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Wedge nodded. “I copy. I think I need you to take it back to our base. Emtrey, if I recall his introductory monologue, is supposed to know the rules, regs, and procedures of over six million military organizations past and present. Perhaps he can figure out a way to communicate with the Valiant so we can make full use of it.”

“Got it. Do I leave now, or wait and escort the rest of you back?”

“We’ll go together.” Wedge smiled. “Victory like this deserves a parade, and I’d be happy to have you and your cruiser in the lead.”

25

Corran Horn dropped into the seat beside Mirax at the black round table in the briefing room. He felt bone weary from the fight at Alderaan, which surprised him because he’d actually not shot down any of the eyeballs. Because he had been waiting for fire orders to send proton torpedoes at the larger ships, all he could do was evade their attacks. While the pilots had been clearly green—a fact that 66 percent losses on their part made abundantly clear—their lasers still burned hot and could have vaped him had he not outflown them.

He took Mirax’s left hand in his right beneath the edge of the table. “Sorry I couldn’t cover the Skate out there.”

Mirax gave him a smile that helped energize him. “I’d have felt safer, but that would have spoiled Booster ‘One-Man-Army’ Terrik’s fun. He manned the laser cannon and was a general hazard to any eyeball peeking at us. He says he winged a couple of them.”

Corran gave her hand a squeeze, then looked up and saw Booster glowering at him from the other side of the table. If looks were lasers, he’d be more than winging me right now. “I’m glad there weren’t more in the way of complications. Your father looks ready to rip something apart with his bare hands—like me.”

“Being ambushed by Imps has him in a bad mood. We’ll be heading out soon for a meeting with Talon Karrde concerning security.”

“The leak came from his people?”

Mirax nodded. “My father thinks so. I want you to look over some stuff on it for me—give me your professional opinion about this spy thing.”

“Ah, sure, Mirax, glad to, but you should remember from the Erisi thing, I’m not that sharp on spotting spies.”

“This one isn’t that good.” Mirax gave him a wink. “Let me know what you think. We’ll see if Karrde concurs.”

Wedge and Winter entered the room, followed closely by Tal’dira, Aril Nunb, and Tycho. Winter sat down at the datapad built in at the far end of the table and hit some keys. A holographic image of the Yag’Dhul station hovered over the holopad in the center of the oval table. Wedge took a position at the head of the table, Tycho sat between him and Booster, and Tal’dira took the seat at Booster’s left hand. The Sullustan seated herself to Mirax’s right, facing Tal’dira.

Wedge covered a yawn, then leaned forward on the end of the table. “I apologize for asking you here to this debriefing so quickly after your return, but I want to talk about what happened in the Graveyard while details are still fresh in our minds. We have two issues to discuss: the arrival of the Imps and what to do with the Valiant.

“Before that, however, I want to thank each of you for your action and the action of your people at Alderaan. There is no question about it—we got very lucky at Alderaan. The Valiant’s appearance and action hurt both the Corrupter and the Aggregator. Even so, it was the discipline of our people that provided us the opportunity for such luck to come into play. If it weren’t for your Chir’daki pilots covering Tycho and me on our runs, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did to either Imp ship.”

The Twi’lek’s braintails twitched strongly. “Your praise is most appreciated, Wedgan’tilles. The loss of two of my pilots is grave, but nothing in comparison to what all of us would have lost were our leadership not so clear thinking in a time of trouble.”

Tycho nodded in agreement. “It was your torps that vaped the Corrupter, Wedge. Zraii’s going to waste a lot of paint adding it to your display of kills.”

Wedge shook his head. “Look, your shots hurt it, I was just in a position