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“The facility was shut down years ago. We suspect that the current base commander, Evir Derricote, refurbished it and has it operating to produce goods—foodstuffs mostly—that are sold to the refugee Alderaanan population via the black market. At the very least his Imperial superiors would see this as giving aid and comfort to the enemy, so hiding knowledge of it from them makes sense.”

“So you suspect this facility and its generator was the source of the power used to reinforce the base’s shields?”

“Yes, sir.” Wedge pointed to a faint red line linking the military base and the Biotics facility. “A tunnel that runs about one and a quarter kilometers beneath the surface of the planet links the two facilities. There is a rift valley where a ferrocrete conduit links the tunnel one side to the other. This is the weak link—the generator is too deep to blow with proton torpedoes and destroying it makes no sense if we intend to take the planet.”

Ackbar nodded, then tapped his lower lip with a flipperlike hand. “If you sever the connection with the military base, you bring us back to the original Bothan estimates of the defenses. If we bring our ships back in, we should be able to bring the shields down as we did before. We could take the base, but then the Eviscerator would come and destroy it.”

Salm shook his head. “Not if the Eviscerator arrives too late. Our plan in this—we stage a feint at Jagga-Two. The Emancipator and the Liberator arrive in-system, just at the outer edge of the gravity well created by the seventh planet, a gas giant. They deploy my Defender Wing and another wing of fighters, matching the Eviscerator’s complement of TIEs. The Eviscerator will deploy its fighters and move out behind their screen to engage our ships.

“Even at full speed, it will require two hours for our ships to engage each other. Our snubs won’t be traveling at full speed, and our Star Destroyers will be pulling back. It will appear to the Eviscerator that we’re running from it or, at the very least, are reluctant to engage it. When the Eviscerator moves into position within the system to engage us, our ships will go to light speed. The Star Destroyers will head for Ord Mirit while the fighters will head for Borleias. The Eviscerator will be unable to follow our Destroyers immediately because of its position in the system and the presence of planets that act as natural Interdictor cruisers.”

Ackbar’s eyes half shut. “Then the Eviscerator goes to Borleias.”

“Without her fighters?” Salm shook his head. “The TIEs cannot enter hyperspace by themselves the way our fighters can. They will have to be recovered and that will take time. Borleias can take care of itself, and the feint at the Venjagga system will be obviously intended to keep the Eviscerator away from Ord Mirit.”

The Admiral gave Salm a wall-eyed stare. “Why would the captain of the Eviscerator believe there was anything of value at Ord Mirit?”

Wedge smiled. “We were thinking that there are some Bothan slicers who seriously want to redeem themselves. We want them to plant information in the Imperial networks that suggest a newly discovered, previously secret facility on Ord Mirit may possess the key to finding the Katana fleet.”

He felt a shiver run down his spine as he saw the effect of his words on Ackbar. The Katana fleet had once been real enough, but back before even the Clone Wars it had passed into legend. Over a hundred ships that were slave-circuited together, the fleet had jumped into hyperspace and had never been seen again. With the Empire crumbling, possession of that fleet would make its owner the power in the galaxy. If the Alliance found it, the New Republic would become invincible. If an Imperial officer found it, a new Emperor would be born.

“No sane officer could truly believe the Katana fleet could be found.” Ackbar’s mouth gaped open in a grin. “But no sane officer could refuse to take the chance that it could be found. The Eviscerator