Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [110]
He sighed. He had Isard on one hand and Antilles’s Rogues on the other. An Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II, like the Avarice, had little to fear from a squadron of snubfighters. He acknowledged that their use of proton torpedoes could, in fact, hurt his ship, but his own pilots were very good and his turbolaser crews repeatedly drilled in antiship and antitorpedo fire missions. He had no doubt his ship could hurt the Rogues, but, he suddenly realized, he wasn’t certain how much he wanted to hurt them.
They have no choice but to see me as a threat—as the most significant threat Isard has for them. He’d read the performance reports from the Virulence ever since Lakwii Varrscha had taken over as Captain. They were not impressive in the least. The Virulence’s fighters scrambled slowly against Rogue threats and had never even come close to downing any of the Rogues. While his ship had yet to kill any of them either, they did drive them off faster, preventing them from getting off second and even third proton torpedo volleys against the convoys.
He shook his head again and forced thoughts of the Rogues and Ysanne Isard from his mind. The Avarice orbited through the night sky above, forming a dart-shaped silhouette as it passed before the bloody moon. It’s up there, as are all my worries, while I am down here. I came here to relax, so I shall do so, though not so many others would find this situation relaxing.
Elshandruu Pica’s Imperial Moff, Riit Jandi, had married a woman nearly forty years his junior. Yonka had known Aellyn Jandi years before on Commenor. They had grown up together and had slowly begun to realize their attraction to each other when he won an appointment to the Imperial Naval Academy. He lost track of her until, much later, he had come down to pay his respects to the Moff after rooting out a band of pirates that infested the system’s asteroid belt. Once he and Aellyn laid eyes on each other, their feelings were rekindled and, for the past five years, they’d carried on a secret affair.
Kina Margath, owner of the hotel in which Yonka was staying, had befriended Aellyn Jandi and agreed to help her conceal her affair from the Moff. Rumors were spread that Yonka came to Margath’s to romance Kina. Aellyn used her influence with the Moff to get favorable treatment for Kina’s casino and hotel operations, and Yonka always managed to haul a goodly supply of exotic liqueurs and beverages from the worlds he patrolled to Elshandruu Pica, enabling the 27th Hour Club to meet its boast of being able to supply any drink a patron could name.
Yonka turned away from the railing and, looking back through transparisteel viewports, watched the droid brush specks of lint from the two suits he had been shown. A choice based on my mood is not the way to go. I should dress to make an impression. Aellyn will like either suit, but I won’t be wearing clothes very long in her presence, so her tastes do not matter. He slowly smiled. What others think is important. Her husband, for example, what would he like to see me wearing?
“Poe.”
The droid turned to face him. “Sir?”
“Please arrange for the repulsor limo to be ready in an hour. It will take that long for me to refresh myself and dress.”
The droid nodded as best he could. “You have made a decision on what to wear, sir?”
Yonka laughed and strode back into the suite. “Poe, I have indeed. This affair is not without danger—the wrath of a Moff is not often survivable.” He stroked his goatee with his right hand. “If one is going to dress for death, can bloodred ever be a wrong choice?”
Because of his position half a kilometer due east of the planetary Moff’s oceanside cottage, Corran saw the repulsor-lift limousine approaching first. The driver had it speeding along, which would have made it a difficult target for a blaster rifle shot, but he wasn’t sideslipping or changing height