Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [9]
“That’s it, sir.” Luke wished Leia and Han hadn’t interrupted his explanation right at the most impressive moment.
Admiral Ackbar flicked chin tendrils with a webbed hand. “I have studied the Kenobi offensive. It was masterful. I have little faith in apparitions, but General Kenobi was one of the more powerful Jedi Knights, and Commander Skywalker’s word is generally reliable.”
General Madine frowned. “Captain Wedge Antilles should be fully recovered by the time any battle group could reach Bakura. I’d thought to put him in charge of the group—no offense, General,” he added, smiling faintly at Han.
“None taken,” Han drawled. “Separate me from the Ambassador there, and I’ll resign my commission.”
Luke covered a smile with one hand. Mon Mothma had already assigned Leia to represent the Alliance on Bakura, and to the Imperial presence there, and even requested that she attempt to contact the aliens. Imagine how solidly the Alliance could challenge the Empire, if our ranks were swelled by that alien military force, Mon Mothma had said cautiously.
“But Commander Skywalker is in considerably more serious condition,” Ackbar declared.
“I won’t be, by the time we can reach Bakura.”
“We must plan for every contingency.” Ackbar’s ruddy head bobbed. “We must defend Endor now, and we’ve promised General Calrissian assistance with liberating Cloud City—”
“I talked to Lando on the comlink,” Han cut in. “He says he’s got ideas of his own, and thanks anyway.” Imperial forces had taken over Cloud City when Lando Calrissian—its baron-administrator—fled with Leia and Chewie, chasing the bounty hunter who’d flown off with Han as his carbon-frozen prisoner. Lando had had to forget Cloud City while he led the attack on Endor. They had indeed promised him all the fighters they could spare.
But Lando had always been a gambler.
“Then we shall send Bakura a small but strong strike force,” Ackbar declared, “to support Princess Leia in her role as chief negotiator. Most of your fighting will probably be in space, not groundside. Five Corellian Gunships and a Corvette will escort our smallest cruiser-carrier. Commander Skywalker, will that be enough?”
Luke started. “You’re giving me command, sir?”
“I don’t see that we have any choice,” Mon Mothma said quietly. “General Kenobi has spoken to you. Your record in battle is unmatched. Assist Bakura for us and then rejoin the Fleet immediately.”
Elated by the honor, Luke saluted her.
Early the following day, Luke examined the status boards of the newly commissioned Rebel carrier Flurry. “She’s ready to jump,” he observed.
“Ready and eager, Commander.” Captain Tessa Manchisco nudged his elbow. Fresh from the Virgillian Civil War, Captain Manchisco wore her black hair hanging in six thick braids down the back of her cream-colored uniform. She’d accepted the Bakura assignment with relish. Her Flurry, a small, unconventional cruiser-carrier retrofitted with all the stolen Imperial components that opportunistic Virgillians could cram on board, carried a Virgillian bridge crew: besides Manchisco, three humans and a noseless, red-eyed Duro navigator. Inside the Flurry’s hangar bays, Admiral Ackbar’s crews had packed twenty X-wing fighters, three A-wings, and four cruiser-assault B-wing fighters, as many as the Alliance could spare.
Peering out the Flurry’s triangular viewport, Luke spotted two of his Corellian Gunships. Riding shotgun above the carrier—even in zero gravity they habitually established a “bottom” to every formation—drifted the hottest souped-up freighter in this quadrant of the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon. Han, Chewbacca, Leia, and See-Threepio had boarded the Falcon less than an hour ago.
Luke’s initial elation over being given command had already faded. It was one thing to fly a fighter under someone else’s orders, with the Force as his ally. Strategy was something else. He carried responsibility for every life and every ship.
Still, he’d been studying