rumble from his throat. "If you're too old for this, the New Republic might as
well give up now. Barring a squadron of Jedi Knights winging their way in here,
you're the best we've got. That may not impress you, but there are plenty of Imp
pilots out there who don't sleep the whole night through because of dreams
about you being on their tails."
31
Corran smiled as Erisi caught up with the group. "You did well in the sim,
Erisi."
"It felt strange trying to shoot you down."
"Emphasis on trying." Bror flashed a predatory grin at her. "You had no more
success than they will tomorrow."
Nawara Ven glowered at his wingman. "If you have found a way to shunt ego into
your shields, I wish you would share it with me."
Rhysati shook her head. "Just have him expand his shields to cover us all.
There's ego enough there."
Bror turned to Corran. "The mewing of our inferiors grows tiresome, don't you
think?"
The Corellian's mouth hung open for a second. He wasn't certain if he was more
surprised with Bror's put-down of the others or his own elevation into Bror's
peer group. "I wouldn't call it 'mewing' and I don't see them as our
'inferiors.' Everyone here has worked hard and come through a lot. Gavin and I
have both been wounded, as has Shiel, and only you and Rhysati have avoided
personal or ship dam-
age. We might have a few more kills than they do, but things will average out
over time."
The Thyferran looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. "That is something to
consider, certainly. And I did not mean my comment as a slight against any of
you, though clearly it was taken as such. I respect you all and believe you all
capable of more. I will be honored to fly with you tomorrow."
"On that note ..." Nawara Ven bowed his head to his companions, allowing his
brain tails to hang down over his shoulders. "I shall see you all in the
morning."
"Wait a moment." Rhysati held her hand out to him. "I'll head off, too. Get some
sleepwe'll need it."
Gavin smiled, then stretched and yawned. "I want to record a message for my
parents. Biggs never got the chance and that kind of ate at Uncle Huff."
Corran winked at the kid. "You'll make them proud, Gavin."
Bror bowed slightly. "I, too, shall record a message for my parents."
They all departed, leaving Corran alone with Erisi. "Well."
"Well, indeed, Corran." She reached out and took his left hand in hers. "I wish
I were going with you tomorrow."
"We'd be thankful for the help." Corran allowed her to gently pull him along
toward the accommodations she shared with Rhysati. "Given how things are
working out, you may be lucky that you're not going."
"Don't say that." Her voice dropped to near a whisper and a tear formed in the
corner of her right eye. "Worse than dying on this mission will be surviving it
here. If the mission fails, if you don't come
back, I'll be left wondering if I could have made a difference."
"Dying out there might be less emotionally trying, but I don't think it's the
lesser of two evils here."
She brushed the tear away. "You're correct, of course, and I'm being selfish."
Erisi stopped and turned to face him. "Doesn't it bother you that you don't even
know the name of the world where you could die?"
Actually, I do know the name of the world. Wedge and I are the only ones, though
I don't think that makes this mission any easier. "To be honest, Erisi, I hadn't
given it that much thought. The Imps there want me dead, and I don't feel too
friendly toward them, either. Where we end up fighting isn't all that important
to me."
"It's important to me." She began walking again. Her hand moved up to the inside
of his elbow and guided him forward. "If things go badly I thought I would visit
or make sure a memorial was raised. I ..."
Erisi's voice broke and Corran felt a shudder run through her. "Hey, Erisi, it's
all going to be fine. Remember when the Commander warned us that we'd never be
able to be greater heroes than the folks who have already died in service to
Rogue Squadron?"
"Yes," she sniffed.
"Well, he was wrong. We can be bigger, but only by living longer and doing
better than they ever did. As he was saying just now, in those days they fought
for survival. We're fighting for the future. If we do this right, Biggs and the
rest won't be remembered as Rogue Squadron's greatest heroes, but the
predecessors to Rogue Squadron's greatest heroes."
Corran gave her a strong smile. "I'm planning on sticking around to make that
prediction come true."
Erisi smiled, but the corners of her mouth trembled. "You probably will do
that, Corran. I hope it is so. I just wish I knew where the rest of you were
going. You aren't the least bit curious?"
"Maybe for my memoirs, sure." Corran reached up and wiped tears from her cheeks.
"They'll declassify the operation in fifty years or sojust in time for me to
include the location in my autobiography."
"Even if I had to wait fifty years, I'd have a memorial built for you." Erisi
paused before the open door to her quarters. "Corran, you know Rhysati isn't
going to be coming back here this evening. You can stay here, if you wish."
"I shouldn't, Erisi."
"Are you certain?" The disappointment in her voice twisted into forced levity.
"Think of it as a chapter for your memoirs."
"I have no doubt it would take two chapters." Corran sighed heavily. "I'm afraid
I'd get no sleep. That would kill me. I'd die happy, but I'm afraid our
compatriots would not."
Erisi nodded slowly and looked down. "I understand."
I've got to be insane. I've said "no" to one of the most desirable women I've
ever met. Corran smiled. Of course I'm crazy, I volunteered to go back to
Borleias.
"Why the smile?"
Corran stroked her cheek. "I was thinking you're ample incentive for me to do
everything I can to return."
Erisi leaned down and kissed him on the mouth. "Then if you do not return, I
shall feel horrible for the rest of my life."
"I can't have that, can I?"
"Certainly not." She kissed him again, then slowly pulled away from him. "Sleep
well tonight, Corran Horn, and fly the best you ever have tomorrow."
The door to her quarters closed and Corran turned to backtrack to the hallway
leading to the billet he shared with Ooryl. Though with Ooryl staying in the med
station so they can monitor his arm, I'll be all alone.
A jolt of fear ran through him and he almost turned around and went back to
Erisi. Since his father's death he had spent a lot of time alone. It wasn't
that they had been in each other's constant company, but just knowing he could
speak with his father, and that his father would understand his problems, meant
he didn't have to face them without help. Unlike most of the folks he knew, he
got along well with his father. They had their occasional fights, but nothing
that ripped apart the fabric of their relationship. That relationship,
strengthened by mutual grief when Corran's mother died, weathered all adversity
/>
and just grew stronger.
They'd always been like paired banthas yoked to the same gravsledge. Together
there had been nothing they could not accomplish. He realized that since his
father's death, he'd been trying to go forward as much as possible, but without
his father being there, he had a hard time figuring out exactly which way was
forward. Gil Bastra had tried to help him out, and had been very effective, but
since leaving CorSec, Corran had been without a moral compass. Actually, I've
had the moral compass, but I was so used to checking it against my father's
feelings on things, that I'm not certain it's still calibrated correctly.
Deep down he knew his father would have supported his decision to join the
Rebellion, but his ap-
proval would have been harder to earn. Corran felt fairly certain he could have
earned it, too, but death prevented him from knowing his father was still proud
of him. He knew his father would have thought the mission to Borleias was stupid
and needlessly dangerous, but he would have also been one of the first to
volunteer for it.
"I guess, old man, you really aren't gone." Corran fingered his medallion. "I've
got your sense of duty and your good luck charm. Definitely puts me ahead of the
game."
Corran opened the door to his quarters and hit the light switch. He'd already
unzipped his flight suit from throat to navel before he noticed the
blanket-shrouded lump on Ooryl's bunk stir. "How did you get in here?"
Mirax sat up and scooped long locks of black hair out of her face. "Your Gand
friend let me in."
"Where did you run into him?"
"Med-station. Coolant pump went in the Skate and flooded the ventilation system.
My droid is locking it down, but I got a lungful. He was there and recognized
me. The Emdees declared me healthy, but I couldn't go back to the Skate, and
with you staging for an operation, there's scant free space here. Since he's
staying with the doc droids, he offered me his billet." She yawned. "I agreed
since I assumed you'd be spending the night with the bacta queen."
Corran blinked at her. "You did?"
"I saw the look she gave you when I showed up on the Reprieve. She could teach
the average Hutt a thing or two about possessiveness."
He didn't like the smug tone in her voice. "You must have gotten more coolant
than you thought."
"How do you plot that?"
"I'm here, aren't I?"
"Hey, Corran, I'd be the first to say Hal Horn's boy was smarter than Erisi is
pretty."
"But you thought I'd be with her."
"Everyone makes mistakes, and you'd have been making one if you'd stayed with
her."
Corran shot Mirax a wry grin. "She's possessive and you're, what, being
protective!"
"There are only so many of us out here, Corran." Mirax plucked at the shoulder
of her sleeveless tunic. "She wouldn't be good for you."
"And who would? You?"
"In your dreams, CorSec."
The look of surprise on her face coincided with the remark's sting in his heart.
He wouldn't have thought so automatic a response, tossed off with the speed of a
reflex that had been well exercised, could have bothered him. In his previous
career he'd heard the same line delivered hundreds of times, with more and less
vehemence, by every creature that ever tried to get its mouth around Basic
words. He'd shrugged it off without really hearing it more times than he could
count.
The surprised expression she wore told him that she hadn't meant to speak
without thinking. She seemed to be second-guessing her comment as much as he was
wondering about the effect it had on him. The automatic dismissal hurts because
I expected to merit something more than that. And she shot back so sharply
because I dared suggest she wouldn't be better for me than Erisiand her own
reaction surprised her!
Corran crossed over and sat at the foot of Ooryl's bunk. "Look, Mirax, it's been
a long day and tomorrow is going to be tough. I meant no offense."
"I know. I was picking on someone in your unit. I'm a little mad at the
Thyferrans right now. The price of bacta is going upthey're blaming an Ashern
attack on a processing plant. I used to turn a tidy little profit on shipments,
but I can't raise the money to buy a lot. I'm left running foodstuff and parts,
which is not the way to get rich."
"I wish I could help."
"Sure you do." She shook her head, all the while smiling. "If I wanted to kill
my father I'd send him a holo and tell him Hal Horn's son said he wished he
could help me make some runs."
"Somewhere in orbit between Corellia and Selonia my father's ashes are trying to
recoalesce to stop me." He smiled and patted her blanketed knee. "I do mean it,
though."
"I believe you. Wherever you're going tomorrow, if you run into anyone on the
ground who can sign an exclusive import/export deal, think of me and get it on a
datacard."
"If I'm on the ground tomorrow, the only thing that will get exported is me, and
I'll be exported to Kessel."
"I'll make you a deal on the spice you dig up."
"You're all heart."
She drew her knees up and hugged them to her chest. "It's going to be nasty, is
it?"
"About the only thing we have going for us is that they don't know we're
coming."
"That's something, then." Mirax reached out and touched the medallion he wore.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"I don't know. It was my father's good luck charm." Corran took it off and
passed it to her, complete with the gold chain. "It's a coin in a collar that
lets me put it on a chain. My father used to
keep it in his pocket, but I lose things too easily like that. So what is it
that you think it is?"
Mirax turned it over and back in her palm and peered at it closely. "It's a
Jedcred."
"What?"
She frowned. "Jedcred is what my father used to call them; it comes from Jedi
credit. It looks like a coin but was really a commemorative medallion . struck
when a Corellian Jedi became a Master. A dozen or so would get minted and
distributed to family, close friends, the Jedi's Master, and favored students."
Corran raised an eyebrow. "How do you know so much about it?"
She smiled sweetly. "Have you forgotten, my dear, that I make my living by
bringing that which is ordinarily rare to those who want it? Collectibles like
these can fetch a fine price, especially since the Emperor cornered the market
on Jedi Knights. How did your father get it?"
"I don't really know." He thought for a moment. "I know my grandfather liaised
with the Jedi, to coordinate their actions with CorSec and had a good friend
among them, but that was back before the Clone Wars. I guess this guy was
someone he knew. He did say the only Jedi he knew well died in the Clone Wars."
She handed it back to him. "I hope it's a better luck charm for you than it was
for the Jedi whose face is on it."
He refastened it around his neck and relished the sensation of its weight
against his breastbone. "You're not alone in that hope." He stood and smo
thered
a yawn with his hand. "Sorry, that's not from talking with you."
"I know. It's late and the day's been exhausting."
"I'll get up early to record some messages, but right now I need my sleep."
"So do I."
"I'm just going to go over there and lie down."
"So I imagined." Mirax lay back down and pulled the blanket up under her chin.
Corran walked over to his bed, sat down, and kicked off his boots. He started to
pull off his flight suit but stopped when he noticed she was watching him. "I
thought you were going to go to sleep."
"I am, but I was just wondering ..."
"Yes?"
"Do you think you'll be warm enough tonight?"
Corran peeled his flight suit down to his waist, then snaked it down over the
lower half of his body. Her question sounded innocent enough, but the
inflection in her voice filled it with all sorts of innuendoes and
invitations. Visions of the two of them entwined together in his bed flashed
through his mind.
He was tempted. In her arms he could find sanctuary from the loneliness and
fear he felt, but what they would be doing he would be doing for himself. That
wouldn't be right.
"Yeah, Mirax, I think I will be warm enough."
"Oh, good." Mirax smiled at him as he pulled his sheets over himself. "I just
thought I'd ask."
"Thanks." He hit the light switch and the room went black.
"Corran?"
"Yes?"
"Are you sure you'll be warm enough?"
"Quite sure," he said, regretting each syllable.
"Good." Mischief shot through her voice. "Then you wouldn't mind tossing me your
spare blanket, would you?"
"Not at all." He laughed lightly and tossed the blanket from the foot of his bed
off into the darkness. "Good night, Ms. Terrik."
"Sleep tight, Mr. Horn. Tomorrow will be all clear skies and easy shots for
you."
32
Wedge pressed his thumb against the datapad screen offered to him by the Verpine
tech, Zraii. "Thanks for getting the auxiliary fuel pods on so quickly. It's
going to mean a lot on this mission."
The insectoid technician buzzed something at him, prompting Wedge to smile and
nod, since he had no idea what the tech was saying. He assumed it had something
to do with the ablative sheathes fitted over the nos e of the X-wings. It would
burn off as they entered Borleias's atmosphere, giving the snubfighters the