was clear. I didn't think, which is why you went down. It was my fault you got
shot."
Gavin covered the reddish area on his stomach with his right hand. "It hurt a
lot, then I guess I fainted."
"You're lucky that's all you did. That shot should have killed you."
"I know I shot back at the stormtrooper. Did I get him?"
"I don't know, Gavin. Unless you have a holo of a lightfight, trying to
reconstruct it after the fact is all but impossible." Corran slid from the table
and found his legs supported him with only a few minor tremors. "He and his
buddies died, and that's all that counts."
"Were any of us killed?"
Corran remembered the impression of death he'd had in the corridor, but he shook
his head. "I don't know, Gavin."
The med-center hatch opened and Wedge Antilles stepped through it. His smile
broadened at first, then shrank slightly. He paused and returned the hasty
salutes Gavin and Corran managed. "Good to see both of you hale and hearty."
"Hearty, perhaps, sir, but hale will need some work." Corran worked his right
arm up and around in a circle. "A night's rest ought to make it all right."
"And you, Gavin, how do you feel?"
"Fine, sir. I could fly right now if you need me." "That's not necessary right
away." Wedge's expression darkened. "We've abandoned Talasea and evacuated it
cleanly. We got the stormtroopers and captured their transport ship. Forensic
analysis of
the bodies has given us a good indication of where they came from. I'm meeting
with Admiral Ackbar and General Salm to consider a counterstrike against their
base."
"I'm in."
"Me, too." Gavin hopped off the bed. His knees buckled, but he caught the edge
of the bed and remained upright. "I want to go and repay them."
Wedge nodded and Corran knew he was getting to the worst part of the report. "In
the raid we gave better than we gotbut we had casualties. Six of our sentries
died. You two and Andoorni were severely wounded." Wedge glanced down at the
deck, then over at Gavin. "Lujayne Forge was killed."
Gavin leaned heavily on the bed. "Lujayne is dead?"
Corran sat abruptly on the floor. He'd felt her die, he knew she had died, yet
he couldn't believe it any more than Gavin could. She'd always been the member
of the squadron who was concerned with the welfare of the othersnot just their
physical welfare, but how they felt. She formed the heart of our unit, bringing
us together. There's no way she should have been the first of us to die.
He stared down at his empty hands. She never even collected on that favor I owed
her for fixing my X-wing and now she's gone.
Gavin shook his head. "She can't be dead. She's been tutoring me in
astronavigation. She ..." The youth balled his fists and hammered them against
the edge of the table. "Dead ..."
Wedge sighed. "It's never easy to lose a friend, Gavin."
Gavin raised a fist as if he wanted to smash it down again, but let it slowly
drift back to his side. "This is the first time anyone I've known has died."
Corran raised an ey ebrow. "Really?"
"He's only a kid, Corran."
"I know, sir, but his cousin ..."
Gavin shook his head. "I've met people before who later died. I remember Mr.
Owen and Aunt Beruthat's what I called them on the couple of times Biggs let me
tag along when he visited Luke at the Lars farm. When they died, my father took
the farm over ..."
Wedge frowned. "I thought Luke had given it to an alien."
"Yes, Throgg was his name. He worked it for a couple of seasons, but my uncle
wanted to add that farm to his holdings, so he got the Anchorhead Municipal
Council to pass an alien landowner tax which would have broken Throgg to pay. My
father didn't hold with his brother's tactics, so Dad bought the farm from
Throgg, paying him what it was worth instead of letting Uncle Huff buy it in a
tax auction." Gavin shrugged. "Growing up on that farm I could remember having
seen the Larses, but I never really knew them. I was a kid, a real kid. They
were nice to me, but ..."
"But you didn't know them." Corran drew his knees up to his chest. "I
understand. Still, your cousin, Biggs ..."
"Biggs was eight years older than I was. There were times he liked having me
around and times he didn't. I couldn't understand why not then." Gavin shrugged.
"I've grown up since then, so I kind of understand now but, still, I didn't
really know him. And not seeing his ... him or Luke's aunt and uncle after,
well, it's not like I know they're gone. I do, but, you know ..."
"I do know." Wedge folded his arms across his chest. "I was there when Biggs
died. I got hit and pulled up out of the trench on Luke's orders. Your cousin
and I both knew we were really there as an
added set of shields to keep Luke safe, but we didn't regret that. We knew he'd
have done the same thing for us and we also knew he had to blow the Death Star.
Biggs stayed there, keeping the TIEs back, and died there. And even though he
died, he bought Luke the time he needed to destroy the Death Star."
The Rebel commander's eyes nearly shut as he stared off into space. "I flew with
Biggs before Yavin and he was really good. It seemed like he could read the
minds of TIE pilots. He knew when to break, when to shoot, and did everything
necessary to stay in their ion exhaust and blast them to bits. He was proud of
his record and his skill, but not arrogant."
Gavin smiled. "He had that smirk, the one he'd give you when he'd done something
you couldn't."
Wedge chuckled. "I used to hate that smirk, but I didn't have it directed at me
all that often. In his first mission we went against an Imperial convoy, right
after they'd started assigning Nebulon-B frigates, just like the Reprieve here,
to jump cover for the convoys. It launched two dozen TIEs at our squadron. Biggs
lit and vaped five, making him an ace, but another pilot claimed his
number-three kill. That kill made the other pilot an aceI think he was on his
fifteenth mission at the time. Biggs gave the guy the smirk and let him have it.
And thereafter when Biggs got five of something, he'd give this guy the third
one. He wasn't nasty about it, but he didn't let the guy forget."
Gavin nodded. "Biggs was like thathe'd needle you with your own little foibles
until you did something about it, or it didn't bother you anymore."
"It was his way of making everyone toe the line and push themselves to be the
best they could. That's why he used to get after Luke about going to the
Academy. He didn't want to see anyone waste
themselves when they could be doing more." Wedge scratched the back of his neck.
"If he'd survived Yavin, we'd be reporting to him now."
Corran raised a finger. "Did the third-kill guy ever redeem himself?"
The curve of Wedge's smile flattened out. "The guy, Karsk was his name, Amil
Karsk, took the third of five scheduled patrols for Biggs. It was an easy
jobnursemaiding a blockade runner on a courier mission. It even promised a
couple of days of rest and recreation. It was a plum assignment, but Biggs let
him have it and was willing to call it even
. That mission and that courier took
Karsk to Alderaan. He was on the ground when the Death Star appeared."
"Ouch." Corran reached up and hauled himself to his feet. "Biggs was lucky he
let the mission slide."
"Yeah, but luck runs out eventually." Wedge's brown eyes hardened. "Ours hasn't,
not entirely, yet. I'm glad you're both back with us. I'd prefer not having to
add you to the list of friends I've lost to the Empire. The list is too long
already."
Gavin swallowed hard, once, then extended his hand to Wedge. "Thank you, sir. I
feel like I know Biggs a bit better now."
Wedge shook the youth's hand. "Thanks for giving me the chance to remember the
good things about Biggs. Too much of war is remembering the lossthe point at
which people cease contributing to this life. Biggs, Porkins, Dack, Lujaynethey
all need to be remembered as more than just casualties. I don't do that often
enough."
Their commander glanced at the chronometer on the ship's bulkhead. "I'm due to
meet with Admiral Ackbar shortly. You've got about four hours be-
fore we'll have a memorial for Lujayne and the other people we lost on Talasea.
And after that, Ackbar willing and Salm being sanguine, we'll bleed some
Imperials pale of luck and let our dead rest just that much easier."
20
Emtrey's uncharacteristic quiet on the flight over from the Reprieve to Home One
had started Wedge wondering if the galaxy hadn't changed around him while he'd
been sleeping. The droid hadn't wheedled, cajoled, begged, or bored him with
details about the need for him to travel to Home Onehe just showed up and said
he had things to take care of on board the Rebel flagship.
Tycho had shrugged, so Wedge agreed. The droid seemed uncharacteristically
quiet, but that didn't seem sinister and really was quite welcome. As he piloted
the Forbidden on the run over to the Mon Calamari Star cruiser he realized he'd
not seen much of Emtrey during the time on Talasea, and he'd heard even less
from him. He'd heard even fewer complaints about the droid, and this he took as
a good sign. He felt caring for pilots was tough enough without having to worry
about droids, too. The smile on General Salm's face as Wedge and Tycho entered
Admiral Ackbar's briefing room increased the Corellian's sense of dislocation
with the galaxy. "Good to see you, Commander Antilles,
Captain Celchu. It was very kind of you to have I your M-3PO droid send that
gross of new flight I suits to Defender Wing. We accept your apology and I look
forward to working with you on this mission."
Wedge looked at Tycho, but his XO gave his head a nearly imperceptible shake. If
it makes Salm happy, do I really need to know what's going on? "You're welcome,
General. We're all on the same side, after all."
Ackbar's face shifted from Wedge to Salm and back again. He blinked, then
clasped his hands together. "Clear water, gentle waves, good." The Mon Calamari
seated himself and pushed a button on the chair's arm. "Our droids have
double-checked the findings of the forensic team working on the stormtroopers
you brought up from Talasea. They confirm the rash on three of them as being
Rachuk roseola. DNA analysis of the virus shows a variation from the sequencing
reported there two years ago, and given the spontaneous mutation rate, this
would be the most recent strain."
Wedge nodded. "So they came from Rachuk."
Ackbar pointed to the computer-generated holographic image growing up in the
middle of the group. It showed a relatively small world with a scattering of
jungle islands. "The Rachuk system itself is unimportant except that its
central location means a great number of ships pass into and out of it as they
conduct trade. The Empire located a base on Vladet to discourage piracy and they
were relatively successful in doing so. The Chorax system is within the sector
controlled from Rachuk, as is the Hensara system, so it is logical to assume
that the sector commander decided Rogue Squadron needed to be eliminated."
"But how did they know where we were?" *
Salm's face darkened slightly. "The presence of a spy in your midst cannot be
fully discounted."
Wedge glanced at Tycho but saw no reaction to the remark at all. A better man
than I not to shoot back. "No spy at all would leave the same evidence as a
very good spyone in so deep we couldn't find it."
"That is still no reason why we shouldn't look for a spy."
Tycho shook his head. "Security at the base was tight. We had no unauthorized
messages going in or out."
"That you know of."
"No, sir."
"Or," Salm smiled, "that you're choosing to report."
"General, Captain Celchu is reporting the results of checks I performed myself.
There were no leaks from Rogue Squadron."
Ackbar waved the discussion away with a flip of his hand. "It is more than
likely that the Empire planted a number of passive sensor devices in the
buildings there after Vader killed off the colony. If such sensors gathered data
and then sent it out on a delayed basis, or in a format we would not easily
recognize, we would miss it. While we did have teams sweep the area, detecting
passive devices is not easy."
"It also could have been blind luck."
Salm looked at Tycho. "What do you mean, Captain?"
Tycho raked brown hair back from his forehead. "Imperials tend not to be subtle.
If I'd been in command and I knew where Rogue Squadron was, I would have
least one Strike cruiser that can carry three squadrons of
TIEs. Since all of that didn't show up, I suspect they just sent out
stormtrooper platoons to recon uninhabited systems in the sectorassuming, of
course, that they have spies in most of the inhabited systems. One platoon
found us and the com mander decided to be ambitious and destroy us himself."
Ackbar nodded. "Another logical conclusion drawn from the evidence at hand.
There has also been a fair amount of traffic by small trading ships into and out
of Talasea."
"Yes, sir. Emtrey can give you the data on them."
"He already did and they all appear to be clean, Commander, but one misstatement
by one crew member and your security would be compromised. Ultimately, though,
the reason the Talasea base was discovered is less important than our discovery
of the source of the stormtroopers. It has been two standard days since the
stormtroopers died, so chances are very good that their absence has been
noticed."
Wedge folded his arms. "Standard Imperial response would be to move in, secure
the planet, and prevent us from using it again."
"We expect the Havoc and the Black Asp to be used to prevent Rogue Squadron from
making a quick hit and run on the Talasea expeditionary force; they won't be
defending Rachuk." Salm reached out and touched the holographic world. The
island he selected grew up in place of the world of which it was part. As the
image expanded the computer added buildings, mountains, ion-cannon batteries,
and other details of military importance. Two steep mountain chainsthe edges of
an extinct volcano's craterenclosed the base like parentheses. "We have other
information about the locations and patrol routes of the Rachuk sector's ships.
We be-
I
lieve Vladet should be open to a reprisal strike, and Grand Isle here is the
place to hit."
Wedge took a step closer to the holographic island floating in midair. "Defense
shields?"
Salm smiled and Wedge was pleased that predatory leer wasn't directed at him.
"Not if they want to fire their ion cannons. The island, as you can see, is part
of an old volcano. The generators are geo-thermal and old and not up to the
strain of raising the shield and powering the ion cannons."
"And if they choose to go turtle instead of trying
to shoot?"
The bomber pilot traced a circle around what would have originally been the edge
of the crater. To the south the wall had broken down almost completely and much
of the base had been built on the flat stretch of land that linked the volcano
and the bay. On the north side of the crater the wall had begun to erode, but
it was just a small divot compared to the gap to the south.
"The shield generator has to cover everything from the beach to the tops of the
mountains. On the north side it should be possible to blast through the mountain
and open up enough of a gap to let our bombers in. Once we're under the shield,
the generators go and it's over."
It looks like it should work. Wedge rubbed a hand over his chin. "Are we hitting
and running, or moving in?"
"We want to cripple Vladet so the Empire will have to move new forces in."
Ackbar hit another button on the arm of his chair and the island vanished. "The
Rachuk sector is immaterial at the moment, except as a symbol and a wound the
Empire must stanch. We want this raid to go off in twelve hours. What will Rogue
Squadron's operational strength be then, Commander?"
"I'll be down two pilots. I could give Captain Celchu Forge's X-wing."
"No." General Salm shook his head adamantly.
Ackbar opened his mouth in a smile. "What General Salm meant by this is that we
will be using the Eridain as a command and control center. Captain Celchu will
operate there to coordinate Rogue Squadron and Defender Wing. This is at Captain
Afyon's request."
Wedge frowned at General Salm. How is it that you will trust Tycho to direct all