17

Though Gavin Darklighter’s eyes burned with fatigue, the image of Delak Krennel coming in over the recreation room’s holoprojector held his attention and kept him awake. The projector rendered Krennel three-fourths his real height, but because Gavin was seated on a couch next to Asyr, he had to look up at the man’s image. Krennel had abandoned a military uniform and instead had adopted well-made civilian clothes, but stayed away from the robes long associated with the Emperor’s intimates.

“So now I am faced with the onerous task of rebutting the charges Mon Mothma and the New Republic have made against me. To many of you it would be inconceivable that such researches were taking place on a world under my control without my knowledge of it.” Krennel’s expression remained open, his eyes guileless. “I concur, and I tell you that I had no knowledge of these researches. I would point out that the New Republic has offered no proof that I knew of them and, in fact, has offered no proof that anyone knew of these researches prior to the New Republic’s conquest of Liinade Three.”

Gavin frowned. “What reason in the galaxy would the New Republic have for faking a lab and accusing you of doing Death Star research?”

The other pilots in the rec center nodded in agreement with Gavin’s question.

Hobbie laughed. “Not like we didn’t have better things to do when pacifying the planet.”

“It wasn’t that hard, Hobbie.” Myn Donos stretched his arms and rolled his wrists around. “I mean, we did have some spare time—an hour or two—in which to plan and execute such deception.”

Krennel’s flesh and blood hand rose innocently. “In suggesting the New Republic fabricated this evidence against me, I would be as remiss as they are if I did not offer you proof of their perfidy. Why would they want to discredit me so? By accusing me of Sate Pestage’s murder they’ve already provided themselves with as much justification as they needed to launch an invasion of my Hegemony. These charges against me serve only to unite the New Republic by making the Emperor’s ghost haunt my activities—a New Republic that apparently was not united behind the attack in the first place. In fact, there was much more division in the New Republic than anyone could have imagined, and that very division is what prompted this move.”

Krennel’s chin came up. “In keeping with my pledge to provide land and shelter and a future to any beleaguered population within the galaxy, I have been involved in negotiations with the leadership of the Alderaanian refugee population. I was prepared to offer them Liinade Three’s southern continent—one known for its parallels to Alderaan—as a haven. By fabricating evidence implicating me in furthering the sort of researches that resulted in Alderaan’s tragic destruction, the New Republic has scuttled this effort that would have provided peace for the peoples of Alderaan, and for the peoples of the Hegemony.”

Gavin glanced over at Tycho Celchu and watched the other pilot’s arms cross tightly over his chest. “Colonel, is what he’s saying true?”

Tycho shook his head slowly, as if barely registering the question. “I don’t know. I don’t pay much attention to the Alderaanian refugee groups and they leave me alone for the most part. They’d see me as linked to the New Republic anyway, so if they were negotiating with Krennel, telling me about it would interfere with their plans.”

Krennel bowed his head for a moment. “What pains me the most about the New Republic’s tactics is that Mon Mothma has accused me of perpetuating the sort of terror weapons that destroyed Alderaan. She has painted me as an inhuman monster in doing so and has suggested that those who forget the horror of Alderaan will again allow such atrocities to be committed.

“The plain fact of the matter is that I have not forgotten the lessons of Alderaan. Captain Wynt Kepporra was from Alderaan and went to the Imperial Academy at Prefsbelt Four at the same time I did. We were friends, good and close friends. He had returned to Alderaan to see his family and was there when Grand Moff Tarkin …”

Krennel’s voice failed him and he brushed away a tear with his left hand. He set his face again, then nodded and continued. “Wynt was on Alderaan when it was destroyed. I’ve been to Alderaan. I’ve been to the Graveyard and I’ve left my offerings to him and his memory. It was in his name that I chose to negotiate with the Alderaanian refugees. It was in his memory that I sought a suitable world to give them. Now, to be accused of such cruel duplicity as to be negotiating with them on one hand and scheming to create a Death Star on the other, well, the Emperor was never so vicious in dealing with his enemies.”

“Besmirch their reputations, no.” Asyr snarled. “Blow up their planet, sure. I’m not certain I like Krennel’s definition of vicious.”

Gavin draped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. “You’re reading my mind again.”

The Prince-Admiral raised his chin. “It is a sad fact that brutality often begets brutality. The New Republic, which in its infancy desired freedom from oppression for all, now has grown into a monster that oppresses those who oppose it, just as the Empire tried to do to them. To the New Republic there is no place for neutrality, there is no chance for others to find their own path to freedom. This has always been my desire.

“We have been through a savage civil war in this galaxy, with its horrors all fresh in our memories. There is not one of us who has not looked back and in perfect hindsight suggested that if I had acted here or there, perhaps, just perhaps, the pain and suffering of billions could have been averted. The brave act of standing up to tyranny could have smothered it at its birth instead of requiring its execution at the height of its power.”

The holocam closed in on Krennel’s face. “The New Republic’s tyranny is in its infancy. Oppose it now and we need not shed the blood of billions. The people of the Hegemony will fight to preserve our freedom. We invite all those who pledge themselves to liberty to make a stand and join with us, so the sacrifices made in overthrowing the Empire will not be tarnished by the rapacious predation of the New Republic.”

The image slowly faded and Gavin found his flesh puckering. He shook his head, then frowned. “Anyone else get the feeling, even for a second, that we’re on the wrong end of this war?”

“Sure,” offered Inyri Forge, “for about as long as it took me to remember the locals trying to shoot my X-wing down.”

The round-faced Myn Donos raked his fingers through his black hair. “I think Krennel would argue that they were just trying to defend their planet against our attack. We were the aggressors.”

“And well we should have been.” Inyri gestured toward where Krennel had been standing. “If we had not come here and someone hadn’t tried to kill Corran, we would not have found that lab. A year from now, or two, Krennel could show up over Coruscant with his Death Star and cause a lot of trouble.”

Myn held up his hands. “Hey, I’m not saying Krennel is right, but I do think there will be plenty of folks who will be given cause to wonder.”

Asyr shifted from beneath Gavin’s arm and sat forward on the couch. “Humans, you mean, Myn.”

“Not necessarily. Take the Bothans, for example.” Myn nodded in her direction. “You’re a sophisticated people who have sacrificed much to help the Rebellion. You’re politically astute, have colony worlds and a thriving economy. What if an indigenous people of one of those colony worlds decides it wants the Bothans gone and the New Republic decides to back this independence movement—largely because of a vote organized among species who don’t care for Bothan politics? You Bothans would immediately be put into the same situation some humans might be feeling squeezed by right now.

“And there are humans who saw the blacker depths of the Emperor’s heart, too. One of the Wraiths came from Toprawa. The Imps reduced them to puling animals. Folks might wonder why we’re not liberating them instead of fighting over worlds that haven’t asked for our help. I mean, I have no more love for Krennel than the rest of you, and I do think he has to go down, but using the idea of Pestage’s murder as justification is rather thin.”

Gavin shook his head. “Myn, if I hear you right, you’re suggesting that because the New Republic says one thing, and Krennel says the exact opposite, most people will wonder if the truth isn’t really somewhere in the middle?”

“Right. They have cause to wonder who’s right.”

Tycho stood. “It’s called the gray fallacy. One person says white, another says black, and outside observers assume gray is the truth. The assumption of gray is sloppy, lazy thinking. The fact that one person takes a position that is diametrically opposed to the truth does not then skew reality so the truth is no longer the truth. The truth is still the truth.”

He nodded slowly. “The truth in this case is simple: Krennel is an unreconstructed Imperial who has been shown in the past to have a penchant for cruelty and murder. We’ve found a lab that indicates he might be trying to build a new Death Star-type station, and maybe that’s as far as it’s gone. The fact that we don’t know means we have to keep checking, keep pursuing. Even if Krennel’s right, he didn’t have anything to do with this lab, I don’t doubt for an Imperial minute that he’d use such a station.”

Inyri raised an eyebrow. “Even after what he said about his friend from Alderaan?”

Tycho snorted lightly. “I attended the Academy at Prefsbelt Four well after the two of them. Krennel’s name appeared on a few trophies for unarmed combat. Kepporra was supposed to have been some engineering whiz. I don’t see them being the best of friends, but even assuming they were, it would take more than a tear to make me believe Kepporra’s death had that much effect on Krennel.”

Inyri folded her arms across her chest. “Do you really think you can judge what went on in Krennel’s heart based on one holocast?”

“Nope, just going by what I know of him in the past. He strafed a crowd at Axxila and murdered Pestage on Ciutric.” Tycho’s eyes narrowed. “More telling, though, is the fact that he didn’t leave the Imperial service until four and a half years after the death of his friend. Alderaan’s destruction caused me to defect immediately, but you’d expect that because I’m from Alderaan. Others took longer to come over, a month, a year, a couple of years, but eventually they did. Krennel remained with the Empire even after the second Death Star’s destruction and only left when he was able to usurp Pestage’s Hegemony. Someone with that track record only cares for himself.”

Gavin let Tycho’s words sink in and in them found a truth. In the whole of his three and a half years with Rogue Squadron, the emphasis had always been on helping others. It didn’t matter how difficult the mission was, they went out and did it because they were making life better for someone, somewhere. Sacrificing our futures so a bunch of other folks had their own futures secured always seemed like a solid bargain. Krennel and people like him never would see it that way because they saw themselves as more important than anyone else.

Which is why we have to stop him.

Gavin ran his hand down over the fur on Asyr’s spine. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but it seems to me that Mon Mothma’s announcement and Krennel’s answer means that having evidence of this station’s existence is going to be very important. I figure we’ve got a bunch of snoop-and-scoot missions in our future.”

He stood and stretched. “It’s about time for me to run some brush-ups on piloting a T-Six-Five-R, so I’m heading down to the simcenter. Anyone else wants to join me, I’d love the company.”