The Krytos Trap (32 page)

He started to pull up and head for the asteroids, when something behind him exploded. He glanced at his aft monitor and saw no TIE there. “Thanks.”

“My pleasure, Six.” Erisi seemed pleased with herself. “My wing would be distraught if you were hurt.”

“I owe you, Four, for the both of us.”

“Acknowledged, Six.”

Aril Nunb’s voice broke in on the comm channel. “Lambs are running.”

“Thanks, Twelve, let them go.” Wedge’s voice lacked none of its earlier vehemence. “We’ve got plenty to do here.”

Nawara brought his X-wing up and evened out the shields. Trailing Erisi back in toward the fight, he saw two or three TIEs explode. Another came shooting out of the dogfight, then barrel-rolled in on Erisi for a broadside shot at her.

“Four, break up!” Nawara snapped his fighter up on the port S-foil, then climbed. He swooped in on the eyeball, stayed with it as the pilot juked down, then hit his trigger. The first pair of laser-bolts only melted holes in the starboard solar panel, but the second hit the ball cockpit dead on. The TIE began to spin out of control, then exploded in a cloud of brilliant incandescent gas. Debris sparked off his forward shield as he flew past the outer edges of the fireball.

“Lead, Five here. The TIEs are breaking off. They’re heading for the Graveyard.”

“I copy, Five. Rogue Squadron, let them go.”

“You can’t be serious, Lead.”

“I am, Gavin.”

“But what they did—”

“Doesn’t matter right now. They’re dead and they know it. I don’t want any of us getting dead. Regroup in your flights and stand by.” A momentary squeal ended Wedge’s transmission, telling Nawara that the commander was shifting over to a different comm unit frequency.

Nawara rolled his fighter and dove down to where Pash and the other two members of Two flight were orbiting. Peering out through his cockpit canopy, he got the first good look at the remains of the convoy.
If humans can bring themselves to do this to a convoy of ships hauling bacta, I am glad I’m not human
.

A few of the freighters were still recognizable as such. Hull compartments had been blown open by explosions. Bacta that had geysered out through the holes had flash-frozen into monuments to the terror the ships’ crews must have felt. Fires burned deep in the hearts of several ships, consuming the last remnants of atmosphere. Pieces of other ships drifted through the area, slamming into one another, breaking up yet further to careen into other dead hulks.

The worst image Nawara saw was of one small ship—
one barely bigger than the
Skate—that appeared, from the prow to midships, to be intact. Back of that point the ship did not really exist—at least, nothing recognizable as a ship. Turbolaser fire had hit so fast that the latter half of the ship had been liquified. An amorphous blob of metal fringed with condensed metal mist, like the down from a silvery bird, trailed in the ship’s wake.

The sheer violence of the attack that had destroyed that ship shook Nawara. The transparisteel cockpit panels on the ship had blown out. He realized the Super Star Destroyer’s turbolasers would have superheated the atmosphere in the ship. The crew would have been cooked inside and out in the blink of an eye.
They would have been dead before they knew what had happened to them, but their last moments must have been full of terror because of the SSD’s presence
.

Nawara keyed his comm unit. “Hypothetical question: you’re part of a convoy with minimal arms and you come out of hyperspace in the shadow of a Super Star Destroyer and a Strike Cruiser that’s deployed its TIEs. Do you provoke an attack?”

“Ooryl cannot see how anyone would be that suicidal.”

“Right, so you’d surrender and tell the SSD that you’re hauling bacta, which is currently very valuable.” Nawara frowned. “It makes no sense for anyone to have killed the convoy.”

“That’s why to know Warlord Zsinj is to wonder about his sanity.” Disgust filled Pash’s voice. “He’s definitely someone who needs a lot of killing.”

“Count me in.”

“Me, too.”

A squeal came through the comm unit, then Wedge spoke. “I’ve just had word with the TIEs. They’re giving up—they were uneasy with the mission and they don’t like the fact that we showed up. They’re going to recon the hangar sections of
Termagant
and see if they can reboard.”

“Why, that hulk’s not going anywhere? The engines are in the other half and it’s headed for the Graveyard.”

“I noticed, Four. They’re going to check for survivors and try to pick up enough oxygen to survive for as long as
they can. Pash, I want you to take Two flight out of here and make for Tatooine. It’s about eight hours out, give or take. Gavin can guide you in to Mos Eisley. Refuel there and hire a freighter that can carry a dozen TIEs. Get it here and haul the pilots clear. I’m sure your father would like to debrief them, so you should probably bring them to Coruscant with you.”

“As ordered. We fly cover for the freighter in case our friends have any ideas about trying to commandeer it?”

“Right, though I don’t think you’ll find much opposition.”

“How so?”

“Scan the debris. There’s a lot of TIE parts out there and—”

Nawara looked at the readout his R5 scrolled up his screen. “X-wing debris. But we didn’t lose anyone.”

“No, we didn’t.” Some of the anger drained from Wedge’s voice. “Of course, that’s not what Zsinj’s people say. They say they already killed off Rogue Squadron, right here, defending the convoy the way it was supposed to. Then we arrived and showed them we were tougher to kill the second time around.”

Nawara blinked. “But that makes no more sense than attacking the convoy in the first place.”

“No it doesn’t, but there’s no time to try to figure it out now. You get to Tatooine. We’ll check for survivors here, then head back to Coruscant and report. See you there in a day or so.” Wedge sighed. “If by then you come up with any brilliant thoughts on what’s happened here, I know I, for one, will be more than willing to listen to them.”

30

Kirtan Loor would have been trembling with outrage, but the lethargy of despair had a higher priority. He knew his days were numbered, and he wouldn’t have bet on double digits even if given the longest of odds. He freely assumed the only reason he still lived was because Ysanne Isard enjoyed the thought of him cowering in fear, dreading each new day.

Yet even facing certain death at her hands, Loor did greatly admire how Isard had gotten him
and
Warlord Zsinj
and
the New Republic in one simple set of maneuvers. Rogue Squadron would also have been caught in the trap had their operation not fallen behind schedule—
and if I had not been phying
my
game
.

Within 24 hours of the ambush at Alderaan, Zsinj had sent a message to Coruscant via what was left of the Imperial HoloNet system, indicating he and his people had attacked the bacta convoy because, according to his sources, the bacta was tainted and would have exacerbated the Krytos virus problem. He further claimed that Rogue Squadron had been present, had indicated they knew the bacta was tainted, and had fully intended that it should be distributed on Coruscant to “get rid of the xeno-trash” the Empire had left behind. He said he had no choice but to destroy the convoy and Rogue
Squadron, then beseeched people to overthrow the New Republic’s government and flock to his banner.

The only problem with his message, which was broadcast worldwide, is that it followed by roughly six hours a report about the attack on the convoy. This attack report had been delivered by the government and included holographic images created by and with commentary from members of Rogue Squadron. Zsinj’s claim that he had destroyed the unit were proved false, and helped make the rest of his comments appear likewise untrustworthy.

Loor shook his head. Ysanne Isard had clearly leaked to Zsinj the information about the convoy. His report that he was sending a Rogue Squadron of his own to eliminate the convoy clearly would have arrived too late for her to get it to Zsinj. Loor had only given her 16 hours’ notice of what he was doing, yet the timing of Zsinj’s message to Coruscant suggested strongly that it took him at least a day to make it to Alderaan from wherever the
Iron Fist
had been.

All of this meant the message that had been routed to Loor and warned of the squadron’s mission had also, somehow, made its way to Isard. She had acted based on that original message, then got Loor’s follow-up message later. The appearance of his Rogue Squadron meant that Zsinj didn’t wait around for the genuine unit to put in an appearance—he just struck and destroyed them all. Rogue Squadron had embarrassed him in the past, and this was his chance to get back at them, which he truly believed he had. The tainted bacta story clearly was an afterthought to mollify those people who might be upset by his destruction of so much bacta.

The loss of the bacta
had
struck quite a blow to the hopes of people on Coruscant. Coupled with that was a report from a governmental accounting office that indicated there was less ryll available than previously thought. Several Provisional Council members suggested it had been stolen, but statisticians showed how the shortage was actually an artifact of good distribution. The previous supply, which had been supposed to last for two months, was down to seven weeks because more was getting out to more people.

It struck Loor as amusing that the government was still fighting the Emperor’s ghost; it was the Empire’s doing that had prompted everyone to look for the truth behind government statements. The fact that the Republic might be telling its citizens everything there was to tell did not stop people from thinking there might be something more to the story.
Teaching trust is a long process; learning it is an even longer one
.

And Ysanne Isard has, in short order, learned she can no longer trust me
.

Had he done nothing and simply relayed the message to her when he got it, her plot would have discredited Zsinj, resulted in the loss of the bacta,
and
caused the destruction of Rogue Squadron. While she had no proof that he intended to steal the bacta and use it for his own gain, he knew she didn’t
need
proof to condemn him. She knew he was smart enough to see how powerful that bacta could have made him. If he had succeeded he would have amassed enough power to begin to play on her level.

Now he was just a failure.

And failures, as far as she is concerned, are worthless
. She would discard him as soon as the optimal use for him arose.’
Which means I must find something to do with myself before she does
.

Loor allowed himself to laugh and banish some of the fear. He had plans to make,
big
plans.
Plans for the future and plans to get me to the future
.

Gavin Darklighter cleared his throat and rapped gently on the doorjamp of Commander Antilles’s office. “Excuse me, sir.”

Wedge looked up from his desk, a bit haggard and bleary-eyed. “What can I do for you, Gavin?”

“I’d like to speak to you if I might. In private, sir.”

Wedge straightened up in his chair, then nodded and waved Gavin to the seat in front of the desk. A couple of keystrokes killed the holographic lists of numbers hanging in the air above Wedge’s holopad. They looked like quartermaster
reports to Gavin, but he couldn’t be certain, since he was reading them from the back side of the hologram.

“What is it, Gavin?”

How to begin?
Gavin seated himself, then looked down at his hands. “Ah, sir, we, the squadron that is, have been discussing the situation at Alderaan. It was really pretty bad. I mean, those of us in Two flight got to see it a second time when we went to get the TIE pilots, and the destruction seemed even worse than we’d thought.”

Wedge nodded and rubbed his eyes. “I know. I helped edit and narrate the government’s report on the ambush. Warlord Zsinj’s
Iron Fist
did a first-class job of ripping the convoy up from one end to the other.”

Gavin frowned. “When I talked to the others, they said you’ve been pretty quiet about all that—about Mirax dying and all. I mean, I didn’t know her nearly as well as you did, of course. I got to know her on the run into Coruscant when we came in secret, and I liked her. Not romantically, you know—not that there was anything wrong with her, but even
I
could see she was interested in Corran. Anyway, I remember you coming to talk to me about Lujayne Forge when the Imps killed her, and how much it helped and I thought—”

“You thought it would help me to let my grief show?”

“Well, your best friends aren’t here for you. Captain Celchu is in jail, Princess Leia has dropped out of sight, and you and Mirax were close, so …”

Wedge smiled and signed, then leaned back in his chair. “I appreciate this, Gavin, more than you know. I guess, with Mirax, I’m still in shock. There was no trace of her or the
Pulsar Skate
, so part of me wants to believe she had an astro-gation error and jumped someplace else, that she wasn’t there at all.”

“I think we’d all like to believe that, sir.”

“It’s ridiculous, of course, but that’s part of the reason I’m not ready to let her go, you know.” Wedge frowned. “It seems as if everyone I know, all the friends I make, are getting ground up by the Empire or some malignant little offshoot of it. Fighting against the Death Stars—well, someone dying there somehow had meaning. The convoy, though,
they were just bringing bacta to a sick world. Even though their deaths have catalyzed the Provisional Council into making a decision concerning Warlord Zsinj, their lives were wasted, and I guess I’m tired of that sort of waste.”

Gavin looked up. “We’re going after Zsinj?”

Wedge tapped his datapad. “I was going over information concerning our supplies for deployment against him. I don’t know many details, and couldn’t tell you any of them if I did, but this convoy hit has made Zsinj a big target. Admiral Ackbar wants this data rather quickly, so I really should get back to it.”