Star Wars: Rebel Rising(8)

Reece spread out a star chart on the table. “It’s obvious the Empire’s interested in these areas,” he said, pointing to the map in a way Jyn couldn’t see. She crept closer. Everyone was focused on Reece. “And my contact thinks he saw Galen here.”

Jyn sucked in a breath, and Saw spun around to look at her, his eyes widening in a warning. Jyn clamped her mouth shut. Saw jerked his head, but Jyn stood her ground, refusing to move.

“What other information can you give us?” Idryssa asked Saw. She shifted, the blue highlights in her skin sparkling under the radiated lamps built into the stone ceiling.

Saw’s mouth worked as if he wanted to swallow his answer, but he finally said, “I know he worked with crystals for the Empire, and whatever his research was, it was very important to them.”

Across from him, Xosad nodded and shared a knowing glance with Saw.

“Galen Erso is a known supporter of the Empire,” Reece said dismissively. “He’s a respected scientist, but I don’t see how crystals—”

“Crystals are more powerful than you may think,” Idryssa said in a quiet voice. “Do not forget that the Jedi used them.”

Reece made a snorting noise. “Jedi,” he scoffed. “Bringing them up doesn’t exactly prove your point. If they had ‘powerful’ crystals, they wouldn’t all be dead.”

A known supporter of the Empire? Jyn wondered. Papa? She shook her head. He had worked with the Empire, yes, but he had fled from it, and he didn’t want to go back.

“That’s a good point, though,” Saw said, tapping his chin. “The Empire wouldn’t want a scientist of Galen’s caliber just for knowledge’s sake. There has to be a reason for their support of his research.”

Reece leaned back in his chair. “No, there doesn’t,” he said dismissively. “Saw, buddy, you’re reading too much into this. Galen Erso is a shill. He’s sucked up to the right people in the Empire, and he is living the high life on Coruscant. His research is meaningless.”

“That’s not true!” Jyn shouted.

Every single person turned to her.

“Jyn’s right,” Saw said loudly. “His research is key to understanding what the Empire is planning next.” Jyn opened her mouth to protest—she was angry at the way Reece had dismissed her father—but Saw clamped a hand on her shoulder and steered her back to her room.

“That’s not true,” she hissed at him again as soon as her bedroom door shut. “Papa wouldn’t work for the Empire like that. He’s a good man! They kidnapped him,” she said.

Saw looked doubtful.

“They did .” Jyn’s voice was rising, and Saw shushed her. She could feel angry tears fighting their way into her eyes. The injustice of it—to have someone like Reece talk about her father like that, as if he were a bad man!

“Jyn, it’s not looking good,” Saw said in a low voice. “I’ve been tracking the Empire’s movements. I’ve tried to figure out what it was your father was working on that made the Empire show up on Lah’mu. And your father…”

“I saw him,” Jyn said, stomping her foot. “He didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay with me. He did. ”

Saw gave her a sad, pitying look, then stood and left her alone in the dark room.





Jyn glared at Reece whenever she saw him. She wished he would get off her island.

But she had learned her lesson. If she stayed quiet, Saw would let her listen in while the others were talking.

“There are more blockades around certain planets,” Xosad said the next day.

“Any connection between the planets?” Saw asked.

“Not that we can see,” one of Xosad’s crew piped up. “But it’s hard to get to some of them. We need clearance codes.”

“Forging them takes work and patience,” another crew member said. He dropped a code replicator on the table.

When the others shifted to different talk, about a growing partisan group based on Corlus, Jyn snuck to the table where the code replicator sat. She’d seen them tinkering with it before, and it fascinated her. She pressed one of the buttons tentatively, then picked up the replicator. It was about the same size as a datapad but thicker and heavier.

“The little mouse is in the cheese,” Reece said dryly, looking down his nose at Jyn. She dropped the code replicator.

“Let her play,” the crew member said. “She can’t hurt anything.”

Jyn stuck her tongue out at Reece, took the replicator, and retreated to the corner of the room.

Clearance codes for ships were already loaded in as masters, but each individual code could not be exactly copied or the Empire would know it was a fake. Instead, the code replicator helped simulate the complicated algorithm the Empire used to develop ship transponder and clearance codes. It was like a puzzle, and while it was tedious, Jyn’s mind retreated into the symbols and numbers.

Once, when Jyn had had trouble sleeping after first moving to Lah’mu, Papa had told her to recite the multiplication tables or list prime numbers in her mind until she fell asleep. Working on the code replicator didn’t put her to sleep—it was too challenging—but it was just as relaxing. There was a steady lull to the numbers.

“Heh, look at her go,” Xosad said when the group broke up to prepare dinner.