The Bacta War (19 page)

17

The sound of a thousand individuals stamping their heels and coming to attention echoed through the
Corrupter
’s hold as Fliry Vorru followed Ysanne Isard from the belly of the shuttle. Vorru looked out over the straight ranks of sailors and stormtroopers and allowed himself a smile.
Such a display of Imperial might I’ve not seen since before I was sentenced to Kessel. The Rebels may own Imperial Center and may have proclaimed themselves a New Republic, but they will never know Imperial splendor like this
.

At the base of the gangway, Isard paused and offered her hand to a small, lean man in a black uniform. The rank insignia he wore on his jacket’s left breast bore only six color tabs, but the fact that he also wore two rank cylinders told Vorru he was a Commander, not a mere Captain. Even so, because of his position of command on the ship and Imperial tradition, addressing him as Captain would be proper.
And the way he genuflects before kissing Iceheart’s proffered hand shows this Convarion is nothing if not proper
.

Convarion met Vorru’s offered hand with a strong grip. The man’s sharp features, thick black hair, and blue eyes all combined to grant Convarion an intensity that surprised
Vorru.
I had thought all such fire-eaters had been killed at Endor. This man is ambitious and, therefore, dangerous. If he were my subordinate, I would have him killed
.

“Pleased to meet you, Captain Convarion.”

“And you, Minister Vorru.” Convarion’s mouth smiled, but any pleasure failed to register beyond the boundaries of his lips. “I am honored that you would deign to notice my ship and our exploits.”

Isard, wearing her scarlet Admiral’s uniform, glanced back at him with faint amusement in her eyes. “You have shown initiative, Commander, and I always notice initiative. I should like to inspect your ship, if that is possible, but first I would speak with you in private.”

“Of course, Madam Director.” Convarion bowed, then pointed to an aisle through the middle of the bone white ranks of stormtroopers. “My wardroom is this way.”

Vorru trailed behind Convarion and Isard. He noticed that Convarion matched his pace to that of Isard and that she, in reaction to this, varied her gait and caused Convarion to do the same. Convarion’s face gave no sign he noticed what was going on or if he was annoyed by it or not. He merely looked up at Isard with rapt attention on his face, not sycophantically hanging on her every word, but receiving what she said as if it were advice worthy of his most sincere consideration.

Vorru suppressed a smile as he watched Convarion operate, because he knew the man had to be trying to balance two conflicting scenarios in his head. By sending the
Corrupter
after the errant ships, Convarion had succeeded in ambushing an Antilles operation and scattering his forces. By Convarion’s estimate Antilles lost a half-dozen ships, including several of the Uglies, known as Deathseeds by the Twi’leks who created them. Just knowing that some Twi’leks had thrown in with Antilles was valuable information itself, and Convarion would have been due some reward for just bringing that tidbit back from his mission.

On the other hand, he had left the majority of his convoy uncovered and open to attack. Antilles had still gotten away with two ships and Convarion had destroyed another bacta
freighter on his own initiative. His report had stated that the freighter was moving in conjunction with the pirates and did not acknowledge his initial hail, so he considered it hostile and destroyed it. Such decisiveness was the sort of thing Isard appreciated, but the loss of a bacta freighter was a high price to pay for it.

The hatch to the small wardroom closed behind Vorru, trapping him in there with Isard and Convarion. Vorru moved to the end of the room far from the door and seated himself at the corner of the rectangular black duraplast table that dominated the room. Convarion hovered closest to the far narrow end of the table, ready to take his place at the head of it if Isard did not wish that position for herself.

Isard remained standing just inside the hatchway and stared at Convarion. “Your discovery of the deception concerning the freighters was impressive, Commander.”

“Thank you, but it was no more than should be expected from any of our personnel. I chose to wait for all of my ships to be away because the Rebels used the tactic of misjumping ships in the case of the bacta convoy that Warlord Zsinj ambushed at Alderaan. I had to assume that same tactic might be used again. Because of
Corrupter
’s speed, I could arrive in synch with my ships at their destination even if I delayed leaving. I had my navigators plot the outbound vectors for my ships and noticed three were off course. We plotted possible stopping points along that route and proceeded after them. It was a fairly basic pursuit operation.”

Irritation flared in Isard’s molten left eye. “And destroying the
Alazhi
, was that no less than I should expect from our personnel?”

“As I explained in my report—”

“As you
lied
in your report.” Isard’s eyes narrowed. “Analysis of your ship’s data records show your gunners opened fire three seconds after reversion. A signal went out to
Alazhi
five seconds after reversion, and the volley of shots that destroyed
Alazhi
came eight seconds after reversion. You chose to shoot regardless of their response.”

Convarion’s face constricted, pulling flesh taut over his cheekbones. “I shot in response to contingencies I had
worked out prior to our arrival.
Alazhi
was alone, which meant the other ships had already been captured and moved.
Alazhi
had been disarmed and damaged. Because it was surrounded by hostile snubfighters and was moving in conjunction with them, I had to assume it was under their control. I was aware of your policy of punishing collaborators, and I chose to implement it immediately. Punishment delayed is punishment stripped of connection with the crime that triggered it. While
Xucphra Alazhi
’s crew will not have a chance to learn from their mistake, other crew of other ships know the policy is not an idle threat.”

“So you chose to implement a policy without asking my permission?”

Convarion nodded. “I did.”

“And you are prepared to take full responsibility for doing so?”

A slight hesitation marked Convarion’s reply. “I am.”

The down-turned corners of Isard’s mouth rose. “Then you will execute the families of those crewmen on the
Alazhi
. We brought them with us in the shuttle.”

Color drained from Convarion’s face. “If that is your wish.”

“What I
wish
, Captain Convarion, matters not.” Isard strode toward him and plucked the rank cylinder from the right side of Convarion’s tunic “What I
order
is all that matters. What initiative you take must be within your mission parameters, it must not exceed them. Do you understand me?”

The naval man nodded, but Vorru detected a stiffness to his motion signifying resistance. Elements of the Imperial military had never accepted Isard’s de facto running of the government, which was why many of them proclaimed themselves Warlords and created their own little empires. Those who had remained loyal, either to her or the concept of the Empire, still could bristle when she gave orders.

Convarion’s head came up. “It is your
order
, then, Madam Director, that I kill the families of the crew of the
Alazhi
?”

Isard’s head briefly flicked toward Convarion, but Vorru
doubted Convarion caught her slip. “That situation has been dealt with already and does not need your attention. I have another task for you. Minister Vorru, your briefing.”

Vorru pointed to the chair at the head of the table. “Please be seated, Captain Convarion. As you know, bacta is a precious fluid that is produced in limited amounts and only available from us, here, on Thyferra. All bacta in the galaxy is produced under our license and is sold with our approval. If you need bacta, there is only one place to get it.

“At least, that was the situation until Antilles and his people pirated the first convoy. What do you think they did with that bacta?”

“It is rather clear they didn’t sell it, since that is the obvious answer to the question.” Convarion shrugged reluctantly. “I have no idea what they did with it.”

“They gave it away. Much of it went to Coruscant, but we anticipated that.” Vorru pressed his hands flat against the tabletop. “Because they used our ships and our crews to transport the bacta, we know where it ended up. We have shorted future allotments to various worlds to make up for the bacta they were supplied by Antilles, and we have charged them for that bacta.”

Convarion’s expression eased. “And they have paid?”

“Some have. Some have refused to do so.” Vorru smiled. “This presents us with a problem.”

Isard leaned forward, posting her arms on the table. “If some do not pay, we appear weak and others might balk at paying us. If they do not pay, they are as much thieves as Antilles and his people.”

“So you have a policy you are going to order me to implement.”

“How perceptive of you, Captain.” Vorru nodded solemnly. “We have a list of the worlds that received stolen bacta. We have eliminated those worlds that have paid us, have made arrangements to pay us, or have sufficient resources to be able to pay us. We are left with a handful of target worlds that are too poor to afford the gift Antilles gave them. You will select one of them and take our bacta back.”

“And if there is no bacta to recover?”

Isard straightened up and smiled mostly coldly. “If the bacta is used up, it will have granted them health. You will take it back again.”

Convarion nodded. “It will be done.”

Vorru raised a hand. “Not so quickly, Captain, there are some special caveats for what we want you to do. First and foremost, you will be taking along with you two companies of the Thyferran Home Defense Corps and one squadron of their fliers to carry out the work that needs to be done.”

“But my Imperial troops will be much more efficient …”

“Indeed, but we want the Thyferrans to see the crimes of these worlds as crimes against
them
, not against Director Isard. We want the Thyferrans to get their hands dirty. If they are acting with us, they become complicit in our activities. They will make themselves targets for Antilles, which will bind them more tightly to us. By making them administer the punishment to these worlds, we give them an even greater stake in seeing that we remain here to help defend them, and we give them a reason to defend themselves.”

Convarion’s eyes narrowed. “You sound as if you truly think Antilles and his rabble can actually topple you.”

“Nonsense!” Isard dismissed that supposition with a wave of her hand. “There will come a point, however, when the New Republic considers what it is going to do about us and our control of the bacta supply. They have refrained from causing trouble so far because they are reluctant to dabble in the internal politics of worlds. To do so would split their Republic, since a number of worlds that declared independence and have joined them still have their Imperial officials in place running things. Warlord Zsinj has further distracted the New Republic, but once he has been dealt with, they will again consider us.”

Convarion nodded. “If our client states are afraid of losing their bacta supply, they will not press for the Republic to do something about us. And if the Thyferrans back us fully, the New Republic would have to stage an invasion of Thyferra to oust us.”

“Precisely.”

Vorru let Isard’s comment echo in his ears, but he was not as confident of it as her voice suggested she was. Discounting Antilles entirely was a mistake, and one Isard should have known better than to make. While Vorru believed the Antilles threat could be controlled and minimized, the only way it could be eliminated was by killing Antilles and destroying his power base. The network of contacts Vorru had in place to gather information about Antilles was just beginning to report data to him, but so far it had been useless in trying to locate Antilles or figuring out what his long-term intentions were.

Vorru opened his hands and smiled at Convarion. “So, will you follow orders and punish a world for dealing with Antilles?”

“Shoot me the datafiles on the target worlds and I will get back to you with plans for dealing with them in two days.” Convarion stood. “You may select the final target or leave it up to me, at your discretion. I would ask only one thing in return.”

Isard arched an eyebrow at him. “And that is?”

“As you said before, my initiative is limited by my mission parameters.” Convarion half-smiled. “If you want the lesson to be learned by the maximum number of people, do me the favor of defining my mission as broadly as possible.”

18

In many ways Iella Wessiri could not believe she had decided to come along on the mission after all. She understood how important it was to undertake, and how much good it might do for the Ashern cause, but at the most basic level she opposed it.
It’s murder, nothing less
.

When Elscol had proposed the operation, she’d used the euphemism
sanction
to describe what they would be doing to one of Xucphra’s higher-ups, Aerin Dlarit. Dlarit, an older man, had been appointed a General in the Thyferran Home Defense Corps. In the day-to-day operation of the THDC he deferred to Major Barst Roite, but Dlarit strutted about in his uniform at a host of social functions. Local media had shown him any number of times assuring his fellow Xucphrans that the Ashern were under control and that happy days were on the way.

“He’s made himself an obvious target.” Elscol had opened her arms to emphasize her point. “If we take him out we will rock Xucphran society to its foundations.”

Iella had protested the whole idea. “Dlarit is hardly a military target in any real sense. He’s a fop. We can undercut him by hitting other targets and making his assurances lies.”