Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [39]
Carr fought to keep from betraying the anger that consumed him. He was the one who had welcomed Nas Choka to the war, and had allowed an escalation ceremony to take place aboard the vessel in his command. He wondered if Nas Choka would so much as deign to gaze on him now—especially should the warmaster learn of the escape of a Selvaris prisoner. The mere possibility of that made the present assignment all the more important, for any untoward incident would surely doom Carr to further demotion.
But, no, he told himself. He would sooner drape a tkun around his neck than suffer additional shame.
He shook off his concern. Even though still visible through a transparency in the command chamber, Selvaris was behind him. Soon the convoy would accrue adequate acceleration for the transition to darkspace, and the next stop would be Yuuzhan’tar.
Saluting Fath a final time, Carr began to back out of the chamber. He had just reached the membrane hatch when Fath’s communications subaltern swung away from the villip choir he supervised.
“Commander, enemy vessels detected! On the approach.”
Fath rose halfway out of his chair. “What?”
“Warships and starfighter squadrons,” the subaltern elaborated.
Carr turned to the transparency. A score of ships were streaming out from behind Selvaris’s small moon. In advance of the convoy, others had emerged from what the enemy called hyperspace. He could almost hear the war cries of the starfighter pilots.
“An ambush!” Fath said in confused disbelief.
A stout Peace Brigader burst into the command chamber. “We were told this route was secure! How did the Alliance learn of our plans?”
Fath gaped at the human. “This—this can’t be!”
The man snorted in scorn and pointed out the transparency. “Take a look, Commander. Unless you do something fast, we’re as good as space dust!”
Fath shot to his feet and hurried to the chamber’s tactical niche, where a host of hovering blaze bugs were arranging themselves into a battle display. Lacking a yammosk to chaperone them, the best they could manage was a representation of the disposition of the vessels and warships, without providing information on weapons capacity or attack vectors. Carr, meanwhile, took a moment to steady himself, for he knew exactly what had happened.
The escaped prisoner, the mathematical equation spewed by the captive, what he guessed had been code …
“Commander Fath,” he said without thinking, “charge the villips to spread word of our plight. Deploy dovin basals to protect our vessels. Order the Peace Brigade ships into defensive formation while we launch coralskippers.”
Fath’s subaltern looked to his commander for authorization.
Fath swallowed hard. “Yes, yes, do as he says—quickly.”
The human narrowed his eyes in favor. “Thank the gods someone is doing the thinking around here.”
Carr glared at him. “It’s a rescue operation. Stop your muttering and see to it that the rest of my prisoners are transferred to Sacred Pyre. Once the oqa membrane is retracted, order your people to go to weapons.”
Still grinning, the Peace Brigader tapped his forehead with the edge of his extended fingers. “On my way—Commander.”
Carr reveled in the sound of the honorific, but only for a moment; then he turned back to Fath. “Are you confident you can tackle this?”
Fath lowered his gaze in uncertainty. “I am here by dint of accident, Supreme Commander. You belong here.”
Carr approached him in fury. “Blu Fath! The honorific belongs to you unless you do something foolish to forfeit it!”
Fath raised his eyes and nodded.
“Command the prisoner ships to go to darkspace immediately,” Carr said. “We can’t afford to have them remain in the arena and engage.”
Fath’s eyes opened wide. “Flee in dishonor?”
Carr took hold of Fath’s command cloak. “Priorities, Commander. Supreme Overlord Shimrra will honor you more for safeguarding his captives than for