“Where’s her lightsaber?” asked the vine-tattooed man.
“She’s not carrying it.” The old Mandalorian didn’t even blink. His eyes-pink-rimmed, watery, a faded light color that might once have been green or hazel-were fixed on hers, boring into her in the way that only another Jedi could. He took half a pace forward, not quite so frail and grandfatherly now. “I had a very strong feeling you’d arrived.”
“I’m Jaina Solo, “she said at last. A Jedi name used to be enough to make doors open back at the Core. It closed them here. “And I’ve come to ask Fett to help me.”
She could have sliced the silence with a vibroblade. She’d expected derisive laughter. Beviin just watched with the mild annoyance he might reserve for a kid. She could feel it.
“Didn’t we save your papa’s shebs at Caluula Station?” asked the tattooed man. “Ask him if he remembers the funny folks in armor who were killing the vongese for him. It might jog his memory. And tell him Carid sends his best.”
“I apologize for…. sneaking in, “Jaina said. She was now totally reliant on powers she hadn’t used or trained, ones she’d seen her mother use so often with not a Force trick in sight-diplomacy and persuasion. It was much harder than it looked. “But how far would I have got past your ATC if I’d announced who and what I was? I really need Fett’s help.”
“Give her some credit for coming here unarmed, at least.” The man in the motley armor took off his helmet, a blood-red and gray thing that didn’t match another plate on him. He was in his fifties, with very dark eyes and gray-streaked black hair. “I’m Venku. Also known as Kad’ika.” He looked at the old man with a distracted fondness. “My respected ori’buir here is Gotab.”
“Well, so we all know what we are…”
“We’re Mandalorians, Jedi Solo, “said Venku. “What did you think we were?”
It struck Jaina that maybe the rest of Keldabe didn’t know these men were Force-sensitive. Given the enmity between Jedi and Mandalorians, maybe they were under cover, or stranded here, or… or… no, she couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation. She couldn’t imagine any Jedi being out of the loop for so long that she didn’t know of them, but there was always the possibility that they weren’t Jedi, and just Force-sensitives. But the old man radiated trained powers, and a sense of… of healing, of rec-onciliation, of all kinds of soothing things that didn’t go with the blaster or his hostile expression. He wasn’t a ran-dom genetic event.
You’re not here to ask too many questions. You’re here to learn from Fett.
If Jaina kept testing that Force presence, however carefully, these men might feel threatened. If they were living here as Mandalorians-nobody here was treating them as if they were strangers, she noted-chances were that they wanted to keep a low profile.
Oh… no… tell me they’re not Sith.
Mandalorians always fought for the Sith in the past, didn’t they? Fett was Vader’s hired help, too. We can’t escape each other.
But she was sure she’d have felt dark energy around them had they been Sith. She’d had way too much practice at feeling Sith and Dark Jedi in the Force these past months to make that mistake.
I might need their help as Force users. Don’t push it.
“Doesn’t matter, “Jaina said at last. “My mother came here during the Empire’s occupation. She met your leader at the time. In fact, she…”
“We’re doing a lot better than we were in your mother’s day, no thanks to the New Republic… or the GA. Have you come to negotiate some arms deal?”
Ouch. They hadn’t forgotten the Yuuzhan Vong War, then. Had anybody? “In a way, I suppose I have.”
“Fett’s on his way, “said Beviin. “And most deals are negotiable.”
Gotab, apparently satisfied that there were enough blasters trained on Jaina to allow him to rest, slid his weapon back in his belt and replaced his helmet.
“We’ll be going, “Venku said. “Beviin, if you need anything, call.”
Beviin’s expression said that he was freshly puzzled. “How come you spotted her before me? I had Sal-Solo’s ID images.”
“Maybe you weren’t the only one here who was offered the contract on the Solos.”
Jaina reminded herself that she didn’t just have a trou-blesome brother. She’d had a pretty toxic uncle, too, and Fett had helped dispose of him.
And Venku obviously didn’t want to reveal that he was Force sensitive.