Light of the Jedi(69)

The New Elite fell out of hyperspace into the Eriadu system. Not much starship traffic on the scopes—not surprising. The planet hadn’t gotten much in the way of fuel shipments recently, not with the blockade on. The lack of traffic also meant the system’s monitoring satellites had probably already spotted them. That was fine—they weren’t here to hide, and if the Eriaduans wanted to send out a few patrol ships to take a poke at them…well, that was where Dellex and Gravhan came in. Their gun crews were tight.

“Wet Bub…go,” Kassav said, pointing at his lieutenant.

Bub set to work, accessing the system’s communications network, pushing on through whatever access codes and security measures were in place, going higher and higher, until he found what he was looking for.

He tapped a few last buttons, then gave another thumbs-up.

“You’re in, bossman,” he said.

A voice came over the bridge’s speaker system, raspy and sibilant and cold. The voice of someone powerful, who wasn’t used to things happening that she hadn’t ordered.

“Who is this? This is a restricted comm network,” said Mural Veen, current planetary governor of Eriadu. “And what the hell is that…music?”



Oops, Kassav thought.



He tapped a control, and the wreckpunk volume dropped to a whisper.

“Hi there, Governor,” Kassav said. “I’m your new best friend.”

Silence from the other end of the line. She was waiting to see what he wanted.

“You might have seen a ship drop out of hyperspace out near the edge of the system. That’s me, and all you need to know about us is that I can get through Chancellor Soh’s hyperspace blockade when no other ship can do it. So, that’s the first thing you should keep in mind as this little chat moves along. I can do things no one else can.”

“Let me guess,” the governor said. “You sneaked through the blockade, and now you’re going to offer to sell us food at some ridiculous rate? I don’t respond well to extortion.”

“That remains to be seen, ma’am,” Kassav said, putting an emphasis on the last word, getting a little chuckle out of the Nihil on the bridge, all listening like this was the best holoplay they’d ever seen.

“But I’ll tell you one thing,” he went on, “I am offended that you think we’re just ordinary smugglers. We’re much more than that.”

“Then who the hell are you?” she said.

“I told you. I’m your new best friend. Your savior, in fact.”

A silence.

“I might not know who you are, but I know where,” Mural said. “My teams just pinpointed your location. I’m ending this call and sending out security cruisers to bring you into custody. I don’t know your game, but you can explain it from inside a cell on Eriadu. If you resist, we’ll blow you into atoms.”

“You sure you want to do that?” Kassav said, teasing it out.

“Absolutely. Goodbye. I don’t have time for this.”

“Actually,” he said, “I agree. Three Emergences are headed for your system. They’ll be here soon. We know where they’ll happen, and when. We can stop them for you, if you pay up.”

“What are you talking about? No one can predict the Emergences.”

“And no one can fly in hyperspace in the Outer Rim, either.”



“I’ve heard enough. We’re sending the cruisers. You can tell my interrogators what you know.”

“If we see your ships heading our way, we’ll leave, and you’ll be the reason billions of your people die.”

Kassav grinned. The rounded-off smash high was getting better by the second. He felt like he was flying, pushed along by the crest of the drug’s wave, arms extended, unstoppable. He knew all along this was a good plan. He’d gone over the list of Emergences that Marchion Ro had given the Tempest Runners and seen this opportunity right away. It was an opportunity so good, in fact, that he had forgotten to mention to Marchion or the other Runners that he was intending to take advantage of it. Oops. What a shame. No Rule of Three was gonna carve up this score, no way.

Kassav realized he hadn’t yet told this stuffy governor woman what he was asking for. He shook his head. He really needed to stay focused.

“Governor, it’s easy. If you give me fifty million credits, no one has to die. I can stop the Emergences, and you’ll save your people’s lives. I can make it real simple for you, too…”

He lifted a finger, and Wet Bub sent over the encrypted banking information that would allow Governor Veen to untraceably deposit the cash directly into a darknet account controlled by Kassav. Not a Nihil account—this was one of Kassav’s own.

“You’re insane,” the governor said.

“You’re skeptical. I get that. Here. Let me help you out.”

Kassav lifted a second finger, and Wet Bub sent over another short string of information.

“You just received the coordinates for the first Emergence. Not too far from my ship, as a matter of fact. We picked this spot for a reason. Check it out.”

Kassav held up a third finger, and chopped his arm downward toward Gravhan, who nodded and turned to his gun crew at their weapons stations.

“Any moment now…any moment…” Kassav said.