About a kilometer ahead of Zekk’s StealthX tumbled the inky darkness of Kiris 17, which marked the “upper” limit of the Kiris Asteroid Cluster. The Corellian sun was just visible beneath the asteroid’s belly, a yellow pinprick barely brighter than the surrounding stars. Next to the star was the slow-growing dash of an efflux trail.
“What do we have, Sneaker?” Jaina asked.
A message appeared on the now-defrosted display, informing Jaina that a light transport was departing the cluster.
Jaina frowned. “You pulled us out of hibernation for a single vessel?”
Sneaker displayed another message. CONTACT PROFILE is UNIQUE. VESSEL is OVERPOWERED CEC YT-1300, EXHIBITING SUDDEN CHANGE TO POSSIBLE OUTBOUND TRAJECTORY. EFFLUX SIGNATURE SUGGESTS MILITARY-GRADE EXHAUST NOZZLES.
“The Falcon?” Jaina was not all that surprised-of course Han and Leia Solo would be in the thick of things. She just hoped they did not return to the Kirises before Admiral Bwua’tu sprang his trap. So far, the Corellians did not seem to realize that the Galactic Alliance knew of their secret fleet, and when the Kiris fleet finally left base, the Corellians were going to be in for a nasty shock. “Are you sure?”
AFFIRMATIVE. TRAJECTORY is NOW CONFIRMED OUTBOUND.
“I mean about the efflux signature,” Jaina growled. “Is that the Falcon or not?”
UNCERTAIN. CURRENT DATA YIELDS AN IDENTITY COEFFICIENT OF ONLY 94%.
Jaina sighed. For the R9 unit to be “sure,” he would have to be plugged into one of the Falcon’s data sockets, swapping data with the primary control brain.
“Keep watching and plot a list of likely …”
Zekk’s StealthX suddenly started after the Falcon, and Jaina let the sentence trail off.
A LIST OF LIKELY DESTINATIONS? Sneaker inquired.
“Right.”
Jaina shoved her own throttles forward and shot after Zekk, at the same time reaching out to him in the Force. Though their telepathic Joiner bond had finally dissolved a couple of years before, she and Zekk remained so acutely attuned to each other that they could often communicate through the Jedi battle-meld more clearly than most people conversed, and she quickly understood his intentions.
Equal parts spy and assault craft, StealthX starfighters were equipped with eavesdropping equipment so sensitive it could intercept stray signals from a vessel’s internal computers. If Zekk could close the distance before the falcon jumped to hyperspace, he might be able to capture enough data from the Solos’ nav computer to determine their destination.
What Zekk did not intend to do, he assured Jaina, was vape her parents. She answered with a cynical concern for him. If there was any shooting, he was the one who would need worrying about-not her parents. This elicited a warm feeling of satisfaction from Zekk-a sincere feeling of satisfaction.
The meld nearly shattered beneath the harshness of Jaina’s frustration. She wished Zekk would just give it up. He would never be more than her best friend. Why couldn’t he just accept that and go find a nice Falleen girl to fall for?
Even without mind sharing, the message was clear enough. Zekk withdrew into himself, maintaining barely enough contact to keep the meld open, and they closed the rest of the distance in cold isolation. Jaina hated hurting him like that. He was the best wingmate she’d ever had, but he just did not seem to get it. She didn’t want to be in love, not with him, not with Jagged Fel, not with anyone. She was the Sword of the Jedi, whatever that meant; she probably wasn’t even supposed to be in love.
Kiris 17 slid past above, drawing a momentary curtain of darkness over Jaina’s canopy; then there was nothing between the StealthXs and their target except a hundred kilometers of empty space. The Falcon was really moving. Jaina’s throttles were pushed to the overload stops, and still the old transport yielded her lead only grudgingly.
The inky mass of Kiris 3 tumbled past beneath the chase, its dark surface and frigid heat signature betraying no sign of the shipyard concealed within. The Falcon’s efflux trail slowly changed from a tail to a solid bar. Jaina activated her eavesdropping array, then instructed Sneaker to inform her when he began to pick up signals. But several more seconds passed, and Jaina began to think she and Zekk would not catch up before the Falcon escaped the Kiris Cluster’s weak gravity and entered hyperspace.
Finally, the outline of the Falcon’s sensor dish grew visible above the brilliant glow of her ion drives, and Sneaker reported that the eavesdropping array was picking up stray signals. Jaina and Zekk strengthened their contact and swung out to opposite sides of the target-then felt a wave of astonishment roll through the meld as Leia discerned its presence.