Crisis at Crystal Reef

7

Their search for any sign of the Lightning Rod in Kessel’s haphazard docking records was apparently fruitless. Lowie, Em Teedee, and Jaina had chased through even the most elusive of electronic notations, looking for aliases, last-minute substitutions on standard cargo runs, even any vessel that might have requested sight-seeing privileges. Anja and the Lightning Rod were nowhere to be found. Either she had failed to identify her ship, or she had never come there at all.

Meanwhile, Zekk pored over a hard-copy diagram of all usable docking facilities on the planet, both authorized and unauthorized. Tenel Ka, with Jacen beside her, studied a listing of docking authorizations in the past week. Many of the ships were unnamed or only partially listed.

Jacen was about to ask just what kind of clue she expected to find when the warrior girl nodded with satisfaction. “Ah.”

“Aha?” Jacen asked, not knowing exactly what she had found.

Zekk hurried over from the computer console. “The Lightning Rod! Or at least a lead we can follow?”

“No, but something unusual, nonetheless. A ship we have encountered before, on our way to Anja’s world of Anobis.”

Zekk squinted down at the shimmering electronic page. “The Rude Awakening?”

Jaina looked up from her computer console and scratched her head. “Sounds familiar but I can’t place it.”

“Hey, wasn’t that the name of the ship we bumped into not far from Ord Mantell, that gunrunner?” Jacen said.

Jaina frowned. “You mean Lilmit? But what would a gunrunner—or even an ex-gunrunner—be doing here on Kessel?”

With a thoughtful growl, Lowie began punching commands into the computer console. A moment later he gave a suspicious woof.

“Yes, indeed, Master Lowbacca. Very odd!” Em Teedee agreed. “It seems that our smuggling friend has a valid authorization to pick up a shipment here on Kessel.” Lowie added something with a sharp bark. “Why, yes. Given the circumstances, I daresay he should have docked in one of the standard commercial loading bays.”

“But he’s not,” Jaina observed. “According to this code list, Lilmit’s authorization came directly through Nien Nunb’s late Second Administrator.”

“So where is he docked then?” Zekk asked impatiently.

Jaina stood, leaned over Zekk’s sheet of docking diagrams, and pointed. “A cargo bay way over here, near all the new andris-mining and processing operations. Perfectly legal, of course. Just … really out of the way.”

“Sounds suspicious to me,” Jacen admitted. “I don’t think Anja actually knows this guy, but it seems like an awfully big coincidence that he just happened to be in the Anobis system when we were there, and now he just happens to be on Kessel.”

Tenel Ka nodded. “Perhaps Nien Nunb’s conspiracy theory has a more solid foundation than we realized.”

“Hey, either way,” Jacen said, “I’d say it’s about time we paid our old smuggler friend Lilmit a visit.”

Without saying a word as he came up from behind, Jacen put a hand on Lilmit’s slumped shoulder. The onetime weapons smuggler, his head and neck buried in the engine compartment of the Rude Awakening, gave a start and banged his head.

“Anything we can help you with, Lilmit?” Jaina asked sweetly.

“What do you mean, sneaking up on a guy like that?” Lilmit muttered, backing up to extricate himself from the opening in the access panel.

Lowie gave a warning rumble. Lilmit whirled at the sound, stumbled backward a step, and hit his head again, this time on the outside of the engine compartment.

“No, no, it can’t be!” the hapless man said, staring around at the semicircle of faces he had not seen since his disastrous weapons smuggling assignment to Anobis. “Not you, too! I’m ruined. Why can’t everyone just leave me alone?” Lilmit squeezed his eyes shut. “Please let me go. I was just about to leave.”

Exchanging amused glances, Jaina and Lowie popped their heads inside the engine compartment to take a look. Jaina withdrew again and gave Lilmit a skeptical look. “From the looks of your engines, I don’t think you’re going anywhere soon.”

Lowie’s roar echoed inside the engine compartment. “Master Lowbacca confirms this diagnosis,” Em Teedee translated.

Jaina placed her hands on her hips. “Even if Kessel does have all the replacement parts you need, it’ll take a pair of skilled mechanics two days to get this mess fixed.”

Lilmit blanched. “Days? I don’t have days. I don’t even have any credits. I need to leave before Kessel is—” He clamped his mouth shut. His eyes darted from side to side as he fluttered his hands, spreading his webbed Fingers. “I, uh, have to leave today. Is there any way I might persuade you to help me?”

“Why?” Jacen asked sourly. “So you can deliver some more weapons to desperate people in war zones?”

The former arms smuggler drew himself up haughtily. “I’m not in that line of business anymore.” He blinked rapidly. “I—I’m completely legitimate now.”

Tenel Ka raised an eyebrow. “Transporting spice, perhaps?”

Lilmit looked defensive. His nostrils flared. “Yes, a small, authorized shipment. And it’s … urgently needed.”

“Ah,” Jacen said.

“Aha,” Tenel Ka finished, nodding gravely.

“So you see,” Lilmit said defensively, “you mustn’t interfere with my business anymore. I’m on an errand of … mercy.”

“Actually, we’re not here to interfere with you at all,” Zekk said, stepping forward a bit. “We’re looking for some information about a friend of ours. You see, our friend … borrowed my ship, the Lightning Rod.”

Jacen could sense Zekk’s struggle to come up with an explanation that would not involve lying. His emerald-green eyes clouded for a moment, then cleared. “We had planned to rendezvous at the first stop, but our friend obviously got here first and didn’t wait.”

The story was true, Jacen thought admiringly. The young Jedi had hoped to meet Anja here. Anja herself had not known this, though, and so of course had not waited for them.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her,” Lilmit protested. “Or that hunk of junk she was flying.”

Her, Jacen thought, and that hunk of junk. So Anja and the Lightning Rod had been here. It was fortunate for the young Jedi Knights that Lilmit was such a poor liar. The fellow was obviously desperate to get away. There was no doubt left in Jacen’s mind now that the former gunrunner had not only seen Anja, but had spoken to her as well. He could sense it strongly through the Force.

Jacen moved closer to Lilmit and spoke in a confidential tone. “Look, we already know Anja was here in the Lightning Rod.” He had only known this for a few seconds, but Lilmit didn’t need to be told that. “She desperately needs our help with something she’s trying to do,” he continued in a low voice. At least, Jacen thought Anja was trying to give up using spice. From everything Lando had told them and from what Jacen had seen so far, Anja would need her friends’ help to get through this.

“We were sent here to help her,” Jaina added in a persuasive tone. She sighed with feigned resignation. “But if you don’t know anything, you don’t. It’s a shame, too. The Chief Administrator of this facility owes us a favor and probably would have been more than happy to give us a few rather hard-to-find engine parts that you could have used to fix your ship.”

Jacen shrugged, turning to go. “Well, good luck anyway, Lilmit. I’m sure you’ll understand we’re in kind of a hurry.” He took a stab in the dark. “We’ll just have to hope we link up with her at the next rendezvous before it’s too late.”

Lilmit swallowed convulsively but did not speak.

“You do understand, do you not, that we were sent to assist Anja Gallandro with the spice?” Tenel Ka said, leaning close to Lilmit, a meaningful look in her cool gray eyes.

Lilmit’s eyes went wide as comprehension dawned. Jacen was pretty sure Lilmit didn’t know they’d been sent by Master Skywalker, and therefore he had no idea what sense Lilmit might have made out of Tenel Ka’s cryptic comment, but he was aware that the warrior girl had an intricate understanding of deceptions, plots, and conspiracies. Somehow, Jacen thought in admiration, she had known just what to say.

Jaina added a last little push. “Well, there’s no time to lose. We may as well get going and just hope we can rendezvous with her at Ord Mantell….”

Jacen saw no answering flicker of confirmation in Lilmit’s eyes.

“Or,” Jaina went on, “Coruscant … ?”

“No!” Lilmit practically yelped. “Calamari! She’s gone to Mon Calamari.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “The Coruscant assignment is mine.”

Jacen tried to clear his mind. They were getting answers, but he had no idea what they were talking about! He hoped someone knew.

Lilmit seemed to warm up to them now. “I was testing you, of course. For Anja. You can never be too sure about these things,” he said, nodding several times. “Especially since you interfered with my shipment to Anobis. I got into a lot of trouble for that.”

“We had our reasons,” Zekk broke in, “but we’d like to make it up to you now.”

Lilmit smiled. “You’re sure you can get me the engine parts I need?”

“Of course—nothing simpler,” Jaina assured him smoothly.

Lowie rumbled a curt suggestion. “Master Lowbacca advises you to talk first,” Em Teedee translated. “Then we will see to getting your parts.”

“But you’ll have to do the engine work yourself,” Jaina warned. “We’ve got our own mission.”

Lilmit nodded. “Fair enough. Just as long as I get off of this rock … in time.”