The Last Jedi

Fourteen


Jax both encrypted the communication and bounced the signal from the Laranth’s main communications array off a satellite orbiting the farthest-flung planet in the nearby Champala system. Someone would have to be in the room with Tuden Sal to receive Jax’s unencrypted side of the dialogue and would—if they were able to trace the transmission—assume that it originated several light-hours from where it actually did.

“Jax!”

Tuden Sal’s holographic image appeared as if standing in the middle of the ship’s small engineering bay. The Sakiyan took a step toward the holo-emitter and lowered his voice. “What—where are you?”

“Outbound from Coruscant. Listen, I need to talk to you about resources. I—”

“We can’t afford you any resources right now, even if I could get them to you. They’re engaged elsewhere.”

Jax frowned and followed the digression. “In what?”

“In a plan that you would also be a part of if you weren’t trying so hard to win the war all by yourself.”

Jax ignored the personal analysis. “What plan?”

Sal shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “If you were here to participate in it, I’d tell you. But you seem about to fly blindly off into disaster. If you were to be captured …”

Jax nodded. “Yes, of course. I understand.”

Sal unfolded his arms and moved forward another step. He made a beseeching gesture. “Please, Jax. I don’t know how far out you are, but please reconsider. What can you and your team do on your own? Stay connected to Whiplash—to the resistance. Out there, you’ll just be roguing it. Here, you’ll be part of a larger effort. Here, you can hurt the Empire far more than if you’re gallivanting across the starlanes on some wild bantha chase. And you won’t be costing us any further resources.”

Jax cringed. “It seems to me that Whiplash has disconnected from me. And from Yimmon. But that’s not why I’m contacting you.”

“Where are you heading, Jax? What are you planning? If you’re after Vader—”

“I don’t want revenge, Sal. I just want to free Yimmon. Then I want to work toward freeing the entire galaxy from the Empire’s power. I want to see the Jedi Order rise again. I want to be part of the effort to rebuild.”

“Which is all the more reason for you not to put yourself in harm’s way again,” Sal argued. “What if you are the last Jedi, Jax? Have you thought about that? What if you’re the only one left to rebuild? You may be the only person alive who can transmit the knowledge of the Jedi to future Padawans.” Sal scanned the Jedi’s face. “You have considered that, haven’t you?”

“Of course. That doesn’t change what I have to do.”

Sal continued to gaze at Jax for a long, silent moment. Then his shoulders slumped perceptibly. “I’m sorry you feel that way. So … then you’re committed to this … crusade.”

“I am. Everything in me tells me I have to do this.”

“Obviously, nothing I say will convince you otherwise.” Sal made a weary, dismissive gesture. “I wish I could help you, but …”

“Actually,” Jax said, “I think you can help me. You have contacts in Black Sun.”

Sal’s surprise was obvious. “I did have contacts in Black Sun. Before they stood by and watched the Emperor ruin me. I haven’t been in touch with them since.”

“I know that’s not strictly true. You have been in touch with some of them.”

“One or two. And only briefly. Why?”

“Black Sun operates openly on parts of Mandalore and Concordia. I need to start my investigation there. Maybe your contacts could help me out.”

Sal snorted. “You’d do better to go in and tell them you’d shot me and mounted my head on your cabin wall.”

“If you think that would work,” Jax said quietly.

Sal’s expression showed naked fear for a split second before he recovered himself. Perhaps he had just remembered that he was talking to the man whose father he had unwittingly betrayed.

“I’ll give you a name and contact information,” he agreed. “You’ll have to figure out what approach is best to take. As I said, I’m not sure claiming me as an ally would be helpful. Except in one case—an Arkanian system lieutenant named Tyno Fabris. He actually seemed to have a conscience about what happened to me. Not enough of one to explain to me why Black Sun was suddenly doing the Empire’s bidding, but enough for him to keep finding ways to make it up to me. One thing, though. I’ve always communicated with Fabris through a location scrambler. He doesn’t know I’m on Coruscant. In fact, with the hints I’ve dropped, he believes I’m on Klatooine. He also thinks I’m an arms dealer.”

“All right.”

Sal took one more step closer so that he was face-to-virtual-face with Jax. “Jax, he can’t know I’m on Coruscant. None of them can.”

Jax nodded. “I understand.”

“I know you do. And I’m hoping—”

Jax knew what he was hoping. “I won’t betray you, Sal.”

The Sakiyan dropped his gaze and stepped back. “I’m … I’m sorry, Jax. You can’t begin to imagine—” He cut off and turned his head sharply to the left. “Someone’s here.”

Jax ended the transmission. A tug of some chaotic emotion—almost a mental static—pulled his attention in the direction of the bridge. Den. Probably fretting over being a sitting duck.

Jax grimaced and pinged the bridge. “Let’s get out of here,” he told I-Five.



“Didn’t I hear Jax’s voice?” Pol Haus stepped into the Whiplash conference room and looked around, pointedly. Tuden Sal was alone in the room, but the prefect had heard enough to know whom he’d been talking to and what about.

“Jax is offworld.”

“Offworld? Already? What happened?”

The Sakiyan Whiplash leader lowered himself into a chair at the conference table. “He didn’t say. Wouldn’t even tell me where he was … or where he was going. But I suspect he’s gone after Vader.”

Haus wanted to ask Sal why he was lying about Jax’s plans but knew that would reveal how much of the conversation he’d overheard. Instead he asked, “So they’re not coming back for a while, then?”

“No. And I have to say, that may be for the best. He hasn’t been right since …” He made a gesture that indicated the galaxy outside the train car.

“The kid has been through a lot in the last two years.”

The Sakiyan’s face flushed a darker shade of bronze. “Yes. He has. Which is why it may be to the benefit of all concerned if he’s not involved in Whiplash activities for a while.”

“You mean this new plan of yours?”

“Jax might endanger the mission.”

Haus nodded. “He might at that. Speaking of which, I have some interesting intel for you. Vader has sent all but a handful of Inquisitors offworld.”

He had Sal’s entire attention. “A handful? How big a handful?”

“All but four or five, by our best count. And Vader headed out soon after.”

Sal rose from the chair, zeal brightening his eyes. “Then the Emperor …”

“Is missing most of his deadliest defenders.”

“Where is he?”

Haus took a deep breath. He could see that Tuden Sal was practically trembling with anticipation. “I don’t know. Ostensibly, he’s at the Imperial Palace. But there are rumors he may actually be elsewhere.”

“I want to hear those rumors, Pol. Every last one.”