Star Wars_ MedStar 01_ Battle Surgeons - Michael Reaves [25]
But there were other players in this game; players of stealth, who moved pieces even more transparent than a dejarik holomonster.
Players like Black Sun.
Bleyd cursed himself for a fool. He had, perhaps, let his greed and his eagerness to achieve wealth and status spur him into a rash alliance. The plot had been simple-too simple, no doubt. Filba, in charge of the shipping or-ders, had been skimming a few kilos here and there of the processed plant. Because of its adaptogenic quali-ties, bota was in even more demand than spice in some corners of the galaxy. Its potential value was so great, in fact, that its use as a medication by the Rimsoos here on Drongar had been strictly interdicted-a rich bit of irony, that.
But transporting bota, even at hyper lightspeeds, was difficult because of its extremely limited shelf life. And that was where Filba had outdone himself. The Hutt had discovered a way to ferry the contraband across the galaxy without loss of quality. How he had come across this knowledge, Bleyd was still not sure. Filba was many things, but definitely not a scientist, so it could not have been born in the Hutt’s scheming brain. Most likely he had found and followed a trail on the HoloNet, or bribed someone for the information. The important thing was that, as far as they knew, the pro-cess had not yet been discovered by either the Sepa-ratists or the Republic.
Bota’s decay process stopped if it was embedded in blocks of carbonite.
Preserved this way, it could be shipped anywhere-if the blockades of both sides could be dodged. That was where Black Sun had initially come in. Filba had con-nections to the interstellar criminal organization, and they had struck a bargain: for a percentage, Black Sun would provide a YT-1300f freighter, with a modified hyperdrive, that could slip past both Republic and Con-fed blockades and smuggle blocks of carbonite carrying bota to the far corners of the galaxy.
But it was now quite apparent that Black Sun was not satisfied with just a cut of the illegal profits they were making. They wanted the nexu’s share. Bleyd assumed that this calamity was some kind of a warning shot. No doubt they would be contacting him and Filba soon to-Bleyd stopped pacing as a new thought struck him. Was Filba double-crossing him?
It was no secret that the Hutt wanted to be a vigo. And what better way to ingratiate himself with the crime cartel than opening the way for Black Sun to take over a profitable smug-gling operation?
Bleyd nodded. Yes. He had to consider that possibility.
He stepped over to the observation port, looked down at the planet. The terminator line was just reaching the peninsula where RMSU-7 was based. The thick trans-paristeel showed his reflection, overlaid on the planet below him. An appropriate image, he thought.
Because if Filba has betrayed me, there’s no place on this world or any other where he can hide...
9
Not all of the troops’ medical problems were traumatic. There was a section at the Rimsoo that housed patients who had illnesses or infections not related to battle, but which were bad enough to require monitor-ing. Allergies, idiopathic fevers, and a fair number of respiratory sicknesses-not