• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Wedge gave him a rueful look. “Usually a sign of a diseased mind … What about the structural modifications?”

“It has been very heavily modified from the standard corvette, Commander. Where the Tantive IV had a luxury quarters deck beneath the bridge, Night Caller has eliminated the deck, I suspect to make extra room in the bow hold for the four TIE fighters. The bow has also been widened, the hull armor on the sides of the bow narrowed, electronic apparatus that should be between bulkheads there moved somewhere else. The topside hold has been converted into a skimmer hangar. There are no laboratories; that’s where the luxury quarters are located.”

Wedge nodded. “It appears that this was no retrofit job. It came out of the shipyards this way.”

“I agree, Commander.”

From the main weapons console, Janson said, “They’ve given up one of their bow turbolaser twin cannons and installed a tractor beam instead.”

“Most ships this size have a tractor.”

Janson grinned. “I mean a real tractor beam. Something suited to a frigate or larger war vessel, not just a beam suitable to drag a fighter around.”

Grinder, bent over one of the bridge’s data consoles, called, “Oh, Commander.” He made the rank sound like part of a song. When he straightened and turned, Wedge could see the Bothan’s teeth bared in a meat-eating smile.

“Yes?”

“Piggy got to the bridge so fast—oh, this is sweet. They didn’t have time to shut down, to purge the memory, to activate the most basic security. They have a state-of-the-art Imperial HoloNet system, a real luxury on a vessel this size, and it was hot, ready to go—and they didn’t even get a message off.”

Wedge blinked at him. “Whatever fleet it came from is unaware it’s in trouble?”

“Completely. I pulled up its mission profile, its standing orders, its schedule, everything.”

“Tell me.”

“It belongs to Zsinj—”

“No surprise.”

“No surprise. But it’s temporarily assigned to Admiral Apwar Trigit. Its mission is to lay mines, Empion mines, a type I’m not familiar with—”

“Ask Kell about them. I think I had him redesign them in his head earlier today.”

“Right. Anyway, it’s supposed to plant them, to monitor their hypercomm frequency for alerts that they’ve been triggered, to inform Admiral Trigit of the results when they go off.”

“Go on.”

“I also got their schedule, mostly visiting unaligned planetary systems and demonstrating that Zsinj has muscle, also some routine meetings with refueling ships. A schedule they’re supposed to return to once this minelaying is done.”

“Show me.”

Grinder brought up a list on-screen. Wedge read off the list of planets. “Viamarr 4, Xartun, Belthu, M2398, Todirium, Obinipor, Fenion. Can you plot that for me?”

“I’m way ahead of you.”

“That seems to be a short description of my recent command history.” Wedge looked over the star chart Grinder brought up. It tracked a course through Rimward planets just outside the New Republic’s current zones of control. “And Trigit doesn’t know we’ve captured this vessel.”

Grinder shook his head, sending ripples through his silver fur. “Sir, he can’t.”

Wedge whistled as the first elements of a plan began to percolate in his mind.

Cursing the cold, Cubber and Kell staggered against the gale-force winds of Xobome 6 and reached the stern of the Narra.

There, as Squeaky had described, tucked neatly away in one of the recesses beside the main thruster of the main drive unit, was a rectangle of the dimensions Kell remembered. This one was black to match the surrounding components of the drive unit.

The two mechanics looked at each other. “Doesn’t belong here,” Cubber said. “Let’s pull it off.”

“Let’s scan it first, Cubber. Remember my other occupation?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll wait over there. Behind the outcropping.”

Kell pulled out the sensor pack Squeaky had saved for him, the one optimized for demolitions work, and hoped that it would hold up in this cold environment. He moved it slowly across the surface of the mystery box and carefully watched the sensor’s display.

The heat-based visual display showed intricate