5
Chapter Eighteen: Ackbar's Admission
Once they were safely out of range, the Polar Carp detached from the Millennium Falcon and was brought into the hangar of Ackbar's ship. The injured wookiees were quickly transported to the larger ship's healing bay, which was better equipped to deal with the victims' needs.
The other escapees were very grateful to the crew of the Polar Carp, and they showed it by giving each of the exhausted crew members a hearty wookiee-hug. When his turn came to be embraced by each of the refugees, the wookiees were not put off by his hover-chair but instead kneeled down to give him his hug. As each one enfolded him in his or her arms, Marney thought that his bones were going to break. He survived the expression of gratitude and bowed to the wookiees as best he could from his sitting position in the rickety old hover-chair.
Marney had been ordered by the medical personnel to stay in the chair until his spells of dizziness passed. The old hover-chair was running out of energy, and so a nurse came by to transfer him to a new one. The chair was a big improvement over the last device, and helped him tremendously in maneuvering himself around the ship.
The group was escorted to a dining hall, where they were given snacks and tea. The crew and their escapees devoured the food hungrily, as they had not eaten for more than a day or two.
They were joined by Commander Gial Ackbar, a rusty-orange colored, southern mon calamari who had taken the time to pay them a visit once they were safely underway to Kelmoon. He spoke first to Lando.
"Mr. Calrissian, we—the Rebel Alliance—would like to meet with you on Kelmoon before you depart. Thanks to you, we've gleaned a certain amount of important technological information before the base was successfully destroyed. The rest of the Rebel Forces are on their way now to snatch it from the hands of the Imperials while they're in a state of disarray. If we can hold onto it for even a short period of time, we could slow the progress of the Empire's conquests."
"Glad to have been of service, Commander," Calrissian said with a grin, "I'm willing to meet with the Alliance, but after that I do need to be on my way. Once you have control of the planet, the trade routes should open up again and the Traders' Guild will be thrilled; and, the Rebel Alliance will be in a much better position than it was before. As a bonus, I'm alive and well, with cash to spare in my pocket. That's normally my cue to be moving along—leave 'em while they're happy, I say."
"We could use your help, Master Calrissian," Ackbar pressed him, "if you were willing to serve a greater purpose besides just putting cash in your pocket. The choice is yours, of course, but in my opinion your talents are being wasted on half-rate smugglers."
"I'm sorry, Commander, but I've been serving a greater purpose for long enough. That damn stormtrooper's armor nearly drove me crazy. I can't wait to get back into my Mini-Starfighter and fly away to the next big thing. Han's got my Minista on board his vessel at the moment, so I'll have to wait until we reach Kelmoon."
Ackbar gave Lando a look that suggested disappointment, but he let it go and turned his attention to Marney and his crew.
"The Minista," Marney commented to Lando in an attempt to avoid conversing with Ackbar, "that was the fighter that I was supposed to have used to catch up with the Carp after I finished my dead simple spy mission."
Lando shrugged, and went off to talk with a female human who was busily engaged in serving the tea and snacks. With his intended distraction otherwise occupied, Marney was forced to look his erstwhile cousin in the eye. He expected to be chided for his idiotic incompetence.
"Gial," he muttered, "nice to see you again."
"Radka," Ackbar greeted the scow captain, "it has been a while since I saw you last. Your father told me that you and your wife Lyna have been involved in rescuing refugees from the prison camps for the past fifteen years. I was not aware of that...and, on behalf of the Alliance, I would like to thank you and your crew for your fine work and bravery..."
Lyna stood up, interrupting the Commander angrily.
"I am Lyna, Marney's wife," she introduced herself, "and you were not aware of the work that Marney did rescuing people, Gial Ackbar, because you are the one who refused to speak to him for over fifteen years. Now that you can plainly see that he's risked his life for your Alliance, you're full of thanks and admiration; but as far as he knows, you still look down on him because of his past."
Ackbar did not defend himself, but quietly acquiesced to Lyna's criticism by lowering his head slightly. Marney stared at his cousin, pleasantly surprised by the words of gratitude that his wife was now rejecting on his behalf. He decided that perhaps he would give Gial the benefit of the doubt and try to hold Lyna off for the time being.
"Lyna, come on," Marney murmured to her, "Fifteen years ago, when I was nothing but a drunk, my cousin Gial was the one who stuck in there and fought for our freedom...he even got caught by that warped monster, Wilhuff Tarkin, and was forced to serve as his slave for a period of time. And, let's not forget that he did come to our rescue at Ron 12 once we got into space. Thanks for that, Gy, and for your words of appreciation to my crew. They're my family now, and I'm incredibly proud of them. As for me, I haven't earned any respect...not for this mission, anyways."
Ackbar sighed, sitting down at the table and pouring himself a cup of seaweed tea. The others regarded the warrior silently, unsure of what to say to him. Finally, he spoke to his cousin.
"Rad," Ackbar acknowledged, "Your wife is right. Before I blabber on about thanks and bravery, I need to tell you something: I owe you an apology for the way I treated you before I broke our bond of friendship. When I called you a drunk, we both know that I was being a hypocrite. After my wife was killed during one of my glorious missions, I had a very difficult time coping with it. I began to drink heavily, but I was a little better at hiding it than either you or your father. Few people knew that it was a problem for me, except of course for my immediate family; and I wanted to keep it that way. I stopped speaking to you not because of your drinking so much as mine. I was afraid that if I continued to spend time with you that I'd begin to get a bad reputation and would never be able to advance in my career. I hope you will forgive me for my cowardice in that regard."
Marney stared at his cousin, shocked. Since they were children, Gial had always played the role of the hero. When they were older they had gone out drinking together many times, but Gial had never appeared to be struggling with it in the same way that he or even his father Raddus had done. Lyna held her mate's hand and looked at Ackbar in a more approving manner now that he had honestly acknowledged his own fault in the matter, but Marney felt as though he was the one who should be apologizing.
"Hey, Gial, I never knew any of that," he finally replied, "but I guess back then I was too much of a selfish, spineless jellyfish to see it. I'm sorry...I wish I'd been a real friend to you after Yil died, but instead I made things a hell of a lot worse for you. Lyna got me back on my feet again...she saved my life, really. If it hadn't been for her, I would never have had the guts to quit. I don't know what I'd do if I had lost her on that damn mission of ours...especially since it turned out to be so unnecessary."
Ackbar sipped his tea thoughtfully for a moment before responding.
"You're like your father, Rad," he said, "You're too hard on yourself. Admiral Raddus may not admit it to you, but he's very proud of you for taking on the mission. When Tarkin sent us both messages telling us what he was going to do to you, Raddus contacted me and he was extremely upset. He blamed himself for sending you out there, but I told him that you were your father's son and that you would return victorious. I was correct."
"'Victorious'," Marney reiterated, "That's a bit of a stretch, Gial. I mean, TT2 and Lando could have done it more easily without me...I was stupid to put my family and my crew in danger just so I could earn a scrap of respect from the Old Fish."
Lyna turned her fury on her husband now that Ackbar had redeemed himself in her eyes through his apology.
"Marney, stop it!" she exclaimed, "Your cousin is right...you are too hard on yourself. You need to let go of who you were in the past and step into who you are right now. You're not a drunk anymore, you're not stupid, you're not selfish, and you're not a jellyfish—now get over it and take some accolades for a change!"
The crew broke their silence, supporting Lyna by cheering on their Captain.
"As far as Mama, Sal and I are concerned, you're our hero, Papa," Rixxi told him earnestly, "so don't try to wriggle out of it, you Old Fish!"
"Right, Cap'n," Jalleck chimed in, "That goes for Yab, the kids, and I too. We'd follow you anywhere."
Marney felt as though they were overstating the case just to make him feel like less of an ass, but he was grateful to them nonetheless. Ackbar, however, had not finished with him yet.
"Rad," he said after the crew had voiced their support for the under-confident spy, "We sent you to Rondirak 12 because we weren't certain about Calrissian...he is a smuggler, after all, and so he was an unknown element. As it turned out, he did accomplish the mission, but you helped him by being the decoy. You acted as a foil for his stormtrooper persona and you kept Mokk's attention away from Lando; and your droid was an invaluable help to him while installing the info-chip, explosive device, and localized force field...is that not true, Master Calrissian?"
Lando had returned to the table after having made an unsuccessful pass at the waitress. He held a cup of anything-but-seaweed tea in his hand, and he nodded in agreement with Ackbar's statement.
"I don't know that I would have gotten it without TT2," he acknowledged, "and Lyna, Oola, Han, Qualle, and Marney did a great job keeping the Moffs distracted until Chewie came in with his rebel army. We worked pretty well as a team, I thought; and it all came together in the end. You never know how these things are going to turn out, Marney. You just need to trust your people and hope for the best."
"But if you were all planning on blowing the place up, why did you bother with the chip?" Marney asked, perplexed.
"We didn't intend to blow it up," Ackbar admitted, "The Traders' Guild decided to do that, but they did not let us know until after they'd installed the explosive. We did manage to glean some information from the chip before everything blew, so it wasn't a complete waste...and Calrissian is correct, Rad. You never know how things will turn out because the conditions of a mission are always changing. You and your crew adapted well and did the best you could with a problematic assignment."
Marney decided to take Ackbar and Lando at their respective words and accept the possibility that perhaps he had not performed quite as badly as he had first imagined...although the nagging doubts still lurked in the back of his mind. After all, what would they do now that their cover was blown and they could no longer lug trash for the Empire?