Chapter 6: Meanwhile, back at the present...
Corran Horn saw Master Skywalker disappear, melt away, flicker--Jado Krake's fist nearly slammed into the Jedi's face. Corran dodged and swiped the Remnant agent's feet out from under him as Krake move foreword for another punch and instead again collapsed. Corran's lightsaber flicked to Krake's throat.
"What is it?" Corran found himself growling. "What've you done to him?"
Krake's confidence had gone up; his objective of thinning the pair of Jedi to one had been a success. "He's gone. Rebellion era I think..." The agent chuckled.
Krake was taller than Corran when he struggled to his feet; Corran gathered the Force about him and peered into the man's eyes as if seeing into his mind--which of course he was. The slight intimidation made Krake remember he was a captive. And Corran asked again, softer, "What has that machine done to him?"
It was lying on the duracrete where Luke had stood. Corran called it to his hand and held it against his body, daring Krake to go after it again.
"It's a time machine," The agent sounded like he was boasting. "He's ten years younger now, heh heh!"
"Time travel technology was never developed by the Empire. It's impossible."
"Well where's the Jedi then?"
Corran ignored this question. "You're comin with me..." He pulled a pair of binders deftly from a belt pouch and clamped them around Krake's hands, then stuffed the machine back in his bag to keep his own hands free. "to your contact's ship."
Krake did not reply or resist. Corran pushed him ahead of himself off the beachfront, toward the spaceport.
Chakra Bek and his Pho Ph'eahian guide emerged into the light of Corellia's sun from her ship, and immediately the Twi'lek made for the bay's exit. Instead of leaving he paced there, black-laced lekku swaying with his movements.
The Pho Ph'eahian pilot moved around the side of the ship, keeping an eye on the Twi'lek. When he turned to exit the dock, she followed.
Chakra was only waiting for Jado Krake's delivery. When the agent appeared Chakra rushed to him, whispering confidentially; "Do you have it?"
Krake nodded and reached into his bag, a strangely morose expression on his face.
Krake hesitated, and Chakra felt a soft but strong touch around his hands. A twitch showed that Krake had felt it too, and then there was another man with them, someone Human wearing a pine green cloak.
"Good job Krake," He said with a trace of sarcasm, and quick as thought the newcomer had binders around both their wrists.
Chakra felt the vestigial claws at his fingers bare. "What is this?"
"This is justice." The cloaked man's green eyes looked Chakra up and down. "Chakra Bek, I presume. Unfortunately you're not going to get your package."
"What do you know about this?" The three turned to see the Pho Ph'eahian in the door to the docking bay, a tiny blaster in her lower right hand pointed at not the captives but their captor. With her other low hand she flipped a Republic badge from a pocket of her flightsuit. "Republic operative De'shar. You're all under arrest."
"Corran Horn." The cloaked man said. "Jedi Knight."
Having been trailed by this double agent De'shar from the beginning of the mission paled in comparison to involvement by the Jedi. Chakra tried to look innocent. "We're just traders. The Imperial Remnant is perfectly within legal boundaries--"
"Not when trading untested time machines." The Jedi, Horn, casually returned. "You're staying with us."
For a moment De'shar looked as confused as the Imperials had at first been. "Time machines? I've been trailing these two to find the line of artifact smuggling in and out of Corellia. They'll be taken to Coruscant and questioned there, Master Jedi."
Corran Horn held up the black faceted machine. "The Human used this to, he says, send my companion years back in time. I'd appreciate if you'd allow me to question them at the temple on Yavin 4..."
De'shar looked between the three, her dark gaze equally suspiciously lying on Chakra, Krake and Corran. "These men are enemies of the Republic. They should be tried as such."
"I don't believe they can be tried at all until we have all the information. The Jedi academy is the best place to get that information, do you agree?"
After another long look at all of them she nodded. "Give me the coordinates. I'll keep them in my ship."
Corran nodded. He couldn't put anyone in an X-Wing anyway, but was loathe to tell this Pho Ph'eahian that. For an independent agent, she was surprisingly authoritative, something he respected but disliked in a person who was, occupationally, his equal or inferior.
"Don't we get any say in this?" Chakra called, a bit of fear showing in his sickly yellow eyes.
"No." Corran and De'shar answered together.
De'shar began to take the Imperials away, covertly taking a supposedly hidden blaster from the Twi'lek with her third hand and waving Corran away with the fourth. "Comm me with the coordinates." She commanded, and disappeared around the curving wall of the docking bay.
Corran stared after them for a moment, then sighed at the strangeness of some beings and turned for his ship.