At least there was amusement in her tone. Qui-Gon walked beside her to the adjoining hangar, where the starfighters were refitted.
Once they got into the hangar itself, Qui-Gon had to restrain himself from taking Tahl's arm. The ground was cluttered with tools and stacks of parts, large and small. But using her extraordinary reflexes and special training, Tahl now used a gliding walk that guided her safely around obstacles.
"You do not need TooJay any longer for navigation, I see," Qui-Gon remarked, referring to Tahl's endlessly chattering personal navigation droid.
Her lips curved in a smile. "I worked very hard so that I don't. But I brought her here anyway. Unfortunately, I still need her for some things."
"The mechanics are to the left," Qui-Gon instructed. He studied them as he and Tahl approached.
One was a Twi'lek, with large head tails wrapped up in cloth to keep out of his way. His skin was light blue. The other mechanic washuman, his body short and compact, the sides of his head shaved so that his close-cropped hair ran down the center of his head.
"We wonder if we could have a few words with you," Tahl said.
The two mechanics put down their tools and turned to them. "Of course," the Twi'lek said a bit nervously. "I am Haly Dura and this is Tarrence Chenati. What can we do for you?"
"We are investigating the mechanical failures on the starfighters," Qui-Gon explained.
"We already have gone through an investigation," Haly Dura said. "We were cleared."
"We just want to ask a few questions," Tahl said. "Clee Rhara has asked for our help."
"I'm sure we have answered all those questions," Haly Dura said impatiently.
"Then you will answer them a second time," Tahl said, a hard edge beneath her calm tone.
Tarrence Chenati glanced at his coworker. "Of course we will cooperate. We do not want a cloud of suspicion over our heads. We are concerned as well. We have gone over every moment of our shifts with Clee Rhara but can't understand how it could have happened."
"This is a restricted area," Haly Dura said. "We're the only ones allowed here. That means that someone must have broken in after hours."
Qui-Gon studied both mechanics. He concentrated on looks and gestures for clues that one might be lying, knowing that Tahl would pick up vocal clues.
"You do all the repair work on the starfighters, correct?" Tahl asked.
The two workers nodded, then realized Tahl could not see them.
"Yes," they said together.
"What about the ionization chamber?" Tahl asked.
The last accident had taken place because of a malfunction in the ionization chamber, Qui-Gon knew.
"The ionization chamber did not need retrofitting," Haly Dura said. "We ran a check on it, of course."
"How do you do that?" Tahl asked pleasantly.
"On the control panel. Here." Haly Dura indicated a computer panel. "It showed no problems."
"The starship was cleared for flying the next day," Tarrence Chenati said. "Until then the ship was here, in the hangar, under tight surveillance."
"Do you mind if we look around?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Help yourself."
The two mechanics went on with their work, soldering laser power converters. Qui-Gon and Tahl strolled through the hangar.
"Did you pick up anything from our two friends?" Qui-Gon murmured.
"A smell," Tahl whispered back. "It was on Tarrence Chenati but not Haly Dura. Could be nothing. It's an industrial smell, though. I have an idea. Let's come back after they've gone."
They did not have long to wait. The two workers soon quit for the day. Clee Rhara had given the Jedi all the security codes, so they quickly slipped back inside. Qui-Gon powered up the lights. Not too long ago, he would have been leery of relying on Tahl's sense of smell for a clue. He knew better now.
Tahl seated herself on a lowbench."Qui — Gon, bring me the different compounds they use-grease, conductors, solvents-they should be all along the east wall. There's a storage unit-I know it from the schematic of the repair sector. Bring them one at a time."
Qui-Gon was too curious to mind being ordered. He found the storage unit. Everything was neatly labeled. Qui-Gon knew a fair amount about starship engines, but even he was surprised to see how many different kinds of grease, conductors, and solvents were used to keep a starship running.
He started with grease. Tahl inspected the various kinds, her eyes closed in concentration. After each deep sniff, she shook her head. Some of the chemical compounds caused her to cough violently, and her eyes streamed tears, but she kept going. They had run through eleven different chemical compounds when Qui-Gon brought her something simply labeledconductor X-112.
Tahl took a deep sniff and let out a racking cough. She leaned over and took deep breaths of air. When she could speak, she croaked, "That's it. No wonder I could still smell it."
Qui-Gon entered the compound into the computer to find out its uses. "It only has one function-as a conductor in the ionization chamber."
Tahl slapped her hand on the bench. "That's what I was hoping for. Chenati lied. He worked on the ionization chamber. Yet they said they didn't have to."
"And that's where the malfunction was," Qui-Gon said. "Let's go back and check out Chenati's credentials again."
After frustrated hours of searching, Tahl and Qui-Gon had come up with nothing.
"Everything checks out," Tahl said, sighing. "Just because I pick up a smell from the guy's coveralls doesn't mean he's a saboteur. There's probably another explanation."
"His security checks are flawless," Qui-Gon said, looking at the information they'd amassed. "His record is incredibly clean."
"Yet he has no family. Never married or had children," Tahl mused. "And he sure moved around the galaxy."
"You could say all those things about me," Qui-Gon said.
Tahl's lips curved in a smile. "Well, you are a suspicious character."
It was close to dawn. Soon the pilots and Clee Rhara would awaken and the day would begin. Today all the starfighter pilots would take to the air.