• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

And everything he had learned on the trip in to Coruscant had convinced him it was a battle that Rogue Squadron and the New Republic could not afford to lose.

Gavin, Leia Organa Solo, Admiral Traest Kre’fey, and Senator A’Kla had been summoned to a meeting of Chief of State Borsk Fey’lya’s advisory council to report on what they had found. It seemed clear to Gavin that from the smug look on Fey’lya’s face, and the superior airs his confederates were projecting, that they either had no clue about what was going on in the Rim—which simply wasn’t possible—or were choosing not to let it deflect them from whatever schemes and plans they had in mind.

He feared the latter situation was true, and saw the New Republic’s death as the logical consequence of it.

The chamber boasted a solid wall of transparisteel that provided a hypnotic tableau of Coruscant at night. Lights winking on and off, speeders sailing through the night, and the curious patterns of lights in various buildings all seemed present to distract whomever the council wanted to interrogate. The seats offered to the visitors were positioned to maximize this effect. Gavin found himself succumbing to it, but exerted the effort required to refocus himself on the New Republic’s leaders.

The Caamasi senator stood in the center of the arc described by the council’s table and spread his arms. “You now have heard the substance of what I will report to the senate. There is no doubt that these Yuuzhan Vong have come to this galaxy with conquest on their agenda. The assaults on Dubrillion and Dantooine were not only relentless, but clearly designed as learning exercises.”

Niuk Niuv, the senator from Sullust, clucked deep in his throat for a moment. “If this is true, a lesson was taught them at Dantooine, wasn’t it? You drove a cruiser off and escaped, did you not?”

Elegos nodded slowly. “We did that, yes. It seems, however, you are ignoring the evidence of Belkadan, that they have come and set up factories to produce war matériel. You ignore their operation on Bimmiel, which we know about only because the students there were evacuated to Agamar and arrived when we did.”

Pwoe, the Quarren, curled and uncurled his mouth tentacles. “Three systems, four if we count Sernpidal, and five if we include Helska 4, the place where the first incursion was destroyed, but the latter two are useless to them.”

“And useless to us.” The Caamasi let his hand slowly drift down to his side. “You also greatly discount the sacrifices we paid to save as many people as we did. Rogue Squadron has lost two-thirds of the pilots it had two months ago. Over fifty other pilots and troopers lost their lives. The Yuuzhan Vong killed countless people on Dubrillion, and the refugees on Dantooine suffered 50 percent casualties.”

Borsk Fey’lya shook his head and smoothed the cream-colored fur at the back of his neck. “We do nothing of the sort. We acknowledge the sacrifices of Colonel Darklighter’s command. We have directed a unit commendation for the Dantooine and Dubrillion actions be added to the unit history.”

Gavin glanced at Admiral Kre’fey and caught the all-but-imperceptible nod that was his signal. Raising his head slowly, twisting his ring unconsciously, Gavin stared straight into Fey’lya’s eyes. Almost two decades ago you drove my Bothan lover, Asyr Sei’lar, to distraction, and that distraction got her killed. It’s an old debt you owe me, and that debt gets paid back now, in full.

“If you value our effort, Chief Fey’lya, then I have to wonder why you are working so hard to deceive me, to deceive the rest of the New Republic’s military.”

Fey’lya blinked, and the fur on the back of his neck rose. “You will be forgiven that insubordinate outburst, Colonel. You are clearly overwrought.”

Gavin stood slowly, letting his body uncurl into its full height. His contracted his hands into fists and let the muscles of his arms strain the seams of his jacket. He wanted them to see he was physically powerful, not just someone who sat in a seat and pulled