Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 02_ Dark Apprentice - Kevin J. Anderson [94]
It angered him that this admiral continued her attacks on the Rebellion without even attempting to get in touch with Carida. Perhaps Daala considered herself a vigilante, but the Empire needed its soldiers to fight as parts of an immense whole. The Empire did not need vigilantes.
Furgan had tried to contact some of the other battling Imperial commanders to get capital ships for his assault on Anoth. The Emperor and Grand Admiral Thrawn and other depredations had already taken most of the ships available to Carida. On the military training planet, Furgan had access to some of the most sophisticated weaponry and soldiers in the entire galaxy—but because of the perpetual squabbles between the Imperial Army and the spacefaring Imperial Navy, he had no place to go with his troops. This left Furgan in a position of being on the most heavily armed—but useless—planet still loyal to the Empire.
Furgan absently played with one of the articulated models of the MT-AT fighting vehicle. It would be fascinating to see the marvelous new machine in operation. Even with the death of the Emperor, his loyalty to the Empire and the New Order had never been shaken, not even slightly.
Furgan kept doing his best to strike vital blows against the New Republic, one way or another. He was pleased to watch indirect reports that gave him evidence of the inexorable progress of Mon Mothma’s “mysterious illness.” She would be dead before long.
And as soon as Furgan had the grandson of Darth Vader in his possession, all those still loyal to the Empire would have to listen to him.
25
When Wedge Antilles wasn’t looking, Qwi Xux stole a glance at the coordinates displayed on his navigation panel. Sitting in the copilot’s seat of the disguised personal space yacht, Qwi used her nimble fingers to tap the coordinates into the navicomputer, requesting a full display.
Wedge looked away from the starfield and caught what she was doing. “Hey!” he said, then grinned sheepishly as he lowered his gaze. “This was supposed to be a surprise.”
Qwi laughed, a cascade of short musical tones. “I just wanted to know the name of the planet.” She frowned as the display came up. “Ithor? Never heard of it.”
Wedge chuckled and reached over to squeeze her slender shoulder. She felt the warmth of his touch linger for several moments after he removed his hand. “Qwi, you’ve never heard of most places in the galaxy. You spent your entire life cooped up in Maw Installation.”
“Is Ithor a nice place?” she asked.
He sighed. “It’s beautiful. A pristine natural world covered with forests and jungles, rivers and waterfalls. We’ll be incognito, and you won’t have to worry about anybody knowing who you are.”
Qwi looked around at the metal-edged control panels of the space yacht, at the synthetic fabric of the seats that felt so smooth and soft. She smelled the recirculated air. Qwi had lived for years inside a completely enclosed environment; she knew nothing about plants and animals and other life-forms. She hoped it would be fascinating.
“Are you sure we’ll be safe?” she asked, swallowing hard. Her greatest nightmare was that some Imperial spy might recapture her and haul her back to the black-hole research lab where they would tear the weapons knowledge out of her head, no matter how much she resisted.
“Yes,” Wedge said after a long pause. “Ithor is an isolated paradise. It’s a world where many young couples”—he paused, then swallowed as if embarrassed by the word he had just spoken—“uh, tourists go for vacations. Many people come and go, and the Ithorians welcome everyone.
“The Empire blockaded this world during the Rebellion,