The Forgotten Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 6)

Chapter 12.2

"You've got to be kidding me," Scotty said, staring at the three-dimensional holographic map. "We'll be lucky to find ourselves in that, much less anybody else! Why would they go there, anyway? There's nothing in that system. Nobody's even bothered to mine it."

"Until now," Amoret said. "Homeworld's lost two teams of operatives there in the past solar year. They aren't saying what they were looking for, but there must be somebody in there causing problems. We're betting Malvarak's involved."

"Why?" Scotty asked. "That wasn't the impression I got from the Commander—she says it's a scouting party."

"Homeworld has a history of sending either the Tirqwin or the prince after Malvarak," Wilmik said.

"Despite the notable lack of success with that strategy," Danask remarked.

"Besides," Ricar said, "since we were named to the HTF, we've been spending a good part of our time trying to track Malvarak. He's one of Praxatillus' biggest issues with Homeworld, and vice versa. Each side seems to think the other isn't trying hard enough to catch him."

"Yeah, right," Scotty said in disgust. "And if we did catch him, then we'd fight about what to do with him. Commander Mukryilla told me that Sabrina's bodyguard reported that they were on an assignment from Homeworld. Did he mention Malvarak?"

"No, they're looking for a scouting party, possibly for an invading force," Ricar said. "Knowing Malvarak, though, that doesn't mean he's not neck-deep in it. He's got a history of teaming up with various enemy and non-aligned parties."

"Huh," Scotty said. "Well, apparently I encountered these invaders before. They're androids, we think, part organic but hard to kill. But I guess it's possible Malvarak has teamed up with them. We'll just have to hope we find him first, then. He'll be a lot easier to interrogate."

"Assuming we can find anything in that mess," Amoret said.

"I have an idea about finding the prince and Lady Sabrina, at least," Wilmik put in. "The ores in the asteroids will make any kind of technology-based scanning difficult. But fortunately we have a biological scanner with us."

Danask grimaced. "I hate when you put it like that. But I did get a pretty good read on Malvarak on our last encounter. I'd know his mind if I sensed it again."

"And Sabrina and Ford?" Scotty asked.

"They weren't exactly themselves at the time," she replied. "Maybe, though. I won't know until I try. And I'll have to be pretty close; my sensing range isn't all that great."

"So that brings us back to the needle in a haystack problem," Scotty sighed.

"The problem is, we just don't know enough," Wilmik said. "If we knew what kind of ship they were in, we could look for the power signature. If we knew more about the beings they are looking for, we could look for them too and find them that way."

Scotty frowned. "I wish Khediva were in-system. I bet she knows, or could find those things out for us."

"You don't have a way of contacting her?" Ricar asked.

"No," Scotty said. "Sabrina does, but I don't anymore. Tirqwin says I'm Mara's problem now. I could ask Mara to ask Tirqwin."

"Won't work," Ricar said. "Homeworld isn't supposed to know we're on the case. Or that we even exist, for that matter. We can't go asking questions without tipping them off to what we're doing."

"Great," Scotty said. "Well, if we have to do this the hard way, I'm going to catch a nap before we get there. Wake me up if anything interesting happens on the way."