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“I would think it could be very helpful, especially if it served as a distraction for Imperial authorities who might be working against Rogue Squadron.” Fey’lya opened his hand. “That seems reasonable, does it not?”

Ackbar nodded. “Perhaps.”

Wedge sensed in the slow delivery of Ackbar’s reply an extreme reluctance to grant the Bothan his point. Leia suggested Admiral Ackbar would have to compromise, and he has retreated from the blockade. It would seem Borsk Fey’lya wants him to concede more.

“Good, for I have a little operation that I think will function very well as an adjunct to what you want to do.”

“And that is?”

Fey’lya hit a button on his datapad and the holoplate in the middle of the table displayed a small, dirty red ovoid planet whose atmosphere escaped into space like smoke drifting from dying embers. A single large moon orbited it, plunging in and out of the wispy tendrils of atmosphere trailing from the planet. Wedge didn’t recognize the world until the Bothan sigils running down the edge of the image area resolved themselves into Basic letters and strung themselves together at the planet’s southern pole.

Kessel! Wedge shook his head. He knew that the Empire had maintained a penal colony there and used the prisoners as slave labor to harvest spice. One of Rogue Squadron’s recruits—the first of the new members to be slain—had come from Kessel and still had family there who worked as educators. After the Emperor’s death, the inmates had overthrown their masters and had taken control of the planet. They administered the mines and the vast atmosphere factories that freed enough oxygen and other gases from the rocks to let people exist on the surface using nothing more elaborate than a rebreather. It was a brutal existence with very little in resources being available to the residents—that the world was considered viable was more a testament to the tenacity of the residents than any measure of scientific analysis.

Borsk Fey’lya stood. “Kessel was one of the detention centers the Empire used to house dissidents as well as hardened felons. When the inmates took control of the center they chose a Rybet by the name of Moruth Doole to administrate. He was a minor official at the prison and appears to have been connected to the spice trade, hence his easy alliance with the prisoners. The Imperials and the political prisoners were sent to work in the spice mines. A few of each have been released, but only after off-world friends and family have paid a substantial ransom.”

Threepio again translated for the Wookiee Councilor. “Kerrihrarr wishes to know what criminals and Kessel have to do with Coruscant?”

“Coming to that point directly.” The Bothan smiled, but Wedge read a hint of threat in the toothy grin. “On Coruscant there are substantial remnants of the Black Sun organization. As did many of you, I thought Prince Xizor’s grab for power was doomed from the start, but it was the Black Sun organization that allowed him to contemplate opposing the Dark Lord of the Sith. I propose selecting and freeing certain Black Sun officers from Kessel and bringing them into Coruscant. There they would bring the disparate parts of Black Sun together and work to sabotage the Empire.”

Ackbar sat down slowly and gave Fey’lya a wall-eyed stare. “You want to revive the scourge of the Black Sun?”

“Not revive, just focus. The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Isn’t that the principle behind Councilor Organa’s approaches to the Hapans? That certainly was the principle that guided our alliance with Imperial forces at Bakura to fight the Ssi-ruuk.” Fey’lya stared incredulously at Ackbar. “By granting selected felons their leave of Kessel—in effect taking Doole’s obvious rivals for power off his hands—we can also ransom some of our people who are trapped there. And to guarantee Black Sun’s compliance with our wishes, we can trade them more of their people when they perform as we want them to.”

“I don’t like this.” Ackbar shook his head adamantly. “You