Part 29 (1/2)

Asyr rolled to port as the second TIE fired. Its first shots splashed harmlessly on the X-wing's aft s.h.i.+elds, 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 s.h.i.+elds up. Without them, a concentrated volley of proton torpedoes might have been able to breech the hull, disable that lift sh.e.l.l, 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 c.o.c.kpit. 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 s.h.i.+p h~ang 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 s.h.i.+ver 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, then 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.”

”I'll 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, brandis.h.i.+ng 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 and are here so that both you and Captain Celchu could be put into positions of 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.”