The Emperor's Plague

7

Jaina’s mind kicked into high gear as the implications of Bornan Thul’s words struck home. Somewhere in the galaxy was a secret storehouse that held a plague lethal to humans. Raynar’s father had actually been there, but hadn’t managed to destroy it. And very soon the asteroid’s location would no longer be a secret. If Boba Fett already had the information, Nolaa Tarkona would have it, too.

“Hey, I don’t get it,” Jacen said. “If you found the plague, why couldn’t you destroy it?”

“Was the facility heavily guarded?” Tenel Ka asked.

All eyes turned back to Bornan Thul. He looked down at the deckplates, as if ashamed.

“From what I could tell, the weapons depot was an old Imperial research facility. It was completely abandoned. But I couldn’t blast through its outer domes with the weapons I had on my little ship.”

“Ah. Aha,” Tenel Ka said. “Then you were unable to enter.”

“No … I got in,” Thul said, “as Fonterrat had before me. I don’t think the Imperials expected many intruders—its location was highly classified. Inside, though, I found the facility’s vaults locked. I’ve no idea how Fonterrat got into any of them to get his samples.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, the only weapon I had with me was my blaster, and I was all alone.” He ended with an apologetic shrug. “Not much chance destroying an entire munitions depot that way.”

Jaina shook herself and stood up straighter. “Well, you’re not alone now,” she said. Lowie roared his agreement and then woofed a few times for emphasis.

“Master Lowbacca wishes to point out that you now have several trained Jedi to assist you. And, if I might be so bold,” the little droid added, “I myself am quite accomplished at interfacing with strange computers, analyzing cyberlocks, retrieving encrypted data, and so forth. And, now that I have been upgraded, I am fluent in over sixteen forms of communication.”

The forlorn expression on Raynar’s face wrenched Jaina’s heart. “But we can’t go to that asteroid, Dad. We were supposed to bring you back to Coruscant as soon as we found you. Mom’s waiting for you there, and the Chief of State needs to hear what you found.”

“No time for that anymore,” Zekk said. “As soon as Nolaa Tarkona gets a report from Boba Fett, she’ll be on her way to the plague storehouse.”

Raynar set his mouth in a stubborn line.

“I’ll have to figure out a way to get a message to Mom, then. And we promised to signal for reinforcements right away if we needed them.”

“They’ll have to meet us at the plague storehouse,” Zekk said. “There’s no time to waste.”

Jaina nodded to Bornan Thul. “We’ve got to download the coordinates from your navicomputer module right away into both the Lightning Rod and the Rock Dragon. Then we’ll let our mom know where we’re going.”

“Wait. Even if Nolaa Tarkona already knows the location of the storehouse,” Zekk said, “we can’t just broadcast it over the hypercom.”

“Then encrypt the message and send it immediately,” Tenel Ka said.

A look of hope dawned on Bornan Thul’s face. He looked at Raynar. “Did anyone manage to break our family’s proprietary codes while I was in hiding?”

“I don’t think so,” Raynar said. “Tenel Ka says it’s one of the best encryption systems she’s ever seen.”

“If anyone else had broken that code, I’m sure I’d have heard about it by now,” Zekk added. “After all, I couldn’t break it when you had me send those messages for you.”

“Then we’ll transmit to your mother through Bornaryn headquarters on Coruscant,” Bornan said, rubbing his hands briskly together. “First we send a message. Then we blow up a weapons depot.”

“Hey, just another day’s work for a bunch of Jedi trainees,” Jacen said. Lowie barked a call to action.

“But what if we can’t do it by ourselves?” Raynar asked.

“Then we’ll just have to hope the New Republic reinforcements arrive in time,” Jaina said.

In a blur of activity, Bornan Thul composed his message while Raynar entered coding subroutines with Em Teedee’s assistance. Jaina and Zekk downloaded the coordinates to their respective vessels’ navicomputers and calculated hyperspace routes to the isolated depot. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca made a quick check of each of the ships’ subsystems. In no more than five minutes, the message was sent, the Rock Dragon and the Lightning Rod were decoupled in space, and the ships made the jump to hyperspace. As it turned out, it took six separate hyperspace jumps and twice as many hours to get to the weapons asteroid. There was no more direct route available. Fonterrat had found the place by accident, and they had to follow his wandering path.

“I can see why no one just stumbled on this place,” Jacen commented as Jaina brought the Rock Dragon in toward the lumpy asteroid on a parallel approach with the Lightning Rod.

“Looks like a wormy piece of half-eaten fruit,” Jaina observed.

Beside her Lowie woofed and pointed with a furry arm to a cluster of transparisteel blisters on the surface of the asteroid.

“Rock Dragon, this is the Lightning Rod,” Raynar’s voice came over the comm speakers. “My father says there are several single-ship docks on the outer edge of the central dome. We can land without being seen by any other visitors.”

“Automatic laser cannons or anything else we ought to know about?” Jaina asked.

“Thul says no,” Zekk replied. “I guess this asteroid’s secrecy was the best security system the Imperials thought they’d ever need. Just pick an airlock and dock to it.”

Lowie gave a suspicious rumble, but did not comment further as he guided the Rock Dragon toward the cluster of domes.

“All right then,” Jaina said, “we’ll meet you inside.”