"He what?"
Why did people always seem to ask him that question of late? Rory Mikam looked into Wynssa Starflare's huge bright blue eyes, and promptly forgot his irritation. "Sliced into the ISB bridge recordings. It's not even that difficult, I've done it myself to find out about surprise assignments. There's enough to get me shot there, except I suppose Per wants to make it look as if Piett put me up to it."
"The Imperial Security Bureau records activity on the bridge?"
"You bet. Captains with Rebel sympathies don't live long in the Imperial Navy."
The holostar stared at him with a horrified look. "Perhaps they simply learn to keep it very quiet... But where else does ISB record the crew? Here?"
Rory looked around him at the VIP stateroom. The sitting-room alone was twice the size of the dorm he shared with Theel and Thrawn, and the furniture made you forget you were aboard a battleship. He would have remembered seeing it before. "I don't think so. Per and me sniffed around enough, and apart from the bridge, all we ever found were recordings of the main briefing-room."
"Well, that's not terribly efficient."
"Don't forget ISB always has agents in the crew." He laughed at her appalled expression. "And any commanding officer worth his rank squares knows exactly who they are, and is very careful to give them just enough information to keep Armand Isard's goons happy. Not that I'd trust Corlag on this, but Piett ain't stupid, and he's been in the Navy long enough. Rumor says officers keep lists of ISB agents, and swap them whenever the guys get transferred or promoted. But a recording – you can't do much against that."
"And this—this womprat Theel has got it now?"
Mikam nodded gloomily. "I don't know how he plans to use it, but—"
"He took it to Captain Corlag in sickbay," a well-known cool voice said from the doorway. "Fortunately, the good captain was still unconscious. It made it a lot easier to retrieve this."
Both Rory and Wynssa spun to gape at Thrawn, who held a small datadisk between two long blue fingers. The alien lieutenant closed the door carefully, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Really, I could wish ISB had had the forethought to provide cameras in this stateroom. Your expressions are priceless."
***
"How did you—"
"Thrawn, you champ—"
He waited for half a minute then raised a hand to stop the fracas. "Who needs covert electronics? You'll bring ship's security on us by the simple power of the human voice."
This silenced the others, but only briefly. "See? What did I tell you?" Mikam said. "He never used to crack jokes before. That's two in one minute."
"I still don't think I had anything to do with—"
"No doubt I will get your attention in your own good time," Thrawn's voice interrupted. "However, we're getting closer to our engagement with the pirate fleet, and there's one or two details we'd be well-advised to settle."
"Cold," Rory said. "Definitely cold. Does he talk like that when you're alone?"
"He sure does on the comm."
"Don't count."
"It's not like we had any kind of time—"
"If I'd known the two of you were going to gang up like that," Thrawn started in the tone of someone goaded beyond endurance, "I would have kept you as far apart as possible. Will you please be serious for one minute?"
"Got his goat."
"I hope you'll remember how to do it when I've left."
"Count on it."
Eyes glowering, the alien lieutenant took one step into the stateroom, and Mikam retreated hastily behind Wynssa. She burst out laughing, then flung her hands up. "We surrender! We surrender!"
"Yes," Thrawn said glacially, "I suggest you do just that. Because in case you had forgotten, this disk is only a copy. The original recording is still in the protected ISB databanks inside the ship's computer."
That did stop Wynssa and Rory dead in their tracks, as he'd known it would. "First, we must determine what exactly is on it. Wynssa, I would assume your cabin has a data reader somewhere?"
She nodded quietly, pointing at a console at the side of one of the sofas. Thrawn went to it and slid the datadisk into the player. A simulated flatscreen materialized in the holo viewspace.
"They flatrecord only?" Wynssa asked in a surprised voice.
Rory snorted. "You think ISB has HoloNet's means?"
She caught herself. "I wasn't thinking. They'd need a dozen cameras for that. Of course they flatrecord only."
"Precisely," Thrawn said. "The ethernet connectivity would also play havoc with the ship's comm. I don't want to give you false hopes, but it's just possible what they've got here is inconclusive."
On the hovering flatscreen, the scene showed Commander Piett still in charge of the bridge. "Can we fast-forward this?" Thrawn asked.
She nodded. "Let me see. Here."
The silhouettes on the screen became agitated, pirouetting and gesticulating from one end of the forward bridge to the other. A new character erupted from the background.
"That's it! Let's slow down and get some sound—"
"What the kreth is going on on my bridge? Piett, what do you think you're doing?"
Fascinated, Wynssa stared at the virtual screen, biting her knuckles. She wasn't there, of course. Although it would seem she'd seen Corlag only minutes before. The dialogue with Piett replayed, ending in Corlag's belligerent "Which of you sorry lot thought up this little wheeze?" followed by Piett and Thrawn's simultaneous answers. Corlag's nasty jibe drew a sharp gasp from her. "How? How could you stand there and not knock this—this bastard down?"
"Wynssa!"
She whirled to confront Mikam. "I can think of a lot worse words I heard on holo sets and at the refueling station! And you, just standing there—"
"Actually," Thrawn said, "Rory did a lot more than stand there. And even if he hadn't, allow me to share a saying of my people– 'there is no finer gratification than being mistaken for an dunce by an imbecile.' I wasn't about to let my career be destroyed for the sake of scoring cheap points with this incompetent."
She was silenced at that, a curious expression on her face. He smiled a little. "Anyway, we're getting to the best part. Look!"
It went very fast, not helped by the lurching picture as the ship took repeated hits. One minute Corlag was up, the next he could partly be seen between the command chair and the weapons relay comm console, sprawled on the ground, while Mikam called out "Captain down! The captain is injured!"
"Let's frame-by-frame it," Thrawn said. "Back up a bit. Turn the sound up."
She obeyed his instructions wordlessly. The three of them peered at the flatscreen where all motion had slowed down to a sluggish pace. The sound rumbled like something hot being poured out of a cauldron. Corlag fell impossibly slowly, the lazy arc broken by the edge of Mikam's console, and briefly vanished behind the young man's back. Mikam's shoulders moved as he stood up and sideways, obscuring part of the scene. The sound swelled up incomprehensibly.
"That's you calling for help. Now let's go back again, normal speed, to check what you said exactly."
Wynssa pressed the remote again. "Turbolasers: on my mark!"
"Turbolasers ready!"
A crash, a lurch, screams and screeches. They heard the thud of Corlag's fall, then a mumble from Rory which could have been "Oh, no!", then more cracks and crashes.
"Captain down! The captain is injured!"
"So it would seem. You'd better call a med droid. Hit his head on your console, did he?"
"Y-es, sir."
"Have him taken to sickbay at once. Oh, and, lieutenant Mikam—you'd better make sure the Too-OneBee runs the proper tests before they medicate him. Some treatments are contra-indicated when too much alcohol's found in the blood. Wouldn't want to risk that. Better have it all on record."
"Er— yes, sir, just so."
Even before Piett was finished on the virtual screen, Wynssa had run to Rory and kissed him soundly. "You are such a star! Forgive me for anything I said! That was brilliant!"
Mikam looked bemused if anything, a grin spreading on his flushed face. "Hey, I didn't even know I was going to do it. It just sort of—happened."
"More to the point," Thrawn said, "it didn't get caught on camera. It's possible Theel could have built some sort of a case to Corlag from that shoulder twitch of yours, especially with the bump the captain must have on the back of his head right now, instead of where he hit the edge of your station, but by the time ISB gets this recording, the memories'll all be blurred."
"What I want to know," Wynssa demanded, "is how you got hold of this."
He smiled. "I was simply lucky."
"I can't believe that."
"I assure you, it's true." He held up a hand. "I promise to tell you all about it later, but it's really time for Rory and I to get back to the bridge. The pirates I interrogated gave me some useful information we'll need for when the "Judicator" joins us."
"Oh kr— blast!" Rory exclaimed. "I was only supposed to get you to your cabin. We gotta go!"
Thrawn nodded. "Go ahead. I'll see you at the turbolifts in a minute."
Mikam hesitated only a second. "Oh. Oh—yeah, sure. I'm off." As he reached the door, he turned back, grinning at his bunkmate and the holostar. "Believe me, Wynssa, you did this."