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But a run for one of the interdictors would be suicide at this point.

“Sir,” Lieutenant Cel said. “I think I’ve found one of the Golans.”

Wedge raised his eyebrows in surprise. He’d asked her to hunt for any of the battle stations the Empire had once stationed here—or anything else that was operational—but he hadn’t really expected her to find anything. The shipyards were virtually gone, food for a growing Yuuzhan Vong fleet, and the stations had all been around the shipyards.

“Where is it?”

“Way off its orbit, if it’s one of the ones we had on the charts. And its present orbit is eccentric.”

Wedge glanced at the display. “That is out there,” he said. “It may have been drifting all this time, or maybe the shipyards put it there for some reason. Still, it’s odd the Vong missed something that size.”

“I don’t know, but we missed it on the first pass, too. As you said, sir, it’s way out there.”

“Is the power core still active?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then it might still have guns. We’d better check it out—we might need it.”

“Are we taking the fight out there, sir?”

“Not unless I know it’s working. Are the Twin Suns done with their clean-up duty?” he asked.

“Yes, sir. They’re on their way to cruiser-designate Olemp.”

“Get me Colonel Solo.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jaina’s comm chirped. Much to her surprise, it was General Antilles, on a closed and heavily coded channel.

“Sir?”

“I’ve got a task you might find a little more exciting than bug burning,” Wedge said.

“I’m about to have my hands full, General. What do you need?”

“I need you to find Admiral Kre’fey for me.”

“Admiral Kre’fey, General?” What was Wedge talking about?

“Something’s wrong with the HoloNet,” he explained. “We were the advance for two more fleets. We can’t contact them, so they haven’t shown. I need you to find him, fast, and bring him here. Have him send someone to find Pellaeon.”

“Sir, won’t they come when they realize it’s the HoloNet and not something gone wrong here?” Jaina asked.

“They’re not supposed to. For all they know—for all i know—the downing of the HoloNet is cover for an attack on Mon Cal or the Imps, and this battle group is already starfood. I need you to let him know we’re still kicking.”

“General, you want me to leave the battle?” What was her squadron turning into, an odd-job unit? There was real fighting to do.

“A few starfighters can get out of the interdiction cones. Our capital ships can’t. Still, I doubt they’re going to make it easy for you, so I wouldn’t worry about lack of action. Anyway, there’s another part to this deal, if you really don’t fancy leaving the Bilbringi system. Our long-range sensors indicate that one of the Golan Two Battle Stations may still be operational. If things go badly here, we might be able to use it as a rally point, but I need it working. If it’s not, and can’t be made to, I need to know that as well. Send one of your flights to find Kre’fey and secure the station with the other two.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’re all counting on you, Colonel.”

Are you sure you aren’t just trying to get me out of the action? she wondered. The numbers looked pretty even to her, since the mass jump a few minutes before. What was Wedge so worried about?

That wasn’t her concern, she decided. She had her orders. It wasn’t the first time she hadn’t liked them; it wouldn’t be the last.

She changed frequencies. “Twins, we just got new orders. Scimitars, you’re on your own. Good luck.”

“Copy, Twin One.”

“Twins, follow my lead.” She led the squadron straight up from the plane of the ecliptic and then made a hard break for open space.

“We’re running, Colonel?” Jag asked, the surprise more than evident in his usually reserved voice.

“Not exactly,” she said, though it felt that way.

“We’ve got a head start,” Eight reported. “We’ve got pursuers, but they’re pretty far behind.”

He should have sent Scimitar, she thought. A-wings are faster.

“They’ll catch up, Eight,” she said. “Before they do, I want some distance from the fleets. We’re splitting