Solo Command (47 page)

The screen faded.

“Stand by, Communications.” Solo shut off the cockpit microphone and gave Wedge an accusing look. “You said, when you overflew her X-wing, that you saw no sign she’d ejected.”

“That’s right.” Wedge stretched lazily. “There was no automated comm signal indicating an ejection.”

“Of course, that could have been damaged in combat, or she could have disabled it.”

“Sure, sure. Anyway, as the X-wing was rolling over and sinking as I flew over her, I couldn’t see whether the pilot’s chair was still in there.”

“Commander Square Corners himself, showing a streak of duplicity. Lying by omission. I can’t believe it.”

“Maybe, ultimately, I believe in happy endings,” Wedge said. “I can hope for them, anyway. Besides, with Wraith Squadron on one side of me and Han Solo on the other, how can I keep from being infected with duplicity?”

“Good point.” Solo considered. “She could come back. What she did as an Imperial agent is nothing compared to what she did
for
us.”

Wedge shook his head. “I think the way you do, but the law doesn’t. In her false identity, she swore an oath to the New Republic, then transmitted classified data to the Empire during a time of wan That’s treason. The only legal outcome for her would be the death sentence. Regardless of what she did for us. Regardless of the fact that she’s not remotely the same person who served the Empire and Admiral Trigit.”

“You’re right.” Solo reactivated the comm unit. “Communications, you have a false reading. The sender’s vocal similarity to Lara Notsil is a coincidence. She’s dead. Understood?”

“Uh, sir, our correlation is something like ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-seven—”

“Tell you what. I’ll send Chewbacca up there and have him explain to you what I just said.”

“No, sir, not necessary. I understand.”

“Forward the message to Lieutenant Donos and then erase all other ship’s copies of the message. Nothing goes into archives. Understood?”

“Fully, sir.”

“Solo out.” He rose. “Come on, we’ve got an hour before arrival at Coruscant. I’ll buy you a drink.”

“I’ll let you.”

As they walked down the
Falsehood’
s loading ramp, Solo threw an arm over Wedge’s shoulders. “Corellian to Corellian, you know what the great thing about being a general is?”

“No, what?”

“In lots of circumstances, you can pretty much do whatever you want.” With his free hand, Solo reached over and gave Wedge’s hair a thorough mussing.

Wedge batted his hand away. “Hey, stop it.”

“No. I don’t have to. Hey, you should try this general thing. You’d like it.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I’m going to send a message to Ackbar and tell him just what a natural you are for that rank.”

“General, I’m warning you …”

THE STORY OF HAN SOLO AND WARLORD ZSINJ
CONTINUES IN
THE COURTSHIP OF PRINCESS LEIA
BY DAVE WOLVERTON
 (BANTAM SPECTRA, ISBN 0-553-56937-6)

About the Author

AARON ALLSTON is the
New York Times
bestselling author of novels in the
Star Wars:
Fate of the Jedi, Legacy of the Force, New Jedi Order, and X-Wing series, as well as the Doc Sidhe novels, which mix 1930s-style hero-pulp action with Celtic myth. He is also a longtime game designer and in 2006 was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design (AAGAD) Hall of Fame. He lives in Central Texas. Visit his website at
AaronAllston.com
.

About the Author

AARON ALLSTON is the
New York Times
bestselling author of novels in the
Star Wars:
Fate of the Jedi, Legacy of the Force, New Jedi Order, and X-Wing series, as well as the Doc Sidhe novels, which mix 1930s-style hero-pulp action with Celtic myth. He is also a longtime game designer and in 2006 was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design (AAGAD) Hall of Fame. He lives in Central Texas. Visit his website at
AaronAllston.com
.

Books by Aaron Allston

Galatea in 2-D
Bard’s Tale Series (with Holly Lisle)
Thunder of the Captains
Wrath of the Princes

Car Warriors Series
Double Jeopardy

Doc Sidhe Series
Doc Sidhe
Sidhe-Devil

Star Wars: X-Wing
series
Wraith Squadron
Iron
Fist Solo Command
Starfighters of Adumar

Star Wars: New Jedi Order
series
Rebel Dream
Rebel Stand

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force
series
Betrayal
Exile
Fury

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi
series
Outcast
Backlash
Conviction

Terminator 3 Series
Terminator Dream
Terminator Hunt

STAR WARS—
The Expanded Universe

You saw the movies. You watched the cartoon series, or maybe played some of the video games. But did you know …

In
The Empire Strikes Back
, Princess Leia Organa said to Han Solo, “I love you.” Han said, “I know.” But did you know that they actually got married? And had three Jedi children: the twins, Jacen and Jaina, and a younger son, Anakin?

Luke Skywalker was trained as a Jedi by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. But did you know that, years later, he went on to revive the Jedi Order and its commitment to defending the galaxy from evil and injustice?

Obi-Wan said to Luke, “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.” Did you know that over those millennia, legendary Jedi and infamous Sith Lords were adding their names to the annals of Republic history?

Yoda explained that the dreaded Sith tend to come in twos: “Always two, there are. No more, no less. A Master, and an apprentice.” But did you know that the Sith didn’t always exist in pairs? That at one time in the ancient Republic there were as many Sith as Jedi, until a Sith Lord named Darth Bane was the lone survivor of a great Sith war and created the “Rule of Two”?

All this and much, much more is brought to life in the many novels and comics of the
Star Wars
expanded universe. You’ve seen the movies and watched the cartoon. Now venture out into the wider worlds of
Star Wars
!

Turn the page or jump to the
timeline
of
Star Wars
novels to learn more.

1

Sithspawn!
When his X-wing reverted to realspace before the countdown timer had reached zero, Corran Horn knew Thrawn had somehow managed to outguess the New Republic yet one more time. The Rogues had helped create the deception that the New Republic would be going after the Tangrene Ubiqtorate Base, but Thrawn clearly hadn’t taken the bait.

The man’s incredible. I’d like to meet him, shake his hand
. Corran smiled.
And then kill him, of course
.

Two seconds into realspace and the depth of Thrawn’s brilliance became undeniable. The New Republic’s forces had been brought out of hyperspace by two Interdictor cruisers, which even now started to fade back toward the Imperial lines. This left the New Republic’s ships well shy of the Bilbringi shipyards and facing an Imperial fleet arrayed for battle. The two Interdictors that had dragged them from hyperspace were a small part of a larger force scattered around to make sure the New Republic’s ships were not going to be able to retreat.

“Battle alert!” Captain Tycho Celchu’s voice crackled over the comm unit. “TIE Interceptors coming in—bearing two-nine-three, mark twenty.”

Corran keyed his comm unit. “Three Flight, on me. Hold it together and nail some squints.”

The cant-winged Interceptors rolled in and down on the Rogues. Corran kicked his X-wing up on its port S-foil and flicked his lasers over to quad-fire mode. While that would slow his rate of fire, each burst had a better chance of killing a squint outright.
And there are plenty that need killing here
.

Corran nudged his stick right and dropped the crosshairs onto an Interceptor making a run at Admiral Ackbar’s flagship. He hit the firing switch, sending four red laser bolts burning out at the target. They hit on the starboard side, with two of them piercing the cockpit and the other two vaporizing the strut supporting the right wing. The bent hexagonal wing sheered off in a shower of sparks, while the rest of the craft started a long, lazy spiral toward the outer edges of the system.

“Break port, Nine.”

As the Gand’s high-pitched voice poured through the comm unit, Corran snaprolled his X-wing to the left, then chopped his throttle back and hauled hard on the stick to take him into a loop. An Interceptor flashed through where he had been, and Ooryl Qyrgg’s X-wing came fast on its tail. Ooryl’s lasers blazed in sequence, stippling the Interceptor with red energy darts. One hit each wing, melting great furrows through them, while the other two lanced through the cockpit right above the twin ion engines. The engines themselves tore free of their support structure and blew out through the front of the squint, then exploded in a silver fireball that consumed the rest of the Imperial fighter.

“Thanks, Ten.”

“My pleasure, Nine.”

Whistler, the green and white R2 unit slotted in behind Corran, hooted, and data started pouring up over the fighter’s main monitor. It told him in exact detail what he was seeing unfold in space around him. The New Republic’s forces had come into the system in the standard conical formation that allowed them to maximize firepower. Thrawn had arrayed his forces in more of a bowl shape, with Interdictor cruisers ringing the outer edge, preventing retreat and promoting containment. The Imperial forces also appeared to have very specific fire missions and were working over the smaller support ships in Ackbar’s fleet.

Corran shivered.
And even if we were to punch through the Imp formation, we’d still have to deal with the Golan Space Defense Stations protecting the Imperial shipyards
. Thrawn, genius that he had proved himself to be, had set a perfect ambush for the New Republic. The Bilbringi shipyards were crucial to the Imperial war effort since they were a major supplier of ships, and their loss would strike a major blow against Thrawn’s effort to destroy the New Republic.

Of course, Thrawn figured that out himself and knew we’d be here
. Until Thrawn slithered in from the Unknown Regions and began his drive to reestablish the Empire, Corran had allowed himself to believe the tough battles had already been won, and all the New Republic had left to do was to mop up the last of the Imperials.
Now it seems the hard battles are here and waiting to be lost
.

With a flick of his thumb, Corran evened his shields out fore and aft, then throttled back up and slashed in at a pair of Interceptors making a run on a New Republic Assault Frigate. He slid his crosshairs over on the trailing Interceptor as it began its shallow glide along the Frigate’s hull. His quad burst caught most of the port wing, liquefying it in an instant. The molten metal froze in a long black tangle of ribbonlike shards trailing after the damaged fighter. The pilot juked his ship to the right to escape Corran, but that flew him straight into a burst from one of the Frigate’s turbolasers, vaporizing the squint in an eyeblink.

The lead Interceptor rolled to port and cut down past the curve of the Frigate’s hull. Corran caught a flash of red on one of the Interceptor’s wings and nodded. “Looks like he was once part of the One Eighty-first Imperial Fighter Group. They used to be feared. Maybe I ought to see why.”

Whistler sounded a mournful tone.

“Yes, I know what I’m doing.”

The droid blatted harshly at him.

“Yes, I’ll be careful. Neither one of us wants to know what Mirax will do to the survivor if we die.” Corran winked at the holograph of his wife fixed to a side panel in his cockpit, then rolled his X-wing and cruised down after the squint. He threaded a path through the turbolaser blasts the Frigate was pumping out, then swept past the ship out near its engines

Even before Whistler could hoot a warning, the hiss of lasers splashing themselves over his aft shields caught Corran’s full attention. His secondary monitor showed the Interceptor dropping in on his tail.
Must have throttled back and hovered near the engines, waiting. This guy is good
.

Pumping more energy into his shields, Corran rolled the X-wing right, up onto the S-foil. He pulled back on the stick to start a loop and held it for three seconds, then cut his throttle back and inverted. Pulling back harder on the stick, he completed a fast loop, then throttled up through the end of it and rolled out right.