The hour Adrian had asked for passed more slowly than any hyperspace jump we had made so far. Mostly because we were doing nothing and waiting for something that would be a key point in our mission.
But, for once, we stayed put and silent, waiting for him to call on us.
To keep herself occupied, Sareh kept working through her notes, cross-referencing what we had learned on Nathema with what we had just observed here, trying to find clues in all her knowledge. Anything that may help us with infiltrating Dormund Kaas. Vila stayed close to me, quieter than usual, but I could tell she was pretty much relaxed, keeping an eye on Adrian and Sareh respectively. Even HK remained near the back of the bridge, his photoreceptors dimming slightly, as if he were lost in his past memories. Probably was, to be honest.
As for Adrian?
He was the most focused of us all, reading the constant flow of data, sometimes muttering something, adjusting here and there, then going still for five to ten minutes at a time. When he finally spoke again, it wasn't with his usual flair, but for the first time, he sounded tired but very much relieved.
"Alright," he said at last, cracking his neck before leaning forward in his chair. "Let's see if my 'untested toy' holds up under real conditions."
"Wait... what the hell were you doing until now then if not deploying that?!" Sareh asked immediately.
"Preparing to activate it." He said as if it was so obvious that we were the stupid ones for asking, "I had to establish a lot of feedback variables, create a quick-access reference library, anyway, enough of the boring details. We are set up and ready. Now that I'm done calibrating it for this kind of environment, we will stay hidden while I activate it."
"What exactly were you doing...?" Vila tried, narrowing her eyes slightly as she watched him, but he wasn't telling us more than what he already had.
"You're about to see."
The bridge lights dimmed automatically as the Vindicator rerouted its powers. We weren't plunged into darkness, but they went off just enough that the holoprojector became the brightest thing in the room. We watched as lines of data began to stream across it, building up in layers and then forming a complex, far denser image than anything he had shown us before.
"This," he continued, tapping the armrest with two fingers, "is a long-range, cross-system scan. And it is not a passive listen, nor is it a directional ping… but a reconstruction. What you are seeing is only 10 minutes behind real time. A supreme feat, if you want to know, but I have a guess you wouldn't appreciate it."
"A reconstruction of what?" Sareh asked, stepping closer and watching the image still build itself.
"Of everything I can't directly see," Adrian answered simply. "And not just literally. Even if you send out a probe, it won't be as clear as this. I can't tell the methods I'm using, but they won't know someone is spying on them, I am sure of THAT."
The projection shifted as he spoke, and at first, it was nothing more than noise. It was built from fragmented signals, radiation patterns, and gravitational distortions, at least from what I could recognize on the surface, from my training in learning to fly space ships. Then, slowly, all of that data began converging, and the system began to take shape.
The first thing that popped into view was a star, then came the planets, their orbital paths, all of it forming a reactive image piece by piece.
"That's Dromund Kaas?" Vila whispered, finally letting her shock show.
"It is," Sareh answered quietly, "It matches..."
I didn't speak, because I recognized what my brother had done... He created a technology that would enable the Remnants to spy on systems without their knowledge... Just get a ship close enough... Oh boy. As I thought of that, the image sharpened even further. What had started out as a vague outline became superbly detailed. Hell... when Adrian ordered the computer to zoom in on the planet within the habitable zone, the image we saw was crisp, even showing a storm on the planet's surface.
Dromund Kaas.
"No…" Sareh breathed, and not because of the image quality, but because of what it was showing to us. It was one thing to see the planet brought up as if we were within proper sensor range... the shocking part was what else we saw there. Even Adrian leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowing as more data came back, constantly getting added to the image.
"That's not possible."
"How?" Vila also asked, her grip tightening around my hand.
"I'm not surprised," I said, gesturing toward the projection, "Droids don't need to rest."
What shocked us was the number of ships, popping into view the moment Adrian's scanners identified them, even if they appeared with a ten-minute latency. There were dozens of them soon, and they kept appearing.
"They were… busy," Vila said slowly, her lekku twitching anxiously.
"More than busy," Adrian agreed, "This is hell of an organized effort for a reconstruction."
The system updated again, and now, whole new layers appeared. At first, they were unshaped blobs, but then reappeared as structures, assuming the shapes of orbital platforms and defense grids.
"They are seriously rebuilding it," Sareh whispered, "If they are given enough time, we will have a new empire appearing...
"No," Adrian said, shaking his head once. "We can't allow that to happen!" Then, he highlighted one of the outer orbital bands. "Damn it... That's a ship-building station." Then another had appeared, "Refueling station." Then another was drawn up, "Repair or mining station... Could be both. Damn, they're active," he continued. "Power signatures are also stable... Shielding systems online... That planet is as defended as any other capital world."
"Planetary shields?" I asked and watched as Adrian's fingers moved again, changing some settings. Then, about a minute later, the projection zoomed slightly, and a shimmer appeared around the planet.
"Sadly… Yes," he said after a long sigh. "Full coverage, and it is multi-layered. That planet is wrapped like a newborn... Shit."
As we watched it update, a heavy silence fell over the bridge.
"Now what?" Vila asked. "We can't just go in, hell, good thing we didn't! That's a fortress world!"
"Yeah," Sareh agreed, her voice pretty much tight. "It's a stronghold, alright."
"It's worse than that," Adrian added, and he adjusted the scan again, isolating energy signatures. "Look at the distribution." We leaned closer as the system lit up in patterns. "It's functioning like a hub," he said. "Since the start, the computer had clocked all the traffic in and out. All of them are corresponding routes, heading to coordinates that align with Sareh's old Sith Empire records. I think they are reconnecting the colonies they had in the past, establishing forward bases and outposts, like in our current system. They are indeed... rebuilding."
That… If anything, that was the worst part.
"And we're still going there," Sareh muttered, "Aren't we?"
"Yes," I said, "We can't afford to not."
"No matter which direction we approach from, we'll be seen," Sareh added and didn't argue against it.
"Correct," Adrian said immediately, and he pulled up a new layer. "I have already identified their arrays, based on their previous ship and its mixed signatures, the ones that attacked us before. I also added the wrecks we flew past to the database, and through them, I can match their designs and spot them. Anyway! Their sensor coverage overlaps across the whole system. Not perfectly, mind you, but enough that any standard hyperspace exit point will get flagged instantly."
"Even with your ship?" Vila asked.
"Yeah, even with my ship," he replied dryly. "We're not invisible... We're just… hard to notice. However," Adrian said suddenly as his tone changed, forming a smile. Before I could prompt him, he adjusted the projection, filtering out the major signals. "There."
"What?" Vila asked, looking at the empty space.
"Gaps," he explained, "Blind spots. There are areas where their sensor coverage overlaps imperfectly. Probably due to still being in the middle of repairs and rebuilding, interference, or just… bad design."
"Or overconfidence," Sareh added quietly.
"Maybe," he shrugged as he highlighted several of them, but only a handful, and each smaller than the rest. A capital-sized ship wouldn't be able to slip in, that was for sure. "They're small," he continued, noticing the same issue, "Very small. And they shift slightly depending on traffic and power routing... Not... Yeah... Nothing constant..." He added, as we saw one of the 'pockets' move to a new spot, "Tsk."
"So we aim for one of those?" Vila asked, crossing her arms.
"In theory," Adrian nodded, biting his lower lip, "In practice," he added, turning slightly toward us, "dropping out of hyperspace into a precise location like that is…difficult. If it shifts while we are in transit, my computer can't adjust. So it is a risk... As for a normal pilot?" he smirked faintly. "Impossible to do."
I looked at the projection while he was speaking, focusing on the blind spots, then I closed my eyes and let the Force flow through my senses. Even from here, I could feel it, which was a surprise. Of course, it wasn't something I could tap into clearly, but... I had a feeling of confidence when I reopened my eyes.
"I can do it," I said at once.
"No." Adrian didn't even hesitate.
"I can guide us in." I insisted.
"No," he repeated, sharper this time.
"This isn't about pride, Adrian," I said evenly. "You said it yourself: your systems can't guarantee a precise drop."
"And yours can?" he shot back.
"Yes," I said, and he just scoffed.
"That's not how hyperspace works, even with your space magic."
"That's not how your hyperspace works," I corrected him, smiling, and before Vila could argue on my behalf, Sareh stepped in slightly more diplomatically than Vila would be.
"Adrian… Let him explain."
"..." My brother looked at her, then back at me, letting a shrug escape him, "Fine."
"I don't need exact coordinates," I said. "You set it, leave it to your computer, and I will only take control of the part that drops us out. I will make sure we land in their blind spot."
"That's vague," he muttered. "And if you're wrong?"
"We get noticed," I answered without hesitation.
He leaned back slightly, studying me, grimacing, and shaking his head in the end.
"You're asking me to hand over control of my ship," he said slowly.
"Only partially."
"And we don't have a better option," Sareh added, still being the diplomat.
"Ugh..." Adrian exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. "I hate this!"
"I know."
"If you mess this up—!" He started, but finally, Vila joined in, no longer being able to hold herself back.
"He won't. Now pipe down, and let him do it!"
"That's not what I was going to say," he cut in, fixing his sitting position and uniform, looking into my eyes, "If you mess this up, I'm blaming you in the afterlife. I heard you, Jedi, get one or something... so I will find you and berate you for an eternity!"
"That's fair." I chuckled, and before I could say anything else, HK also spoke up.
[Statement: This will be entertaining. Addendum: Make sure we stay hidden. I prefer death in a face-to-face battle to being vaporized in space.]
"Shut up," Adrian muttered, standing up from his chair. "Don't jinx him, you ancient hunk of metal... Come on," he then looked at me, pointing at his chair, "Sit, I'll show you the correct controls."
After I sat down, the controls felt… different from what I expected while Adrian hovered beside me, telling me which tap-reactive screen did what.
"I'm still monitoring everything," he said, almost sitting down in my lap, which made the whole thing weird. "You're not doing this alone. This is my ship, my baby."
"Sure, sure..." I moaned, because I could feel how Vila was holding a pretty loud laughter back.
Soon, the coordinates were set, and the closest blind spot for our arrival was selected. Everything was ready pretty quickly, and all that remained was the jump. Immersing myself in the Force, I closed my eyes and then... I reached out.
"Jump in three… two…" Adrian's voice faded as I listened to it, letting it slip by while my mind pulled me into the feeling.
I could see, very much differently, how the hyperspace swallowed us, how its blue swirls stretched across us, even how time bent away... I was simply waiting for the feeling; I didn't know what it would be or how I would know it, but... There! I just knew it when it happened. I felt it within me.
We broke through at once, and as I opened my eyes, the stars snapped back into place.
"We're in," Adrian said quietly, checking all the details, "No alarms... No immediate response... I'll be damned..."
"Heh," I exhaled slowly, looking at him, "Told you. Now..." I looked towards the world, still pretty far away from us, "We need to scan everything, collect as much data as we can, and... call the cavalry."
"The what?" Sareh asked, looking at me.
"We are not going to wait," I looked at her sternly, "We will relay the information, even if it means that we are discovered. Send the warning to our Masters, to the Remnants," I added, glancing at Adrian, "And to the Republic. We need their fleets... Both of theirs. This danger has to be stopped, and stopped now."