Wedge's Gamble (9 page)

The Wookiee snarled and the gold droid’s arms flapped for a second. “I conveyed the meaning of your message, Councilor, without using the colorful analogy you suggested. For clarity, sir.”

“I understand the question.” Ackbar held a hand up to forestall further elaboration from the Wookiee. “In reply, perhaps an analogy
is
appropriate in that Coruscant can be likened to the first Death Star.”

Borsk Fey’lya barked a quick laugh. “You suggest we let Skywalker and Rogue Squadron fly in and destroy the planet with a well-placed proton torpedo?”

“I am terribly sorry to disappoint my esteemed colleague from Bothawui, but I was thinking to the prior visit to the Death Star, when Obi-wan Kenobi succeeded in sabotaging the facility to allow the
Millennium Falcon
to escape.” Ackbar pressed both of his hands against the tabletop. “The overriding problem we have in deciding how to approach Coruscant is determining exactly what is where. Huge construction droids are constantly grinding up old buildings and creating new ones. While we do have agents on the ground who are trying to supply us with as much data as possible, most of it comes from assets placed within the Imperial administration. While this has allowed us to react to things the Empire is doing off-planet, these resources are poorly positioned and trained to provide us with the sort of military data needed to enable us to effectively plan for conquest.”

Doman Beruss looked over at Ackbar. “You want to send a team of military specialists to Coruscant as a prelude to moving on the world?”

“It is a stormy sea, but this venture is the first stroke in calming it.”

Doman looked over toward Mon Mothma and beyond
to one of the Chief Councilor’s advisers. “General Cracken, this sort of intelligence operation falls into your area of expertise. Are you prepared to handle it?”

“Councilor Beruss, I have reviewed the general guidelines for the operation and I approve of them. I am prepared to use the assets I have developed on Coruscant to aid Admiral Ackbar’s effort. However, the general division of labor within the Alliance—a division caused by our limited resources—means most of my people lack a prime requisite for being able to carry out this operation.”

The Bothan craned his neck around to look at Cracken. “That requisite being?”

“None of my available people are fighter pilots.” Cracken gestured in Wedge’s direction. “Admiral Ackbar has suggested, and I agree, that Rogue Squadron is a natural choice for the operation.”

“Rogue Squadron?” Borsk Fey’lya made no attempt to cover his surprise, and Wedge thought he might have been exaggerating it a bit for dramatic effect. “Here your analogy to the Death Star comes back to haunt you, Ackbar. Rogue Squadron may have worked miracles before, but they could not possibly succeed in rendering Coruscant defenseless.”

“Rendering the planet defenseless is not the purpose of the mission, Councilor Fey’lya.” Ackbar turned and pointed at Wedge. “In rebuilding the squadron care was taken to choose the best individuals possible—both in the area of their flying skills and for a host of other skills. Rogue Squadron is uniquely qualified for this mission.”

“Do you think this as well, General Cracken?”

“I do, Councilor Fey’lya.”

“You would risk your son’s life in this?”

“That is a question that has been answered many times over.”

The Bothan’s creamy fur rippled along his shoulders. He fixed Wedge with a violet stare. “You accept this mission, Commander Antilles?”

Wedge waited to answer until after he got a nod from
Admiral Ackbar. “In principle, yes. The details are still being worked out.”

“Do you think you could be effective on the ground there?”

Wedge thought for a moment before answering. “Given the parameters of the operation, yes.”

Leia casually raised a hand. “Perhaps you could explain what you mean by that, Commander Antilles?”

“Of course, Councilor Organa.” Wedge gave her a smile in thanks for breaking up Fey’lya’s interrogation. “Because of the virtually total urbanization of the planet, Coruscant presents some unique problems for an incoming force. As we saw at Hoth, the Imperials correctly took our shield generators down first, then worked on other targets of military importance. On Coruscant we need to be able to pinpoint power plants, communications centers, and other sites that we can hit to disrupt Imperial command and control functions. We need to pull the shields down, then make them deaf and blind. If we give them no power to operate their defensive weapons, we further guarantee our success.”

Leia nodded thoughtfully. “You said you needed to pinpoint targets. In what way does your piloting skill enhance your ability to do this?”

Easy questions with important answers
—
hitting Coruscant should be this simple
. “Councilor, it is one thing to identify the locations we need to hit, but hitting them is another thing entirely. As a pilot I can identify and evaluate the possible approaches to a target. I can also help determine how much in the way of firepower will be necessary to eliminate it.

“I should also point out that we really do need to be running a precision operation because we have to take into account the possibility of Warlord Zsinj or some other Imperial leader trying to take Coruscant from us while we are trying to bring its defenses back up. For example, hitting a power conduit is preferable to hitting the reactor creating the power it carries because the conduit is much easier to replace.”

The Bothan smoothed the fur on his chin with his left hand. “Bribing a custodian to shut the power down would be much easier, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, sir, but handling that sort of thing is outside my area of expertise.”

“I see.” Borsk Fey’lya sat forward and clasped his hands together. “Despite my reservations about this mission, I do agree with my Mon Calamari compatriot that the gathering of information is necessary if the conquest of Coruscant is to happen. I would also vouchsafe that any interim disruption of normal Imperial functions on Coruscant by Rogue Squadron, or General Cracken’s people, would not be seen as a negative.”

Ackbar blinked once, slowly, then clasped his hands behind his back. “Disruption is not necessary, but it could be effective and even helpful.”

“I would think it could be very helpful, especially if it served as a distraction for Imperial authorities who might be working against Rogue Squadron.” Fey’lya opened his hand. “That seems reasonable, does it not?”

Ackbar nodded. “Perhaps.”

Wedge sensed in the slow delivery of Ackbar’s reply an extreme reluctance to grant the Bothan his point.
Leia suggested Admiral Ackbar would have to compromise, and he has retreated from the blockade. It would seem Borsk Fey’lya wants him to concede more
.

“Good, for I have a little operation that I think will function very well as an adjunct to what you want to do.”

“And that is?”

Fey’lya hit a button on his datapad and the holoplate in the middle of the table displayed a small, dirty red ovoid planet whose atmosphere escaped into space like smoke drifting from dying embers. A single large moon orbited it, plunging in and out of the wispy tendrils of atmosphere trailing from the planet. Wedge didn’t recognize the world until the Bothan sigils running down the edge of the image area resolved themselves into Basic letters
and strung themselves together at the planet’s southern pole.

Kessel!
Wedge shook his head. He knew that the Empire had maintained a penal colony there and used the prisoners as slave labor to harvest spice. One of Rogue Squadron’s recruits—the first of the new members to be slain—had come from Kessel and still had family there who worked as educators. After the Emperor’s death, the inmates had overthrown their masters and had taken control of the planet. They administered the mines and the vast atmosphere factories that freed enough oxygen and other gases from the rocks to let people exist on the surface using nothing more elaborate than a rebreather. It was a brutal existence with very little in resources being available to the residents—that the world was considered viable was more a testament to the tenacity of the residents than any measure of scientific analysis.

Borsk Fey’lya stood. “Kessel was one of the detention centers the Empire used to house dissidents as well as hardened felons. When the inmates took control of the center they chose a Rybet by the name of Moruth Doole to administrate. He was a minor official at the prison and appears to have been connected to the spice trade, hence his easy alliance with the prisoners. The Imperials and the political prisoners were sent to work in the spice mines. A few of each have been released, but only after off-world friends and family have paid a substantial ransom.”

Threepio again translated for the Wookiee Councilor. “Kerrihrarr wishes to know what criminals and Kessel have to do with Coruscant?”

“Coming to that point directly.” The Bothan smiled, but Wedge read a hint of threat in the toothy grin. “On Coruscant there are substantial remnants of the Black Sun organization. As did many of you, I thought Prince Xizor’s grab for power was doomed from the start, but it was the Black Sun organization that allowed him to contemplate opposing the Dark Lord of the Sith. I propose selecting and freeing certain Black Sun officers from Kessel and bringing them into Coruscant. There they
would bring the disparate parts of Black Sun together and work to sabotage the Empire.”

Ackbar sat down slowly and gave Fey’lya a wall-eyed stare. “You want to revive the scourge of the Black Sun?”

“Not revive, just focus. The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Isn’t that the principle behind Councilor Organa’s approaches to the Hapans? That certainly was the principle that guided our alliance with Imperial forces at Bakura to fight the Ssi-ruuk.” Fey’lya stared incredulously at Ackbar. “By granting selected felons their leave of Kessel—in effect taking Doole’s obvious rivals for power off his hands—we can also ransom some of our people who are trapped there. And to guarantee Black Sun’s compliance with our wishes, we can trade them more of their people when they perform as we want them to.”

“I don’t like this.” Ackbar shook his head adamantly. “You are talking about unleashing thieves and murderers on Coruscant.”

“To let them steal Imperial goods and kill Imperial officials, or do you want to reserve the killing for
your
people, and the
dying
, too? Shall that be a privilege reserved for the military, or will you take help where you can find it?” Fey’lya crossed his arms. “You have already admitted that added distractions could be a help to Rogue Squadron’s mission. Certainly having an army of irregular troops at your disposal to disrupt Imperial operations when the invasion begins would reduce bloodshed.”

Doman nodded. “It seems Councilor Fey’lya is merely suggesting you fight fire with fire.”

The Mon Calamari half closed his eyes. “I do not like fire analogies. As we say on Mon Calamari, ‘Frolic in the surf and get drowned by the undertow.’ ”

Leia stood. “I would agree, as one Corellian has put it, if you anger a Wookiee, you shouldn’t be surprised at having an arm torn off, and it may well be that in the future we regret any sort of alliance with the remnants of Black Sun. On the other hand, I think none of us can truly comprehend the difficulty of neutralizing the Imperial forces on Coruscant. Indeed, as you have said, Admiral
Ackbar, until you have Rogue Squadron on the ground to assess the situation, we cannot be a hundred percent certain what taking Coruscant will entail. The fact is, however, that winning the goodwill of at least part of Coruscant’s underworld cannot hurt us.”

Mon Mothma nodded. “I would also point out that some of our greatest leaders were thought to be nothing but ruffians, confidence men, and spice smugglers. In being given the opportunity to join us, they have managed to redeem themselves.”

“But if they are the exceptions that prove the rule?” Ackbar slapped his hands impatiently against the table’s surface. “I do not like this operation at all, but I believe many of you see merit in it where I do not. If this Kessel run is to be authorized, I want to go over every detail to make certain what we want to happen is what actually happens. No one, not even an idiot like Zsinj, has been foolish enough to free the dregs of the galaxy from Kessel. I do not want a situation to arise where my people are taken hostage and our equipment is converted to the use of the criminals. This will be a strictly military operation and I will not have it turn into the sort of disaster we faced on Borleias.”

Councilor Fey’lya’s fur rose on his neck and formed a crest between his ears before he smoothed it back down. The first assault on Borleias had been planned and led by General Laryn Kre’fey, a Bothan who, according to scuttlebutt, was distantly related to Borsk Fey’lya. The mission had gone from bad to worse, costing General Kre’fey his life and putting almost half of Rogue Squadron out of commission. Had General Salm not violated a direct order, all of Rogue Squadron would have been destroyed and the Rebel Alliance would be in no position to even consider a mission to Coruscant.

Fey’lya’s voice began soft and low, causing Wedge to strain to hear him. “Far be it from me to wish a repetition of Borleias on anyone. You are the military leader here, Ackbar—I have no wish to supplant you. You should handle the military details, but I have prepared a
list of people I think should be our targets. I have appended full files to my list so you may determine what efforts and precautions need to be taken.”

“Your understanding in this matter is most appreciated, Councilor Fey’lya.”

“Good. We really are on the same side here, Admiral. I want the conquest of Coruscant to proceed as swiftly and efficiently as you do.” Fey’lya smiled, but Wedge found no warmth in the expression. “I
would
hope you will use your best people to see that this mission comes off perfectly. Perhaps if you were to employ Rogue Squadron as part of the operation, their efforts will establish a rapport with those they free and that will work in their favor.”

“I will take that suggestion under advisement, Councilor.”