“Sir, ma’am,” the lieutenant said, and both admiral and Jedi turned to look at him. The officer was pale, and Avar could sense the man was on the verge of despair. Like he had just stepped off a cliff.

“You know we’ve been collating our own sensor data with the in-system resources being coordinated through the minister’s office in Aguirre City,” he said. “Their primary tech is a man named Keven Tarr—he’s been able to do some truly remarkable things, keeping their satellite networks running despite all the damage from the hyperspace incursions. It’s all very impressive, actually, and—”

“Lieutenant, please,” Admiral Kronara said. “What is it?”

The officer nodded and spoke again.

“Tarr diverted everything he has left to getting a scan of the anomaly Master Kriss indicated—the one the, ah, Force pointed out to her. Turns out it’s a container module of some kind, huge, and it must have been damaged somehow. It’s leaking. Just a little, but enough that Tarr’s network could run a spectrographic analysis. It’s…”

The lieutenant took a breath.

“…it’s liquid Tibanna. The whole thing. And the star it’s headed for is an R-class.”

Admiral Kronara swore, which came as a mild shock to Avar.

“Bad, I take it?” she asked.

The admiral stared at the display for a long moment, his jaw clenched.

“Honestly?” he said.

He turned to look at her.

“Couldn’t be much worse.”

Chapter Fifteen

Three Jedi Vectors flew in formation above and to either side of the Republic Longbeam piloted by Joss and Pikka Adren. Te’Ami to the larger ship’s right, Mikkel Sutmani to its left, and Nib Assek and Burryaga above. They had accelerated to the limits of their ship’s capabilities, chasing the speeding projectile due to impact the Fruited Moon in a matter of minutes, killing billions—those on the moon as well as the people aboard the anomaly.

They had closed a great deal of distance, burning almost all of their fuel in the process, but were now within striking range of the object. Their sensors had finally identified it as a modular passenger compartment, the sort of thing snapped into cargo ship frameworks to temporarily allow them to transport travelers. Largely self-sufficient, with dedicated life-support systems and onboard batteries, even individual hyperspace field emitters linked to the mothership’s navigation and propulsion. At the moment, it was functioning almost like a large escape pod, though without engines, unable to direct or slow itself. While that explained how it could have people aboard, it did not clarify how it had suddenly appeared in the Hetzal system from hyperspace with no warning.