Grimly trying to hold his own in front of overwhelming force, Commander Piett was wondering how they could regain the crucial fifteen minutes, and their past opportunities, lost by Captain Corlag's blustering. He'd recalled the TIEs, because there was no upside in winning dogfights in the middle of the larger space battle, and he'd still hoped to be able to jump. But the "Empire's Revenge" was too hemmed in by the pirate fleet, and taking a beating. Janred's gunners had managed to kill two frigates and one of the Dreadnaughts, but the others kept coming, with the added firepower of those sublight torpedoes whose characteristic sonic impact he was learning to dread. Shields were dangerously down, and he could see the likelihood of a hull breach closing in.
"Helm: give me a 20% yaw starboard rotation, now. Weapons: ion energy reserves report!"
"Reserves at 42% in uninterrupted fire, 60% if we give it a 20-minute recharge," Mikam's tight voice said.
I don't have 20 prakking minutes, but it's obvious the kid knows it. Piett refrained from swearing, and ordered another salvo at one of the reconfigured Dreadnoughts. Studying hurriedly the tac holo, he noticed Thrawn had stepped to Mikam's console and was talking quietly to the young weapons controller. "Sir, request permission to temporarily relieve Lieutenant Mikam!"
What the— "Permission granted, lieutenant." I have to assume this one knows what he's doing. And that he'll tell me what he's up to... Mikam slid out of his station, and Thrawn replaced him immediately. Another hit shook the "Empire's Revenge" superstructure. And whatever it is, that he can swing it fast.
***
I simply can't believe this guy. Rory Mikam hurried down turbolifts and gangways, a grin of unholy glee on his face. Theel would blow a gasket if he knew. If we ever get out of this, I'll make sure he finds out. Heh.
He reached the secondary aft gymnasium easily, palmed the door open, and called out into the large empty room. "Miss Starflare?"
Sure enough, it was the holostar, coming out from behind a stepper, although it took him a half-second to recognize her in the baggy mechanic's overalls and cap. "Hello, lieutenant."
"Lieutenant Thrawn sent me," Rory started, more intimidated that he would have wished. She did have a wonderful smile. And those eyes...
"Yes, he told me you'd be coming to get me. Where are we off to?"
"Secondary bridge comm station. This way."
Mikam led the way at a brisk trot, but the star was in shape and kept up easily. "Did he tell you exactly what he wants me to do?"
Rory grinned. "He said he'd be 'grateful if you could give a Golden Cos performance', whatever that means." They'd reached the turbolift bank, and he hit a code on one of the panels. "We'll have the secondary comm station to ourselves. I'll set up the transmission, and you'll do the talking." The turbolift arrived, and they rushed in. Rory pulled a datapad from his pocket. "Here, he gave me that for you."
Wynssa Starflare took it and started studying it, muffling an exclamation.
"What?"
"Lieutenant Thrawn has a nerve, and you can tell him I said that."
Mikam stared at the beautiful, fine-boned face in some worry. If she meant to be difficult... But no, she was smiling again ruefully. "Not that it will make any difference, I expect. He's got us all dancing to his tune, hasn't he?"
Boy, that woman is hooked. When did Thrawn have the time to pull her? Cool operator. Forget Theel, Corlag would go ballistic. "There we are," Rory announced as the turbolift doors opened. "This way."
Their steps rang out eerily on the durasteel deckplates of the empty secondary bridge. Rory ran to the main comm station, flicked the console on, and started setting up a wide-ranging subspace audio transmission on every military and civilian channel available. When he finally raised his eyes, he was surprised by the transformation in Wynssa's entire demeanor. Outwardly nothing much had changed. But her expression... He rose and nodded her into the seat. She stepped up, carefully laid aside the datapad, and grasped the edge of the console.
"Help us, please help, anyone, help! This is the "Empire's Revenge", a star destroyer, we've been attacked by pirates, the Captain is injured, his officers are dead, the bridge is destroyed, we need help! We're one day out of the Tauron system, please help! I'm the Captain's fiancée, I don't know how to give a more exact position, please help! The "Empire's Revenge", seven days out of Chandrila, bound for Coruscant, help! Please help!"
I'd believe her, and I've just watched her do it, Mikam thought, awed. The note of desperation in her voice was heart-wrenching with panic and fear. He nodded at Wynssa and she stepped back from the console. He grabbed the datapad and slammed it into the sound receptors with a great crash. Yup, that'll do fine. He grinned at the holoactress and switched off the console.
***
"You want what, lieutenant?"
"The only way to make them stop pounding us and leave us enough space to make the jump is if they board us, sir. So we have to convince them to board us."
Piett stared at the alien lieutenant, unsure whether he should burst out laughing or tear his hair out. "They're not going to come in exactly unarmed," he hedged.
"No, sir, but we can make them believe we're in far worse shape than we are. We could fix a couple of smoke bombs from the Delta reconnaissance shuttles just outside the bridge viewports, and it will look as if the bridge was in flames. The same for the power cores, and for the aft TIE hangar, so that they try and board from the other one. And in that one we can have two companies of stormtroopers to greet the boarders, and complete communications dampening so that they can't report back to their officers it's a trap."
"What about the emergency hatches? They'll probably send boarding parties through those as well."
"I'm less worried about the emergency hatches, sir," Thrawn said dismissively, and part of Piett's mind noticed how effortlessly the strange alien lieutenant slipped into the language of command. I wonder what kind of world he comes from, and what their military is like. Unless he got all this from the Academy, but they don't especially encourage that kind of outside-the-box thinking at the Academy.
"That's narrow enough that small squads of Colonel Tyfas's troopers can pick intruders one by one, and smaller dampening fields can be arranged pretty easily," Thrawn was saying. "But we'd better move on this now, sir."
Piett considered for an instant the young man standing at the relay weapons status station. I suppose almost anything is better than being hammered to space debris. But I also trust this one to come up with something creative. "And talking of jumping space, what happens to the boarding ships?"
"Frankly, sir, I don't much care. They either explode, or jump along in our hyperspace shadow, I'm not sure. But once we're hidden two light-seconds away alone with them, they won't be much trouble."
Cool customer, Piett reflected. I don't think I'd like to get on his bad side. "All right, we'll go for it. Send spacetroopers to fix those smokescreens smartish. Then we'll have to hope that whoever is in charge out there takes the hint."
The thin blue lips stretched into a wolfish smile. "Oh, I think they will, sir. I've just baited it."