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“I do want to speak to the pilots who flew against the X-wings as well as review any data recorded from the Interceptors that were destroyed.”

“I’ll see the interviews are arranged right away.”

“Take your time, Admiral. The next two or three days will be soon enough.”

The old man’s expression soured. “Staying that long are you?”

“Longer, I suspect.” Kirtan smiled broadly for the Admiral. “If Rogue Squadron is operating in this area, and I believe it is, I’ll leave only after we’ve found them and destroyed them, and not a moment sooner.”

16

In only two weeks, while the official request for a new phi-inverted lateral stabilizer languished in red-tape limbo, Emtrey found a pair of phi-inverted lateral stabilizers that the Pulsar Skate dropped off on its second run to Talasea. The Rogues’ Verpine tech used the new parts to replace the older, damaged parts. In synchronizing them, Zraii managed to smooth things out so Corran noticed a five percent increase in power at full throttle, with a three percent reduction in fuel consumption.

Corran throttled back slightly, matching his speed to that of Ooryl. “Three Flight to lead—we’re all in formation, sir.”

“I copy, Nine. Stand by.”

“As ordered, Lead.” Corran smiled broadly in spite of himself. Back when he was with CorSec he had hated escort duty, but after two weeks on the ground he would have volunteered to go after Death Stars even if they were strung around a system like pearls on a necklace. Even during his time on the run from Corellia he’d managed to fly at least once a week, even though that was well outside the profile of the identity Gil Bastra had created for him.

He turned and looked back at Whistler. “Has Emtrey come up with any information based on his analysis of the ID Gil made up for me?”

A mournful hoot came in reply as the word “No” appeared on his display.

“Yeah, I don’t like the idea of never seeing Gil again, either.” He glanced at his sensor monitor. “Twelve, trim it up a bit there, you’re slipping behind. Trouble?”

“No difficulty. Compliance.”

“Good. Keep close. This mission should be easy enough that a nerf-herder could do it, but the other side will be shooting back, so we have to be careful.”

Despite the light tone in his voice he knew things could get nasty. Alliance operatives had been conducting surveys of Core worlds to assess the political climate and determine the strength of Imperial forces protecting them. On one run back toward their operations base—known to the pilots only as “Black Curs Base,” with no location specified for security reasons—they ran into the Strike cruiser Havoc. The Rebels went to ground on a small jungle planet in the Hensara system. They sank their ship, a modified Imperial Customs frigate, in a deep lake and lacked the equipment needed to repair damage that would allow them to move it again.

The Havoc grounded an Imperial walker and two scouts along with two platoons of stormtroopers. While their reported progress in searching out the Rebels had been slow, they started relatively close to the lake, so the ship’s discovery was a matter of time. The Alliance had reconciled itself to the loss of the ship and had intended a covert extraction of the operatives, then the Havoc left the system, providing a window for repair and escape of the frigate Battle of Yavin.

Wedge sent the squadron the coordinates for the trip to the Hensara system. To cover the location of their base, the journey would be undertaken in three parts. The first jump, a short one, would take them to their first transit point, an uninhabited star system not far from the Morobe system. From there they would jump back out Rimward to the second transit system and back in to the Hensara system.

While the multiple jumps and changes of direction would add hours to the flight time, obscuring their point of origin was vital. The Alliance had learned that spreading out its forces meant it was all but impossible for the Empire to land a deathblow to the Rebellion. But for the efforts of a courageous