"That a problem for you?" I narrowed my eyes.
"Well, it won't be easy."
"Yeah, well, if it was easy, it wouldn't be worth doing." I gave him a shove toward the front of the shuttle. "You just plot me a course and get me an exit vector. I'll get us on it and we'll all ,,et out of here."
He glanced back at me. "Sir, even a Rogue Squadron pilot couldn't get us out of here. I know."
"And after this, you'll know some more." I patted him on the back. "Strap in, son, you're in for the ride of your life."
I dropped into the cockpit com-mand chair, pulled on the communications headset and started hitting switches. The layout hadn't been modified much from that of the shuttle I'd flown to Yavin. I noticed the weapons-control panel had been replaced with something labeled "En-tertainment system." Shrugging, I punched a button and started some holodrama playing in the back.
Keevy sat across from me in the navigator's position. He strapped in and sat there for a moment, then looked up and froze.
The Invidious hung out there in space, its dagger shape de-emphasized since we were looking at a profile shot of the ship. Its deck plane lay slightly below ours-if we took off in a straight line we'd pass a good hundred meters over the top of the ship's main decks. I eyed the ship the way I would have were I sitting in an X-wing's cockpit, checking the guns, locat-ing the shield generators. On a secondary monitor I brought up a scan of the Invidious and saw it didn't have shields up.
Just one proton torpedo and you'd pay' for that a~ogance, Tarira. I glanced over at Keevy, but he'd not moved. "Problem, Keevy?"
He blinked and shivered. "No, sorry."
"You can use the navicomp?"
"Yeah, sure." He started punching buttons. "Where to?" "Short hop out to the edge of the system, then double back across it. From there we head out." I frowned and thought for a second. "Get us into the Quence Sector, Elshandruu Pica. I have friends there."
"Okay. Courses being plotted now."
My console beeped and I saw the gangway had been re-tracted. "Keevy, hit the green button over there."
He looked up and punched the button that released our docking claws and retracted them. "Done."
£ `Good. On your right, the inertial compensation unit. For the cockpit, dial it back to.95. For the passengers, keep it at full." I glanced around. "We have to have shields here some-where, don't we?"
Keevy smiled. "Over here, I've got them. Hey, these are Chepat Supreme Defender models. Very nice."
"I hope we don't need them." I punched the ignition switch, powering up the main drive unit and shunted power to the repulsorlift coils. I hit the button for the ship's intercom and tried to keep my voice light. "We're on our way. Sit tight and you shouldn't feel a thing."
I hit a button on the comm unit to try to make a call for help, but a hideous screeching filled the headset's earpieces. "They're jamming the comm channels." I snapped the comm unit's jamming filter on, which killed the screech.
Keevy's eyes widened. "We can't summon help."
"Nope, we're really on our own." Of course, if help was close enough to summon, Tarira would be out of here rely fast. The fact dlat she's actually here means there's no rescue coming.
Annissya came into the cockpit and strapped herself into the ,jumpseat I'd been offered earlier. "Everyone is seated and braced."
"Okay." I took a moment, concentrated, then nodded.
"Keevy, first heading."
"Course two two three, angle three one five."
"I copy. Power to shields."
"Shields full."
"Annissya, can you hit the scan-recorder? I want to pull in as much data as I can while we head out."
I settled my hands on the steering yoke and stared out at the Im'idious. "Here we go."
I nudged the throttle forward and pulled back on the yoke, lifting the nose. As it came up and the Palette slipped away beneath us, I hit the switch to lower the wings and lock them into place. I knew that if our raising the shields had not alerted the Invidious to the fact that something was wrong, lowering our wings certainly would. A glance at my tactical screen showed three Tri-fighters breaking off a patrol and beginning to vector in on us.
The wings locked down, so I shoved the throttle to full, then pitched the ship forward into a dive.
Our comm unit crackled as the jamming faded on the emer-gency comm frequency. "Shuttle Tinta Blue, this is the Invidi-ous. Stop now and we won't destroy you."
Keevy stared at me, horrified. "Shouldn't you say something to them?"
I nodded toward the comm headset at Keevy's side. "You talk to them." "Me?"
"I'm busy here." I rolled the shuttle and pulled back on the yoke, curling us up and out away from our dive. An old Corel-lian corvette had moved to block our course, and filled space around us with ruby shafts of light. I saw two blue ion bolts shoot past, so I hit the etheric rudder and rolled to starboard, breaking us off the glide path we'd been on. I broke back to port again with a snaproll, pulled the nose up for a second, then jammed the yoke forward again.
This left us with the b~vidious filling our viewscreens. The ship's heavy turbolasers turned inward, trying to shoot at us, but we'd gotten in close enough that the side-mounted guns had trouble tracking us. Better yet, the light show they created in trying to shoot us had caused the clutches to break off for a moment.
Keevy donned the headset. "This is Tinta Blue Seven, Invidi-OILS."
"Lovely," I muttered. "Gonna ask if their intentions are hon-orable?"
He shrugged. "Are your intentions honorable?"
"Tinta Blue, are you insane, or trying to commit suicide?"
Keevy frowned. "A rather tautological question, isn't it?" The blubbered sounds of confusion from the Invidious' corem officer prompted me to smile. "Way to keep them guess-ing, Keevy."
The smile growing on his face died abruptly as an angry fe-male voice came onto the frequency. "This is Admiral Tavira, Tinta Blue. We are not playing games."
I held a hand up to quiet Keevy. "Sorry, Admiral, we are. Catch us if you can." I punched the comm unit's power button, shutting it down, then rolled the shuttle so we skimmed along belly to belly with the Invidious. I yanked back on the yoke to get us pointed away from the Star Destroyer, then cranked the controls slightly to port, starting the ship in a flailing spiral that made stars into white circles before us.
When we could see them between scarlet sheets of turbo-laserfire, that was.
Keevy braced himself as if the convergence of the ship's port and starboard beams were a wall we were going to slam into. "We're going to die!"
"Not even half way." I chopped the throttle back, reversed thrust for two seconds, then kicked it full again and straight-ened our flight. Ship's turbolasers flashed in at us and the Chepat shields crackled as some of them grazed us, but we sailed on through with our hull intact. Once past the point of convergence, I started the shuttle weaving again. "Engage the hyperdrive when we're clear, Keevy."
The young man stared at me. "How did we... ?"
"Later." I gave him a reassuring smile, and felt a lot of relief inside as well. I'd been treating the shuttle as I would a fighter-albeit a big, slow, wallowing monster of a fghter. Its handling reminded me of that of a Y-wing, actually, but slower and more clumsy. It wasn't an elegant craft, and was never meant to be.
The fact was, though, that it was a big craft with huge shield generators. Surviving a direct hit by a Star Destroyer salvo would have been impossible, but the reverse-thrust flutter there threw off the Invidious' gunners enough that their shots didn't all arrive at the same time. We lost a lot of shield power, but they didn't collapse, so we got away. While big and slow, the one advantage the shuttle had over a fighter was its ability to survive damage.
Keevy threw the hyperdrive lever and the stars lengthened into a tunnel for a couple of seconds, then snapped back to pinpoints as we reverted to realspace. "New heading is Course one three seven, angle zero four five."
"I copy." I
pulled back on the yoke and brought the ship around to starboard. I glanced at my tactical screen. "We're clear and good to go. Keevy, if you will do the honors."
Keevy threw the lever again and we were off. At the far side of the system we made another course correction, then settled in for the journey to Elshandruu Pica. I'd been there once be-fore, back when the squadron was off on its own, fighting Ysanne Isard for control of the bacta cartel. Keevy, with his interest in Rogue Squadron, knew all about Elshandruu Pica, and regaled Annissya and me with the story of Rogue Squad-ron's adventure there.
His recounting of the story actually took longer than the whole operation, but we had time to kill. And by the end of it, of course, Annissya wanted to kill poor Keevy.
We reverted to realspace and I set us on a course for the Emant Ventttre. I had gambled on its being here and was happy to see it in-system. Kina Margath owns a resort complex on Elshandruu Pica and is a connoisseur of all things fine and exotic, which means Booster finds her almost as charming as the money she pays him. The 27th Hour Club at her resort has a standing challenge to patrons to name a drink the staff cannot mix, and if they can, the patron's bar tab is on the house. Booster regu-larly supplies her with recipes of new drinks and the liquor used to make them up. I also think Booster has a thing for Kina, but Mirax thinks she's too young for her father, so I don't bring that subject up very often.
During Keevy's long recitation of the Elshandruu Pica mis-sion, I keyed in and prepared to shoot to the E~ant Venture a report on why we were there and what I wanted out of Booster. I shot it off as we made a slow approach, waited about fifteen minutes for Booster to have read it and set preparations in motion, and then called in for permission to dock on the Fen-Illre.
The Tinta Blue obtained immediate clearance to land and I set the shuttle down within a hundred meters of the Head-hunter. Booster himself emerged from his office, resplendent in some very flashy and stylish, though hideously bright, clothes. He greeted each of the passengers warmly himself, promising them the finest of accommodations after their frightful ordeal. He had some of his people take the passengers immediately up to the Diamond Level, and Annissya with them, leaving Keevy and me at the shuttle.
Booster introduced himself to Keevy and the younger man's eyes lit up. "You're Corran Horn's father-in-law!"
"He's married to my daughter, yes." Booster managed to
keep a smile on his face. "I have a report from Idanian here
that you know your way around astronavigational equipment. Is that true?"
Keevy blinked once, then nodded. "A ship like this uses the Seinar Starpath system, doesn't it?"
"It does indeed." Booster smiled in my direction. "He's a genius, clearly."
"I thought you might think so." I patted Keevy on the shoul-der. "Got us out of a nasty scrape with the Invids. I was think-ing, if the Tinta Line does not offer him a job, you might have work for him here."
"Here, on the E~rant Ventura?! Me? Here? On this ship that won the battle of Thyferra?" Keevy clung by his fingertips to his lower lip. "That wouldn't be possible, would it? I mean, this ship's history and its history with Rogue Squadron, and all the things you've done with it since then, this would be like being in a museum or a fantasy or both, a fantasy museum."
Booster's eyes narrowed, but he kept the smile on his face.
"We shall talk about this, but for now, Kee.vy, you are my guest.
Hassla'tak, conduct Keevy Spart here to our Emerald Suite."
Hassla'tak, a Twi'lek whose lekku were twitching like needle-stuck snakes, waved Keevy toward the turbolifts. I heard Keevy begin to pepper him with questions, but the Twi'lek just an-swered in his own tongue.
Booster winced. "Haven't heard Hassla'tak use that kind of language since the last Sullustan gambling junket came through."
"Keevy can be a bit much. Thanks for not letting him know who I am."
"You owe me."
"Put it on my tab." I jerked a thumb back at the shuttle. "I need your people to pull the scanner memory and see if any of the Invid ships can tip us to where they're hiding."
"I'11 have it done, first thing." Booster regarded me carefully. "Mara Jade is here. She and Calrissian arrived asking questions about Jori Car'das. Lando is up on the Diamond Level at-tempting to break the bank." Irritation underscored his words. "How close is he?"
Booster shrugged. "Not very, but closer than I'd like. I think, though, I will introduce him to your friend Keevy."
"Sure, just tell Keevy this is his chance to get Lando's per-spective on having helped Wedge Antilles blow the Death Star at Endor."
"Oooh, even your father wasn't that cruel, CorSec."
"You bring the best out in me, Booster." I glanced over at the Headhunter. "Is Mara angry about her ship?"
"Doesn't seem to be, but she does want to speak with you. She seemed to know you were on this shuttle before you sent word." His eyes narrowed. "She couldn't be using Jedi stuff to help Lando win, could she?"
"Frankly, I think she'd like to buy Lando for what she thinks he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth." I smiled. "I don't think she's helping him."
Beyond Booster I saw a turbolift open and Mara Jade emerged from it. She headed straight for the two of us with just a hint of stiffness in her gait. That didn't strike me as odd about her, but her selection of clothes did seem inappropriate. The black slacks and copper tunic seemed a bit mannish, though the way she wore the short black cape slung so it covered the right side of her torso only did seem rather fashionable. I didn't see her lightsaber in evidence, but it could easily have been con-cealed beneath the cape.
Booster bowed. "I shall leave the two of you to talk while I see to Calrissian's comfort."
Mara growled. "Don't concern yourself that much with it."
I arched an eyebrow at her. "Aren't you in some sort of business with him'?"
"Some sort, yes." She gave me a disgusted look and plucked at her clothes. "We arrive here and he offers to get me more suitable attire, carting away what little of a wardrobe I already have. The tailor here sent up to my suite a whole rack of gowns and other things Lando wishes I'd wear around him. I retaliated by raiding his clothes closet. He's got good taste in fabric, but the tunics are a bit tight in the shoulders for me." I laughed. "I bet he loves that."
"He doesn't, which is why I'll keep borrowing his stuff from time to time." The slight hint of a smile on her face slowly died. "How was Luke when you left the academy?"
I shrugged. "Physically he's recovered from his ordeal."
Mara gave me a sidelong glance. "Mentally?"
"He's got questions, some of which he knows he has, some which he doesn't." I folded my arms across my chest. "He was pleased that you checked to make certain he was going to be all right before you left Yavin 4; but he was confused that you didn't stay until he was up and about again. You actually spent more time with me during my recovery than you did with him."
Her head came up. "He doesn't think there's something be-tween you and me, does he?"
"I saw no indication of that being the case." I smiled and started walking over to the Headhunter. "He knows the two of us and knows it would never work between us. You and I, we can be comrades in arms and even friends."
"Right, but inside we're coiled springs that are wound in the opposite directions." Her smile struggled back onto her face as she fell into step with me. "If we got close, it'd be an awful mess."
I nodded. "And we'd end up broken."
"And then your wife would kill us."
"Another good point." I shivered. "Back to your question, though: Luke is enthused about the academy and how well the students did in defeating Exar Kun. When I left, though, I did kind of give him a turbolaser critique of the school and, well, everything, I guess." "Everything?"
I frowned and leaned against the Headhunter's forward land-ing gear. "Luke suggested that if I left the academy when I did, I'd be making a huge mistake and that I'd fall prey to the dark side. I
pretty much let him have it, pointing out that I've been to the dark side and walked away plenty of times before. I think Luke worked so hard to win his father back, and then found himself won back by his sister's love that his perspective on the dark side is skewed."
She watched me very closely. "What do you mean?"
I opened my arms. "Let's suppose Jedi are like everyone else except in their Force sensitivity. If they are, then there are going to be some folks who pretty much are born to the dark side and that's where they stay. They like it there and they never learn there is another place to go. Let's say this is ten percent of the population. Then there is another ten percent at the other end of the spectrum who start on the good side of things and just never head over toward the bad side.