others.”
“Sea-coat?”
“Zonama Sekot, sources told us, was the actual name of the planet, which circles a small dwarf star at the far spinward and galactic north side of the rift. But charts from expeditions in that region of two centuries past show only rocky rubble, protoplanets, nothing of interest but to future hardscrabble miners. Nothing alive, certainly. Still, other sources confirmed that a kind of diffuse trade route had been established, and that rich connoisseurs of star travel were coming by secret appointment to have ships made. While the ships have been observed in certain systems, no one in Republic security has ever examined one in detail.”
“Sounds like a legend,” Anakin said. “Maybe a hoax.”
“Perhaps. However, an intrusion was reported three years ago in the Gardaji region, from an unknown space-faring species. It was that which Vergere was sent to investigate, and incidentally, to see if she could locate Zonama Sekot. She found the planet … and sent to our farthest outlying station a brief message. But nothing has been heard of her since. The transmission was garbled. We have only interesting fragments.”
“And what did she find?”
“A world covered with dense jungle, of a kind never observed before. Huge treelike life-forms and hiddenfactories. Her report did little more than confirm that the legend is true.”
Anakin shook his head in wonder. “Rugged,” he said admiringly. “Absolutely rugged!”
“We’ll look over the full reports once we’re under way,” Obi-Wan said. “Now, we should join Charza.”
“He’s rugged, too,” Anakin said. “I’d like to see him go up against a Hutt.”
“Charza comes from a species devoted to peace,” Obi-Wan said. “He regards overt conflict as the grossest breach, and would rather die than fight. Still, he is intensely intelligent and extremely ambitious.”
“So he makes a great spy?”
“A great spymaster. And an extraordinarily resourceful pilot,” Obi-Wan said.
R aith Sienar was a very wealthy man. His scrupulous attention to markets, his extraordinary skill in managing his workers—human and otherwise—and his strategy of always keeping operations relatively small and localized had brought him profits beyond his wildest dreams of youth.
This new prospect—of joining with Tarkin in an enterprise both nebulous and risky—made him nervous, but something deep inside pushed him forward nonetheless.
Instinct had moved him this far, and instinct said this was the pulse of the future. In truth, he might know a few more things about that future than Tarkin.
Still, it was wise to be cautious, knowledgeable, prepared, in all times of change.
Another contributor to his success had been his habit of hiding excesses. And he did indeed have excesses—that was the word he used, much better than foibles or eccentricities.
Not even Tarkin knew about Sienar’s collection of failed experiments.
Sienar walked slowly down the long hall that lay over a kilometer beneath the central factory floor of Sienar Systems’ main Coruscant plant. Holograms appeared just ahead of him, holoprojectors turning on as he passed, showing product rollouts for the Republic Defense Procurement plan ten years before, commendations from senators and provincial governors, prototype deliveries for the early contracts with the many branches of the Trade Federation, which had become more and more cloaked in secrecy as it tightened its central authority.
He smiled at the most beautiful—and so far, the largest—of his products, a thousand-passenger ceremonial cruiser rated at Class Two, designed for triumphal receptions on worlds signing exclusive contracts with the Trade Federation.
And then there was his fastest and most advanced design, most heavily armed, as well, made for a very secretive customer—someone of whom Sienar suspected Tarkin was completely ignorant.
He should not underestimate my own contacts, my own political pull
! he
“Sea-coat?”
“Zonama Sekot, sources told us, was the actual name of the planet, which circles a small dwarf star at the far spinward and galactic north side of the rift. But charts from expeditions in that region of two centuries past show only rocky rubble, protoplanets, nothing of interest but to future hardscrabble miners. Nothing alive, certainly. Still, other sources confirmed that a kind of diffuse trade route had been established, and that rich connoisseurs of star travel were coming by secret appointment to have ships made. While the ships have been observed in certain systems, no one in Republic security has ever examined one in detail.”
“Sounds like a legend,” Anakin said. “Maybe a hoax.”
“Perhaps. However, an intrusion was reported three years ago in the Gardaji region, from an unknown space-faring species. It was that which Vergere was sent to investigate, and incidentally, to see if she could locate Zonama Sekot. She found the planet … and sent to our farthest outlying station a brief message. But nothing has been heard of her since. The transmission was garbled. We have only interesting fragments.”
“And what did she find?”
“A world covered with dense jungle, of a kind never observed before. Huge treelike life-forms and hiddenfactories. Her report did little more than confirm that the legend is true.”
Anakin shook his head in wonder. “Rugged,” he said admiringly. “Absolutely rugged!”
“We’ll look over the full reports once we’re under way,” Obi-Wan said. “Now, we should join Charza.”
“He’s rugged, too,” Anakin said. “I’d like to see him go up against a Hutt.”
“Charza comes from a species devoted to peace,” Obi-Wan said. “He regards overt conflict as the grossest breach, and would rather die than fight. Still, he is intensely intelligent and extremely ambitious.”
“So he makes a great spy?”
“A great spymaster. And an extraordinarily resourceful pilot,” Obi-Wan said.
R aith Sienar was a very wealthy man. His scrupulous attention to markets, his extraordinary skill in managing his workers—human and otherwise—and his strategy of always keeping operations relatively small and localized had brought him profits beyond his wildest dreams of youth.
This new prospect—of joining with Tarkin in an enterprise both nebulous and risky—made him nervous, but something deep inside pushed him forward nonetheless.
Instinct had moved him this far, and instinct said this was the pulse of the future. In truth, he might know a few more things about that future than Tarkin.
Still, it was wise to be cautious, knowledgeable, prepared, in all times of change.
Another contributor to his success had been his habit of hiding excesses. And he did indeed have excesses—that was the word he used, much better than foibles or eccentricities.
Not even Tarkin knew about Sienar’s collection of failed experiments.
Sienar walked slowly down the long hall that lay over a kilometer beneath the central factory floor of Sienar Systems’ main Coruscant plant. Holograms appeared just ahead of him, holoprojectors turning on as he passed, showing product rollouts for the Republic Defense Procurement plan ten years before, commendations from senators and provincial governors, prototype deliveries for the early contracts with the many branches of the Trade Federation, which had become more and more cloaked in secrecy as it tightened its central authority.
He smiled at the most beautiful—and so far, the largest—of his products, a thousand-passenger ceremonial cruiser rated at Class Two, designed for triumphal receptions on worlds signing exclusive contracts with the Trade Federation.
And then there was his fastest and most advanced design, most heavily armed, as well, made for a very secretive customer—someone of whom Sienar suspected Tarkin was completely ignorant.
He should not underestimate my own contacts, my own political pull
! he
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