The Bacta War (45 page)

Corran nodded slowly. In the week since the battle for Thyferra he’d waited for repair crews to restore atmosphere to the prison area on the ship. To the others that had seen it, the whole area was just part of a ship where the bulkheads had been lined with rock. The fact that the primitive latrines had drained into a zero gravity vacuum, then the waste settled wherever it had drifted when gravity and atmosphere had been brought back, did not help things. Everyone who visited the facility could see very clearly why he hated it.

But the stink and the crudity of its manufacture wasn’t why he hated it. Corran frowned. “It feels to me as if despair and failure have permeated these walls. The men who were in here didn’t dare try to escape, and yet most of them could have, I’m certain. Jan could have come with me, but he didn’t because he felt a responsibility to the others. That made him more a prisoner than these walls.”

“But what you saw as a prison for him was not what he saw for himself. Jan knew he was keeping people alive by leading them. He hadn’t surrendered, so they couldn’t quite do it themselves.” Tycho brushed fingers across the rocky surface of the walls. “What he was doing, by staying behind, was as much a part of him as your need to escape was a part of you. I don’t remember much of my time here, but I felt certain I was going to die here. It’s a terrible thing to come back to your senses after having been out of it, to find yourself in a place where you think you’re going to die. Jan told me I wasn’t, and I didn’t.”

“And you escaped from the place where she sent you after you left here.”

“Right.” Tycho smiled. “We have to hope the others will be able to do that, too.”

“It’ll be fine if they do, but I’m still on for finding them myself.” Corran smiled. “Zraii’s already got my X-wing back to normal—well, as normal as it gets after a Verpine messes with it—so I’m ready to hunt. You with me?”

Tycho nodded thoughtfully. “I am, though I think we’re going to have some stiff competition. One of the first ‘repair’
crews in this area was a forensic team from Alliance Intelligence. They are supposed to have swept this place, pulling fingerprints, hair and tissue samples—even samples of some of the solid waste floating around. You know better than I what that sort of evidence can tell them, but I gather they were able to confirm the identities of some of the prisoners from what they got.”

Corran smiled slowly. “Which is why General Airen Cracken showed up two days ago. The New Republic is going to hunt for the prisoners, then?”

“That would be my guess. They couldn’t do it before because they only had your word to go on—my identifications were spotty and old. Since you chose to resign from Rogue Squadron and started all this, they had to disassociate themselves with our effort. Now they have solid evidence, which changes everything.”

“Great, they can race us in finding them.”

“Ah, there you are, Corran.” Ooryl filled the entryway. “I thought I could find you here.”

What?
Corran stared at the Gand. “Ooryl?”

“Did Ooryl say that right?” The Gand’s mouthparts snapped open and shut excitedly. “Ooryl wanted you to be the first to hear.”

Corran looked over at Tycho, but the Alderaanian just shrugged. “Yes, Ooryl, you said that correctly, but I thought Gands didn’t use personal pronouns unless …”

The Gand’s fist clicked off his chest. “I am
janwuine
. The
ruetsavii
, they have declared me
janwuine
. They have returned to Gand to tell Ooryl’s, ah,
my
story. What we did here, Ooryl’s part in the taking of Coruscant, and the battles against Iceheart, these will become known to all the Gand. If Ooryl says ‘I,’ they will know to whom I refer.”

“That’s great, Ooryl.” Tycho extended his hand to the Gand. “The Gands have every right to be proud of you.”

Ooryl shook Tycho’s hand, then Corran’s as well. “There is more. Each of you have been declared
hinwuine
. This means that when you come to Gand for Ooryl’s
janwuinejika
, you may speak of yourselves with personal pronouns and will not be thought vulgar or rude.”

Corran’s eyes narrowed. “You mean to tell me that the whole time you’ve been here in the squadron you felt the way we talked made us vulgar or rude?”

The Gand shook his head. “Ooryl never assumes vulgarity when ignorance suffices as an explanation.”

“Thanks, I think.”

Tycho shot him a sly smile. “That should be ‘Corran thinks.’ ”

“But not often,” Ooryl added.

“Corran thinks Ooryl should practice using personal pronouns more regularly before he tries comedy.” Corran opened his arms wide. “Not much better than the shack we shared on Talasea, is it, Ooryl?”

“The mineral deposits do add some color, but Ooryl, er,
I
would not like to live here.” The Gand held a hand up. “I would explore this place with you more, later, for the story of your time here will be vital to my
janwuine-jika
, but there are other things we must do right now. Captain Celchu, Commander Antilles asked Ooryl to tell you he is waiting for you in the
Lusankya
’s staff officers’ mess.”

“Last minute things before his party?”

“Ooryl, I mean I, believes this is the case, Captain. And Corran, General Cracken has asked to speak with you.”

I
wonder what that’s about?
“Where do I find him?”

“Ooryl will take you there.”

The trio of pilots carefully picked their way out of the cavern complex and took the turbolift up. Tycho exited first while the Gand and Corran continued on, climbing higher and higher in the
Lusankya
’s superstructure. When the turbolift stopped, Corran found Airen Cracken waiting for him outside the door to the Captain’s ready-room.

He nodded at the Gand as the turbolift’s door closed behind him, then turned to the older man. “What can I do for you, sir?”

Cracken raked fingers back through reddish hair tinged with white. “I need you to talk some sense to Booster Terrik.”

Corran immediately raised his hands. “Got a Death Star you want killed instead?”

“Close.” Cracken shook his head. “Booster wants to keep the
Virulence
.”

“And you want him to give it to the New Republic?” Corran laughed aloud. “He won’t listen to me.”

“Mirax suggested I get you up here.”

“Okay, you have me, but I don’t know what I can do.”

“Back me up, or we’re going to have Booster Terrik in command of a fully operational Impstar deuce.” Cracken sighed. “Terrik was never as bad as some of the smugglers out there, but now he’s hooked up with Talon Karrde and …”

“Booster and Karrde are together? Allied? I mean, I knew Karrde had come into the system, but I assumed it was to work a deal with Thyferra’s new government about hauling bacta. Are you sure Karrde and Booster are working together?”

“See for yourself.” Cracken opened the door to the ready-room and allowed Corran to precede him in. Corran found Booster at the far end of an oval table, with Mirax seated on his right and a handsome man he took to be Karrde seated on his left. Corran went over to Mirax’s side of the table and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Booster, you’re looking fit.”

“Captaining a starship agrees with me.”

Corran extended a hand across the table to the other man. “Talon Karrde, I presume. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Better now than when you were with CorSec.” Karrde seemed to be watching him very closely. “The resemblance to your father is unmistakable.”

“Thanks.” Corran sat down, fighting to conceal a shiver. He didn’t know why, but he gained the impression that Karrde knew more about him than perhaps even Airen Cracken did, and that disturbed him.
I think I’m happy I didn’t meet him when I was with CorSec as well. He would have been to me what Booster was to my father, but I don’t think I would have been sending Karrde to Kessel
.

Booster looked up at Cracken, then jerked a thumb at Corran. “Did you think
he
could convince me to give up my ship?”

Great, this is off to a good start
. Corran glanced at Cracken and shrugged.

“Booster, I just thought Lieutenant Horn here could supply you with some more perspective on why you’re not going to be able to keep the
Virulence
. That ship presents a rather major danger …”

“Right, a danger to anyone who tries to take it away from me.”

“Let me see if I can rephrase this—the only people with that sort of firepower at their disposal are Warlords and other Imperial renegades. The New Republic has to consider any Star Destroyers that are not under the control of itself or its allies to be an immediate threat to the New Republic’s stability.”

“Fine, General, fine. I’ll just take the
Virulence
, conquer some planet with it, have the planet become one of the New Republic’s allies.”

Mirax shook her head. “That’s pretty much what they’re afraid of, Father.”

Booster winked at his daughter. “Okay, then try this: I’ll make the
Virulence
herself a nation. We’ll just move from system to system, trading here and there, and we’ll be sovereign and even join the New Republic. Think of all the guns as ground-based defenses.”

Cracken’s breath hissed in between his teeth. “No, I don’t think that will work. That would constitute quite a large threat to peace in the galaxy. Such a threat would have to be dealt with.”

Booster’s artificial eye’s light seemed to flare for a second. “I think there are several different degrees of threat, General, and I’d have to say, right now, you’re acting more threatening than I’ve ever contemplated being. The
Virulence
is
mine
. She was surrendered to me.”

“But only after three squadrons of New Republic A-wings appeared in the Yag’Dhul system, giving Captain Varrscha the impression she had been trapped by New Republic forces.” Cracken pressed his hands flat against the white tabletop. “She thought she was surrendering the ship to
the New Republic, and you know that’s true. Your representations to her did not dissuade her of this fact.”

Corran looked over at Booster and shook his head. “You let Isard’s conviction that we were a covert New Republic operation trick Varrscha into believing we actually
were
part of the New Republic? Not bad, Booster.”

Mirax’s father smiled proudly. “She was looking for any excuse to get out of trouble, so I just used the one she gave me.”

Corran winced. “Unfortunately, that means you’ve given the New Republic a claim on the
Virulence.
”

“What?!”

“Mirax, tell him. It’s the same as a partnership for salvaging hulks. Just because one partner is ceded ownership, he doesn’t own it—the partnership does.”

“Corran’s right, Father.”

“Nonsense. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Mirax laughed. “No? As I recall, that’s how you got your share of the
Pulsar Skate.
”

Booster frowned heavily. “That’s not the same thing at all, not at all. But, for the sake of argument here, let’s say Captain Varrscha
was
mistaken about my connection with the New Republic. I still possess the ship, and if they have a share, so do I.”

Cracken nodded. “You do. We will justly compensate you for it, of course, and you’ll earn our undying gratitude. Even a pardon for any indiscretions you might have committed …”

“You can stop there, General. Unless you want to give me back the five years I spent on Kessel, I’m not interested in any judicial rewards, thanks. How much?”

The New Republic’s representative hesitated. “The current situation is such that an immediate payment is out of the question, but I think we could compensate you with five million credits.”

“Ha! This is an Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II we’re talking about. It doesn’t have a scratch on it. It is worth billions and billions of credits. I’ll settle for a billion credits, payable in two hours, or I’m flying it out of here.”

“Ah, Booster, you’re dreaming if you think that ship is going anywhere.” Cracken smiled confidently. “As you know, Thyferra has voted to join the New Republic. Because of this, all ships in the system are subject to New Republic law. In accord with said laws, your navigation and engineering section crews have been taken planetside for debriefing.”

“That’s piracy.”

“No, it’s actually a security concern. As Lieutenant Horn can attest, a number of prisoners who were on this ship are missing. We want to question anyone who might have been used to move them to other locations, and your astronav crews could have been employed in that capacity. Right now, your ship is going nowhere.”

Booster frowned. “Okay, I’ll come down to five hundred million credits.”

The sum seemed to stagger Cracken for a moment, then Karrde spoke. “Booster, be reasonable. Try twenty percent of that.”

Booster stared at him. “You’re being very generous with my money, Karrde.”

“Twenty percent of something, Booster, is better than one hundred percent of nothing.”

“True, but if they can’t deliver, why not think big?”

Corran raised a hand. “It just struck me that we might be arguing about the wrong thing here. Booster, how serious are you about making the
Virulence
into a hyperspace-capable smuggler’s den?”

Booster scratched at the beard stubble on his throat. “Very. I spent my life hauling cargo from one point to another. It would be nice to own a place where the cargo came to me and I just brokered deals for it. The
Virulence
would do nicely in that regard.”

Corran smiled. “So would the
Freedom.
”

“No!” Booster and Cracken dismissed the idea at the same time. They exchanged surprised glances, then shook their heads.

“I don’t want the
Freedom
. Refitting it will take a lifetime. I’d have to get it to Sluis Van, and General Cracken here
would guarantee my work was never scheduled. Stick to flying, Horn, because that idea was really dumb.”

Mirax slapped her father on the arm. “Don’t speak to my fiance like that.”