• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"Mom must have felt it too," Jaina said, "because when I told her you were going to need our help, she didn't even try to argue. She was glad she had some Jedi she could send on such an important mission-even if two of them were her own kids."

Tenel Ka nodded.

"Her one stipulation was that we send her a message if we required reinforcements." She raised an eyebrow and looked around at her friends.

"Do we require reinforcements?"

"Not if Boman Thul made it out intact with his navicomputer."

"Or managed to destroy it," Zekk added. "We'd better go down to the hold and find out."

"Don't shoot, Dad-it's me!" Raynar said. His father, looking haggard and wary, glanced around but did not lower his blaster. "Are you a hostage?

Have you been coerced into helping a bounty hunter or the Diversity Alliance?"

"No, Dad. Zekk may have worked as a bounty hunter, but he's a... a friend." Raynar was surprised to note as he said it that this was true.

Zekk was a friend, and the dark-haired young man had risked his life more than once for each of them. "He believes what you told him about all humans being in danger. He wanted to help you, so he came to get me-he figured you wouldn't trust him alone."

Borran Thul's haunted eyes closed for a moment, and he nodded.

"Your... friend was right. I wouldn't have trusted him." Raynar's father lowered the blaster and extended a hand for his son to help him out of the escape pod. Raynar had thought about this too long to be embarrassed anymore, although his family had rarely engaged in physical contact when he was growing up. Even before his father's feet were firmly on the deckplates, Raynar threw his arms around Borran in a fierce hug. And his father, perhaps because he was unsteady, or perhaps because he'd also had months to reflect, did not hesitate in returning the embrace. Only the sound of his friends' footsteps descending into the cargo hold brought Raynar bask to reality. His father flinched and reached for his blaster, instantly suspicious again.

"These are my friends, too," Raynar said, and introduced them one by one.

"They're all Jedi trainees, except of course for Em Teedee, who is the best miniaturized translating droid ever to be retrofitted on Mechis Ill-and a pretty good navigator to boot."

"Speaking of navigators," Zekk said, "what about the module Nolaa Tarkona wanted so badly? Was it onboard your ship when it blew up?"

Bornan Thul pointed into the emergency pod.

"No, I brought it along. It's here with me."

Raynar felt giddy with relief.

"Then you don't have to run anymore," he said. "All we have to do is destroy the information."

His father's mouth formed a grim line. All the blood seemed to drain from his once-round cheeks. He shook his head.

"It's not that simple. Before I got into the escape pod I noticed that the computers on my ship were all being accessed at once. I don't know how, but someone was slicing into them remotely."

"Ah. That would probably be Boba Fett," Zekk said.

"He did that to the Rock Dragon when we were in the rubble field of Alderaan," Jaina explained, then looked questioningly at Boman Thul. "But you have the navicomputer with you. Boba Fett couldn't have sliced into it."

"You don't understand." Boman's voice rasped as if it were painful for him to speak. "I knew that even if I destroyed this navicomputer Nolaa Tarkona would never stop looking for the weapons depot. That's why I went there myself, hoping to destroy it. I couldn't find a way, though, so I left again, planning to buy supplies and weapons so that I could return to blow up the storehouse." Raynar blanched. "But that means that the location of the plague storehouse - "

"-was in your ship's own automatic navigation log before it blew up,"

Jaina finished for him.

"In that case," Zekk concluded, "Boba Fett has the information. And he won't hesitate to give it to Nolaa Tarkona."

NOLAA TARKONA GRITTED her sharpened teeth when she learned of the impending arrival of the New Republic inspection team. Her hirelings had failed to find either Bornan Thul or the