Star Wars: Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of Force Read Online Free PDF Page A

issuing a wheezy laugh as he did so. “History indeed—or the lack of it, in I-Five’s case. It seems rather odd to me, too, I must admit. I’m still not quite used to the idea that I-Five, is—for want of a better term—self-aware.”
    “Self-aware
,” said I-Five drily, “is a perfectly good term, thank you.”
    Tuden Sal nodded. “Yes. I’d forgotten how perfectly good.” He looked directly at the droid, who stood facinghim—probably, Den thought, about two subroutines away from firing up his lasers again.
    The Sakiyan lowered his eyes and took a moment to straighten the folds of the calf-length coat he wore over his once elegant tunic. Then he looked up at I-Five again. “I’m sorry, I-Five, for what I did to you. I was … shortsighted and selfish.”
    “You can add to that disloyal, disreputable, unscrupulous, and cruel,” I-Five told him. “You were, in a word,
wrong
. You can have no idea what your action ultimately cost the Jedi and the Republic.”
    The Sakiyan closed his deep-set eyes momentarily, veiling his thoughts. “No. I don’t believe I can.”
    Den pulled himself up into the window embrasure adjacent to the couch. He favored this spot because it gave him the advantage of height—a rare perspective for a native of Sullust—and allowed him to study other people’s faces from a proper angle. “This is all very cozy,” he said, letting his short legs dangle over the windowsill, “but would one of you mind clarifying why this apology is necessary?”
    I-Five canted his head pointedly at Tuden Sal, who cleared his throat and rearranged his coat yet again. “Some years ago,” he said, “a … a friend asked me to make sure I-Five and some data he was carrying got to the Jedi Temple here on Coruscant.”
    Den didn’t need the Force to see the effect of those words on Jax. The young Jedi stiffened.
    “My father. My father, Lorn Pavan, asked you to get I-Five to the Jedi.”
    Tuden Sal nodded. “Yes. I didn’t realize at the time that he … that it was something in the nature of a dying wish. Since then, I’ve come to appreciate that Lorn trusted me with the task because he expected not to live much longer. Unfortunately, he was correct in that expectation.”
    “Why didn’t you carry out that wish?” Jax asked, his voice hushed.
    Den glanced at I-Five. Though he gave no outward indication of tension or increased interest, his friend knew that the droid had been waiting for a resolution to this mystery for over two decades.
    The Sakiyan spread his hands in the universal sign of bewilderment. “Quite simply, I saw a profit to be made from the droid, and with the hubris that often comes with success, I figured I could kill two mynocks with one blast. I had intended to deliver the holocron I-Five was carrying to the Jedi as Lorn had asked, but I first planned on having the droid mindwiped and reprogrammed as a bodyguard for use during my dealings with Black Sun. He had certain … modifications I had never seen in any protocol droid—not in any droid, come to it. Modifications I hadn’t even realized were possible.”
    “Yet you failed to note the most significant of them,” said I-Five.
    “I did,” Sal admitted. “Frankly, I couldn’t believe what Lorn told me about you. I wish now that I had not been so … shortsighted.”
    “Traitorous,” I-Five said simultaneously.
    Den had to admit that I-Five’s characterization was closer to what he’d been thinking. How could someone behave that treacherously toward a supposed friend? Den hoped he’d never become so mercenary or so jaded that he failed to put the welfare of his friends or his world before his own short-term benefits.
    Tuden Sal sighed. “I can’t deny it. But I did plan on getting the holocron to the Temple. I did.”
    “The best of intentions, I’ve found,” said the droid, “are by themselves seldom enough to topple tyrants.”
    There came a silence, which was verging on uncomfortable when Jax