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Chapter Sixteen: Back to the Carp
Yabecca ploughed through the swamp purposefully, followed closely by her younglings, Woolonn and Chakreech. The injured Marney Raddek was slung over her shoulder like a bag of seeds. He was in great pain, but managed to lift his head slightly so that he could see how the others were faring. TT2 had hovering capabilities and was able to fly beside the wookiees effortlessly. The exercise was not quite so effortless for Lyna, Sal, Rixxi, and Qualle, who lagged behind and needed to run to catch up with them. It was not an easy feat in a muddy bog.
Marney felt as though he was slipping back and forth between consciousness and oblivion as he bounced up and down on Yabecca's furry back. His head felt dizzy and his breathing was becoming labored. He had not realized that the ships had been hidden so far away from the base. He supposed that it made sense for his crew to keep them well off the trodden path, but at the moment it made for an excruciatingly long journey. He felt guilty about leaving Han and Oola to fight the stormtroopers on their own, but since he was injured there was not a thing that he could do about it.
He felt himself slipping out of consciousness and into the darkness.
When he awoke at last he was in a berth aboard the Polar Carp. His shoulder had been re-bandaged, and an intravenous needle had been inserted into his arm. TT2 was monitoring him, and Lyna was beside him holding his hand.
"I'm sorry, Lyna," he murmured, "I got you and the kids into this mess...and to top it off, I screwed up the mission."
Lyna shook her head emphatically.
"Marney, the mission was made to be screwed up," Lyna comforted him, "the central control panel wasn't anywhere near the trash pick-up points. The War Council must have known it, since they gave you the holographic map. You rest now, my love. I'm proud of you for being brave enough to make the attempt."
"I think it was more stupidity than bravery," Marney corrected his wife, "but thank you, Lyna, for staying with me through all this. Most women would have left me behind in the muck by now."
"Then they would have been very unfortunate to have lost a hero like you, Marney," Lyna said firmly, putting her arm around him affectionately.
He squeezed his wife's hand in response before dropping off to sleep again.
He awoke some time later to find that the Polar Carp was in flight again; but something felt a little strange, as if the ship was bigger than it had been before. He peered ahead of him and saw the concerned face of his Chief Engineer, Jalleck Braxton.
"How are you doing, Cap'n?" he asked, "I'm sorry I haven't been in to see you before now, but I've been pretty busy fixing the Polar Carp after one of the Empire's fighter crafts shot us down."
Marney sat bolt upright in his berth, angry at himself for sleeping while the Carp and her crew were in danger.
"Marney, you aren't getting out of bed," the ever-watchful TT2 commanded, "We don't want to have to lug you back again when you pass out."
A wave of dizziness hit him, and he growled in frustration. He obediently placed his large head back down on the pillow of the dry-berth. Like most mon calimari, he preferred to sleep in an underwater bed, but he knew that he needed to let his wound heal before he could do that. Besides, he thought, we're under attack from every which way and this is hardly the time for sleeping.
"Don't worry, Captain," Jalleck reassured him, "TT2, Yab, Qualle, Lyna, and the kids have been working extra hard and everything is ship-shape. Lyna's in command right now, and we're on our way to rescue the young and elderly wookiees while the fighting is going on. We...uh...we had to kind of attach ourselves to the Millennium Falcon in order to get ourselves into the air, but that's only a temporary fix until the ship has been fully re-charged."
"Who is piloting the Millennium Falcon, then?" Marney asked, "Han and Chewbacca are both back at the base fighting the Imperials."
"Yabecca is piloting it," Jal informed him, "after Lyna gave us your message about Yab and Chewbacca getting together, Yabecca found and contacted him...some time before we got shot down. Chewbacca escaped with the Millennium Falcon, but he managed to find us again and he told her that his main mission was to rescue the wookiee slaves. He said that if she helped him to spring the prisoners, he'd help her to spring you guys."
"How on Dac did they do that?" Marney wondered aloud.
"Chewbacca and his pal Han Solo were here to smuggle some weapons into Rondirak 12 under the guise of delivering freeze-dried wookiee milk. The guy that's dressed up like a stormtrooper helped them to get the load delivered into the hands of the wookiee slaves by pretending to arrest Han and bringing the weapons to them in a prisoners' shuttle. Apparently, he's bought off a lot of the mercenaries that were guarding the wookiees as well, so springing them was a piece of cake."
Marney stared at Jalleck, his big eyes growing wider.
"You...you don't mean Stormy?" he stammered.
"Is that what you call him?" Jal replied, "Well, according to Chewbacca, he's working with him and Han to free the wookiees...and hopefully free up some of the local trade routes that the mercenaries have been messing up with their Empire-sponsored raids."
Marney remembered that Han had told them that his buddy had begun a rumor about the Empire laying off soldiers and the Rebel Alliance offering to pay the mercenaries double what the Imperials had paid them. It made sense to him now that Stormy was the buddy.
"But wait a minute..." Marney queried, "...if Stormy is working with the rebel wookiees, then how is it that he knew about our spy-plan? He arrested me as soon as I arrived on Ron 12."
"TT2 can probably tell you more about that, Cap'n," Jalleck answered, "she worked with 'Stormy' for a little while, and he added a bunch of programs to her. Look, I'd better get back to work...we'll be landing near the base, and we'll need to move fast to rescue as many wookiees as we can. I'm assuming I have your permission to do that, Cap'n?"
"Go to it, Jal," Marney ordered, "You and the others do all you can to help them."
Jalleck nodded before leaving Marney alone with TT2.
"Okay, TT2," Marney said to the little droid, "out with it. What have you been up to with Stormy?"
"We're not dating, if that's what you mean," TT2 answered, "but I guess it would be all right to let you know that your mission hasn't been completely screwed up...at least, not by me. I put your Papa's silly chip into the control panel before Stormy and I sealed it with the localized force field. They'll have a hell of a time getting it out, if they even discover it. Did you know that you left it sitting around on the ship, Marney? It was incredibly careless of you."
"I didn't know that I was going to get arrested the minute I stepped off the ship," Marney explained, flabbergasted, "But...TT2...did I hear you right? You got the chip in?! The actual info-chip that my father gave me? Is Stormy working for the Rebel Alliance, then?"
TT2 whirred and clicked, spinning about victoriously. She's obviously quite pleased that she's saved my sorry ass, he noted, in more ways than one.
"No, you biological nit-wit," TT2 retorted, "He's working as a double-agent for the Traders' Guild, a.k.a. The Smugglers' Club. They want to keep the trading routes free of tampering from the Empire, so 'Master Stormy' was sent in to buy out the mercenaries and turn them against Mokk. He's had dealings with some of the Alliance's agents as well; and they're working cooperatively with the smugglers, for the time being at least. Both groups, after all, want to diminish the Empire's hold over this area. That's why Stormy knew all about your plan...the Traders' Guild planted their own information chip on board the Polar Carp so that they could find out more details on what the Alliance was planning to do..."
"But who planted the chip on board my ship?" Marney asked, annoyed, "Papa never said anything about the Traders' Guild."
"No, he probably didn't know about it," TT2 continued her story, "the mon calamari are not fond of smugglers, and they would not have allowed it. From what Stormy told me, I believe one of the members of the human families that adopted your rescued orphans managed to plant the chip while he was at the spaceport. According to the adoption records that your daughter Kyara provided us with, they were all merchant families and therefore could have had connections with the Traders' Guild. It would have been a relatively simple task to plant the chip on board the Carp with silly Jalleck Braxton in charge of the repairs...Master Jalleck is far too trusting, if you ask me. If I had been operational at that time, I'm sure I would have caught it and of course I would have reported it to you, Captain Marney; but I was not and so I did not."
TT2 paused for a minute to let Marney digest the information, and then resumed her report after he looked at her with an inquisitive expression on his face.
"After Qualle's ill-advised fountain escapade, Stormy caught up with me. I found out about his real plans when he 'extra-programmed' me to put the localized shield up around the control panel back at the base. He's been working as a "double-agent" for the Traders' Guild for some time now. From what I could determine, he knocked out one of the troopers a long while ago and stole his suit of armor. Then he posed as a 'security expert' from the Empire; and Moff Mokk put him to work immediately. Apparently no one here even questioned his story...although if I were in Moff Mokk's position, I certainly would have done so. I promised not to tell anyone about the rebel stormtrooper's affiliation until after the wookiee rebellion was underway; and I believe that the wookiee rebellion is now well underway."
TT2's exposition was interrupted by the sound of thunderous footsteps as a troop of wookiee rebels boarded the ship.