Star Wars: X-Wing I: Rogue Squadron (41 page)

The X-wing shook violently, as if a titanic child had grabbed it in an invisible fist. Whistler hooted anxiously and Corran felt his stomach turn inside out.
Tractor beam! It’s all over
.

The astromech droid wailed piteously.

Corran read the message on his console and shook his head. “Hey, it’s not your fault. Your telling me the odds isn’t why they evened them.” He brought his torpedo control up again as the first Interceptors streaked over the lip of the volcano’s crater.

“Sensors forward, Whistler. Time to remind them that trapping a Rogue doesn’t make him dead, just deadlier.”

Locked in the silence of hyperspace, Wedge glanced back over his shoulder and frowned. “Are you absolutely certain about the timing on this search pattern thing?”

Mynock spun his head around and bleated imploringly.

“Fine.” The droid’s numbers indicated that a standard Imperial square-klick search pattern would take two and a half standard hours to scour the dark side of the moon.
If Corran managed to stay ahead of them and slip over to the light side, then they’d have to search it, too. That means he could still be hiding from them. If not
 … Wedge glanced at his fighter’s chronometer.
If not, they found him a minimum of an hour and a half ago
.

Frustration balled Wedge’s hands into fists. He knew they’d done everything they could within mission parameters to help Corran. The first set of ten Interceptors had caught up with them because they had throttled back and waited. The five Rogues had easily dispatched their foes, but the dogfight took
them to critical fuel levels. They went to light speed, leaving a dozen squints to hunt for Corran.

At the first transit jump he’d ordered everyone to spend the trip into Noquivzor working up plans to go back and get Corran out. For the past three hours he’d put together a rescue operation and had figured out all sorts of contingencies depending upon what intelligence they could get from Borleias. Defender Wing would not yet have arrived at Borleias by the time the Rogues landed at Noquivzor, but there was an outside chance that Page’s people could have some news and have tapped into the Imperial holonet to deliver it.

That
was a long shot, but getting information from the holonet was not. Borleias would certainly have reported being under attack, and that report might contain details that would indicate Corran’s status. The second he reverted to realspace he’d have Emtrey search out the latest information from Borleias.
I need to know what to expect when we go back
.

His core plan was risky, and he knew Ackbar would never approve it. The mission risks had been pointed out in advance. Corran had volunteered to go. He would be missed, but jeopardizing other people to effect a rescue that probably would not work would be foolish.

As much as he knew Ackbar would be right in pointing all those things out, he also knew he couldn’t abandon one of his people.
I’ve lost too many friends to the Empire not to do everything I can to save others
. He knew his insistence on Tycho Celchu’s inclusion in Rogue Squadron was just such a rescue. He smiled wryly.
And saving him from Salm was tougher than pulling Corran out of Borleias ever will be
.

At Noquivzor the Rogues could be refueled and
head back out inside a half hour. He assumed their return trip would actually go off in an hour because he recalled that being the minimum amount of time techs needed to put the lasers back in the
Forbidden
. With Tycho flying the shuttle and the X-wings as escort, they’d be more than a match for the dozen Interceptors in the Borleias system.

Dozen? I’ll bet Corran will leave us half that number
.

Wedge sat back for a moment. He realized he thought of Corran as
Corran
, not Lieutenant Horn. The distance he had placed between himself and Corran had collapsed in on itself. He’d purposely chosen to distance himself from all the new recruits to maintain authority over them. As loose as Rogue Squadron was, that detachment was necessary if they were to follow him.

Even so, he suddenly realized, he had insulated himself from them for his own protection. Having lost so many friends, having felt the pain of their deaths, he had been reluctant to let anyone else get close. Not befriending them meant he could blunt the pain of seeing them die. He regretted Lujayne Forge, Andoorni Hui, and Peshk Vri’syk dying, but he had not been as deeply hurt by their deaths as he had when Biggs or Porkins or Dack had died.

Emotional distance is armor for the heart
. That armor was necessary because without it the overwhelming nature of the fight against the Empire would crush him. After seeing how many had been slain, it would have been easy to assume all was for naught.
But if we
did
assume that, the Death Stars would be ravaging planets and the Emperor would still rule the galaxy
.

Corran had earned the friendship Wedge felt for him, and not just through his skill in an X-wing. He had taken to heart the things Wedge had told him
about becoming part of the unit. Corran had clearly known that to go after the Interceptors closing on an assault shuttle was to be left behind. He had made that choice because it was really no choice at all.
The rest of the unit would have made the same choice, too
.

And they’ll want to go back to get Corran
. By jumping straight from Noquivzor to Borleias, without making a side jump first, they could reach the world in under three hours. Doing that would expose Noquivzor to discovery by Imperial forces, but Wedge expected Page’s people to be giving them other things to think about. Even so, a jump to the outer edge of the Borleias system and then another jump in closer would bring them out of hyperspace from a direction that would hide their point of origin.
I hope
.

A green button started blinking on the command console. Wedge punched it and hyperspace melted into the Noquivzor system. He immediately keyed his comm. “Rogue Leader to Emtrey.”

“Emtrey here, sir. I have an urgent message for Bror Jace.”

“It’s not as urgent as my orders, Emtrey. Get Zraii set up to refuel us and get techs mounting lasers on the
Forbidden
. An hour from now, at the most, we’re heading back out.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And contact Intelligence. I want any holonet data coming out of Borleias.”

“Yes, sir.” The droid sounded agitated. “Sir, we do have some information from Borleias.”

“You do?” Wedge’s heart started to pound inside his chest. “What is it? Is it about Corran?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Give it to me.”

“It’s a hologram.”

Wedge frowned. “Have the computer mash it to two dimensions and send it.”

“You may want to wait, sir.”

“Emtrey!”

“Transmitting now, sir, at your request.”

The monitor resolved itself into an image of Corran Horn. Wedge shook his head.
What?

“If you’re seeing this, Commander Antilles,” Corran said solemnly, “I know I was left behind …”

Corran popped one proton torpedo off and watched the lead Interceptor evaporate. Thumbing his weapons control over to lasers, he started to track the next TIE. The tractor beam limited his ship’s range of motion, but a heavy foot on a rudder pedal started turning him in the right direction.
Just a bit more …

The Interceptor exploded as red laser bolts ripped through the cockpit.

Corran looked down at his hand and couldn’t recall having hit the trigger.

More laser fire transformed another TIE into a fireball.
What in the Cloak of the Sith?

Whistler started hooting frantically.

Corran hesitated, not comprehending, then flipped his comm unit back on as his fighter began to rise through the volcano, picking up speed.

“…  repeat, is your hyperdrive still operational?”

He recognized the voice. “Mirax?”

“Yeah. You ready to get smuggled out of here?”

“Hyperdrive is a go.”

“Key it to my signal.”

“Whistler, do it.”

Corran didn’t afford himself the luxury of looking back at the ship that had tractored his fighter—the forward view had more than enough to entertain him. Borleias’s moon was receding quickly into the starfield, as were the squints. Green lancets of laser fire reached out toward him, but they splashed harmlessly against his shields. His return fire scattered the TIEs and one more fell prey to
Skate’
s gunner.

Whistler piped a warning at him, then the starfield stretched into columns and they entered hyperspace. A second or two later they came back out again at a point well below the Pyria system’s elliptic plane.

“Corran, bring your fighter around and come up into the hold.”

“Gladly,
Skate
” He complied with the order and found his twelve-and-a-half-meter-long fighter fit snugly in the hold. He waited for Mirax to repressurize the hold after closing the loading bay doors, then he popped his cockpit canopy open and vaulted from the X-wing. He landed on the deck with a thump, then smiled as the hold hatch opened.

“Permission to come aboard, Captain Terrik.”

“Promise you won’t tell my father?” Mirax smiled and strode boldly across the deck to him. “He’d die if he could see an X-wing with CorSec markings in the belly of his ship.”

“And if my father hadn’t been killed years ago, having my ship here would have gotten him, too.” Corran enfolded Mirax in a hug. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Likewise, Corran.”

He didn’t let his arms slacken until he felt
her hug loosen first. “And I commend you on your shooting. You popped three Interceptors in no time.”

Mirax pulled away from him and pointed toward the hatchway. “He did it, not me.”

The silhouette in the hatchway shrugged. “The
Skate
is a fairly stable gunnery platform. And the squint pilots weren’t the Empire’s best.”

Pulling off the helmet, Corran crossed the hold and offered the man his hand. “Still and all, Captain Celchu, it was superior shooting.”
With skills like that, I can’t imagine why you’re not flying with us. Commander Antilles said not to ask, and now is not the time, but I want to know the answer
.

Mirax patted Corran on the back and let her hand linger there for a moment—a sensation he relished. “Come on up to the bridge. We’ll go to hyperspace and get back to Noquivzor before the others do.”

“We will?”

Mirax slapped the nearest bulkhead. “The
Skate
can push .6 past light speed—not as fast as the
Falcon
, but definitely better-looking. With our speed we can trim time off the trip back to Noquivzor and fly a course that’s shorter. We’ll beat them by an hour, just as we did getting here.”

Corran frowned. “But how could you get here since no one was supposed to know where here was? Commander Antilles didn’t tell the others until our second jump.”

The smuggler smiled sweetly at him. “Not my fault you talk in your sleep.”

Tycho laughed. “Mirax discovered a possible security breach. We arrived and went to ground on the dark side of the moon. We monitored Borleias control traffic and didn’t notice unusual activity down there, so we maintained comm silence when the squadron arrived.”

Corran sat down across from him. “If you told us you were there you might have alerted the Imperials.”

“Exactly.” Tycho followed Mirax into the
Skate’
s cockpit and dropped into one of the jumpseats. “Since the squadron was running with weak comm system transmissions, we couldn’t hear what Wedge had planned when he went sunside, but we figured things out from Imperial intercepts—the Verpine droid here has slicing skills that broke the Imp scrambling quite quickly. We stayed hidden when the squints started to search, assuming we’d break and run when they reached the volcano.”

Mirax looked back at Corran. “Then you arrived with them on your tail, we grabbed you and pulled you out.”

Corran chuckled as he strapped himself into the seat. “I thought I was dead.”

“I imagine that is what the rest of the squadron will be thinking when they reach Noquivzor.” Tycho slapped Corran on the knee. “Won’t they be surprised?”

“Yeah, I imagine they will.” Corran’s eyes narrowed. “And I’ve got an idea which means we can have some fun with them.”

Mirax tapped the console and smiled at her Sullustan pilot. “Get us going, Liat, and fast, too. The
Pulsar Skate
will be the first ship ever to smuggle a man back from the grave, and I mean for us to do it in record time at that.”

“…  on Borleias’s moon,” Corran’s image continued. “I know the decision to leave me behind wasn’t easy.”

Wedge’s eyes narrowed. “… 
on Borleias’s moon?” How could he have known? Wait a minute
!

“I want you to know I harbor no ill will concerning my abandonment. To prove this to you, I pried some Whyren’s Reserve away from Emtrey and a
ryshcate
should have finished baking by the time you land.”

“Wahoo!” Gavin’s voice echoed through the comm.

Wedge keyed his comm. “Horn, if you aren’t dead, you will be.”

Corran’s image broke into laughter. “I’m happy to see you, too, Commander. Welcome home.”

Wedge sat back in his chair and held the half-full tumbler up so the light from the center of the recreation room made the amber liquid in it glow. Its chemical warmth, aided and abetted by seeing Corran alive and unhurt, had chased the chilly dread
from his belly and melted the stress in his shoulders and neck. Putting his feet up on the table, he actually began to relax for the first time in conscious memory.

In retrospect Corran’s message
was
rather funny. He watched his green-eyed lieutenant cut the warm
ryshcate
and hand it out to the other pilots in the squadron. They were all giddy with their success and his survival. Wedge knew they all had been as horrified as he had when the message began to play in their cockpits, but no one was more relieved than he had been when the truth of it was revealed to them.