Star Wars_ X-Wing 09_ Starfighters of Adumar - Aaron Allston [101]
No, wait—that was the first thing an Imperial enemy would have done. It was the people of Cartann who’d seized the X-wings.
He tried to think like his enemy, and the answer was there almost immediately.
The perator ruled Cartann, not some diplomatic council. He could hand the X-wings over to the military, certainly, but as an ex-pilot himself—and an autocratic ruler—he might well have decided to keep them for himself.
But he didn’t have time to investigate them. He was planning a war against those arrayed against Cartann. So he’d put them somewhere secure and worry about them when the war was done, or at least offered him some recreation time. He might not even be aware of the astromechs’ capacity for self-motivation and action.
He switched to Red Flight frequency. “Red Leader to Gate, do you read?”
His communications board’s text screen lit up with words, I READ YOU.
“Report your situation, please.”
I AM IN A HANGAR SUITED FOR TWO OR MORE SQUADRONS OF STARFIGHTERS. RED FLIGHT’S X-WINGS AND FOUR BLADES, VARIOUS TYPES, ARE HERE. THE OTHER SNUBFIGHTERS’ ASTROMECHS ARE HERE. WE ARE GUARDED BY SIX GUARDS WITH BLASTER RIFLES. THEY ARE TALKING, AND LISTENING TO DISTANT EXPLOSIONS AND THE SOUNDS OF LASER BATTERIES. WE HAVE NOT BEEN INTERFERED WITH AND THE X-WINGS HAVE NOT BEEN OPENED. WE AND THE X-WINGS HAVE SUFFERED ONLY COSMETIC DAMAGE.
“Cosmetic damage?”
THEY PUT STRAPS ON THE X-WINGS TO WINCH US OFF THE BALCONY AND TAKE US TO THE HANGAR. THE STRAPS RUBBED PAINT OFF ON BOTH THE SNUBFIGHTERS AND US.
“Stand by, Gate. We’ll get someone to you soon.”
The Cartann half squadrons preparing their runs on the Meteor banked and headed toward the gigantic aircraft. Wedge vectored to be away from the Meteor when it happened—not that the enemy odds worried him, but so that the Meteor’s gunners would not have to worry about hitting him.
“Eye Three, when Red Two is picked up, assign the rescue craft to Red Flight. Red Flight, as soon as Tycho rejoins us, we’re heading into Cartann to pick up our snubfighters.”
He heard a wild, undisciplined cheer that had to be Janson’s. Then Iella’s voice came back: “Red Leader, if you head out in advance of the group, you’ll be flying into antiaircraft laser barrages. They don’t have to cut back on those until their own forces drift out over the city.”
“Understood, Eye Three, but that’s the plan. Red Leader out.”
Wedge switched frequencies to that used by the insertion team in charge of finding the X-wings. “Red Leader to Holdout.”
The response was immediate, but hard to hear; the voice was Cheriss’s, and she was whispering. “Holdout to Red Leader.”
“By any chance, did you end up with one of the New Republic datapads from our quarters?”
“No, Red Leader. All I have is standard Adumari gear.”
“Including a flatscreen?”
“Yes.”
Wedge pondered that. Gate could be told to transmit to a flatscreen, but anything he broadcast to Cheriss could be picked up by other flatscreens in the area. Unless …
“Can you adjust the frequency it receives on?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good. Set it to the most unusual or ill-used frequency you can think of and tell me what it is. Then, in a few minutes, your team is going to receive some very helpful visual images from within your target area.”
“Understood.” A moment later, she responded with a numeric sequence corresponding to one of the standard flatscreen reception frequencies.
“Acknowledged. Red Leader out.” He sat back. He’d have to get Iella, who knew more than anyone else on all Adumar about translating between New Republic and Adumari systems, to get in communication with Gate to instruct the R5 unit in interfacing with the Adumar flatscreens. Then Gate and the other astromechs in the X-wings’ hangar could broadcast 360-degree views