Tales From The Empire
Page 14
world to call your own."
Eamon stiffened a moment, then nodded. "As you say, sir, neither of us
has a home."
Barris' eyes sharpened for a moment. "I have a question I have to ask
you, and I intend no disrespect. I've often thought of it, but I have
said nothing because you have been so valuable to me. Had my
predecessor not left you behind, and had you not made my arrival here
so easy, I should have despaired of making any headway.
Now that I will probably be gone from here soon, I think I have little
to risk in asking it."
"Sir?"
"The Empire destroyed your world. How is it that you are content
laboring for the servants of the Empire?"
Eamon's head came up and his hands disappeared at the small of his
back. "Sir, Alderaan was a peaceful world.
We were unarmed and our people believed in pacifism.
Our leaders chose to rebel. I, and I was not alone, revered order as
much as I revered peace and left the planet. As this Rebellion robbed
my people of peace, it also robbed them of life. Even so, I am at
peace and I still revere order. You, my lord, represent order on this
world, therefore I am content and honored to be in your service."
"Well said, Eamon. I understand your feelings completely."
Barris sat forward and rested his hands on the edge of his black
lacquered desk. "The time has come for me to take action. To the
Empire, failure to do something is seen as inability to do anything. I
cannot afford that, not with Loor on his way. Though reminiscent of
what the Death Star did to your world, I find myself forced to make an
example of Dynba Tesc and publicly execute her.
Once I do that her companions will scatter in terror. They will know I
would have only killed her if she was of no more use to me, which means
she gave me their names.
We will learn who they are when they flee."
The military prefect smiled coldly. "Let Coruscant deny that is
decisive action!"
"Indeed, sir, it is decisive, however . . ." Standing over by the
sideboard, Eamon looked somewhat perplexed.
Barris reined his smile back in. Eamon Yzalli's perspective on Garqi
had often proven useful and, not a few times, had steered Barris away
from various faux pas that would have made his tenure more difficult.
"You have an idea?"
"I do, sir, but only because of the question you asked before. It
strikes me that if the local Rebels do have a way to defeat
narco-interrogation--as the lack of success with Miss Tesc
indicates--they may be sophisticated enough to wait out your action.
More importantly, sir, I think it would be preferential to draw her
confederates together, instead of scattering them, as making a martyr
out of her would certainly do."
"Yes, I see that, but how, Eamon?"
"Make your declaration about her execution public,
my lord.
Schedule it for a week from now. This will agitate the Rebels. I will
visit her covertly and tell her that I cannot abide seeing her die. I
will arrange for her escape."
Barris' black brows collided in the depths of his frown.
"You work for me. She will not believe you."
"But she will, sir, for even the most cynical Of the Rebels would
believe that I, an Alderaanian, have had a change of heart and wish to
make amends for not acting against the Empire sooner. In addition, as
they say, sir, actions will speak louder than words. I will arrange
for her escape and prepare the way for her and her confederates to free
the crew of the Star's Delight. We will even return to them their
cargo of X-wing parts and munitions.
The Rebels will all get together in the ship and prepare to leave.
Your four TIEs will go after them and end the Rebel threat to Garqi in
one dramatic fireball."
The military prefect tipped his snifter up and let the last drop of the
choholl drip into his tongue as he considered the plan. "Are you sure
my pilots can bring the ship down?"
"They will be able to if we render the shield generator inoperable."
The ghost of a smile drifted across Eamon's bearded face as he started
to pour more liquor into the empty glass.
"We will disable their blaster cannon, too."
"No, sir."
"No?"
"They need to be operable to provide verisimilitude, sir." Eamon
inserted the cut-crystal stopper in the decanter.
"If one of your TIEs were shot down, its loss would prove the danger
the fleeing Rebels represented to Garqi. Of course, the fact that the
Rebels were running away and were destroyed will be a lesson here to
any who would seek to emulate them."
"I see." Barris admired the way the light shifted and glowed within
the choholl. "Then should we not keep the X-wing munitions to prove
the Star's Delight was smuggling things in the first place, or is this
more verisimilitude?"
"We have the initial scans to show the smuggling, sir, and piecing
together debris from the destroyed freighter will give this Loor
character a great deal to do, occupying his time fully." Eamon smiled
weakly. "Finally, sir, I will use delivery of the contraband to secure
my passage aboard the ship. This way I will know when it is to leave,
so our fighters can be prepared to sweep it from the sky."
"But you will not be on it?"
"No, sir. You will plant a report in our computer system here for one
of their codeSlicers to ferret out. It will indicate you had me
executed for crimes against the Empire--unspecified, of course, but
they will take it to mean I was found out. They will leave the moment
that message is accessed, so they will tell us when they are
leaving."
"And I alert our fighters to go."
"Exactly, sir." Eamon's face darkened for a moment.
"The only difficulty with all this is that we cannot have any trace of
what we are doing entered into our computer system here."
"Yes." Barris nodded solemnly and sipped the choholl.
"Since their slicers can put stuff into our databases, we know they can
pull it out again. Were they to find any indication of our operation,
all would be lost."
"Precisely, sir. I shall make the arrangements, sir, if you have no
objections."
"Objections? No. I will want reports, however."
"Of course, my lord." Eamon smiled briefly. "For your ears only,
until it is time to reveal what you have accomplished in service to the
Empire."
Dynba Tesc felt cold and achy, or at least she thought she did.
Curled up on the steel cot, with her back pressed against the rough
stones of the cell wall, she knew she should feel uncomfortable. Her
body definitely was giving her all the sensory input to tell her she
was, in fact, not feeling very good at all.
The problem is that with all the stuff they've pumped into me to
pump irformation out of me, I'm not certain what I know and what I don't
know, what is real and unreal. She coiled a blond lock around her
right index finger, then sucked on the ends of the hair. A sense of
security washed over her briefly, then she angrily flicked the hair
away. I am not a child, I can't retreat into childhood things to find
comfort.
But retreat she really did want to do, because she had never been more
scared in her whole entire life. There was no question in her mind
about that-clear of drugs or dosed to the top of her cranium. The
terror of being arrested and tossed into jail had been enough to make
her tell the authorities everything she knew.
The problem was she didn't know anything.
To her the Rebellion had been a distant conflict, one full of romance
and heroism. The last True Jedi fighting the monster that destroyed
his predecessors and a rogue of a smuggler winning the heart of a
princess from a dead world these were the things she knew about the New
Republic. They had destroyed the Death Stars and the Emperor, but
other than a change Of the military prefect, those events had no effect
on her or her friends at the university.
Then the Star's Delight had come to Garqi and had been taken for
smuggling supplies to Rebels. She and others she met on the computer
comnetsin temporary areas they sliced open and let close after the
conversations were done had mentioned suspicions that the New Republic
had agents on Garqi. Dynba had found that prospect thrilling and not a
little scary. People speculated about all sorts of things concerning
the Delight, and a natural linkage was made between it and the phantom
X-wing that had been reported flying at night all over Garqi.
Then she met Xeno. He sliced his way into one of the covert
conversations--marking him as being better at codeslicing than anyone
in the Imperial Security outfit on Garqi. Though he never said it,
from his name and the fact that he only showed up after the Delight's
capture,
Dynba concluded he was one of the Delight's crew that the local authorities had failed to pick up.
Xeno organized her and her byte-friends, keeping them all anonymous.
She never knew what she'd find on her datapad once she linked into the
planetary network, but it was always an adventure.
Xeno showed her and the others how to graft slogans and graphics into
the system, so datapad screens everywhere in the cornnet would get New
Republic messages at random intervals.
The shock and the outrage, as voiced by her parents and their friends,
was wonderful. Dynba had struggled numerous times to maintain a
straight face when some atrocity was being described to her by her
apoplectic father, all the while knowing she'd composed the slogan and
aimed it to hit his computer first. Doing things like that marked the
highest point in her personal rebellion against his authority, and she
found planning and executing new code assaults rather cathartic.
Dynba had long held the opinion that Xeno was grooming her and the
others for something bigger--possibly the liberation of the Delight
even--but she wanted to do something more. Abandoning the virtual
realm of computers, she went out and bought a can of paint. In big,
sloppy red letters she wrote "The death of a Tyrant is the triumph of
Justice!" on the side of the Imperial Court building in the heart of
the capital, Pesktda.
It had not occurred to her until later--about the time the local
constabulary was putting her in binders-that having the store mix up a
precise shade of red and charging the purchase to her personal account
was not exactly the way to maintain her anonymity. The constabulary
seemed to think her boldness meant she was dangerous and the
interrogation to which she was subjected had been ruthless and
efficient. Her lack of substantive answers angered her questioners and
she knew she was in very serious trouble.
The door to her cell hissed open and the lights came up slowly. A
small man with blond hair and beard entered
and descended the metal-lattice steps to the floor. He turned back and gestured toward
an unseen guard. The door clanked down, leaving her alone with this
man wearing the uniform of the prefect's personal staff. She thought
she recognized him, but she could attach no name to his face.
Dynba drew her legs up and tried to wedge herself more deeply into the
corner of the cell. "I don't know any more."
The man nodded. "I know, child." He sank down in a squat, bringing
his eye level down to hers. "It is my sad duty to tell you that
Prefect Barris has decided to have you executed for your crime."
"What?" Dynba gulped air. "He can't."
"Oh, but he can." The man's green-eyed gaze flicked down toward the
floor, giving her a moment to recover herself, then he looked back
up.
"I, on the other hand, cannot stand by and let this happen."
"What are you saying?" She thought she heard sincerity in his voice,
and read it in his eyeS, but the clothes he wore and the fact that a
guard had followed his direction argued against any compassion on his
part. The fact that he was there and talking to her at all made her
wary of a trick. "You work for him. You won't help me."
The man broke off his stare and color rose to his cheeks.
"Please, this is difficult for me as it is."
"Were I not here I might be more considerate. You work for a
monster."
"I know." His hands balled into fists. "I am his personal aide."
"You! You are Eamon Yzalli!"
"I am."
"Then you are here to trick me." Dynba let her anger flow fully into
her voice. "You should be ashamed of yourself."
Eamon sighed loudly. "I am."
"What?"
"I am ashamed." He swallowed hard. "I should have
seen sooner that to which I have chosen to be blind--the Empire corrupts people. I
denied this truth and my denial is a crime that makes me complicit in
the death of my homeworld, Alderaan. I came here and served here in
hopes of forgetting. Then, when Prefect Barris was installed, I made
myself a buffer between his capriciousness and the people of Garqi.
Even now I tried to get him to moderate your punishment, but to no
avail. I cannot allow your death to be upon my head, so I have chosen
to act against him and for you."
Dynba shook her head tO clear her brain of the buoyant hope bubbling up
into it. "What can you do?"
A broad smile split Eamon's beard and in that moment Dynba thought him
just a little bit handsome. Like a hero of the New Republic.
"What I can do and will do is this: I will arrange for your
liberation.
You will have approximately two days in which to execute a rescue of
the Star's Delight crew. You and your confederates will board the ship
and leave with it. Garqi is no longer safe for you."
His eyes narrowed. "Captain Nootka will need things to trade if he is
going to resupply the ship and get to the New Republic. I will arrange
for the contraband he smuggled here to be placed aboard I can tell the
workers we want the evidence replaced in the compartments to show an
Imperial Intelligence agent how we found it. They will believe that
and it will save us having to move it
ourselves."
Dynba's blue eyes widened. "You're coming with us?"
Eamon nodded solemnly. "I can cover your escape, but once the ship
gets away there would be no concealing my part in all of this.
When you are set to go, have one of your slicers get into the Imperial
comnet and leave me a message as to where and when I should meet
you."
"I'll do it myself." Dynba swung her legs over the edge of the cot and
her toes touched the cold floor. "What you're doing, the people you
lost on Alderaan would be proud."
Eamon closed his eyes and nodded. "It is my hope you are correct."
He reached out and took her hand in his, gently stroking warmth back
into her flesh. "You only have to endure this prison for a few hours
more, then you shall be free."
She gripped his hand tightly. "And soon after that, we shall be
free!"
Barris raised a nearly empty glass in Eamon's direction. "I salute
you, Eamon. It seems as if everything is going perfectly."
"Yes, sir. Dynba Tesc is secreted away, bringing her confederates
together to free the Delight and its crew. She is also altering her