Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [54]
The logical choice for such a place was Belsavis, since the first Eye had traveled there. The difficulty with that idea came from two directions. The first was that Belsavis was an inhabited world that would certainly have raised an alarm if another Eye showed up there. The second was that while the first ship had a mission that would take it to Belsavis, there was no indication that the second had a similar mission.
Anakin retreated to access the Skate computers and approach the search more systematically. He pulled down records of ships leaving Vortex with their stated destinations, then cross-referenced those worlds with an index of the availability of Imperial records there. One world popped immediately to the top of the list: Garos IV.
Garos IV was known primarily for the University of Garos, located in the capital, Ariana. Garos IV had not joined the New Republic until after Thrawn’s defeat. Whereas Ysanne Isard had destroyed many covert files in the computers on Coruscant when the world fell to the Rebellion, no such destruction had taken place on Garos IV. Scholars descended on the world to use the secret Imperial files to complete studies of the Empire. It struck Anakin as highly possible that Daeshara’cor would access these files in continuing her quest for a weapon to use against the Yuuzhan Vong.
Luke agreed, so Mirax plotted a simple short hop to Garos IV. Actually skirting the Nyarikan Nebula made plotting a course somewhat tricky, but between Whistler and R2-D2, the work was done quickly and the trip made in record time. This heightened hopes that they would arrive before Daeshara’cor had a chance to escape. Anakin entertained great hopes that he’d be side by side with his uncle, heading to the university to apprehend her.
His good feeling evaporated when Luke told him he would be waiting behind on the ship yet again. With the others gone, Anakin scowled, and the very weight of it seemed to press him deeper into the copilot chair. “It’s not fair to be stuck here.”
Chalco laughed. “Well, I hope you’re not complaining about the company, because Whistler here would be mighty put out if you were.”
The young Jedi scooted back up a bit in the chair and glanced at Chalco standing in the cockpit hatchway. “I just wanted to be doing something, you know?”
“I know, and you are.”
“Yeah, waiting.”
“Waiting here because we’ve got the best chance of catching her.”
Anakin straightened up in the seat. “How do you plot that course?”
The short man laughed aloud. “C’mon, smart boy, you’re the one who figured out she’d come here. You should be able to get the rest of it.”
“Okay, she comes here for the information. She goes to the university, then will come back here to fly away.” Anakin looked up. “Not very enlightening.”
“Okay, a clue. Why am I here?”
“To help spot her.”
“Why?”
“You saw her on Coruscant.”
“So did every Jedi there. Why am I here?”
Anakin’s jaw dropped. “You’re here because you know spaceports the way Daeshara’cor knows spaceports. And she knows spaceports because she spent lots of time at them. Since the extent of her formal training was at the Jedi academy, she’s not going to be comfortable in some crowded university setting.”
Chalco scratched at his chin. “University has a lot of folks to keep an eye on, lots of memories to mess up, if she doesn’t want to be seen.”
“Right. So she’s not going to go to the university herself. She’ll find another way to get the university’s records delivered.”
Chalco smiled. “Now, your uncle said we should keep to the spaceport, but I think there are a few areas nearby where the sort of folks she’d need can be found. If we expand our search area, I think we can tag her.”
The young Jedi’s blue eyes narrowed. “Master Skywalker is rather specific about his orders.”
“Was that an order, or suggestion? I mean, if we saw her here, and she left, he’d expect us to