Survivor's Quest

"You told Jinzler about it?" Mara bit out.

"Yes," Fel said, frowning at her vehemence. "I wanted to know if he'd brought any records of his own I could compare against ours. Why, shouldn't I have done that?"

Mara waved a hand in disgust. Of course Fel had no way of knowing the man was a fraud. "Skip it," she said. "Did he?"

"What, have any records?" Fel shook his head. "No. He said everything useful the New Republic might once have had had been lost or destroyed."

"Probably true," Luke murmured. "Could anyone have been able to overhear this discussion?"

Fel exhaled noisily. "Could everyone have been able to overhear it, you mean," he said. "The whole di

"Yes, but the whole di

Fel frowned into space, searching his memory. "For starters, of course, there were several Chiss," he said slowly. "I remember Feesa passing by at one point—I think she'd just brought you two in. Then there was—"

"Wait a minute," Luke said, straightening in his chair a little. "We were there by then?"

"Yes, but you were all the way across the corridor," Fel said. "Talking with Formbi, I think."

"That's not the point," Luke said, looking at Mara. "What do you think?"

"Worth a try," she agreed. "Just hold those thoughts a minute, Fel. We'll be right back to you."

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and stretched out to the Force. The memory-enhancement technique the Emperor had taught her only worked on short-term memories, but the reception corridor ought to be recent enough to be accessible. She let the pictures flow backward through her mind's eye: the fire, the di

There it was: Formbi stepping forward to greet them as Feesa brought them into the gathering. She and Luke speaking with him, assuring him their quarters were quite satisfactory and that, no, they didn't know very much about Outbound Flight but were looking forward to the voyage.

And in the background, Fel and Jinzler across the corridor by one wall, deep in conversation.

She froze the image, studying it. Then, slowly, she let it run forward again, watching everything and everyone around them.

All too soon, she had her answer. With a sigh, she slipped out of the trance and looked over at Luke.

He was already finished with his own memory enhancement. "What do you think?" he asked.

"He's right," she said in disgust. "It'd be simpler to figure out who didn't know. I spotted at least two Geroons close enough to listen in, plus a couple of the Chiss crewers and two command-rank officers."

"Including General Drask," Luke agreed. "About the only likely suspects who couldn't have known were Formbi and us."

"And, of course, Feesa works for Formbi," Mara reminded him. "She could have clued him in at any time."

Luke lifted a hand, let it fall into his lap. "Which leaves you and me. Dead end."

"Not necessarily," Mara said as a sudden thought struck her. "Okay, so they got the data cards. But they'd also need a datapad to read them with. That leaves only Jinzler."

"And the Geroons," Luke said. "I was talking to them when the explosion went off, and I left my datapad behind in their shuttle."

"Sorry, but that's a dead end, too," Fel spoke up, pointing to another rack above the console. "Whoever took the data cards also helped himself to a datapad." He brightened suddenly. "Which means it's not Jinzler or the Geroons," he said. "Like you said, they wouldn't need to take one."

"Unless they deliberately took it to throw us off the trail," Luke pointed out gently.

Fel's face dropped. "Oh. Right." He muttered something under his breath. "Sorry. This sort of thing is a little outside my area of expertise."

"Ours, too," Luke assured him. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out. If necessary, we can always ask Formbi to search the ship."

"What do you mean, if necessary?" Fel asked, frowning. "Don't we want him to do that anyway?"

Luke shrugged. "There are any number of places aboard a ship like this where you can hide something as small as four data cards," he pointed out. "Or the thief could easily have copied them into a different system—a droid, even—and then gotten rid of the originals."

"The Chiss don't have droids," Fel said. "But I see your point."

"On the other hand," Luke went on, "if we don't make a fuss, the thief won't know whether or not we've even missed them. That might give us a whole different set of advantages."

"Maybe," Fel said, not sounding entirely convinced.

"Trust me," Luke assured him. "Knowledge of any sort is power, as Talon Karrde always says."

"As Grand Admiral Thrawn usually proved," Fel rejoined.

"Don't remind us," Luke said ruefully. "Do you know if this ship carries any hypercapable transports or shuttles?"

"I believe this class usually carries one," Fel said, forehead wrinkling in concentration. "The commander's glider, it's called, though on a diplomatic ship like this it would probably be assigned to Formbi instead of Captain Talshib. Why?"

"You might still be right about someone trying to delay us and get a head start," Luke explained. "Especially now that he's got an operational manual in hand. If so, he'd need a way to get there once he'd disabled the ship. With your transport, ours, and Formbi's, that means he's got at least three to choose from."

"Plus the Geroons' shuttle and whatever Jinzler used," Mara put in.

"You can forget the Geroons' shuttle," Luke said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't trust it to fly to the far side of the Chaf Envoy."

"That bad, is it?" Mara asked.

"It makes my old T-sixteen look good by comparison," Luke said wryly. "Anyway, I don't think it has a hyperdrive."

"Okay, so that leaves Jinzler's ship," Mara concluded. "Fel, do you know what he's got?"

"Actually, I don't think he has a ship," Fel said. "I didn't see him arrive—he got here before we did—but I believe Formbi mentioned he'd gotten a ride from someone."

"He got a ride?" Luke asked incredulously. "Out here?"

Fel shrugged. "All I know is what Formbi said. Maybe he contacted Nirauan and Admiral Parck arranged something."

"Maybe," Mara said. Personally, she didn't believe that for a minute, but there was no point arguing about it. "So what's our next move?"

"Our next move is to go back to our quarters," Luke said firmly. "I don't know about you, but I've got a few small burns that need to be attended to."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Fel said, getting up quickly from his chair and starting toward one of the medpacs fastened to the wall beside the emergency oxygen tanks. "I didn't even think about—"

"No, no, that's all right," Luke hastened to assure him. "We don't need medical help. We'll be able to fix ourselves up just fine overnight with a Jedi healing trance."

"Oh." Fel stopped short, and Mara could sense his embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I guess I don't know as much about Jedi as I thought I did."

"Have you ever even met one before?" Mara asked.

"Well, no," Fel admitted. "But I have read up on them. I mean, on you. I mean—"

"We know what you mean," Luke said, smiling slightly. "Don't worry about it." He stood up. "Mara?"

"We'll see you tomorrow, Commander," Mara said, getting to her feet.

"All right," Fel said. "I'll see you out."

"Don't bother," Luke said. "We can find the way. You'd better go see to your men."

"Maybe discuss some new security arrangements," Mara added.

Fel made a face. "Point taken. Good night."

The stormtroopers had vanished from the ready room as Luke and Mara passed through, their armor hung neatly on the racks lining the walls. "That last comment was a little unfair, you know," Luke commented as they walked down the corridor toward their quarters. "I'm sure he did have some security set up."