Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(24)

Only it wasn’t a living face. It was a metal one.

A droid.

His battle-focused brain had only just registered that fact when the droid abruptly twisted and toppled over as its right leg disintegrated beneath it. The blaster fired one final bolt at Anakin’s torso—

And the droid spasmed as Anakin sent the shot straight back into one of its photoreceptor eyes. Two more twitches, the death gaspings of a fatally damaged electronic brain, and the droid lay still.

Slowly, Anakin straightened up, his eyes on the droid. He’d seen them fake shutdowns before. But no, this one was finished. He glanced around, noted that Thrawn had emerged from cover and was walking stiffly toward him. Lying next to one of the parked ships was another hooded figure, this one human, his arms locked behind him, making small movements of pain or frustration. One last 360-degree check for threats and Anakin closed down his lightsaber. “Is that him?” he asked, nodding toward the twitching man.

“It is,” Thrawn said, coming to a stop beside him. “Interesting flight maneuver.”

“There’s a lot of improvisation in warfare,” Anakin said. He nudged the droid with his foot. “What’s his story?”

“I succeeded in arriving before our quarry,” Thrawn said. “As you anticipated, he was returning to his ship to report. Once it was clear which ship was his goal, I intercepted and neutralized him.” He gently touched a fresh burn on his chest. “I didn’t expect such an adversary to be waiting inside.”

“Consider yourself lucky it was just a general-service droid instead of a full-blown assassin,” Anakin said grimly. “They’re a lot nastier.”

“If we find ourselves facing one of those in the future, I’ll permit you to take the lead,” Thrawn promised.

Anakin sent him a sideways look. Had that been actual humor? “It’s a deal,” he agreed. “Let’s go see what we’ve got.”

The ship wasn’t a style or model Anakin was familiar with. But it had a definite Techno Union feel about it. The hatch was locked, but a few seconds of lightsaber work solved that problem.

And once inside…

“It’s a Separatist ship, all right,” Anakin said, looking around. “The equipment, the markings, even the controls. There’s no doubt.” He hissed between his teeth. “The question is, what are they doing way out here?

“The layout appears to be that of a freighter,” Thrawn pointed out. “Perhaps the cargo will give us a clue to their purpose.”

“In a minute,” Anakin said, pulling out his comlink. “Artoo? You there?”

There was a disgusted-sounding grunt, followed by a long and unhappy account of his current situation. “I’m sure you did everything you could,” Anakin soothed him. “Do you need my help getting down?”

There was another emphatic grunt. “Okay, then,” Anakin said. “We need you at the landing field. We’re in the gray ship with—look, just go to the downed droid and turn left.”

He keyed off. “Is your droid all right?” Thrawn asked.

“He’s fine,” Anakin assured him. “But my fighter is sitting about five meters off the ground, wedged vertically between three trees. Not sure how I’m going to get it out without setting the forest on fire. Anyway, Artoo’s fine and he’s on his way. Once he’s here, we can check the computer and see if they still have the coordinates of their last stop.”

“We shall see,” Thrawn said. “While we wait, shall we look at the cargo?”

“Sure,” Anakin said, getting a fresh grip on his lightsaber. There might be more droids lurking back there. “Follow me.”





“I’m coming into Batuu now,” Padmé said into her ship’s recorder as the sunlit ground began to rise around her. “I’ll signal you once I’ve found Duja.”

She hesitated. Should she add I love you?

Probably not. Aside from the chance that someone else might be around when Anakin listened to the message, this was going through an untested public relay service instead of the usual HoloNet. No telling what they might do before sending it on.

Shutting down the recorder, she keyed for transmission. The display indicated that it had been received by the service and—hopefully—sent on its way.

Whether it was or not, there was nothing more she could do about it. Time to find Duja and see what her former handmaiden had learned that was so important.

Hopefully, the information wouldn’t already have been preempted by events. The trip here had taken longer than Padmé had expected, with her nav computer’s database proving sufficiently out of date to make its proposed courses unsafe. She’d had to plot new segments twice, and at both times she’d wished she’d taken Anakin up on his offer to use Jedi resources to work out her travel arrangements.

But at least he’d be here much faster once she knew what was going on. Keying her comm to Duja’s frequency, she leaned toward the cockpit microphone. “Duja, it’s Padmé,” she called. “I’m here.”

No answer. “Duja?” she called again. “Duja, come in please.”

Nothing. Not even a carrier or transponder echo.

She frowned, the first stirrings of concern starting to twist their way through her stomach. Duja was one of the best, both at intel and combat. If someone had managed to take her out…