Vision of the future

Bel Iblis looked at Booster. 'Was there anything else?' he asked.

'Yeah, there was,' Booster said. He stopped, looking significantly at the aide. Bel Iblis took the hint. 'Lieutenant, go check on the Number 7 tractor beam emplacement,' he said. 'Make sure the balance adjustments are being made properly.'

'Yes, sir,' the aide said. Throwing a speculative look at Booster, he headed at a quick walk down the corridor.

'Why don't we step in here out of the way,' Bel Iblis suggested, crossing to a door with the bright red markings of an emergency med station.

They went inside. 'Up to now, you've been pretty quiet about what your plan is for this little raid,' Booster said when the door was sealed again behind them. 'I think it's about time I heard some details.'

'There's not much to tell,' Bel Iblis said. 'We'll be taking the Errant Venture in past their sentry line and, hopefully, through their main defense perimeter. Once we're inside, the rest of the task force will come in behind us from hyperspace and attack the perimeter. If we're lucky, the Imperials will be so busy with them they won't give us a second look.'

'That assumes their first look doesn't pin us to the wall, of course,' Booster pointed out darkly.

'Assuming that, what then?'

'Yaga Minor has a peculiarity that as far as I know is unique among Imperial installations,' Bel Iblis said. 'There are a pair of outrider computer stations set up at the end of a corridor/walkway tube that extends about a hundred meters out from the main orbiting Ubiqtorate station.' Booster frowned. 'Odd design.'

'The idea was to give high-ranking civilian researchers access to the computer records system without having to let them into the Ubiqtorate base proper,' Bel Iblis told him. 'Grand Moff Tarkin ran a lot of his more private stuff through Yaga Minor, and he didn't want his political enemies getting even a glimpse of what he was up to.'

'Okay, so there's a convenient remote connection to the computer,' Booster said. 'I don't suppose it happens to have an equally convenient access hatchway where we can get to it.'

'There are hatchways, but unfortunately they're not at all convenient,' Bel Iblis said, his voice turning grim. 'We'll probably have to blast a hole in the side of the walkway tube and send in our slicers in vac suits.'

Booster snorted. 'Right—blow a hole in the side of the station. That'll sure go unnoticed.'

'It could,' Bel Iblis said. 'The main force will be firing barrages of proton torpedoes at the time. The Imperials may assume that was one that got through.'

'And if they don't?'

Bel Iblis shrugged. 'Then you and I and the rest of the Errant Venture's crew start earning our pay the hard way. We'll have to hold them off long enough for the slicers to pull up a copy of the Caamas Document and transmit it out to the attacking ships.'

Booster snorted again. 'No offense, General, but that has to be the worst plan I've ever heard in my life. What happens to us once we've got the document?'

Bel Iblis looked him straight in the eye. 'What happens to us doesn't matter,' he said bluntly. 'If they accept our surrender, fine. If not... they turn the Errant Venture into scrap around us.'

'Hold it a second,' Booster said, frowning. Buried in among all that breathtakingly lousy strategy he'd suddenly noticed a highly important word. 'What do you mean us? I thought you were going to be out there with the main fleet.'

Bel Iblis shook his head. 'This ship is the key to the operation,' he said quietly. 'This is the ship that has to survive long enough to first get the Caamas Document and then punch it out through whatever jamming the Imperials have going. This is where I'm needed the most. So this is where I'll be.'

'Now, wait just one mradhe mucking minute,' Booster growled, pulling himself up to his full one-meter-nine height. 'This is my ship. You told me I would still be her captain.'

'You're still the captain,' Bel Iblis agreed. 'I'm simply the admiral.' Booster let out a long, hissing breath. He should have known Bel Iblis hadn't really given in on anything. He should have known it. 'And if I refuse to give you command?' Bel Iblis lifted his eyebrows slightly. Booster nodded, a sour taste in his mouth. With the Errant Venture crawling with Bel Iblis's people, the question wasn't even worth answering. 'Right,' he muttered. 'I knew I'd regret this.'

'You can stay here if you want,' Bel Iblis offered. 'I'm sure Coruscant would compensate you for—'

'Forget it,' Booster bit out. 'This is my ship, and you're not taking it into combat without me. Period.'