To get to Rishi—you need to head south in the Galaxy, roughly along the Corellian Run, which starts from Coruscant. Then, turning toward Tatooine, at a certain point—you can get on a secondary route leading to Rishi... Or you might not enter Hutt Space at all, instead going through Bothawui, turning toward that planet near Druckenwell? Hmm... Bothawui... Homeland of the Bothans, masters of espionage and politics. I remember Bothans from the rather "typical politician" Borsk Fey'lya. Like all sentients of his type—he wanted only one thing: to maximize his power. Almost like Palpatine, just without the Force talent. He viewed the New Republic military as, well, almost a threat. He didn't much like the Jedi... And even the Yuuzhan Vong, nearly until their arrival at Coruscant, he preferred to ignore.
It all ended with his eyes being "opened" and he committed suicide, blowing himself up along with an army of Yuuzhan Vong. And that's actually a decent idea... I sat at the helm of my ship, watching the glow of the hyperspace corridor. I hadn't reached Druckenwell yet... And where to go next—I'd have to decide. But the most important thing—before I got to Rishi—was to find information about Lothar's group. Flying in blind would just be stupid. And as luck would have it, the Bothans are masters of information, and Tatooine—a place where all kinds of scum of varying degrees of filth hang out—could also be a place where I could get info about Lothar. But here's the unpleasant part...
On both planets, word that I'm looking for him could get back to Lothar himself. And they could prepare better. Of course, I have Force Cloak on my side... An ordinary sentient might not detect me. But it would make things harder. Why can't I trust the Bothans on Bothawui? Why not trust the inhabitants of Tatooine—that's obvious enough. What can you expect from that rabble that theoretically trades in information there? Almost all are servants of one criminal organization or another. And as for Bothawui, I have doubts—only because Lothar is a fairly famous figure.
But given his "track record"he's survived so long only because he knows the "right sentients." And his connections might even be with someone in the plus-or-minus powerful circles of the Mid Rim. Or should I not land on either of these planets, just fly past and scope out the situation on the ground? But again—Rishi... A place where not just Lothar among famous pirates and smugglers might be located. In any case—I need to sniff out at least something so I don't have to be too careful on Rishi. So... I think questions on Bothawui will stir up a lot less fuss... Considering the mindset of "well a Jedi's asking questions, so what? Who knows where he's going and what he plans to do there." Plus—they can definitely tell me a lot more than some idiots on Tatooine... Or at least not leak the subject of my investigation to outsiders. So as soon as I reached Druckenwell, I turned toward the Bothan sector, specifically the planet Bothawui. After a couple of days, which I spent studying the necessary material for applying to Alderaan University's "Public Administration" program, my ship appeared not far from Bothawui. And it's pretty busy here. Lots of ships flying past me. And in the planet's orbit hung a space station, next to which were as many as three Dreadnoughts. A Dreadnought is a type of heavy cruiser designed and built by the corporation Rendili StarDrive.
That behemoth was a ship six hundred meters long. Elongated like a rod, the Dreadnought carried twenty quad laser cannons, ten regular laser cannons, ten turbolaser batteries, and eight ion cannons—the latter could be installed at the client's request. Quite a little ship, suitable for our "peaceful times." More precisely—it's enough to make anyone reconsider their intentions regarding the planet just by seeing it. Almost any pirate junk wouldn't survive an encounter with such a cruiser. One of this ship's drawbacks was its speed. Sublight speed left much to be desired. On the other hand... Rendili could have installed better engines. As well as a drive above class four. But again—they wanted a ship for mass procurement.
The Core Worlds planets themselves could buy ships from Kuat for their own use—ships that couldn't care less about the provisions of the Ruusan Reformation. And if the buyer could convince the Senate of its necessity, then Kuat would build them a decent little ship, maybe even two, if the money was sufficient. But to mass-arm everyone with Kuat ships—the Senate would never allow it. Especially considering monsters like the Mandator and the Praetor, which were currently in service in the Kuat sector and actively scaring the living daylights out of any Kuat competitors. Nobody would let everyone buy those.
But Dreadnoughts—they're perfect for everyone, for ordinary planets. A single Dreadnought in orbit is a decent defender. And three Dreadnoughts hanging in a planet's orbit—that's a serious argument to reconsider your life entirely and decide it's worth far more. Though, I figured they could buy something from Kuat. Oh well... I need to send them a signal so the orbital station can guide me down to the planet.
"Star Trek," a female voice came through—they'd contacted me. "Transmit your identity data and state your purpose for visiting Bothawui."
I sent the data to the controller. About ten seconds later, she replied:
"Welcome to Bothawui, Jedi Knight. You are cleared for approach; please follow the vector we will send you."
And... they let me through pretty quickly. Even if not everyone likes the Jedi behind their backs, they don't particularly want to break the laws regarding us. So—they just had to let a Jedi onto the planet, let him fly. Loading the data into the computer, I let BB pilot the ship while I leaned back in my seat. The mission shouldn't cause any particular difficulty. And after that—I'd return to the original plan: namely, searching for planets to set up sanctuaries. Maybe that planet where my master once brought me for training would work... It was the one that once helped me—in all my naivete—to kill without hesitation. After all, it's hard to do otherwise when you've trained in a jungle where every fauna and almost every flora can kill you.
In the atmosphere, I finally got to see the planet as more than just a green orb. My ship flew over beautiful valleys, forests, and fields. Finally, I spotted the outlines of a vast city that I decided to visit. Drev'starn. The planet's capital and the place where I could get information on the topic I needed. The ship smoothly descended into one of the hangars of the enormous spaceport. Stretching, I immediately left the ship. The capital's spaceport was a huge, high-tech building. Technicians and visitors scurried back and forth.
"Good day," a Bothan greeted me. "Does your ship require refueling, Jedi Knight?" He gave a slight bow. "Perhaps a diagnostic? Or restocking ammunition?"
"Good day," I returned the bow. "Yes, please refuel it. As for ammunition... I haven't depleted it yet."
"I understand," the Bothan smiled slightly. "Don't worry, your ship will be handled by our best specialists."
Just in case, I ordered BB to stay alert. Bothans, after all... They love gathering information. Though—they're not the only ones. Alright... The plan here was to stick to the "in and out, twenty-minute adventure" scheme. At least, that was my plan. According to my information, the Bothans had so-called "trade data centers," where for a certain sum you could find information about many things in the Galaxy. Many things—but not everything. Though—I don't need everything right now. All I needed was at least some intel on the current "inner workings on Rishi." And the service at one such data center exceeded my expectations. It was completely anonymized.
There were several such facilities, belonging to different Bothan clans. I chose the data center of Clan Liya, to which Borsk himself belonged in those comics... Or was I just latching onto something familiar? Doesn't matter. The data center looked impressive. The building was square-shaped, no more than five stories in my estimation. The interior was quite lavish. After surveying the surroundings inside the building, I approached the checkpoint.
"Good day," a female Bothan addressed me. The woman had features somewhat resembling a horse's. Generally, Bothans could look like horses, dogs, and cats. "Would you like to use the capabilities of Clan Liya's data center? Or speak with representatives of Clan Liya about obtaining exclusive information? Or perhaps you need your information systematized and analyzed to create a strategy for conducting business in certain Galactic sectors?"
"Good day," I smiled back at the woman. "I need to purchase information."
"Very well. Then choose a service. You may enter your real registration data into the computer—the operation will be cheaper. Or choose a more expensive service—then the data center will not register you as a client, and you can keep your inquiries... confidential..."
I see. I would, of course, have preferred the Order to just dump everything on Rishi on me. But stagnation has already caught up with our Order, to the point that I now have to spend my own hard-earned money for additional information on the matter. I'm a millionaire, sure. But I bet Yoda doesn't like this.
"Please, the anonymized service," I said.
The woman behind the checkpoint counter smiled. The force field that additionally protected her and blocked the entrance partially deactivated.
"In that case, our employee will escort you to a booth where you can begin your inquiries," a man appeared before me—his face this time looked more like a dog's. "You have no more than ten minutes to find the information you need and copy it onto any of your storage media. Our computers have interfaces for any kind of media. You will also need to make a prepayment according to your tariff."
So, how much does the elite tariff cost on Bothawui these days? Thirty thousand? Are you serious? Well, okay... The price is unpleasant, but I have no choice. Although, as an alternative—I could look for information on Tatooine. There, I could run into people asking "what are you snooping around for?" and "got a light? What if I find one?" At least these guys won't start shooting out of curiosity. Transferring the funds to the data center's account, I followed the employee. After leading me to a booth, the Bothan warned me again that I had ten minutes. The room was sparsely furnished. A computer on the desk and a simple chair. I needed to formulate my queries correctly. Sighing, I sat down and began searching. First, I loaded all current information on Rishi, then started typing in the pirate group's name and its Captain's name.
There was no time to analyze the information, so I downloaded everything I could, loaded it onto data cards, and headed for the exit... Or rather—to the cashier, where a bored, clearly nodding-off-on-the-job cashier told me I still owed them another hundred thousand credits. Cursing the Jedi intelligence again—since the Bothans' information was several times more extensive than everything the Shadows had given me—I paid the data center's fees... In principle, I could be satisfied with the outcome. If only I hadn't had to shell out a hundred and thirty thousand for the information...
So, what had the Bothans gathered? Currently on Rishi—there's quite a free-for-all. Pirates and smugglers, mercenaries... Even slavers... Who isn't there now? The natives—the flying indigenous inhabitants of Rishi—looked at everything... through their feathers. The main condition was that nobody touched them or interfered. So the pirates mostly fought among themselves but didn't bother the natives. A rather strange social contract... Back home on Tustra, those pirates would have been spaced long ago. The Sephi laws are quite humane, but only toward their own. Right now, about ten different armed groups of dubious legality have gathered on Rishi. Among them is Lothar's group.
Lothar... A forty-year-old Rodian. Commands a mob of two hundred. His ship... I don't even know if you can call it a ship. It's some kind of hybrid lovechild of a cargo ship and a pleasure yacht. Clearly—whoever put it together was a pervert. According to the intel—Lothar acquired a rich man's yacht that had decided to go "vacationing in the Outer Rim." Getting his hands on the yacht, the bandit decided to pirate with it, except a civilian yacht wasn't suited for that. So he refitted it, slapping on entire modules stripped from... apparently a YT-series ship and several others. Quite recently—Lothar was hired by an unknown employer, who gave the Captain a rather strange objective—to search ruins on certain planets. Naturally—who the employer was and more precise goals, the Bothans couldn't find.
And still, this is far more than what the Jedi Temple gave me. There, they simply said that Lothar's group killed an Archaeologist Jedi and most likely took the artifacts that the Knight had managed to pull out of the Sith ruins. They assigned me the objective—to investigate this situation, clearly hinting that the Sith artifacts had fallen into the pirate's hands.
But... What employer would order a pirate to travel through the Outer Rim and search Sith ruins? Actually—pointing at Palpatine and Damask now, shouting that it might be them—is premature. It could be dark cults, collectors—plenty of those across the Galaxy... Or am I just realizing it's too early for me to face either of them? Most likely—that's exactly it. Both Sidious and Plagueis would leave no trace of me. At least—I don't yet feel like someone who can stand against true Sith, not those fakes that any fallen Jedi can call themselves.
I need to be careful—whoever ordered this has resources. Even though it sounds interesting—first I have to deal with Lothar. Better to act quietly.
* * *
Rishi... A tropical planet. According to my calculations—around fifty-four years before the Battle of Yavin IV. No matter how many calendar reforms are introduced, it's more convenient for me to count the way any self-respecting fan of a Galaxy Far, Far Away is used to. The planet turned out to be quite beautiful, as described—a tropical paradise. But the space around it immediately greeted me with a fight between two fighters and one transport ship. Z-95s, as soon as my ship emerged from hyperspace, disabled the transport ship, knocking out its engines. And, apparently, the transport—or rather, it was a passenger ship—was about to dock with a Gozanti-class light cruiser that had seen better days.
"They're hailing us from that cruiser?" I pressed the comm button, and a Nautolan's figure appeared before me.
"Welcome to Rishi, visitor. Exclusive offer from the 'Axes of the Outer Rim' crew, today only! Pay the toll... Or accept a prize crew aboard who'll find something for you to pay with if you refuse. Passage—one hundred thousand credits!"
"Why don't you go..." I said, pressing the cloaking mode activation button.
"What... O—"
He didn't get to finish the order. The next second, executing one of its functions, my ship vanished from all sensors. Downside—I not only disappear from their sensors, but mine become useless too. But who cares? It doesn't affect the Force. I closed my eyes and concentrated. The Force would help me get past everything to reach the planet. Suddenly, a strange feeling pierced me... On that transport being harassed by the fighters—I was now sensing two Gifted ones. And quite strong at that... Trained.
The spot where my ship had been just a couple of seconds ago got hit by turbolasers. How jumpy... But who are these Gifted ones? I don't sense the Dark Side of the Force from them... Gray Jedi? Or someone else... Hmm... Looks like that transport ship was carrying them to Rishi. They just refused to pay and were now undergoing a forced docking operation with the pirate Gozanti. And from the feel of it—there weren't just two Gifted ones on board, but other sentients too, clearly not wanting to become pirate prey... What to do? Though that was a stupid question...
"BB-7, get ready—we're docking with that transport and helping them fight back."
The droid didn't reply, just linking into my ship's computer. After docking with the ship, I headed for the airlock. The hatch opened, giving me a view of the transport's interior. I pulled up my hood and pulled my lightsaber into my right hand. The transport had clearly seen better days. Exposed wires sparked slightly on the ceiling... Emergency lights were on.
"BB—don't let anyone but me onto our ship. Don't worry, I'll handle it."
The droid beeped a warning and wished me luck. Good droid. The corridor was empty, but I could hear the sounds of fighting to the right, in the next compartment. Opening the door to it, I froze, slightly stunned. At least twenty pirates were trying to surround two people in strange, form-fitting clothing, and one of them had a strange tattoo above his eyes. Both men were spinning around, quite fast, while simultaneously trying to close in on the pirates and impale them on their spears... Too fast for ordinary sentients. So these were the Gifted ones? One of the men looked older, with wrinkles and graying hair. He was short but broad-shouldered. The second was a teenager around fifteen, with short, blond-golden hair. Already broader in the shoulders than the older one... The pirates were shooting too densely... Hmm... Those movements, use of the Force, and staffs... Matukai. Jonal Ezar, the Shadow commander, is famous for... Ahem. A certain radicalism, preferring to say roughly the following: "A good Gifted one who is not a Jedi but a member of another Force teaching—is a dead Gifted one."
But... That's his opinion, different from mine. I swung my left hand, and a wave of telekinesis threw the pirates back. The Matukai turned toward me in sync, sensing the Force...
"Who are you?!" asked the golden-haired youth. He was about a head taller than me. He aimed his van-shen—a glaive they use instead of a lightsaber—at me.
"Sheygen, calm down," said the older man, leaning slightly on his van-shen.
"What the hell did you do to us?!" asked one of the pirates, barely getting to his feet. "What was that?! It felt like a rancor kicked me!"
"Fucking Jedi!" I turned my attention to the speaker. The man drew a vibro-sword. "I'll chop you into pieces, boy."
What a moron. Hadn't he heard of the Jedi? He lunged at me, swinging his sword. I dodged and pressed a deactivated lightsaber against his back. An instant later, a green blade pierced through the pirate's back.
"What a stupid move," I noted reasonably. I twirled the saber in front of me. "Well?" I asked, aiming the blade at the other pirates. "Are we going to stare at each other, or are you going to do something?"
"FIRE! Let's kill him!"
Hmm… They aren't hopeless, these Matukai. While I was drawing attention—at least the old man decided to attack the pirates. His student joined him a few seconds later. I, meanwhile, turned my attention to the other sentients cowering in fear. Obviously peaceful beings who were just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Blaster bolts first flew at me, but I started deflecting them. And then the pirates suddenly didn't have time to try and get me, because the Matukai had finally reached their mockery of a formation. Heads, limbs, and blood flew into the air… The pirates groaned, cursed, and died quickly. I deactivated my saber and watched the unfolding spectacle with curiosity. It's interesting, sometimes, to observe the actions of other Gifted. Maybe I'll remember something useful… Finally, the pirates were finished, and the Matukai began wiping the blood from their monstrous glaives.
"You just sat there while we worked, Jedi?" the guy named Sheygen asked with clear displeasure.
"And what was I supposed to do?" I asked philosophically. "I couldn't attack them while you were in there. I might have hit you. You do still want to live, don't you?"
"That sounded like you want to kill me right here and now, Jedi!" Sheygen aimed his glaive at me. "Overestimating yourself, Consul?"
"Consul?" I asked in surprise. Right… He's a victim of that oversimplified classification where blue lightsabers mean Guardians, who are supposedly better swordsmen, and green means Consuls, who are better with the Force.
"I'll teach you some manners!" he hissed. The teenager closed the distance. His strike disarmed me. The saber flew out of my right hand, clattering to the side. He started to swing the non-bladed side of his glaive at me to stun me but stopped instantly. My second lightsaber was pressed to his throat in my left hand. Ignited… One move and I'd take his head off. He seemed to realize that. An instant later, the lightsaber knocked from my right hand appeared right behind his back. Also ignited, aimed squarely at his spine.
"Sure you want to continue that attack?" I asked. "If I don't like your answer, I'll tell you your future. You won't like it."
"Tch… Hutt…"
"Ah, Sheygen," the elder Matukai sighed heavily. "How many times do I have to tell you. Matukai never allow emotions to drive them in life. You seem to always forget that, my eternal student… Young Knight, would you let him go? We are not your enemies, and he," he nodded at his student, "is just a hot-headed youth who will never learn the important lessons. Don't hold a grudge against us."
"I generally assumed that even the most hot-headed sentients should be grateful for help," I said calmly, returning both sabers to my hands and then to their sheaths.
"Sheygen is unlikely to thank you, so—I will say thank you, Young Knight," the man said, bowing slightly. "My name is Teydor Loy. I am a Matukai, as you might have gathered. And this youth is Sheygen Joyrit. My eternal student, for some reasons."
"I'm Light Flyingstar. Jedi Knight," I introduced myself to the Matukai. "I noticed these scum trying to board the ship and decided to help."
"Commendable… You see, Captain," Teydor addressed a Twi'lek man. "You don't have to pay every piece of trash."
"This boarding wouldn't have happened if you'd just paid!" the man in the pilot's uniform protested.
"I prefer not to pay under such formulations," Teydor said. "In any case—shouldn't we be getting to the planet?"
"Yes. I'll land the ship now," the Twi'lek ground his teeth. "And I hope you will never use my services again," he left the room.
"What wonderful service you have," I remarked with a slight smile. "I think a little more and it could rival the best carriers from the Mid Rim."
"We make do with what we have," Teydor spread his hands.
"Alright," I said, "it's time for me to get back to my ship. Rishi awaits."
"Hope we don't meet again, Jedi," Sheygen snorted.
"Too bad, I thought you liked me," I replied simply. "Especially the part where I almost took your head off."
Leaving the room, I returned to the Star Trek… That was interesting… The Matukai definitely deserve my attention. The way they moved in battle. More precisely—the way they strengthened their bodies with the Force. That's interesting… The philosophy of a teaching influences how one interacts with the Force. Just as it influences the spectrum of techniques used. There are techniques attributed purely to the Sith, just as there are those attributed purely to the Jedi. The Matukai also have their own unique trick of modifying their physical parameters with the Force. It's fundamentally different from our Enhancement. Mentor Lorm incorporated some elements of training he received from a Matukai he'd encountered into my own training. But that Matukai didn't reveal all the secrets… And even if he had. It's better to observe them from the sidelines than to listen to the instructions of someone who might have misunderstood parts of those principles.
Hmm… I'll have to review the holo-recording of their fight later. About ten times… BB managed to break into the computer of the ship we docked with and download the recorded footage. I think it will help with my training. But that's for later, after the mission. Right now, Rishi awaits…