“We’re examining a few possibilities. It’s all on the chip. Our first thought was pilot error, but we looked into that. The captain of the Legacy Run was a woman named Hedda Casset. Ex-military, a decorated veteran. It’s hard to imagine she would make a mistake that would result in the destruction of her ship. By all accounts, she was steady and focused.”

“A mutiny?” Marlowe asked.

“Why?” Avar replied. “It was a ship full of settlers. A routine run from the Core to the Outer Rim Territories. Nothing unusual or extremely valuable aboard.”

“Strange things can happen psychologically when you’re out in deep space,” Marlowe said. “We have stories from our family’s history you wouldn’t believe. Madness creeps in before you know it.”

“Fair,” Elzar said, “But this was a straightforward run on a well-traveled route. RTB officials interviewed some of the survivors we rescued, and they didn’t suggest anything along those lines. Mutiny’s low on the list.”

“Maybe the ship malfunctioned?” Vellis ventured.

“Not impossible, but unlikely,” Avar continued. “The Legacy Run was an old vessel, but we know from its maintenance records that Captain Casset kept it in top condition, and it had a full overhaul two runs before the trip that killed it.”

“Our working theory is that it encountered something in the hyperspace lane, and it tried to avoid running into it,” Elzar broke in.

“Impossible,” Marlowe said. “I just told you. Hyperspace doesn’t work that way.”

Avar caught a flicker of an impulse from Elzar. Not a word, not a message, but something she understood all the same. She had known Elzar Mann for a very long time—they were younglings together, and Padawans, and that created a connection, a bond through the Force that meant sometimes they didn’t have to use words to understand each other.

But if Elzar had used words, she knew what she was sensing from him would mean: He’s lying.

Elzar was better at sensing deception than she was. Now, when it came to her particular gift, a native understanding of the way the Force touched all life in the galaxy, she thought there might not be a more skilled Jedi in the Order than herself. Well, perhaps Master Yoda. But as far as understanding people…Elzar Mann was an expert. She didn’t think he even needed to use the Force to do it.

Avar suspected he was considering a use of the Force right then, however—what most Jedi called the mind touch, and he called the mind trick. He found it a more honest way to describe what was actually being done. Elzar would lift two fingers in a subtle gesture and touch Marlowe San Tekka’s mind with the Force, and then Marlowe would do whatever Elzar said next.