Shortly after the Millennium Falcon dropped out of hyperspace into the Corellian system, Han, in the pilot seat, said wryly, "Well, at least we're not in the middle of a battle."
"No," Leia agreed from the copilot seat. "We're just in the middle of the preparations for one."
Indeed, through the cockpit viewport, Corellian gunships, battle cruisers, and attack fighters were either stationed or running patrols throughout their home system. And within mere seconds of the Falcon's dropout from lightspeed, a quartet of fighters had zoomed in from somewhere off to port; accompanying them was a beep from the freighter's comm console, which, at Han's nodding approval, Leia answered.
"Millennium Falcon, this is Colonel Garrick Vance of Blue Squadron," an authoritative male voice said from the other end. "You will follow us."
"Colonel Vance, this is Captain Han Solo," he returned. "We're intending to dock with Centerpoint Station and-"
"Negative, Captain Solo," Vance interrupted. "Head of State Sal-Solo's orders are to redirect any and all incoming Corellian-owned ships to Corellia. Anyone who attempts to stray from there are to either be encouraged to leave the system or be destroyed."
"And for non-Corellian owned ships?" Han asked.
"They would be encouraged to leave the system or be destroyed," Vance replied simply, "but they wouldn't be allowed to go any further into our system."
"Han," Leia said, "I think we better do what he says; we're faced with odds even you should consider."
Before Han could protest, Jaden, who stood behind and between them, spoke up. "At least by letting us stay in the system at all, we have a better chance of getting involved in the fighting when the GA and Chiss get here."
"It might be our best shot," Leia backed up, "so let's not make this anymore difficult than it already is."
"But Jaina-" Han started to say.
"Jaina is laying low right now," Leia interrupted sharply. "I can feel it. And that's probably because she's also aware of what's going to happen."
"But how could she know that the GA and Chiss are gathering here?" Han asked. "And why wouldn't she just go ahead and use Anakin's lightsaber to reactivate Centerpoint?"
"Millennium Falcon, this is your final warning," Vance's voice came over the comm. "Either follow us or turn around and leave this instant."
"I'll explain everything on the way to Corellia," Leia said urgently. "Let's just do what the colonel says for now."
Han grimaced, but answered the comm himself. "Acknowledged, Colonel Vance. We're on your tail."
"Copy, Captain Solo," Vance replied more agreeably. "But you'll be in our center."
Then the lead two fighters turned and headed for Corellia while the rear duo came up on the Falcon's tail.
Han sighed as he obeyed Vance's orders. "'Let's just do what the colonel says for now,'" Han mocked his wife. "This coming from the woman who was one of the key leaders of the Rebellion."
"You forget that I led the New Republic for a time, Han," Leia replied patiently. "I know when to concede as well as when to fight. Now is the time to do the former."
"That doesn't make it any easier to swallow," Han said.
"No, it doesn't," Leia tacitly agreed. "Still, all we can do is wait until the battle to start; then we can ignore Colonel Vance." She gave a small smile at him when she said that last part.
Han couldn't help but mirror that smile, even if he still felt mostly uncomfortable at the moment. His expression dropped, however, when he said, "So tell me: how does Jaina know what's gonna happen? I somehow doubt Thrackan would let anyone outside the Corellian military know about this upcoming battle."
"If she's been in contact with Tahiri," Leia said, "I wouldn't be surprised if she found out about that and shared that information with Jaina through the Force."
"Hmm," Han said. "Well, here's hoping that Jaina can be as patient as us. And that Thrackan won't do anything to her, Jacen, or Tahiri, even for what she's done."
. . .
When Darth Judicar awakened in her hotel room—which was only two levels beneath the rooms occupied by Mirax Terrik Horn and the retired Rogue Squadron members on Centerpoint—she looked out her window and saw something that made her heart skip a beat.
Throughout the civilian walkways and public corridors, there was a noticeable increase in the presence of the station's local police presence as well as uniformed CorSec officers. They didn't seem to be harassing anyone or going out of their way to make trouble, at least as far as Judicar could see, but the sheer quantity of authorities present was something that she couldn't just overlook.
She turned away from her window and headed to her personal datapad, which lay on the nightstand next to her bed. Judicar turned it on and opened up the local newsfeed.
Apparently, Head of State Sal-Solo had seen fit to increase security throughout Centerpoint for unspecified reasons. According to the reports, his exact words were, "We have discovered an internal threat inside the station that will require this increased security presence for the next week or so. We humbly ask the citizens of Centerpoint Station to remain patient until this threat has passed and we apologize for any inconvenience that this may bring."
Such inconveniences included people being actively declined from entering or leaving the station as of this morning. Comm traffic—internal, systemwide, and especially hypercomm—have been restricted to all but a few select citizens; Judicar had no doubt that even those communications would be monitored, even if Sal-Solo outright denied that in his public statement.
Judicar felt a presence try to contact her through the Force; when she felt that it was Darth Acheron, she opened herself up slightly, ever wary that her brother Jacen might sense her.
What'd I tell ya? Acheron communed. And it isn't just this station; it's the whole Corellian system.
I would think that if there was going to be a battle, Judicar said, Thrackan would wanna get as many people off this station ASAP. Yet he's preventing people from leaving as much as he's preventing them from coming aboard. I wonder why that is.
Yeah, you'd think he'd wanna save as many of his own citizens as he could. But then, in the brief time I've known him, Thrackan's proven to be a pretty big control freak. If there's trouble, men like him wanna clamp down on the order of things.
He'd make for a great Sith if he had the potential, Judicar remarked.
Yes, he would, Acheron replied bitterly.
How much do you wanna bet this'll stop Rogue Squadron from getting to him and Mirax Horn getting to you?
Not much. At worst, it'll delay 'em, and I don't think they'll be interested in waiting around for the GA and Chiss to plunge this whole system to its Nine Hells, even if they did know about it.
Want me to just take care of 'em for you? Or at least Mirax?
No, the Rogues are all too high-profile. And even if you got Mirax by herself, it wouldn't take long before Antilles and his stooges found out about it and came after you. And even if you killed them, that, again, is just gonna draw out the wrong kind of attention from the station's authorities.
So you're saying this changes nothing? Judicar asked with notable frustration.
Not exactly. You could use this as an opportunity to follow them and see if they can find a way to get to Thrackan; ideally, one that you could use, too.
But that would require me to draw on the Force more than-
You let me worry about Jacen. He just got out of the bacta tank from the stab wound I gave him. I can use my proximity to him to muddle his Force-senses and let you use the Force more freely.
If you're so confident that you can do it, then I'll take that chance. But if Mirax and the Rogues know who you are, and I doubt they don't, they'll come prepared. I wouldn't be surprised if Mirax comes by with at least one ysalamir to negate your powers, and all it'll take for her at that point is just one blaster shot to take you out.
Well, then it should get pretty interesting, Acheron responded, her determination not lowered one bit.
. . .
Well, this is gonna get pretty interesting, Mirax thought with frustration.
After learning about the travel bans to and from Centerpoint from this morning's local newscast, as well as the systemwide Corellian military activities, she was contacted by her ysalamir supplier, who told her what happened.
"I came in on the Corellian freighter as you told me to," the supplier, a man named Gedju, told her via hologram. "But the military said I was to either leave the system or go to Corellia. I chose Corellia 'cause I figured it'd be easier to contact you, what with everything going on here. I'm sorry, Mirax, but I couldn't get you the deathsticks you wanted." "Deathsticks" was code for the ysalamir that he got straight from Myrkr.
"It's alright, Gedju," she lied to him. "I can make do without 'em."
"This isn't gonna come outta my deposit, is it?"
Mirax suppressed an annoyed look over the man's greed; instead, she said in her most professional tone, "No, it won't. You can keep the money... but I expect a fifty percent discount on my next delivery."
"Fair enough," Gedju replied with more transparent reluctance. "I'll contact you again after this travel ban is lifted." He signed out of the transmission, and just as the door to Mirax's hotel room was opened to allow Wedge and the other Rogues inside.
"Can you knock first?" Mirax asked irritably from her seat on the bed even as she put her holocomm back into her purse.
"Sorry," Wedge said with some agitation in his tone just as Ooryl, the last one in, shut the door behind him, "but did you hear?"
"Yeah, I heard about the travel restrictions and the increased security around the station and the system," Mirax replied. "That doesn't excuse you not knocking."
"Again, sorry," Wedge said, "but we need to talk about what to do from here."
"The increased security forces is going to make things much more difficult for us in getting to Sal-Solo's fake office," Mirax agreed. "But not impossible."
Wedge leaned slightly forward to get a better look at Mirax. "Well, looks like you followed my order and got a good night's sleep," he remarked. "So you got any ideas?"
"We'll have to wait 'til tonight," Mirax said. "Sometime around seven or eight p.m., ideally. Then we get to the most rowdy cantina and find the drunkest CorSec officers we can find."
Wedge grinned. "Then we get them to the refreshers, knock 'em out, steal their uniforms, and make off with none of their equally-drunk friends any the wiser?"
"Something like that," Mirax said with some slight humor to her tone.
"Only problem is," Tycho Celchu spoke up, "how do we do that without getting drunk ourselves?"
Mirax reached into her purse and pulled out a small translucent bag of pills that were hidden in a tiny, almost imperceptible tear in the container's lining.
"With these," she said as she held the bag up for the Rogues to see. "They'll absorb pretty much all the alcohol you can possibly consume for up to eight hours after you swallow them. At the same time, you'll still get to reek of booze; at that point, all you have to do is act drunk, and, as you said, Wedge, no one will be the wiser."
"Good," Wedge said. "So, from there, once we get into the uniforms that fit us best, we call in to investigate the building that houses Sal-Solo's fake office. From there, no one will bother us as long as we don't take too long before the actual authorities wake up and notice their uniforms and comms are gone."
"Right," Tycho said. "So all we'll have to worry about are the station authorities and CorSec officers who'll actually be on duty and might notice something amiss; not to mention the fact that we did make our presences known yesterday. Please tell us, Mirax, that you got holoimagers for us to place over our faces, or at least facial prostheses, that you got."
Mirax grinned coyly despite herself as she set the bag of alcohol-negating pills next to her. She pulled out yet another similarly small bag, opened it up, and as if they were clowns coming out of a comically small car, a pile as large as the average human hand poured out to reveal a set of facial prostheses.
"Wow, you even got some for Asyr, Aril, and Ooryl," Wedge remarked as he picked up one that would have slightly extended a Bothan's scout and one that would have enlarged a Sullustan's jowls. He then dropped those prostheses back upon the bed and looked at the three aliens. "However, as much as I hate to say this, considering how human-centric Centerpoint is, you could all draw suspicion from the authorities. So I have no choice but to order all three of you to stay here while the rest of us go about this mission."
"Fine by me," Asyr Sei'lar said evenly.
"Okay," Aril Nunb said indifferently.
"As you order, sir," Ooryl said obediently.
Wedge nodded at each of them before saying, "So, I guess in the meantime, we wait. Anyone here a dejarik board?"
. . .
The human Rogues' celebrity worked more for them than against them later that evening in the cantina that they visited. Wedge and Tycho had bought all of the off-duty CorSec and station security personnel several rounds of Corellian brandy and other varieties of alcohol, and thankfully, none of them had the self-control or presence of mind to resist anymore booze. At the end of the visiting Rogues' first and only hour there, all of the security there was passed out, and Wedge and his subordinates dragged several of them into the men and women's refreshers. With a bit of hush money to the bartender to make sure that he wouldn't speak to any of the cops and security guards when they awakened, the Rogues walked out with their uniforms and facial prostheses on and made their way for Head of State Sal-Solo's fake office.
Less than half an hour of walking, combined with a turbolift ride, later, Rogue Squadron made it to the building that housed Sal-Solo's decoy workplace.
"How's it look to you, Mirax?" Wedge asked to the small microphone attached to his collar.
"So far, I'm not reading any electronics," Mirax's voice replied from the mic. From her end, she could see from Wedge and the other human Rogues' vidcams not just the normal visible spectrum that their species could see, but also in infrared, ultraviolet, and the microwave spectrum. "Though I wouldn't wanna rule out any low-tech traps Sal-Solo may have in store for you."
"We'll be careful," Wedge whispered back before he and the other Rogues proceeded toward the building.
Less than an hour of inspection later, during which none of the Rogues tripped so much as a silent alarm, they finally made it into Sal-Solo's fake office. A few minutes later, Wedge found the symmetrical cracks that Mirax had indicated the previous night.
"Alright, I think we found a trap," Mirax said. "Looks like there's a scanner within the space between those cracks; they might read fingerprints. My guess is that if they don't read Sal-Solo's prints, they might trap the intruder's fingers and trip a silent alarm."
"Sounds like a job for Kirney," Wedge reasoned. He looked at the named Rogue. "You're up."
Kirney Slane moved forward, pulled out a couple of small tools from the utility belt that she stole from the CorSec officer she undressed (she had moved her tools into that belt before she and the others left the cantina), and slipped the tips of those tools into the cracks to get to work.
Five minutes later, she pulled the tools out, turned to her fellow Rogues, and said, "It's done."
And just like that, the section of wall behind her opened up to reveal a dark corridor that looked like it sloped slightly downward.
"Please tell me no silent alarms were activated by that, Mirax," Wedge said.
"None I'm detecting," she replied. "Looks like you're clear to go."
"Remember, people," Wedge said, "this is just a simple recon. We find out what's down there and come back here to launch our plan of attack."
Everyone present offered their verbal acknowledgement of Wedge's orders.
"Got that, too, Mirax?" Wedge asked.
"I got it," she replied evenly.
"Okay, let's go," Wedge said.
