Star Wars_ X-Wing 01_ Rogue Squadron - Michael A. Stackpole [93]
“To the celebration of life.”
They each bit into the cake and Corran clumsily caught crumbs in his left hand. The cake itself was delicious. The sweetness softened the woody bite of the whiskey, and the vweliu nuts just melted in his mouth. He swallowed and smiled. “This is wonderful!”
“Even if it was made from smuggled ingredients?”
“Even more reason to eat all the evidence.” He shook his head. “As a peace offering, I can’t think of anything better.”
“Good.” Mirax stood and ruffled his brown hair with her hand. “When this Alliance finally gets around to going after Coruscant, I’ll make another ryshcate and you can carry it to whoever thinks they’re in charge. Make the war shorter.”
“This ryshcate might have been able to turn Darth Vader into a Jedi again, but I’m not sure it would work on old Iceheart.” He set the case on the bed. “Sure you don’t want more?”
“Thanks, but I need to go back to the Skate.” She looked at her datapad. “I have about six hours until I pull a run Coreward.”
“Are we going to fly cover for you?”
“Nope, I’m using my wits and guts to get me through.”
Corran frowned. “No slight intended, but isn’t that dangerous?”
Mirax shook her head. “I’ve been ambushed once and you Rogues have been ambushed twice. Right now I suspect traveling without you might be a bit safer than traveling with you, but this is a simple run anyway.” She kissed him on the cheek as the hatch opened. “Thanks for your concern. See you when I get back.”
The hatch eclipsed her as it closed. It struck him that while he had been relieved when Erisi left, he wished Mirax had stayed. He knew he didn’t lust after her—though she didn’t surrender much, if anything at all, to Erisi in the way of looks. With her, because of their common world of origin, he had a connection that he and Erisi would never share. Even the fact that their fathers had been enemies somehow strengthened the bond between them.
He shook himself. “Snap out of it, Horn. You’re fixing on her the way Erisi fixed on you. Booster Terrik’s daughter and Hal Horn’s son might be able to be friendly enemies—maybe even friends—but nothing more than that. Remember, first, last, and always, she’s a smuggler. There’ll come a point when you’re not cost effective and she’ll cut her losses.”
He heard his words and knew there was a lot of truth in them. He also heard a lot of his father in them, and that gave him pause. He popped the other half of his piece of ryshcate into his mouth. There are better things to do with my mouth than give voice to speculations that dishonor her gift. We can be friends and will be friends. Out here, with the Empire cutting us off from our home, what we have in common is more important than any differences that might drive us apart.
24
Wedge’s feelings about the briefing on Home One had started bad and quickly went to worse. It hadn’t helped that he had no time to pull Admiral Ackbar and General Salm aside to work out some sort of compromise on Corran’s case. Leaving him hanging is more of a disservice than disciplining him. Given the Admiral’s apparent distraction with the briefing, Wedge assumed he would get no chance to make a case in support of Corran.
Though he was a Commander, he was the most junior officer in attendance at the meeting. He recognized several people besides Admiral Ackbar and General Salm but by no means knew who all those in attendance were. He noticed a knot of four Bothans—a General, two Colonels, and one Commander—up toward the front of the room, but could not name any of them. Clearly, though, they were in charge of the briefing—a point made abundantly clear when the junior officers moved through the room, downloading information from their datapads into those of the other officers.
The Bothan General took the podium at the front of the room and the lights