
“You know where,” Jaina said.
“To your StealthX?” Lando replied. “The one with only three engines? The one that lost its targeting array?”
“Yeah, that one,” Jaina confirmed. “We need a set of eyes out there—and someone to fly cover.”
“No way,” Lando said. “If I let you go out to fight Sith in that thing, your dad will be feeding pieces of me to Amelia’s nexu for the next ten years.”
Jaina stopped and turned toward him, propping one hand on her hip. “Lando, did you just say ‘let?’ Did you really say ‘no way’ to me?”
Lando rolled his eyes, unintimidated. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. But have you gone spacesick? With only three engines, that starfighter is going to be about as maneuverable as an escape pod!”
“Maybe, but it still beats sitting around like a blind bantha in this thing. Thanks for worrying, though.” She shot Lando a sour smile. “It’s so sweet when you old guys do that.”
“Old?” Lando cried. After a moment, he seemed to recognize the mocking tone in Jaina’s voice, and his chin dropped. “I deserved that, didn’t I?”
“You think?” Jaina laughed to show there were no hard feelings, then added, “And you know what Tendra would do to me if I came back without Chance’s father. So let’s both be careful.”
“Okay, deal.” Lando waved her toward the hatchway. “Go. Blow things up. Have fun.”
“Thanks.” Jaina’s tone grew more serious, and she added, “And I mean for everything, Lando. You didn’t have to be here, and I’m grateful for the risks you’re taking to help us. It means a lot to me—and to the whole Order.”
Lando’s Force-aura grew cold, and he looked away in sudden discomfort. “Jaina, is there something you’re not telling me?”
“About this situation?” Jaina asked, frowning at his strange reaction. “I don’t think so. Why?”
Lando exhaled in relief. “Jaina, my dear, perhaps no one has mentioned this to you before …” His voice grew more solemn. “But when a Jedi starts talking about how much you mean to her, the future begins to look very scary.”
“Oh … sorry.” Jaina’s cheeks warmed with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean anything like that. Really. I was just trying to—”
“It’s okay.” Lando’s voice was still a little shaky. “And if you did mean something—”
“I didn’t,” Jaina interrupted.
“I know,” Lando said, raising a hand to stop her. “But if things start to go bad out there, just get back to Coruscant and report. I can take care of myself. Understand?”
“Sure, Lando, I understand.” Jaina started toward the hatchway, silently adding, But no way am I leaving you behind.
“Good. Try to stick close. We won’t be hanging around long.” A low whir sounded from Lando’s chair as he turned it to face RN8. “Ornate, prepare an emergency jump to our last coordinates.”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible, Captain Calrissian,” the droid replied. “You gave standing orders to empty the navicomputer’s memory after each jump.”
“What?” Lando’s anger was edging toward panic now. “How many other orders—no, forget it. Just countermand my previous commands.”
“All of them?”
“Yes!” Lando snapped. “No, wait …”
Jaina reached the hatchway and, not waiting to hear the rest of Lando’s order, raced down the rivet-studded corridor beyond. She still had no idea what the Sith were planning, but she was going to stop them—and not only because the Jedi Council needed to know everything she and Lando could tell them about the Lost Tribe of Sith. Over the years, Lando had been as loyal a friend to the Jedi Order as he had to her parents, time after time risking his life, fortune, and freedom to help them resolve whatever crisis happened to be threatening the peace of the galaxy at the moment. He always claimed he was just repaying a favor, or protecting an investment, or maintaining a good business environment, but Jaina new better. He was lo
oking out for his friends, doing everything he could to help them survive—no matter what mess they had gotten themselves into.
Jaina reached the forward hangar bay. As the hatch opened in front of her, she was surprised to find a bank of floodlights already illuminating her battered StealthX. At first, she assumed Lando had ordered the hangar droid to ready the Rockhound’s fighter complement for launch.
Then she saw what was missing from her starfighter.
There were no weapon barrels extending from the wingtips. In fact—on the side facing her, at least—the cannons themselves were gone. She was so shocked that she found herself waiting for the rest of the hangar lights to activate, having forgotten for the moment that the Rockhound did not have automatic illumination. The whir of a pneumatic wrench sounded from the far side of the StealthX, and beneath the starfighter’s belly, she noticed a cluster of telescoping droid legs straddling the actuator housing of a Taim & Bak KX12 laser cannon.
“What the …”
Jaina snapped the lightsaber off her belt, then crossed twenty meters of tarnished deck in three quick Force-bounds and sprang onto the fuselage of her StealthX. She could hardly believe what she saw. At the far end of the wing stood a spider-shaped BY2B maintenance droid, her thick cargo pedipalps clamped around the starfighter’s last laser-cannon while her delicate tool arms released the mounting clips.
“ByTwoBee!” Jaina yelled. “What are you doing?”
The pneumatic wrench whined to a stop, and three of the droid’s photoreceptors swiveled toward Jaina’s face.
“I’m sorry, Jedi Solo. I thought you would know.” Like all droids aboard the Rockhound, BY2B’s voice was female and sultry. “I’m removing this laser cannon.”
“I can see that,” Jaina replied. “Why?”
“So I can take it to the maintenance shop,” BY2B replied. “Captain Calrissian requested it. Since your starfighter is unflyable anyway, he thought it would be a good time to rebuild the weapon systems.”
Jaina’s heart sank, but she wasted no time trying to convince BY2B she had been fooled. “When Lando issued this order, did you actually see him?”
“Oh, I rarely see the captain. I’m not one of his favorites.” BY2B swung her photoreceptors toward the hangar entrance, and a trio of red beams shot out to illuminate a grimy speaker hanging next to the hatchway. “The order came over the intercom.”
“Of course it did.” Jaina pointed her lightsaber at the nearly dismounted laser cannon. “Any chance you can reattach that and get it working in the next minute-and-a-half?”
“No chance at all, Jedi Solo. Reattaching the power-feeds alone would take ten times that long.”
“How’d I know you were going to say that?” Jaina growled. She turned away and hopped down onto the deck. “All right—finish removing it and prep the craft for launch.”
“I’m sorry, that’s impossible,” BY2B replied. “Even if we had the necessary parts, I’m not qualified to make repairs. The specifications for this craft weren’t included in my last service update.”
“I flew it in here, didn’t I?” Jaina retorted. “Just tell me you haven’t been mucking around with the torpedo launchers, too.”
“This craft has torpedo launchers?” BY2B asked.
Jaina rolled her eyes, wondering exactly when the droid’s last service update had been, then rushed over to a small locker area at the edge of the hangar. She activated the lighting, flipped the toggle switch on the ancient intercom unit in the wall, and stepped into the StealthX flightsuit she had left hanging at launch-ready.
A moment later, Lando’s voice crackled out of the tiny speaker. “Yes, Jaina? What can I do for you?”
Jaina frowned. The voice certainly sounded like Lando’s. “How about a status report?” she asked, pushing her arms through the suit sleeves. “My StealthX is really messed up. No use taking it out.”
“My, that is too bad,” Lando’s voice said. “But don’t be concerned. Ar-en-eight has nearly sorted out the system problems.”
“Great.” Jaina sealed the flightsuit’s front closure and stepped into her boots. “I’ll head aft and check out the hyperdrive.”
“Oh.” Lando’s voice seemed surprised. “That won’t be necessary. Ar-en-eight is running diagnostics now. I’m sure the Em-Nine-O and his crew can handle any necessary repairs.”
And his crew. If there had been any doubt before, now Jaina knew she was talking to an imposter. Not long ago, Lando had confided to Jaina that the only way he had survived all those solitary prospecting trips early in his career was to close his eyes whenever one of the Rockhound droids spoke and imagine she was a beautiful woman. He would never have referred to M9EO as a male.
Jaina grabbed her helmet and gloves out of the locker, then said, “Okay. If you’ve got everything under control, I’m going to stop by my bunk and grab some shuteye before my shift comes up.”
“Yes, why don’t you do that?” The voice sounded almost relieved. “I’ll wake you if anything comes up.”
“Sounds good. See you in four hours.”
Jaina flicked off the intercom switch, then started back toward her StealthX, securing her helmet and glove seals as she walked. Gullible, no Force-presence, and a terrible liar—the Voice definitely belonged to a stowaway droid, probably one sent by the Sith. That made enough sense that Jaina felt vaguely guilty for not anticipating the tactic in time to prevent the sabotage. The only thing she didn’t understand was why the Sith hadn’t just rigged the fusion core to blow. A living stowaway they might have valued enough to work out an escape plan—but a droid? She could not imagine that any Sith deserving of the name would give a second thought to sacrificing a droid.
Jaina reached her StealthX and found BY2B standing behind the far wing, holding the last laser-cannon in her heavy cargo arms. Jaina did a quick visual inspection of the bedraggled starfighter, then asked, “Is she ready to fly?”
“Ready would be an overstatement,” BY2B answered. “But the craft is capable of launching. I do hope you checked your flightsuit for vacuum hardiness.”
“No need—it’s not me that will be going EV.” Jaina ascended the short access ladder and climbed into the cockpit. As she buckled herself in, she asked, “ByTwoBee, have you seen any new droids around here lately?”
“No,” the droid said. “Not since departing Klatooine.”
“Klatooine?” Jaina’s stomach began to grow cold and heavy. “Then you did see a new droid before we left for the Maw?”
“Indeed, I did,” BY2B replied. “A Rebaxan MSE-6.”
“A mouse droid?” Jaina gasped. “And you didn’t report it?”
“Of course not,” BY2B said. “Captain Calrissian had warned me just a few minutes earlier to expect a courier shuttle delivering a new utility droid.”
Jaina groaned and hit the pre-ignition engine heaters, then asked, “And I suppose he told you this over your internal comlink?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact,” BY2B replied. “How did you know?”
“Because that wasn’t Lando you heard,” Jaina said, speaking through clenched teeth. “It was a sabotage droid programmed with an impersonation protocol.”
“Sabotage?”
Lost Tribe of the Sith: Purgatory Page 4
