Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [136]
“Lovely,” I muttered. “Gonna ask if their intentions are honorable?”
He shrugged. “Are your intentions honorable?”
“Tinta Blue, are you insane, or trying to commit suicide?”
Keevy frowned. “A rather tautological question, isn’t it?”
The blubbered sounds of confusion from the Invidious’ comm officer prompted me to smile. “Way to keep them guessing, Keevy.”
The smile growing on his face died abruptly as an angry female voice came onto the frequency. “This is Admiral Tavira, Tinta Blue. We are not playing games.”
I held a hand up to quiet Keevy. “Sorry, Admiral, we are. Catch us if you can.” I punched the comm unit’s power button, shutting it down, then rolled the shuttle so we skimmed along belly to belly with the Invidious. I yanked back on the yoke to get us pointed away from the Star Destroyer, then cranked the controls slightly to port, starting the ship in a flailing spiral that made stars into white circles before us.
When we could see them between scarlet sheets of turbolaserfire, that was.
Keevy braced himself as if the convergence of the ship’s port and starboard beams were a wall we were going to slam into. “We’re going to die!”
“Not even half way.” I chopped the throttle back, reversed thrust for two seconds, then kicked it full again and straightened our flight. Ship’s turbolasers flashed in at us and the Chepat shields crackled as some of them grazed us, but we sailed on through with our hull intact. Once past the point of convergence, I started the shuttle weaving again. “Engage the hyperdrive when we’re clear, Keevy.”
The young man stared at me. “How did we …?”
“Later.” I gave him a reassuring smile, and felt a lot of relief inside as well. I’d been treating the shuttle as I would a fighter—albeit a big, slow, wallowing monster of a fighter. Its handling reminded me of that of a Y-wing, actually, but slower and more clumsy. It wasn’t an elegant craft, and was never meant to be.
The fact was, though, that it was a big craft with huge shield generators. Surviving a direct hit by a Star Destroyer salvo would have been impossible, but the reverse-thrust flutter there threw off the Invidious gunners enough that their shots didn’t all arrive at the same time. We lost a lot of shield power, but they didn’t collapse, so we got away. While big and slow, the one advantage the shuttle had over a fighter was its ability to survive damage.
Keevy threw the hyperdrive lever and the stars lengthened into a tunnel for a couple of seconds, then snapped back to pinpoints as we reverted to realspace. “New heading is Course one three seven, angle zero four five.”
“I copy.” I pulled back on the yoke and brought the ship around to starboard. I glanced at my tactical screen. “We’re clear and good to go. Keevy, if you will do the honors.”
Keevy threw the lever again and we were off. At the far side of the system we made another course correction, then settled in for the journey to Elshandruu Pica. I’d been there once before, back when the squadron was off on its own, fighting Ysanne Isard for control of the bacta cartel. Keevy, with his interest in Rogue Squadron, knew all about Elshandruu Pica, and regaled Annissya and me with the story of Rogue Squadron’s adventure there.
His recounting of the story actually took longer than the whole operation, but we had time to kill. And by the end of it, of course, Annissya wanted to kill poor Keevy.
We reverted to realspace and I set us on a course for the Errant Venture. I had gambled on its being here and was happy to see it in-system. Kina Margath owns a resort complex on Elshandruu Pica and is a connoisseur of all things fine and exotic, which means Booster finds her almost as charming as the money she pays him. The 27th Hour Club at her resort has a standing challenge to patrons to name a drink the staff cannot mix, and if they can, the patron’s bar tab is on the house. Booster regularly supplies her with recipes of new drinks and the liquor used to make them up. I also think Booster has a thing for Kina, but Mirax thinks she’s too young for her father, so