Star Wars_ X-Wing 01_ Rogue Squadron - Michael A. Stackpole [79]
20
Emtrey’s uncharacteristic quiet on the flight over from the Reprieve to Home One had started Wedge wondering if the galaxy hadn’t changed around him while he’d been sleeping. The droid hadn’t wheedled, cajoled, begged, or bored him with details about the need for him to travel to Home One—he just showed up and said he had things to take care of on board the Rebel flagship.
Tycho had shrugged, so Wedge agreed. The droid seemed uncharacteristically quiet, but that didn’t seem sinister and really was quite welcome. As he piloted the Forbidden on the run over to the Mon Calamari Star cruiser he realized he’d not seen much of Emtrey during the time on Talasea, and he’d heard even less from him. He’d heard even fewer complaints about the droid, and this he took as a good sign. He felt caring for pilots was tough enough without having to worry about droids, too.
The smile on General Salm’s face as Wedge and Tycho entered Admiral Ackbar’s briefing room increased the Corellian’s sense of dislocation with the galaxy. “Good to see you, Commander Antilles, Captain Celchu. It was very kind of you to have your M-3PO droid send that gross of new flight suits to Defender Wing. We accept your apology and look forward to working with you on this mission.”
Wedge looked at Tycho, but his XO gave his head a nearly imperceptible shake. If it makes Salm happy, do I really need to know what’s going on? “You’re welcome, General. We’re all on the same side, after all.”
Ackbar’s face shifted from Wedge to Salm and back again. He blinked, then clasped his hands together. “Clear water, gentle waves, good.” The Mon Calamari seated himself and pushed a button on the chair’s arm. “Our droids have double-checked the findings of the forensic team working on the stormtroopers you brought up from Talasea. They confirm the rash on three of them as being Rachuk roseola. DNA analysis of the virus shows a variation from the sequencing reported there two years ago, and given the spontaneous mutation rate, this would be the most recent strain.”
Wedge nodded. “So they came from Rachuk.”
Ackbar pointed to the computer-generated holographic image growing up in the middle of the group. It showed a relatively small world with a scattering of jungle islands. “The Rachuk system itself is unimportant except that its central location means a great number of ships pass into and out of it as they conduct trade. The Empire located a base on Vladet to discourage piracy and they were relatively successful in doing so. The Chorax system is within the sector controlled from Rachuk, as is the Hensara system, so it is logical to assume that the sector commander decided Rogue Squadron needed to be eliminated.”
“But how did they know where we were?”
Salm’s face darkened slightly. “The presence of a spy in your midst cannot be fully discounted.”
Wedge glanced at Tycho but saw no reaction to the remark at all. A better man than I not to shoot back. “No spy at all would leave the same evidence as a very good spy—one in so deep we couldn’t find it.”
“That is still no reason why we shouldn’t look for a spy.”
Tycho shook his head. “Security at the base was tight. We had no unauthorized messages going in or out.”
“That you know of.”
“No, sir.”
“Or,” Salm smiled, “that you’re choosing to report.”
“General, Captain Celchu is reporting the results of checks I performed myself. There were no leaks from Rogue Squadron.”
Ackbar waved the discussion away with a flip of his hand. “It is more than likely that the Empire planted a number of passive sensor devices in the buildings there after Vader killed off the colony. If such sensors gathered data and then sent it out on a delayed basis, or in a format we would not easily recognize, we would miss it. While we did have teams sweep the area, detecting passive devices is not easy.”
“It also could have been blind luck.”
Salm looked at Tycho. “What do you mean, Captain?”
Tycho raked brown