He thought he should shoot it down and hope that the death of a Jedi over Coruscant would destroy the peace talks and restart the war.

He should do it.

He knew he should.

“I think he’s going to try to make the planet,” Jard said. “Why doesn’t he just jump out?”

Members of the bridge crew shook their heads at the pilot’s foolishness. Were he wise, he would have jumped into hyperspace and fled.

“His need to get to the planet outweighs the risk of his getting shot down,” Malgus said, intrigued.

“All this for spice?” Jard said.

“Perhaps it is the Jedi’s need that drives them.”

“Curious,” Jard observed.

“Agreed,” Malgus said. With difficultly, he let curiosity murder temptation. “Get close enough to use the tractor beam. There is more to this than mere spicerunning.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Malgus tapped the earpiece and reopened the channel with Darth Angral.

“What is happening there?” Angral asked, his tone perturbed.

Malgus offered a half-truth. “A spicerunner is trying to get through the blockade.”

“Ah, I see.” Angral paused, then said, “I have received a communiqué from our delegation on Alderaan.”

The mere mention of the delegation caused Malgus a flash of rage, a flash that almost caused him to reconsider his decision to capture, rather than destroy, the freighter.

Angral continued: “A member of the Jedi delegation has left Alderaan without filing a flight plan and without reporting her intent to her superiors. The Jedi have reason to believe that she may be heading to Coruscant. Her activities are unauthorized by the Jedi Council and she is to be treated no differently from the spicerunner you are pursuing now.”

“She?” Malgus asked, eyeing the freighter on the viewscreen, recalling the woman he had seen in the vidscreen. “This rogue Jedi is a woman?”

“A human woman, yes. Aryn Leneer. Her actions, whatever they may be, are not to be attributed to the Jedi Council or the Republic. The Emperor wants nothing to affect the ongoing negotiations. Do you understand, Darth Malgus?”

Malgus understood all too well. “The Jedi delegation told Lord Baras of this rogue Jedi? They sacrificed one of their own to ensure that the negotiations continued smoothly?”

“Master Dar’nala herself, as I understand it.”

Malgus shook his head in disgust. He felt a hint of sympathy for Aryn Leneer. Like him, she had been betrayed by those she believed in and served. Of course, what she believed in and served was heretical.

“If this Jedi does attempt to reach Coruscant and she falls into your hands, you are to destroy her. Am I clear, Darth Malgus?”

“Yes, my lord.”

The freighter broke free of the convoy into open space and flew an evasive path toward Coruscant. Perhaps the pilot thought to escape in the planet’s atmosphere.

“Engage the tractor beam,” Commander Jard said, and Malgus did not gainsay the order.

He cut the connection with Angral.