A Republic shuttle crossed the darkness of the Outer Rim, moving between systems that appeared upon official charts but rarely received more than passing attention from Coruscant. Twelve Jedi Knights had been sent into the surrounding regions in teams of two, each pair following a different route from the command post established at Ryloth. Their instructions were to search local ports, examine reports of unregistered vessels, and question anyone who might have encountered a modified Delta-7 or its unidentified pilot. The search had already carried this shuttle through three systems, two trading stations, and several settlements. None had brought them closer to the Force-wielder seen on Serenno.
The pilot was a tall, broad-shouldered Nautolan with green skin, large dark eyes, and long head tendrils that rested against the back of his brown Jedi robes. Kit Fisto had retained the easy warmth that once made him quick to laugh with nearly anyone, but four years of missions had tempered it. He no longer used humor to fill every silence or dismiss every danger. The smile still appeared when the moment allowed it. It simply disappeared more quickly when the work demanded his attention.
Kit guided the shuttle along the edge of an uninhabited system while the navigation computer prepared their next route. Behind him, the communications station received reports from Ryloth and the other Jedi teams. A blue-skinned Twi'lek sat before it, examining local traffic records with the patience of someone who had learned that important information rarely announced itself. Aayla Secura wore lighter robes beneath a dark traveling cloak, with her lightsabers secured along her side. Her twin lekku extended behind her shoulders, shifting slightly as she moved between the different files. She had become more restrained since her years as a Padawan. Where she once might have spoken before deciding exactly what she believed, she now listened, considered, and chose her words with greater care.
A signal appeared upon the communications display. Aayla opened the encrypted transmission and read the message before leaving her station. She entered the cockpit carrying a datapad and stopped beside Kit's seat.
"We have received an update from Master Bayts."
Kit looked away from the navigation display. "What does it say? Do we have a new lead?"
"We have new information. Whether it will lead to the person we are searching for remains uncertain."
"That sounds like most of the information we have received so far."
Aayla took the seat beside him and placed the datapad between them. "Master Bayts has learned of an independent organization operating somewhere within the Outer Rim. They call themselves Beacon."
Kit opened the file. The report contained accounts gathered from the Ryloth government: defended shipping routes, damaged pirate vessels, relief supplies delivered to isolated settlements, and traders claiming to have dealt with ships connected to an organization that possessed no registered territory. "I have never heard of them."
"Neither had Master Bayts until Ryloth's government mentioned them. They appear to have formed approximately two years ago, but no one has confirmed where they are based or who commands them."
"What does this have to do with our search?"
"Beacon moves throughout regions where Republic information is limited. More importantly, several rumors describe its founder as a warrior carrying a weapon that resembles golden fire."
Kit studied the report more closely. "A lightsaber?"
"Possibly. The accounts are not detailed enough to be certain. Master Bayts believes Beacon may have some connection to the Force-wielder from Serenno, or at least possess information about people operating beyond the known trade routes."
Kit returned the datapad to her. "So our new task is to find this organization."
"It has been added to our priorities."
"And do we know where to find them?"
"No."
Kit rested his hands against the controls again. "Excellent."
The word carried enough dryness to make Aayla glance toward him, but he offered nothing more. She returned her attention to the report. "Beacon vessels have been seen along several shipping routes. If we begin with the systems where their activity was most recently reported, we may find someone who knows how to contact them."
"Or we may find another collection of traders who heard the same rumors from someone three systems away."
"That is also possible."
Kit released a quiet breath and looked through the viewport. "I wish Khan were here. He always seemed to stumble into whatever we were searching for."
Aayla looked toward him.
Kit's expression had become still. He continued watching the stars as if the name had passed without meaning, but Aayla knew him too well to believe it. "But he is not," he said.
She had mentioned Khan without considering where the conversation might lead. For years, both of them had learned to avoid his name whenever Kit was present. It had never been a spoken agreement. A pause entered the room whenever someone came close to mentioning him, and the conversation quietly moved elsewhere. Aayla had allowed that silence to remain because she understood the anger beneath it. Four years had made the silence more difficult to excuse.
"We cannot continue avoiding his name," she said.
"I have never told anyone they cannot speak about him."
"You do not have to. Everyone who knows you understands how you feel."
Kit looked toward her. "Do they?"
"I do."
His attention returned to the controls. "Then you know there is nothing to discuss."
"There is a great deal we have never discussed."
"Khan left. That is the part that matters."
Aayla allowed several seconds to pass before answering. "It is one part."
"He chose to leave the Temple, accepted a ship from Master Plo, and disappeared into the Outer Rim without speaking to either of us. I do not know how many parts you believe that requires."
"He had lost Master Dooku. He had also lost Master Yoda."
"So had everyone who loved them."
Aayla accepted the correction without looking away. "Yes."
Kit's fingers tightened slightly around the controls. "Khan returned from that planet injured, exhausted, and unwilling to tell us what happened to him. If there was ever a time when he should have trusted his friends, it was then."
"I do not believe leaving meant he stopped trusting us."
"He did not even tell us he intended to go."
There was no useful answer to that. Aayla remembered sitting across from Khan aboard the light cruiser after their rescue. He had laughed with them, avoided their questions, and allowed them to believe they would have more time once they reached Coruscant. Several days later, he was gone. Whatever pain had driven him away did not change what his silence had done to those left behind.
"At first, I believed the Council had sent him on an important mission," Kit continued. "Master Plo said Khan was traveling beyond the Core Worlds, so I waited. I assumed he would contact us when he could. Months passed, and every message I sent went unanswered."
Aayla lowered her gaze toward the datapad. "I remember."
"It was only after I overheard Master Plo and Master Windu speaking that I learned Khan had decided to leave before the Grand Master ever assigned him anything. Master Plo gave him a mission because he believed Khan would go with or without one."
Kit had rarely spoken this openly about the day he learned the truth. He had been angry with Plo, then ashamed of that anger because the Grand Master had clearly carried fears of his own. None of it had changed the feeling that Khan had made a decision about their friendship without allowing Kit any part in it.
"When we were younger, he followed me through the Temple," Kit said. "He thought I knew far more than I did. Every time he learned a new technique, he came looking for me because he wanted to prove he could use it."
A faint memory softened his expression before it passed.
"He treated me like an older brother. Then, when his life became too difficult to carry alone, he decided I did not need to know he was leaving."
Aayla heard the hurt beneath the anger. "I do not think Khan left because he believed we meant nothing to him."
"That does not change what he did."
"No. It does not."
Kit glanced toward her, perhaps expecting another defense. Aayla offered none. Khan had been grieving, frightened, and carrying secrets neither of them understood. Those truths explained his choice. They did not erase its consequences.
"I was angry with him too," she said. "Part of me still is. But after four years, I am more worried than angry."
Kit's expression hardened again. "Why be worried? He was confident enough to leave on his own. I am sure he has spent the last four years without a single concern."
The bitterness made the words unconvincing.
"You do not believe that," Aayla said.
Kit remained silent.
"You are worried because no one knows where he is. You are angry because worrying about him is all he left us able to do."
Kit stared ahead. The navigation computer completed its calculations, but he did not activate the route. "He should have told us."
"Yes."
"We could have helped him."
"Perhaps."
"He never gave us the opportunity."
"No."
Aayla's agreement took some of the resistance from him. She understood now that Kit did not need to be persuaded to forgive Khan. He needed someone to admit that his anger had a reason to exist.
Before either of them spoke again, red light passed across the front of the shuttle. A blaster bolt disappeared into the darkness ahead of them, followed by another that struck the rear shields and shook the vessel hard enough to throw Aayla against her seat.
Kit's attention changed immediately. The emotion left his face as training and experience took control. He pushed the shuttle into a sharp turn while warning signals appeared across the instrument panel. "Strap yourself in. Someone unfriendly has found us."
Aayla moved to the weapons station and secured the restraints across her body. She activated the shuttle's rear cannon while Kit examined the sensors. An unregistered vessel had appeared behind them, its transponder disabled and its hull altered by layers of mismatched armor. Weapons had been attached along both sides of an aging gunship frame. Whatever insignia once identified the ship had been removed, leaving only the faded markings used by one of the pirate groups active throughout the region.
"What is it?" Kit asked.
"Outer Rim pirates. One gunship, heavily modified."
Another barrage reached them. Kit turned the shuttle beneath the first bolts, but one struck along the side of the shields. Power flickered across the cockpit as Aayla brought the rear cannon toward the pursuing vessel. Her return fire struck the pirate gunship's forward defenses, forcing it aside without breaking through.
"They have stronger shields than we do," she said.
"And enough weapons to remind us."
Kit directed the shuttle toward a field of drifting rock several thousand kilometers ahead. Reaching it would give him something to place between them and the pirates. Until then, open space left nowhere to hide. The gunship accelerated after them, its heavier frame preventing it from matching every turn but allowing it to absorb the attacks Aayla placed against its shields.
Aayla adjusted her aim and fired again. Several bolts struck one of the external cannons. The weapon exploded, scattering metal away from the gunship, but the remaining batteries continued firing. Kit rolled the shuttle as red light crossed above and below them. A final bolt struck the lower stabilizer before he completed the turn.
The impact moved through the entire vessel. Aayla's targeting display briefly disappeared, and several sections of the cockpit lost power before the emergency systems restored them. Kit fought the controls as the shuttle began pulling toward its damaged side.
"We lost part of the lower stabilizer," Aayla said. "The rear shields are almost gone."
"Engines?"
"Still operating."
"Then we are not finished."
There was no humor in the answer. Kit redirected power away from damaged systems and pushed the engines beyond their recommended limit. The shuttle gained distance for several seconds, but the pirate gunship continued following. Its remaining cannons began charging for another attack.
Aayla watched the warning move across her display. "We need to lose them before they fire again."
"I know."
"The debris field is still too far."
"I know that too."
Kit considered turning to face the gunship, but their weakened shields would not survive a direct exchange. The pirates had recognized the same fact. They no longer attempted to disable the shuttle's engines. Their weapons tracked the center of the vessel.
Aayla directed the rear cannon toward them and waited for a clear line of fire. "When they move to avoid my attack, turn toward the debris."
"We will still be exposed."
"Less than we are now."
Kit prepared the maneuver. "Do it."
Aayla fired.
The gunship shifted away from the first bolts and released its own attack. Kit turned the shuttle, but the damage to the stabilizer made the movement slower than it should have been.
Before the pirate fire reached them, another series of bolts crossed the darkness and struck the gunship from above.
Two starfighters passed through the space between the vessels. Their narrow frames and forward wings marked them as Z-95 Headhunters. They separated after the first attack, forcing the pirates to divide their weapons between them.
Kit used the opening to carry the damaged shuttle out of range.
"Two Z-95s," Aayla said as she studied the sensors. "Another vessel is approaching behind them."
An EML-850 light freighter entered the area. Additional armor protected its hull, and modified cannons extended from sections built for civilian equipment. The pirate gunship turned toward the larger threat, but the two Headhunters attacked its engines before it completed the movement. The freighter opened fire a moment later. Its first barrage collapsed the remaining shields. The second destroyed the gunship's weapons and left its engines without power.
The pirate vessel began drifting.
Disabled, but intact.
Kit steadied the shuttle and reduced their speed. The immediate danger had passed, allowing him to examine the ships that had intervened. The two Z-95s moved into protective positions near the freighter. All three vessels carried the same symbol along their hulls: a tall beacon with golden light spreading from its upper point.
Aayla saw it at the same moment. "Beacon."
Kit looked at the emblem, then at the message from Master Bayts still open upon the datapad between them. They had learned of the organization only minutes earlier. Now three of its vessels occupied the space ahead of them.
For the first time since Khan's name entered the conversation, a trace of Kit's old smile returned. "It appears we borrowed some of his luck."
An incoming transmission reached the shuttle. Kit accepted it, and a young man's voice emerged through the speakers.
"Republic shuttle, are you able to respond?"
"We can," Kit said. "Our stabilizer is damaged, but the ship is holding."
"I am glad to hear it. We were dealing with a pirate force along a nearby route when that gunship escaped. We pursued it as soon as we realized it had broken away, but it appears it found you first."
"You still arrived before it finished the job."
"The situation should never have reached you."
Aayla leaned closer to the transmitter. "You were not responsible for the pirates choosing to attack us. In the end, you saved our lives."
The voice paused briefly. "You have someone with you?"
"Yes," Kit said. "She can be difficult, but she is a good friend."
Aayla slowly turned her head toward him. "Difficult?"
The young man laughed through the transmission, releasing some of the tension that remained after the battle. "I am glad both of you survived. My name is Travis. I command this patrol and serve as one of Beacon's field commanders."
Kit and Aayla exchanged a look. Neither needed to say what the introduction meant.
"I am Kit Fisto," Kit said. "My companion is Aayla Secura."
"I would assume you are part of the Jedi search team?"
"Our attempt to remain unnoticed has not gone particularly well today."
"The Republic shuttle helped," Travis replied. His tone remained friendly, although greater caution entered it after learning who they were. "Your vessel does not appear capable of traveling far in its current condition."
"It is not," Aayla said. "Do you know of a nearby location where we can make repairs?"
"We have a safe port within this region. Their mechanics can replace the damaged stabilizer and examine the rest of your systems. If you are willing to follow us, we will escort you there."
Kit examined the navigation display. The Beacon vessels had already transmitted a short-range route, but its destination remained concealed until they accepted. Following an armed organization they knew almost nothing about carried risk. Remaining inside a damaged shuttle in pirate territory carried more.
"We would appreciate the assistance," he said.
"Remain between our fighters. We will keep our speed low enough for you to follow."
The transmission ended. One Z-95 moved to either side of the shuttle while the EML-850 turned toward the distant stars. Kit entered the provided route and guided their damaged vessel after it.
Aayla returned to the communications station. "I will inform Master Bayts."
"Tell him Beacon found us."
"That is not how he will ask me to phrase the report."
"It is what happened."
Aayla looked back toward the golden symbol upon the freighter. "Do you believe they are connected to the person from Serenno?"
"I do not know."
Kit watched the vessels surrounding them. Beacon had saved two Jedi without asking who they were, and its fighters had disabled the pirate gunship rather than destroy it. Those actions told him something about the people guiding them, but not enough to determine what the organization truly wanted.
"For now," he said, "we learn what we can."
The Beacon patrol led them deeper into the Outer Rim. Neither Kit nor Aayla knew where they were being taken, but for the first time since leaving Ryloth, their search had placed something real before them.