[Last Of The Jedi] - 07(14)

“My name is Lune.”

“And so it is, and I’m Dexter, but you can call me Dex, like everyone else does. You may not remember, but we’ve also met before. You were only two years old.”

“I remember very well,” Lune said.

“So he does, so he does!” Dex chortled. “Now. Let’s get the tyke something to eat, and the rest of us will talk. There’s much to say.”

Within moments Lune was whisked off to the kitchen by WA-7, the antique droid who had worked for Dex in his diner. The others went to the conference room, where Keets and Curran were waiting.

Quickly, Solace outlined where the others were, and the fact that they’d had to smuggle Astri and Lune out of Samaria. Keets and Curran listened intently.

“You can stay here as long as you like,” Curran said, bobbing his head toward Astri. “It’s safe for now.”

“We can be on the lookout for planets where you can lie low,” Dex said. “Start over again with your boy. You’ll have to choose carefully. Bog Divinian has plenty of connections, now that he’s the ruler of Samaria. He’s been appointed the acting ruler of Rosha, too. A governor of a system now, he is. Very important.”

Astri nodded.

“Now I have something to tell you,” Dex said, nodding to Clive and Solace. “Something Ferus needs to know. There’s a new head Inquisitor, name of Hydra. He’s taken over from Malorum - he was his assistant. It looks like he might have the same interests as Malorum. He’s investigating a human male with unusual powers who keeps popping up and disappearing.”

“Unusual powers?” Solace asked.

“He’s been seen in key areas in the Galactic Empire. Made some trouble for the Empire, I guess, and they want him bad. We don’t know why, exactly. Thing is, these ‘special powers’ sound a lot like using the Force to me. I thought you should know that.”

“Our contact is trying to find out more information,” Keets reported. “But everyone likes to keep their heads down, these days. Things are locked down tight. I’m sorry to say that Curran and I worked every connection we have and came up dry.”

“So let’s stick with what we know,” Dex said. “Word is that the order came down from high above - maybe even as high as Vader - to trap this fellow and bring him in for questioning. The last sighting was right here on Coruscant.”

“Do you think he’s a Jedi?” Solace asked.

“I think he could be,” Dex said. “Ferus ought to know.”

Solace frowned. “He’s in deep cover right now. We can’t get the information to him. I’m going to have to check it out myself.”

“I’ll give you a hand,” Clive said. “I owe Ferus a favor. More than one, actually, but don’t tell him I said that.”

Astri hesitated. She had vowed to herself to lay low here on Coruscant. She couldn’t risk exposure. She had to protect her son.

But Ferus had saved her life, and Lune’s. He would do it again and again if he had to.

It was time to find her courage.

“I’ll help,” Astri said. “You might need a good slicer.”

Dex tilted his head at her. “You came here for a place to hide, not to get involved in this.”

“Ferus needs help. He saved my boy’s life. And I’ve always been ready to help the Jedi.”

“I still have some contacts,” Clive said. “If yours have run dry,” he continued with a nod to Keets and Curran, “I might be able to dig something up.”

Solace nodded. “I still can work some angles.”

“What about us?” Keets asked. “There must be something Curran and I can do.”

Dex’s eyes twinkled. “Oh, I have the perfect job for the two of you,” he said.





Chapter Nine


It felt good to Roan to get his boots back on his homeworld. No matter what, he was home.

Roan told himself this, but he knew he was just searching for something - just one thing - to make himself feel better. All around him he sensed Bellassa crumbling. His beloved city of Ussa - the city that had Come through a war and an occupation and still found the will to resist down to the last citizen - had now fallen to its knees. He could feel it. “As goes Ussa, so goes Bellassa” was a saying on his homeworld. Everyone had looked to the capital city for trends, for signs, for direction, for courage.

And it was dying.

He felt displaced. It was almost a physical sensation, as if the gravity on the planet had changed. Or as if the thin air of the mountains had seeped down to the plains where Ussa was cradled, invading the city slowly until every citizen felt a little dizzy, a little short of breath.