30

Fliry Vorru strode slowly down the ramp from the belly of his Lambda-class shuttle then stopped midway as he saw Erisi Dlarit waiting for him at the edge of the landing pad. She wore a smile that seemed inviting, though her blue eyes seemed focused distantly, well beyond him. He found both her smile and presence pleasing, but his natural wariness prevented him from drawing any true enjoyment from either.

He nodded in her direction and began walking again, this time not fighting gravity but allowing it to make his step more brisk and lively. “Commander Dlarit, so nice of you to greet me.”

Erisi easily returned his nod. “My pleasure, Minister Vorru.”

Vorru matched her smile. “Did I detect a hint of wistfulness in your expression as you waited here?”

The hint of a frown threw a twitch through her brows, then she shook her head. “No, no, I just thought it rather ironic that a man as dangerous as yourself should be content with piloting so docile and meek a ship.”

“Meek?”

“I would have seen you flying an Interceptor, certainly, or a gunship, not a Lambda-class shuttle.”

Vorru nodded. “Ah. I’m afraid, though, this is anything but a normal shuttle. I have made a number of modifications that make this ship far more lethal than it appears to be.”

“I see. I should have expected such clever deception from someone as intelligent as you.”

“You refer to me as clever and intelligent.” He shook his head. “I fear you’ve found my weakness, Erisi. Flattery will win you much.”

“How much to make you willing to act as a shield for me during another tantrum thrown by ‘She Who Cannot Be Defied’?”

Vorru smiled up at her, then offered her his arm. “Even you, most beautiful Erisi, could not flatter me that much. You were summoned, too?”

“Yes.” Erisi’s voice sank into a harsh growl. “The convoy that the Avarice had been escorting appeared back insystem, though three tankers were missing.”

Vorru nodded as they walked through the tall gray corridors. Isard’s vehement demand that he return to the capitol immediately had not been accompanied by any explanation, but more interference by Rogue Squadron seemed to be the only thing that could make Isard so angry. “What was Captain Yonka’s explanation of their loss?”

“I don’t believe he offered any.” Erisi shook her head. “As nearly as I can determine, the Avarice did not return with the convoy.”

Vorru shivered, and the hair at the back of his neck began to rise. “Could Antilles have gotten the Avarice? He does have the Alderaanian War Cruiser.”

“I don’t believe he could have, even with the War Cruiser. There have been no reports I know of that indicate any battle took place out there. You, Minister, would have better sources in that regard than I.”

“Call me Fliry, Erisi. Compatriots in Iceheart’s rage should not use titles between them.” Vorru punched a turbo-lift button and stepped into the box when the doors opened. “As nearly as I know, all things have gone perfectly with the Avarice. Captain Yonka made his rounds, visited his mistress on Elshandruu Pica—he’s seeing the Moff’s wife, though the Moff believes he’s bedding the owner of a local resort. The Avarice left orbit on schedule and continued the circuit as it was supposed to.”

“Clearly something went wrong, Fliry.” Erisi gave his arm a little squeeze as the turbolift stopped its ascent. “Now we just have to determine who will catch the blame.”

Vorru reached out and punched the emergency stop button on the lift before the doors could open. “I have the turbo-lifts regularly swept, so I know we are safe for the moment. I ask you this, realizing I now place us at more risk than ever before. Do you feel, as I do, that Madam Director Isard is not viewing the same reality we are?”

Erisi’s eyes narrowed. “Do I think she is insane?”

“Yes.”

“Quite.” Erisi twisted around and faced him fully. “Antilles consumes her. If he is not dealt with shortly, she could destroy Thyferra. This is not to say I doubt her ability to eliminate Antilles—she is most dangerous in that regard.”

“But you would be in favor of having contingency plans that guarantee the survival of the Bacta Cartel no matter what happens to her.”

“Exactly. You’ve read my mind.”

“Only because our thoughts run in parallel.” Vorru again hit the emergency button and the door slid open. “Let us bravely face out fate and deal with the future it presents us.”

As they neared Isard’s doorway, Vorru held a hand up, stopping Erisi. He preceded her into the room and bowed politely in Isard’s direction. “I came as quickly as I was able, Madam Director.” He half-expected her to jump all over him, but as she turned, she just nodded.

Isard brandished a holoprojector remote control, then let a thin grin tug at the corners of her flatline mouth. “Good, Commander Dlarit is here, too. I only need do this once.” She stabbed the remote at an unseen receptor and suddenly Captain Sair Yonka appeared life size, standing before her. “This is a wonderful display of treachery.”

Yonka’s figure bowed to the room. “Madam Director Ysanne Isard, I regret not being able to bring you this message personally, but not that much. In the time I have been associated with you I have found you to be sociopathically self-centered, prone to irrational and impulsive reactions to situations, and prey to a preference for appearance over substance. I have no doubt these affectations were seen as skills by the late Emperor, and indeed may have enhanced your ability to comply with his orders, but by no means are these the traits that make for great, or even adequate leadership.”

Vorru killed the impulse to applaud. The fact that Sair Yonka wore a black suit of military styling, yet lacking any military insignia, struck Vorru as appropriate. Yonka was not abandoning his military background, just severing his connection to Isard. The first mynock to flee a ship burning into an atmosphere. Yonka’s tone of voice—even, but full of conviction—sharply contrasted with the fury clearly building in Isard.

“I have, upon reflection, come to the conclusion that further service to you would be to condone and support an evil that perhaps would seem insignificant when grouped with the Emperor, Darth Vader, and Prince Xizor. I sincerely doubt, however, the billions of victims who have suffered because of you would be so sanguine about you. I hereby resign your service and renounce allegiance to you and what you represent. The same goes for my crew, save those loyalists you had aboard the Avarice. When informed of the new order of things, they hijacked a Lambda-class shuttle and forced us to destroy them.”

Yonka clasped his hands behind his back. “I know your intent will be to hunt us down and exterminate us. There is no doubt that with the Virulence and Lusankya, you could do just that, but you won’t get that chance. Most of my career has been served in the Outer Rim—I know of worlds and systems that you could never find. Seek out the Avarice, and you will leave yourself vulnerable to enemies who can destroy you.”

The image faded to gray static, then evaporated, leaving Isard staring back toward Vorru. “You once told me he had a mistress, this Captain Yonka.”

Vorru nodded. “On Elshandruu Pica.”

“Have her killed.” Isard spoke softly, surprising Vorru with her ability to keep her anger from coloring her words. “And any children she has, any siblings, any family.”

“And not his family?”

Isard snorted harshly. “I got this hologram three hours ago. Extermination of the crew’s families began then. Do recall, as Director of Imperial Intelligence, I have been through this routine before. I happened to notice the information on Yonka’s mistress was not in his file. You were not collecting it for your own purposes, were you, Minister Vorru?”

The small man half-lidded his eyes. “Merely awaiting confirmation before I committed anything to bytes, Madam Director.” He opened his hands innocently. “I just wonder at your desire to go after his mistress. You don’t imagine she influenced him in this decision, do you?”

“No, of course not.” Isard folded her hands together. “She dies to cause him pain. Have her death holographed—I will play it for Yonka as I work on him.”

“As you wish, Madam Director.” Vorru bowed as he replied to her, but inside he felt only contempt for her. Aellyn Jandi will be far away and out of your grasp because it will frustrate you, Iceheart. “The Avarice’s departure puts us in a curious position. Our ability to guard our convoys has been halved, unless you plan to take the Lusankya out of orbit and press it into that duty.”

An eyebrow arched over her red eye. “And leave Thyferra vulnerable to an attack by Antilles or an uprising by the Ashern? You think me more mad than Yonka did.”

“Hardly that, Madam Director, just a person faced with difficult decisions.”

“This is why I have you to advise me, Vorru.” Isard glared at him, her gaze burning a blush onto his face. “You are correct—we cannot guard our bacta convoys and prevent an uprising here. Moreover, if we do nothing, Antilles will get bolder and might convince a number of worlds to throw in with him so they can take by force what we are afraid to ship out. That would destroy us. In the face of this I see only one clear choice.”

Vorru half-closed his eyes. She won’t surrender, so there must be some new atrocity she is planning.

Isard slowly smiled. “I believe it was you, Minister Vorru, who noted that we could not destroy Antilles until we determined where his base was. Your reports in regards to the search for that base, I have been told by you, have been fruitless because Antilles and his people are very cautious in how they accept goods from outsiders—only the people he trusts are allowed to come all the way into his base.”

Vorru nodded. “That is the problem, Madam Director.”

“No longer. Antilles could operate without taking chances because we gave him time to do so. I intend to deprive him of that time. The Rebels always worked best when no pressure was placed on them and they were allowed to operate on their own time scale.”

“You have found a way to make him act faster?” Erisi’s questioning tone underscored Vorru’s own thoughts. “Threatening an innocent world might do it, but to move sufficient forces there to do such a thing would leave Thyferra vulnerable.”

Isard barked a small, triumphant laugh. “You’ve not seen it, neither of you. I have found a way to pressure Antilles and make Thyferra more secure. I put together an analysis of the bacta production here and determined that the bacta industry needs only one point eight million Vratix to operate all the facilities we have at one hundred percent efficiency. This means there are a million surplus Vratix on the world. I have ordered the round-up and internment of a thousand Vratix a day for the next thirty days. At the end of that time I will have them all killed and begin collecting two thousand a day. I will continue in this manner until we have downsized our worker population or Antilles tries to stop me.”

Isard’s smile marked how proud she was of herself for coming up with the plan, and Vorru found himself inclined to agree with her. Its simplicity and elegance made it a plan that could be implemented immediately, and the deadline factor meant Antilles would have to react. This could bring him out after us and, if it does, expose his base to our ships.

Erisi raised a hand. “Madam Director, I am assuming you will present this policy and plan as something for Thyferran consumption only—making it appear as if it were being used as a means to suppress the Ashern. To challenge Antilles openly would be to raise his suspicion. He is not a stupid man, so he will be careful, but there is no need to make him think things through one more time.”

Vorru immediately chimed in. “An excellent suggestion, Madam Director. If news of the program comes from locals it might appear as if you were trying to keep it a secret. Antilles will certainly feel the pressure to intervene. An added benefit is that we will have increased chances to pick up on Antilles’s local covert communication network and disrupt it.”

“Indeed, those are added benefits. While I would hate to have it thought I was cravenly trying to hide information from Antilles, I could affect an air of disdain, as if the whole thing were, like him, beneath my notice.” Isard opened her hands, then pressed them together, fingertip to fingertip. “I approve of your amendments to my plan. We implement it tomorrow.”

Vorru smiled. “I will alert my operatives to be especially attentive to any of Antilles’s activities.”

Erisi mirrored his smile. “And my people will be ready to pit themselves against the Rogues, either here or at their lair.”

“Excellent.” Both of Isard’s hands curled down into fists. “A month. Antilles has a month yet to live. Then, once he is eliminated, the Empire will rise again and the natural order of things will again be established.”