“At a conference site on Rondai-Two. The Ulta Center - ultimate luxury, ultimate security. Do you need another Jedi team, Qui-Gon? I would be happy to pass along this information to Yoda, though it is not strictly within my purview to do so.”
“I’ll consult with Adi and be in touch. Thank you, Madame Nu.”
Qui-Gon ended the conversation and turned to Adi. “Passel Argente. Even though he is a Senator, he is also a Koorivar and a leader of the Corporate Alliance, and his grudges against the Republic are plain to see. He’s behind all this. He’s not just a bully, he’s cunning. He knows he has to stamp out resistance at the start. Has to hit it hard, to intimidate others who are thinking of crossing him. It’s the way he operates.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Adi said.
“I feel it.”
“Feelings are not proof and are inherently illogical,” Adi said.
Qui-Gon turned to her. “Don’t you feel it, too?”
After a slight pause, Adi inclined her head in her regal way. “I do.”
While Qui-Gon was speaking, Adi had already located Rondai-2 on her datapad. Now she pushed the screen toward Qui-Gon.
“We’re lucky. Two day’s journey. We’ll make it in time.” Adi raised her troubled gaze to his. “But what about our Padawans?”
Qui-Gon looked out at the vastness of space, the clouds of stars. He felt the emptiness inside him, the yawning feeling he got when he knew Obi-Wan was in trouble and he could not get to him. For the shortest space of a moment, he thought of what it would be like to lose both Tahl and Obi-Wan, and the hugeness of that loss seemed to dwarf the vastness of what lay above him.
“There is nothing we can do. They’ll have to take care of themselves.”
CHAPTER 15
Taly suddenly burst into the cargo hold. “I remembered something.”
Obi-Wan and Siri jumped up. “A way to fix the reversion?” Obi-Wan asked.
“No, no. I haven’t figured that out. But I was just flipping through systems, and I saw this planet, Rondai-Two. You know when you feel a click in your head? I felt a click. I thought I heard the bounty hunter talking about a ‘rendezvous’ But he really said ‘Rondai-Two.”
“Are you sure?” Siri asked.
“I’m sure. He said ‘on rendezvous,’ which seemed weird, because nobody says ‘on rendezvous.’ He meant a planet.”
“So that’s where the mission is,” Obi-Wan said. “But we can’t get there.” He started toward the cockpit. “We can do one thing. We can leave the information in the survivor box. If any part of the ship survives, the box might. And the information could get back to the Temple.” He quickly accessed the box and entered the information into the datapad. “We need to put this in the escape pod.”
Siri and Taly looked at him gravely. They might not survive, but they would have to hope that the information might.
“Now I just have to program the fact that the box has information,” Obi-Wan said. “We just have to hope that whoever finds it will bring it to the Temple or the Senate. If it gets into the hands of pirates, it would be lost forever… and there’s always space pirates lurking around the outskirts of Coruscant….”
Obi-Wan’s own words rang in his ears. “That’s our answer,” he said.
“What?” Taly asked.
“We can’t reprogram in hyperspace. But we can send another distress signal. A general one this time, going out to all ships in the area of reversion. We would keep the signal open. That would allow whoever was tracking us to get a fix on us.”
“Who is tracking us?”
“Nobody,” Obi-Wan said. “Yet. But space pirates wait for distress signals. They like to prey on dying ships.”
“I’m not getting this,” Taly said.
Obi-Wan whirled around in his chair. “The ship will blow upon reversion. But what if we get pulled out of hyperspace against our will?”
“An interdiction field,” Siri breathed. “If we go through one, we’ll be pulled into realspace. But we’ll also be sitting ducks,” she pointed out. “The ship is almost out of power. If we’re attacked, we won’t be able to maneuver.”
“At least we’ll have a fighting chance,” Obi-Wan said. “I’d rather meet space pirates than blow up.”
Siri grinned. “Well, since you put it that way.” Taly swallowed. “If they capture me….”
“We won’t let that happen. We will fight to the death for you.” Obi-Wan said. He thought for a moment. Taly looked scared and uncertain. But Obi-Wan knew one thing that would give him courage. He would treat him as an equal partner.