Light of the Jedi(71)

“You should know,” Governor Veen’s voice came over the speaker, “I’ve been transmitting our conversation to Senator Noor, who will spread it along the entire Outer Rim. We’ve also sent along a scan of your ship, even matched its silhouette in the databases—the New Elite, owned by Kassav Milliko—that’s you, I presume. You got your payday, Mr. Milliko…but I think your troubles are just beginning.”

“Troubles? What troubles? We’re saving lives. We’re the heroes, Governor.”

Kassav spoke for the benefit of the Nihil around him listening to every word, but his stomach felt a little…Maybe he hadn’t thought this through all the way. Oh well. Nothing to be done about it now.



“Go,” he said, pointing at Dellex.

She nodded, and the ship jumped, but the timing was tight. So tight that Gravhan’s crew would have to fire the very second the burn ended. That was okay, though. They had time.

But they didn’t. The third Emergence occurred just as expected, and yes, the Legacy Run fragment was headed straight for Eriadu’s inhabited moon, estimated population one point two billion. Gravhan’s team fired their weapons exactly as scheduled, right on time.

Except the target wasn’t there. The New Elite had miscalculated its microburn, and had hugely overshot the spot they were aiming for. They were nowhere near the Emergence, and the laser blasts and torpedoes flashed out, hitting nothing.

Kassav realized immediately. He shot a glance at Dellex. She knew it, too. She was looking right at him.

“Boss, I must have…I must have screwed up the nav calculation. I don’t know how it happened.”

Kassav had his suspicions. Her one organic eye was still glinting, awash in the smash, and he knew for sure she hadn’t taken that rounder. It didn’t take much to mess up a nav calculation, and Dellex was normally a champion at it because of her mechanical components, but this time…this time…

The Legacy Run fragment smashed into the moon. Everyone on the bridge saw it happen. It was projected up on the vidwall, clear as day. Big debris cloud mushrooming out from the surface, shock waves starting to roll across the little world, lots of fire and those dark clouds you got with the really huge explosions. Like a storm, kind of.

A voice came over the comm, echoing out across the now utterly silent Nihil. No chuckles from them now. Just silence.

“You will pay for this,” said Governor Mural Veen, her voice maybe the coldest thing Kassav had ever heard. “This I vow: vengeance. The people of Eriadu are hunters. You and all the monsters with you have now become our pr—”



Kassav tapped a console, and the voice went silent.

He looked at his Tempest and knew what they were thinking.

One point two billion people.



Oh well.

Not his problem.

“Get us out of here,” he said.

“Where?” said Dellex, her voice uncharacteristically subdued.

Kassav thought. These people on Eriadu knew his name. Knew his ship. He had their money, but he didn’t like the sound of what that governor was saying. She didn’t seem like the type to let things go. He’d need protection. Needed to be part of something bigger. Needed…

“Back,” he said, resigned. “Back to the Nihil.”





Keven Tarr looked out across the plateau. The sight was breathtaking.

Fifty-seven thousand, eight hundred and seventeen navidroids, linked together into one massive array. All different models, all different sizes—from the latest compact, self-powered units equipped with legs or other mobility attachments allowing them to move from ship to ship, to processor units ripped from the vessels in which they had been originally installed. The computing power varied greatly from droid to droid, but all in all, it was an impressive arrangement.

If just getting the droids had been a challenge (aided by the heroic efforts of Secretary Lorillia, it had to be said—he had requisitioned navidroids from all over the galaxy), then assembling them into the array was nearly as hard. The idea was to set up a number of processors running in parallel, so various sections could address different parts of the problem at the same time. Keven had designed the system from top to bottom, but linking it all up by himself would have taken months, time they didn’t have. Beyond conceptualizing the thing in the first place and getting the droid components, he’d also needed to assemble a team of engineers trained in positronic architecture and network structuring, a lot of them.



Hetzal had a few people with the necessary skills, but nowhere near enough. The San Tekkas had sent a dozen of their navulators, people who wore strange implants that wrapped around their shaven heads, allowing them to run calculations with droidlike precision that also retained the conceptual leaps organic minds could achieve. Incredibly useful, but still not enough to get the array built in any reasonable amount of time. Once again, pulling together the required resources had been about using connections available through Senator Noor, Secretary Lorillia, and their own various allies, and they had come through and then some. Keven had systems engineers on-site from as far away as Byss and Kuat. We are all the Republic had never seemed more true.

Keven had no idea how much it cost in influence and actual capital to get this thing built, and he didn’t really care, either.

He just wanted to turn it on.