Marr nodded. "A headache, mostly."
"The feelings will be more acute when you are near its source."
"For you, too," Jaden said to Relin.
Marr's brow was smooth, his eyes untroubled. "Even so."
"You're certain?" Relin asked.
"Too certain, I'd say," Khedryn said.
"Yes," said Marr, eyeing first Relin, then Khedryn. "I am certain."
"Very well," Relin said.
Khedryn shook his head, finished off his caf. "We are all crazy on this boat. I need another caf. Anyone else?"
Everyone nodded.
"Drinks all around, then," Khedryn said, and started to rise.
"I will get it, Captain," said Marr. The Cerean rose, placing his hand on Khedryn's shoulder as he passed, the small gesture a reminder of the years they had been friends.
"Let's talk specifics," Khedryn said to the Jedi. "What are your plans?"
Relin gestured for Jaden to go first.
"I fly down to the moon. Find what I am supposed to find."
"Alone?"
Jaden nodded.
"No," Khedryn said. "I am not leaving my ship down on that moon if you… find something unexpected. I can shuttle you down in Flotsam. We'll be able to dodge the cruiser's sensors and get you into the atmosphere. From there you can locate the source of the beacon. But I expect more when we're done. The Order owes me. Another five thousand on top of what we already agreed. Yes?"
"Agreed."
"You hear that, Marr?"
"Heard it, Captain."
Haggling over fees made Khedryn feel more like himself, more in control of events. He looked to Relin.
"And what about you? How do you plan to get aboard that cruiser?"
"I need Marr to fly me in."
"In where?"
"Into the ship."
Khedryn scoffed, then frowned when he saw that Relin was serious. "That isn't happening."
Relin's jaw tightened, and loosened, masticating his thoughts. "My Padawan died trying to bring that ship down. I am going back aboard and destroying what needs destroying. There's only one way for me to do that. We fly this ship right down its throat."
"Fly my ship, you mean."
"Yes, your ship." Relin's tone turned earnest. "Listen to me. Harbinger's weapons systems are down. They have to be. Otherwise they would have blown your ship from space already. Saes had to deploy fighters to attack you rather than his batteries. So Marr flies your ship out of the rings and into the landing bay before they can stop us."
"You look a lot less sick when you're talking about risking lives," Khedryn said. "The ship has active deflectors. How do you propose getting through those?" He felt a pang of guilt even asking the question.
Relin's expression fell. "The shields? I… don't know."
Khedryn did know but could not bring himself to mouth the words.
"There has to be a way," Relin said.
Khedryn stared at Marr, who was pouring caf, willing him to hold his silence, but the Cerean ignored him. "We could use the power crystal to open a temporary hole in the shields."
Khedryn blew out an irritated sigh.
Jaden looked startled. "You have a power crystal?"
Khedryn glared at Marr, at Jaden, at Relin. "We've used it twice, to board uncrewed derelicts when the autopilot kept the shields operational."
"Where did you get it?" Jaden asked.
"There's a whole lot of things floating in the black, Jedi. I told you that. Just need to know where to look."
Jaden looked around, as if he expected a power crystal to burst out of a closet. "Where is it?"
"In my pocket," Khedryn snapped, then recovered himself. "Mounted on the beam projector behind Junker's dish."
"It is a power sink," Marr said. "We'll have to divert most of our power to operate it. But it should work."
"The problem appears solved," Relin said. "Thank you, Marr."
"Yes, thank you, Marr," Khedryn said.
Relin went on as if he had not heard Khedryn's sarcasm. "Saes will not expect it. He thinks we're destroyed. The Blades flying patrol will be too far out and none of the fighters on the ship will scramble in time to intercept us."
"That is madness," Khedryn said. "Marr, did you hear this?"
"I heard it, Captain." Marr returned to the table, distributed the caf.
Khedryn raised his eyebrows. "And?"
"What other choice is there?"
"We go back to Fhost, forget this whole thing," Khedryn said, but everyone responded as if he had not spoken at all. Events had passed him by.
"That gets you aboard," Jaden said. "How do you get back?"
Relin hesitated a beat too long, Khedryn thought. "Marr need only drop me off and get back out. He could jump anywhere he wanted to after that. Or he could flee back into the rings until you and Jaden return from the moon."
Marr pulled back a chair, sat. "The fighters will pursue and I cannot pilot Junker through the rings. I'd have to jump out and return later."
Khedryn tried to sip his caf but his hand was shaking. Embarrassed, he put the cup down. "You are seriously entertaining this? This is not a plan. It's madness."
"That tells us how Marr gets out," Jaden said, and leaned forward. "How do you plan to get out?"
This time Relin answered a beat too quickly. "Escape pod, same as before."
Jaden and Relin shared a long look before Relin buried his eyes in the depths of his tea.
"When does all this happen?" Khedryn said, dreading the answer.
Relin looked up. "Now."
Kell held Predator at a distance from the cruiser and followed on his scanner as the fighters nosed up and out of the rings and returned from their pursuit of Junker. There were several fewer than had entered.
Kell decided that they had either lost the freighter or simply called off the pursuit. He knew they had not destroyed it. The skein of Fate was too strong. Jaden Korr's destiny was not to die in laserfire. It was to die in Kell's hands, as Kell devoured his soup and transcended.
Content that his destiny was unfolding as it should, he engaged Predator's low-output ion engines and piloted the ship near the edge of the rings. His baffles and screens would keep him invisible to the scanners of the cruiser. There he waited, a lurking spider.
The opalescent moon glittered against the black of space. He watched it turn, the featureless ball where his life would find fulfillment. He could have surveyed the moon, reported his findings back to Darth Wyyrlok. But he would not. He would wait, watchful, and descend to its surface only when Jaden Korr did so. Their lines were knotted together in a common fate, tethered to each other, and he would put down on the moon only when pulled down by Jaden. He could no more go to the moon's surface without Jaden than a Twi'lek could separate its lekku.
His hands were shaking, partly from hunger, partly from exaltation. He had not fed since leaving Fhost, nor would he. His next meal would be, had to be, Jaden Korr.
He powered down Predator but for the scanners, life support, and the speaker, which played the Imperial beacon, the sound that had summoned all of them to this one place, at this one time, and waited.
"I will prep Junker," Marr said, and rose to leave.
Khedryn put his hands on the table, pushed himself up as if he weighed a thousand kilos. "And I will… do something else. Stang, I cannot believe I agreed to this."