Showdown At Centerpoint

by Roger MacBride Allen

And it occurred to Lando that he ought to make it his business to tell Han.

  Now. Before it was too late. Captain Thrag sat in the smoky control cabin of

  his assault boat, and laughed, but there was little joy or happiness in the

  angry sound. "How have the mighty fallen, O mighty Diktat," he said. "They

  have beaten you, beaten you completely. Shot down by children. Children so

  young they probably had trouble seeing over the control panel." "Shut up,

  Thrag," said Thrackan. "Shut up or I'll kill you on the spot." Thrag let out

  one last chuckle and looked out through the assault boat's viewport. The

  enemy ship's tractor beam was pulling them in. They would be aboard in a few

  seconds' time. "The horrible thing is that you might even do it," he said.

  "And why not? If there has ever been a man with nothing left to lose, you

  are that man now. They have you, Diktat Sal-Solo." He nodded to the ship in

  the viewport, the ship that was getting closer with every second. "Now they

  have you, body and spirit." eyed and solemn, as they led Thrackan Sal-Solo,

  Diktat of Corellia, away. "Our cousin is a very bad man," he said. Neither

  of the other children could think of anything more to say. The Millennium

  Falcon set down in the hangar deck of the Intruder, the tractor-beam

  operator setting the ship neatly down. The three children powered down the

  ship's systems as best they could, and made their way to the access ramp.

  Anakin worked the controls, and the ramp came down. The three of them filed

  down the ramp-and stopped dead at the foot of it. They had brought the

  assault boat in first, and already the Bakurans were taking the Human League

  troopers into custody. One by one, they were led out of the boat, hands on

  their heads, and hustled out toward the detention block. The next-to-last

  man out was a short, grubby-looking man, dressed only in his underwear and a

  thin undershirt. All the other prisoners had looked scared or angry, but

  this man was laughing. Laughing out loud. But the last man out, the last one

  of all, was not laughing. Thrackan Sal-Solo came out of the assault boat,

  walking straight and tall, hands at his side. He paused for a moment as he

  stepped down onto the hangar deck, and looked around himself. He spotted the

  three children by the Millennium Falcon, and the smooth, arrogant look on

  his face melted away. A look of pure hatred, pure anger and malice, took its

  place. The three children backed away a step or two, and Thrackan actually

  took a step or two toward them before the guards grabbed him by the arms and

  led him away. Anakin stood between his brother and his sister, holding each

  of them by the hand. He stared, wide- "This is doing no good, Dracmus," Han

  said. "You come. You tell us there might be progress. You go away. You come

  back. You say it again. Around and around. There are people at war out

  there. A whole star system could die while you go back and forth." "I am

  knowing, I am knowing, I am knowing," said Dracmus. "But believe me, there

  is nothing more we can be doing. We Hunchuzuc know the deadline. We are

  trying. But it is a very delicate situation. Push the Sacorrians of the

  nameless clan too hard, and they might commit suicide. Or die of shame. And

  die of shame not expression, like with you people." Dracmus seemed ready to

  offer an explanation of that statement, but then she caught Han's eye and

  got back to the point. "The best thing you humans can do to hurry us along

  is just to be here, looking impatient, checking the time, reminding us to

  hurry. I go tell negotiators you impatient, time growing short, and they

  work faster." Just then, there was an odd, muted sort of beeping noise

  coming from Mara's pocket. At exactly the same moment Artoo suddenly kicked

  up a fuss, whistling and chirping and spinning his view dome back and forth.

  Mara looked confused for a minute, and then seemed to remember something.

  She stood up, shoved her hand in the pocket of her coveralls, and pulled out

  a comlink. "It's been so long since these things worked I forgot it was

  there," she said. She pressed a stud on the side of the comlink, and the

  beeping stopped. 'That's a call from the ship's monitoring systems. A high

  priority message just came in." "Artoo," asked Luke, "are you getting it

  too? The same message?" Artoo let off an affirmative-sounding trill. "Gotta

  be the same one," Mara said. "I've got to go over to the Jade's Fire to read

  my copy. Anyone care to tag along and see what it is?" Artoo confirmed it

  was the same message the moment he plugged into the dataport on the cockpit

  of the Jade's Fire. That saved having to decode it twice. The decryption

  system on board the Jade's Fire was good, very good. It unbuttoned the

  message in only a few seconds-a job that would have taken Artoo a good many

  minutes. Mara, sitting at the ship's command station, hit the play button,

  and a hologram shimmered into life a meter or so above the floor. It was a

  full-length view of Lando, shown at about half life size. "Hello," he said

  in a very solemn voice. "I don't know exactly what your situation is, so I

  will send duplicate copies of this to all of you. A lot has happened. The

  bad news is that the real enemy has finally shown up. It's the fleet from

  the Sacorrian Triad. Luke knows about it. They are the real enemy.

  Everything else-alt the rebellions-are not much more than diversions. The

  fleet has a total of about eighty ships of all sizes, and they are

  closing-very slowly-on Centerpoint. They seem to be timing it so they will

  get to Centerpoint just as the Bovo Yagen shot goes off. We haven't

  interfered with them-yet- and they haven't made any hostile gesture toward

  our ships. I doubt that's going to last long, though. "That's the bad news,

  and it's bad." The image of Lando paused for a moment, and then broke into a

  broad smile. "The good news is very good indeed. Don't ask me how, because

  we haven't had time to sort it all out yet, but the children have escaped

  from Thrackan-and they did it aboard the Millennium Falcon. They flew the

  ship. And before you can turn blue, Han, the Falcon doesn't have so much as

  a scratch on her. But the punch line is-they captured Thrackan. Han, you

  should have seen it. The kids flew a classic inside loop and put two

  disabling shots right into Thrackan's stern. The Bakurans have taken

  Thrackan prisoner. Anyway, I know you won't believe it, but the kids did it

  all- "I don't believe it," Han.said. "Sssh!" said Leia. "-and they are all

  safe and sound aboard the Intruder. Chewbacca and two Drall who got mixed up

  in all this are being picked up from the repulsor right now. They're okay

  too, as best we can tell. "But the real reason I sent this message is to ask

  you to come here. Gaeriel Captison has called a council of war for eighteen

  hours from now. We need you all there. Madame Captison wants a Selonian

  representative as well. Please arrange that if you possibly can. Also, to be

  blunt about it, the odds arc good we're going to need every scrap of

  firepower we can get before the end of this. We need all of you, we need the

  Jade's Fire, and we need Luke's X-wing. Send a return message as soon as

  possible, reporting your intentio
ns. But whatever you do, please hurry. We

  are almost out of time."

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The Last Good-bye Leia Organa Solo, Chief of State of the New Republic, ran

  full-tilt down the access ramp of the Jade's Fire, onto the hangar deck of

  the Intruder, and nearly knocked over two of the honor guard as she rushed

  forward to her children, flinging her arms around the twins. Anakin escaped

  her first swooping hug simply because he was hopping too fast and too high

  with excitement to be an easy target. But Han Solo was hard on the heels of

  his wife, and he scooped Anakin clear up off the ground. Luke joined the

  happy little knot of chaos, hugging the children, greeting them, tousling

  Jacen's hair, tickling Jaina, lifting Anakin out of Han's arms to hold him

  in his own. Threepio tottered around, offering his own greetings- and

  generally getting in the way. "Anakin! Jacen! Jaina!" said Leia. "Oh, let me

  look at you all." But then she threw her arms around all three of them, and

  held them so tight it didn't seem likely she could see much of anything at

  all. Lando Calrissian joined the tangle of welcome, throwing his arm around

  Han, shouting a friendly insult in his ear, pounding him on the back, giving

  Leia a kiss, teasing the children. The other new arrivals, Mara Jade and the

  Selonian representative, Dracmus, followed. Admiral Ossiiege allowed himself

  a thin, wintry smile as he watched the proceedings. "Not the most dignified

  of entrances, eh, Madame Prime Minister? I would have expected more poise

  from the Chief of State." Gaeriel probably could have managed some

  commonplace comment about ceremony giving way to family, or that there were

  other considerations besides dignity in the universe, but somehow she

  couldn't bring herself to do it. She thought of her own little daughter,

  Malinza, back home on Bakura. She looked to Luke Skywalker, lifting his

  niece up onto his shoulders, and thought of how good he was with children,

  and of all the things that might have been, but never could be now. But

  still, the admiral seemed to be expecting some kind of reply. So she decided

  to speak, and somehow, the truth slipped out. "I think it's beautiful," she

  said, Admiral Hortel Ossiiege turned toward her and regarded her with frank

  surprise. "Indeed?" he said. "Clearly, then, standards of beauty vary

  greatly. Mine do not include noisy and unruly children." "Then I pity you,"

  said Gaeriel, quite surprised with herself for being so blunt. "I know of

  nothing else that brings more beauty into my life." Gaeriel Captison stepped

  forward, leaving a stunned Admiral Ossiiege in her wake. She moved toward

  the newcomers and offered them a simple, graceful bow. "Madame Chief of

  State," she said. "Captain Solo. I bid you welcome to the Intruder, and wish

  you much joy of this wonderful reunion." And with that, she knelt down in

  her very official ministerial robes and gave each of the children a kiss.

  Let the old sourpuss chew on that for a while, she told herself. Gaeriel had

  had something of a wild streak in her youth. It was good to know it had not

  completely abandoned her. "The situation is, in one sense, complicated and,

  in another, quite simple," said Belindi Kaienda, addressing the council of

  war gathered on the flag deck of the Intruder. And a motley crew this

  council is, she told herself. To her immediate left was Ossilege in his

  perfect dress-white uniform and his chestful of medals, Gaeriel Captison in

  her ministerial robes, Lando Calrissian with a rather swell-looking purple

  cape thrown over one shoulder of his burgundy blouse, and Han Solo in a

  rather rumpled light brown shirt, with a utility vest worn over it. That

  vest had obviously seen a lot of use over the years. Then came Solo's wife,

  Leia Organa Solo, the Chief of State, in a plain blue shirt and dark slacks

  borrowed from Mara Jade. All of the Chief of State's own clothes had of

  course been lost, destroyed, or abandoned along the way in the last few

  weeks. Next to Leia was her brother, Luke Skywalker, in his neatly pressed

  and insignia-free flight suit. Behind him, against the wall, his two droids,

  R2-D2 and C-3PO, stood by in case they were called on. Both of the two

  Drall, Ebrihim and Marcha, wore nothing but plain brown fur-though both

  seemed to have gotten bits of their fur cooked off in the last two days.

  Then came the Wookiee Chewbacca, who seemed either moody or thoughtful-she

  didn't have much luck reading Wookiee expression. Jenica Sonsen had managed

  to find herself wedged in next to Chewbacca on one side and a

  nervous-looking Selonian named Dracmus on the other. Sonsen did not look too

  thrilled about her seating position. By her expression, she expected the

  Wookiee and the Selonian to start arguing over light meat or dark at any

  second. On the other side of Dracmus the Selonian was Mara Jade, looking

  cool and elegant in a well-tailored but otherwise quite ordinary ship's

  coverall. And, Kaienda reminded herself, she was there too, of course. The

  last few days and hours had been so chaotic that it would have been easy

  enough to forget her own existence. "To cover the simple side of it first,"

  she went on, "the enemy is closing in on Centerpoint. They need to keep us

  from interfering with the next starbuster burst-which, of course, we must

  interfere with, no matter what the cost. Considering the number of lives at

  stake if we fail, I do not think anyone will disagree with me when I suggest

  that the destruction of our entire force would indeed be a low enough price

  for victory. "And we must face the fact that we run such a risk. We have

  three major combatant ships carrying a total of thirty-two flight-worthy

  fighters. The enemy has at least eighty larger spacecraft. If all of them

  carried a full complement of fighters-though I very much doubt they do-the

  number of fighters on their side would be well up in the hundreds." The

  numbers were daunting enough to cause a flurry of whispers and mutters

  around the table. Kaienda waited for the murmuring to settle down, and then

  continued. "We do have a few advantages I can tell you about. We have

  managed some fairly good long-range scans of the enemy fleet. We've gotten

  some good imagery of some ships. Most are not that large or that weli armed.

  I can tell you that many of those ships are old, some predating the Imperial

  period. I doubt that any of them are of post-war construction. They are

  probably both dated and in relatively poor repair. Parts for many of those

  ships are going to be hard to come by. They are all but certainly relying on

  nonstandard and jury-rigged repairs. I would also expect the qualities of

  their crews to be below average. Their pool of potential recruits could not

  have been the best. Probably most are flying with a minimum of previous

  training and experience. However, don't count too much on that. Some of

  those crews are probably going to be as good as ours. We just don't know

  which ones." "In short," said Admiral Ossilege, "we have better ships, but

  the numbers are most definitely against us. However, we do have a plan for

  dealing with the situation. We will come to that a bit later.1' He looked

  over
and nodded at Kalenda. "Continue," he said. "The complicated side of

  the situation is that we almost, but not quite, control two of the

  repulsors. To the best of our knowledge, none of the various front groups-I

  don't think 'rebel groups' quite suits the case anymore-none of the various

  front groups controls one at this time. I believe that was a major

  miscalculation on the part of the Triad. They assumed that locating and

  activating a repulsor would take much less time than it did." "Unless they

  got the estimates exactly right," said Mara Jade, "and the Triad's people

  are sitting on the Talusian and Tralusian and Corellian repulsors, just

  waiting for the signals to push the button." "Exactly right," said Kalenda.

  "Obviously, the Double World Talus and Tralus repulsors are the most

  worrisome ones. If the enemy controls those, he has the ability to crush our

  ships down to rubble in any millisecond he chooses." "But we don't think

  they have that capability," Os-silege said. "Their fleet is moving in with a

  great deal of caution. Their behavior is consistent with fears that we

  control one or more repulsors, while they control none. In my considered

  opinion, it is not consistent with their controlling any of the repulsors.

  It is not even consistent with a bluff. If the enemy had the Talus or Tralus

  rcpulsors operational, this battle would be over already." "That caution

  might also explain why they haven't reactivated the interdiction field,"

  said Mara. "They might want to be sure they have a way out of here." "That's

  possible," said Jenica Sonsen, "but we don't think that's why it's still

  down. We've run some numbers on how Centerpoint must operate, what it can

  do, that sort of thing. The short form is that we don't think they can

  reactivate it while Centerpoint is at this stage of powering itself up for a

  starbuster shot. Too much power being diverted, too many systems busy. You

  can turn on an interdiction field while the system is in standby. You can

  turn one off at any time. You can leave it on while the system is powering

  up. But you can't initiate an interdiction field while the Glowpoint is

  charging. At least we think that's the case." "It damned well better be the

  case," said Ossilege. "Our plans with Source A depend on it." "Excuse

  please," s aid Dracmus. "What or who is a Source A?" "We'll come to that a