Star Wars - Missed Chance Read online

  Dynba pointed back toward the doorway. “Maybe it’s a trick.”

  “The Empire doesn’t play jokes, Dynba. Eamon’s dead.” Arali pulled her friend up the gangplank. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll mourn Eamon on the trip, then when we get to the New Republic, we’ll find a way to get even with the Empire.”

  Barris felt the comlink clipped to his belt vibrate like the warning scales on a Gorgarian buzzadder. He opened his arms to take in the whole of the crowd in his reception room, then pointed them toward the eastern balcony. “My friends, I have just been informed that the Rebels have taken the bait in the trap that had been set for them. If you will join me outside, I think you will find their end a spectacular disaster.”

  Pulling the comlink from his belt, he thumbed it on. “Garqi Eagles, you are clear to intercept and destroy your target.”

  Arali got Dynba into one of the jumpseats in the cockpit and strapped her in. “Barris got our last passenger. Captain. You better move now.”

  The Duros nodded to his mouse-eared pilot. The Sullustan chittered her way through a checklist. The low hum of the repulsorlift drives filled the ship, then a gentle tremble ran through it as the sublight drives began to push it forward, up and out of the hangar. The nose of the ship came around to the east, facing the ship away from the sun and on a course that meant they would be moving away from the star’s mass as they left the planet. That would permit them to enter hyperspace faster, and everyone on the ship knew speed was a virtue when escape was the object of the exercise.

  Through the forward viewport Dynba got a spectacular look at the lights of Pesktda. She found the city where she grew up quaint and even beautiful, with lights winking on and off as gently breezes stirred the dark, leafy canopy that covered everything. Part of her felt the loss of leaving the place of her birth, but that regret was nothing compared to the pain she felt over Eamon’s murder.

  The Star’s Delight picked up speed and shot out of the spaceport. The Sullustan pilot kept the ship at a steady angle of ascent. As they broke above the shadow of the world, sunlight lit the sky. It passed quickly as the atmosphere thinned, then the stars above stopped shimmering and just hung there like distant jeweled sparks on the inside of a vast black bowl.

  Captain Nootka hunched forward over a screen. “We have four starfighters in our wake. Shields to full in the aft arc.”

  The Sullustan hit a button on the console, but it remained dark. She hit it again, then shrieked.

  Nootka reached over and hit the button himself. “Saricia, we have not shields.”

  “Invert and give me a shot.” The Devaronian’s bass voice came from above the companionway that led into the cockpit. Dynba looked back and saw an open hatchway that allowed access beyond the passage’s ceiling.

  Arali tightened down her restraining straps. “The blaster cannon turret is up top. We have to invert for him to shoot at targets coming from behind and below, otherwise he’ll hit the cargo pods.”

  “Not a good design, is it?”

  Nootka turned around and gave Dynba a hard stare. “This is a freighter, not a warship. Saricia is good.”

  “How good? Good enough to stop them?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure?”

  The Duros shook his head. “If I am wrong, I will not live long in regret.” He hit some more switches on the console. “You said the ship was in working order.”

  “That’s what I was told. Eamon said … ” Dynba’s jaw dropped open. “He’s not here.”

  The tips of the Twi’lek’s headtails shook with a start. “We were set up, Dynba, set up to die by Eamon Yzalli.” She flashed sharp peg-teeth. “I hope part of Xeno’s work on Garqi is killing him.”

  Nootka glanced at his screen, the shook his head. “I would have hoped the situation would not get worse. We have a fifth ship closing fast.” The ship shook violently and sparks shot through the companionway. while the thrummed rumble of Saricia’s return-fire filled the cockpit. “Our armor will hold them back for a little while, but not long.”

  “Can we make the jump to lightspeed?”

  “In the time we have left?” Nootka asked. “Not even if I knew where we were going and had the course already plotted into the nav computer. It looks now that where we are going is to the grave.”

  Corran Horn eased the X-wing’s throttle forward and his speed started to climb faster as he left Garqi’s atmosphere. “You should have told me sooner. Whistler, that’s all I’m saying. It doesn’t matter now, though. We can talk about it later. Now we have to get those TIEs.”

  The droid replied in a muted whistle that Corran found almost as depressing as the four-to-one odds on the fight. Not how I wanted to do this, but I have no choice.

  Corran hit the thumb-switch on the X-wing’s stick. The proton torpedo targeting system came up and painted a big yellow box around the slowest of the TIE starfighters. “That’s target one. Give me the next closest one and mark it as target two.”

  Whistler complied instantly, then keened a question.

  “Yes, if they’re in range, get me comlink contact.” Corran heard the hiss of static from the speakers in his helmet, then a clear channel opened up. “Star’s Delight, the key-code for your shields is 349XER34, repeat 349XER34.”

  “Who is this?”

  “Someone who just gave you your shields back. Eamon Yzalli sold you out. He’s dead. What he knew, I know.”

  In the background he heard a voice excitedly shout. “It’s Xeno!” The deeper voice, the one he decided belonged to Lai Nootka, overrode the shout. “349XER34 is the code.”

  “Exactly.” Corran smiled. “Tell your gunner not to shoot the X-wing and I’ll make his life easier. X-wing out.”

  Whistler tooted triumphantly.

  “Not yet, buddy, not yet. Give me target one and lighten my acceleration compensator. I want to feel it when I move around.” Nudging the stick over and back, he settled the box around the lagging TIE. The droid beeped intermittently as he tried to get a target lock. The target box went from yellow to red at the same moment Whistler’s tone went solid and Corran hit the trigger.

  The proton torpedo shot away from the X-wing and curved only slightly to port before it slammed into the TIE’s ball-cockpit. The explosion shattered the starfighter’s hexagonal solar panels. It sent their shards spinning away from the roiling, red-gold plasma ball spreading out from where the cockpit had once been.

  “Acquire two.”

  Brief beeps melded into an uninterrupted tone as Corran hit a pedal and the etheric rudder brought the X-wing’s nose around to port. He hit the trigger again and saw a proton torpedo burn into and through the second TIE. The torpedo hit it solidly on one of the solar panels and blasted through. The projectile glanced down, crushing the fighter’s ion engine exhaust port and clipped the far side solar panel before exploding. The TIE whirled off on a wobbly course before exhaust pressure from the engines tore the ship apart from the inside.

  “Two down.” Corran flipped his weapons control over to laser fire and linked the lasers for dual-fire. “Whistler, even out the shields.”

  The droid complied with the order as Corran brought the X-wing up in a quarter snap-roll. The maneuver stood the fighter on its port stabilizer foils. Tugging back on the stick, he brought the nose up and cruised onto the tail of one of the two remaining TIEs. It had broken left while its wing man had gone right — a strategy that was usually discouraged and went a long way toward confirming Corran’s opinion of the Garqi garrison.

  Whistler’s excited hooting made Corran look up at his rear sensor monitor. Coming in behind me. Not as bad as I thought. “I see him, Whistler. Now you know why I didn’t want to fight them at all.”

  The TIE in front of him began a slow loop to starboard. The move was slow enough that Corran was tempted to follow and light the ship up, but he knew giving in to temptation would have a price. In this case it will be the TIE back there shortening the loop and melting my ship’s tail. Not f
or me.

  Corran chopped his thrust back and pulled the stick to his breastbone. He looped the X-wing, then punched the throttle full forward and rolled out to port. That dropped him in on an attack vector to the TIE that had been following him. Tightening up on the trigger, he tracked ruby laser bolts across one solar panel, through the cockpit and into the other solar panel.

  The TIE didn’t explode. It rolled slowly to port, little blue tendrils of energy playing over its myriad surfaces. The X-wing overshot the ship, so Corran rolled and dove down through a loop to keep an eye on it. The TIE did not react and just continued spiraling along on its Previous course, bound for a fiery collision with Garqi’s atmosphere.

  Pilot’s gone, ship’s running on momentum. Corran shivered, imaging for one second what it was like to spend your last seconds of life in pain, in a breached cockpit with all the atmosphere leaking out while cold poured in. Not the way I want to go.

  Whistlers indignant yowl and the hiss of laser fire splashing against his aft shields shocked Corran. He immediately hit the right rudder pedal, whipping the X-wing’s tail to port and out of the line of fire. Pushing the stick hard left, he rolled out to port, then pulled back and brought the ship’s nose up and around in a loop. Halfway through that he rolled right and dove, but his sensors showed the TIE was still with him.

  Why are the best guys always the last? Corran smiled at his own question. “Because the pilots who are bad die first. They were all probably daydreaming just like you.” He sideslipped the X-wing to the right and the TIE followed him.

  “Whistler, get me the Delight again.”

  “Nootka here, X-wing.”

  “Captain, this guy on me is good. Kill your shields and tell your gunner to shoot high.”

  “We just got our shields back.”

  “I know. Kill your shields.”

  “I do not understand.”

  “You will.”

  Corran rolled the fighter out to port, then kept a light hand on the stick. Nudging it left and right, up and back, he made the X-wing dance almost unpredictably. After every third or fourth move, when the ship had drifted to port, he’d push the stick down, then up right and right again. He’d level out and fly straight for a couple of seconds, then after that the random pattern would begin again.

  When he saw the TIE begin to anticipate his pattern, Corran pulled the X-wing back through a big loop and dove straight in on an intercept course for the Delight. “Full shields aft, Whistler.” Corran dipped and jerked the fighter through its pattern. Laser fire came in from the Delight, passing over his ship, but only by a margin of decimeters.

  The TIE kept to Corran’s tail as the X-wing turned and swooped down into a run that took it from bow to stern on the Delight. The TlE came in tight and sank below the level of the ship’s fire. He’s low enough to strike sparks! This Imp’s very good. Corran smiled. I gotta hope I’m better.

  As Corran’s pattern ended, the X-wing drifted into a gentle glide along the Delight’s spine. The TIE dropped in behind him and lined up for a shot. The first laser blasts hit the X-wing’s aft shield and rocked Corran in the cockpit. Now or never!

  Corran killed his thrust and cut his repulsorlift drives in at full strength. Acceleration jammed him down in the cockpit couch as the X-wing bounced up and away from the freighter’s mass. The TIE starfighter shot through beneath the X-wing, pulling up abruptly to miss the freighter’s engine cowling.

  Punching the throttle forward and killing the lift drives, Corran sailed in on the TIE’s aft. His targeting box went green. He pulled the trigger and filled the last TIE with laser fire.

  The scarlet energy darts shredded the ship, puncturing the cockpit and melting their way through the twin ion engines. The TIE exploded brilliantly. The glittering plasma sphere burned like a star going nova, then imploded, leaving the void in its wake.

  “X-wing, this is Delight. May we put our shields back up?”

  “Affirmative, Delight.” Corran smiled. “Captain Nootka, have you got a course plotted out of here?”

  “We have a course, X-wing.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’ll slave my navigation to yours and tag along. After all, I still owe you for the debris extractor.”

  “Consider the debt paid, X-wing, but come on along.” Corran heard gratitude in the Duros captain’s voice. “This adventure will be a tale to tell, and I would have you there when I first tell it.”

  Prefect Mosh Barris bowed graciously amid the applause from his guests. The series of bright explosions and the spectacular light show of debris streaking through the upper atmosphere had been far more than he expected. If you arranged that on purpose. Eamon, I shall give you rewards in excess of what I had already planned.

  He held a hand up. “Thank you, thank you all. I am pleased you have enjoyed how we have eliminated the Rebel threat to Garqi.” Barris smiled proudly. “I was the architect of this event, but another carried it out. My aide, Eamon Yzalli. Eamon, where are you?”

  “Indeed, where is he?”

  Barris’ head came up as a sharp voice asked the question from the balcony doorway. “Who are you?”

  A tall, hatchet-faced man stooped slightly to make it through the door, then fixed Barris with a harsh stare. “I am Kirtan Loor. Imperial Intelligence. You have been expecting me?”

  “Of course.” Barris gestured up at the sky, spraying choholl from the glass in his hand. “You came too late to see what happened to the Rebels.”

  “Oh, I think I already know what happened to them.” The Imperial officer’s lip curled in a sneer. “As I came into the system, I was sent a report by this Eamon Yzalli. It indicates you arranged for the escape of the local Rebel organization on the Star’s Delight. The report indicates this action was the preliminary gambit in your bid to usurp Governor Tadrin and transfer Garqi to the Rebel Alliance.”

  Barris’ stomach slowly wriggled into a knot. Kirtan Loor reminded him of a young Grand Moff Tarkin, and the resemblance did nothing to stop the fear flooding Barris’ mind. “This is wrong. This cannot be. Eamon must have planned this. Ask him, the accusations are not true.”

  “I would ask him, but I cannot find him.” Loor’s blue eyes narrowed. “An appendix to his report said he feared for his life at your hands. When I arrived here I read that you had ordered and carried out his elimination. That message came from you, directly, I’ve checked.”

  “Yes, but it was all part of the plan, don’t you see?”

  Kirtan Loor shook his head solemnly. “I don’t see what you want me to see. What I do see is a Rebel collaborator with much to tell me about the enemy.”

  “But I know nothing about them.”

  “I doubt that very sincerely, Barris.” Loor smiled with a cold superiority that weakened Barris’ knees and sent his glass crashing to the floor. “By the time your interrogation is barely started, you will wish you knew even more, so you could tell me everything. You will besurprised how much information there truly is in your nothing — and you will learn to dread your punishment whenever you seek to feign ignorance as a shield.”

  corran had fully expected the look of surprise on Dynba Tesc’s face when she first saw him. “Greetings, Dynba. I’m glad you made it. I apologize for the rough time the Delight had.”

  The war between horror and joy in her expression even proved entertaining, though the ultimate victor in the struggle proved to be a stunned look. “Y-you’re dead … at least you said you were dead. You’re Eamon Yzalli, but you can’t be.”

  Corran winced as hurt entered her voice. He scratched at his beard for a second, then shrugged. “I’m sorry for the deception. I intended for you to assume Barris had killed me and take off. I knew the TIEs would head out after you. I wanted to use you as a diversion one more time, so I could get away while the TIEs were busy with you.”

  A Twi’lek walked up behind Dynba and draped a head tail over her shoulder protectively. “The TIEs almost did us in because you disabled the shields. You tried to have
us killed.”

  “Not my intention at all.” Corran sighed. “I meant to have a message sent to you that would give you the code to bring the shields back up. I wanted to blame the shield tampering on Barris and have you protected, but the old fool went and deactivated my message account when he entered his death declaration about Eamon.”

  Dynba dug a gentle elbow into the Twi’lek’s midsection. “Arali, if he wanted us dead, he’d not have come after the TIEs and given us the code. He still could have gotten away.”

  “Right,” Corran nodded. “Exactly.”

  “So what did you mean about using us as a diversion ‘one more time?’”

  “Setting up the Star’s Delight’s escape allowed me to get the spare parts I needed for the X-wing. I told Barris they had been stolen from storage, but I really just had the guys who helped me load the things put them in the back of my speeder. They were the TIE pilots, so now we’re the only ones who know where the parts ended up.”

  Dynba smiled. “The parts, of course. The phantom X-wing flights ended about a month before the Delight showed up and was taken.”

  “I needed a debris extractor.”

  “So, then, you’re Xeno. You got us together to eventually steal those parts for you.”

  “No, I’m Corran Horn, late of the Corellian Security Force.” He smiled as Whistler came rolling up and patted the droid affectionately on the dome. “The droid here was Xeno.”

  Arali’s head tails twitched with surprise. “A droid organized our little group?”

  Whistler chirped emphatically and Corran beamed. “He worked with me in CorSec. In addition to astrogation programming, he’s a fairly good codeslicer and had a facility for putting together sting operations. He was grooming you to get the parts for me, but he didn’t mention it because he knows I don’t really want anything to do with the Rebellion and the New Republic.”