Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [56]
Tears sprang to Tymmo’s eyes. “My particular talent was electronic wizardry. I built those micro-motivators from scratch. When I applied for the consort position, I knew my odds were small. But I succeeded in hacking into the central computer in Palace Dargul, sabotaging the other applicants, planting an algorithm so that the computer would spit out my name as the perfect choice.”
Slish Fondine looked nauseated at the mere concept of cheating in such a heinous manner.
“The duchess and I were married, and everything seemed exactly as I had expected—at first. But the duchess was convinced I was her perfect match, fated to be with her forever. Every waking moment of the day she refused to let me move more than arm’s length away from her. She would wake me up at all hours of the night, find me during her meal breaks. She would trap me in the gardens, in the libraries.”
Tymmo’s eyes grew wild, shining with panic. “I thought she would get tired of me—or at least used to having me around—but it went on for more than a year! I couldn’t sleep, I jumped at shadows. I was a wreck, and that made her feel sorry for me … so she clung even tighter!
“And I couldn’t leave! On Dargul they mate for life. Life! She’ll never give up searching, and she’ll never take another mate as long as I live.” Tymmo looked as if a scream hovered on his lips. “I’ll never be free of her! I had to escape.”
“Well, it looks like you’ve finally found a way out,” Slish Fondine said in an angry voice. “As an admitted scam artist, you’ll be promptly executed under the laws of Umgul.”
To Lando’s surprise Tymmo didn’t even try to defend himself. He seemed resigned to his fate.
But Lando wasn’t so sure about the idea. “Let’s think about this a minute, Mr. Fondine. Did you say there’s a million-credit reward for his safe return to the duchess, Artoo?”
Artoo chirped an affirmative.
“Now, Mr. Fondine, think of what a wonderful gift of state this would be for the upcoming visit of the duchess, returning her consort in time to ease her loneliness.”
Tymmo groaned in misery.
“On the other hand, if you were to execute him, knowing he is her missing consort, things could get very unpleasant between Umgul and your sister planet. Might even be cause for war.”
Fondine’s face darkened with the possibilities, but his honor had been so offended that the choice was not clear to him.
He sighed. “We will leave it up to the prisoner himself. Tymmo, or Dack, or whatever your name is—do you wish to be executed or returned to the Duchess Mistal?”
Tymmo swallowed hard. “How long do I have to think about it?”
“It’s not a trick question!” Lando said.
Tymmo sighed. “Can I at least be allowed to rest until she gets here? I’m going to need all my strength.”
The Lady Luck cruised out of the huge grotto of Umgul’s spaceport, rising above the mists into the sky. Slish Fondine had insisted, out of fairness, that he would transfer half of the duchess’s reward into Lando’s account when she arrived.
No longer penniless, Lando would have seed money to invest in some new operation, some other scheme that could excite him. He had tried the molten metal mines on Nkllon, and the Tibanna gas mines on Bespin. He wondered what he might find next.
Though he had tried his best to track down a worthy candidate for Luke’s Jedi academy, he hated to return empty-handed to Coruscant. But he knew there would be others.
Threepio remained uncharacteristically silent as the Lady Luck burst into hyperspace, heading home.
10
Images of starships whirled through space like pinpoints of fire around Coruscant. The holographic map of the system showed the locations of all vessels in range and plotted approved approach orbits on a huge spherical grid. Data terminals