25

Corran Horn dropped into the seat beside Mirax at the black round table in the briefing room. He felt bone weary from the fight at Alderaan, which surprised him because he’d actually not shot down any of the eyeballs. Because he had been waiting for fire orders to send proton torpedoes at the larger ships, all he could do was evade their attacks. While the pilots had been clearly green—a fact that 66 percent losses on their part made abundantly clear—their lasers still burned hot and could have vaped him had he not outflown them.

He took Mirax’s left hand in his right beneath the edge of the table. “Sorry I couldn’t cover the Skate out there.”

Mirax gave him a smile that helped energize him. “I’d have felt safer, but that would have spoiled Booster ‘One-Man-Army’ Terrik’s fun. He manned the laser cannon and was a general hazard to any eyeball peeking at us. He says he winged a couple of them.”

Corran gave her hand a squeeze, then looked up and saw Booster glowering at him from the other side of the table. If looks were lasers, he’d be more than winging me right now. “I’m glad there weren’t more in the way of complications. Your father looks ready to rip something apart with his bare hands—like me.”

“Being ambushed by Imps has him in a bad mood. We’ll be heading out soon for a meeting with Talon Karrde concerning security.”

“The leak came from his people?”

Mirax nodded. “My father thinks so. I want you to look over some stuff on it for me—give me your professional opinion about this spy thing.”

“Ah, sure, Mirax, glad to, but you should remember from the Erisi thing, I’m not that sharp on spotting spies.”

“This one isn’t that good.” Mirax gave him a wink. “Let me know what you think. We’ll see if Karrde concurs.”

Wedge and Winter entered the room, followed closely by Tal’dira, Aril Nunb, and Tycho. Winter sat down at the datapad built in at the far end of the table and hit some keys. A holographic image of the Yag’Dhul station hovered over the holopad in the center of the oval table. Wedge took a position at the head of the table, Tycho sat between him and Booster, and Tal’dira took the seat at Booster’s left hand. The Sullustan seated herself to Mirax’s right, facing Tal’dira.

Wedge covered a yawn, then leaned forward on the end of the table. “I apologize for asking you here to this debriefing so quickly after your return, but I want to talk about what happened in the Graveyard while details are still fresh in our minds. We have two issues to discuss: the arrival of the Imps and what to do with the Valiant.

“Before that, however, I want to thank each of you for your action and the action of your people at Alderaan. There is no question about it—we got very lucky at Alderaan. The Valiant’s appearance and action hurt both the Corrupter and the Aggregator. Even so, it was the discipline of our people that provided us the opportunity for such luck to come into play. If it weren’t for your Chir’daki pilots covering Tycho and me on our runs, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did to either Imp ship.”

The Twi’lek’s braintails twitched strongly. “Your praise is most appreciated, Wedgan’tilles. The loss of two of my pilots is grave, but nothing in comparison to what all of us would have lost were our leadership not so clear thinking in a time of trouble.”

Tycho nodded in agreement. “It was your torps that vaped the Corrupter, Wedge. Zraii’s going to waste a lot of paint adding it to your display of kills.”

Wedge shook his head. “Look, your shots hurt it, I was just in a position to pinpoint a target. Imps have forever dismissed the threat our torps are to their ships. You’d think, after losing two Death Stars to X-wings they’d learn, but their ignorance is our margin of safety.”

Corran smiled. “So you’ll order Zraii to pull the kill from your X-wing?”

Wedge hesitated, then smiled sheepishly. “Let’s not go too far—it was a good pair of shots.” His eyes narrowed. “Convarion got what he deserved, especially in getting the tables turned on him. The fact that he was able to show up, and had an Interdictor Cruiser with him is most disturbing. Winter, any idea where the Aggregator came from?”

Winter tucked a lock of white hair back behind her left ear, then hit several keys on the datapad. The image floating above the table shifted from that of the station to the triangular form of an Interdictor Cruiser. “The Aggregator was last noted as part of an anti-Rebel taskforce led by High Admiral Teradoc. Intelligence on him—at least the intel I’m able to access from here—is sketchy. Most of his duty stations were Rimward. He was diligent in his duties and virulently anti-Rebel, but beyond that unremarkable. He was not at Endor and remained nominally loyal to the Empire until Coruscant fell.”

As nearly as Corran knew, Teradoc’s history was not unique. A few brave individuals declared themselves Warlords as soon as they heard of the Emperor’s death, but many of the others—especially those in the military—remained loyal to the Empire. Sate Pestage, an Imperial Advisor, held power for six months until a cabal of Imperial Advisors ousted him from power. Most of the military backed this group because it seemed disposed to taking action. It was only after Ysanne Isard supplanted them that members of the military began to grab for power themselves. Even so, a fair number of military leaders and politicians proclaimed their loyalty to the Empire until Coruscant fell.

At which point they had to fend for themselves, since they no longer had access to the bureaucracy that made the Empire run. While there were administrative areas and sectors that held themselves together—a tribute to the resourcefulness of their Grand Moffs—Corran expected that within two years nearly three-quarters of what had once been the Empire would be under the New Republic’s control.

Winter looked up from the datapad. “If I had to guess how Isard got her hands on the Aggregator, I would guess she traded bacta for it. The fact that the Aggregator’s TIEs were being flown by Thyferran Home Defense Corps pilots suggests that Teradoc is running low on trained personnel. With a supply of bacta he can keep them alive a bit longer. Without unlimited Imperial resources, he’s having to conserve people the way we did.”

Booster narrowed his eyes, both electronic and natural. “I’d also read into the pilot change a lack of confidence by Teradoc in Isard. Right now you have to figure that Teradoc is getting gigabytes of stories from the Aggregator’s crew about how we ambushed the ambushers. I think if I have my people start asking around what someone is willing to pay for a slightly used Interdictor Cruiser, word will get back to Teradoc. He’ll assume we’re suggesting we’re planning on capturing the next one he loans to Isard, so he won’t be free with his ship.”

Wedge nodded. “That’s worth a try. From this point forward we’re going to have to assume, however, that it is possible another Interdictor Cruiser could jump us. Actually, we have to assume it is probable that we might be jumped again. We’ll continue hit-and-run attacks and will just have to make our exchanges more covert. We can do that by having the incoming freighters guided to a location of our choosing, which means they won’t know where they’re going until the last minute.”

Mirax raised her right hand. “Perhaps you can’t remember back when you were hauling cargo, but I’d never go to a rendezvous without knowing where it was.”

“Good point, but I suspect Quelev Tapper can convince Karrde that we’re trustworthy.”

Booster laughed. “Continue paying in advance, and Karrde will believe it.”

“That we’ll do.” Wedge straightened up. “Remember, we’ve now eliminated one of Isard’s four ships.”

“Sure,” Corran sighed, “but it was the smallest of them all.”

“Agreed, but Ait Convarion was probably the most aggressive of the commanders Isard had working for her. He knew how to fight a Star Destroyer—what chances you could take with it and what chances you couldn’t. He expected us to scatter and we didn’t, which is why he died. The commanders of the larger ships are likely to be more conservative.” Wedge smiled. “The Empire’s boldest Admirals died at Yavin. Regardless, both Avarice and Virulence are the newer-model Imperial-class Star Destroyers, deuces—so they carry six squadrons of TIEs. No matter how good or bad their commanders are, they can overwhelm us.”

Corran smiled. “With targets.”

“Yes, but targets that shoot back.” Wedge shook his head. “Impstar deuces have a crew of nearly forty-six thousand people, if you count the troops they carry in the mix. They have a lot of firepower. Granted that it’s not terribly well suited for use against snubfighter squadrons, but an Impstar deuce will take a lot more pounding than a victim like the Corrupter before it goes away.”

Tycho nodded. “The one thing we have going for us in this regard is that a big ship has a lot more things that can go wrong with it than a smaller ship—maintaining our X-wings is easy compared to maintaining an Impstar deuce. Isard is going to have to be using them to run with convoys, and if we keep hitting them, the Impstars are going to have to be on a near constant state of alert. That will take its toll.”

“But will they wear out before you do?” Mirax looked from Wedge to Tycho, Tal’dira, and finally Corran. “Even before this last operation, you were pushing yourselves very hard. Tycho’s right, repairing an X-wing is easier than repairing a Star Destroyer, and I don’t doubt we can do things to spike the prices on crucial parts for Isard’s ships by buying them up ourselves, but replacing any of you or your people is going to be impossible.”

Corran knew that she was asking the right question, but she was missing clues to the answer. “One advantage we have, Mirax, is that Isard’s forces have to react to us. They always have to suppose we’re out there, whereas we only have to deal with them when we are out there. It will be rougher on them than it is on us. We can’t keep this up forever, but we won’t have to.” He looked at Wedge. “Right, Commander?”

“I hope so, Corran.” Wedge folded his arms across his chest. “I like the idea of buying up some critical parts. Turbolaser focal lenses, power couplers, and the like. Better yet if we can find junk and get it to the other side, that would help a lot.”

“I’ll see what I can do on that count, Wedge.”

“Thanks, Booster.” Wedge frowned. “I also gather you’re going to speak to Karrde about how the Imps found us at Alderaan?”

A braintail twitched its way toward the center of the table. “How do we know the information was not transmitted from our side to Isard’s people?”

Booster looked over at Tal’dira. “Our freighters were slaved for the jumps to the Skate. I didn’t tell my people where we were going. Wedge told you fighter jocks where we were going in your mission briefing, but that was only forty-eight hours before the run. The Aggregator was given over to Isard five days before the strike, and the pilots on it were run through mission-specific briefings about twelve hours after the ship arrived. Karrde had the information about our run a good two standard weeks before that, which means the data squirted from his people to the Imps.”

“Besides, if one of Booster’s people betrayed us, Isard would have showed up here with the Lusankya.” Corran tapped a finger against the tabletop. “Presumably, that’s information Karrde doesn’t have.”

“Nor information he’ll get from me or my people.” Booster snarled directly at Corran. “My people are good people, Horn. Decidedly trustworthy.”

Aril Nunb chittered in Sullustan for a second, then translated to Basic. “Booster, Corran did not mean to suggest your people are untrustworthy—he stated as much by noting we were not attacked here.”

“I know what he was implying, Captain Nunb.” Booster’s frown deepened. “He’s CorSec, through and through, and a Horn on top of that. He assumes no one who’s ever moved a little contraband can be trusted.”

Corran wanted to protest that he hadn’t meant what Booster thought he did, but he had to admit to himself that, deep down, he was suspicious of the smugglers Booster had working on hauling supplies for them. In the past it would have been simply because they were smugglers, and anyone who has once crossed the border between lawful and lawless is likely to do it again and again. Because of that, they can’t be trusted, at least they can’t from the point of view of someone who is lawful. Now, because I’m an outlaw, I know that isn’t exactly true, but I didn’t suspect Erisi until too late, primarily because she was one of us. Because that fact made me blind to her treachery, I want to avoid falling into that same trap again.

He looked over at Booster. Of course, he’ll never believe that.

Wedge rapped a knuckle on the table. “Enough, Booster. Aril’s right, and no matter what Corran might or might not think about your people, I know it’s nothing you’ve not already thought a dozen times over about each of them. We’re in a tenuous situation here, and caution is vital for all of us. The fact is that the leak probably did come through Karrde’s people. Booster, I want you to sort that out with him.”

“Consider it done.”

“Good. You’ll let me know what Karrde says.” Wedge looked up at Winter. “Last topic: the Valiant. Any luck in learning anything about it?”

“A lot of luck, actually.” Winter smiled heartily. “The Valiant is an Alderaanian Thranta-class War Cruiser. All of them were supposed to have been destroyed when Alderaan disarmed, but it seems as if Valiant and two other War Cruisers—Courage and Fidelity—were refitted with robotic controls and slaved to accept commands from Another Chance. They were its escorts. One of them would fly into the system before it, another would fly with it, and the third would take another course to draw off pursuit. The trio of ships would change off, and some of the damage on the exterior of the ship suggests it ran off more than one pirate raid on Another Chance. If Emtrey can talk it into opening up its logs we’ll be able to confirm that idea.”

Wedge gave her a big grin. “That’s a lot of information for so little time to research the ship.”

Winter’s hair spread out in a white veil across her shoulders as she shook her head. “Most of it is information I remember from reading histories when I was younger and by correlating little bits of data I picked up in the Organa household or when I worked with Princess Leia aiding her father. When the Another Chance was recovered, it was clear that a massive power surge had fried circuits, including the controllers for the external communication arrays that allowed ship-to-ship communication. Since Valiant queried Tycho’s X-wing when it broadcast the Another Chance’s IFF code, and followed his lead in picking targets, the Valiant was clearly assigned to protect the Another Chance. Three War Cruisers and a War Frigate frequently comprised a patrol in the Alderaanian fleet, so I concluded there must have been three War Cruisers. The Valiant and the other two were the last three built in that class, were commissioned, and then were immediately decommissioned. Unlike the other ships the Alderaanians had used in the Clone Wars—which were scrapped and melted down into peace medals that were presented to the crews and surviving families as mementos—there were no records of scraps being sent out to crews. Nor are there records of crews having served on them, so I have concluded that they were immediately refitted with droids to accompany the War Frigate Another Chance.”

Booster’s jaw hung open. “You remembered all that and figured it all out?”

Mirax laughed. “Winter has a holographic memory. She remembers everything she sees, hears, or experiences, including that dumb look you’re giving her.”

Booster snapped his mouth shut, then shook his head. “Then remember this: Never have children.”

Wedge snorted out a quick laugh. “Crumbs don’t fall far from the Hutt’s mouth, Booster.”

“Thanks a lot, Wedge.” Mirax gave him a hard stare, but softened it with a smile.

“Sorry, Mirax. Winter, what are the chances that Courage and Fidelity are still out there?”

“Won’t have any way of estimating that until we get a look at Valiant’s inner workings. Emtrey thinks he can find a way in, and he now has Whistler helping him slice some code. Zraii is nearly shedding his carapace over a chance to work on the Valiant, so my guess is that they’ll have it open and functioning to our satisfaction within a couple of weeks.”

“That’s something, then.” Wedge glanced at Booster. “You want the Valiant, or is it too small for you?”

“I’m sure you can find someone else who is better suited to commanding it.” Booster forced a yawn. “Overseeing a crew of droids would be more boring than I care to imagine. You should give the job to that protocol droid of yours.”

Corran laughed. Trying to visualize Emtrey on the bridge of a ship issuing commands produced ridiculous images in his mind. “By the time he informed his crew of his qualifications, they’d mutiny.”

Wedge and the others who had worked with Emtrey joined Corran in laughter. Wedge ended his laugh with a cough, then cleared his throat. “I think Emtrey is better suited to be an Executive Officer, not a Commander. I do think, however, we’ve got someone who has the skills we need and could get more out of a droid crew than anyone else.” He reached out with his right hand and touched Aril Nunb on her left shoulder. “You’ve flown more than fighters. Interested in commanding a War Cruiser?”

Her deep red eyes widened in surprise, then she nodded. “That’s a job I can handle. I may need Emtrey to help me.”

“He’s all yours.” Wedge gave her a nod, then smiled at the others. “Okay, I think we’ve got some directions in which we can head and some operations to plan. We got lucky this time, but from here on out, we manufacture luck. The good we’ll keep and the bad will go to Isard. She missed her best chance to kill us off, and I see no reason to give her another one.”