by Timothy Zahn
“We need to go,” Elainye said, her eyes still on the flickering lights in the distance. “Arihnda?”
“In a minute,” Arihnda said, looking around. A few meters to her right was a bulldozer-type machine, probably set there by the insurgents so that this part of their picket line would have somewhere to fall back to when the shooting started. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Gudry’s bag of tricks had included six comm-triggered blasting caps. She had a single one of them left.
Affixing it beneath the bulldozer was the easy part. Keying Gudry’s comm to detonate it was the trick. He’d run through the procedure with her on the transport, but it had been a perfunctory explanation from a man who’d clearly never expected her to have to use that knowledge.
But after a few false starts, she got it keyed to the Signal Three setting. Tucking the comm invisibly in her hand, she returned to her parents.
They were still staring into the distance, as if by sheer willpower they would be able to see what was happening over there. “Time to go,” she murmured to them. “Let me do the talking.”
She’d hoped the guards on the insurgent line would have all their attention directed outward, and that she and her parents would be able to slip through without being spotted. Once again, luck was against them. “Halt,” a quiet voice ordered from just ahead. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I need to get my parents out of here,” Arihnda said. He was an older man, and he held his blaster like he knew what he was doing. A Clone Wars vet, maybe. “Mother’s not well,” she added as she started toward him, gripping Gudry’s comm tighter in anticipation. “I need to get her to—”
“Let’s see some IDs,” the guard cut in. “All of you.”
This was it. So far everyone they’d met had known her father, by name if not by face, and the odds were good that this man would, too. If he did, and if he started asking questions—or worse, if he called over a suspicious superior—
“That won’t be necessary,” Talmoor said, stepping forward. “I’m Talmoor—”
Clenching her teeth, Arihnda triggered the comm.
The blasting caps had only limited power, and the explosion wasn’t a huge one. But it was big enough, and loud enough, to draw everyone’s attention to the bulldozer as it shuddered and rocked up briefly onto one side.
As the guard gaped, Arihnda stepped close to him, pressed the muzzle of her blaster against his chest, and fired.
With the sound of the shot muffled by his body and further covered by the echoes from the explosion, she doubted anyone heard it. The guard certainly made no noise as he crumpled to the ground, his blaster clattering softly against the pavement. Arihnda glanced around as she slid the blaster back inside her tunic, but saw no other pickets.
“Arihnda, what was—Arihnda!” her mother gasped. “What happened?”
“Probably caught a piece of shrapnel,” Arihnda said, taking her arm and pulling her along. “Father? Come on.”
“But we have to help him,” Elainye said.
“It’s too late,” Arihnda said, tugging harder. “Father, come on.”
“In a moment,” her father said, his voice strange.
Arihnda looked back over her shoulder, the movement sending another needle of pain through the back of her head. Talmoor was standing over the freshly dead body, gazing down at it. “Father!” she said in a loud whisper. “Come on.”
He looked at the body for another moment. Then he stirred and followed.
And even in the faint light Arihnda could see the pain and revulsion in his eyes.
She’d expected to be challenged at least once more before they reached the Imperial line. But the explosion had apparently sent the rest of the insurgents scrambling for cover while they figured out whether or not the attack was starting. Ahead, she could see a line of armored personnel carriers, their bulks dark against the lights of Paeragosto City in the distance—
“Halt!” a brisk professional voice came from behind them.
Arihnda looked back. Two men in black navy trooper uniforms were striding toward them, blaster carbines held ready. She had no idea where they’d been hiding. “It’s all right,” she said quickly. “I’m Arihnda Pryce. I’m here on special assignment from Colonel Yularen.”
“Governor Arihnda Pryce?” one of the troopers said, picking up his pace. “About time, Governor. The colonel’s been worried about you. You’d better give him a call—the team’s already gone in.”
“What team?” Arihnda asked.
“The rescue team heading to your parents’ house,” the trooper said. “These them?”
“Yes, these are my parents,” Arihnda confirmed, her heart beating faster. She’d hoped the team would wait until the battle started before going in.
Maybe there was still time to stop them. “When did they leave?”
“I don’t know,” he said, giving her pass a quick look. “Probably twenty minutes ago. You’ll have to ask Colonel Yularen. Wasn’t there supposed to be someone else with you?”
“We got separated,” Arihnda said, clenching her teeth. Twenty minutes. Depending on how stealthy they’d had to be on the inward trip, they could be within sight of the house by now.
For that matter, they could already be inside.
“I’ll call him right away,” she said, glancing up. The stars, what could be seen of them through the hazy glow from the complex, showed the extra flicker that came from their light being sifted through an energy field. They were still under the edge of the Creekpath shield. “Where’s your HQ?” she asked the troopers. “I need to get my parents to the city and some proper care.”
“HQ’s over there,” the man said, pointing to a larger version of the armored carrier. “Major Talmege. He’ll arrange for transport.”
“Thank you.” Arihnda beckoned to her parents. “Come on, let’s find a place where you can sit this out.”
They headed off, Arihnda herding her parents in front of her. Another few steps, she told herself. Just another few steps.
—
The attacking ships, all three clusters, were within firing distance of the cruisers now. Eli clenched his teeth, wondering when they would begin the slaughter. The attackers continued on, reached point-blank range—
And in smooth unison their formations split apart, the ships swinging wide around the cruisers and support vessels. They cleared the obstacles, re-formed their clusters, and continued inward toward the Chimaera.
Without firing a single shot.
“What in the world?” Faro muttered.
“Nightswan learned from our attack on Scrim Island,” Thrawn said calmly. “You see how he brought his ships in along the precise vectors where our fire would be blocked by the cruisers for the first leg of their attack.”
“Yes, sir,” Faro said. “Speaking of our fire…?”
“Patience, Commander,” Thrawn said. “Senior Lieutenant Lomar, inform the cruisers to break free of the barges immediately.”
“You’re sending them away now, sir?” Eli asked. “I thought you put them out there so they could jump before an enemy force could open fire.”
“An incorrect assumption, Commander,” Thrawn said calmly. “The attackers were never going to fire on them. Remember, we face Nightswan, who insisted that the Dromedar’s crew be held captive by pirates who wanted to kill them. He would never order his forces to fire on ships that could not fire back.” He gestured out the viewport toward the Shyrack. “From a purely tactical point of view, having our undamaged ships and their crews behind his attackers and directly in our line of fire should also make us hesitate to open defensive fire.”
“And that’s why you’re sending them away?” Faro asked. “So we can finally fight back?”
“I am not sending them away.” Thrawn gave her a small smile. “Patience, Commander. Commander Vanto, report on the repair barges.”
“They’ve pulled away from the Shyrack,” Eli said, studying the display. “Same f
or those around the Flensor and Tumnor…” He paused, peering at the group of repair structures. Was something emerging from behind them? “Admiral? Are those—?”
“They are indeed, Commander,” Thrawn said quietly. “TIE fighters, a full squadron from each location. Brought into the Batonn system concealed inside the repair barges.”
Eli exhaled a quiet breath, the knot in his stomach suddenly loosening as he finally understood. “Waiting for the attacking ships to pass by.”
“Yes,” Thrawn said. “And now, thanks to Nightswan’s strategy, they are perfectly positioned behind their targets.”
Even as Eli watched, the TIEs curved smoothly around the barges and accelerated to attack speed, bearing down on the incoming insurgent vessels. “Our TIEs are still on sentry screen,” he said. “Where did these come from?”
“The Judicator,” Thrawn said. “Admiral Durril was kind enough to loan them to us. Commander Faro?”
“Sir?”
“Instruct our turbolasers to stand by to fire,” Thrawn said. “Remind them not to overshoot against the TIEs.”
“Yes, sir,” Faro said, a tight smile on her face. “Fire control, you heard the admiral. Enemy incoming. Get ready to take them down.”
—
It was time.
Arihnda’s parents were safely inside Major Talmege’s HQ. Arihnda was standing behind the vehicle. The steady light of the stars overhead showed they were finally out from under the Creekpath shield.
And no one was watching.
She couldn’t stop Yularen’s special squad. She couldn’t prevent them from finding Gudry’s body. All she could do was make sure they never reported it.
Raising Gudry’s comm, she keyed the remote.
Not the Signal One remote, the one that would destroy the shield. The Signal Two remote, the one that would set off Nightswan’s cache of explosives.
And suddenly, the world shattered into a blaze of fire.
—
Whatever Eli might think of Durril’s abilities as a tactician, the Judicator’s starfighter pilots were among the best he’d ever seen. By the time the attackers reached the Chimaera’s close-firing range, their numbers had been decreased by nearly two-thirds.
It was the Chimaera’s turn now.
The sky was filled with speeding ships and the green flashes of turbolaser blasts when, out of the corner of his eye, Eli saw the display centered on the Creekpath strongpoint light up with a brilliant burst of light.
He spun to the display, his breath catching in his throat. For another fraction of a second the smoke-swirled fire remained a near-perfect circle—
And then, with a second flicker of light from the very center, the circle vanished and the roiling mass of smoke and debris became a tangle-edged cloud as it blew farther outward.
Someone in one of the crew pits swore…and abruptly Eli understood.
The explosives Gudry had rigged had detonated. But with the shield still in place the massive blast had been contained and deflected inward and downward, demolishing not only the insurgents’ stronghold but also the multitude of civilian homes clustered around the mine complex.
What the hell had the insurgents just done?
The Chimaera’s bridge had gone quiet. Thrawn was the first to break the silence. “Commander Faro, signal Colonel Yularen and the ground commanders,” he said, his voice calm but with an edge to it. “The troopers are to enter the insurgent complex immediately.
“But not for combat. For search and rescue.”
“Understood, sir,” Faro said, her voice under rigid control. “And those?” she added, pointing at the enemy ships swarming through the blaster cannon and turbolaser fire.
“If any break off and run, let them go,” Thrawn said. “Their tales of what happened here today will hasten the demoralization of any other such groups.”
“And those that stay to fight?”
Thrawn didn’t hesitate. “Destroy them.”
—
“Did you see that?” Elainye asked yet again, her voice still shaking. “Did you see that?”
“I saw it, Mother,” Arihnda confirmed as she half led, half dragged her parents to the waiting shuttle. Behind them, the whole Imperial line had come alive as men and vehicles moved into the blazing buildings and scattered debris that had been the Creekpath mining complex. “And no, I have no idea what happened.”
“Such a terrible thing,” Elainye murmured. “How could the Empire have done something like that?”
“You want to blame someone, blame the insurgents,” Arihnda countered, more harshly than she’d intended. “They’re the ones who forced this confrontation.”
Her mother fell silent. Her father hadn’t spoken at all since they’d left Talmege’s vehicle.
Arihnda had to admit to a certain queasiness of her own. The shield-contained blast had been far more devastating than she’d expected.
But it had served its purpose. The explosion or the resulting firestorm had surely obliterated her parents’ home, and with it the evidence of Gudry’s murder.
In the end, that was all that mattered.
“Here’s what you’re going to do,” she said, shaking both her parents a little to make sure she had their attention. “The pilot has instructions to take you to the Paeragosto City landing field and a transport called the Duggenhei. Your passage to Lothal has already been paid. Once there, go to the governor’s mansion—I’ll call ahead and instruct them to put you in one of the guest suites. I’ll join you as soon as I can, and we’ll figure out then what you want to do. Clear?”
“But—” Elainye began.
“No buts, Mother,” Arihnda said. “Just go, and wait. Okay?”
Elainye sighed. “All right.”
“Father? Okay?”
Talmoor merely nodded.
“Okay,” Arihnda said, stopping at the foot of the shuttle’s ramp and releasing their arms. “Get going. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She watched as they made their silent way aboard, both still moving like dreamers trapped in a horrible nightmare. The hatch closed, and the shuttle took off, heading for the distant lights of the city.
“Your parents?”
Arihnda turned. Colonel Yularen was standing a few meters back, his eyes hard on her. “Yes,” she said. “I’m sending them back home. There’s nothing here for them now.”
“Nothing much here for anyone, really,” he said. “I came to tell you that Admiral Thrawn requests our presence aboard the Chimaera.”
Which the colonel could have told her via comm, Arihnda knew. But if he’d done that, he wouldn’t have been able to follow her and see what she was up to.
Fine. Let him watch. Let him watch, and wonder, and suspect. She was Governor Pryce now, ruler of a vast array of mines, factories, and industries vital to the economic and military well-being of the Empire. As long as she continued to deliver what Coruscant wanted, she was untouchable. “Thank you, Colonel,” she said. “Do you have a shuttle ready?”
“I do, Your Excellency,” he said. “Shall we go?”
All people have regrets. Warriors are no exceptions.
One would hope it was possible to distinguish between events caused by one’s carelessness or lack of ability and those caused by circumstances or forces beyond one’s control. But in practice, there is no difference. All forms of regret sear equally deeply into the mind and soul. All forms leave scars of equal bitterness.
And always, beneath the scar, lurks the thought and fear that there was something else that could have been done. Some action, or inaction, that would have changed things for the better. Such questions can sometimes be learned from. All too often, they merely add to the scar tissue.
A warrior must learn to set those regrets aside as best he can. Knowing full well that they will never be very far away.
—
“It was, by anyone’s standards, a slaughter,” Yularen said. His voice is under control but holds deep regret and the echo of dark
memories. “I saw some horrendous things during the Clone Wars. This ranks right up there with the worst of them.”
“You have the numbers?” Thrawn asked.
“Yes, sir,” Yularen said, keying his datapad. “As you can see, the number of civilian deaths far exceeded the number of insurgents killed.”
“How do we know which were which?” Governor Pryce asked. Her voice holds scorn and caution but no sympathy. The muscles of her arms and shoulders are tight beneath her tunic. “This was a citizen uprising, after all.”
“We can assume the people inside the central cordon and the ones holding weapons on the sentry lines were insurgents,” Yularen said. His tone is polite but holds barely concealed contempt. “The people in their houses when the firestorm blew them apart probably weren’t.”
“There’s no need for vehemence, Colonel,” Pryce said. Her voice holds calmness now, with the scorn fading. Her hands, resting on the conference table, show rigid self-control.
“You do not know how the explosives came to be detonated before the shield generator?” Thrawn asked.
“I’ll tell you what I told Colonel Yularen,” Pryce said. “I went to my parents’ house to get them ready to leave. We waited there for Agent Gudry. He didn’t return by the time we’d agreed on, so we left. I can only assume he was trapped or disabled by the insurgents, and rather than allow them to take him alive triggered the caps.”
“Those on the explosives cache first?” Yularen asked. His voice holds suspicion. His eyes are fixed unblinkingly on Pryce.
“Or he triggered both at once,” Pryce said. Her voice holds impatience and challenge. Her hands begin to move, then become motionless again as she regains control. “Or he tried the generator first and it failed. We won’t know the details until a full investigation is made.”
Commander Vanto stirred in his chair, also frustrated and suspicious. But he said nothing.
“The Senate has already ordered an inquiry,” Yularen said. “But I doubt they’ll find anything useful. The inner section of the complex, where the explosions took place, was reduced pretty much to dust.”
