He held his arms wide open for Mirax, but she poked a finger into his breastbone. "I don't think I'm talking to you, father."
Booster winced. "That formal, and that tone? What did I do?"
Mirax narrowed her brown eyes and folded her arms over her chest. "You had Baz watching us, that's what."
Her father looked confused for a moment. "But having the Verpine watch you and report on what was happening saved you from being taken away and killed."
Iella shook her head. "Booster, just leave it alone."
"No, just wait a minute there, Iella. Mirax is my daughter and I feel some responsibility for her safety."
Mirax looked at Iella. "He's following the script, isn't he?"
Booster's head came up and his eyes slitted. "Script? You two discussed how this chat would go?"
Iella nodded and tried to pull Booster away, deeper into the Imperial Star Destroyer's aft docking space. "We did, and you're following it too closely for my comfort."
He slipped his arm from her grip and posted his fists on his hips. "You have a problem with my having Baz watch you, Mirax?"
She studied her father for a moment, all tall and defiant, and felt years slip away. When she was a child he'd been her hero. He told great stories and lived large, talking to her of places she'd only visited in dreams. After her mother died, Booster used to take Mirax with him in the Pulsar Skate on any runs that he deemed safe. When she couldn't go with him, he left her with friends-including Wedge Antilles's family prior to the death of Wedge's folks. As a child she had worshiped her father and felt safe because he had been there to take care of her and protect her.
Then Hal Horn caught up with him and Booster was sent to the spice mines of Kessel for five years. Though not yet legally an adult, Mirax took command of the Pulsar Skate and built her own business. Instead of hauling highly illegal cargoes for next-to-no profit margin, she specialized in exotics for which people paid a great deal. Her father's reputation, and a certain amount of sympathy for his current situation, had given her a legitimacy and entree into the shadowy side of the Empire's economy, but she quickly made marks for herself and earned respect in her own right.
In short, while her father was on Kessel, she grew up from being his daughter into her own person. But he never saw that. I don't know if any father would, but I know mine didn't. Even after leaving Kessel he hadn't gotten in touch with her, and only a chance meeting a couple of years earlier on Tatooine had reunited them.
She purposely kept her voice soft, but she met his hard stare without flinching. "You're going to want to think a lot about what I'm going to say, Father, and that means you're going to want to listen, and then walk away to think. If you don't, you're going to get into a discussion you won't like and one you will lose. And you'll lose more than just the argument."
Booster slid his hands around to the small of his back. He glanced serenely around the Errant Venture's bay, nodding to a few people, waiting for the pace of activity to pick up again. He then nodded to his daughter. "Go ahead."
"I've never had any complaints about having you as my father. Your getting tossed into the spice mines didn't bother me. Your gruff bluster about Corran did grate a bit, but I understood. I have been overjoyed that you've come back into my life, and I'm very proud that you have the Errant Venture and are making it work. I'm proud to be your daughter, but I'm also more than your daughter."
Mirax turned back and patted Baz Korral on the arm. "Yes, having your friend keep an eye out for us did get us out of trouble. By the same token, for all we know, the presence of his Verpines in the building alerted the bad guys to something unusual going on. They might have been thinking Baz here was planning some sort of raid of his own, so they set a trap and we fell into it. While he did pull us out of trouble, it could very well be your meddling that got us into trouble.
"And, look, I know this isn't a male-female thing- though I do know you wouldn't have alerted Baz if Corran were going to Commenor on the same mission we were."
"True enough." Booster's expression tightened. "I'd have tipped the enemy he was coming."
"And break my heart? Thank you, Father."
"Mirax, you know I don't mean anything by that..."
"No, Father, you don't see that by making such cracks
you show you don't trust my judgment. You don't trust my choice of husband, and you didn't think Iella and I could handle ourselves on Commenor."
Booster frowned. "But you came here first, looking for help to get in."
"Right, and if we needed any more help, we would have asked." Mirax took a deep breath, and then let it out in a sigh. "Father, I've grown up. I'll always be your daughter, but I'm not your little girl. I'll accept your help when I need it, seek your counsel when I need it, and even listen to you when I don't, but Tdon't want you sneaking around behind my back to do things that you think need to be done. What would have happened if Iella and I spotted Baz's Verpines, decided they were part of the enemy, and killed them? If you have concerns about what I'm doing, let me know, and I'll decide what to do about them. And if I need you to help me, I'll ask, no problem. Do you understand?"
Booster's face remained a hard mask for a moment and Mirax knew she'd hurt him. Her heart ached and her stomach collapsed in on itself, but another part of her felt buoyed and free. The only problem with growing up in someone's shadow is that when you grow beyond it, everyone but the person casting the shadow can see how much you have changed. She reached a hand out toward her father and fought to control its trembling.
Booster cleared his throat, but kept his hands at the small of his back. "I can think a little bit faster than you probably imagine possible, Mirax, and I do know how to listen. I could tell you what billions of parents have told their kids: You'll always be my child, and I'll always worry about you. Thing is, you know that. How I deal with it may not always be right, from your point of view. But, in this case, you are right, I could have gotten you and Baz and Iella in trouble by asking him to do what I did. That won't happen again."
He reached out with his right hand and took hers into it. "You have grown up, and I know that. I'm proud of you. You can't know how it pleases me when people come here and identify me as 'Mirax Terrik's father.' It hurts a little, sure, and too much of it can be irritating, but I'll get used to it. And it will make me work harder to earn back my infamy.
"Thing of it is, Mirax, the five years I spent on Kessel were years I can't get back. You went from being my little girl to the woman you are now, and I never got a chance to get used to that idea. Don't know if I ever will. Don't know if I would ever want to. I figured I'd delay trying until I had no choice. Delay's over."
Mirax let Booster draw her into a hug, and she clung to him tightly. She said nothing and took refuge in his warmth and familiar scent, and then let the vibrations of his low chuckle run through her. She rubbed her hands along his back, and then slipped from his arms and looked up at him. "What's so funny?"
"I was just thinking that I knew a heck of a lot less about parenting than I did smuggling, but did better at parenting than I would have ever imagined."
Mirax smiled. "Just like you to take credit for the quality of the cargo when all you did was haul it around."
Booster withdrew, a mock look of shock on his face. "Surly children are never pleasant."
"That's all well and good, Booster, but we have other problems to deal with." Iella held up a datacard. "Before we got taken we copied an encrypted file onto this datacard. I need to slice it open and run it down, now. In addition, we have the identification cards for all the men Baz burned down. We need to check them to see if we can determine who they were and who they worked for."
Booster nodded. "Not a problem, we can get started after I treat all of you to dinner here on the Diamond level. After all you've been through, you must want something to eat."
"We're hungry, yes, Father." Mirax nodded, and then moved over beside Iella and headed toward her father's office. "We also
have work to do, important work. That datacard will confirm for us whether or not someone is setting a big trap for Rogue Squadron. No matter how good the meal, I'm not interested in delaying our work."
Booster turned, flung his arms wide, and settled around the shoulders of both women. "No, no indeed, no delay will be acceptable. Come, ladies, the resources of the Errant Venture are at your disposal, and I am at your service. Whatever you want or need you shall have, and anyone looking to ambush Wedge and his friends will have more trouble than they could ever expect."
Mirax stared at the data readout hovering in the air above the desk Iella had been given. Her father had provided them a suite of rooms on the level above the Diamond level. It was not as opulent as the luxury level below it, but it was quiet and traffic was restricted. I didn't even know it existed, but most of the other times I've been here I've been passing through or with Corran. That her father would keep a level hidden from her husband rather amused her.
The data did not. "Okay, let me see if I have all of this stuff straight. The financial records from Wooter's office indicate that payments were made through financial institutions located in the Corvis Minor system."
Iella swept a lock of golden brown hair behind an ear. "That's what it comes down to. The files your father has on this ship-both old Imp intel files and new stuff that he buys-make it look like the payments were part of an intel op, which would make sense. The money was being paid to house prisoners from the Lusankya, so it must have come from some resources Isard had hidden away."
"Okay, I'm with you there." Mirax pointed at a second set of data. "Now here you've matched dust samples laminated on the identification cards of the men in the alley with traces of mineral content from the bones of the prisoners dug up on Commenor."
"Not exactly. The forensics tech worked up a profile of oil composition needed to accomplish the decay and leave the correct trace elements on the bones. It matches the dust on the ID cards. Those two samples also match a planetoid in the Corvis Minor system: Distna, a moon orbiting the fifth planet in that system."
"Which is where you think the Lusankya prisoners are being housed."
Iella shook her head. "That's where I think someone- Isard-wants us to believe they're being housed. I think they're bait to get Rogue Squadron there and into a trap."
Mirax stood, a chill running through her. "We have to tell them."
"I tried. I tried the direct route and sending information through New Republic Intelligence. No reply." Iella hit a key on her datapad, killing the holographic datafeed. "I also spoke with your father, and that's why we entered hyperspace."
Mirax's comlink squawked. "Mirax, this is your father. Please join me on the bridge."
"On my way. Iella is coming, too."
"Good."
The two of them raced to the turbolift and ascended to the bridge. The lift opened and they stalked out to join Booster where he stood before the large viewport. Below the catwalk a variety of ship's officers carried out their duties. Beyond Booster the Errant Venture's bow sailed through a white tunnel of light.
Booster's expression appeared as grave as Mirax could ever remember seeing it. "Getting into Corvis Minor around the fifth planet will be difficult for a ship our size. Had we not been coming from Commenor, the trip would have taken another twelve hours. As it is, we will arrive at twenty-two hundred hours local time in a pole-to-pole orbit over the gas giant. My helmsman, Hassla'tak, says Distna will be in our forward arc for fifteen minutes if we do nothing."
Iella glanced at one of the duty stations down below. "Are all your guns operational?"
"Enough are. I have a squadron of uglies and two assault gunboats to keep us safe, and we do have an exit vector within five minutes of our arrival. I'm not worried."
/ am. Mirax reached out with both hands, grabbing her father's shoulder and Iella's hand. "The fact that we got here so easily from Commenor, does that suggest even more strongly we're looking at a trap?"
Booster snorted. "Sure, but the sort of trap that would catch a squadron isn't the kind that will get the Errant Venture."
"Ten seconds to reversion." The Twi'lek, Hassla'tak, twitched his lekku in time with his countdown. "Three, two, one..."
The white tunnel shattered into white needles that quickly resolved themselves into stars. Above the ship appeared the big gray-orange ball that was Corvis Minor V. Lightning played through the clouds in long jagged strings. Directly ahead lay Distna, a dark, rocky ball that looked completely devoid of life.
"Sithspawn!" Mirax stumbled forward to the trans-paristeel viewport and pressed her hands against it. "We're too late."
Some pieces spinning fast, others floating placidly, debris filled the space between the Errant Venture and Distna. Mirax recognized the blown-out ball cockpits of TIE fighters, and their octagonal wings. Melted and twisted twin hulls of TIE Bombers and fragments of Interceptors' canted wings also hung there. Among them drifted black-clad bodies, some intact, others in pieces, of the pilots who had flown those craft.
She also spotted the shattered hulks of at least two X-wings, and two bodies in the orange flight suits the Rogues wore. As she scanned space for other pieces, she saw debris flare in the distance as it slipped into the gas giant's atmosphere.
Then one piece of debris slowly tumbled toward the Errant Venture. When she caught sight of it her knees buckled and she slid to the decking. "No, Emperor's Black Bones, no!"
The S-foil had been painted green, and bore the distinctive markings that left little doubt it belonged to her husband's X-wing.
She felt Iella's hands on her shoulders and heard her father's gruff voice fill the bridge.
"Get recovery teams out there, now!" Booster snapped at his crew. "I want every piece of debris, every body, every-
thing. If there's a survivor he's worth a hundred thousand credits. Get it all, now. Reports come to me alone."
Above Mirax's outline, Booster's reflection filled the viewport. "I want to know what happened, who was responsible, and then we make them pay."
21
As his newly repaired X-wing reverted to realspace and the white tunnel of light came apart all around him, Corran Horn finally recalled the first mention he'd ever seen of the Corvis Minor system. It had taken him a while, but he'd had good reason to remember that little detail. Back when escaping from the Lusankya, he'd found a small holdout blaster in a box that was supposed to hold the datacards for a history of the system. I remember thinking then that if a blaster represented the system's history, it wasn't a vacation spot.
The uneasiness that memory brought him did not drain away. He checked his sensors and found Three Flight formed up around him. Wedge's One Flight had the lead and Janson's Two Flight had swung slow toward Distna. Nrin Vakil's snoopscoot flew to the rear of Two Flight.
The recon X-wing slowly started to play out a pair of sensor pods connected to the ship by thick cables. They gathered up data to be sorted and stored in computer equipment that occupied all the space that normally would have housed an X-wing's proton torpedo launchers. The recon ship also did without lasers because the charging coils leaked enough energy to overpower the sensitive probes the ship trailed.
If Nrin gets into trouble he can jettison the pods and run, but that's about it. Corran keyed his comm unit. "Nine here. Three Flight in and running. Rear scopes clear."
"Alpha operational. Pods locked in position. Commencing initial run now. Range to target, one thousand kilometers."
Nrin cruised the snoopscoot past Two Flight and flew it with a very gentle hand on the stick. Corran marveled at how the Quarren pilot put the ship through gentle turns and slow rolls that kept the pods spaced evenly apart. Though the pods were not that large-not much larger than spare fuel pods, in fact-trailing them out behind the fighter like that created all sorts of problems by altering the flight characteristics of the X-wing. While fighter jocks considered themselves the elite-and Nrin had ample kills in his history qualifying him as such-his a
dept handling of the recon ship showed how skilled a pilot he truly was.
"Alpha here, Lead."
"Go ahead, Alpha."
"I am negative for activity from Distna on first pass." Nrin hesitated for a moment. "I would like permission to come in at five hundred klicks. Storm activity in the gas giant may be masking energy readings from the moon's interior."
Tycho's voice came on the comm channel. "Lead, that close a run will move Alpha and escorts out of quick escape range."
"I copy, Two. Nine, please take Three Flight up to guarantee our exit vector."
"As ordered, Lead." Corran rolled starboard and pointed his fighter toward the gas giant. "Three Flight, we're holding the door open."
A series of double clicks on the comm channel confirmed his pilots' understanding of his orders. They spread out a bit and locked their S-foils into attack position. Ooryl remained in Corran's port rear quarter, while Inyri dropped into Asyr's starboard rear quarter.