"But they've all been willing to go, haven't they?" Tarkosa countered. "Even the boy this morning. He was scared, sure, but he was also pretty excited. Face it, Jobe: most kids think it would be really cool to be a Jedi."
"Myquestion is what they're going to do with all of them," Uliar put in. "They going to throw everyone off one of the Dreadnaughts and build their own little Jedi Temple there?"
"I'm sure C'baoth has some ideas," Tarkosa said firmly. "Seems to me he's pretty much on top of things."
"Yeah," Uliar grunted. "Right."
For a few minutes none of them spoke. Uliar let his eyes drift around the number three messroom, as sterile and military looking as everything else aboard Outbound Flight. The people eating their dinners looked sterile and military, too, in their jumpsuits and other operational garb.
What the place needed was some character, he decided. Maybe he should get some people together and see if Commander Omano would let them redecorate the messrooms with different themes. Maybe a nice upscale Coruscant dinner club for one, a MidRim tapcaf for another, something really sleazy looking for a third, with people encouraged to dress the parts when they went to cat or drink
"What do you know?" Keely said into his thoughts, nodding behind Uliar. "There's one now."
Uliar turned. Sure enough, there was that Jinzler woman who'd dragged Dillian Pressor to a meeting when the man was supposed to be working. She was standing just inside the mess-room doorway, her head moving slowly as she scanned the occupants. A couple of the diners looked up at her, but most didn't even seem to notice she was there. "Trolling for more Jedi?" he suggested.
"Don't seem to be many kids here," Keely pointed out, looking around. "You suppose they're going to go after the adults next?"
"Maybe C'baoth's given them a quota to fill," Uliar said. "You know, like CorSec and traffic tickets."
"CorSec patrollers don't have quotas," Tarkosa said scornfully. "That's a myth."
"Well, if she's got one, she's not going to fill it tonight," Keely commented as Jinzler turned and left the room. "C'baoth's not going to be happy withher."
"If you ask me, I don't think C'baoth's ever happy with anything," Uliar said, picking up his mug. "I've never met anyone so full of himself."
"I had an instructor at the institute just like him," Tarkosa said. "One night some of the students sneaked into his office, disassembled his desk, and reassembled it in the refresher station down the hall. I thought he was going to pop every blood vessel in his face when he saw it."
"But I'll bet it didn't solve anything," Keely commented. "People like that never learn." He turned to Uliar. "Speaking of solving things, Chas, did you ever figure out that line fluctuation problem you were having yesterday? We had to shut down the whole portside turbolaser system."
"Oh, yeah, we got it sorted it out," Uliar told him, dragging his mind away from Jedi and dull dining rooms. "This'll kill you. You know b'Crevnis, that big terminally cheerful Pho Ph'eahian who's supposed to be in charge of fluid-flow maintenance? It seems he managed to mislabel one of his own gauges. ."
It took until the fourth D-4 messroom she visited, but Lorana finally found the Pressor family. "Hello," she said, smiling as she walked up to their table. "How are you all doing tonight?"
"We're fine," Pressor said, his eyes suddenly wary as he looked up at her. "Is anything wrong?"
"That depends on how you look at it," Lorana said, kneeling down between Jorad and his mother. "I wanted to tell you, Jorad, that your retest again came up negative. I'm sorry."
The boy made a face. "That's okay," he said, clearly disappointed. "Mom and Dad said it probably wouldn't change."
"Moms and dads are smart that way," Lorana said. "I hope you're not too disappointed."
"I'm sure he'll get over it," the boy's mother said, a note of relief in her voice. "There are lots of other things he can do with his life."
"Yes," Lorana murmured, her brother's face flickering across her memory "We all have to accept our strengths and talents, and go on from there."
"Though sometimes with a little push," Pressor said grimly. "I hear you Jedi had some sort of standoff over on D-Two yesterday."
"I heard something about that," Lorana confirmed. "I wasn't there, so I can't say whether it was a standoff or not. I understand it was resolved peaceably, though."
"I heard the boy was hustled off to Jedi school," Pressor countered.
"Yet if that's his birthright, how can anyone deny it to him?" Lorana asked. "The life of a Jedi can be hard-and, yes, it requires sacrifice, from the parents as well as from the child. But anything that's worthwhile does."
"I suppose," Pressor said, clearly not convinced.
"Well, I'll let you get back to your meal now," Lorana said, getting to her feet again. "Thank you for your time."
"Thank you for stopping by," Pressor said.
"Good-bye, Jedi Lorana," Jorad added. For a moment his eyes seemed to linger on her lightsaber before he returned to his meal.
Lorana made her way back through the messroom, trying to get a sense of the people around her. Most of those along her path looked up casually as she passed, then turned back to their food and conversations without any detectable change in their mood. Most of the ones seated farther away didn't even notice her. Everyone seemed more or less content, aside from the inevitable few working through annoyances from their shift work. If there was any growing resentment toward the Jedi, she couldn't detect it.
So perhaps her fears were for nothing. After all, they would all be aboard Outbound Flight for a long time yet, and even those who were upset at the way the children had been taken would eventually realize that more Jedi translated into a smoother and safer voyage.
But for now, it was time to get back to work. Some of the last-minute equipment that had been packed into the storage core needed to be shifted around to other areas. The crewers had enough hands and lifters for the job, but there was always the chance that one of the stacks of crates would shift unexpectedly, and it would be safer if a Jedi was present to keep that from happening. There would undoubtedly be injuries and deaths along the way, but Lorana had no intention of letting such incidents begin this soon. Not if she could help it.
Stepping out into the corridor, she headed toward the aft pylon turbolift. One of these days, she promised herself, she would see about getting a hold of one of those swoops Captain Pakmillu had said were aboard.