X-wing_ The Krytos Trap Part 30

He turned and looked at Airen Cracken. "After all, the General here knew Tycho wasn't the spy all along."

Ha!la blinked. "Excuse me, what?"

Cracken slowly smiled. "Not bad for a man who's been in prison for the past month and a half."

General Salm glowered at the Intelligence chief. "You mean you knew Tycho Celchu was not an Imperial agent and you let me put him through all sorts of difficulties?"

Cracken shook his head. "Horn's right, I knew he wasn't the spy in Rogue Squadron, but 1 did not know whether or not Celchu was an Imperial agent."

"General Cracken took precautions to guard against Tycho being a Lusankya-style agent." Corran patted Emtrey on the shoulder. "General Cracken had Emtrey a.s.signed to Rogue Squadron to monitor Captain Celchu.

Emtrey had some special circuitry and programming installed in him that transformed him into an invaluable tool for a spy. If Captain Celchu had used him in that manner, General Cracken would have known what was going on. For General Cracken to have done anything less would have been grossly irrespon-sible on his part.

"Because of Emtrey, General Cracken knew Captain Celchu had not been meeting with Kirtan Loor the night I saw him at the Headquarters. I suspect Captain Celchu's prosecution was allowed to go forward to lull the real spy into a false sense of security."

"And to distract Isard." Cracken smiled briefly. "She has always enjoyed these little games."

Halla stared at General Cracken. "But you made Cap-tain Celchu into a pariah. People were likening him to Prince Xizor and Darth Vader. What you did was unforgivable."

"No, it was precisely what had to be done." Cracken looked over at Tycho.

"I needed to use you to find out who the spy in Rogue Squadron really was, true, but there was a side benefit to you in all this. The fact that lsard would set you up to be convicted and executed means that you were of no greater use to her. If you were one of her Lusankya agents, she would have framed someone else so you'd have been absolved of guilt and trusted with greater responsibili-ties. She would have fine-tuned you, not discarded you."

He turned back toward Halla Ettyk. "As for the nega-tive image of Captain Celchu that has been created, I can undo what has been done."

"Never." Salm shook his head adamantly. "Impossi-ble."

"Though I am not a member of Rogue Squadron, I think it is quite possible." Cracken opened his hands. "We have a public ceremony rewarding the efforts of Rogue Squadron for their operations on behalf of the Republic. We let it be known that Captain Celchu was aware of the deception con-cerning his trial .... "

Tycho smiled. "Things did seem arrayed rather well against me."

"... And his rehabilitation will be complete." Cracken clasped his hands at the small of his back. "That is pretty much what I had intended all along the way. Lieutenant Horn's appearance here merely makes Captain Celchu's in-nocence that much more obvious."

Halla looked over at Admiral Ackbar. "Sir, on behalf of the New Republic Armed Forces, I withdraw all charges against Captain Tycho Celchu."

The Mon Calamari opened his mouth in a smile. "It is with great pleasure, Captain Celchu, that I say this case is dismissed. You are truly free to go."

45.

Wedge Antilles kept his face impa.s.sive as Mon Mothma stepped up to the podium at the front of the dais on which they stood. The ten days since the Lusankya's escape from Coruscant had been grueling. Abandoned Palpatine Counter-insurgency Front cells had begun to strike out anywhere and everywhere. Rogue Squadron, reinforced by Corran and Tycho, had flown numerous pursuit and cover missions, which seriously curtailed the PCF's activity.

Cracken's efforts to slice Loor's datacard had proven fruitless until its existence had been mentioned during one of Corran's debriefings. Corran noted that when Loor was working as the Imperial Intelligence Liaison with the Corel-lian Security Force, he'd had a trick for creating his encryp-tion keys: he had memorized one day's listings of the Imperial Stock Exchange and used stock listings and prices as his keys. Corran had Whistler give Cracken the date of the listing Loor had used and they quickly discovered he'd keyed the encryption with Xucphra's listing on that day. The infor-mation on the decrypted datacard included a list of PCF safehouses and warehouse facilities, which Rogue Squadron and Cracken's people quickly destroyed.

Diric Wessiri's funeral had been tougher on Wedge than any of the flight missions. He found himself going over ev-erything Diric had ever said to him, searching for any clue that would have revealed Diric's compelled service to the Empire. Wedge couldn't get Diric's kind words after his testi-mony at the trial out of his head. That much compa.s.sion should have earned him a different end.

Iella barely managed to hold herself together, and Wedge thought only Corran's reappearance allowed her to avoid a total emotional collapse.

She'd mourned her husband once, then she got him back and had to kill him. Corran, having known her and Diric both, was able to recall for her the Diric of old. The pleasant memories seemed to soften the horror of what had happened, but only just a little and only occasionally.

Bright lights flashed on as a dozen holocams began re-cording the New Republic's Chief Councilor. "Citizens of the New Republic, it is a great honor and privilege for me to be speaking to you from Coruscant--a Coruscant that is now safe and finally free of the Empire's direct and evil influ-ence. I am here, now, in the facility that is home to Rogue Squadron. You all have heard of this legendary unit--its pi-lots have ever been in the thick of the war with the Empire. Rogue Squadron won for us the opportunity to rescue Co-ruscant from the Empire, and since then they have been the bulwark that has preserved us from Imperial predation.

"In recognition of their efforts to defend the New Re-public, the Provisional Council has created and is awarding to the unit and its members a medal intended to be the high-est award our government can bestow upon military person-nel. It is the Coruscant Star of Valor. The citation itself reads, 'For service and bravery beyond the bounds of what can be asked of a citizen by a government, and a willful commit-ment to put the good of the many above their own personal welfare, the Provisional Council unanimously and joyfully awards to Rogue Squadron and its members, the Coruscant Star of Valor.'"

As Mon Mothma turned and looked back at him, Wedge came forward and accepted a transparisteel plate into which the citation had been etched.

A hologram of the medal itself had been embedded in the transparisteel above the words, and a ghostly hologram of the unit's members had been placed behind them.

Mon Mothma shook Wedge's hand. "Congratulations, Commander. You and your people deserve this even more than I probably know." She then stepped back and waved him toward the podium.

Wedge hesitated, then stepped up to the microphones. He had been warned he'd be asked to say something, and a number of people had made suggestions, but it was Admiral Ackbar's advice he decided to heed. Be brief, be said, and remember all those who need to be remembered.

"This citation is not just for those of us who stand here behind me, but really for all those who fought in Rogue Squadron. None of them would have balked at making the sacrifices we have. All of us--everyone in Rogue Squadron and in the Alliance itself--have risked all we are to defeat a government that took joy in the sorrow and terror of its citizens. Winning this award, taking possession of Corus-cant, these things are not ends in and of themselves, but blazes marking the trail we must all tread if the galaxy is ever to be truly free."

Gentle applause from the dignitaries and guests gathered beyond the dais accompanied Wedge's retreat back into line with the other pilots. As Mon Mothma walked past him, she let her left hand brush against his arm. He glanced at her and she gave him a smile. I guess I didn't do that badly.

She resumed her place at the podium and began speak-ing again. "Of the events that have transpired over the last year, there are many rumors and far fewer facts. Those ru-mors could all be dispelled by having an exact chronology of events created, and perhaps, in another generation or two, such a chronology could be made public. While we were a covert force fighting against the Empire, there was no ques-tioning the need for stealth and secrecy. It was what kept us alive and allowed us to fight on against the Empire. Because of this secrecy we have defeated them in battle after battle."

Mon Mothma nodded in the direction of the holocam to her right. "With the New Republic in possession of Corus-cant, it might seem that the time for such secrecy is past, but it is not. The Empire is not yet dead, and the dozens of petty warlords tearing at it have already and will continue to study us for signs of weakness. Their drive to restore the Empire, with themselves in Palpatine's place, means we cannot reveal all of our secrets.

"We can, however, reveal some of them. Doing so is not only a vital necessity, for secrecy can breed arrogance and we have all seen where that can lead, but a pleasure. It provides me a chance to right a great wrong and prevent possible future tragedies."

She turned and pointed toward Tycho. "This is Captain Tycho Celchu, as loyal a son of Alderaan and the New Re-public as ever lived. He willingly chose to subject himself to a surrendering of his basic freedoms in order to bring the Em-pire down. Because of suspicions about what the Empire might have done to him, it was felt he could not be trusted, yet this man refused to let those suspicions prevent him from doing all he could to destroy the Empire. On numerous occa-sions he put his own life in jeopardy, flying unarmed into combat zones to rescue pilots who otherwise would have died.

"Most recently you have all seen him on trial for treason and murder of other members of Rogue Squadron. This trial, as public and as ugly as it was, played a crucial part in an Intelligence operation to uncover Imperial agents within the New Republic. Despite being held up as an object of revul-sion to the New Republic, Captain Celchu did not s.h.i.+rk his duty. He allowed himself to become such a target because it would mean that Imperial agents felt free to operate more openly while Captain Celchu was the subject of such fierce scrutiny. Imperial agents, in helping to manufacture evidence against Captain Celchu, revealed themselves to us."

Mon Mothma opened her arms. "Let there be no citizen of the New Republic who harbors suspicions about Tycho Celchu. His devotion to the New Republic is unquestioned. His return to active service with Rogue Squadron is a joyous event for us, and an event that should be feared by those who would attack the New Republic." She initiated applause for Tycho and everyone else joined ill, including Wedge once he tucked the unit citation beneath his left arm.

Tycho bowed his head toward Mon Mothma, but de-clined an invitation to speak with a curt shake of his head.

Mon Mothma nodded back at him, then resumed her place at the podlure. "it is said of Rogue Squadron that do-ing the impossible is what they do best, and another member of the squadron has shown himself to be perhaps the best of the best at it. Is there allyone in the New Republic who has not heard of Corran Horn? He was the pilot who flew through the worst storm in Coruscant's recorded history to bring the defense s.h.i.+elds down, only to be slain through the treachery of one of his comrades. It was a story that touched all of us because it spoke to the best in one individual and the worst in another. We mourned Corran Horn because his un-timely death seemed yet one more tragedy caused by the Empire at a time when the Empire should have been decid-edly less virulent.

"We know of Captain Celchu's innocence because of a number of things, greatest among them Corran Horn's re-turn from the grave. He was not killed on the last day the Empire held Coruscant. He was captured instead. When Ysanne Isard could not break him and transform him into a puppet, he was placed in a prison where she intended him to live out the rest of his life. Though he had been told that a failed escape attempt would result in his death, Corran Horn risked his life to win his freedom. He alone has gotten away from Lusankya, and his escape precipitated Ysanne Isard's own departure from Coruscant."

Mon Mothma beckoned Corran forward, but he fol-lowed Tycho's lead, acknowledging her gesture with a slight bow and a smile. That smile remained on his face as he straightened up, though he did give Wedge a covert wink. Wedge nodded in return, pleased that both men were content with allowing the focus of the ceremony t~ remain on the squadron instead of s.h.i.+fting it to themselves.

"Citizens, Ysanne lsard's flight from Coruscant and her subsequent actions have given birth to more rumors than can be counted. It is true that with the resources available to her she did travel to Thyferra and support a revolution that put the Xucphra faction in charge of the bacta cartel. She does now rule there and has effective control over the output of the entire bacta cartel. Given that she introduced the Kt3~tos virus to Coruscant and directed covert Imperial operations to destroy bacta storage facilities here on Coruscant, this would seem to place her in a most powerful position. Literally, it would appear that millions will live or die depending upon her whim."

Mon Mothma's voice took on a more serious tone. "Her action would have caused a crisis except for two things over which she had no control. One was a direct and unwitting result of her own haste in taking action against us. When she ordered the creation of the Krytos virus, she wanted a virus that would routate quickly and spread between species easily~ Her scientists complied with her orders, but they failed to take into account what would happen if the spread of the virus was hampered. The Krytos virus was ve~'y deadly--in fact, too deadly for her plan to succeed.

Infected persons died fast--in many cases too fast to be able to spread the disease very far. An illness that kills too quickly runs itself out of hosts and dies along with them. Those individuals who lasted long enough to spread the virus did so only because, as the virus mutated, it became less virulent. Since it did not kill them so quickly, they had a chance to pa.s.s it on, but it was no longer as deadly a virus as Iceheart wanted it to be.

"This high rate of mutation also weakened the virus's defenses. a.n.a.lysis of the virus allowed a Vratix verachen to be able to synthesize a specific medication to combat the virus by growing the alazhi component of bacta in a ryll-rich environment. The resulting product, known as rylca, is now being produced in a hidden location by the New Republic.

More than enough to eradicate the virus will be available here well before our bacta supply runs out."

Mon Mothma glanced momentarily back toward Wedge and he saw the glimmerings of a smile on her face. "Rogue Squadron itself did not produce the ryica, but they provided support. for the product and were instrumental in obtaining both the ryll and the bacta used to create the rylca. Qlaern Hirf is a Vratix verachen from Thyferra and is the creator of rylca.

Equally instrumental in the success of this effort is the woman who transported the components for the rylca and rescued the Vratix from the most dire of circ.u.mstances, Mirax Terrik. You may have heard that Mirax was killed in the ambush at Alderman, but it appears her long a.s.sociation with Rogue Squadron allowed her to do the impossible as well and return from that tragedy to help us deal with the Krytos virus."

The New Republic's Chief Councilor led the a.s.sembly in a round of applause for both Qlaern and Mirax. The Vratix seemed utterly nonplussed by the demonstration, but Mirax blushed fiercely. She gave Wedge a fearsome stare that he recognized by virtue of having seen it many times before, and he knew what it meant.

She's right, it is all my fault that she's being embarra.s.sed by the attention, but I'm glad she's alive to be blus.h.i.+ng. As nearly as Cracken and his Intelligence people could make out, Erisi had betrayed the bacta convoy to the Empire for two reasons. The first was to eliminate a lot of bacta, das.h.i.+ng hopes on Coruscant and driving the price yet higher. The second reason was to get Mirax killed, since her Pulsar Skate was one of the s.h.i.+ps in the convoy. Mirax recalled Erisi threatening her if Mirax continued her relations.h.i.+p with Corran, and the destruction of the convoy offered Erisi a way to kill her rival for Corran's affections. Given that ev-eryone thought Corran was dead at the time, the act was taken as a reflection of Erisi's vindictive and petty nature.

Then again, Isard might have told Erisi of Corran's sur-vival and promised him to her as a reward for her continued loyalty. Wedge s.h.i.+vered at that thought. Luckily for Mirax, the Pulsar Skate didn't go along with the final convoy jump. Mirax had instead s.h.i.+pped but to Borleias, where the cap-tured Alderaan Biotics Facility was put to use synthesizing rylca. The plan had been for it to appear as if Mirax had just stolen a portion of the bacta going to Coruscant--what smuggler could have resisted taking such a prize? She would have remained out of sight until the production of rylca could allow the New Republic the freedom to anger the bacta cartel by announcing their possession of a facility that could produce enough bacta-like products to break the car-tel The death of the convoy provided an even better cover for her operation, so she remained dead until an opportune moment to reveal the deception.

Mon Mothma faced tbe holocams one last time. "Citi-zens of the New Republic, the last vestige of the Empire's evil has been rooted out of Coruscant. What was once an Empire is now just a collection of bitter people clutching at whatever power they can find to keep themselves apart from those they have hurt. What they do not realize, and the reason they are doomed to failure, is that all power in the galaxy comes from the free and willful investing of power by one person in an-other. Human and non-human, gendered or not, young, old, hale or infirm, we can only give power, we cannot take it. Stolen power evaporates and when it does, the empires that were built on it and of it collapse, never to rise again."

46.

Wedge found it mildly annoying that he was able to resist the generally festive atmosphere of the reception following the awards ceremony.

Various guests mixed and mingled with members of the squadron while holocams made the most of every holo-op. The images would be distributed throughout the New Republic, winning a small measure of the unit's fame for the politicians and other celebrities present.

Though he was inclined to view such opportunism with a cynical eye, he didn't condemn it. The Rebellion had won. Hundreds and hundreds of worlds flocked to the New Re-public's banner. The New Republic fleet was poised to go after Warlord Zsinj in a campaign that would strike fear into the hearts of all the other petty warlords in the galaxy. Even Ysanne Isard had to know her days were numbered, since there was no way the New Republic could let her remain in control of the bacta supply. With the installation of Fliry Vorru as Thyferra's Minister of Trade, bacta prices had al-ready started to climb, making that situation one that could not be tolerated.

The reason the celebration failed to reach him went be-yond his sense of mourning for Iella Wessiri. She had de-clined to accompany him to the reception, and he understood why. No one saw Diric as anything but one more of Iceheart's victims, but leila clearly thought she should have been able to spot something, to have known Diric was under Iceheart's control. The obvious implication of that thinking was that if she had been more vigilant she never would have had to shoot him and the guilt over that act would be one with which she would wrestle for the rest of her life.

Ultimately Wedge's reservations about the celebration came from the past.

He remembered well the celebration on Yavin 4 that followed the first Death Star's destruction. Our joy was this transparent, this unguarded.

Then we evacuated the base and began running from the Empire. 1 know it's stupid to a.s.sociate a victory and celebration with impending disaster, but . . .

Borsk Fey'lya cut through the milling crowd and nodded his head toward Wedge. "I wanted to congratulate you, Commander, on a game well played."

"I beg your pardon?"

The Bothan tapped claws against the barrel of his lomin-ale mug. "There was a report concerning Rogue Squadron's intervention at Alderaan. I understand it has been cla.s.sified as 'Most Secret.'"

"Indeed it has." Wedge suppressed his desire to smile. "It struck me that the information about the situation at Alderaan could have compromised our rylca operation. I suggested that cla.s.sifying the report that highly would be a good thing."

Borsk Fey'lya's creamy fur rippled up the back of his head. "Good for you."

"No, Councilor, good for you." Wedge let his voice drop into a low growl.

"You would have found the report less than satisfactory for your ends, which would have prompted you to try to destroy one of my people. I can a.s.sure you that would have caused problems."

"If you want to play at politics, Antilles, I would wel-come you onto my battlefield."

"I don't want to play at anything, thank you. I didn't join the Rebellion to play." Wedge opened a hand and pointed to the various members of the squadron. "My job is to make certain my people do their jobs and stay alive. What I do isn't about me or garnering power, it's about people: my people and the people we defend by going after the Empire."

"And doubtless you see politics as some dirty enterprise beneath your notice."

Wedge arched an eyebrow at him. "And you can con-vince me otherwise?"

"You're intelligent enough, Commander Antilles, to convince yourself I'm right. You already know everytbing is political. You know, for example, that what you have done for the Rebellion has granted you power--power you might well wish to use to advance your own plans and desires. You have things that will require support to accomplish, and building a coalition of support is political."

Wedge's brown eyes narrowed. I bad boped to advance the Vratix case for joining the New Republic, and I tbougbt Isard's taking of Tbyferra would make that job just tbat much easier. Is Borsk Fey'lya trying to suggest that some-tbing so obviously rigbt and necessary migbt ~lounder be-cause I'm not going to play bis game.e Anger began to build in Wedge, but before he could give it vent, he felt the weight of a hand on his right shoulder. His fury drained away as he turned from the Bothan and began to smile. "As stars live and die! I didn't think you'd be here, Luke."

The tow-headed Jedi Knight enfolded Wedge's hand in a firm grip, then he pulled Wedge forward into a backslapping hug. "I wouldn't have missed it for all the Tibanna gas on Bespin. I was a bit late because, quite frankly, the Jedi exhib-its your man found in the Galactic Museum are, well, ab-sorbing. I've been chasing all over trying to locate traces of other Jedi, then it turns out a repository of a lot of stuff is on the planet from which I've been basing my searches. While very little of it deals with training, there is a lot of material that lets me piece together some history."

"Corran mentioned he'd found quite a haul. He said it was rather macabre."

Luke Skywalker nodded solemnly as he stepped back from Wedge. "Once the Emperor isolated those rooms, they became his own private playground. As the Jedi in there were hunted down, the Emperor defaced their monuments.

There's enough evil there to be palpable, but I think things can be set to fights again."

Borsk Fey'lya came around on Wedge's left side. "The Council is already discussing an appropriation to allow for the rehabilitation of those exhibits." The Bothan extended his hand to Luke. "Councilor Borsk Fey'lya, at your service."

At bis own service. Wedge caught a mischievous glint in Luke's eyes, as if the Jedi Knight knew what he was thinking.

"It is an honor to meet you, Councilor. The efforts of your people in eliminating the second Death Star and in lib-erating Cornscant speak to the n.o.bility in the Bothan spirit."

"You are most kind, Jedi Skywalker."

Wedge laughed. "That's just because you're not a womp rat scurrying down some canyon, Councilor."

"No chance of his being mistaken for that, Wedge."

"Ahem, thank you." Fe~,'lya smoothed the fur at the back of his head.

"Jedi Skywalker, you have made strides in reestablis.h.i.+ng the Jedi?"

"Some, though I hope for more." Luke shrugged almost imperceptibly.

"Progress is seldom measured in great leaps except when viewed with hindsight."

"It is much the same with nation-building."

"So I can imagine." Luke nodded, then turned and ex-tended his hand to the male half of the couple walking up. "Tycho, good to see you again, and now out from under suspicion."

Tycho shook his hand. "Thank you, Luke. I believe you know Winter?"

The Jedi Knight nodded and offered Winter his hand. "My sister's friend and confidant? We are well acquainted. It seems I speak with her more than I do Leia, especially with my sister off on her emba.s.sy to Hapes.

How are you doing, Winter?"