Wedge's monitor, and the rangefinder showed it to be 25
kilometers distant. And it still looks that big. A shiver ran
down his spine.
"Rogues, form up on me. We have three minutes at
speed before we're right on top of the SSD. Let's harvest
those remaining TIEs before she gets a chance to recover
them." Wedge waited a few seconds for the cries and shouts
of assent to die down. "Remember, that thing is bristling
with turbolasers, ion cannons, concussion missile launchers,
and tractor beams. When I call, you break off your attacks.
Got it?"
Wedge fed shield power into his engines, boosting his
speed. He saw Asyr pull up on his starboard stabilizer foil.
"No heroics, Flight Officer Sei'lar, I want to return that data-
card to you."
"As ordered, Commander."
Wedge glanced at his monitor and then the TIE they
were closing on fast. "I have your back. He's yours."
"Thank you, Commander." Asyr's X-wing pulled
ahead, then sideslipped down and to port. She stayed below
and behind the TIE fighter until she'd closed the range to
within 250 meters, then she nosed her ship up into the eye-
bali's exhaust. The X-wing's lasers fired two dual offset
bursts. The first grazed the inside of the port solar panel,
burning two long streaks along it. The second pair of bolts
stabbed in through the exhaust ports. The whole eyeball
shuddered, then silvery fire jetted out through the forward
cockpit canopy, killing the ship's momentum.
The dead TIE dropped from sight with the grace of a
Hurt in freefall.
"Nice shooting, Deuce."
"Thanks, Lead."
Wedge glanced at the chronographic readout on his
monitor. "Two-point-five minutes to range. Mynock, give
me a warning at thirty seconds."
The Lusankya continued to pour fire into the planetary
shields while what little ground fire that came up at it
splashed harmlessly on it s shields. The midship and stern
guns fought to keep the hole in the lower shield open while
the bow guns blasted away at the upper shield. The ship's
assault sent waves of RodJan green energy skittering along
the underside of the shields. The shields held at first, then
began to erode, and finally collapsed.
Cutting his stick to the right, Wedge followed Asyr
through a banking turn that put her on a pair of TIEs. "I
have the leader, Commander."
"I copy. I'll pick up the tail, Deuce." He widened the
separation between them, then cut back hard to port as the
TIEs broke and Asyr came around in a looping turn that
slipped her in behind the lead TIE. She fired and melted off a
third of the TIE's starboard solar panel. "Break left, Deuce!"
Asyr rolled to port as the second TIE fired. Its first shots
splashed harmlessly on the X-wing's aft shields, but the sub-
sequent ones went wide. The eyeball rolled to follow Asyr,
but as he leveled out he drifted straight into Wedge's sights.
One burst of scarlet laserfire and the eyeball disintegrated
into one long, flaming streak in the sky.
Mynock gave Wedge the 30-second warning tone.
"Break off, Rogues. The rest are just running." It looked like
a half-dozen of the TIEs had survived the battle. As a screen-
ing force they'd done their jobs and kept local fighters off the
Lusankya while it emerged. While it was trapped beneath the
city 1 bet it couldn't power its shields up. Without them, a
concentrated volley of proton torpedoes might have been
able to breech the hull, disable that lift shell, or destroy the
bridge.
Wedge glanced at his sensor display. "Four, this is
Rogue Leader. Break off pursuit."
"Just a couple seconds more."
"Four, break off, now!"
"I've almost got him, Lead."
"You're too close, Four. Break off immediately!"
Erisi's X-wing fired a quad burst that caught an Inter-
ceptor on the starboard solar panel and right side of the
cockpit. Something at the rear of the craft exploded, then
seconds later the whole Interceptor came apart. A huge
golden-red ball blossomed in front of Erisi's X-wing, then
imploded into black smoke as she flew through it.
"Report, Four."
"I got him, Lead."
"And got crisped. Get back here."
Fear injected itself into her voice. "Rudder's gone, stick's
sluggish."
"Erisi, you're too close to the Lusankya. Get out of
there." Wedge brought his X-wing around to the left in a
long, orbiting loop. "Mynock, pull status data from her R5
unit, now." He keyed his comm unit. "Erisi, roll and dive.
Gravity is your friend."
"As ordered. No, wait." A wail as frightening as any
Mynock had ever made shot through the corem unit. "They
have a tractor beam on me. I'm at full thrust, but I can't
break loose. Help me, help me!"
Pulling back on the stick, Wedge came up and pointed
the nose of his fighter at the Lusankya. The big ship hang
like a silver of ice stabbed deep into the morning sky. He
thought he could see Erisi's X-wing as a little speck against
the Super Star Destroyer's bulk, but a sheet of turbolaser fire
heading back toward him eclipsed her.
Hugging the stick to his chest, Wedge brought the
X-wing over the top and pointed it back toward the planet.
"On me, Rogues. We're going home."
"But, Lead, we can't just leave her--"
"Euough, Gavin. That's a Super Star Destroyer. It's im-
possible to stop if it doesn't want to be stopped." "But impossible is--"
"1 know, Rogues, I know." Wedge glanced at his moni-
tor and let the cold shiver running up his spine bleed into his
voice. "Impossible is what Rogue Squadron does, but right
now that would cost us too much for too little gain. Just
because we can do the impossible doesn't mean we always
win."
44
Corran Horn mustered a smile in response to Admiral
Ackbar's blinking expression of disbelief. "If someone is in-
clined to call me as a witness, I think ! can shed some light on
the murder charges against Captain Celchu."
The Mon Calamari's mouth opened and closed a couple
of times, then he nodded toward the prosecution table. "Per-
haps, Commander Ettyk, the prosecution would like to re-
open its case?"
The dark-haired prosecutor nodded. "Thank you, sir.
We call Corran Horn."
Corran limped his way up toward the front of the court.
He placed his blaster carbine on the prosecution table, then
turned and approached the defense table. He squatted down
beside Whistler and wiped a speck of dust from his optical
lens. "Thanks for guiding me in here, Whistler. Without you,
I've been lost."
The droid hooted softly, then opened the storage com-
partment in his dome. Corran reached in and pulled out his
own unblemished Jedi medallion and the gold chain from
which it hung. Corran fastened it around his neck, th
en
fished the ruined medallion from his pocket and put it into
the storage compartment. "Not quite a fair trade, my friend,
but I'll make it up to you."
Coming up from his crouch, Corran looked over at
Tycho. He nodded and lowered his voice into a whisper. "I
owe you an apology, a huge apology, and a debt I can never
repay. All this is my fault, and I'm sorry I caused you to go
through it."
"You're wrong, Corran." Tycho shook his head. "You
were manipulated by the Empire. So was I, so was everyone
here. I'll accept your apology, but I won't acknowledge your
debt."
'Tll still pay it, or at least make a down payment on it."
Tycho smiled. "Getting the murder charge removed
from the indictment is a good start."
"I can do much better. Watch me." Corran nodded, then
dropped a hand on Emtrey's left shoulder. He bent in close
to the droid's aural sensors and kept his voice low. "Emtrey,
say nothing. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up."
The droid's head swiveled around to look at him. "Sir, I
understood the first request. Quadruple redundancy in or-
ders is hardly required in my case."
Fixed you, have they, Emtrey? That's it, then, the last
piece falls into place. Corran straightened up and shot Gen-
eral Cracken a quick nod. Turning back toward the front of
the courtroom, Corran bowed his head to the Tribunal. "My
apologies to the court, but there were things that needed
saying."
Ackbar nodded. "Understood."
General Salm frowned. "Lieutenant Horn, I have to ask,
how did you get here?"
"I started, at least this morning, from the Museum next
door. Big metal doors sealed the aerial tunnel between the
buildings, but, well," he said, brandishing the lightsaber,
"you'd be amazed how effective these things are in opening
doors. Your security personnel were stationed at the more
accessible entry points, so I made it here without any other
trouble."
Salm frowned. "i appreciate the critique of our security,
but I meant the question in a more general sense. You, ah,
are dead."
Corran limped his way into the witness box. "I think
you'll want me sworn before I answer that question. It won't
make the answer any more believable, but it'!! give you some
peace of mind."
A bailiff swore Corran in and Halla Ettyk approached
him cautiously, as if he were radioactive. "I hardly know
where to begin. Perhaps you can tell the court what has tran-
spired since you were reported dead."
"Sure." Corran took a deep breath, then started. "I'm
certain General Cracken will debrief me, and some of what I
have to say probably shouldn't be said in open court, but I'll
try to keep it cogent and coherent."
Ackbar nodded down at him. "Your discretion is appre-
ciated."
"Yes, sir." Corran smiled at the prosecutor. "To answer
your question, Commander, I was captured by Imperial In-
telligence and taken to Lusankya. Ysanne Isard wanted to do
to me what she tried to do to Captain Celchu. make me into
an agent who would do her bidding when and where she
wanted."
Halla frowned. "You said she wanted to do to you 'what
she tried to do to Captain Celchu.' Don't you mean she
wanted to do to you what she did to Captain Celchu?"
Corran blushed. "I thought, for the longest time, that
she had programmed Captain Celchu and that his lack of
memory about Lusankya was a blind to keep his Imperial
ties hidden. The fact is, however, that his amnesia about
Lusankya is not uncommon among those who wash out of
Isard's indoctrination program. Other prisoners at Lusankya
remembered Captain Celchu as being a sleeperstheir term
for someone who is rendered catatonic by the indoctrination
process. I didn't become a sleeper. Later I had a chance to
access computer files about prisoners at Lusankya. I re-
viewed my own file and then I called up Captain Celchu's
file. I wanted it as proof that he was one of Isard's creatures,
but he had the same susceptibility rating I did, which is to say
that he had no susceptibility to her techniques at all. As far as
she was concerned, we were as dense as duracrete."
"But his file could have been altered and left there for
you to discover it."
"Possible, but not likely for two reasons." Corran held
up two fingers. "First, the datapad I used to access the files
was in a secure area that provided me with access to a work-
ing blaster and the means to go from Lusankya to here.
Given the precautions Isard took to hide the location of
Lusankya when I went in, I doubt any prisoner was meant to
have access to that area. Second, at the time I accessed the
files, Isard had no way of knowing I was in a position to
access them. She believed another prisoner had escaped, not
me, so any ruse would have been designed to ensnare him,
not me."
Halla hesitated, concentration sinking her brown eyes
into shadow. "That notwithstanding, we have to take into
consideration the possibility that you might have been turned
put into positions o f trust in the future."
"True, but the fact is that once the shadow of suspicion
was lifted from Tycho, I was able to eliminate him as possi-
bly being the traitor in the unit. If he is taken out of the
hologram, there is only one other logical candidate for that
position."
Before Corran could reveal the traitor's identity, a sol-
dier burst through the courtroom doors and ran over to Gen-
eral Cracken. Fie said something quickly and urgently to the
Alliance Intelligence chief. Cracken shot to his feet and
pointed at Corran. "Lieutenant Horn, I order you to say
nothing more at this time. Admiral Ackbar, we need to use
the adjoining jury room, now!"
Corran hesitated, then frowned. "I wasn't going to re-
veal any of your secrets, General."
"Horn, shut up. That's an order." Cracken walked
across the courtroom to the door in the southeast corner. He
opened it and swore. "This can't be happening."
Corran vaulted from the witness box and followed on
Cracken's heels into the large, rectangular room. Transpari-
steel made up the room's entire southern wall, with a small
doorway cut in the middle of it to allow access to a balcony.
Cracken worked a set of controls on the wall, fading the
sequestration opaquing of the transparisteel to nothingness.
Corran looked out to the south and felt his heart sink into his
bowels.
A colossal white wedge knifed its way into the sky. A
fearsome broadside silhouetted a skyhook against a green
background, then sent a smoking crescent crashing planet-
ward. The ship--Corran knew it had to be a Super Star
Destroyer because of the size--continued its upward flight
and turned its weapons on the lower
defense shield.
Corran found himself drifting through the doorway and
onto the balcony with Admiral Ackbar and the others from
the court. Above the city TIE fighters and X-wings tangled
together in a complicated dance punctuated with fireballs
and underscored with laser light. Corran couldn't get an ac-
curate count on the X-wings, but he didn't see any of them
go down. That's gotta be Rogue Squadron up there.
The Super Star Destroyer moved up through the first
defense shield. The TIEs started to run back to the ship that
had launched them and the X-wings flew on in close pursuit.
Corran smiled as more TIEs exploded or augured into the
planet, but that appeared as a minor bright spot in compari-
son to the damage the Imperial ship had done to the defense
shields.
Corran frowned. "Where did that ship come from?"
Whistler popped a sensor dish from his dome and let it
spin around a couple of times before keening cautiously. Em-
trey's head jerked up and down, from the ship to Whistler
and back again. "Sir, he says that ship's transponders report
it to be the Lusankya!"
Corran's jaw dropped open. The bulkhead doors closing
off access to the gravel mine wasn't salvaged from a ship, it
was part of a ship. The turbolifts, too, were part of the ship.
Our whole complex must have been one tiny part of the ship
with bulkheads trimmed out with stone. The mines were out-
side it, but we lived all snugged up in the belly of an Imperial
Super Star Destroyer.
Cracken held a comlink up by his ear. "The ship appears
to have been buried beneath a portion of the cityscape south-
west of the Manarai Mountains. It came up firing. Freeing
itself it devastated over a hundred square kilometers. Mil-
lions are missing, presumed dead."
Corran pointed at the platform made of hexagons hug-
ging the ship's hull. "What's that below it, some new type of
armor?"
Whistler hooted sharply and Emtrey translated. "Whis-
tler says it appears to be a massive collection of repulsorlift
cells grafted together to float the ship free of Coruscant."
"Ah," said Cracken, "so that's what they did with the
lift-coils. Well before Endor, we uncovered an Imperial oper-
ation to collect an incredible number of repulsorlift compo-