"Especially this close to the Perlemian Trade Route," Leia added.
Han pointed to an orbital facility of spherical modules and multiple docks.
"The shipyard."
"It looks abandoned."
"Deliberately, would be my guess." Weaving a sinuous path through the minefield, they maneuvered the Falcon closer to the planet. The freighter was midway between the moons when a voice issued from the comm.
"Millennium Falcon, this is Contruum control. On behalf of General Airen Cracken and the rest of the command staff, allow me to be the first to welcome you." Contruum was the homeworld of Airen Cracken and his equally ill.u.s.trious son, Pash. An industrious planet with ore-smelting plants and a modest shipbuilding franchise, it was often touted as being the most Core-like world outside the Core, in a cla.s.s with Eriadu, though not nearly as ecologically devastated. Certainly there was no planet in that part of the Mid Rim to rival it. The fact that it had thus far escaped enemy attention was nothing short of marvelous. That Contruum had continued at its own peril to contribute generously to the war effort had rendered the planet a model of courage and sacrifice.
"Sirs, General Cracken is eager to know if you were successful in retrieving any of our lost merchandise?" Leia answered for them.
"Tell the general we"re returning with only one of four that were originally available for pickup. Two were lost, and there is reason to believe that one may have ended up back at its point of origin."
"We"re very sorry to hear that, Princess."
"That makes it unanimous," Han said.
"Millennium Falcon is cleared for entry. Would you care to have us take you in, Captain?"
"I"d rather fly-if it"s all the same to you."
"Of course, sir. Routing and landing coordinates are being transmitted to your navigation computer." Han and Leia watched the flight data come onscreen, then Leia enlarged the routing map. Han laughed shortly.
"Figures."
"Can"t be too careful." Han adjusted the Falcon"s course. Outside of a few harmless-looking ships lazing in stationary orbit, local s.p.a.ce was almost free of traffic. Instead of bearing straight for the planet"s heavily populated equatorial band, he banked the freighter for Contruum"s innermost moon, a silver sphere dimpled with impact craters and crusty with mountain ranges.
"The large crater just to starboard," Leia said. Han tapped the control yoke.
"Got it." There was nothing to mark the crater as a berthing s.p.a.ce; nothing to mark the moon as a military base. Han lowered the Falcon toward the crater, close to its upthrust eastern rim. Leia shook her head in wonder.
"You could almost believe it"s empty."
"Holoprojection masking a magnetic containment field," Han said.
"That technique hasn"t been used in a long time." She nodded sadly.
"There hasn"t been need for it." The Falcon pa.s.sed through what appeared to be the rocky floor of the crater and into an enormous hollow below, ultimately settling down on a hexagonal landing platform emblazoned with well-worn markings and numerals. The interior of the hidden base hummed with activity. A nearby transport bore the name Twelve Ton, after a beast of burden indigenous to Contruum. Han recalled that the sleekly designed destroyers once produced by the now abandoned shipyard had typically been given virtuous-sounding names: Temperance, Prudence, Equity.
.. It took several minutes to get the Falcon shut down. Leia asked Cakhmaim and Meewalh to remain aboard with C-3PO, who took the request as a personal affront. Then she, Han, and Thorsh-the Jenet they had rescued-headed for the landing ramp. At the top, Han paused briefly to a.s.sess the minor damage done by the swoop, which had been jettisoned above Selvaris shortly before the Falcon had made the jump to lightspeed. An escort detail was waiting for them on the landing platform-security personnel, meditechs and a medical droid, and a st.u.r.dy, dark-complected young woman who introduced herself as General Cracken"s adjutant. The meditechs quickly surrounded Thorsh, inspecting his limbs, gently palpating his torso, and examining his vaguely leonine head.
"You look like you were dragged through a field of thorns," one said. Thorsh sniffed in sardonic derision.
"More like propelled. But thanks for noticing."
"We did what we could for him," Leia said. The same meditech glanced at her.
"Any battlefield medic would be proud to have done as much." The droid finished its scans with a concluding melody of chitters and tones.
"Malnourished, but otherwise fit," it announced in a deep voice.
Major Ummar, Cracken"s adjutant, nodded in approval.
"I don"t see any reason why we can"t proceed directly to debriefing." Han turned to Thorsh and smirked.
"Good job, Thorsh. We"ll buy you lunch some other time."Thorsh shrugged.
"We all play our parts. I go where I"m sent, I do what I"m told."
"And the rest of us are the better for it," Leia said. She put her hand on Thorsh"s bristly shoulder.
"I can"t begin to guess at what you"re carrying, but it must be vitally important." Thorsh shrugged again.
"I wish I could say." Han surmised that the Jenet wasn"t holding back for security"s sake. Thorsh really didn"t know what intelligence he had locked away in his memory trap of a brain. Han and Leia hadn"t gone far when a speeder pulled up alongside them. On the bench seat behind the hover vehicle"s Rodian driver sat General Wedge Antilles and Jedi Master Kenth Hamner.
"Wedge!" Leia said in delighted surprise, as the handsome dark-haired human climbed from the speeder. She hugged him in greeting, while Han pumped Wedge"s extended hand. Wedge nodded to Han.
"Boss." The two men had known each other for almost thirty years, since the Battle of Yavin, where Wedge had flown with Luke Skywalker against the Death Star. At Endor, Wedge had been instrumental in destroying the second Death Star, and during the fledgling years of the New Republic he had distinguished himself in countless operations with Rogue Squadron and other units. Like a lot of Galactic Civil War veterans, he and his wife, Iella, had come out of retirement to fight the Yuuzhan Vong. At Borleias, Wedge had formed a secret resistance force called the Insiders, whose membership-including Han, Leia, Luke, and many others-had agreed to borrow some of the tactics the Rebel Alliance had employed against the Empire. Han had always liked Wedge, and what with Jaina"s growing closeness to Wedge"s nephew Jagged Fel, there was an outside chance that the Solo and Antilles families would end up allies of an even deeper sort.
"Good to see you again, Wedge," Han said.
"Any word from on high?"
"Only that Admiral Sovv sends his grat.i.tude for what you and Leia have done."
"Nice to know that we"re all still on the same team." Han threw Wedge a wink, and turned to Kenth Hamner, who was wearing the homespun brown robe of a Jedi.
"New look for you, isn"t it?" Kenth allowed a grin.
"Formal attire. A show of solidarity between the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance military."
"Times change."
"That they do."
"Kenth, any communication from Luke?" Leia asked with some urgency.
"Nothing." Leia frowned.
"It"s been more than two months now." Kenth nodded.
"And nothing from Corran or Tahiri, either." Leia studied him for a moment.
"What could have happened?" Kenth tightened his lips and shook his head slowly.
"We have to a.s.sume that they"re still in the Unknown Regions. We"d know if something went wrong." Han grasped that Kenth"s we was meant to include Leia. Since before the fall of Coruscant, the Jedi-and Leia by extension-had honed their abilities to stretch out with thoughts and feelings; to meld minds and intuit at great distances.
"We"re considering dispatching a search party," Kenth added. Like Han and Wedge, the tall and pleasant-looking Jedi was Corellian, though unlike them he was an heir to wealth. Han had always considered him the most military-minded Jedi-Keyan Farlander and Kyle Katarn notwithstanding-and a year earlier Kenth had been named to Chief of State Cal Omas"s Advisory Council, along with Jedi Masters Luke, Kyp Durron, Cilghal, Tresina Lobi, and Jedi Knight Saba Sebatyne. Luke had placed Kenth in charge of the Jedi when he, Mara, and several others had embarked on a quest for the living world of Zonama Sekot. Since then Kenth had done his best to coordinate missions for the Jedi in Luke"s absence, but as was true with Alliance command his best efforts had been undermined by the Yuuzhan Vong"s unexpected success in disabling the HoloNet, which had long been the basis of galactic communications."You"d better be organizing a large party if you"re intending to search the Unknown Regions," Han said. Kenth found no humor in the remark.
"We were able to obtain origin coordinates of the transmission Luke and Mara relayed through the Esfandia beacon."
"And?" Leia said.
"We"ve been transmitting to those coordinates for the past couple of weeks-without response." With the Generis communications array destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong, Esfandia was the only beacon capable of reaching Chiss s.p.a.ce and the Unknown Regions. Two months earlier a desperate battle had been fought at Esfandia, but the beacon had been saved, thanks in large part to Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon"s Imperial forces-with a helping hand from the able crew of Millennium Falcon.
"Maybe Zonama Sekot"s moved," Han said.
"I mean, that is what it"s known for." Kenth rocked his head in purposeful evasion.
"Among other things." Leia looked hard at him.
"Could Zonama Sekot be returning to known s.p.a.ce?"
"We can hope." The four of them fell silent for a long moment.
Wedge gave Han a covert glance, then heaved his shoulders in a shrug.
When they had all climbed into the speeder, Wedge, in the front seat, turned to Leia and Han.
"Tell me about Selvaris."
"Not much to tell," Han said.
"The escapees signaled us, we flew down and managed to rescue one of them." Wedge looked to Leia for elaboration. She blinked and smiled.
"Just like he said. It was that simple." Han leaned forward in a gesture of confidence.
"What"s all this about, Wedge? Not that we ever need an excuse to rescue anyone, but why from Selvaris of all worlds? Most people I know couldn"t point it out on a star chart." Wedge"s expression turned serious.
"I"ve got a special stake in this, Han." Han"s forehead wrinkled in interest.
"How so?""You can hear for yourselves. General Cracken has requested that you attend the debriefing." At the turbolift, Leia and the three Corellians caught up with the medical team that was escorting Thorsh. The Jenet and the meds exited three levels down. Leia and the others rode to the bottom on the shaft, emerging on a secure level, where two human Intelligence officers coded them into a stuffy room. Han had expected the usual mix of spies and officers, maybe a single chair for the subject, but the cabin felt more like an examination room. The only Intelligence operative in attendance was Bhindi Drayson, whom Han, Leia, and Wedge knew from Borleias and other campaigns. The lean and sharp-featured daughter of a former Intelligence chief, Drayson was considered an expert tactician, and almost two years earlier had partic.i.p.ated in a Wraith Squadron infiltration mission to Yuuzhan Vong-occupied Coruscant.
For company just now she had a red R2 unit and a Givin. Exoskeletoned humanoids with tubular limbs, large triangular eye sockets, and gaping mouths set in what appeared to be a perpetual frown of dismay, Givin were a remarkable species. Not only were they capable of surviving in the vacuum of s.p.a.ce, but they could also perform complex hypers.p.a.ce navigation without having to rely on navicomputers. Shipbuilders on a par with Verpine and Duros, they were obsessed with calculations, probabilities, and mathematics. Many believed that if the meaning of life were ever to be reduced to an equation, a Givin would be the first to do so. Before anyone had time for proper introductions, Thorsh was led into the room. Absorbing the tableau in a glance, he said, "I"m ready when you are." With the astromech droid standing by his side, the Givin seated himself opposite Thorsh. Thorsh closed his eyes and began to speak, surrendering the holowafer data he had memorized in an instant on Selvaris. A complex and utterly baffling sequence of numbers and formulas spewed from the Jenet, without pause or inflection.
No one in the room stirred; no one interrupted him. When Thorsh finished, he loosed a long exhale.
"Glad to be rid of that."The Givin was nodding his scary head.
"No soft-body could have composed such elegant work. I recognize the mind and hand of a Givin in coding the message contained in this equation."
"You want him to repeat any of it?" Bhindi Drayson asked. The Givin shook his head.
"That won"t be necessary." She nodded in satisfaction.
"Then I guess we"re done here." Han glanced around in bafflement.
"That"s it? That"s the debriefing?" Wedge nodded his chin to the Givin and the droid.
"The rest is up to them." Han and Leia had just found seats in the mess hall when Major Ummar brought word that General Cracken was ready to conduct the briefing.
"So much for a real meal," Han said. Leia sighed.
"I"ll have Threepio prepare us something later."
"The perfect appet.i.te suppressant." By the time the Solos arrived, the base"s tactical information center was filled to capacity with intelligence a.n.a.lysts, ships" officers, and wing commanders. Cracken"s adjutant escorted Han and Leia down the amphitheater"s broad carpeted stairs to seats in the front row. On the rostrum sat Wedge and three colonels-two Bothans and a Sull.u.s.tan. Seventy-five-year-old Airen Cracken, whose intelligence briefings had literally given shape to the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War, stood at the lectern.
"First I want to thank all of you for reporting at such short notice. If there was time, I would have included this information in tomorrow"s scheduled briefing, but with HoloNet transmissions disabled, we"ll need to dispatch couriers immediately if we"re to pull this operation together." Cracken activated a switch on the lectern"s slanted top, and a holoprojection appeared to his left, detailing an unidentified sector of the galaxy. Cracken used a laser pointer to indicate a star system in the upper right quadrant, which expanded as the pointer"s red beam touched the holo"s sizing node.
"The Tantara system," Cracken continued, "looking Coreward from Bilbringi. The princ.i.p.al stars are Centis Major and Renaant. The closest habitable world-presently occupied by the Yuuzhan Vong-is Selvaris." Cracken nodded at Han and Leia, then gestured to them.
"Captain Solo and Princess Leia have just returned from Selvaris.
There they were successful in rescuing a prisoner who escaped from an enemy internment camp constructed on the surface. Among those we have been able to identify as fellow prisoners in the camp are Captain Judder Page, of Corulag, and my own son, Major Pash Cracken." Murmurs of genuine surprise swept through the room.
"How come n.o.body told us that?" Han asked Leia out of the corner of his mouth. She shushed him gently.
"Let"s at least hear Airen out before we make a fuss."
"Okay," Han said slowly.
"But just this once."
"A resistance group operating on Selvaris was able to obtain important intelligence, and pa.s.s that intelligence along to Captain Page and Major Cracken, who are currently the highest-ranking Alliance officers in captivity at the camp. The intelligence was encrypted as a complex mathematical formula, which was memorized by the Jenet escapee, and decrypted only two hours ago. It provides us with details of a Peace Brigade mission to transport to Coruscant several hundred Alliance officials and high-ranking officers who are being held on Selvaris and in more than a dozen such camps along the fringes of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion corridor. We now know when the pickups are to be made, and we know the route the Peace Brigade convoy plans to use in reaching Coruscant. We don"t yet know the reason for this ma.s.s relocation, but we have a good guess."
"No wonder Wedge said he has a stake in this," Han whispered.
"Some of the officers Cracken is talking about were probably captured during the attempt to retake Bilbringi." Wedge stepped to the lectern and took over for Cracken.
"Alliance spies placed inside the Peace Brigade have alerted Mon Calamari command that a Yuuzhan Vong religious ceremony of great significance is scheduled to take place on Coruscant sometime within the next standard week. The purpose of this ceremony is unclear. It could mark the anniversary of some historical event, or its purpose could be to quell the rising tide of discontent that continues to plague Coruscant.
The purpose is immaterial, in any case, since it is our belief that the prisoners being transported to Coruscant are to be sacrificed at this ceremony." Separate conversations broke out throughout the amphitheater.
Leia tuned them out to absorb the tragic news in silence. Almost since the start of the war, the seditious Peace Brigade had transported everything from hibernating amphistaffs to captives for sacrifice. Mixed-species renegades, there wasn"t anything they wouldn"t do for credits and the freedom to move about the galaxy as they wished. But there was small profit in being a Brigader any longer. Those who weren"t hunted down and killed by Alliance operatives or loyalists had usually ended up dying at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong themselves. And no matter which way the war went, they were going to end up on the losing side-useless to the Yuuzhan Vong, traitors to the Alliance. That didn"t seem to matter, however. They lived for the moment, the credits, the thrill, the spice.
"Everyone here knows that countless lives have ended on Yuuzhan Vong sacrificial pyres," Wedge was saying.
"But it is imperative that this convoy be prevented from reaching Coruscant. In the past, whenever and wherever possible, we have attempted to save lives-that has always been our mandate. We have frequently failed because of erroneous intelligence or overwhelming force. Some of you are probably asking yourselves, Why this convoy? The answer is simple: because many of the prisoners-Captain Page and Major Cracken among them-are desperately needed to rally support for planetary sectors on the verge of acquiescing to the enemy. In addition, because their cover will be compromised, those agents operating within the Peace Brigade who helped provide this intelligence will also have to be extracted. And we are faced with having to execute this rescue without the advantage of coordinating operations through the HoloNet." Wedge waited for the amphitheater to quiet.
"Selvaris is the last stop before the convoy jumps to Coruscant, so our ambush must wait until the prisoners have been transferred. Given the devastating losses the Peace Brigade sustained a year ago at Ylesia and Duro, it"s reasonable to a.s.sume that the convoy will be escorted and complemented by Yuuzhan Vong war vessels. Admirals Sovv and Kre"fey have already seen fit to allocate Blackmoon, Scimitar, Twin Suns, and other starfighter squadrons to the mission. The starfighters will lend support to our gunships, as well as protect the transports needed to house those prisoners we rescue. Captain Solo and Princess Leia have volunteered Millennium Falcon for the latter purpose." Leia cut her wide-open eyes to Han.
"When did that happen?"
"I, uh, might"ve said something to Wedge earlier."
"You didn"t even know what the mission was going to entail." Han smiled crookedly.