Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [18]
Fifteen or so years after the crisis on Troiken, the YT had become the property of the Republic Group, about which the HoloNet had very little to say, though the organization was linked in byzantine ways to holding companies on a host of important worlds, including Coruscant, Alderaan, and Corellia. Once more the registry had been changed—to Ralltiir—and the ship had been renamed Stellar Envoy. The flight recorder detailed frequent trips to far-flung worlds like Ansion and Yinchorr, and the Superflow IV recorded upgrades to the freighter's communications suite and hyperdrive.
For a short time, the ship may even have been piloted by a Jedi Master named Plo Koon. Pure speculation on Bammy's part, based on a holoimage he had uncovered completely by chance. Taken shortly after the debacle on Troiken, the holoimage showed Jedi Knights Plo Koon, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Adi Gallia standing in front of a YT-1300 that might have been the one Kal Brigger had flown.
The pilot who had flown the Stellar Envoy for the Republic Group's was a human named Tobb Jadak.
It was close to sunrise when Bammy had come across the entry, but the discovery had given him a second wind. He knew the name, and a HoloNet search confirmed his hazy recollection of the fact that half of Nar Shaddaa's gamblers had lost money on Tobb Jadak, as a result of his losing a swoop race he'd been favored twenty-to-one to win. Rumors abounded that the Hutts had forced him to throw the race, but also that Jadak, through intermediaries, had bet heavily on himself to lose. Whatever the truth, Jadak's ignominy hadn't prevented the Republic Group from hiring him to pilot their ship.
The flight recorder indicated that Jadak and his copilot had jumped the YT from Coruscant, where she had almost certainly been damaged during the battle there, only to collide with the Jendirian Valley III as the mammoth ship was departing Nar Shaddaa.
Only a kid at the time, Bammy wasn't one of those who had lost credits by wagering on Jadak. Still, death by collision seemed a cruel fate for a guy who had once been a prizewinning swoop racer and pilot. Then again, the universe rarely played fair with winners or losers.
“REVERTING TO REALSPACE,” THE PILOT SAID OVER THE YT'S INTERCOM while Rej Taunt and the Gossam were sipping drinks in the main hold. “Entering the Tion Cluster.”
“No need for undue concern,” the long-necked alien said, taking note of Taunt's worried expression.
“I'm not comfortable with bugs—any of them. Not even Neimoidians, and they're almost humanoid.”
“The Colicoids will be easily appeased by our cargo,” the Gossam said in his most assuring voice.
Taunt said nothing in a definite way.
The Gossam's name was Lu San. A longtime Nar Shaddaa resident, he had spent two years in an internment camp on the Smugglers' Moon at the start of the war, but, like several other members of his species, he used the time to establish contacts among the criminal underworld and was already reaping the benefits of that education.
“Your ship is a marvel,” Lu San added after a moment, clearly hoping to put Taunt at ease.
Glancing around him, Taunt nodded. “A thing of beauty.”
During the walk-through of the rebuilt freighter, Bammy Decree's enthusiasm was so contagious that Taunt hadn't even bothered to have the mechanic's work double-checked. Instead he'd relied on the word of his pilots, who had taken the ship on test flights to Nal Hutta and Ylesia, and pronounced her a wonder.
And she was.
Renamed Second Chance and bearing a Nar Shaddaa registry, the YT concealed enhanced sublight and hyperdrive engines and sophisticated sensor and communications suites. Refitted with new mandibles and cockpit, the saucer had been twisted back into shape and cleaned up but left to look its age, with fresh paint and duralloy only where needed,