Crosscurrent

CHAPTER SEVEN

Khedryn and Marr flew Junker outside the orbit of Fhost's moons, clear of gravity wells. The ship and cockpit took on the quiet serenity of a craft moving through the vacuum.

"What is our course?" Marr asked. The Cerean looked first to Khedryn, then to Jaden.

"About time for that talk, eh?" Khedryn said to Jaden, and swallowed his chewstim.

Jaden nodded. "About time."

"Come into our office," Khedryn said, and he and Marr led Jaden to the galley in the center of the ship. Neither Khedryn nor Marr had removed his blaster. Jaden understood their caution. He would have to earn their trust.

A large, custom viewport in the galley's ceiling offered a view of space. The stars blinked down at them. A metal dining table and benches affixed to the floor afforded seating. A bar and built-in cabinets dominated one of the walls.

Khedryn went to the bar, took a caf pot large enough for a restaurant from an overhead storage bin, filled it with water, dropped in three pouches of grounds, and activated it. In moments the red brew light turned green. Khedryn removed the lid, and the smell of caf filled the galley. He poured two large mugs full and waved a third at Jaden.

"Caf? The ship and her crew run on it."

"Yes, thank you," Jaden said, and composed his thoughts.

Khedryn returned to the table with three steaming mugs of caf. Jaden took a sip and tried not to recoil at its bitterness.

"We prefer it strong," Marr said.

"Any stronger and you'd have to eat it with a fork," Jaden said.

Khedryn put his hands on the table and interlaced his fingers. Jaden noted the scars, the calluses. Marr put his hands under the table, near his blaster.

"Before we start," Khedryn said. "Let me ask you something. Back in The Hole, when you stopped me in the common room, did you use the mind trick on me?"

Jaden saw no point in lying. "I did."

Khedryn stared into his face, his eyes askew. "Don't do it again."

"All right."

"Now, what's your proposal?"

Jaden dived in. "The coordinates Reegas wanted. I want those, too."

Both Khedryn and Marr tensed.

"I figured," Khedryn said. He leaned back in his chair and threw an arm over its back, striking a casual pose. "You a salvager, Jedi? Or is there something else there?"

Jaden did not answer the question. "The rumors in Farpoint said the signal was an automated distress signal."

"We think," Khedryn said. "But there's no life down there. Nobody for a Jedi to save."

Except myself, Jaden thought.

"We don't know that," Marr said. "There could be life. I did not perform a thorough scan."

Khedryn stared at Marr as if the Cerean had just admitted to being a Sith. "Right. Thanks, Marr."

Jaden said, "I understand it originated on a moon at the far end of the system."

"And?" Khedryn asked.

Jaden tried to hold his calm even while he flashed back on his Force vision. He realized with alarm that he could be wrong, that Khedryn and Marr might have found a moon, but not the moon from the vision. He tried to read their faces as he said, "It's a frozen moon orbiting a blue, ringed gas giant."

Khedryn and Marr shared a glance.

"You have been there?" Marr said.

Jaden exhaled, relieved. "No. But I've seen it."

"What?" Khedryn asked.

"Tell me about it," Jaden said. "What drew your attention to it? How'd you pick up the signal?"

Marr took a long draw on his caf cup. His short, graying hair formed a ruff around the mountain of his skull. He furrowed his brow as he thought back, the lines forming cryptic characters on his forehead. "We were returning from another… situation and had to take a roundabout course back."

Jaden understood the Cerean to mean that they had been involved in something illicit, that it had gone wrong, and that they'd had to run. He gestured for Marr to continue.

"We stopped in a remote system so I could recalculate our course and we caught a signal of the kind you described."

Jaden's skin turned to gooseflesh. "Did you record it?"

"Of course," Marr said. "But I haven't yet been able to break its encryption."

Khedryn drained his cup, set it down on the table. "Let's slow down here." He ran a hand through his dark hair, sniffed the air. "Stang but I need a shower. I smell like The Hole."

Jaden ignored the conversational detour. "You want to get back to the why."

"No," Khedryn said. "I want to get to the how much. That'll tell me what I need to know about the why."

Jaden cleared his throat, studied his hands, finally said, "I can offer you two thousand credits now and another seven thousand after I confirm the moon is what I'm after and we return."

"Two thousand credits up front?" Khedryn leaned back in his chair, the hint of derision in the curl of his lip. "Marr?"

"Two thousand credits would barely cover operating costs."

"Barely covers operating costs," Khedryn echoed.

Jaden, in no mood for haggling, leaned forward in his chair. "I do not have time for this, Captain. Much may depend on this."

"For whom?"

Jaden stared into Khedryn's tanned, lined face. "For me."

Khedryn held his gaze for a time. "Didn't I say he had those eyes, Marr?"

"You did."

"And doesn't he?"

"He does."

"What eyes?" Jaden asked, but Khedryn ignored him.

"How do you suppose he'll look when he and his haunted eyes get out in the deep black and what he's looking for out there ain't there, after all."

"Not good, Captain."

"Not good. That's right."

"Why don't you leave that to me," Jaden said, fighting back irritation.

Khedryn stood. "Because you are sitting in my galley in my ship." He walked over to bar, refilled his caf. "Marr?"

"Yes, please," the Cerean said.

Khedryn returned to the table with the pot, refilled Marr's cup, even topped off Jaden's.

"I think this is where we part ways, Jaden Korr. This smells like some Jedi grand scheme, and I've seen what comes of those."

Jaden understood the oblique reference to Outbound Flight. Jaden had seen what came of Jedi grand schemes, too. Centerpoint and everyone on it exploded in a Jedi grand scheme.

"That's not really how we work," Marr added, and Jaden detected the hint of an apology in the Cerean's tone.

"Even after what Master Skywalker did for you?"

Khedryn stiffened, his fingers white around the handle of his caf pot. Still standing, he said, "I owe Luke and Mara Skywalker. Not the Jedi Order."

Jaden felt his plans crumbling. His own fists clenched. He saw Marr tense and took a moment to calm himself. "I don't want the salvage. I just… need to see it."

Marr's eyes formed a question. "Why?"

Khedryn said, "That sounds a bit more personal than you've let on."

Jaden offered the truth. "No one in the Order knows I am here. This may have consequences for the Order, but this… isn't about that."

Khedryn slid into his seat, and his tone softened. "Explain, please."

Jaden took a drink of caf, savoring the bitterness. "I had a vision. Given me by the Force."

He noticed Marr staring intently at him with his blue eyes and wondered if Marr had experienced his own visions.

Jaden went on: "I saw in that vision what I believe-now more than ever-to be your moon."

Khedryn smiled, shook his head. "I knew it was something like that. Those eyes."

"And?" Marr asked. "You saw it in what context? What drew you all the way out here?"

Jaden licked his lips. "The vision involved… symbolism that wouldn't make much sense to you." He sighed. "Listen, I am asking you to trust me. I am not interested in salvage or taking anything that's there. I just need… I just need to stand on it, see it, understand what it means."

The silence sat heavy between them. The stars streamed past in the viewport above. Thoughts turned behind Khedryn's and Marr's eyes. Jaden could do nothing but wait for them to render their verdict. He would not take the coordinates by force or contrivance. He had already taken a life-warranted, he thought-but he had no intention of pushing matters further.

Khedryn finished another cup of caf. "See, Marr, this I can understand. The man has something personal at stake here. And he's willing to pay five thousand credits up front to set foot on a frozen moon spinning out in the middle of nowhere. I can get behind that."

"As can I," Marr said thoughtfully.

"It's done then," Khedryn said.

"I said two thousand credits up front," Jaden said.

"Did you?" Khedryn asked.

Jaden smiled and shook his head. "All right. Five it is."

Khedryn smiled. "More caf?"

Jaden decided the man guzzled caf the way a star cruiser guzzled fuel. "No thank you," he said, and looked Khedryn and Marr in the face. "And… thank you."

"Marr will plot the course," Khedryn said, extending his hand. "We'll leave immediately. Done deal?"

Jaden shook his hand. "Done. And Captain… "

Khedryn raised his eyebrows, waiting.

"I look at you and I see the same eyes you see in me. So what is it you're looking for?"

Khedryn smiled, but Jaden saw that it was forced. "Nah, that's just my floater, Jedi." He pointed at his lazy eye. "Helps me see the angles. Me, I'm just a junk jockey flying the black. I'm happy with that."

"Of course you are," Jaden said, but he knew better. Khedryn was searching for something out in the black of space, the same as Jaden.

Jaden looked to Marr, who was staring at Khedryn. "Marr, the recorded signal?"

Marr nodded. "Certainly."

Marr disappeared for a time, returned with a data crystal and his portcomp. He inserted the crystal and pressed a few keys. The hollowness of an open channel started the recording, followed by a faint, repeated recitation, the encrypted sound unintelligible as language, but reminiscent in its repetition of an ancient rite, a magic spell of summoning.

Jaden leaned in close, his skin stippled with goose bumps, listening to an echo from the past, decades-old ghosts calling to them through time.

Marr said, "As I said, I haven't been able to decrypt it-"

"No need," Jaden said, and turned it off. "It's Imperial. I can tell from the cadence. Probably an automated distress call, as you suspected."

In the privacy of his mind, the voice from his vision sang out: Help us. Help us.

"Take me to this moon," Jaden said.