Star Wars - X-Wing - The Bacta War

  "What about your grandfather, Rostek Horn?"

  "He's on Corellia, under the Diktat. I haven't had a chance to communicate with

  him. Perhaps when this is all

  over, that's an option. Still, I would have liked to hear my father talk about

  his father."

  Whistler tootled.

  Corran glanced at his monitor. "Whistler, what do you mean by 'All you have to

  do is ask'?"

  The droid hooted at him.

  "Okay, so the statement is self-explanatory. What will happen if I ask?"

  Whistler piped a triumphant tune.

  "What's Whistler saying, Corran?"

  "Just a second, Mirax." Corran reached out and ran a finger beneath the letters

  glowing on his monitor. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. My father

  encrypted a holographic file and loaded it into Whistler. Apparently he did

  this back when I joined CorSecthough Whistler says the message was recorded

  well before thatin case anything happened to him. Whistler says he was

  instructed to play the file for me at any point where I asked about it and could

  provide the encryption key. I'm going to assume the key is either Nejaa Halcyon

  or my father's true name, Valin Halcyon."

  Even as Corran explained to Mirax what the droid was telling him, a chill

  puckered his flesh. He felt as if his father were reaching back out of the grave

  to touch him, and he marveled how his father had anticipated Corran's eventually

  learning enough about his heritage to find the file of value. Before he had ever

  heard of Nejaa Halcyon, Corran would have put his father's foresight down to

  luck or even coincidence, but he knew the Jedi believed in neither. My father

  knew that someday I would want this information, so he prepared a way for me to

  get it.

  That realization opened a whole new den of Hutts, with every one of them a

  criminal kingpin. He thought of Luke Skywalker's invitation to join him and

  train to become a Jedi Knight. Did my father create this file in hopes that I

  would do just that? Because the file had been created well before the Jedi's

  reemergence had been confirmed, Corran knew his father couldn't have

  anticipated the Jedi's invitation to him. Or could he? Regardless of that, had

  his father intended his message to inspire Corran to learn more about his

  heritage?

  The droid chirped out a question.

  "No, Whistler, save the message. Now's not the time to look at it."

  "Why not, Corran? We've got time to kill."

  "Because, Mirax, I don't have time to consider all of the questions it might

  raise."

  "Such as?"

  "Such as making me reconsider my answer to Luke Skywalker. Perhaps what my

  father has to tell me in this message will make me realize I should be learning

  to become a Jedi Knight. That decision would force other decisions, and some of

  them I don't want to makeprimary among them a decision to leave you to go off

  and study the ways of the Force. My other responsibilitiesto the squadron and

  the prisoners we're going to freelikewise make such a decision difficult. Right

  now I need to be able to focus on what I'm doing."

  "So you won't play the message?"

  Corran shook his head. "Not right now, certainly not until the Thyferran

  situation is over."

  "What I hear in your voice, Corran, is that you might not ever play it."

  "You know me very well, love." Corran closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed

  against the lump in his throat. He reached up with a hand and pressed the gold

  Jedi Credit against the flesh of his breastbone. "This hologram is the last

  thing my father has left me, but he never would have done it if he thought it

  would completely disrupt my life."

  "Can you be sure of that?"

  "Yeah. If it was something I had to hear, for my own good, Whistler would never

  have been instructed to wait until I asked to hear it." Corran laughed, and that

  eased the tightness, in his throat. "My father trusted me to make my own

  decisions and deal with the consequences."

  "That trust, Corran, is the last thing your father left you. It's a most

  precious gift indeed, and one well suited to you."

  "Thanks, Mirax." Whistler shrilled a warning, prompting Corran to look at his

  monitor. A dozen ships popped in from hyperspace in an arrow formation and

  headed straight

  for the Rogue escort. "Whistler, pull manifests from each of the ships, then see

  if stated mass and performance profiles match." He hit a switch on his comm

  unit, bringing him online with the Rogue's tactical frequency. "Three, Five,

  and Six, fan out and pull life scans on the ships. If any of those ships are

  packed with more crew than we expect, I want to know about it."

  Corran waited five minutes for the other X-wings to gather the data and for

  Whistler to crunch it all down. The various freighters appeared to be massing

  about as much as they should for their stated cargoes, and none of them was

  loaded down with troops, so Corran assumed the convoy was legitimate. "The

  convoy is secure from my standpoint, Mirax."

  "I copy, Nine. This is Pulsar Skate to Empress's Diadem. You've been cleared for

  continuation of the journey."

  "I copy, Skate. Feed us the coordinates and we can get this thing moving."

  "Coordinates for exit vector, jump duration, and speed on their way."

  Corran watched the data stream flow across the bottom of his monitor and

  wondered what Melina Carniss was making of it. He imagined she'd be

  disappointed because the first jump was just a short hop to a dead system. From

  there they'd get another exit vector that would put them on a straight line for

  the Yag'Dhul system, but the speed and duration data would suggest they were

  going to another system well beyond Yag'Dhul. She'll be anticipating calling in

  a strike on Folor in the Commenor system.

  Corran smiled as he thought about the surprise the convoy would be in for

  during their journey. The speed that was being set for them would allow them to

  slip past the Yag'Dhul system in hyperspace, but Booster had thought of a way to

  end their journey prematurely. The gravity well projector he'd gotten from

  Karrde and had grafted onto the station would create enough of a gravity shadow

  to pull the convoy out of hyperspace. The premature end of the flight would

  deliver the goods where they were most needed and

  would be a trick clearly meant to conceal the location of the base from

  outsider s.

  Which ought to be enough to make Carniss think secrecy is still important to us.

  Corran dearly wished he knew the full extent of Wedge's plan to deal with

  Isard's forces, but he respected the security provided by the

  compartmentalization of such information. / doubt I'll know everything that goes

  on unless or until this is all over and I get debriefed.

  Corran brought his X-wing around on the appointed exit vector and chopped his

  throttle back to 51 percent of thrust. In hyperspace, the X-wings were twice as

  fast as the freighters, save Carniss's Diadem and Mirax's Skate. By dropping

  his thrust to just over half, the X-wing would arrive in-system just before the

  freighters and could head off any ambushes.

  The other X-wings pu
lled up off his S-foils. "Nine to Skate. Escort is ready to

  head out."

  "Lead on, Nine, and be careful."

  "As ever, Skate. Wouldn't want your father to be disappointed in me."

  33

  Melina Carniss managed to keep a smile on her face and a light lilt in her voice

  despite being anxious to leave the Yag'Dhul station. "No, Mirax, no need to

  apologize. I've enjoyed your company over the last two days. I would have felt

  quite out of sorts and lonely had you not taken me under your wing."

  Mirax smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way. I am sometimes accused of being

  somewhat smothering."

  Somewhat? Lady, you could smother a Givin, and they don't need to breathe.

  "Again your company was appreciated. And let your father know I'm sure Karrde

  won't have a problem with my having been kept here awaiting payment. He's very

  understanding that way."

  Mirax stepped back away from the turbolift opening. "See you on the next trip."

  "I'm sure. Good-bye." Melina remained smiling even after the door closed. Be

  just like her father to have security holocams set up here in the turbolift. I

  have to maintain the charade until I'm back aboard Diadem.

  Carniss had hoped to be away from the Yag'Dhul station as quickly as possible,

  but the delay in payment meant her

  ship was the last of the convoy to leave. Despite being a huge station,

  Yag'Dhul's docking bays were mostly in use, requiring a piecemeal unloading of

  the convoy. That delay meant the shipments couldn't be verified, hence the

  reason payment was late. Mirax's insistence that she leave Diadem and enjoy the

  station's facilities meant she had no chance to send a message out to Thyferra

  to report the location of Rogue base.

  While it certainly was Mirax's fault that she'd not been able to make her report

  sooner, the fact was that she didn't really want to make it until her ship was

  outbound anyway. Her navicomputer had worked out the time it would take for

  Iceheart's taskforce to arrive at Yag'Dhul from Thyferra. Had she sent out the

  coordinates when she arrived, she would have been trapped on the station and

  killed along with all the others. While Iceheart appreciates my information, I

  don't doubt I'm seen as expendable.

  Carniss exited the turbolift and cut between two battered freighters on her way

  to her ship. The motley collection of freighters and fighters reminded her of

  the force Karrde had said had been used to take Coruscant from Isard. Except

  this force is lacking Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari cruisers. Most of the

  ships looked as if they had been cobbled together from scrap salvaged from Endor

  or Alderaan. Isard's Virulence could defeat this fleet all by itself.

  She walked up the ramp on her modified Corellian YT-1210 light freighter, the

  Empress's Diadem, and closed it behind her. The disk-shaped ship had a pair of

  blaster cannons in a turret mounted above and below a boxy concussion missile

  launch tube assembly that fired into the ship's aft arc. What I can't outrun I

  can discourage from chasing me.

  "Peet," she shouted at her pilot, "get us off this station and bound for

  Corellia. We have business on Selonia. Once you compute the route and have the

  times, let me know. I'll be in my quarters."

  "As ordered, Captain Carniss."

  Melina headed back to her quarters and sealed the hatch behind her. Because

  space was at a premium on the freighter, her cabin was small, yet not without

  luxuries. Included among them was a small refresher station which meant she

  did not have to use the facilities shared by the rest of the crew. Since she was

  the only woman on board, the concession had a practical side to it, as well as

  serving to remind the crew of her superior status.

  She opened the central drawer on her datapad desk and pulled it all the way out.

  On the back panel she slid aside a finger-length wafer of duraplast, revealing a

  small cavity. From it she pulled out a slender, silver capsule approximately the

  size of her smallest finger. She put it on the desk, then returned the duraplast

  wafer and the drawer to their proper places.

  From her personal gear she got two small batteries and a transparisteel flask

  with a chrome bottom and capped with a chrome tumbler. She worked two screws

  loose on the bottom of the bottle and pulled the base off. Into the hollows in

  the base she snapped the batteries and the capsule. She fastened the flask's

  base back on the transparisteel bottle, then tossed the whole assembly into the

  refresher station's bowl and evacuated it.

  The flush of disinfectant washed the flask down into a holding tank. As the

  Diadem came about on its exit vector, the pilot hit a switch that dumped the

  holding tank's contents out into space. The fluid immediately froze into a mass

  of blue ice that slowly began to drift in toward the system's sun. It would be

  months before the debris finally evaporated in the solar engine.

  The sudden drop in temperature around the flask immediately started the capsule

  issuing orders. A tiny port opened in the tip of the flask's cap and a spark

  from the batteries ignited enough of the Savareen brandy to burn the flask free

  of the ice and jet it away. At the same time, a panel on the bottom of the flask

  opened up to expose electromagnetic sensors that started feeding system data to

  the capsule.

  The capsule itself was really the heart of a probe droid. Stripped of the armor

  and devices necessary to let it enter an atmosphere and operate in a hostile

  environment, the droid took up a minimum of space and could easily function on

  batteries for a dozen hours. Its mission was simple pinpoint the location of

  the system in which it was dropped, locate a

  hidden HoloNet transmission station, and pulse out a tight-beam message

  conveying that information to the station. The automated station would, in turn,

  deliver that information through the HoloNet to Fliry Vorru within seconds of

  its reception.

  With the sensors, it mapped the sky and compared the configuration of stars with

  what would be available at various systems in the galaxy. While a complete

  catalog of systems would have required far more storage than the probe droid

  possessed, Vorru and his people had ruthlessly eliminated systems that lacked

  habitable worlds, had settlements that were insufficiently developed to help

  maintain the Rogues and their ships, or that otherwise appeared to be

  inappropriate.

  Within an hour of beginning its mission, the probe droid found a match in its

  star catalog. It knew it was in the Yag'Dhul system. It oriented itself so it

  could pulse its message out to a clandestine HoloNet transmission site, but

  found an obstacle in its way. It did pick up comm frequencies emanating from the

  obstacle and also saw how many stars it blotted out of the sky, but had no way

  to identify it as a space station. It did catalog the item's presence, then it

  jetted up to a point where it could locate the relay station.

  Once it found its target, the droid pulsed its message out. It continued to do

  so for the next three standard hours before a meteorite shattered the

  transparisteel flask and reduced the droid to so much junk
orbiting Yag'Dhul.

  Wedge looked out over the assembly of pilots in the station's amphitheater. They

  all looked eager, which was good, but that surprised him. When he began the

  briefing he expected their hungry expressions to melt into disappointment. "So,

  there it is within the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours we anticipate the

  arrival of Isard's Lusankya and Virulence here at Yag'Dhul. We've already begun

  an evacuation of the station, with our ships taking up a position on the edge

  of this system. Their position provides a clean exit vector to

  Thyferra, which is where you will be going along with them. Is that understood?"

  Nawara Ven raised a hand. "Forgive me, Commander, but do you think having all of

  us fighters scramble and then run away will fool the Thyferran commanders?"

  Bror Jace turned in his seat to look at Nawara. "If they were Thyferran

  commanders it wouldn't, but these are Imps. They're used to imagining that

  Rebels run at the sight of them."

  Wedge smiled at Jace's answer. "Just as you've been sim-ming a lot of antiship

  attacks, we've been simming the likely reactions on the Thyferran command level.

  We're pretty certain they'll believe our retreat, especially when we jump to

  lightspeed on a vector bound for Thyferra. Captain Drysso will assume, in our

  desperation to save the station we're going to strike at Thyferra. Because our

  snubfighters are twice as fast as the Lusankya, we'll have twelve hours there to

  batter Thyferra unopposed. He knows he can't beat us back there, so he'll

  finish our station off, then come after us."

  Corran frowned. "What if his people pick up on the fact that we rendezvous with

  our freighters before we head out?"

  "Still no cause of alarm for him. The Lusankya still out-guns our entire fleet.

  More ships just provide his gunners with more practice." Wedge shrugged. "I know

  there are dozens of unanswered questions you have right now because I've been

  fairly vag ue about our overall plan and have just concentrated on your roles in

  what is going to happen. Your squadron leaders have more specific orders on

  which they will brief you at the appropriate time. Right now I just wanted to

  let you know that action is imminent, so you should take care to put your

  affairs in order and prepare any holograms you want sent in case of death."

  Gavin smiled. "But you're not going to leave those things on the station here,