Star Wars_ The Black Fleet Crisis 03_ Tyrant's Test - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [38]
“Even the New Republic can’t find us, thanks to your tricks,” said Luke. “Look, all we have to do is find a quiet place to stay and play tourist for a few days. Besides, I want to learn more about what’s ahead of us—and it may take a while to sort the facts from the rumors.”
“Does it matter what’s ahead?” she asked. “Would you even consider turning back now? Your mother—my mother—they’re almost within reach.”
“Not with Mud Sloth on crutches, they aren’t,” said Luke.
“Then we have to get a different ship.”
Luke snorted. “How?”
She looked at him in earnest surprise. “Don’t you think that with our combined talents we can take almost any ship we want from here?”
“Don’t even think about it,” Luke said tersely. He scanned about to see if anyone could have heard her, then grabbed her elbow and practically dragged her away from the service center’s entrance and onto the slidewalk.
“Yes, we probably could,” he said in a sharp whisper as the moving surface whisked them along. “But not without attracting unwanted attention. Do you really want a Utharian patrol boat following us to J’t’p’tan? Do you want every ship under New Republic registry alerted to watch for us?”
“I can hide us.”
“We’re already hidden. All we have to do is wait. You’ve gotten this close by biding your time until the right time. This is the wrong time to give in to impatience.”
“This is the wrong time to delay,” said Akanah, still casting about for emotional leverage. “Luke, the darker the clouds, the more important it is for us to move quickly.”
“The war’s already started,” Luke said grimly. “The Yevetha attacked more than a dozen worlds not long after we left Coruscant. We can’t arrive before the storm—we can only hope it leaves J’t’p’tan untouched.”
“Luke, it’s not that the Circle is in danger,” Akanah pressed. “The danger is that we’ll lose touch with them. It’s impossible to work when the Current is in chaos. And it’s intensely uncomfortable to remain connected when the Current is carrying so much pain. I’m not afraid for them—the Circle is strong. I’m afraid they may already have left J’t’p’tan. And any sign they leave for me could be destroyed as easily as Norika’s house in Griann was.”
“I can ask for another tracking report on Star Morning, find out where it went after Vulvarch. That should tell us something about the Circle’s plans.”
“And what will we chase them in, Mud Sloth? You were right, Luke. We can’t count on our ship. We should have something faster, more reliable—and we may need room for more than the two of us. Please—we have to leave here now.”
“I’m not going to help you steal a starship, Akanah.”
Even before he spoke, she realized she had made a mistake. They shared a goal, but he still observed limits on the means he would allow himself to employ in pursuing it. She had committed everything to this quest, while he had a life to return to if it ended in failure. And she had forgotten that difference between them in a moment of selfish anxiety.
“You’re right—oh, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s just so hard being this close after so long,” she said, hastily troweling over the crack in her facade. “If we don’t find them—”
“We’ll find them,” Luke said.
“I want to believe that with all my heart, and at the same time I’m afraid to, because I don’t know if I can bear another disappointment,” she said. The tears that glittered in the corners of her eyes were real. “Forgive me. It isn’t that I thought you a thief—”
“I know,” he said. “It’s forgotten.”
She smiled gratefully at him and let him draw her into the curl of his arm. “If we must stay here, then at least let’s get away from Taldaak,” she urged, ending a brief silence. “Let’s find some private place safely away from all these eyes. I’ll use the time to teach you more of our disciplines.”
“First things first,” Luke said. “I want to go back to the ship and put out some