Star Wars - A Servant of the Empire - Unpublished by James L. Cambias Page A

panel, and flipped a switch. “Panatic here. Do you read me, Sentinel ?.”
    “ Sentinel here. Loud and clear, sir,” said Lieutenant Sukal’s voice from the speaker.
    Panatic raised an eyebrow. Mace said nothing.
    “Your ship has pretty good drives for a simple trading vessel.”
    “I like to tinker. Besides, speed is money.”
    Ensign Av returned. “I’ve checked the cargo hold. Four cases of medical supplies—no contraband.”
    Mace broke into a big smile. “See? I told you! This is all just a terrible misunderstanding. Now if you’ll just let me be on my way…”
    Panatic got to his feet. “Bring him.”
    Urged by Sergeant Ivlik’s blaster, Mace followed the captain aft, to the cargo section. Panatic looked impassively at the crates. “Ensign! Did you look inside the cases?”
    “Yes, sir. Clear down to the bottom.”
    “Mm.” Panatic turned and glared at Mace. “Mm,” he repeated.
    Slowly, like a trackbeast on a scent, he went forward again, stopping to look into each compartment. Crew quarters, galley, passenger stateroom…
    “Are your life pods in order?”
    “Sure! I’ve got the latest inspection logged in the computer. I’ll just call it up for you and then—”
    “Check the life pods,” Panatic ordered Sergeant Ivlik.
    The Ordinary Trader carried two life pods. Ivlik opened the hatch on the starboard pod and looked in. “Looks all right, sir.”
    “See? Everything’s perfectly all right. I’m sure you’ve got a busy schedule, so there’s no point in wasting any more time here.” Mace fell silent as Ivlik opened the second pod.
    “Captain! There must be a hundred blasters packed in here.” Ivlik squinted at the serial numbers on the wrappings. “Looks like Imperial Army issue.”
    “Look, I had no idea—” began Mace, but Panatic cut him off.
    “Lock him in the brig.” As Ivlik and Kamlok led Mace away, Panatic got out his comlink and called the bridge. “Lieutenant Sukal, I’m putting you in charge of the prisoner’s ship. Tell Monidda to plot a course to Shkali system. We’re going to find out what this smuggler was up to.”

    The Sentinel entered the Shkali system ten hours later, on full battle alert. Lieutenant Sukal, followed close behind in the Ordinary Trader . But repeated scans showed no other ships in the system.
    “Still nothing, sir,” Ensign Monidda reported for the ninth time.
    “All right. Cancel alert. Disarm weapons. Take us into orbit and do a sweep of the planet’s surface.”
    He called up the astrogation database. Shkali, the main world of the system, was a cool, watery world with wide forests and some dry grassland. The natives were stone-age saurians with no planet-wide political system. Orbital scans had found no useful resources, and the system was far from any trade routes. Panatic frowned at the screen. Why would anyone want to smuggle blasters to such a backwater? An adventurer might arm some natives and carve out an empire, but for what? The glory of lording it over a pack of scaly primitives?
    There must be something else on Shkali. Something missing from the database. A Rebel outpost, perhaps? Panatic’s pulse quickened at the thought.
    Ensign Monidda interrupted his ruminations. “Sir! I’m picking up a comm signal. It’s just the carrier wave, not a message.”
    “Pinpoint it and scan the area. Any ships down there?”
    “No power sources, no energy discharge, no large metal masses. Just the one comm signal.”
    “What’s the surface like there?”
    “Low hills, with dense forest. Hmm—just west of the signal source is a large burned area.”
    “All right, take us down.”

    The Sentinel set down in the center of the burned area just after dawn. Panatic and the ship’s troops fanned out In search of the source of the signal.
    The fire had scorched a section of forest half a kilometer across. The ground underfoot still smoldered in places, and the air was hazy with smoke and ash. Soot and gray mud choked a small stream.