Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (4 page)

The short hop in the shuttle seemed to pass in seconds. She saluted the escort awaiting her at the other end, keeping the fear that it was there to take her prisoner deeply concealed.

“Welcome aboard, Captain. Commodore Viedas is expecting you. This way, please. “

The derail fell in around her, and she matched their pace step for step. Around them, the ship hummed with industry and discipline, its white fittings clean and well maintained. Her ship, the Salvation, seemed old and clunky by comparison. It had been liberated from the Empire during a skirmish over Ylesia and renamed in the style of the fledgling Rebellion. The Salvation still bore the scars of battle, unlike the Solidarity, which looked brand new.

The issue of the ships making up the Alliance’s fleet occupied more than her own mind, as she discovered on being admitted into the commodore’s secure conference room.

Yar-de Viedas was a Rodian, and a natural for enlistment with the Rebel forces, given the Empires xenophobic stance on nonhumans. A privateer of some standing, he had risen quickly through the ranks of the Corellian Resistance, ultimately to be handpicked by Garm Bel Iblis to lead the attack group Juno belonged to. He was short, and his Basic became increasingly accented under stress, but he was liked and respected by his officers. Juno had served with him briefly after the birth of the Rebel Alliance on Kashyyyk, and she knew that, whatever came next, it wouldn’t be born from maliciousness or ill feeling on his part.

“I’ll hear nothing bad said about the MC-Eighty. ” Viedas was pacing from one end of the conference room to the other, addressing the rest of the small gathering. Present via hologram were Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis, presumably from their respective homeworlds. The Senators looked stressed and didn’t notice Juno’s entry. Princess Leia Organa attended in person. She returned Juno’s salute with a respectful nod.

So far, thought Juno, so good.

“The redundancy of its shield system is of prime advantage, ” Viedas was saying. “I cannot overemphasize how important this is in conflicts against the Empire. We will always be outweaponed, so defense should always be our first priority. “

“I understand, Commodore, ” said Mon Mothma. “But the simple fact is that we can’t afford any more of them. Not at the moment. Our resources are stretched too far as it is. “

“If the Mon Calamari won’t give them to us, ” said Bel Iblis, “then we must take them. “

“We’re not pirates, ” said Leia. “My father would not agree to this. “

“Your father isn’t here. Perhaps if we had greater access to his resources…”

Juno cleared her throat, and the commodore turned to face her.

“Ah, good. Captain Eclipse, would you care to report the outcome of your mission to Cato Neimoidia?”

“Of course, sir. ” She came deeper into the room, trying to take the measure of the meeting. Clearly something had leaked. Someone on her bridge, or perhaps in the starfighter squadrons, had let slip what had happened, so the people before her already knew part of it. The question was: Would they give her a fair hearing, or had they already made up their minds?

“My orders were explicit, ” she said, deciding to draw the picture in black and white herself and thereby disallow any enemies she might have the advantage. “Gather intelligence, shake up my crew. That’s all. When the opportunity came to assist General Kota in his mission to kill the Imperial administrator on Cato Neimoidia, I decided to do so. “

“What kind of assistance did you provide?” Bel Iblis asked without any sign of prejudgment. She knew that he would be interested, first and foremost, in the military angle.

“We acted as a distraction for the ground forces, primarily by launching starfighters, but also by making the frigate’s presence known. We jammed signals in and out, inasmuch as we could. The Salvation engaged directly with the enemy only when it became clear that General Kota required our active support. “

“Did he know you were going to be there?” asked Mon Mothma, who no doubt cared less about the tactical derails than the circumstances under which the brief alliance had come about.

“He did. Senator, ” Juno said.

“And how did he come to be privy to this information?”

“Because I told him two days in advance. “

“I see. ” Mon Mothma’s lips tightened. “Would you care to explain why?”

“I wasn’t aware that I was required to keep secrets from a general in the Rebel Alliance. “

“But you are aware, no doubt, that the general’s actions are not always sanctioned by the Alliance. “

“Yes, Senator. “

“Do you consider yourself to be part of his renegade campaign?”

“No, Senator. “

“Yet you disobey orders in order to help him. How do you explain that?”

Juno felt as though the deck were slipping out from beneath her. She wondered again who had sold her out, and if she would get the chance to find out why before she was decommissioned, maybe worse. “Permission to speak freely, Senator. “

“Granted, ” said Garm Bel Iblis.

Mon Mothma glanced at him in surprise and some annoyance, but didn’t countermand him.

“I have helped General Kota before, ” Juno said, “on Drucken-well, Selonia, and Kuat. Each time, his missions were successful in helping the Alliance. Each time, my assistance cost the Alliance nothing. I took no orders from him, and he accepted the limitations of our arrangement. He knew that the responsibilities of my command took precedence over the success of his mission. ” At least I hope he did, she added silently to herself. “We were on the same side. Senator, and I am not ashamed of helping him. I would help him again, in a heartbeat. ” If I could.

Everyone started to speak at once, but it was Mon Mothma’s voice that carried the moment.

“Did you know about this, Commodore?”

“No, Senator, but I take full responsibility. ” Viedas’s green skin had turned faintly purple around the edges. Juno hoped that didn’t mean anger among his species.

“Commodore Viedas couldn’t have known, ” she said. “I was careful to keep it a secret from him, because I knew that he would not approve. “

“Did you take any losses, Captain?” asked Mon Mothma.

“Six starfighters, ” she said. “That’s less than our last official mission, which was considered a success. “

“I want more details, ” said Bel Iblis, leaning forward in the hologram to steeple his fingers. “What did your collaboration with Kota gain us?”

“Well, we know that Cato Neimoidia is better defended than we initially thought. It’s taken some hits and brought in reinforcements. The Empire knows we’re watching the slave industry now. Baron Tarko will be more cautious in how he mistreats his ‘stock. ‘”

“So he’s still alive?”

“I’m afraid so. “

“You said were, ” put in Leia. “You and Kota were on the same side. “

Juno couldn’t meet the Princess’s observant eye. It was she who worried Juno more than the others. Her father had been an old friend of the general. They had known each other longer than Juno had been alive.

“Kota fell on Cato Neimoidia, ” Juno said. “His end of our joint mission was not successful. “

The air in the conference room seemed to solidify as the news sank in.

“Did you try…” Bel Iblis began, but cut himself off. The thought didn’t need to be finished.

“You were constrained by your orders, ” said Mon Mothma, nodding. “That I understand. But do you see where you have left us? By assisting Kota-by actively encouraging him in his reckless solo campaign against the Empire-you have cost the Rebel Alliance our most experienced general. Can you honestly say that we have benefited from this outcome?”

Juno met the Senator’s accusatory stare without flinching. “I believe he would have died anyway-perhaps long before now-without my help. You know his history as well as I do. He was never going to sit around and watch as opportunities came and went. “

“She’s right, ” said Bel Iblis. “The longer we wait, the more people like Kota we’re going to lose. “

“But if we attack now, we might lose everything. ” The passion in Mon Mothma’s voice was naked. Even by hologram, the mixture of grief and determination could not be mistaken. “Renegades like Kota would have us die by degrees or burn in one final conflagration. There must be another way!”

“There is, ” said Juno.

All eyes turned back to her.

This was the moment she had prepared for all the way from Cato Neimoidia. She wasn’t going to let it slip through her fingers.

“We’ve lost a general, ” she said, “and we must mourn him. But we can’t let a setback like this knock us off course. ” She said the words with a faint sense of deja vu, remembering the traumatic times after the agreement on Kashyyyk-except then they had been Kota’s words, not hers. “We must find a replacement for him-a military leader who will rally people to our cause-someone who comes with his own resources, as Kota did, but someone who also captures the perfect balance of action and caution we need to embody, if we’re going to win this war. “

“Do you have someone in mind, Captain?” asked Mon Mothma.

She was ready for this, too. “I’ve been hearing about a Mon Calamari called Ackbar, a slave we rescued from the Eriadu system…”

“Captain Ackbar has pledged his support of the Alliance. We already have him on our side. “

“But we don’t have his people, ” Juno persisted. “They were among the slaves Kota tried to free on Cato Neimoidia. If we can earn the support of the Mon Calamarians, then we get their soldiers and their ships with them. Didn’t I just hear you talking about the MC-Eighty star cruisers as I came in? Imagine if we had the resources of the entire Mon Cal shipyards at our disposal! Wouldn’t the Emperor have to sit up and rake notice of us then?”

Viedas nodded, and so did Bel Iblis. “He would have no choice, ” said the Senator from Corellia.

“There are no guarantees the Dac resistance movement will ever join our cause, ” said Mon Mothma. “We’ve approached them several times. They remain unconvinced we mean business. “

“Actions speak louder than words, ” said Bel Iblis.

“I agree, ” said Juno. “A decisive strike against the Empire on Dac, with the support of Captain Ackbar, and they’ll come around for sure. It’s exactly the opportunity we need. “

“And what if it goes wrong?” asked Mon Mothma. “What if this mission fails, as Kota’s did, and we lose Ackbar, as well? Then we’d be even worse off than we are now. “

Juno felt some of the frustration that must have boiled inside Kota, ever since the optimistic early days of the Alliance. She wasn’t afraid for herself and the fare of her career. The Alliance itself was at stake now, bound up in endless bickering and disputes.

“Princess, ” she said, “you’re very quiet. “

Leia looked up at her. “I don’t feel that I can offer an opinion without further consultation. “

“But your father has the deciding vote, and you represent him, so…”

“So I would like to consult with him before I cast that vote, if you don’t mind. “

The firmness of the rebuff took Juno by surprise. She had felt sure that Leia’s opinion would be the same as hers. It was she, after all, who had cemented the agreement on Kashyyyk, she who had chosen his family’s crest to represent the hope they all had felt, then, for the future.

It didn’t help that Bel Iblis looked as frustrated as Juno felt.

“We mustn’t rush in, Juno, ” said Mon Mothma, her tone ameliorating now that it was clear she had the upper hand. “Kota has barely been gone a day, and threats close in on all sides. Let us choose carefully. Let’s not be blinded as Kota was by the dream of an easy victory. We learned the hard way that this will never be our lot. “

Juno knew she was thinking of the Death Star, still lurking somewhere in an unknown state of readiness. They had come so close to the Emperor and failed to take him down. Had they only succeeded then, they would never have been having this conversation.

Juno forced herself to use the only name she could bear to think of hint as, anymore.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if Starkiller were here. “

Mon Mothma’s expression hardened. “He’s not here, so the point is irrelevant. “

“I think you’ve said enough, Captain Eclipse, ” interrupted Commodore Viedas with a pronounced Rodian lisp. “Leave us now, while we discuss what happens next. “

“I’m prepared to resign my commission over this, ” Juno said, reaching up to rug off the four red pips of her captain’s insignia. The very thought of it pained her, but to stand aside and do nothing, to wait while a golden opportunity slipped them by…

“Don’t be so hasty, ” said the commodore. “We might well court-martial you first. “

She dropped her hands to her sides, feeling nothing but defeat. Of course: That was what he had meant by what happens next. Adding impulsive defiance to her case wasn’t going to help the matter of her disobedience with regard to orders.

“Yes, sir, ” she said, snapping off a quick salute. “I await your decision. “

“Corporal Sparks will show you to the officers’ mess. “

The door opened behind her, and she exited quickly, without glancing at Mon Mothma or Leia. Garm Bel Iblis gave her an encouraging look, but he was as powerless as she was, outvoted by his co-leaders of the Alliance and hemmed in by logistical realities. Without ships, they couldn’t fight; if they couldn’t fight, they’d never get any more ships. At this rate, the Rebellion would either tear itself apart or die of attrition before another year was out.

She was shown to the mess by a bright-eyed young woman who looked barely old enough to be a private, let alone a corporal. Advancement came quickly in any movement afflicted by heavy losses. In the mess, Juno was offered refreshments and a chance to rest, but she declined everything. She simply stared out the viewport at the vistas of molten Nkllon and its fiery sun. She imagined that she could feel the heat even through half a meter of transparisteel, burning her defenses away.

Finally she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to find none other than Commodore Viedas standing behind her.

“I thought I’d better come myself to give you the news, ” he said. “I’m sorry, Captain, but we’re standing you down from the Salvation. The demotion is only temporary, while Senator Mothma goes over the case again, and may not last longer than a day or two. Both of you just need an opportunity to cool down. I hope you understand. “