[Last Of The Jedi] - 06(28)

“I see where you’re going with this,” Firefolk said. “Not really. It has to be garbaged out. A droid this size doesn’t have near the capacity to hold on to that much information. It can receive it, but it can only process a bit of it. If the droid kept all that information, it would overload and self-destruct.”

Ferus felt an excitement rise up from his boots. “But here in Sath, you’ve pioneered the delivery of vast amounts of information from a BRT to a personal droid.”

“Yes, it’s loaded on from mainframes that we have at home, or at businesses we frequent. And we have what we call safeguard passageways to avoid overloading the droid,” Dinko explained.

“What if the technology of both droids were put together?” Ferus asked. He turned to the others excitedly. “The Roshan droid has the ability to pull information from another droid. The Samarian droid has the ability to hook up to a vast BRT system. What if you built a super-droid that could grab enormous amounts of information without a plug-in? What if the droid could scramble the information and then send it all into a second droid?”

Firefolk sat still for a minute, thinking. “You mean pass random information from a BRT to another droid? It would have to be super fast. It’s possible in theory … but that means that a vast amount of information would be passed back.”

Dinko let out a breath. “If we married our BRT system software to their droid system software …”

Nek leaned forward. “. . but used the hardware of our PDs … we target any droid and pass a flood of information to it… .”

“… and the targeted droid would overload,” Firefolk said.

Flame let out a breath. “Like a commander battle droid?”

“Or any Imperial droid?” Trever asked. “This is . .”

“Unbelievable,” Firefolk murmured. “But… possible.”

“And that is why,” Ferus said, “the Emperor doesn’t want a trade agreement between Samaria and Rosha. Because together you are a real danger to the Empire. If you could really do this, you could knock out their surveillance droids. Maybe even the stormtrooper communications systems. Everything they depend on for keeping the galaxy under their control.”

“Just with our personal droids,” Nek breathed. “Just by being able to transfer too much information.”

“How do you like that,” Trever said. “Buy a cup of tea, annihilate an army. All in a droid’s day’s work!”

“And if you exported your system to other planets . .” Ferus said.

“It’s the key to a galaxy-wide resistance,” Flame said. Her cheeks were flushed. “Moonstrike could fund it.”

“Wait a second,” Ferus said. “Remember, we’re not the first to put this together. That’s why they want to control Samaria. So they can move on to Rosha, too. Control both your worlds and stop any information exchange before it starts. I don’t know whether Divinian is in on it or not — I’d doubt it. He’s not high up enough and they don’t value him … but he’s played right into their plan. Now they’ll arrest the Roshan delegation and imprison them. They can’t let them get back to Rosha. They’ve had meetings with technicians here. Sooner or later they might figure it out, too.”

Firefolk’s hands were careful as he placed the droid back on the table. “What do we do now’?”

“We bring this idea to the Roshan delegation,” Ferus said. “And we’ve got to get them off-planet. The Empire is monitoring all departures, so getting them out will be tricky. They can’t leave from Sath. And they can’t use their own ship.”

“The Crystal Forest. I can do it,” Flame said. “I’ve got the ship. I’ll get them home.”

Ferus nodded. “In the meantime, the resistance has to influence the no-confidence vote. Bog must be exposed. Now is the time. The vote is scheduled to take place in less than an hour. I’ll go with Flame and Trever and smuggle out the Roshans.”

Dinko nodded. “Nek and Firefolk and I will head for the Hall of Ministers.”

Dinko, Nek, and Firefolk hurried out of the cantina.

“I’ve only got one more problem,” Ferus said.

“What?” Trever asked.

Ferus thought of Darth Vader and his ultimatum. He’d like to think that Vader would be too busy in a little while to care, but he knew in addition to being an evil mastermind, Vader was an awesome multitasker.

He looked at Trever. Affection washed over him, and he smiled at the boy’s earnest expression underneath that thatch of blue hair. “You.”