38
Standing in the midst of a party being held on the Lusankya summoned up for Corran Horn a variety of conflicting emotions. The freed prisoners and anyone who had been in contact with them had been brought to Lusankya and ensconced on a crew deck, being served by droids alone, for two weeks until New Republic medical officials completed their scans and decided they were disease free.
The release of the prisoners from isolation became a cause for celebration that drew officials and important people from all across the New Republic. At the far end of the large reception room, with his back to a massive transparisteel viewport that looked out over the vast expanse of the ship’s prow, General Dodonna stood flanked by Admiral Ackbar and Generals Bel Iblis and Antilles. A constant stream of well-wishers moved past them, exchanging comments, glances, handshakes, and smiles. Dodonna greeted warmly those individuals he recalled from Yavin and before, exuding the warmth and wisdom that had made him the natural leader of the prisoners.
Corran smiled slowly. During his escape attempt from Lusankya, Jan Dodonna had killed a man who tried to stop Corran. The way to freedom was clear and Corran offered to let Dodonna accompany him. Dodonna had refused, knowing that if he escaped, Isard would have wiped out the rest of the prisoners. He traded his freedom for their lives, a sacrifice that earned him two more years of captivity.
I’m not sure I could make that choice. Corran sipped Corellian whiskey. I hope I could, but I don’t know if I’m that good a man.
While everyone around him seemed to be very happy—with Booster’s booming laughter echoing from the far corner of the room—something felt out of place for Corran. The last party I was at, Urlor Sette died, propelling all of us down the path that brought us here.
Friends died and countless people suffered. Through the milling crowd he caught sight of Gavin Darklighter talking with Myn Donos and a couple of other people Corran didn’t recognize. Gavin had a smile on his face, but the way he moved and his short responses told Corran that Asyr’s death still ate away at him. Gavin’s a good man and doesn’t deserve such pain. I’m going to make sure to talk with him, help share the burden. He’s strong, he just needs someone to remind him of that fact.
Wes Janson came over and slapped Corran on the back. “We dress well for dead men, don’t we?”
“Well, better for me this time than the last one.” Corran smiled at him. “But making a habit of being left for dead isn’t a good idea.”
Wes nodded solemnly, though his smile only eroded slightly at the corners of his mouth. “When I thought you guys were all gone …” He shivered for a second and his voice faltered. “Then to see you again, albeit through a transparisteel wall while you were in isolation, you don’t know how happy I was.”
“Oh, I have a clue.” Corran jerked his head toward the front of the room. “My ears are still ringing from the happy whoop Wedge let out. He really couldn’t contain himself.”
“Yeah, and that little Ewok dance of joy is pretty ugly to watch, isn’t it?”
“Watch? I was trying to get my feet out from under his.” Corran and Wes both laughed, then the Corellian pilot gave his friend a nod. “Wish you’d been with us on Ciutric, and I’m very glad to have you back with us now.”
“Yes, active duty beats being dead all hollow.” Wes tossed him a wink, then threaded his way off in Wedge’s direction.
Corran shifted his shoulders to loosen them. Probably going to pull some Ewok prank on Wedge, and Wedge will love hating every minute of it. Turning away from Wes’s departure, Corran smiled as Iella and Mirax cut through the crowd and joined him.
Mirax looked radiant in a long, sleeveless gown worn daringly off one shoulder. The garment appeared black, but a shimmering rainbow of pinpricks channeled light over it and her. She wore her dark hair up, and two tiny diamond studs sparkled from her earlobes.
Iella wore a white gown with a short jacket over it. A single diamond on a platinum chain lay at the hollow of her throat, casting off dazzling light darts as she moved. Her hair had been gathered loosely at the back of her neck with a simple black cord. Her outfit, while not as flashy as Mirax’s, had an elegance to it that matched Iella’s noble bearing.
Mirax slipped her right hand through the crook of Corran’s left arm. “Enjoying yourself?”
“Now I am, yes.” He smiled at his wife. Her physical warmth and presence bled into him, pushing aside the sense of foreboding he’d been feeling. “How’s the shoulder, Iella?”
She worked her left shoulder forward and back. “It’s fine. Full range of motion and all. Nothing bacta couldn’t handle. You know that—you’ve been wounded much worse and survived.”
“True, if there’s a spark of life, bacta will keep you going.”
Iella nodded. “Happy to be out of isolation?”
“Very.” Corran jerked his head toward General Dodonna. “It was very weird to be a prisoner of sorts on Lusankya again. We got the run of the deck they trapped us on, which happened to have been the deck where we were held the first time. The accommodations were a lot nicer this time around, though.”
“Lusankya looks nothing like it did when we were married on it.” Mirax took his whiskey from him and drank a sip. “I definitely think it’s an improvement.”
Corran nodded. “I guess a lot of refitting went on. There’s a whole forward area where living creatures aren’t allowed to go. It’s just serviced by droids.”
Iella coughed into her hand. “It’s a bio-containment facility. It apparently struck some of the designers that in rebuilding the prow, they could put in scientific and medical suites that would allow Lusankya to be more than just a military ship. I think their sense of irony prompted them to put an area on board that, had it existed when the Krytos virus broke out, would have been useful in thwarting Isard’s plan. In the heart of that area there is supposed to be a containment cell so secure that any breach in it will immediately vent the whole area to space. Nothing, no virus or germ, will be getting out of there alive.”
“That’s a plus.” Corran smiled slightly, then looked around. “Kind of funny about Isard coming back here. I guess it makes sense, but she had me fooled. She told me she was glad the ship had been destroyed, since I ruined it for her. How did you figure out she was coming back for it?”
The two women exchanged a laugh. “Actually it was Mirax’s father who figured it out.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Iella shook her head. “The process sort of involved logic, but it was a bit twisted …”
Mirax sighed. “It was Booster-logic.”
“I hope you had a Three-Pee-Oh there to translate.”
Mirax slapped Corran on the arm. “Easy, husband. If not for him you’d be fighting this monster.”
Iella smiled. “Booster started from the idea that Isard wanted to reestablish the Empire, then he started breaking it down into all the steps she’d need to succeed at to get there. Somewhere in that list was a serious need to be able to inflict heavy damage on her enemies. From there Booster got to the Lusankya reborn, which he’d figured the New Republic was refitting because of the prices being offered for parts on the secondary commodities markets.
“Cracken provided us with authorization to commandeer whatever we needed, so the four of us came here and took command.”
“Four of you?”
Mirax and Iella exchanged a quick glance, then Corran’s wife gave his arm a squeeze. “Booster, Iella, me, and a Verpine tech who did some quick rewiring. We trapped Isard’s people and Iella took care of her in her own private quarters.”
Corran remained silent for a moment, then nodded. “You think Diric is finally at peace?”
“I hope so. Isard had reduced Diric to something he never wanted to be. Eliminating her won’t bring him back, but she’ll never do that to anyone else, so that’s a plus. I can live with it.”
“And live much better for it.” Corran shivered. “I wonder if she’ll end up haunting this place.”
“I have no doubt part of her will always be with the Lusankya.”
“Right where it belongs.” Corran sipped more of his whiskey. “Any word on what happened to Colonel Vessery and his people?”
Iella shook her head. “He vanished, taking his two squadrons of Defenders with him. General Cracken isn’t looking forward to his return.”
“I can understand that, but I don’t fear it.” Corran smiled. “In his own way Vessery is a very honorable man. He’ll do what’s right for his people.”
“Let’s just hope that doesn’t include piracy.” Iella looked up toward the front of the room. “Looks like speeches are about to begin.”
Corran turned to follow her gaze. Borsk Fey’lya was moving toward a podium, with Admiral Ackbar and General Dodonna standing near him. Other officials lined up off to the right, and in the background a disk-shaped freighter lazily cruised down the Super Star Destroyer’s length. “I think we can get closer.”
“You two go ahead. I’m going to slip out for a moment, get something from my room.” Iella patted Corran on the shoulder. “It’s another adventure we’ve survived, Corran. Twice now you’ve been declared dead and come back. Impressive.”
“But that’s the last time for that.” Mirax gave Corran a hard stare. “Anybody goes missing and next time it’s me. You can do the worrying, okay?”
“Okay.” He turned to Iella. “Hurry back, we’ll save a spot at our table for you for dinner.”
“Thanks.” Iella turned and headed for the hatchway leading toward the turbolifts.
Corran took Mirax’s hand in his and led her forward to where they could see the speakers. She moved around to stand in front of him and pressed her back against him. He rested his chin on her bare shoulder and snaked his arms around her waist.
Mirax turned her head and kissed him on the cheek. “It truly is wonderful to have you back. And I very much appreciate the sacrifice you made in sending Whistler to find me and let me know you were alive.”
“I floated it as a plan, and Whistler insisted. He’s quite fond of you, you know.”
“And I am of him.” Mirax smiled and kissed him again as Fey’lya began to speak. “After all, he’s my ally in keeping you safe and that’s a job we intend to continue for a very long time to come.”
Iella slipped into her small cabin on Lusankya and inserted her comlink into the room’s comm unit holoprojector. “This is Iella Wessiri calling Starweb.”
The image of the disk freighter she’d seen from the reception hung above the projector pad for a second, then it shifted to Asyr Sei’lar’s head and shoulders. “I left a message for you and for Mirax to let you know I’m leaving.”
“You don’t have to, Asyr.” Iella glanced out the room’s viewport and saw the freighter hanging off the starboard bow. “You can come back, we can explain things.”
“No. I’m better off dead.”
“But, Gavin, he’s … you can tell he hurts inside.”
The Bothan looked away from the holocam for a moment, then sniffed and turned back. “I know, Iella. I know how much he must hurt, but he will get over it. He’s a strong man. He will mourn, then recover and thrive. I know it. You have to remember what I told you from the start, when you recovered me at Distna, about why you had to tell no one I lived.”
“Borsk Fey’lya isn’t the Emperor.” Iella opened her arms wide with exasperation. “You said he told you he’d never allow the two of you to marry and adopt, and that he would make your lives miserable. That’s a gross abuse of power. He can’t be allowed to get away with that.”
“I know that, Iella, and I won’t let him.” Asyr’s lips peeled back in a smile that revealed sharp white teeth. “I’ll go to one of our colony worlds and assume a new identity. I’ll work to make changes within Bothan society that will guarantee politicians like Fey’lya cannot ruin other lives. If I come back to life now and expose what he’s done, I will take one individual down. The system still fosters that sort of power, and I need to work to change it.”
“Gavin would be a great help to you in all that.”
“I know, but it will be a dirty battle, fought the way only Bothans can fight.” She blinked her violet eyes. “It will consume my life, but I won’t have it consume his. Gavin is a good enough man that he would devote himself to helping me, but I can’t do that to him. He deserves better. Help him through it.”
“I will, we will.”
Asyr nodded. “Thank you. And I apologize for putting you and Mirax through the pressure of keeping my survival hidden. Spouses shouldn’t keep secrets from each other.”
Iella raised an eyebrow. “Never been married, have you?”
Surprise showed on Asyr’s face, then she laughed. “No. Perhaps someday. Well, I’m clear on a vector to hyperspace. Let Booster know this ship will be waiting for him at Commenor, as we discussed. Good-bye, Iella, and thank you.”
“Bye, Asyr, until we meet again.”
The Bothan’s image blinked out as the freighter shot into hyperspace. Iella brushed a tear from her right cheek, then took her comlink and headed toward the door. It slid open, with a man standing there, his hand poised over the door buzzer button.
“Wedge!”
“Iella, good, I did find you.” The leader of Rogue Squadron gave her a sloppy, boyish grin. “I saw Corran and Mirax. They said you’d come down here.”
“And you came to find me.” Iella grinned. “Looking to have me recommend to General Cracken that we make you an intelligence operative based on this tracking experience?”
“Ah, um, no.” He raised his head. “I was wondering, I mean, I thought of this before, but never got a chance to ask you … They said they would be saving a place for you at their table, but I’m having to sit with a bunch of Senators who I don’t know …”
“And you want someone on your wing?”
“Yeah, someone on my wing.” He extended his arm to her. “Interested in the job?”
“Sounds like a dangerous assignment.” She squinted at him for a moment. “Think I can handle it?”
“Definitely, Iella. You’re Rogue material.” Wedge smiled as she slipped her hand on his arm and laid his left hand over hers. “We both eliminated a Ysanne Isard from the galaxy and, after that, together, there’s nothing that can beat us.”