Light of the Jedi(41)
“Yes. I have technicians from my department going over the data, and we learn more with every new piece we find,” Secretary Lorillia replied. “So far, nothing conclusive, but there may be an easy way to get a much clearer picture.”
He gestured to a vidscreen in the chamber, displaying a detailed schematic of the Legacy Run in its original, pre-destruction form.
“This class of cargo carrier has a dedicated flight recorder system. Extremely durable, specifically hardened to survive catastrophic disasters. It could tell us more about what transpired in the final moments before the Legacy Run disintegrated.”
“I thought of that, too, Secretary, but the assembly droids haven’t found it yet,” said Keven Tarr, reviewing his notes. “It could already have Emerged somewhere else, or it might still be in hyperspace.”
“Impossible to tell,” said Lorillia. “We’ll just have to wait and hope it gets found.”
“Well,” Keven said, “I had an idea about that. The surveillance network I engineered during the disaster was designed to monitor the entire solar system in real time, and track the debris as closely as possible. Pick up new fragments as they emerged from hyperspace and follow their paths. This is what it looked like while it was happening.”
He held up his datapad, triggering its projection function to display a larger image of the system. Long, thin lines wove through Hetzal, all headed on gently curving arcs toward the three suns at its center.
“There’s a lot of data here,” Keven said. “And when I link it with the other eighteen Emergences…”
He tapped his datapad a few times, and the image changed, now expanding out to encompass a good section of the Outer Rim. More thin lines appeared here and there—eighteen sets beyond the original deadly bloom in Hetzal.
“…it sort of makes a picture. I don’t really have it yet. I don’t have the processing power. But if I could get enough droids, probably navidroids because they’re good at calculating hyperspace routes, I might be able to figure out where Emergences would happen. And if I could do that, then we could get ahead of them, and maybe find the flight recorder, if it’s still out there.”
Everyone was silent.
“That’s…very impressive,” Elzar said. “You should do that.”
Keven shrugged.
“I’d like to—but I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I just said. I need droids.”
“There are droids everywhere. Take those,” Senator Noor said, gesturing out the viewing panel at the assembly droids.
“I need a lot.”
“How many?”
“If it’s navidroids, the very newest models, then…twenty or thirty thousand, maybe. Like I said, they’re good at this kind of thing. If it’s regular droids, or older navvys, a lot more. Like a hundred thousand. And whichever kind we use, they’d all have to be linked together to make it work. Pretty big problem to solve.”
More silence.
“The chancellor said we could use every resource, didn’t she?” Avar said.
“Yes, but tens of thousands of navidroids…that’s…hmm,” Secretary Lorillia said, pursing his lips, thinking through the problem. “Many of those models are built directly into the ships they work with. Those could get here fairly quickly, but some would have to be…hmm. The Republic doesn’t have that many, but perhaps we could acquire them from manufacturers…hmm.”
“You should get started,” Elzar said. “The sooner we begin, the sooner we might be able to get ahead of these Emergences. We can save lives and, ideally, find the flight recorder.”
Avar spoke.
“I’ve been thinking about something the chancellor said, too. There’s at least some chance this isn’t a onetime problem—that there’s something wrong with hyperspace on a larger scale. Do we have any idea how we might approach that? I’m not sure I even know where to begin.”
“If you want to know about hyperspace, I have the people you should talk to,” Senator Noor said. “They don’t live out here anymore—they moved to the Mid Rim when the family struck it rich—but I can make the introduction.”
“Who?” Elzar said.
“The San Tekka clan.”
“I know that name…the prospectors?”
“They prefer the term explorers. They’re an odd bunch, but no one knows more about hyperspace than they do. If there’s something wrong, they’ll probably be able to help.”
“All right,” Avar said. “Secretary Lorillia, will you work on the navidroid issue with Keven Tarr? Elzar and I will meet with the San Tekkas to see if we can learn anything. Let’s all stay in touch. As the senator pointed out…”
She looked again at what was once the Legacy Run.
“…we’re running out of time.”
“Who are we?” Pan Eyta roared, his already deep voice bellowing out of his huge chest, amplified and distorted by the mask he wore, which was itself a distorted version of his native Dowutin face, with massive, heavy brows and horns sprouting from its chin. His words crashed out across the sea of faces staring up at him and the others at his table. Most in the crowd wore masks of their own, of many designs but one purpose. A few thousand people, from many worlds across the galaxy, unified by a desire to take and kill and eat.