Crosscurrent

  Reegas leaned forward, his fat folding over itself a few times. “There’s always something of value floating in the black, correct? Isn’t that what you salvagers say?”

  Khedryn said nothing, thinking that Reegas’s mouthing the salvager’s motto somehow soiled it.

  Reegas made a show of sighing before he stood and started reeling in the credit pool. “If you’d rather just cede the hand, then …”

  “Fine,” Khedryn said, and had to unclench jaw and fist. He would not cede the hand to Reegas Vance. “Done.”

  Reegas held his pose over the table for a moment, a bloated, half-drunk, smug dragon hovering over his hoard. He sat down and fixed Khedryn with a hard stare.

  “Let’s get them on the table then.”

  “My word is not good enough?”

  “The table,” Reegas said.

  “The coordinates,” Khedryn said to Marr, who still stood at his shoulder.

  Marr hesitated a beat before he pulled a small datapad from the dozen or so pockets in his trousers and started punching keys.

  “You all right with this?” Khedryn asked him.

  “You need his permission?” Reegas asked.

  “Shut your mouth, fat man,” Khedryn spat.

  Earsh lurched from his chair, but Reegas stayed him with an upraised hand.

  “You need his permission?” Khedryn said to Earsh. “Do it. Do it.”

  The slits of Earsh’s eyes moved from Khedryn, to Reegas, then back to Khedryn, and he retook his chair. His chest rose and fell like that of a man who’d run five klicks.

  “You are pushing it,” Marr said to Khedryn.

  “I always push it,” Khedryn said.

  “The coordinates if you please, Master Marr,” Reegas said to Marr.

  “Marr,” Khedryn said, his tone soft. “Sorry.”

  Marr made eye contact with no one as he punched the coordinates into the ’pad. “You are the captain,” he said, his tone equally soft.

  Khedryn almost reconsidered—Marr’s disapproval was as tangible as the heat in the room, and Khedryn valued Marr’s opinion above all others’—but the smugness in Reegas’s expression beat wisdom off with a stick.

  “You keep all those numbers in your brains, Cerean?” Reegas asked.

  Marr stared at him from under the cliff of his brow, but said nothing. The Cerean removed the storage crystal from the datapad and placed it in the center of the table. It caught the light, flickered like a diamond.

  “Good luck,” Marr said to Khedryn, and withdrew into the crowd. Khedryn felt his absence. Marr’s presence offered Khedryn something he could not quite articulate, something solid, something … certain.

  Word of the wager and brewing confrontation must have spread through The Hole. A few dozen spectators crowded the room, elbowing out space and craning necks.

  “Give me fake coordinates,” Reegas said, “and, well … you know.”

  Khedryn looked past Reegas to his Weequay bodyguards. Jaden Korr, now standing behind Reegas’s bodyguards, stared back at him and slowly shook his head. Khedryn ignored him.

  “Like I said, I don’t cheat, Reegas. Not ever. I take my losses when that’s how the cards fall.”

  “So you do.” Reegas sipped his keela. “Deal, Himher.”

  “An accord over the wager has been reached,” said the droid, and dealt.

  Khedryn studied his hand, his heart racing. He was not so much concerned about losing the coordinates to Reegas as about simply losing to Reegas in front of a roomful of people.

  His first four cards included the Master and brought him to nineteen. A mediocre hand. He stared across the table at Reegas, trying to read his cards in the set of his lips. Nothing. He dared not call at nineteen.

  “Khedryn Faal?” asked Himher.

  He discarded his two high cards and decided to shoot low. Himher skimmed two cards across the table. Khedryn eyed them—Balance and the Evil One—and it took a few moments for their value to register. He did the math in his head again and again.

  Negative twenty-three.

  “Reegas,” Himher said.

  “Call it,” Reegas said, and sat back in his seat.

  Khedryn tried to answer Reegas’s smugness with his own. He savored the moment, flipped his cards. “Negative twenty-three.”

  Gasps and applause broke out in the crowd. Only a positive twenty-three could beat him.

  Reegas’s face fell. He stared at Khedryn’s cards a moment, his neck blotchy, before flipping his own.

  “Twenty-three. To the right side of zero.”

  More applause.

  “What?” Khedryn asked, staring at the cards, too stunned to say anything worthwhile. “What?”

  Earsh’s laughter was like a wood rasp on Khedryn’s nerves. Flaygin just shook his head and started counting his remaining credits.

  “The hand goes to Reegas,” Himher said, and the room erupted into cheers, boos, and applause, all of which swallowed Khedryn’s curses.

  Reegas waited for the hubbub to quiet before collecting his winnings. Khedryn’s mind raced. By the time the sausages of Reegas’s fingers had pulled over his hoard, Khedryn had his angle.

  To Reegas, he said, “I guess it’ll take you a few days to hire a salvage crew and get them off to the site.”

  “I guess it will,” Reegas said. “You need work?”

  “From you? No. I was just thinking that that timetable means Marr and I will have to get out there quick. Don’t worry, though. I’ll leave you enough to at least pay for the fuel you burn getting there.”

  The room went completely silent. Reegas stared at him, face red, body tense. The Weequay put hands to blasters, waiting on the order from their boss. Jaden Korr loomed behind them, his face the only one in the room showing neither shock nor concern.

  “Huh?” Earsh said, looking from Khedryn to Reegas and back again.

  “Surely you did not think I was offering exclusive rights, did you?” Khedryn said to Reegas, waving a hand as if the very notion were absurd. “Himher, did I say exclusive?”

  “Exclusivity was not mentioned in the accord,” the droid said.

  Reegas’s mouth opened and closed a few times. Hate swam in the rage-filled pools of his eyes.

  A few chuckles made their way through the audience, and Khedryn thought he might have pushed just enough for something to give. He had embarrassed Reegas badly.

  The hate lingered for only a moment more in Reegas’s face before he turned expressionless, as if a light had been turned off.

  “Quite right. Exclusivity was not mentioned. Double or naught for exclusive rights, then?”

  Khedryn did not hesitate. He leaned forward in his seat. “Deal, Himher.”

  The crowd shouted and cheered as the cards danced over the table, hand after hand, with neither one willing to call. Discard, deal anew. The press of bodies in the room made it hotter than usual. Khedryn took enormous satisfaction in watching Reegas daub his sweat-slicked face with a kerchief.

  As Himher gathered the discards and distributed another hand, Khedryn caught sight of Jaden Korr, his eyes closed, as if he had fallen asleep on his feet.

  The cards hit the table. Khedryn examined them, saw twenty-three, and tried to keep it out of his eyes. It was Reegas’s turn to call or pass.

  Reegas eyed his own cards, sweated, eyed his cards again.

  “Call or pass, Reegas,” said Himher.

  “Call,” Reegas said, and flipped his cards. “Negative twenty-two.”

  Khedryn let him sit a moment with uncertainty, then flipped his own. “Twenty-three. To the good side of zero.”

  The crowd erupted and Earsh jumped from his chair, bumping the table, sending credits flying. “He cheated! You are a cheating nerf! That Cerean said something to him when he came over here. I saw it.”

  Khedryn stood, twitchy, his legs stiff from being so long in the chair. “A lie. I don’t cheat, boy. And neither does Marr.”

  Marr appeared at his side, solid, reassuring. />
  Reegas stared ice at Khedryn. “Let’s talk about this somewhere more private.”

  “I don’t think so,” Khedryn said, taking a step back.

  “I am not asking,” Reegas said, and signaled his bodyguards with a wave of his hand. They pulled their blasters and advanced.

  Khedryn and Marr pulled theirs, and Khedryn kicked over the table as Earsh drew his weapon. Credits and the data crystal flew across the room. People started to scream, to surge toward the exit, and above the hullabaloo Khedryn heard a sound he had not heard in decades—the hum and sizzle of a lightsaber.

  THE PRESENT:

  41.5 YEARS AFTER THE BATTLE OF YAVIN

  The Weequay spun around when they heard Jaden ignite his lightsaber, their eyes wide in the nest of their wrinkled, leathery skin. Jaden was on them before they could aim their blasters, and a downward slash, spin, and backslash left both of them holding only a smoking half of a weapon. The crowd milled in panic. Blasterfire from near the sabacc table sounded above the screams and shouts.

  Jaden cursed, kicked one of the Weequay in the chest—he felt the armor underneath his clothing—and bounded through the churn for Khedryn and Marr.

  Reegas shouted above the tumult, his voice as high-pitched as a siren. “I want Khedryn Faal! Bring him to me!”

  Jaden spotted Khedryn and Marr retreating toward the exit in a crouch. The sabacc player called Earsh fired his blaster at Khedryn. It missed wildly, but put a smoking black hole in the back of one of the dancing girls.

  More screams, more panicked flight.

  Neither Khedryn nor Marr returned Earsh’s fire, though both held blasters. Perhaps they feared hitting an innocent.

  Earsh fired again, nicked Marr’s shoulder. The impact spun the Cerean around and knocked him to the floor. Khedryn grabbed him by his good arm and tried to heave him up. Earsh aimed another shot.

  Jaden fell into the Force, used it to augment an upward leap, flipped, landed in front of Earsh, and drove his lightsaber right between Earsh’s surprised eyes, putting a smoking tunnel through his skull.

  Jaden was already crossing lines he had hoped not to approach.

  One of the cowering females nearby screamed as Earsh’s body hit the floor, the hole in his forehead a third eye staring accusations at Jaden. Even Reegas stopped and stared in wide-eyed wonder at Jaden and his lightsaber.

  Jaden leapt into a Force-augmented backflip, nearly hit the ceiling, cleared half the room, and landed in front of Khedryn and Marr. Up close, he sensed a faint Force sensitivity in Marr. He wondered how he had missed it earlier.

  “Stay behind me,” he said.

  “I think we will,” Khedryn said, and finally got Marr to his feet.

  The Weequay bodyguards must have carried extra weapons, for they appeared out of the churn near Reegas, each wielding a blaster in each hand. Their presence seemed to renew Reegas’s confidence.

  “Kill them all!” Reegas shouted, his fat jiggling with rage.

  The Weequay fired again and again. Jaden’s lightsaber was a humming blur of green, deflecting shot after shot. He angled the deflected shots to hit the ceiling and it soon looked like the cratered surface of a moon. He feared it might collapse before everyone cleared the room.

  “This way,” Jaden said, and maneuvered Khedryn and Marr toward the wall.

  With most of the spectators out and presented at last with a clear field of fire, Khedryn and Marr both finally answered with their own blasters. Khedryn hit one of the Weequay in the chest but the bodyguard—as Jaden had suspected—wore blaster-resistant armor under his clothing. The impact staggered him but barely put a pause in his fire.

  “Heads only,” Khedryn said to Marr.

  “Get down!” Jaden said, and booted over another table for them to use as cover.

  Khedryn and Marr hit the floor behind the table while Jaden used his lightsaber to cut an exit in The Hole’s corrugated plasteel wall. The moment cost him, and a blaster shot clipped his shoulder. Pain ran the length of his arm, birthed anger. He spun, blade once more positioned to deflect the Weequay’s rapid fire, and tried to regain his calm.

  “Out,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Cheat!” Reegas shouted after them. “You are a blasted cheat, Khedryn Faal!”

  “I don’t cheat, you heap of bantha dung!” Khedryn spat back.

  “Yes you do,” Jaden said, deflecting another pair of shots. A piece of metal came loose from the ceiling and fell to the floor with a crash. “Well, I did. I’ll explain. Just go.”

  “What?” Khedryn said, his good eye fixed on Jaden, his lazy eye staring through the hole Jaden had cut in the wall. “Blast it all. I have a reputation here—”

  Blasterfire sizzled into the wall and cut short his words. Jaden, holding his lightsaber in one hand, deflected a trio of bolts harmlessly to the ceiling.

  “Go, Captain,” he said.

  Marr fired two shots to get the Weequay down behind the sabacc table and then all three piled through the hole.

  They hit the night-shrouded street. Glow lamps and makeshift lighting cast the street in a patchwork of shadows. Patrons of The Hole were streaming out, shouting, cursing, pointing. Passersby stopped in the middle of the street to witness the commotion. An ankarax reared up on its hind legs, growling.

  “You have transportation?” Jaden asked, feeling his arm to check the damage. Minimal.

  “Who are you?” Marr asked.

  “Yes, who are you?” Khedryn seconded.

  “Your friend,” Jaden said, and deactivated his lightsaber.

  “Well, I can’t argue with that,” Khedryn said. “Though I can’t say I expected to ever have a Jedi for a friend. Follow me.”

  They darted through the street, through the crowd, pursued by shouts, until they reached a parked swoop and a speeder bike.

  “A Searing,” Jaden said, admiring the raw lines of the swoop.

  Khedryn nodded as he slid atop it. “Double up with me.” To Marr, he said, “Back to Junker and then off this rock until we can get things ironed out with Reegas.”

  Marr fired up his speeder bike, wincing at the pain in his wounded arm.

  “You all right?” Khedryn asked him.

  “Yes,” Marr answered. “I am all right.”

  Khedryn started to throttle the swoop, stopped. “Why do you stay with me anyway?” he asked Marr.

  The Cerean looked puzzled by the question. “You are my friend.”

  Khedryn stared at him a moment, seemingly at a loss. Jaden felt as if he had witnessed something private. He wondered if Marr knew he was Force-sensitive.

  “I am that,” Khedryn said at last. He gathered himself and said over his shoulder to Jaden, “Meantime, whatever business you’re offering, it looks like we’ll take it.”

  Shouts from the crowd sounded above the hum of the swoop’s engine.

  “There! There they are!”

  The Weequay burst out of the crowd, brandishing their blasters, searching the darkness for Khedryn, Jaden, and Marr.

  “Time to go,” Khedryn said, and Jaden grabbed the handrails as the Searing blazed into the sky. A couple of halfhearted blaster shots followed them into the air, but soon they had left Farpoint and The Black Hole far behind.

  “Did you see Flaygin get out?” Khedryn shouted to Marr.

  “Who?” the Cerean asked.

  “Flaygin.”

  Marr frowned. “I do not know. I think so.”

  Khedryn nodded and drove. Only Jaden heard him say, “I hope so.”

  Kell had slid against the wall as the violence emptied the room. Screaming and shouting beings of all sorts had fled to the common area, then into the street. In the midst of the chaos, he watched Korr, Khedryn Faal, and the Cerean flee through a hole in the wall, watched Reegas, the fat human, order his Weequay bodyguards after them.

  When it was over Reegas stood alone in the center of the suddenly quiet room, the king of so much flotsam, surrounded by toppled chairs and tables, scattered credi
ts, spilled drinks, and four corpses, three of them still smoking from blasterfire.

  Kell watched Reegas waddle to the body of the player at the sabacc table whom Jaden Korr had killed—Earsh. Reegas stood over the corpse, toed it with his slippered foot, and shook his head. His breathing sounded like wind through a leaky window.

  “Get me a drink!” he shouted over his shoulder to no one in particular.

  No response. The common room was empty. Reegas cursed.

  From outside, Kell could hear the report of more blasterfire, a few scattered shouts. He presumed Jaden Korr and the crew of Junker had escaped. No matter. Kell would be able to follow them. Their destination remained in the sabacc room. He would catch up to them later. He had seen the mesh of their lines, seen it intertwine with his own. He knew their fates were as one.

  At the moment, he was hungry. Proximity to the Jedi had sharpened his appetite. And since he would soon be leaving Fhost, he could feed more freely. The ghost need not be so circumspect.

  Reegas grunted, huffed, and slowly managed to lower himself to all fours. Still wheezing, he began scrabbling among the debris on the floor, no doubt looking for the data crystal that the tumult had sent flying.

  Blocking Reegas’s perception, Kell slid in behind him, following him as he sifted through credits and the grime of The Hole’s floor.

  “Where is it?” Reegas whispered between gasps. “Where is it?”

  He threw aside credits, ice, glasses, until at last he hit upon what he sought and held it aloft as it were a trophy. The clear data crystal shimmered in the light of the overheads.

  “Got you!”

  With another series of grunts and wheezes, Reegas put his feet under his girth and rose.

  “Now for some keela,” he said.

  Kell stepped around to stand before him and let his perceptual screens drop.

  Reegas’s eyes fixed on Kell, widened. His mouth opened.

  Kell held a finger to his lips for silence while their daen nosi danced in the space between them.

  Be still and silent, Kell projected.

  Reegas sagged, his brow wrinkled in a question, but he did as he was instructed. Kell took the data crystal from Reegas’s slack fingers, placed it in the pocket of his jacket. He felt Reegas resisting the shackles of Kell’s command, but only weakly.