The Krytos Trap

by Michael A. Stackpole

  “So you chose someone that Alliance Intelligence did not trust.”

  “I chose Tycho for a number of very good reasons, Commander Ettyk. He had been to Coruscant before and knew his way around.”

  “But he was captured on Coruscant, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “And imprisoned in a place the Empire uses to create covert operatives, correct?”

  “So I have been told.”

  Halla smiled slightly and gave him a slight nod. Wedge felt it was the sort of salute one pilot might toss another for a good shot—the sort of salute that came with the promise of destruction on the next pass. A wave of heat washed over him and he wanted to loosen the collar of his dark green jacket. Can’t. Don’t want to let her know she’s beginning to get to me.

  “Commander Antilles, why did you feel you needed your own person operating independently on Coruscant?”

  “If things went bad and some or all of General Cracken’s operation here on Coruscant was uncovered, we would be in dire straits.”

  “Did you have a reason to suppose there was a chance the operation would be compromised?”

  “I’m not certain I understand the question.”

  “What reasons did you have to fear your operation might be compromised to Imperial Intelligence?”

  “There is always a risk of such betrayal with any covert operation. Certainly the fact that we were going to be on Coruscant had to suggest that was a possibility.”

  “And you knew, as you just told us, that Captain Celchu had been captured on Coruscant, so that was certainly in your mind, yes?”

  Wedge frowned. Where is she going with this? “Yes.”

  “And there were other incidents involving Rogue Squadron where betrayal had been previously mentioned, correct?”

  “I am not certain I understand what you mean by that.”

  “Please characterize for the court the first mission to Borleias.”

  “It was an unmitigated disaster. I lost people, the Alliance lost people, and we didn’t take the planet.”

  Halla glanced down at her datapad. “And there was an investigation conducted upon your return to determine if your mission had been betrayed to the enemy, was there not?”

  “Yes, but Tycho was never implicated, never under suspicion.”

  “I know—still, your mission to Coruscant was staging from Noquivzor, which was where the mission to Borleias staged from, was it not?”

  “Yes.”

  “So the spectre of a chance that whoever might have betrayed your first mission to Borleias could betray your mission to Coruscant certainly existed, did it not?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hence your precaution.”

  “Yes.”

  “And yet you would tell us that you had no cause to suspect Captain Celchu of collusion with the enemy?”

  Wedge blinked as Halla shifted her aim to a new target. “I had no reasons to suspect Tycho of anything.”

  The prosecutor’s head came up. “You did not find the circumstances of Bror Jace’s death the least bit suspicious?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Halla folded her arms across her chest. “I believe, Commander Antilles, you were present in the courtroom for the testimony of Captain Uwlla lillor in regard to the mission to capture Bror Jace. At the time of his death did you not consider the possibility that news of his travel to Thyferra had been leaked to the Empire?”

  “No.”

  “Not at all?”

  “Well, not in any substantive way, and certainly not with Tycho being the source of the leak.”

  Halla narrowed her eyes. “Who obtained the permissions and filed the flight plan for Bror Jace’s trip to Thyferra?”

  “Tycho did, by my order.”

  “Did you approve the flight plan?”

  Wedge hesitated as he felt pressure building up in himself. “No.”

  “Did you know the flight plan?”

  “No.”

  “To the best of your knowledge, did anyone in your squadron outside of Captain Celchu and Bror Jace know that flight plan?”

  Wedge’s hands pulsed into fists. “No.”

  “Captain lillor testified that her ship, the Black Asp, had been given specific orders as to where to go and when to be there to encounter Bror Jace. How could they have gotten that information, do you think?”

  “A spy, I suppose. I don’t know. Espionage is not really my stock in trade.”

  “So you would have a difficult time determining if someone was a spy or not?”

  Wedge glanced down. “You’re good at twisting my words, Commander. I know Tycho wasn’t working for the Empire.”

  Halla’s eyes narrowed. “You may have felt that, Commander Antilles, but tell me truthfully, when Corran Horn told you he’d seen Captain Celchu speaking to an Imperial Intelligence operative, tell me you didn’t wonder, just for a heartbeat, if everything General Cracken and others had said about Tycho Celchu wasn’t true.”

  Wedge closed his eyes. When Corran had come to him on Coruscant and reported what he had seen, Wedge had been unable to cover his shock. I said to him, “That’s impossible, Corran.” I followed up with the explanation about Warlord Zsinj having attacked Noquivzor, but the first thing out of my mouth had been a denial of what I feared might be true. Just for a second I allowed myself to accept what he said, I refused to let myself believe what he had said, but I knew I could not prove his statement to be absolutely false.

  The leader of Rogue Squadron nodded and refrained from looking over at Tycho. “Yes, for a heartbeat, I did allow myself to consider what Lieutenant Horn said. I rejected it just that quickly.”

  “On what grounds?”

  “I knew Tycho wasn’t a spy.”

  Halla raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t know Zekka Thyne was working for the Empire, did you?”

  “No, but I never truly trusted him.”

  “Your opinion of him and his treacherous nature was based on what?”

  “His history and…” Wedge caught himself.

  “And?”

  “His demeanor when I saw him.”

  Halla Ettyk opened her hands. “Were there no other factors in your forming your opinion of Thyne?”

  Ven stood. “Objection, relevancy, your Honor.”

  Admiral Ackbar looked down at the prosecutor. “Commander, this does seem a bit far afield from where you started.”

  “It is relevant, your Honor. I’m closing in on my point.”

  “Proceed, but be aware I will strike this line of inquiry if you don’t bring us to that point quickly.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “The objection is overruled.”

  Ettyk nodded toward Wedge. “Commander, were there no other factors in your forming your opinion of Thyne?”

  “Not really.”

  “Lieutenant Horn’s opinion of Thyne was not important to you?”

  “It was, and it was a factor, though Thyne’s hostility to Corran was more indicative of trouble than anything else.”

  “But you felt your observations of Thyne justified Horn’s opinion of the man?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, when Thyne turned out to be an Imperial plant you had not detected, but whom Horn had warned you about, didn’t you have to reconsider Captain Celchu’s position in regard to what Horn thought about him?”

  Wedge shook his head. “To be honest, Commander, there was so much happening at the time Thyne was revealed to be a traitor, that I could only consider one thing: getting my mission done. We had just received word that we had to bring the shields down so our fleet could invade. Mind you, Tycho passed that message to me. If he were an Imperial plant, he could have withheld that information and set a trap for our fleet.”

  “So then, Commander Antilles, you are not of the opinion that the Empire gave us this world, infected as it is with the Krytos virus, to destroy us?”

  “I have no idea, Commander Ettyk, what was in the mind of Ysanne Isard at the ti
me we took Coruscant.”

  “I see.” Halla Ettyk took a datadisk from Iella Wessiri and exchanged it for one in her datapad. “But you do not discount that possibility, correct?”

  “I cannot discount it.”

  “And you cannot discount the possibility that Captain Celchu was working for the Empire in helping give Corus-cant to the New Republic.”

  “Yes I can.” Wedge nodded solemnly. “I know Tycho. I know he’s not a spy. I trust him.”

  “And you trusted Zekka Thyne until proved wrong about him, didn’t you, Commander?”

  “No, that’s not the way it was.”

  “Perhaps not to you, Commander, but it was to one man.” Halla Ettyk shrugged casually. “Corran Horn. And now he’s dead.”

  Outside the courtroom, Wedge slumped against the cold stone wall. Nawara tried to rehabilitate me as a witness, but the damage was done, I wanted to be in there and help Tycho, but I didn’t. He hammered a fist against the wall. “Sithspawn!”

  He straightened up immediately as a woman closed to within inches of him. She held up a comlink and nodded to a holocam-carrying Ithorian. “This is Zaree Lolvanci, Kuati First Holo-News, and I’m standing here with Alliance hero, Commander Wedge Antilles. How does it feel, Commander, to know that your testimony is what will convict Captain Celchu?”

  Before Wedge could gather his wits enough to answer, a body sliced between the holojournalist and him. Wedge felt a strong grip on his upper arm and heard a firm voice reply to the question in his place. “Commander Antilles’s only interest in this matter is seeing justice done. He has every confidence that his faith in Captain Celchu will be vindicated when the defense presents its case. Until then, any speculation on the outcome would be premature and possibly prejudicial. And he has no further comment.”

  Wedge let Diric Wessiri guide him past the Ithorian and on through a security checkpoint, where two guards stopped the reporter and her holographer. Diric steered him to a bench and sat beside him. “Odious people, the holoshills, aren’t they, Commander Antilles?”

  “They don’t make a very good first impression…”

  “No, but it tends to last.” The older man smiled at him. “How are you holding up?”

  Wedge nodded. “I think I will be able to recover. Just need some time.” He regarded the slender man closely. Though his flesh still seemed a bit ashen, spirit and fortitude shone in his eyes. “Thank you for saving me.”

  “I am glad I was able to help.” Diric gave him a smile that appeared artificial only in that it looked as if Diric had to consciously work at remembering how to smile. “Iella was afraid something like that would happen. She sent me after you.”

  “I’d have thought she was happy with the turn of events. Commander Ettyk ate me alive.”

  “No, she wasn’t happy.” Diric patted a tunic pocket. “I have a pass that can take us up to the secure parking area. We can get in my airspeeder and leave here. Iella said she would be willing to join us later for dinner, if you wish.”

  “I doubt I would be very good company.” Wedge glanced back toward the courtroom. “I wanted to end Tycho’s persecution with my testimony, and all I did was leave the impression that even I think he was a spy.”

  “Not at all.” Diric tapped Wedge’s thigh with a finger. “First of all, the Tribunal judges know you and know how difficult that was for you. All Commander Ettyk really did was establish that Tycho was on Coruscant at your request and that the possibility of betrayal was in your mind.”

  “Sure, but she also made it sound like I wouldn’t know who was a spy and who wasn’t.”

  “Why would you?”

  “What?”

  Diric opened his hands. “As you said, ferreting out spies is not what you do. No one expects you to have been able to spot him as a spy if he was, and you certainly couldn’t if he wasn’t. And, between you and me, I don’t think he is a spy.”

  “Thanks.”

  “None necessary. I’ve had a number of conversations with Captain Celchu in jail and I find him thoroughly likable. If he’s a spy, well, then all of us are suspects.” Diric held a hand up. “I would also like to point out that I have attended many trials in my time, and you did no worse on the stand than many people I have seen. You see your performance as hideous because you were hoping to put the state’s case away with one telling shot. Unfortunately the case against Tycho isn’t a Death Star. It isn’t going to go away that easily. Nawara Ven knows what he’s doing, though, and he’ll do a good job.”

  Wedge stared down at his hands. “I’d like to believe you, but I feel the way I did at Yavin, when Luke told me to pull up out of the trench on the Death Star. Luke was right, there wasn’t anything else I could do, but to abandon the effort at that point, it just didn’t feel right.”

  “I understand that, but Luke Skywalker was correct and the Death Star was destroyed.”

  “Yes, but Biggs Darklighter died. If I’d stayed in there, maybe—”

  “Maybe he would have lived and you would have died?” Diric shook his head ruefully. “And you probably think that if you had been flying the night Coruscant was taken, Corran would still live?”

  I hadn’t thought about it, but, yes, that notion has been bouncing around in the back of my mind. “It’s not that I have a death wish, you know.”

  “I know that very well, Wedge. I have seen this survivor’s guilt in Iella, in Corran and his father, and in others.” He pressed a hand to his own chest. “Even I have known it. We all have friends and acquaintances who meet with what we see as an untimely death. With me, because I do nothing, I wonder why it wasn’t me who died. I wonder what I have done to survive. With you and others who actively oppose evil, you wonder what it is that you could have done to prevent another person’s death. Those questions have no answers—at least none outside the philosophical realm. For me they are a point of departure for thought, but for you and my wife they are just sources of frustration and regret.

  “This is why, of course, my wife is working so hard to uncover who caused Corran’s death. That’s the only way she will be able to defeat the frustration and assuage her feelings of guilt. She hated what you were put through on the stand, because you are her friend, but her loyalty to Corran demanded she sit through it and help Commander Ettyk, if need be.” Diric shook his head. “Fortunately she did not have to help. You two are enough alike that I imagine you can see how much that would have hurt her.”

  “Yeah, I can see it.” Wedge rubbed at his temples with both hands. “And I can understand the frustration. I have to wonder if there was a way to prevent Corran’s death.”

  “Undoubtedly there was, Wedge, but it was not open to you. If Captain Celchu was a spy, then General Cracken and Winter and Iella all missed the signs of it.”

  “But Corran didn’t.”

  Diric’s smile returned more naturally. “As much as I valued Corran as a friend, he was not always right.”

  “So Whistler has indicated.”

  “And no one knew him better.” Diric patted him on the leg. “Maintain your faith in your friend. He deserves it.”

  “Again, thank you.”

  “No thanks are necessary. So, would you like me to take you somewhere? We can eat or drink and Iella can join us.”

  Wedge thought for a moment, then shook his head. “There should be another two hours of testimony today, shouldn’t there?”

  “Yes. Winter was called after you were.”

  Watching Winter testify has got to be hard on Iella. They were even closer than Iella and I became, and with Winter and Tycho being together… “Iella will need you there, because Winter’s testimony is going to be tougher on her than mine.”

  “But you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

  “I won’t be.” Wedge jerked a thumb toward the east. “I’m going to go down a level, then over to the Galactic Museum via the walkway. I’ll spend some time in the Criminal Gallery, visiting old friends, then I’ll come back here when court is adjour
ned for the day and take you up on your offer. I have a feeling that when today is over, Iella isn’t going to want to be alone either. No matter how this turns out, I do consider her a friend, and I want to make sure she has no reason to doubt that at all.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Gavin shifted his shoulders uneasily and tugged at the cuffs of his dress jacket. I feel about as comfortable here as Commander Antilles did on the witness stand.

  Asyr slipped her arm through his as the tether-lift stopped and the doors opened. “It’s not going to be that bad, Gavin. Liska Dan’kre, our hostess, is an old friend of mine. We schooled together before I went off to the Academy.”

  “If she’s hiring a skyhook for this party, she must be filthy rich.”

  Asyr purred contentedly. “Rich, yes, but you’ll find nothing filthy about her.” She led Gavin from the lift box onto the entry platform which overlooked the whole of the skyhook’s disk. “Impressive, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” The circular skyhook actually formed a bowl with several pathways spiraling down through forested depths to a central courtyard. A kilometer in diameter, the floating garden flew high over the mountain district of Coruscant. Off to the northeast, beyond the Manarai Mountains, Gavin saw the top of the Imperial Palace. “I can’t believe I’m here.”

  Asyr looked up at him, puzzlement riding openly on her face. “What’s wrong?”

  Where to begin? “Nothing, really, I suppose. It’s just that, well, on Tatooine we had no skyhooks. They weren’t deemed safe enough—one good dust storm blows up out of the nastier regions and it would pull one of these skyhooks from the sky.”

  The Bothan patted his hand. “The repulsorlift generators are more than sufficient for keeping this skyhook aloft. Don’t worry about that.”

  “Then there’s the jungle.” He gave her a weak smile. “You weren’t with us on one of our duty stations, but it looked a lot like this. I got shot there. My stomach is already acting up because of it.”