Star Wars_ X-Wing 05_ Wraith Squadron - Aaron Allston [70]
“Meaning Zsinj’s ship, or just relay satellites, can be anywhere along those courses … across hundreds or thousand of light-years.”
Jesmin nodded.
“That’s why I’m Demolitions and not Communications. Much simple just to blow things up.” Kell gave them a mock salute and left.
In the corridor leading back to the temporary quarters, Kell saw Wes Janson headed his way. The two men passed without comment, each moving as close to the opposite side of the corridor as decorum would allow.
At his quarters, he nearly bumped into Donos emerging from the cabin next door. “Myn. How is Shiner?”
Donos looked rested and uncharacteristically cheerful. “Shiner? He’s fine. Why?”
“Well, you seemed so concerned about him the other day, I was wondering if he’d suffered some sort of physical damage I’d need to repair.”
Donos shook his head. “No. I, uh, we just …” He stopped for a moment and appeared to be organizing his thoughts. “Kell, we leave them hanging out in hard vacuum. I just think we need to protect them.”
“Right.” Kell tried to relate that answer to Donos’s behavior of a few hours ago and couldn’t. “Well, I’m glad to hear he’s in good shape.” He pushed into his quarters and escaped the peculiarly uninformative lieutenant.
It took them the better part of two days to retrieve the three undetonated Empion mines and return them to Night Caller’s belly hold. The X-wing pilots were rotated through duties on the corvette so that everyone got an almost-adequate amount of sleep.
Kell suggested some changes to Wedge and ended up pulling a succession of corvette shifts while he and Cubber implemented them.
They welded metal sheets approximately the size of TIE fighter solar array wings between the escape pods hanging from the corvette’s flanks. They stowed two of the ball-shaped escape pods in the belly hold and painted the others the same dark Imperial shade as TIE fighters. Then Wedge personally flew the two remaining TIE fighters to dock them at the empty escape pod hatches. The end result was that from any scrutiny except close examination, the TIE fighters looked like escape pods—and would actually be faster and safer to launch than out of the bow hold.
With the TIE fighters out of the bow hold, Kell and Cubber disassembled the braces designed to hold them. They used that metal and more from the belly hold to fabricate a new set of braces and rails, three rows of them, one above the other, built at the very rear of the hold.
It would require delicate piloting, but an X-wing could now use repulsorlifts to back into the bow hold and accept instructions from a ground-guiding crew member to slide into rails spaced to accommodate their strike foils. Once they reached the rear of the rails they could be locked there by metal brackets lowered into place.
This gave them an array of three X-wings by three, the strike foils on each row overlapping one another slightly. With the bow doors open, the X-wings in the center column could launch quickly and in relative safety; the six along the sides would have to launch a little more slowly, but the guidance rails would probably keep accidents from happening.
With nine X-wings in the bow hold and two more up in the top hold, Night Caller could now carry eleven X-wings and two TIE fighters.
Cubber cackled and rubbed his hands together. “More than a squadron’s worth, by virtue of superior engineering.”
Wedge said, “Not bad. Not bad at all.” He reached out to grasp the nearest vertical brace and heaved against it. The bracketing rig didn’t budge. He smiled.
Night Caller was ready for action.
13
The records said Viamarr 4 was an agricultural world, somewhat higher in gravity than Coruscant standard; its chief export was a subterranean fungus whose offshoots and tubers sometimes grew to the diameter of a kilometer or more. The fungus, inaccurately called Viamarr Blackroot for its color, was well liked for its meaty