Star Wars_ X-Wing 01_ Rogue Squadron - Michael A. Stackpole [34]
“Mr. Horn.”
Corran stopped and blinked away the gathering clouds of dark memories. His hand rose in a salute. “Captain Celchu.”
The blue-eyed man returned the salute, then crossed his arms over his chest. “Still walking and talking?”
“Sir?”
“Either Commander Antilles is losing his touch in dressing down recruits or”—Tycho smiled lopsidedly—“you’re made of sterner stuff than I might have otherwise imagined.”
9
Corran’s green eyes narrowed. “I don’t think the Commander cut me any slack, sir.”
Tycho held a hand up. “Forgive me, Mr. Horn, that did not come out the way I wanted. From your CorSec record and the way you tend to excel in scenarios where you act alone, you have struck me as a loner. Loners don’t tend to like it when they’re made to be a team player.”
But that’s not how I am. Is it? Corran frowned. “I can work with others, but I know I can only rely on myself when things fall apart. I can’t help that attitude because it kept me alive in tough times.”
Tycho pointed toward the passage deeper into Folor base and Corran fell into step with him. “The problem with that attitude, Corran, is that it keeps others away. It makes it more difficult for them to help you when you need it. It keeps them uncertain that you will help them when the time comes that they need you.”
“Hey, I’ll never leave a buddy in trouble.”
“I don’t doubt that, but you define buddies on your terms. Others may not see themselves as your friends.” The taller man pressed his lips together in a grim line. “It’s clear that being here is not easy for you.”
That’s an unwarranted assumption. I’ve adjusted as well as anyone. Corran glanced to the right at Tycho. “Why do you think that, sir?”
“You were with the Corellian Security Force and spent a good deal of your time hunting down people who are now your allies. That transition isn’t something you can make overnight.”
“It couldn’t have been any easier for you, sir. You were an Imperial pilot.”
Tycho did not reply immediately and Corran sensed a window of vulnerability that had opened, then slammed shut almost immediately. He knew it with the certainty he’d known when he’d hit on lies suspects told him during interrogation. He wanted to pounce and push, but the hint of pain he saw flash through Tycho’s eyes stopped him.
“Let’s just say, Corran, that my situation was quite different from yours.” Tycho’s face slackened into an emotionless mask. “Different time, different circumstances.”
Corran heard pure honesty in Tycho’s words and decided against pushing. That honesty cleared his mind and punched through walls he didn’t realize he’d erected. “You may be right, sir. Looking around here I see the sort of smuggler’s hideaway my father and I ached to bust wide open. Just looking at this place I know it had to have been used by smugglers before the Alliance turned it into a base. If I’d known then what I know now …”
“You would have been even more convinced that the Rebellion was wrong.”
“Yeah, I guess I would have.” Corran slapped his own belly with his right hand. “I remember being in the CorSec Academy when the Imperial warrants for Han Solo and Chewbacca were issued. They were charged with the murder of Grand Moff Tarkin—no word about the Death Star, of course. I remember thinking that if I were already in CorSec I’d have gotten Solo. I thought he was a blot on Corellia’s honor.”
The hint of a smile tugged at the corners of Tycho’s mouth. “And you still do.”
Corran winced. “He smuggled spice for a Hutt. I understand that he made some choices that made his life fall apart. I can sympathize with his freeing Wookiee slaves—no one on Corellia liked the idea of slaves—but he sank pretty low after that.”
Tycho nodded. “When your life disintegrated, you didn’t sink that far, so he shouldn