“YOU!” KANAN GRABBED at Skelly’s collar, yanking him violently forward and slamming him against the top of Expedient’s dashboard. Kanan’s first instinct was to deal with the stowaway—but the Imperials were still out there, still heading in his direction.
“Look!” Skelly said, gasping for breath, arms flailing.
Kanan followed the upside-down man’s gaze and saw, past the TIE squadrons, a Lambda-class shuttle departing Ultimatum. As its trapezoidal wings folded into flight position, another one followed. And then another—until five shuttles were heading in Kanan’s direction. Two TIEs from each group broke formation and moved to flank the shuttles as the others continued ahead, clearing the space lanes. Kanan watched, disbelieving, as the vessels passed over his head on the way to Cynda.
“I told you, they’re all looking for me,” Skelly said. “Not you.”
“Congratulations,” Kanan said drily. He didn’t let Skelly up. “There’s about to be a hundred more stormtroopers on Cynda, thanks to you. I’m tempted to send you back to them!”
Skelly wrested free—and Kanan gave him a hard smack. Blood spurted from Skelly’s nose. “You jerk! What did you do that for?”
“You blew up Zone Forty-Two. You tried to kill us!”
“I didn’t!” Skelly said, wresting free.
“You’re lying!” Kanan grabbed Skelly’s left arm and twisted it behind his back. Turning, he started to shove the unwanted guest toward the airlock. “They’re looking for you? I’m giving you back to them!”
“Watch it! Not that arm! Not that arm!” Skelly said. Putting his free hand—his mechanical hand—before him, he grabbed on to a handle near the airlock door. After a few moments’ scuffling, Kanan realized the hand was in a death grip, and that Skelly wouldn’t be going anywhere.
“Fine,” Kanan said. He turned and grabbed his holster, which had been hanging on the back of his pilot’s seat.
Skelly looked back and sneered. “What, are you going to shoot me now?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s gratitude! I saved you!”
Kanan had the blaster fully out of the holster when he finally registered what Skelly had said. “Wait. What?”
“I saved you,” Skelly said. “You and your whole rotten corporate bunch!”
“Saved—” Kanan was flabbergasted. “You brought a mountain down on my head!”
Skelly went silent.
Aggravated, Kanan stood and turned back to the controls to direct Expedient onto a path well away from any other convoys, Imperial or otherwise. He glanced back to see Skelly slumped against the airlock door, massaging a hand that had finally come free from the handle.
Kanan lowered his pistol but didn’t put it away. Suddenly exhausted, he dropped onto the acceleration couch facing the airlock. “I need a drink,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “Now, tell me this again. You were saving us by blowing us up?”
“I wasn’t trying to blow you up. I was trying to show the Imperial inspectors we shouldn’t use baradium to open new chambers. Cynda can’t take it.”
“You could’ve killed people!” Kanan said.
“No, no,” Skelly said. “You Moonglow guys weren’t supposed to be working Forty-Two until tomorrow. I saw Boss Lal’s schedule earlier!”
“That was the schedule before the Empire got here. We were working double time. We weren’t on today’s schedule anymore.”
“Oh,” Skelly said in an awkward, small voice. “Er—so, did anyone die?”
“Glad you care,” Kanan said, reaching for his shoulder holster and putting it on. “No. Not that I know of.”
“Good,” Skelly said. “I was just trying to prove a point—and it worked.” He tugged at his collar. “The joint caved in, just like I said. If they’ve told Vidian I was right, he’s probably looking for me now to thank me.” He gestured with his left hand to the cockpit window. “That’s what all the ships are about. They think I’m down there still. Search-and-rescue!”
“Uh-huh. Which is why you stowed away, instead of staying there.”
“I needed a place to wait while the Empire figured out what happened. I had no idea you’d come back so fast and take off!”
Kanan shook his head and holstered his blaster. He didn’t know what to believe. But before he could say anything, Skelly got to his feet and walked forward like a man with a purpose.
Kanan stood. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m hailing the Star Destroyer!”
Kanan did a double take. “What?”
“I told you, they’re looking for me.” Skelly reached for a button, only to be shoved into the passenger seat by Kanan.
Reaching for the seat’s restaint harness, Kanan snapped Skelly in. Then he pulled out his blaster again.
“Hey! Don’t shoot!”
Kanan didn’t shoot. Instead, he activated the safety and turned the blaster over in his hand. Using the butt of the handle as a hammer, he pounded Skelly’s harness buckle until it was bent out of shape.
“You broke it. I can’t believe you did that.”
“It’s not my ship,” Kanan said. Or it wouldn’t be, after he landed. The harness would keep Skelly in place now. “I’m not letting you hail the blasted Star Destroyer!”
Skelly shook his head. “You still don’t get it.” With his left hand, he reached inside his vest and pulled out the holodisk he’d shown Kanan earlier. “I just need to take this information to Vidian—”
“Vidian.” Kanan sat down in the pilot’s seat, his head spinning. “That weird guy the Empire sent?”
“Don’t you follow the news? Vidian’s a fixer. He’s like me—he sees what’s wrong and he takes care of it. He’s probably suspending all work on Cynda right now for an investigation. All I have to do is get in touch with him, show him my facts. He’ll whip those corporate hacks into shape!”
Kanan looked out at Ultimatum, shrinking in the starboard window—and then back at Skelly. “You really think that’s what’ll happen?”
“Sure. Once they see what I have to show them, they might even reward you for bringing me in.”
Kanan looked back to the controls—and then up. There, from the darkness of Gorse’s permanent nightside, he saw something familiar rising into space.
“There’s your response,” he said.
“What?” Skelly turned his head. He saw dozens of ships: empty cargo vessels, personnel transports, and explosives haulers like Expedient. All were headed to Cynda. “The next shift?”
Kanan laughed. “So much for the Skelly Memorial Holiday.”
He turned on the comm system. The Imperial traffic was all scrambled, but Boss Lal was talking on Moonglow’s dedicated channel. Work zones affected by the collapse were being cordoned off, but mining operations would continue in the other areas. “Count Vidian’s orders,” she said, launching into a list of rerouted landing instructions.
Listening, Skelly was dumbfounded—but only for a moment. “They’ve just seen what blasting in the wrong place can do. And they’re keeping on?” Shaking with rage, he spat three words Kanan could tell Skelly hated. “Business as usual.”
Kanan snapped off the comm system and stretched back in his chair.
Skelly, unable to move, stared at him. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Well, now what?”
“I’m going home,” Kanan said.
“Home?” Skelly asked. “Where’s home?”
“I’m taking Expedient to Moonglow’s shipyard, like always. I’m going to park the ship, and I’m going to turn you over to that security chief husband of Lal’s.” Kanan turned his attention to flying the ship.
Skelly shook his head and lowered his voice. “Some friend you are!”
Kanan bolted upright in his seat and turned. “Let’s get something straight,” he said, jabbing a finger in Skelly’s direction. “I’m not your friend. I’m not your accomplice, and I’m certainly not your co-conspirator. I didn’t help you in this, and I am not going to help you get out of it. I’m done!”
Skelly looked at Kanan for a few moments—and then turned his head away. “Great,” he growled. “It’s just like always. Nobody ever—”
In the window, Skelly caught the reflection of Kanan standing up. He turned his head to see Kanan walking into the back. “Wait, where are you going now?”
“Somewhere I can’t hear you.”
Safely back aboard her starship, Hera sent the encrypted message to her contact on Gorse. She was more certain than ever that a meeting was necessary. That the Empire spied on workplaces in a system that produced a strategic material was no surprise. But it had no qualms about using such technologies everywhere, and her contact could tell her a lot about the latest Imperial surveillance capabilities and how to defeat them. She had to risk the meeting, whether she got another chance to spy on Vidian or not.
Hera studied the scene outside. Listening, she took everything in. The Empire was encrypting its own signals, but the mining companies weren’t, and she had gotten a clear picture of the hours that had just passed on Cynda.
A miner tagged as a troublemaker or dissident had been identified by Imperial surveillance. But Skelly the demolitions guy had surprised his employers, the Empire, and everyone else by using explosives in order to escape arrest. And not long after that, the big explosion had occurred in a work area—unscheduled, and evidently far more destructive than anything to be found in normal operations.
The Empire had hustled then, sending more than half the Star Destroyer’s complement of troop shuttles to Cynda. Since no medical ships were on the way from Gorse—the moon’s clinic was limited—she had to assume there were no casualties. That meant the stormtroopers sure to be on the shuttles weren’t part of search-and-rescue. They were there to continue looking for the bomber.
But in between the reports of the blast and the Imperial scramble, she’d noticed something else. An explosives hauler—Moonglow-72, by the call sign—had been the only ship besides hers to depart Cynda before the grounding order came. She’d seen it jerk violently when the TIE formations approached—and while the sight of the Imperial fighters might have that effect on any simple tradesbeing, the ship had flown unusually after that, as if no one was piloting. Finally, it had settled on an approach to Gorse that kept well away from the most traveled lanes.
Skelly, Hera concluded, was on that transport.
It was more than a guess, but it was hardly a scientific deduction. She didn’t want to let it deter her from her real goals. Her connection on Gorse, she now saw, had just responded to confirm their meeting for later. That was the important thing.
But as she was now going in Skelly’s direction anyway, Hera decided it wouldn’t hurt to find out what his story was…