nents. We feared they might be planning to produce some
new planetary assault vehicles with them, but could never
trace the shipments. Now we know where they went."
He looked over at Ackbar. "Can you stop it?"
"Most of the fleet is staging at . . . elsewhere in prepa-
ration for the operation against Zsinj--to hunt down his
Super Star Destroyer. The rest of the fleet is on an assignment
for you. Can you get them here?"
Cracken shook his head. "From Borleias? Not in time."
"The Golan stations don't have enough power to bring
Lusankya down, but they can hurt it."
Emtrey's eyes dimmed. "We're defenseless."
General Crix Madine shook his head. "The Lusankya
started inside our defense shields--the point assault forces
usually see as a goal. The fact that the ship is headed out
means escape, not conquest, is its goal."
A Quarren aide slipped through the crowd to Admiral
Ackbar's side and handed him a comlink. The Mon Calamari
flicked it on. "Ackbar here."
"Antilles here, Admiral. We've broken off our pursuit of
the TIEs and are returning to base to refuel and get ready to
go out again."
Hearing Wedge's voice again sent a thrill through Cor-
ran. He smiled and saw Tycho mirror his expression. "Are
you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Tycho nodded. "If I had Rogue Squadron on my tail, I'd
be running, too, even in a Super Star Destroyer."
Ackbar gave them a wall-eyed stare. "I concur with your
plan, Commander, but you needn't have informed me of it at
this time."
"No sir, I know that." A cold edge crept into Wedge's
voice. "The reason I called is to tell you to let Tycho go. He
wasn't the traitor. I know who is and I can prove it."
"What?" Ackbar's mouth hung open. "Who?"
Corran smiled. "Erisi Dlarit."
"I was asking Commander Antilles."
"Who was that?" Wedge asked remotely. "How did he
know?"
Cracken made a quick adjustment to his own comlink.
"Commander, this is General Cracken. Use no more names
on this opchan--it might not be secure."
Ackbar shook his head. "How do you know who the
traitor is?"
Corran pointed at himself. "Are you asking me?"
"No. Commander Antilles, please answer me."
"Simple. Because of Horn's death I had a subroutine
added to the unit's astromech droids allowing me to pull
diagnostic data from them. She reported damage over the
comm unit that her R5 didn't report. She claimed the
Lusankya had a tractor beam on her and pulled her aboard
against her will. Work back from there and it's obvious."
Corran nodded. "Right. She was in a position to fore-
warn the Imps about Bror Jace's return to Thyferra--and
there was no love lost between them. I told her that when
we'd taken Coruscant I was going to search out the traitor in
our midst. She'd helped me check out my Headhunter so she
knew the codes, the same as Captain Celchu. She cornlinked
the data to Isard and I was taken."
General Salm shook his head. "Why would she do that?
Why work against us?"
Wedge provided an explanation. "The bacta cartels were
formed under the Empire. She and her people might have
figured their monopoly would end if the New Republic suc-
ceeded in destroying the Empire."
Tycho pointed toward the sky. "It's through the second
shield and outbound."
Barely visible above them, the Lusankya exchanged fire
with a Golan Space Defense Station. Gouts of green energy
passed back and forth between them. The station's fire buck-
led the Lusankya's shield, collapsing the energy sphere that
had kept the big ship safe. Explosions played along the huge
ship's hull, but in their light Corran saw the Lusankya begin
to pull away from the station.
The Golan Station continued to blaze away at the Super
form a wall between the station and the ship itself. It took
Corran a moment to realize what was happening.
"They jettisoned the lift-cradle, sacrificing it so they
could escape."
Cracken nodded. "Nothing to lose by doing that--the
Lusankya isn't going to be trapped on a planet again."
"But it will be trapped again." Corran nodded solemnly,
recalling his promise to Jan to return and free him and the
others. He glanced at Whistler. "Can you determine the
damage to the Lusankya?"
Whistler blatted negatively and retracted his sensor dish.
Corran squinted but couldn't see the Super Star De-
stroyer anymore. "Gone to lightspeed. I wouldn't like to be
where that ship ends its journey."
"Being where it started from was bad enough." Cracken
shivered. "Isard was here all along, and now she's gone."
Haila Ettyk folded her arms across her chest. "I take it I
should assume the evidence against Captain Celchu was
largely manufactured by her?"
"I'd say that's a safe bet." Corran nodded assuredly. "If
Captain Celchu had been convicted and executed, she would
have revealed the truth and made the New Republic look as
bad as the Empire ever did. It probably wasn't the most
brilliant of her plans, but it didn't take much effort, either."
He turned and looked at Airen Cracken. "After all, the
General here knew Tycho wasn't the spy all along."
Ha!la blinked. "Excuse me, what?"
Cracken slowly smiled. "Not bad for a man who's been
in prison for the past month and a half."
General Salm glowered at the Intelligence chief. "You
mean you knew Tycho Celchu was not an Imperial agent and
you let me put him through all sorts of difficulties?"
Cracken shook his head. "Horn's right, I knew he
wasn't the spy in Rogue Squadron, but 1 did not know
whether or not Celchu was an Imperial agent."
"General Cracken took precautions to guard against
Tycho being a Lusankya-style agent." Corran patted Emtrey
on the shoulder. "General Cracken had Emtrey assigned to
Rogue Squadron to monitor Captain Celchu. Emtrey had
some special circuitry and programming insta lled in him that
transformed him into an invaluable tool for a spy. If Captain
Celchu had used him in that manner, General Cracken
would have known what was going on. For General Cracken
to have done anything less would have been grossly irrespon-
sible on his part.
"Because of Emtrey, General Cracken knew Captain
Celchu had not been meeting with Kirtan Loor the night I
saw him at the Headquarters. I suspect Captain Celchu's
prosecution was allowed to go forward to lull the real spy
into a false sense of security."
"And to distract Isard." Cracken smiled briefly. "She
has always enjoyed these little games."
Halla stared at General Cracken. "But you made Cap-
tain Celchu into a pariah. People were likening him to Prince
Xizor and Darth Vader. What you did was unforgivable."
"No, it was precisely what had to be done." Cracken
looked over at Tycho. "I needed to use you to find out who
the spy in Rogue Squadron really was, true, but there was a
side benefit to you in all this. The fact that lsard would set
you up to be convicted and executed means that you were of
no greater use to her. If you were one of her Lusankya
agents, she would have framed someone else so you'd have
been absolved of guilt and trusted with greater responsibili-
ties. She would have fine-tuned you, not discarded you."
He turned back toward Halla Ettyk. "As for the nega-
tive image of Captain Celchu that has been created, I can
undo what has been done."
"Never." Salm shook his head adamantly. "Impossi-
ble."
"Though I am not a member of Rogue Squadron, I think
it is quite possible." Cracken opened his hands. "We have a
public ceremony rewarding the efforts of Rogue Squadron
for their operations on behalf of the Republic. We let it be
known that Captain Celchu was aware of the deception con-
cerning his trial .... "
Tycho smiled. "Things did seem arrayed rather well
against me."
"... And his rehabilitation will be complete." Cracken
clasped his hands at the small of his back. "That is pretty
much what I had intended all along the way. Lieutenant
Horn's appearance here merely makes Captain Celchu's in-
nocence that much more obvious."
Halla looked over at Admiral Ackbar. "Sir, on behalf of
the New Republic Armed Forces, I withdraw all charges
against Captain Tycho Celchu."
The Mon Calamari opened his mouth in a smile. "It is
with great pleasure, Captain Celchu, that I say this case is
dismissed. You are truly free to go."
45
Wedge Antilles kept his face impassive as Mon Mothma
stepped up to the podium at the front of the dais on which
they stood. The ten days since the Lusankya's escape from
Coruscant had been grueling. Abandoned Palpatine Counter-
insurgency Front cells had begun to strike out anywhere and
everywhere. Rogue Squadron, reinforced by Corran and
Tycho, had flown numerous pursuit and cover missions,
which seriously curtailed the PCF's activity.
Cracken's efforts to slice Loor's datacard had proven
fruitless until its existence had been mentioned during one of
Corran's debriefings. Corran noted that when Loor was
working as the Imperial Intelligence Liaison with the Corel-
lian Security Force, he'd had a trick for creating his encryp-
tion keys he had memorized one day's listings of the
Imperial Stock Exchange and used stock listings and prices as
his keys. Corran had Whistler give Cracken the date of the
listing Loor had used and they quickly discovered he'd keyed
the encryption with Xucphra's listing on that day. The infor-
mation on the decrypted datacard included a list of PCF
safehouses and warehouse facilities, which Rogue Squadron
and Cracken's people quickly destroyed.
Diric Wessiri's funeral had been tougher on Wedge than
any of the flight missions. He found himself going over ev-
erything Diric had ever said to him, searching for any clue
that would have revealed Diric's compelled service to the
Empire. Wedge couldn't get Diric's kind words after his testi-
mony at the trial out of his head. That much compassion
should have earned him a different end.
leila barely managed to hold herself together, and
Wedge thought only Corran's reappearance allowed her to
avoid a total emotional collapse. She'd mourned her husband
once, then she got him back and had to kill him. Corran,
having known her and Diric both, was able to recall for her
the Diric of old. The pleasant memories seemed to soften the
horror of what had happened, but only just a little and only
occasionally.
Bright lights flashed on as a dozen holocams began re-
cording the New Republic's Chief Councilor. "Citizens of
the New Republic, it is a great honor and privilege for me to
be speaking to you from Coruscant--a Coruscant that is
now safe and finally free of the Empire's direct and evil influ-
ence. I am here, now, in the facility that is home to Rogue
Squadron. You all have heard of this legendary unit--its pi-
lots have ever been in the thick of the war with the Empire.
Rogue Squadron won for us the opportunity to rescue Co-
ruscant from the Empire, and since then they have been the
bulwark that has preserved us from Imperial predation.
"In recognition of their efforts to defend the New Re-
public, the Provisional Council has created and is awarding
to the unit and its members a medal intended to be the high-
est award our government can bestow upon military person-
nel. It is the Coruscant Star of Valor. The citation itself reads,
'For service and bravery beyond the bounds of what can be
asked of a citizen by a government, and a willful commit-
ment to put the good of the many above their own personal
welfare, the Provisional Council unanimously and joyfully
awards to Rogue Squadron and its members, the Coruscant
Star of Valor.'"
As Mon Mothma turned and looked back at him,
Wedge came forward and accepted a transparisteel plate into
which the citation had been etched. A hologram of the medal
itself had been embedded in the transparisteel above the
words, and a ghostly hologram of the unit's members had
been placed behind them.
Mon Mothma shook Wedge's hand. "Congratulations,
Commander. You and your people deserve this even more
than I probably know." She then stepped back and waved
him toward the podium.
Wedge hesitated, then stepped up to the microphones.
He had been warned he'd be asked to say something, and a
number of people had made suggestions, but it was Admiral
Ackbar's advice he decided to heed. Be brief, be said, and
remember all those who need to be remembered.
"This citation is not just for those of us who stand here
behind me, but really for all those who fought in Rogue
Squadron. None of them would have balked at making the
sacrifices we have. All of us--everyone in Rogue Squadron
and in the Alliance itself--have risked all we are to defeat a
government that took joy in the sorrow and terror of its
citizens. Winning this award, taking possession of Corus-
cant, these things are not ends in and of themselves, but
blazes marking the trail we must all tread if the galaxy is ever
to be truly free."
Gentle applause from the dignitaries and guests gathered
beyond the dais accompanied Wedge's retreat back into line
with the other pilots. As Mon Mothma walked past him, she
let her left hand brush against his arm. He glanced at her and
she gave him a smile. I guess I didn't do that badly.
She resumed her place at the podium and began speak-
ing again. "Of the events that have transpired over the last
year, there are many ru
mors and far fewer facts. Those ru-
mors could all be dispelled by having an exact chronology of
events created, and perhaps, in another generation or two,
such a chronology could be made public. While we were a
covert force fighting against the Empire, there was no ques-
tioning the need for stealth and secrecy. It was what kept us
alive and allowed us to fight on against the Empire. Because
of this secrecy we have defeated them in battle after battle."
Mon Mothma nodded in the direction of the holocam to
her right. "With the New Republic in possession of Corus-
cant, it might seem that the time for such secrecy is past, but
it is not. The Empire is not yet dead, and the dozens of petty
warlords tearing at it have already and will continue to study
us for signs of weakness. Their drive to restore the Empire,
with themselves in Palpatine's place, means we cannot reveal
all of our secrets.
"We can, however, reveal some of them. Doing so is not
only a vital necessity, for secrecy can breed arrogance and we
have all seen where that can lead, but a pleasure. It provides
me a chance to right a great wrong and prevent possible
future tragedies."
She turned and pointed toward Tycho. "This is Captain
Tycho Celchu, as loyal a son of Alderaan and the New Re-
public as ever lived. He willingly chose to subject himself to a
surrendering of his basic freedoms in order to bring the Em-
pire down. Because of suspicions about what the Empire
might have done to him, it was felt he could not be trusted,
yet this man refused to let those suspicions prevent him from
doing all he could to destroy the Empire. On numerous occa-
sions he put his own life in jeopardy, flying unarmed into
combat zones to rescue pilots who otherwise would have
died.
"Most recently you have all seen him on trial for treason
and murder of other members of Rogue Squadron. This trial,
as public and as ugly as it was, played a crucial part in an
Intelligence operation to uncover Imperial agents within the
New Republic. Despite being held up as an object of revul-
sion to the New Republic, Captain Celchu did not shirk his
duty. He allowed himself to become such a target because it
would mean that Imperial agents felt free to operate more