"Anything Ensign?"
"No sir. Sensors show that this sector is uninhabited."
"Very well, navigator. Continue with search pattern delta 3. Inform me if the sensor sweep turns anything up."
"Yes sir …"
"Yes, Ensign?" There was something in the way that he had said 'yes sir' that suggested to Captain Ardiff there was something left unspoken.
"Captain, I know it is not my place to tell you how to conduct a search, but I — "
"Ensign, if there is one thing that I have learned from Admiral Pellaeon, it is that no one should be afraid to suggest a better way to do something. The Admiral has reminded me on more than one occasion of his tutelage under Grand Admiral Thrawn, and I guess it has rubbed off on me. So speak up boy, what's on your mind?"
The young officer paled visibly at being the focus of Ardiff's attention.
"Well, sir, it is just that search pattern delta 3 will not allow us to perform a sensor sweep with enough precision to detect any life forms on a body smaller than a class-M planet, or one where the population is less than about 10,000 beings."
"Go on, Ensign …"
Gaining confidence, the navigator continued. "Redkin, sir. If we are to find whatever you are searching for, you will need to either modify the sensors or use pattern sigma 2."
" I realize that, Ensign, but sigma 2 will take longer than we have to perform the search. So far, I see no reason to deviate from the Admiral's orders."
"I understand, sir. But you see, sir, right now, we are doing a general sensor sweep. If we knew what we were looking for, we could maintain delta 3 pattern but focus the sensors to seek a precise life-form signature. I took the liberty of researching the Chimaera's sensor array's sensitivity, and providing a pattern match reduces the critical threshold to as few as 100 life forms on a body as small as a moon."
In spite of himself, Ardiff was impressed. This sort of initiative was something rarely seen in the Imperial fleet, although on reflection, Ardiff realized he shouldn't be surprised. Thrawn had taught Pellaeon well, and the Admiral in turn had instilled that same sense of resourcefulness into Ardiff and his senior officers. It only made sense that the junior officers would pick up on it, too. And the thing of it, Redkin was right, Ardiff thought to himself. Why didn't I think of that? The problem was, Pellaeon had informed only a few key senior officers what they really were looking for. Moreover, it was not obvious that he would want the crew to know. The subject of clones was a touchy one. Though the Clone Wars were fifty years in the past, the memory of the destruction caused in the conflict was still fresh to too many people. And Thrawn had used clones in his abortive attempt to defeat the Rebels ten years earlier. Ardiff grimaced at that memory. The Katana fleet had been crewed by clones, and that had turned out to be a colossal failure. And it was just a few months ago that Disra's aide had been revealed as a clone. No, Ardiff concluded, we'll have to take our chances and hope we find them.
"Ensign, I thank you for your suggestion, and I will advise Admiral Pellaeon of your comments. But for now, please continue with the search as programmed."
"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir if I spoke out of turn."
"No, Ensign, you didn't. Just do not confuse initiative with insubordination and you'll be fine."
As the navigator nervously returned to his post, Ardiff turned and headed for the command bridge. He owed the Ensign that much. And who knows, Ardiff considered, maybe the Admiral would be willing to use the boy's idea.
"OK Wedge, we'll see you and Iella tomorrow for lunch."
"Agreed. And Luke, don't discount what I told you. Be careful."
"I will Wedge, I will."
Mara Jade entered the common room of their apartment just as Wedge's image faded from the viewscreen.
"What was that all about, Luke? What did Wedge mean when he said 'be careful'?"
Luke debated whether he should tell Mara about Wedge's warning. Too late he remembered their Force bond, as Mara suddenly turned and faced him.
"Alright, Skywalker, what's going on? Don't try and sweet-talk me. I can tell something's not quite right."
Luke sighed as he considered how best to proceed.
"Wedge thinks there are plans to interfere with the wedding. He's not sure if it is directed at you, or me, or both of us, or even us in the first place. All he knows is that one of his sources said, and he quoted 'Plans are being made … look to the centre …' unquote. Neither of us knows what that means. Do you have any ideas?"
"No. What could he mean by 'look to the centre", Luke? Is it a person, or a place?"
"I just don't know, Mara, and that's what worries me."
"We eventually traced Car'das to his base in the Exocron system, and when we got there, it turned out that we had brought along a few unexpected guests."
Karrde paused, as a rueful chuckle escaped his control. "I thought I had been so careful, making sure our backtrail was covered; taking steps to keep our route a secret. Little did I know that all the while, Car'das was using us to lure the pirates and slavers who regularly preyed on the system into the open."
Again Karrde paused, and when he spoke again, no one could mistake the bitterness in his voice.
"It was a game to him, a way of masking his ultimate goal, which was their extinction. And his whole scheme would have collapsed like a broken pure sabbac if we had not successfully made it to Exocron."
"I dunno, Boss," Dankin offered. "If these Aing-Tii monks were powerful enough to obliterate the pirates, my guess is that they would not have allowed us to be destroyed until we served our purpose."
But how could they know, Dankin? No one can ssee the future.
"Actually, H'sishi, that's not quite true," Karrde responded. "I recall Skywalker telling me that the Force sometimes gave him a vision of the future. On one occasion, he saw himself on the Canyonade on Cejansij, and it was his decision to go there that led to him running into Moranda which led to a meeting with me which led to him rescuing Mara from Nirauan. I know it seems hard to accept, but in the years I have known Skywalker, I have come to respect his Jedi abilities and I believe him when he says that the Force presents these images to him. And I do not know if I told you, but Car'das implied that the Aing-Tii monks also have the ability to touch the Force, but in a different way. So who's to say that they can't see the future?"
"This is all very well and good, Karrde," Shada added, but you still haven't answered my question. Why us? And why me?"
"I thought I had answered why us, Shada. Despite my reputation for being a source of information not otherwise available, and my success in convincing the Empire and the New Republic to buy into my scheme to make us a neutral third-party intelligence service, neither side really believes I can pull it off. Those opposed to the plan are just waiting for us to fail; to be able to say 'I told you so'; and in doing so, damage the rather fragile bonds the peace treaty has established. If we successfully defuse the crisis before it happens, then both sides will have to acknowledge that maybe it can work. And there is another reason why us, although it is not one that I would cite."
Karrde's voice softened as he looked at Shada.
"Do you recall what you were thinking, Shada, when Mara extended an offer to you to join my crew?"
Shada started at Karrde's words, and feelings of anger and embarrassment raged within her as she struggled not to reveal the turmoil she felt. Despite her best efforts, it was obvious that she had failed.
"That was private, Karrde! Mara had no right to reveal a private conversation. If I had known she was — "
"Mara never said a word, Shada," Karrde replied, trying to soothe her anger. "All she said was that you two had had an open and frank discussion, and that beliefs were revealed; beliefs that neither of you even knew you felt, but they were so deeply ingrained that it would take a conscious effort to alter them."
"That doesn't excuse her, Karrde.," Shada retorted, but the anger had faded from her voice.
"Well, if you must know, I was feeling sorry for myself and …"
Unbidden, Shada found herself back in the observation lounge, as she recalled her encounter with Mara Jade. And what was I now? An outcast. An exile. No longer a part of the Mistryl, with Emberlene closed to me forever. Everything I did was done in the name of the Mistryl. And what do I have to show for it? A cabin on a smuggler's ship and the pity of a Jedi. Mara had certainly read her the riot act after that. And what had she said when Mara told her Karrde wanted her to join his crew? Oh yes. If you can call a smuggler's organization respected.
With a flash of insight, she knew what Karrde was referring to.
"That's it, isn't it, Karrde. Nobody respects us. Were just smugglers."
The bitterness of earlier was again present in Karrde's response, but it was muted.
"Yes, Shada, we're just smugglers. But our perceived weakness is also our strength. Because we are not part of the 'regular' society, we can go where the usual agents cannot. More than that, we do have a reputation that allows us to gain access to sources that others would not. And perhaps most important, we're invisible.. We do not register, so to speak, on most being's mental sensors We're like the maintenance staff at the shipyards. Nobody knows us, but without us, the whole operation comes to a grinding halt. Remember when we had that run-in with General Jutka? Even you didn't recognize my crew in the tapcafe."
But Chieften, if we are just sssmugglerss, how doess that help uss?
"Actually, H'sishi, it plays right into our hands. Because people do not want to "see" us, they tend to forget that they have, even if they did. Do you understand what I mean?"
I think ssso. Becaussse they do not wisssh to associate with uss, they will not notissse uss. They unconssscioussly forget uss.
"Exactly. When Moranda helped Wedge Antilles and Corran Horn on Bothawui, it was she that had to contact them. To them, she was invisible, just another being not worthy of recollection or notice."
Shada's expression changed, as if she had suddenly just thought of something.
"Karrde, where is Moranda right now? Is she still on Botawui?"
"Ahh, let's just say that she is where she can do the most good, given her success in dealing with those Imperial agents, shall we?" The look Karrde gave her suggested that further discussion on this matter would not be wise.
"Look, boss," Aves offered, stifling a yawn, "this has been a really interesting discussion, but it certainly could have waited till we were off shift. You still haven't told us anything that needed us to meet now."
"Sorry Aves, I was just getting to that. I needed to fill you on who and why. Remember I told you that I received a message from an old friend that was completely untraceable? What I haven't told you is that the information came to me from Car'das about an hour ago. He contacted me —"
"And me," Shada interjected.
"When I said untraceable, I meant it. The messages were in our minds, and my guess is that the monks provided the means for Car'das to use the Force to find us. After all, we are still in hyperspace."
Karrde looked at each one in turn.
"You have to understand that basically, all the Aing-Tii monks want is to be left alone. They prefer to remain within their home in the Kathol rift, and it is only rarely that they emerge to ahh, deal with us. Their actions in destroying Rei-Kas and his cohorts were akin to exterminating vermin. It was a moral decision. Their message to me was cryptic, yet I saw at once what they meant. The power to move planets and stars is a power that you are not yet ready for, and that danger lay in turning tools into weapons. Our goal now is to prevent an incursion by certain Bothans that if successful, would almost certainly lead to civil war within the new Republic."
"Wedge, are you ever going to come away from that viewscreen?"
"Yes, Iella, I just have one more message to deal with. You know I need to keep in contact with Rogue Squadron"
"Honestly Honey, I sometimes wonder if you love me as much as you love that squad of yours."
"Now, c'mon, Love, you know that's not true. You're the most important thing in my life."
"Well Wedge Antilles, you'd better show me that that's true."
"Five more minutes Dear, that's all. This is the last message."
As Iella returned to the kitchen of their apartment, Wedge quickly entered the secure codes necessary to bring up the last message. He hated having to deceive his wife, but this message was too important to miss, and it definitely was not from a member of Rogue Squadron. It was a voice-only pulse transmission, slightly distorted from having too many relays in the mix as its sender endeavored to make sure that a backtrace was all but impossible.
"Things are getting a little too tense. The elder has come to some sort of decision and has gone to seek the young one. Whatever he said got the elder's attention. Whatever they're planning, it looks like they'll be putting their scheme into play. Also, too many people are starting to recognize me and that means my effectiveness is at an end. You will need to arrange a trace of their movements on your own. I'll see what I can uncover, though. But if you do not hear from me in 24 hours, you know what to do and who to contact. Oh yes, one last thing. Why would Bothans be interested in CorSec?"
