Tales From The Empire

by Peter Schweighofer

  appearance so she can claim to be Kirtana Loor, Imperial Intelligence

  agent, and take the Delight's crew from custody without having to

  notify you for authorization. Several landspeeders have been organized

  for transport."

  "And the Delight is ready?"

  The small man nodded solemnly. "Using TIE pilots as workers was

  difficult, but once I explained the necessity of limiting knowledge of

  the operation to them, they agreed they were the best people for doing

  the job. The X-wing munitions are on board the Delight, though the

  spare parts appear to have been pilfered. As a skilled technician can

  convert them to work in Incom's T-47 landspeeder, my assumption is that

  someone in property storage gave himself a bonus. I have a few leads

  in that regard."

  "We will deal with him, later." Barris snorted, drank and set his

  glass down. "The shields on the ship are disabled?"

  "Yes, sir. We replaced a duplex circuit with its triplex

  equivalent."

  "But a codepatch will allow them to bring the shields "Yes, sir, but an

  initial diagnostic run on the ship will report the circuits as

  complete. Only when they discover

  the failure will they begin to look for the triplex. At that point slicing the proper sequence out of it

  will take approximately an hour."

  The Prefect tapped a finger against the empty rim of his shifter.

  "An hour they will not have."

  "Precisely, sir." Eamon refilled the glass with choholl.

  "While you have been busy, Eamon, so have I." Barris winked at his

  man. "I have composed the report about your execution."

  "Not on the system, sir?"

  Barris smiled in response to the urgency in Eamon's voice. "No, of

  course not." He tapped the fingers of his r ight hand against the side

  of his white-haired head. "I have it all up here. You were terminated

  for 'anti-Imperial activity."" "Very good, sir."

  "I may modify it. I want it to be perfect."

  "I am certain it will be more than suitable, sir."

  "I thought I would enter it into the computer just around sunset

  tomorrow. Things should be ready by then?"

  "Yes, sir. Agent Loor will be arriving then, so he should see the

  pursuit and how you handle it."

  "Excellent." Barris hefted the glass and raised it again in a

  salute.

  "The destruction of the Delight should make for great entertainment. I

  think I will have some friends in to watch."

  Eamon nodded solemnly. "Very good, sir. I had already requested the

  kitchen prepare suitable refreshments for a gathering of ten. Will

  that be sufficient, sir?"

  "Quite, Eamon." Barris sipped his choholl and smiled.

  "You anticipate my desires as well as my needs. What would I do

  without you?"

  "A hypothetical question, sir." Eamon's expression became placid.

  "One hopes there is never need to answer it."

  Her now-brown hair pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her

  head, Dynba stepped from the first land-speeder and tugged at the hem

  of her uniform jacket.

  She marched crisply to the door of the local detention center and drew

  from the jacket's breast pocket what looked to be an ordinary rank

  cylinder. She touched it against the I/O port beside the door.

  Somehow, above the thundering of her heart, she heard a click and the

  door withdrew upward. At the other end of the short corridor she saw a

  guard standing behind a transparisteel shield look at her, then at the

  image on the screen of his datapad and back again. As he did so the

  blood drained from the man's face.

  His clear anxiety gave Dynba a chance to conquer her own fear.

  Eamon had assured her that the rank cylinder he had given her would

  identify her as an Imperial Intelligence agent sent out from coruscant

  to inspect Garqi. It made her Kirtana Loor and made her answerable to

  no one on the planet. A word from her and anyone could be sent to

  Kessel to mine spice while awaiting interrogation.

  "You will be someone they fear as much as you fear them.

  Use it and you will dominate them," he had told her.

  And use it I shall. Keeping her steps crisp, and relishing the click

  of leather on stone, she approached the guard.

  "Are the prisoners ready for transfer?" She let the lilt of the common

  Coredweller accent enter her voice, and underscored her words with

  impatient indignation.

  The man's lower lip started quivering. "Transfer? I know nothing of

  .

  . ."

  "Of course you don't." She drew her black leather gloves off by

  tugging on each finger in succession, then slapped them against the

  palm of her left hand. "The inefficiency of Rim-world officials should

  not surprise me, should it?"

  "Well, I . . ."

  "You were not going to venture an opinion, were you?

  What is your name?"

  The man smiled weakly. "Which prisoners were those, my lady?"

  "The crew of the Star's Delight." Her eyes became slits and she forced

  her nostrils to flare. "Returning them to the scene of the crime--you

  do know about using that investigative technique, don't you?"

  The man furiously punched keys on his datapad.

  "Well, I . . ."

  "Of course you don't--the technique predates the Emperor's murder by a

  year, so it hasn't gotten out here yet.

  You probably think he is still alive."

  "Yes, my lady, I mean, no . . ."

  Dynba barked a harsh laugh. "You don't know what you mean. Why the

  Rebels would strike at this witspare compost heap, I do not know."

  "No, my lady."

  The door to her right buzzed and slid into the ceiling.

  Three bedraggled figures, a small female Sullustan, a morose giant of a

  Duros and a Devaronian with several missing teeth and a broken horn

  shuffled through the doorway. They wore binders on their wrists and

  had another pair hobbling them. Each individual looked away from the

  dying sunlight pouring through the open doorway to the street.

  Dynba looked up at the Duros. "Captain Lai Nootka, you and your crew

  are charged with treason. I am a representative of Imperial

  Intelligence and the resolution of your case is in my hands. Come with

  me."

  She led the prisoners from the detention center and waved the

  landspeeders forward. Each prisoner was secured in a different

  speeder, then they headed off toward the hangar where the Star Delight

  had been kept in impound.

  The vehicles followed one after the other all the way to the

  spaceport.

  Dynba regretted not being able to tell the crew they were safe and with

  friends, but doing so would have put the mission in jeopardy. If the

  crew did not look scared and defeated as they rode through the streets

  of

  Pesktda, someone could note their happy demeanor and that would attract attention to them and the operation.

  Eamon had pointed out that people tended not to pay too much attention

  to those who appear to be doomed because they might attract attention

  in doing so. Even before he'd said anything, she'd known that was

  true.

  In keeping with her rol
e as Loor, she met the gazes of the curious and

  held them until the others turned away. I don't like making people

  afraid, but it is the only way to save these people and Eamon. And

  myself and my friends, too. She kept her stare hard and terrifying

  throughout the ride until the speeders slid into the shade of the

  hangar.

  The second her landspeeder stopped, she loosened her hair and shook it

  out over her shoulders. "Open the binders." She pointed at Nootka.

  "The ship is ready to go, complete with your X-wing munitions.

  Start pre-flight.

  The only thing on this world that can stop us from getting out of here

  are four TIE starfighters. Is that a problem?"

  The Duros rubbed at his wrists as his driver tinkered with the binders

  on the starpilot's ankles. "We are matched for speed. We have

  hyperdrive, they do not. We have a blaster cannon, they have lasers.

  We have shields, they do not. I think we are not far from freedom."

  "Dynba, you did it!" A Twi'lek woman came running down the gangplank

  of the long CorelliSpace Gymsnor-3

  Freighter. With her head tails twitching excitedly, she brandished her

  datapad. "No alarms, no traces. We're clear.

  "Good." Dynba looked past Arali Dil's shoulder, then frowned.

  "Are Eamon or Xeno here?"

  Arali shook her head. "No one has been here except Sihha and me."

  Dynba frowned. Prior to departing for the prison, Dynba had left a

  message with Eamon telling him when they planned to leave, and another

  to Xeno inviting him to reunite with his crew and escape. She had

  expected both of them to be present when she returned and she

  had especially wanted to see the look on Eamon's face when he realized his

  plan had worked perfectly.

  "Arali, link into the comnet and see if you have anything from Xeno or

  Eamon."

  "Right."

  The Twi'lek and a Bothan had turned out to be the only non-Humans in

  Xeno's circle. The circle itself only had seven members, not counting

  Xeno, and all of them had thought it funny that even being so few in

  number, they had caused enough trouble for the Empire to send an

  Intelligence agent out from the Core to Garqi to deal with them.

  Dynba had briefed everyone on their role in the Great Evacuation.

  Because of the Empire's xenophobic bias, neither Arali nor Sihha, the

  Bothan, would pass for Imperial officers, so they had remained with the

  ship while the five Humans used the speeders to get the prisoners. Now

  back in the hangar, everyone hurried aboard the Delight and prepared

  for departure.

  "Interesting."

  Dynba glanced away from the hangar opening and toward Arali.

  "What is?"

  "Message to all of us from Xeno. He says his work here isn't done.

  He'll catch up with us later and we will all laugh about this."

  "I'd prefer it if he came with us. I hope they don't need him to run

  the ship."

  "Sihha can fill in--he was an astrogation student here."

  "Right." Dynba felt a heavy darkness begin to spread from her stomach

  out to her limbs and stab straight up into her heart. "Nothing from

  Eamon."

  "By the foul hearts of the Sith!"

  Dynba whirled at the sound of Arali's voice. "What?"

  The Twi'lek held her datapad out and Dynba snatched it from her

  trembling hands. "By order of Prefect Mosh Barris, at the conclusion

  and in resolution of his personal investigation into the actions of

  Eamon Yzalli, ordered

  and carried out the discreation of an enemy of

  the state."

  Her voice dropped to a whisper as she read. "He's dead."

  The datapad slipped from her hands, but the Twi'lek deftly caught it,

  then started pulling on Dynba's arm.

  "Come on, we have to go."

  Dynba pointed back toward the doorway. "Maybe it's a trick."

  "The Empire doesn't play jokes, Dynba. Eamon's dead." Arali pulled

  her friend up the gangplank. "Let's get out of here. We'll mourn

  Eamon on the trip, then when we get to the New Republic, we'll find a

  way to get even with the Empire."

  Barris felt the comlink clipped to his belt vibrate like the Warning

  scales on a Gorgarian buzzadder. He opened his arms to take in the

  whole of the crowd in his reception room, then pointed them toWard the

  eastern balcony.

  "My friends, I have just been informed that the Rebels have taken the

  bait in the trap that had been set for them.

  If you will join me outside, I think you will find their end a

  spectacular disaster."

  Pulling the comlink from his belt, he thumbed it on.

  "Garqi Eagles, you are clear to intercept and destroy your target."

  Arali got Dynba into one of the jumpseats in the cockpit and strapped

  her in. "Barris got our last passenger, Captain.

  You better move now."

  The Duros nodded to his mouse-eared pilot. The Sullustan chittered her

  way through a checklist. The low hum of the repulsorlift drives filled

  the ship, then a gentle tremble ran through it as the sublight drives

  began to push it forward, up and out of the hangar.

  The nose of the ship came around to the east, facing the ship away from

  the sun and on a course that meant they would be moving away from the

  star's mass as they left the planet.

  That would permit them to enter hyperspace faster, and everyone on the

  ship knew speed was a virtue when escape was the object of the

  exercise.

  Through the forward viewport Dynba got a spectacular look at the lights

  of Pesktda. She found the city where she grew up quaint and even

  beautiful, with lights winking on and off as gentle breezes stirred the

  dark, leafy canopy that covered everything. Part of her felt the loss

  of leaving the place of her birth, but that regret was nothing compared

  to the pain she felt over Eamon's murder.

  The Star's Delight picked up speed and shot out of the spaceport.

  The Sullustan pilot kept the ship at a steady angle of ascent. As they

  broke above the shadow of the world, sunlight lit the sky. It passed

  quickly as the atmosphere thinned, then the stars above stopped

  shimmering and just hung there like distant jeweled sparks on the

  inside of a vast black bowl.

  Captain Nootka hunched forward over a screen. "We have four

  starfighters in our wake. Shields to full in the left arc."

  The Sullustan hit a button on the console, but it remained dark.

  She hit it again, then shrieked.

  Nootka reached over and hit the button himself. "Saricia, we have no

  shields."

  "Invert and give me a shot." The Devaronian's bass voice came from

  above the companionway that led into the cockpit. Dynba looked back

  and saw an open hatchway that allowed access beyond the passage's

  ceiling.

  Arali tightened down her restraining straps. "The blaster cannon

  turret is up top. We have to invert for him to shoot at targets coming

  from behind and below, otherwise he'll hit the cargo pods."

  "Not a good design, is it?"

  Nootka turned around and gave Dynba a hard stare.

  "This is a freighter, not a warship. Saricia is good."

&nb
sp; "How good? Good enough to stop them?"

  "Are you sure?"

  The Duros shook his head. "If I am wrong, I will not live long in

  regret." He hit some more switches on the console. "You said the ship

  was in working order."

  "That's what I was told. Eamon said . . ." Dynba's jaw dropped

  open.

  "He's not here."

  The tips of the Twi'lek's head tails shook with a start.

  "We were set up, Dynba, set up to die by Eamon Yzalli."

  She flashed sharp peg-teeth. "I hope part of Xeno's work on Garqi is

  killing him."

  Nootka glanced at his screen, then shook his head. "I would have hoped

  the situation would not get worse. We have a fifth ship closing

  fast."

  The ship shook violently and sparks shot through the companionway,