Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [37]
Closing the computer, Quire slid it into her carry case and stood up. “Do I need to call security, Captain?”
Jadak closed his eyes and blew out his breath. “No.”
“Then I'll leave the indemnity voucher with Aurora's treasurer.”
A HOLOIMAGE OF THE T-SHAPED COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE SPUN and turned above the analyzer's projector. Lando's towering chief technician, a Cerean named Tal-lik-Tal, paused the image and gestured to it.
“You can see the amplification relay here, just at the upper juncture.”
“Then it is a transponder?” Leia asked from the far side of the projector. The glow emanating from the projector's base enhanced the slight sunburns she and Han had sustained from two days of swimming and taking long beach walks with Allana.
“Pre-Imperial in design, and I suspect rarely encountered even in its day.” Tal-lik-Tal moved to the analyzer and called onscreen a similar but far from identical piece of hardware. “This is an image from the database library. Manufactured by Chedak Communications during the Clone Wars. But I've no way of determining whether yours was made by the same company.”
“There's no manufacturer's symbol?” Han asked.
“Or model or serial numbers.”
“Could they have been deliberately removed?”
“There's no indication that any existed.”
Tal-lik-Tal put the holoimage in motion, and Han circled it, his hand rubbing the stubble on his chin.
“You were correct regarding the device's mimetic properties,” the Cerean said. “In that, it is not unlike comlinks and transceivers developed for use by intelligence organizations. As I say, this one does not match any known Republic or Imperial-era designs, but the use of mimetic alloy at least suggests the possibility that the device was installed covertly, or for covert purposes. Have you detected any changes in the performance of your vessel since the device was removed?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“With the Falcon, how would we even know?” Leia asked, smiling.
Tal-lik-Tal laughed. “The reason I ask is that the transponder is still active.”
“I told you I wasn't hearing things,” Han said to Leia.
She turned to Tal-lik-Tal. “Isn't there some way to prompt it?”
“I made several attempts at interrogating the device using codes common during the latter Republic and early Imperial eras, but to no effect. It appears that it will only transmit its encoded message in response to a predefined received signal.”
Leia frowned, then brightened. “Amelia will be thrilled to learn that we failed to solve the mystery.”
“I would vouchsafe one suggestion,” Tal-lik-Tal said. “Do not reinstall it.”
A holoimage of Jadak's brain was revolving on a display screen when he entered Ril Bezant's office and lowered himself into an armchair.
The Twi'lek psychotherapist smiled and came around the desk to take a seat opposite him. “How are your legs?”
“Getting me around.”
She took note of his sullen tone of voice and nodded. “And, in general, how are you?”
“Well, let's see, my memory's still shot full of holes and I feel like I'm imprisoned in someone else's body. I'm sleeping an hour a night if I'm lucky, and my hands shake.” Jadak showed them to her. “Other than that everything's fine.”
“Go on,” she said.
“My body seems to know that a lot of time has passed but my mind hasn't caught up.”
“It will.”
“So you keep telling me. But sixty-two years ago feels like yesterday to me.”
“The past is nothing but yesterdays, Captain, whether years or decades have elapsed.”
“I'll try to keep that in mind next time I watch some HoloNet documentary about Emperor Palpatine and think to myself that I caught a glimpse of him last week on Coruscant.” Jadak looked her in the eye. “I've got this phrase stuck in my head. Alliance for the Restoration of the Republic. I can't get past it. Like my mind's waiting for some kind of prompt that'll bring back the rest of my memory.”
“And you feel that your agitation has something to do with the phrase, with the words themselves?”
“Restoration … Republic … like they're on a loop.”
“You said yourself that you're