of it."
"As ordered, Wedge."
Looking back at Q5A7 and the surrounding area, Wedge saw a lot of fire and
rising columns of dense smoke to greet the dawn. Some small ships had set out
from the bay's marina and ground vehicles were beginning to fill the coastal
roadway heading north and south. Those who can get away are those who can't
will just wait in fear.
"Lead, this is Nine. The spaceport is clear. No hostiles and the traffic-control
tower is empty but intact."
Wedge smiled. "You got close enough to determine that, Nine?"
"Whistler has good distance processing equipment from stakeouts, Lead. He's
never been wrong before."
"I copy. Stay covering the spaceport."
"As ordered, Lead. Nine out."
Wedge punched up a new frequency on the comm unit. "Rogue leader to Taskforce
Bantha."
"Bantha here, Wedge. We can spot the city by the fires from up here."
"I don't doubt that at all, Booster. It could have been nastier but Iceheart
only had eight vape-bait pilots here. They're gone, so it's safe to have the
freighters come in."
"Our pleasure. Incoming."
Wedge smiled. During the two weeks the squadrons had trained for the raid,
Booster had arranged for a convoy of independent freighters and smugglers to
meet with him, Mirax, and the Pulsar Skate. He told them he'd get them all the
bacta they could haul provided they would keep what they earned as a credit
against his future demands. Some balked, but most came along, even though
Booster demanded they slave their navicomputers to the Skate's and fly blind
with him to their destination. When they arrived in the system and took up
positions in the asteroid rings around Qretu 5, Wedge and his people began their
run.
Wedge brought the fighter's nose up until it eclipsed the burning town and
started another turn over the ocean. Regret for the damage done to nonindustrial
targets began to eat at him. My parents died when a pirate took off from the
fueling station they ran, igniting the station. Down there could easily be
another kid who has just lost his parents in a blast we caused. I know what we
are doing is right and even necessary, but that doesn't lessen the pain or dull
the horror of the people on the ground. I have to believe that opposing Isard
and insulating billions of people from her evil is a great good, a vital good,
but I can never let myself think that it justifies inflicting pain on innocents.
It may well explain why it had to be done, but it can never justify it.
Even as revulsion for the fire and damage began to fill
him, sanity provided a means for draining it off. The key difference between us
and Isard is that she fully intended to do the most harm to the most people. We
did not. We chose our targets well, we set the attack for a time when casualties
would be minimized, and we have made no attempt to attack targets of opportunity
like the ships or landspeeders fleeing the town. We exerted as much control as
possible to keep the strike as clean as we could.
Wedge smiled. Then again, it was said that the Emperor's throne had been molded
of good intentions. We must take responsibility for what we've done on the
ground and repair what we can. If not, we do by negligence what Isard does in
malice.
He keyed the comm unit. "Booster, when you're on the ground, establish a contact
so reparation claims can be forwarded to us. I want survivors and orphans taken
care of."
"This isn't the Gus Treta station, Wedge."
"I know, but the kids on the ground don't have you to see them through the hard
times, do they?"
"I copy, Wedge. It will be done."
"Good." Wedge glanced again at the city, but the dawn had dulled the brightness
of the flames and showed him how much of the area had gone unharmed. "Booster,
make sure
they know we hit Q5A7 to hit Isard, and we'll only be back if
it's apparent she's dependent upon them again. Tell them
we're death itself for our enemies, but the best of friends to have for allies.
I'm sure they can figure out for themselves
how to join that latter class."
22
Mirax Terrik gave the rakishly good-looking man a dazzling smile as she stepped
into his office. "Talon Karrde, pleased to meet you again. I don't know if
you'll remember me . . ."
Karrde returned her smile, his pale blue eyes sparkling. "I could hardly forget
you, Mirax Terrik. Because of your efforts, those cases of Alderaanian wine
cost me well more than I had expected to pay." He took her right hand and gently
kissed ithis black moustache and goatee tickled her hand and fingers.
"I didn't realize you were the other person bidding for
them."
"But if you had, you'd not have fought any less tenaciously for them." Karrde
shrugged easily enough that Mirax was almost willing to believe he had dismissed
the matter. "What you cost me I put down as the fee paid for a lesson in dealing
with exotic items. If you weren't in the business of hauling things for the
Rebellion, I might have had a chance to test what I learned against you again."
"And my girl would have made you pay even more in your next meeting." Booster
Terrik rested his big hands on Mirax's shoulders. "I would have expected you to
be using
something bigger than an old hollowed-out asteroid for your headquarters,
Karrde. You can afford it."
"Pleased to see you again, too, Booster." The hint of a smile played across
Karrde's lips. "As for this asteroid, Tapper found it, but before he could
exploit it he ran into some Imperial problems. After our groups merged, he
brought it to my attention. We're using it until we find something more
suitable."
Quelev Tapper came around from behind Booster and stood next to the chair to the
left of Karrde's massive desk. "While most of the ore has been mined, there's
enough metal in the rock to give sensors trouble." Though as slender as Karrde,
and almost as handsome, Tapper's manner contrasted sharply with Karrde's polite
grace. "It will do in the interim."
Karrde opened his hands and indicated the pair of chairs facing the desk.
"Please, be seated."
Mirax accepted his invitation and looked around the office as she sat. The
chamber's stone walls had been smoothed to an obsidian glassiness, but still had
a significant texture in the bumps and recesses the mining process had left
behind. The room's furnishingscharacterized by Karrde's desk were heavy and
blocky, more of an industrial grade than they were elegant. Despite that,
however, the artifacts and items displayed on shelves and atop tables, did
provide an air of sophistication to the surroundings. Mirax noted on the
sideboard a cut-crystal decanter full of a pale green liquid and four goblets,
prompting a smile.
Karrde's gaze followed hers and he gave her a slight nod. "Might I offer you
some of the wine I paid so dearly for? The best is a dry green from Aldera."
Mirax nodded. "Please." She glanced at her father.
Booster perched in his chair as if it were a slender pole and he was a bird
topping it, but he nodded. "Thank you."
Karrde poured from the crystalline decanter. It looked to Mirax to be of Quarren
manufacture. She knew from the styling it came from Mon Calamari, but the purple
tint to the glass told her the Quarren had made it, not the Mon Cals.
Quarren crystal rarely makes it off Mon Calamari. Karrde definitely fishes for
items with a very wide and fine net.
She accepted her glass of wine from Karrde, then raised her glass with the
others as Karrde offered a toast. "May the bargaining be as sweet as the profit
and the next deal not long in coming."
In tasting the wine Mirax found it very dry, but surprisingly tart without
being truly sour. "Perfect with game."
Karrde sat at his desk and nodded. "I've heard it said this vintage was
originally intended for a banquet featuring krayt dragon."
"Oh? What happened, too much wine and not enough
krayt?"
"No, too much krayt and not enough hunter." Karrde held the glass up and let
light sparkle through the wine's receding legs. "The wine was ordered prior to
the hunt. The dragon got the hunter, and the widow used the vintage at the
memorial service. The wine won praises and since has been a very popular
vintage. This particular year was considered very good, but the wine laid down
the year of Alderaan's demise was supposed to be even better."
Booster cleared his voice. "It's amazing what you know, Karrde. I'm very
impressed. I was wondering if your encyclopedic knowledge includes where I can
get some supplies I need."
Karrde's blue eyes narrowed slightly. "You need or things Wedge Antilles needs?"
"They're things that are needed, Karrde." Booster brought his hands together.
"Let's trim some parsecs off the course of this conversation, shall we? You know
I think of you like the son I never had."
Karrde snorted. "Like the son you never had killed."
Mirax suppressed a laugh, and her father smiled. "True, I've not forgotten how
you managed to pick up pieces of my network while I was harvesting spice on
Kessel. That did anger me, but it also convinced me that Mirax was right in
wanting me to retire."
"Yet here you are bargaining for Antilles and his band of mercenaries."
Booster frowned. "They're not mercenaries."
"No?"
Mirax shook her head. "Actually, to be mercenaries, they'd have to be paid.
They're doing what they're doing because of obligations they feel to the Vratix
and others."
Karrde shot a glance at Tapper, then the two of them shook their heads.
"Idealists cause a lot of trouble in this galaxy."
"Just remember it was one of those idealists who killed Jabba."
"Good point, Booster, but I've got no desire to end up like Jabba."
"Nor will you." Booster sipped more of his wine. "Wedge and the others may be
idealists in some respects, but they're also practical when they need to be, and
I'm here to put that practicality into terms you can understand and respect.
What I'm looking for is missile- and torpedo-sensor packages, launch-tube
assemblies, and a supply of proton torpedoes and concussion missiles."
Mirax noted no reaction by Karrde, but Tapper's eyes widened quite a bit.
Karrde raised his hand to cover a yawn. "I've heard that you made a mess of the
bacta refinery on Qretu 5."
"Care to know how much bacta we hauled away?"
"I have my estimates. I also know where you sent a great
deal of it."
Mirax smiled. "It doesn't take a genius to know we've shipped a lot to
Coruscant."
"But it will take a genius to get the rest of it, eh?" Karrde
set his glass of wine down. "What sort of numbers are you
looking at with your equipment?"
Booster leaned back in his seat. "Three hundred launch-
ers and sensor packages fifty should be snubfighter systems,
the rest can be capital ship systems. Right now I want two
thousand proton torpedoes and a thousand concussion missiles, though I expect
those numbers to change." "Upward, of course." "Of course."
Karrde's expression sharpened. "You going to be arming your freighters,
Booster?"
"Try taking one of them off and find out, Karrde."
Talon Karrde smiled broadly. "I'm a smuggler, not a pirate."
"Thin line between them." Booster thrust his chin forward. "Pirate steals from
his suppliers, smuggler just cheats them."
"You've distilled that difference to its essence, Booster." Karrde sat back in
his chair. "You'll be paying with bacta?"
Booster nodded. "Not a problem, I assume?"
"Not really. The price now is so high that much of what I would be trading for
is being sold to buy bacta from the cartel. Oddly enough, with the New Republic
somewhat strapped for liquid capital, military surplus and munitions are
actually dropping in price. It's a buyer's market. I shouldn't be telling you
that, of course."
Mirax laughed. "Except you know we already know that, and you want to rub in the
fact that you'll be gouging us on the prices."
Karrde's eyes glittered with amusement. "She's very sharp, Booster. You should
be proud."
"I am. You can get us what we want?"
Karrde nodded. "Not all at once, of course."
"Installments are fine." Booster glanced at a thumbnail, then looked back up.
"Delivery will be a bit peculiar. We'll arrange for exchanges at various places
where your ships will offload material for us. We'll be transporting it to our
final destination ourselves."
"Not that you don't trust me."
"But we don't trust you." Booster smiled. "I know you've already learned more
about our operation than I wanted you to, and I also know that Vorru is trying
to learn as much about us as he can. I don't want you to find we're a commodity
you can trade to him for a profit."
Karrde held his hands up. "So far I have avoided taking sides in the civil war,
and I see this as a simple extension of it even though Antilles has resigned
from the New Republic's military. Since the cartel really isn't interested in
selling bacta
to me, and since you need my services, it isn't going to do me any good to
sacrifice you to them."
"Provided we still are a profit center for you."
Karrde frowned. "Booster, you make it sound like I don't value our history
together."
"Oh, I think you do, and the history of your making a profit off me is what you
value."
Mirax raised an eyebrow. "The fact that either one of you would sell the other
for a bucket of warm dewback drool isn't really germane here. Betting against
Wedge Antilles's abilities lost Iceheart the Imperial homeworld and sent her
packing for Thyferra. Talon, you're too smart not to back him, especially since
his victory will break the cartel and open up the bacta trade. A little
gratitude toward you from the Ashern rebels won't hurt when distribution is set
up."
"Point taken." Karrde picked up the datapad on his desk and punched a few keys.
"I'm going to have yo u liaise with Melina Carniss on the delivery details."
Booster frowned. "Carniss? I don't know her. Never heard of her."
"She work
ed for Jabba on Tatooine. She filled a niche that would have been in
the middle of his security apparatus, but she was Jabba's own agent. Formally,
she was his dance coordinator. Good head on her shoulders. She understands a lot
of the business, but is a bit shy on experience." Karrde stood and waved his
left hand toward the doorway. "Here she is. Come in, Melina, my dear. This is
Booster Terrik and his charming daughter, Mirax."
Mirax shook the woman's hand and returned her smile. Several inches shorter than
Mirax, Melina wore her dark hair in a rather short cut. It accentuated a white
stripe that started with scar tissue near the corner of Melina's right eye and
shot straight back beyond her ear. Her green eyes and full mouth made her pretty
and the way Tapper looked at her suggested he was smitten.
"Pleased to meet you both."
Karrde waited until Tapper slid a chair from over by the wall beside his own and
Melina seated herself before he continued. "Melina, you'll coordinate shipments
of material to
Booster. He'll give you the details. The cargo and the delivery points will be
hazardous, but we'll not charge him our normal rates for such things. He's part
of our familyalbeit a rather distantly related one."
She nodded. "I understand."
Mirax smiled. Great, this means what we don't pay for transport we will pay for
the cost of the items. And Karrde said it was a buyer's market.
Karrde looked up from his datapad. "Is there anything else you need, Booster?"
Tapper laughed. "Perhaps he wants Another Chance or the Death Star's womb. I
mean, as long as your aim is to break the Bacta Cartel, you might as well go in
for other things you can't get."
The brow over Booster's artificial left eye rose. "It's important in this
business for you to be able to tell fable from fact and wishing from thinking.
From what I've heard, about six months before I got out of Kessel, just after
the Imps hurt the Rebels at Derra IV but before they ran them off Hoth, some
treasure hunters searching the Alderaan graveyard found Another Chance and
turned the ship and its arms over to the Rebels. That's fact. The location of
the shipyard that built the Death Star is likely a fact as well, but it's one I
don't know and it's my wish that it's a fact that went to the grave with the
Emperor. I don't think that's likely.
"Now it's Iceheart's wish we won't break the cartel and destroy her power."