“I trust you to take the right precautions. I know you have as much at stake as I do,” she said. “Do you mind if I go lie down? I did not sleep well on the Skyrail.”
Adela, RN32-000439, owner Refka Trell, registry Elom-“Sure,” Luke said.
“Go ahead. I’ll call you if anything unexpected shows up.”
Akanah squeezed his shoulder. “Thank you,” she said, and started to turn away.
“Akanah?”
“What?”
“How much do you know about our destination?”
“I know it’s a Free Trader world—not much more.”
“I didn’t even know that much,” Luke said, turning toward her. “I’d like to query the Ministry of State atlas on Coruscant and request a diplomatic backgrounder.”
“You can do that?”
“I think so,” Luke said. “I’d be using a point-to-point channel, not broadcasting, so no one else will be listening in.”
“But they’ll be listening in on Coruscant,” Akanah said. “You might as well be announcing where we’re going.”
Luke shook his head. “I know what you just said, but I can’t treat those people as the enemy,” he said.
“But I could make a series of queries, so the one for Atzerri is just one in the crowd. Would that make you feel any more at ease?”
“Do what you think is necessary,” she said with a small, quick smile.
“There are risks in ignorance, too.
Balance them against the risks of showing our hand. If you think the weight falls in favor of making the query, and you’ll wait until we’ve jumped out from Teyr to do so, I won’t question your decision.”
Shortly after the reorganization of the government, Nanaod Engh had given Luke keys to most of the real treasures of the New Republic—the central data libraries maintained by various branches of the General Ministry.
Thanks to Admiral Ackbar’s intervention, Luke also carried the highest-grade security clearance held by any civilian.
Between the two, Luke had—potentially—a great deal of information at his fingertips. But the access he had been granted was a courtesy, not a necessity. Luke’s most urgent curiosities were in areas of little interest to bureaucracies, and he had never found reason to make much use of the favors extended him.
But he found himself with reason now.
So far, it seemed, his contribution to the expedition had been modest to the point of invisibility. Luke was completely dependent on Akanah for information, and it was difficult to see what she needed from him.
Companionship, perhaps, and a bit of piloting, but not protection-she was emphatic about that.
She had offered him a gift of great value by coming to him, and had gone to some lengths to do so. Luke felt himself not only uncomfortably dependent, but also involuntarily in her debt. And he had little to offer to right the balance.
But the lead on Star Morning gave him an opportunity to make himself more useful.
If asked, he would have said that suspicion had no part in his decision to contact the New Republic Ship Registry under his military access code. Even though Akanah had plucked their next destination from the Current, a great deal of time had passed since the Fallanassi had left Kell Hath. The prospect of another Gri-ann causing them to lose the trail was reason enough to follow up on his discovery.
Still, Luke waited until Akanah was asleep to open the hypercomm link, and his reason for doing that wasn’t entirely clear to him. True, he didn’t want her to think he was checking up on her. But Luke was also aware that he didn’t want to think he was checking up on her. He had to be able to trust her. Everything he had done, his very presence, was predicated on that.
“Ship Registry.”
The Adventurer had no secure-entry touchpad, so Luke had to offer the voice codes.
“Authorization verified,” said the registry clerk.
“Go ahead.”
“I need a report pulled on a private vessel.”
“Yes, sir. Quick or comprehensive?”
“The difference is—” “The comprehensive includes everything that’s in all of the linked databases—taxes, transfers, ports of call, whatever we have. On anything but a brand-new ship, that can be quite a bit.”
“Comprehensive,” Luke said. “The ship is the Star Morning, Teyr registry, owned by—” “I have it on my display, sir,” said the clerk.
“It takes up to an hour to pull a comprehensive. Would you like it forwarded to your current hypercomm identifier when it’s ready, or held here for your next call?”
“Forward it,” Luke said.
“Very well, sir. Is there anything else?”