Chapter 37
There appears to be a difficulty on Zonama Sekot,' Captain Kett said. He climbed to the navigation bridge and handed Sienar a decoded message from Ke Daiv. Sienar read the message with a blank expression, then, abruptly, his brow furrowed and he looked at Kett as if he might be to blame.
Kett's eyes narrowed defensively.
'He's been rejected,' Sienar said. 'Something about seed- partners taking a dislike to him. Chewing off all his clothes.'
Kett did not have to feign ignorance.
'We cannot rely on Ke Daiv,' Sienar concluded.
'I also have a message from Tarkin,' Kett said with a twitch of his lips. He gave Sienar the second small cylinder, and the commander read the brief message on the secure rollout.
'He's getting nervous. He wants an update,' Sienar said, pursing his lips.
'Shall we move into a diplomatic orbit, or a negotiation orbit?' Kett asked. 'All systems and droids are ready. Taking action immediately could be the best foundation for a reply.'
'It would be, if I were Tarkin,' Sienar said, regarding the captain shrewdly. 'But I am not here to play political games. There isn't time. Ke Daiv still has his instructions, and I will give him another day.' Sienar wondered himself if that was a smart move, betting everything on a Blood Carver. But he had no choice! Something told him massive action on their part would be a mistake.
'Sir, we risk being discovered by even the most primitive sensors if we do not act soon. The element of surprise-
'Have we detected any weapons systems on Zonama Sekot with our passive sensors?'
'No, sir, but I have never depended upon passive sensing alone. It is a shallow-'
'The planet has relied on stealth for decades. Maybe they're complacent.' But don't count on it, he told himself.
'Sir, I have been thinking about those signs of battle damage on the planet's surface-'
'As have I, Captain Kett. And what have you concluded?'
'They could not have been produced by any weapons known to me, sir. The signature of turbolasers and proton weapons leaves very different residues in rocky targets. These gouges may have been made by neutron dissemblers, which in theory would leave the residues we detect, yet no one in the known galaxy has learned how to harness such weapons.'
Sienar listened to this as if he were being lectured by a grade-school child, but then looked away in frustrated silence, and his brow furrowed deeper. He tapped his fingers on the railing, his long nails making distinct rhythmic ticks. 'Do you think they conceal such weapons, and have recently fought a war?' he asked, barely hiding his satisfaction.
'No, sir. The pattern is more like that of a preemptive strike, or a dramatic show of force, with no discernible follow-up. I can't imagine a state of apparent peace, and a total absence of visible weapons, if the political forces on the planet have recently undergone such a challenge. We have been listening to communications from the planet since we arrived, and there is total silence. All comm systems are secure and efficiently channeled. All I can conclude with confidence is that there is too much we don't know.'
Sienar was no fool. Hearing his own conclusions stated by another gave him no comfort, but if he was to survive this mission with status and reputation intact, comfort was the least of his concerns.
He keyed a quick reply into the secure datapad and handed it back to Kett.
Kett lingered as if he might be made privy to what was on the message. Sienar turned away, and Kett departed from the navigation bridge.
On the datapad, he had written, Tour operative has tried to assassinate me and failed. I gave him a suicide mission- of-honor. Have discovered something unexpected and quite marvelous. Am proceeding with my own plans. Do not require assistance.
Sienar smiled. That would undoubtedly bring Tarkin run ning with the biggest force he could assemble, but it would be days before he arrived, and by then, Sienar would have tried all his plans and engaged all the forces at his own disposal. And there was always Ke Daiv's backup plan. If that succeeded, they would have an intact Sekotan ship, a living-and very frightened-pilot, and perhaps even two Jedi, though Sienar hoped to avoid having to deal with them.
He knew what Jedi were capable of.
Chapter 38
With deep misgivings, Anakin watched Vagno toss their seed-partners into the same deep pit. Night had fallen over the arched canopy, and the only light came from torches carried by the shapers' assistants or hung from poles stuck into the cindery ground, and from the fires scattered at some distance around the valley.
'Some of the pits are huge,' Anakin said to Obi-Wan. 'I wonder what they make there?'
'I don't think they make anything while clients are around,' Obi-Wan said. Their forger had said, 'before they start up with more big ones.' Big what?
Vagno's assistants gathered at the edge of their pit, which was about twenty meters across. Each assistant in the crew carried a long, razor-sharp, scythelike blade on the end of a metal pole.
