Star Wars_ X-Wing 05_ Wraith Squadron - Aaron Allston [59]
“Call me again if you absolutely have to—but don’t call me just because his memory’s gone. All their memories are gone.”
“Right, right. Thanks, Kell. Myn out.”
Cubber summed it up. “Commander, we got Grinder and Runt mobile in record time, but Phanan’s X-wing is a loss until we can get it into a full shop setup.” Within his cockpit, Phanan looked pale. He said he’d gotten bandages over his injuries, but there was no doubt that he couldn’t give himself full medical attention within the cramped confines of the cockpit, without the medical kit now occupying his cargo bay. He also wasn’t moving too well; it was evident some of his cybernetics were still malfunctioning.
Wedge’s voice sounded resigned. “All right. Pop the hatch and get him into the shuttle. Don’t forget his medical gear.
“In the meantime, we can assume that the bomb that stuck us here also sent out a signal to whoever planted it. Meaning they’ll be coming soon. If it was a hyperspace communication and they were signaling the Implacable, the Star Destroyer could be here in another couple of hours. We could make a blind jump to deep space or the nearest star to get away from them, but that’ll probably end up killing us; we don’t have enough fuel to do any significant exploration. Anybody have any ideas?”
Cubber, floating beside Ton Phanan’s cockpit, pressed his faceplate against the transparisteel and began speaking. The words didn’t come over the squadron frequency. From the slow pace and deliberate way he was shaping his words, Kell assumed he was shouting; the sound would conduct through faceplate and canopy, and Phanan would be able to hear him. He saw Phanan nod listlessly.
“Leader, this is Eight. I say we leave Seven’s X-wing up in orbit for them to find, and when they pull it in, we board and seize them.”
“Thanks much, Eight. Anyone else?”
“Sir, I’m serious. I’ve been thinking about this.”
“… Very well. Give it to me step by step.”
“Well, we leave the fighter in orbit broadcasting a distress signal. Put up some debris with it to suggest that maybe another X-wing has been destroyed. Among the debris we have someone in one of the extravehicle suits, carrying Donos’s laser rifle for maximum firepower.”
“And they draw the suit in and the pilot inside starts shooting?”
“Yes, sir.”
“They do this even when their sensors say there’s a live body in the suit?”
“Uh … I’d forgotten about that.”
Atmosphere began venting from around the seals of Phanan’s cockpit. Kell saw Phanan check and recheck the integrity of the bandages he’d slapped onto his pilot suit where shrapnel had cut through it.
“Next plan?”
Kell keyed his microphone. “Sir, wait a second. We could put our intruder in the Narra’s smuggling compartment. Its systems will conceal the presence of a living person. Pull it out of the shuttle, attach a battery pack to maintain its electronic countermeasures, and float it among the debris.”
Squeaky’s voice was distinctly irate: “Cubber, we have an additional compartment in here and you didn’t tell me? I could have packed more gear, more supplies—”
Wedge cut him off. “Continue, Mr. Tainer.”
“Well, that’s all I was going to say.”
“And what do we do if they don’t tractor in our intruder?”
“Make sure he can play some solo games on his datapad?”
“Not funny, Mr. Tainer.”
Face cut back in. “Could we mount a propulsion unit to the compartment? The thrusters from an ejection seat?”
Kell said, “Yes.”
Wedge said, “But it would be pointless. Can you imagine trying to aim a rig like that before firing off the thrusters? Odds are a hundred million to one that he’d miss and shoot off into space. And those are odds even a Corellian will pay attention to.”
Kell said, “Put the thrusters at one end and