“Several of them must have gone off on the shuttle,” Leia said. From Terae’s comlink, she could hear reports coming in of sporadic fighting in the corridors and more surrenders.
Han continued, “And the cargo space has been converted to weapons and a tractor … Huh, this ship has a brig.”
Leia could see that the security controls were active in that section, the red outlines showing sealed doors. “I’ll check it out.”
Chewbacca turned to follow her and Terae said, “Fera, go with them.”
They made it down to the lower deck without much incident, Chewbacca flushing one lone Imperial out of a compartment so Leia could stun him. They reached the brig area, a secured junction with a containment field over the doorway and four sealed blast doors leading off it. Fera tried the control panel and grimaced. “It’s code-locked. Should I burn it?”
Leia’s heart pounded in hope. She lifted her comlink. “Han, can you open the security field to the brig section from there?”
The field fizzled and the hum died away. Leia stepped through to the first door, tapped the comm pad, and said, “Is anyone in there?”
An incredulous voice answered, “What—Princess Leia?”
Chewbacca stepped up beside her, lowing worriedly. Leia hit the release, and the door slid upward. She found herself staring at a small, crowded compartment filled with ragged Gamble crew members, their faces drawn with exhaustion, alight with startled hope.
“It’s good to see you all again,” Leia said. “Is General Willard with you?”
A woman struggled to her feet. “He’s here somewhere; we know they brought everyone.”
Leia heard Fera reporting to Terae, saying, “We have an unknown number of survivors and may need medical assistance.” She sounded as if she had reverted to her Alderaanian gunship crew training.
Leia stepped past her to hit the release on the next blast door, and Chewbacca turned to do the two against the far wall. As the third door went up, Leia heard Jerell call out, “Princess Leia!”
Inside the little cell, General Willard was sitting up, leaning back against the wall, battered but alive. She stepped into the cell and crouched beside him, taking his hand. “Are you all right?”
“I’m better now,” he told her, smiling. He looked up at Chewbacca, who leaned in the doorway. “I knew you’d find her.”
Chewbacca grumbled a triumphant acknowledgment. Leia asked “What happened?”
The general grimaced. “They had the right codes, and we let them on board. They killed the two crewmen on guard duty and took me hostage. It was not our finest moment. But Ilen managed to purge the comps just before they broke into auxiliary control, so they weren’t able to use any secure data in our systems.”
Jerell shifted uncomfortably, his expression caught between guilt and humiliation. “It was my fault. I checked their codes and let them in. I thought they were from a transport crew, sent to evacuate us.”
“We can go over it once we get back to the fleet,” Leia said, though the two additional casualties on the Gamble made her stomach twist. “For now, let’s get you out of here—”
Her comlink beeped urgently, and Han’s voice said, “Princess, we got a problem. I tried to hail the Falcon and I’m not getting any response.”
Luke became gradually aware that he was sitting up, slumped over in an acceleration seat, with sand all down the back of his shirt. His body felt heavy and numb, and his head ached, a tight pain right between his eyes. I was stunned, he thought, trying to remember how and why. Then things swam into focus and the numbness receded enough for him to realize he had binders locked around his wrists. He thought, Luke, you idiot.
He opened his eyes to see Kifar Itran seated across from him. They were on a ship, probably a small shuttle. Narrow ports farther forward showed the darkness of space, and Luke could just glimpse a cockpit through the open hatch. There was another human seated against the far wall, and eight more in jumpseats closer to the cockpit. They were all dressed in ordinary dark spacer clothes and there was nothing about them that said they were Imperial, except that their hair was cropped tightly and there was just something about them that was at odds with the spacer look.
Seated nearest Luke was a green Duros, casually holding a drawn blaster. A Duros whom Luke recognized. He groaned under his breath. It was the Duros who had tried to jump them at Arnot Station. He had been an Imperial agent, not a pirate.
“Your droid is stubborn,” Kifar said. “It wouldn’t let me back into the ship. Said you’d ordered it not to open the hatch to anyone but you.”
Good work, C-3PO, Luke thought. At least the Imperials hadn’t gotten the Falcon. “So you’re an Imperial agent,” he said. “The Princess thought you were just a coward who betrayed the mission the first time things got rough.” Leia hadn’t said anything of the kind, but there wasn’t much Luke could do at the moment except provoke Kifar.
Kifar’s expression tightened. “I did my job, and your Princess didn’t suspect a thing. I didn’t break; I made a deal with Viest. I told her she had a rebel Senator she could sell to the Empire, and in return she let me use her comm to call my commander and tell him the Gamble was on Arnot Station.” He smiled. “Worked out pretty well, didn’t it?”
“So far,” Luke admitted. He could see that the big-ego part of Kifar’s persona wasn’t an act put on for the Alliance personnel’s benefit. Kifar probably thought of himself as a hotshot agent, and here the Alliance had just shunted him off to transport duty all this time. “So you’re the one who told the Imperials where the Gamble would come out of hyperspace to receive the transmission.”
Kifar’s expression wasn’t quite a smirk, but it was definitely in the vicinity. “I just had time for a quick call to my commander, but it did the job.”
That was good to know. At least the Alliance could trust their communication chain again. If Luke could ever get this information to anybody. “So what’s the plan now?”
Kifar’s face went hard, and he threw a tight glance at the Duros. The Duros laughed, a short, bitter exhalation, and said, “That’s a good question.”
Kifar sneered. “Shut it, Trehar. If you hadn’t lost him and the Wookiee on the station—”
Trehar cut him off. “If I hadn’t lost them, Degoren wouldn’t have had to rely on you, and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Baffled, Luke looked from Trehar to Kifar. Then he got it. Han was right, Kifar is a screwup. “You never had a chance to warn them about the plan to take their ship with the Aegis, did you? Not till you stunned me. And then you couldn’t use the Falcon’s comm, and my comlink didn’t have the range to reach the ship, so you had to wait for the shuttle to land.”
“I didn’t have a chance,” Kifar said. “If I’d taken control of the smugglers’ ship on the way down to the planet, they would have known something was wrong when the distress beacon didn’t go off, and they would have made a run for it.”
It was Luke’s turn to snort derisively. He knew Leia and Han and the others wouldn’t have run, and if Kifar actually thought that it was likely, he was a lousy judge of character. He’s a lousy judge of a lot of things. But if the distress beacon hadn’t started broadcasting as planned, Leia would have gotten suspicious and might have sent one of the Aegis’s shuttles after them.
But his gratification in Kifar’s lack of judgment faded as Trehar said, “You’re lucky our backup is almost here.”
“Backup?” Luke said.
Leia headed back to the bridge at a run, Chewbacca jogging behind her. “It might be the planet’s damping field,” she told him, “interfering with voice transmission.”
Chewbacca’s skeptical-sounding snort implied that this was highly unlikely.
Leia had to admit that she really didn’t think so, either.
They reached the bridge, and she saw immediately from Han’s expression that it was worse. Terae stood at his shoulder, and stepped away to tell Leia, “The shuttle is on its way back and we’ve receive
d a hail from that Commander Degoren.”
Leia’s heart sank. It didn’t work—they’re back too soon. Degoren would have been able to get a sensor image of his ship as soon as he cleared the planet’s field, and seen the Aegis locked on. He should have been running, and he wasn’t. “Did he say anything about the Falcon?”
Terae shook her head. “Not yet. Solo’s stalling him, trying to get him to talk, but it’s not working. I’ve got Captain Kelvan patched in on the frequency, but no one’s spoken to Degoren except Solo.”
“Good.” Leia went to Han’s side. He had the headset on and was saying, “We were just cruising through the system and stumbled on it. If you didn’t want somebody to take it, you shouldn’t have left it lying around.”
Leia picked up the other headset and held it to her ear. Chewbacca stepped up behind her, looming and breathing heavily, and leaned down to listen in. She recognized Degoren’s voice immediately. He said, “Let me speak to your commander. You’ve made a tactical error, but we can still negotiate.” His voice was smooth, and he sounded far too calm.
Leia muted the comm and asked Han, “Did he admit to being an Imperial agent?”
“No, he’s playing for time,” Han said, and she could tell his frustration was hiding deep worry. “I think he’s got help on the way.”
Chewbacca lowed anxiously and Terae turned to the sensor suite, expanding the field of view. Leia said, “Then we need to move fast.” And she needed to find out if Degoren had discovered the Falcon.
She took the mute off and made her voice hard. “We’ve taken your ship, Commander Degoren. Surrender your shuttle immediately, or we’ll blow you to pieces.”
There was a slight pause. “You won’t do that, Organa.”
He’s not surprised about this, Leia thought. He’s angry but not surprised. That was a very bad sign. “I will, actually.” She spoke to Terae, carefully not muting the comm frequency. “Are the concussion missiles ready to fire?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Terae gestured sharply and one of the crew members dropped into the weapons station chair, hesitated for a moment over the unfamiliar board, then started the charge sequence.
“We have two of your people aboard,” Degoren said. “Kifar Itran and Luke Skywalker. But I’m perfectly willing to trade them for my ship. You can even take the other rebel prisoners on board; I won’t protest.”
Leia grimaced, Chewbacca made a faint noise of dismay, and Han swore under his breath. She thought, Yes, that’s what I was afraid of. And Degoren was definitely stalling them. A prisoner transfer would take time, and that was what Degoren wanted. She made her voice hesitant. “Give us a moment to discuss it.”
“Make it quick, I’m impatient,” Degoren said.
Leia hit the mute on the comm. “He must have another ship en route. We can take that shuttle, but we need to move fast. Terae, we need the Aegis.”
Terae hit the all-ship comm, speaking to all the crew still aboard. “We need to transfer command of this ship to the Alliance personnel. Get the rest of the Imperials to the brig and then get back to the Aegis. Transfer our casualties first. Move!”
Han leaned over to the comm to add, “Ilen, Barani, if you’re still alive, get up here! Every Gamble crew member who can operate a station, find a station and operate it!”
Leia held up a hand for quiet and opened the frequency again. She said, “Very well, Degoren. I’ll release your ship and crew in exchange for my people. Why don’t you dock with your ship and we’ll make the exchange.”
Fera arrived, waving a comlink and making frantic motions at Leia. Leia muted the comm and Fera said, “I can transfer the connection here, to the Aegis’s comm system, and you can keep talking and he won’t realize you aren’t still on the bridge—”
“Do it.” Leia opened the frequency again as Degoren was replying, “I don’t think I’m quite that foolish, Organa. You’ll have to come up with another arrangement.”
Ilen and Barani appeared at the entrance to the bridge. Both looked bedraggled and exhausted. Ilen gasped, “Princess!”
Leia motioned for him to be quiet. Han shoved out of the pilot’s station and signaled for them to take the stations. To Degoren, Leia said, “Perhaps we could both land on the planet.”
Fera returned with the comlink and mouthed the word, “Ready.”
Leia pointed urgently for her to go ahead. Any moment, Degoren was going to realize she was stalling, too.
Fera worked over the comm board for a moment, then plucked the headset off Leia’s head, switched it off, and handed Leia the comlink. Leia heard Degoren, unconscious of the interruption, say, “That might be amenable. But how do I know it isn’t a trick? There is some sort of sensor-blocking field in effect on the surface.”
Han was already off the bridge, and Chewbacca stood in the doorway, shaking his bowcaster for Leia to hurry. “Let me discuss it with my crew,” Leia said. “Perhaps we can find a way to reassure you.” She muted the comlink and ran, with Terae and Fera and the other Aegis crew members on her heels.
She encountered General Willard and Jerell at the first junction, with engineer Sorel and the medic, Sarit. Han was there, explaining the situation briefly. The general nodded and said to Leia, “You’re going on the Aegis?”
“Yes, and I want you to take this ship into hyperspace and head back to the fleet.”
General Willard drew breath and Leia was certain he meant to argue with her. Conscious of their already small window of opportunity rapidly closing, she said, “Degoren has another ship en route and we have no idea what kind of firepower we’re facing. I’m going to retrieve Luke and Kifar and then we’ll be right behind you. You have to trust me to—”
The general held up a hand to stop the rush of words. “I trust you. Now go get our people so you can get out of here. If I have to come back for you, you’ll never hear the end of it.”
Leia hadn’t been aware that she needed to hear something like that until he said it. She nodded sharply. “I’ll see you on the Independence.”
She and the others ran down the corridor. They passed other Gamble crew members, running or limping toward the bridge, to the weapons stations, or down toward engineering, and Aegis crew heading for the hatch connection. Everyone looked frantic and determined but not panicked. Leia felt she was panicking enough for everybody and wondered if all the others were just as good at hiding it as her. Luke. You have to get him back. If Degoren left the system with him, she would never be able to find him; he would be questioned, tortured. I can’t lose him.
And it was her fault he had been captured. The more she thought about Degoren’s appearance on the scene, what he had seemed to anticipate and what he hadn’t, she suspected she had made a key and possibly devastating error in judgment.
Terae took a report on another comlink frequency and told Leia, “The Imperial crew is accounted for as best we can and secured in the brig. We think they have ten crew members in that shuttle, plus Degoren.”
A crewman stood at the Aegis’s hatch with a datapad, efficiently checking off the crew as they returned. Sian and R2-D2 waited beside him. Leia said, “You two, get to the bridge. The Gamble’s crew is going to need help up there.”
R2 trundled off obediently, but Sian followed Leia through to the Aegis. Leia stopped her and said, “I meant you, too.”
“I know,” Sian said, “but I’m sticking with you.” She jerked her head, indicating the Aegis and its failure so far to take advantage of the situation for profit. “You’ve been right so far.”
Leia appreciated the vote of confidence, but she didn’t think she deserved it. “I think I’ve been very wrong about one thing,” she said, as she started after Terae.
Han glanced back at her. “You think Itran talked again.”
“I’m worried he did more than that.” She watched him as they hurried down the corridor. “You haven’t said anything about the Falcon yet.” There had been no sign of the ship on the sensors, and Leia hoped that meant the Impe
rials had left it down on the planet, undamaged.
Chewbacca made a worried noise in his throat, and Han said grimly, “If anything’s happened to it, guess what you owe me?”
Leia didn’t need to guess. “If anything’s happened to it, you can have the Darsumae.” And if anything’s happened to Luke, I’ll have Degoren’s head.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
WHEN THEY REACHED the junction that led to the bridge forward corridor, Leia held up a hand for quiet. She unmuted the comlink and said, “Commander Degoren, before we release your ship, we’d like some assurance that our people are still alive. Let me speak to Skywalker.”
“You have no need to doubt my word. But I’ll let you speak to Itran.”
Right, Leia thought. “Give me a moment, please.” She muted the comlink again and kept walking.
As the blast door to the bridge opened, Kelvan turned toward her. He was listening to a comm headset and told her, “The last of the crew is aboard and we’ve started to disengage the hatches. The Darsumae has been redesignated Gamble Two, and the pilot reports that they are configuring their jump and will enter hyperspace per your orders on our signal.”
Terae reached the sensor station and said, “Shuttle is still holding position.”
“Good.” Leia lifted the comlink that connected her to Degoren, then hesitated. How sure are you, Leia? This sure, at least. She told Han, “Call General Willard on a secure frequency and tell him that if Kifar Itran shows up at the fleet without us, then he’s probably an Imperial agent.”
Han’s expression went through several complicated changes, then he set his jaw. “Well, that explains a lot. He wanted the two of us to break open the slave pen, said he didn’t trust the Aegis’s crew. But he must have thought he could get rid of me and find a comm system somewhere.”
Sian stared in shock. “But he … The whole time he was … Oh, no. That’s how they found the Gamble on Arnot Station.”
Chewbacca drew his lips back in a grimace and made a comment that sounded remarkably accusing. Han glared at him. “It’s not my fault. How was I supposed to know?”