Deep inside Kuat, his brooding thoughts had grown darker. "Yes," he said slowly. "I'll need to speak to the a-foreman and B-supervisors out in the construction docks. It's time..."
The comm specialist frowned in puzzlement. "Sir? Time for what?"
"Don't worry." Kuat closed his eyes as he stroked the soft fur of the felinx. "Everything will be all right. You'll see..."
17
"This is very serious," said the Rebel Alliance attache. "We're indeed grateful that you brought it to our atten-tion."
"Sometimes," replied Kodir of Kuhlvult, "one has to do what's right. No matter what the cost might be to oneself."
The three figures—Kodir, the attache Wonn Uzalg, and Commander Rozhdenst—sat circling an improvised conference table aboard the Scavenger Squadron's mo-bile base unit. The table was little more than a durasteel access panel that had been taken off its hinges and laid flat across a pair of plastoid shipping crates that had once held foam-wrapped weaponry fuses. In the center of the bare metal sat a glossy black, rectangular object; its contents had been extracted as well, and run through the portable data scanners that Uzalg had brought with him from Alliance headquarters. A hard-copy printout on several sheets of flimsiplast detailed the atmospheric sampling and olfactory bio-analysis that had been bro-ken out of the spy device that had originally contained the evidence.
"Of course, it's obviously fabricated." Uzalg's hairless skull was reflected in the black container's sheen.
"There's no question about that."
"What the attache is saying"—Commander Rozh-denst made a dismissive gesture at the items on the con-ference table—"is that there's no way anybody in the Rebel Alliance is going to believe that the late Prince Xi-zor had anything to do with this Imperial stormtrooper raid that this thing caught." One corner of his mouth curled downward as he shook his head. "The responsi-bility for that particular raid has been established be-yond a shadow of a doubt. It all came direct from Darth Vader's personal command. Our own information sources, both within the Empire and the Black Sun, have con-firmed that. Xizor had nothing to do with it."
"That does seem to be the case." Uzalg spoke much more calmly and soothingly than the Scavenger Squadron commander; Kodir could understand how he had risen to a high diplomatic position inside the Alliance. "Never-theless, this evidence—no matter how fraudulent it is in essence—still has some significance for us."
"I don't see why we're even bothering with it." Rozh-denst's sneer grew even more pronounced. "We've got other, more important business to take care of—like keeping an eye on what's going on down in the KDY construction docks. This stuff is old news; Xizor's been dead for a long enough time now. There isn't going to be any trouble coming from that direction. Let's concen-trate on our living enemies, all right?"
"You're missing the whole point," snapped Kodir. Her gaze tightened into slits as she regarded the commander. She hadn't come all this way, back here to a point just above Kuat Drive Yards itself, to wind up deal-ing with some one-track military mind. "It doesn't mat-ter whether Prince Xizor is alive or dead. All that's important is knowing who had an interest in creating this phony evidence against him, and why they did it."
Uzalg reached out and touched the commander's sleeve. "She's got an excellent point," Uzalg said softly. "After all, that's why I came here. On an emergency ba-sis, as well—given what's shaping up out near Endor, there's a great many other things I could be taking care of right now."
"You and me both, and everybody else in my squad-ron." The commander's temper flared even higher.
"Look, the Alliance wants to put us out where there's nothing happening, that's the high command's decision, and there's nothing I can do about it. But you can bet that my men and I would sell our own viscera on the black market if there was a way of buying into that battle at Endor. We'd rather die in the action than fall asleep baby-sitting some fancy dry-dock facility like this."
"Rest assured, Commander, that the value of your service here will become apparent before too long." Uzalg took his hand from the commander's sleeve and tapped with a forefinger on the spread-out data before them. "You are a creature of action—your calling de-mands that of you—but it makes you understandably impatient with the slow sifting of the past's remnants, the gleaning of the small grains of truth. As our friend Kodir here has spoken, it is not the surface appearance of this fabricated evidence that matters. It is what lies underneath."
"All right," grumbled Rozhdenst. "So what is it?"
Kodir watched as the attache leaned closer to the other man. "Someone," said Uzalg darkly, "wanted the Rebel Alliance to believe that Prince Xizor and the Black Sun organization were involved in some way with a raid by Imperial stormtroopers on a moisture farm on the planet Tatooine. It's logical to assume that the target of that disinformation would have been the Rebel Alliance, and more specifically Luke Skywalker himself. As heinous as that stormtrooper raid was, its significance is pri-marily for us. Skywalker has become both an inspiration and a charismatic leader for our forces; at this point, it might very well be said that his joining the Rebels was a crucial turning point for the Alliance, at one of our dark est hours. As Skywalker has shown us, one brave indi-vidual can turn the course of battle. And bravery can be contagious: right now, there are many ready to fight at Endor whose hearts have been strengthened by Sky-walker's example. As you've said, Commander, you would give a great deal to be with them. But the moral strength that has flowed into the Alliance was largely shaped by a purity of vision as well; Skywalker knew that the raid in which his family died was the work of the Empire. He's known since then exactly what he's had to fight against. What would the consequences have been, both for Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance, if that vision had been confused and muddied by evidence showing that Prince Xizor and Black Sun had somehow been in-volved in that stormtrooper raid? Skywalker's attention might well have been diverted at some crucial point while he tried to unravel this mystery, the clues of which were all lies to begin with. He very likely would have found that out, and seen through the lies, but at a price of critically lost time—and the Alliance would have paid that price with him."
The sneer had vanished from Rozhdenst's face. "I see your point."
"It's exactly why I wanted the Alliance to have this in-formation," said Kodir. "As security head for Kuat Drive Yards, I've discovered some things I'd rather not have found. My sympathies are with the Rebel Alliance, gentlemen—but apparently my feelings are not shared by everyone here. Most importantly, they're not shared by Kuat of Kuat, the leader of Kuat Drive Yards. He's made it plain to me that he fears and distrusts the Al-liance. Of course, it's bad enough that he has not sup-ported you in your struggle against the Empire—but it turns out that he's been actively seeking your defeat." She paused a moment, gauging the two men's reactions to her words. "For it was Kuat of Kuat who created this false evidence, and who sought to have it planted where Luke Skywalker would have eventually learned of it, and been deceived by it."
"I'm not completely sure of your interpretation of Kuat's actions." Uzalg frowned and stroked his chin with his fingertips. "I've dealt with Kuat of Kuat in the past, before you became head of security for Kuat Drive Yards. At that time, I implored him to throw the re-sources of his corporation behind the Alliance, and he refused—but I was convinced that he bore the Alliance no ill will, but was simply concerned with the corpora-tion's fate, should Emperor Palpatine defeat and destroy us. Such a decision on his part was prudent, but regret-table. Of course, he may have deceived me on that point; Kuat of Kuat is an undeniably clever individual whose wits have been sharpened by dealing on a constant basis with Palpatine and his admirals. Or Kuat may have changed his position regarding the Rebel Alliance; we can expect that Palpatine has brought great pressure on him. Or ..." The Alliance attache nodded thoughtfully.