Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [92]
Following the discussion in the cave, Sekot had said that it wanted to perform several short trial voyages to assess whether the jump to lightspeed inadvertently engineered by Nom Anor had done lasting damage to the hyperspace cores and whatever planetary mechanisms Sekot employed to augment the powerful engines. Of greater concern was the very real possibility of encountering uncharted mass shadows along the route back to known space. Whether ship or planet, any traveler that entered hyperspace without taking a greater or lesser hyperlane risked catastrophe—and no analogs to the Perlemian Trade Route or the Hydian Way existed in the Unknown Regions. Worse, the entire territory was known to be rife with hyperspace anomalies, particularly along the Coreward frontier.
Luke and the other Jedi had to trust that Sekot knew what it was doing. So instead of dwelling on the prospects of being yanked from lightspeed by a gravity well of some sort, Luke had passed the days in the shelter grappling with Sekot’s revelations that the aboriginal Yuuzhan Vong had been stripped of the Force. Sekot had refused to elaborate; and since then Sekot—speaking through Jabitha—had said only that it was imperative that Zonama be returned to known space, despite the grave risks the planet would face during the Crossings and on arrival.
The revelation—Luke didn’t know what else to call it—had had a profound effect on Harrar, and on Luke, as well. Was it possible, Luke wondered, that the would-be Jedi who had originally settled on Zonama Sekot hadn’t taught Sekot about the Force but merely reawakened it?
A few steps away from Luke in the boras-enclosed clearing sat Jade Shadow. Designed for speed and stealth, the craft was sharply tapered forward and painted a uniform nonreflective gray. The hyperdrive rating was equal to that of the Millennium Falcon, and she had the added ability to be operated remotely by slave circuitry. The aft cabin space alone was large enough to accommodate an X-wing.
Even Sekot was impressed by the ship, and Luke suspected that it was Sekot that had kept Jade Shadow from being crushed by the several boras that had toppled during the recent storms, narrowly missing it. However, the ship was buried almost to her triangular cockpit in sand, leaves, and other forest detritus.
“Did she weather the jump all right?” Mara asked. Glow stick in hand, she emerged from the dark shadows of the giant trees and came alongside him to regard Jade Shadow.
“No visible damage.”
Mara tossed her hair over her right shoulder and gazed at the circle of brilliant stars overhead. “Any idea where we are?”
“According to Artoo, we might be somewhere in the Mid Rim.”
The droid cheeped.
Mara looked at R2-D2. “Is that good?”
“It’s a start.” Luke glanced at the path Mara had taken. “Where is everyone?”
“Jacen, Corran, and Danni are trying to convince the Ferroans that it’s safe to come out of hiding. The last I saw Tekli, Saba, and Tahiri, they were with Harrar, who keeps finding similarities between Yuuzhan Vong biots and what he sees here.” She approached Jade Shadow, then turned to Luke. “Do you think we’re close enough to contact Esfandia Station?”
“Only one way to find out.”
The ship had a cosmetic external hatch release, but the actual release was concealed inside the starboard bulkhead, and could be operated by the Force. Mara entered first, and called on the illuminators. As filthy as the ship was outside, the interior was undisturbed. Slipping into the forward chairs, she and Luke activated the ship’s HoloNet and subspace transceivers. At the same time, R2-D2 inserted his slender computer interface arm into an access port and rotated the dial to an appropriate setting.