Delusions of Grandeur

21

In the aftermath of Dengar’s attack, Zekk brooded, trying to find answers to the question that now haunted him: how had the bounty hunter found him? Despite this worry, Zekk was delighted when Jaina offered to spend two days helping him recalibrate the Lightning Rod’s systems. As they worked, he told Jaina about his encounter with Dengar on Ziost, and mentioned his subsequent stops on Mos Eisley, Kuar, and Borgo Prime before coming to Mechis III. Zekk didn’t give her many details, but hoped she could help him figure out how the other bounty hunter had found him.

“Odd. Why would Dengar think you were here?” Jaina mused aloud.

“I guess it’s possible that he discovered the droid debris on Kuar and made the same assumptions I did about the CPU chips. The trail would’ve led him to Mechis III….” Zekk shook his head. “But I just can’t swallow that much of a coincidence. Dengar knew I was here.”

“You think maybe he managed to mark the Lightning Rod, assuming you’d eventually lead him to Bornan Thul?” Jaina asked. “He might’ve thought you worked for Raynar’s father. After all, you were sending messages to the Bornaryn fleet.”

Zekk smiled at the irony. “If Dengar was tracking me, then he followed me to the wrong Thul. If he’d gone to Borgo Prime instead, he might have caught Bornan.”

Jaina frowned at the thought. “He probably figured you were just stopping for messages or supplies and he didn’t want you to suspect that he was on your trail,” she guessed.

“If there’s some sort of tracer on my ship, I want to know about it,” Zekk said through gritted teeth. It gave him the creeps to think that someone could have been tracking his every movement.

Jaina grinned. “Well, then, what are we waiting for?”

Together, Zekk and Jaina carefully inspected the outer hull of the battered transport ship. Zekk couldn’t imagine how many times his old friend Peckhum had been in tight situations with this craft. After the Second Imperium’s attack on the Jedi academy, when the brutal TIE pilot Norys had nearly destroyed the Lightning Rod, Peckhum had made certain the ship got a complete overhaul.

Noting the carbon scoring, Zekk thought back on some of the skirmishes he himself had been through. Dengar had fired on him at the ice world of Ziost, and before that Boba Fett had fought him in the rubble field of Alderaan. It was a good thing that Jaina could help him check the ship over. They found countless patches, spot-welded armor plates, and external systems that had been jury-rigged so many times Zekk couldn’t fathom how they managed to remain functional.

As soon as Zekk spotted it, he knew what was wrong. Surrounded by a starburst of slag, a small object had attached itself to the Lightning Rod’s hull. He showed it to Jaina.

“Limpet mine,” she said. “Perfect for planting a tracer.”

“So … that ‘concussion grenade’ Dengar fired at me wasn’t a dud, after all,” Zekk said, tapping it with a fingertip. “A tracer, huh?”

He pried off the limpet mine and held it in his hand, considering what to do with it. Finally, a sly grin crossed his face….

At one of Mechis Ill’s shipping platforms, Zekk and Jaina found a tiny courier pod. The high-speed drone was only large enough to carry small emergency-repair parts or hardcopy messages that were too sensitive to be transmitted with normal encoding over hyperwaves.

Jaina gleefully assured Zekk the limpet’s transmitting beacon still functioned properly before they sealed it inside the courier pod. Next, he programmed a course that would take the drone high above the galactic plane—far away from any inhabited star systems. The tracer’s journey would take it on a one-way trip to nowhere, still winking its insidious message … luring Dengar to follow.

They launched the courier pod out of the receiving bay and watched it dwindle to a pinprick and vanish into the vast gulf of distance.

Zekk stared after it with a fiery satisfaction burning in his emerald-green eyes. “Happy hunting, Dengar,” he murmured.

Tyko Thul kept himself busy by programming armies of construction droids and cleanup crews to work on the damaged towers. He had reluctantly accepted Raynar’s offer of temporary assistance, and together the two discussed the damage.

“You know, those structures have needed upgrading for some time now, anyway,” Tyko said. “Never got around to it.” Somewhat disheartened, he called up the intricate designs for the facilities.

Raynar studied the diagrams. Then, letting his eyes fall half closed, he said, “I think I might have a few modifications to suggest.” With calm assurance, he began altering the schematics. He worked for nearly an hour before stopping.

Perplexed, Tyko stared at the screen. “I don’t understand. Why should I want to make these changes?”

Raynar shrugged. “By combining those two operations, you can run the systems in parallel. If one assembly line breaks down, you have the capacity to speed up production on the first line, make your repairs to the second one, and still meet delivery schedules.”

“Yes!” Tyko crowed. “I see it now. It’s nothing short of brilliant!”

Raynar blinked in bemusement and blushed at the praise. “I wonder if there’s such a thing as a merchant Jedi,” he mumbled.

Jaina, taking a break from her repairs to the Lightning Rod, turned back to her work on the assassin droid IG-88, while Em Teedee hovered overhead like a practice remote. “This is most interesting,” he said. After repairing a few scrambled circuits, the modified translating droid now functioned like a new machine. Dangling diagnostic leads hung down, connecting the translating droid to IG-88’s main memory core.

Tenel Ka, Jacen, and Raynar crowded around Jaina, watching the additional alterations with interest. Jaina glanced over at Raynar. “You’re sure your uncle’s going to let us do this?”

“He will,” Raynar answered. “In return for his cooperation, I promised not to reveal his 'little hoax’ to my mother. My message to her will just say that we rescued Uncle Tyko and he’s unharmed.” The young man smiled.

Scrutinizing the inner mechanisms of the once-lethal droid, Jaina nodded. “All right. When I’m finished here, we’ll be able to turn IG-88 loose to continue the search for your father.”

“It is a good idea,” Tenel Ka said. “This droid was built to track down people who do not wish to be found. We could not ask for a better ally.”

“Yeah,” Jacen said, “and we’ve got the perfect job for him.”

Em Teedee piped up. “I’ve tapped directly into IG-88’s memory area reserved for storing information about current bounty assignments.”

“And you input all of the data about my father?” Raynar prodded.

“Just as you requested, Master Raynar,” Em Teedee said. “Everything from the file. IG-88 knows all about Bornan Thul’s business affiliations, old friends, favorite haunts, familial connections—”

“Thanks, Em Teedee,” Raynar broke in. “There’s not another bounty hunter in the galaxy who knows as much about my father as IG-88 does now.”

“He will be a fine seeker—relentless,” Tenel Ka said, clapping a hand on Raynar’s back. Her rustic warrior appearance made an interesting contrast with the gleaming mechanized facility populated by droids. But Tenel Ka seemed perfectly at ease. She was who she was, regardless of her location, and she never let circumstances diminish her self-confidence.

“Are we finished, then, Em Teedee?” Jaina said.

“Yes, indeed, Mistress Jaina,” the little droid answered brightly. “IG-88 is now wholly dedicated to finding Bornan Thul and keeping him safe.” He paused to consider. “In theory, at least, IG-88’s superior design and capabilities make him more likely to succeed than the numerous other bounty hunters attempting to find Raynar’s father. Why, perhaps with my additional assistance—”

Jaina disconnected the leads from the translating droid and let the silvery oval float free. “He probably doesn’t want your company, Em Teedee. You’d only distract him.”

“I’m certain you’re right, Mistress Jaina,” the droid said wistfully. “It isn’t my primary function, after all. Though at the moment, I’m not certain just what my primary function is.”

“We need you, Em Teedee,” Jaina said.

“Thank you, Mistress Jaina,” the little droid replied. “I do miss Master Lowbacca though. I certainly hope he’s all right.”

“So do we, Em Teedee,” Jaina said, struggling against worry as thoughts of her Wookiee friend came again to the front of her mind.

“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka agreed.

Zekk and the young Jedi Knights accompanied IG-88 to the upper launch platform to see him off on his quest. Raynar looked at the dark-haired young man, remembering how Zekk—the Shadow Academy’s darkest Knight—had used the Force to hurl him into the river mud.

Although it had taken Raynar a long time to recover his pride, he realized now that Zekk had in effect saved his life by doing so, humiliating him in front of the other dark Jedi attackers to dissuade them from killing Raynar outright with their burning red lightsabers.

And now the assassin droid had also been precluded from taking fatal actions. “I’m glad IG-88 can’t kill anymore,” Raynar said.

“Not even aliens,” Tenel Ka affirmed.

Jacen tapped the droid on one arm. “Hey, hear that?” he said. “Try not to think of yourself as an assassin droid anymore.”

“He can still cause plenty of damage, though,” Jaina said. “Especially if it looks as if they’re going to be dangerous to your father.”

Uncle Tyko hurried up, wringing his hands and looking flustered. “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “So much to do. I solve one problem and it leads to two others. But I’ll get this place running smoothly sooner or later.”

He stopped as the looming assassin droid rotated its cylindrical head. The blinking red sensors showed no sign of recognition, no memory of its past. Without a word, the droid swiveled its body core and clomped toward a needlelike ship that was identical in design to the IG-2000, the droid’s original craft. Because the durable assassin droid had no need for life-support systems or acceleration dampers, the vessel had an incredible bank of engines and superior power efficiency.

“Please find my father, IG-88,” Raynar said.

The assassin droid climbed into his ship and fired up the engines. The gathered spectators watched as the sleek vessel stabbed up into the atmosphere like a dagger slicing cloth.

Jacen turned to Raynar and clasped his shoulder. “Things are looking up, you know,” he said. “Zekk gave us the news that your father is alive, and IG-88 is on the chase.”

“And now that we’ve ‘rescued’ your Uncle Tyko,” Jaina said, “we can hope that it’s just a matter of time until your entire family is together again.”

Raynar swallowed hard. “My father must have a good reason for hiding. I just wish I knew what it was.”

Zekk nodded grimly. “He seems to think that something terrible is going to happen to the human race if he’s caught.”

Raynar nervously straightened his Jedi robe and ran a hand over his spiky hair. He seemed embarrassed at his friends’ efforts to encourage him. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop searching for him, does it?”

“Not a chance,” Jacen said. Then, in a moment of sadness, he added, “I just wish Lowie was here to help us out.”