Rancit bit back whatever he had in mind to say.
“If only you had been one step ahead of your co-conspirators rather than one step behind,” Vader continued in false lament. “Consider how far you might have risen in the Emperor’s estimation had you been able to predict that they would betray you and go on to execute the plan they had in mind from the beginning.”
Curiosity seeped into Rancit’s rigid expression. “What plan?”
“This system was never meant to be their final target, Vice Admiral. The deal they made with you merely gave them free rein to carry out a mission of their own. They transferred to a different ship and are now on their way to the actual target.”
“Where?” Rancit asked in an insistent tone.
“That is not your concern. Understand as well, Vice Admiral, that the Emperor has long held suspicions about you. He allowed your scheme to unfold as a means of ensnaring everyone involved in your conspiracy.”
Rancit’s courage returned. “What is the target, Vader? Tell me.”
“Your apprehension is misplaced,” Vader said in a menacingly calm voice. He lifted his right hand and began to bring his thumb and fingers together, then stopped. “No. You have already determined the method of your execution.”
He swung to the squad of stormtroopers.
“Lieutenant Crest, Admiral Rancit is to be escorted to and placed inside an escape pod. I will give the order to launch the pod, and Admiral Rancit, once removed to a distance from this vessel, will issue the fire order that destroys it.” Vader glanced over his shoulder at Rancit. “Does that meet with your approval, Vice Admiral?”
Rancit snarled. “I won’t beg you, Vader.”
“It would not affect the outcome in any case.”
Vader nodded to the stormtroopers, who moved forward to surround Rancit.
“One last thing, Vice Admiral,” Vader said as Rancit was being escorted aft down the walkway. “Moff Tarkin sends his regards.”
A warship lay in wait in the shadow of a cratered, waterless moon in a star system Coreward of the Gulf of Tatooine.
Since it was not the product of a major shipbuilding conglomerate, the vessel lacked both a name and a registered signature. It was instead a farrago — a medley of modules, components, turbolasers, and ion cannons acquired by its assemblers from Imperial surplus depots, deep-space salvagers, smugglers, and others in the business of selling stolen parts and proscribed armaments. Fittingly the ship most resembled the Quarren Free Dac Volunteer Corps’s Providence-class carrier, but at less than half the length was stubby by comparison and did not boast an aft communications tower. Its belly housed several squadrons of droid starfighters, and its weapons were operated by computer-controlled droids, but the ship was commanded by sentients — in this case a small group of humans, Koorivar, and Gotals, along with a sole Mon Cal starship systems engineer. It was the sort of vessel that would become closely associated with Outer Rim pirates in the postwar years. And in fact, it was the same capital ship that had briefly revealed itself at Sentinel Base weeks earlier.
“We’ve come full circle,” Teller was telling Artoz in the starfighter hangar. Dressed in a flight suit, he had a helmet under one arm and was standing alongside a warming Headhunter retrofitted with a rudimentary hyperdrive — the very model Hask had used in crafting the false holovid that had been transmitted to Sentinel Base.
For the benefit of Knotts and the handful of other sentient pilots, Artoz said, “The convoy will revert to realspace at the edge of this system and continue by sublight to the Imperial marshaling station at Pii. From there, supply ships are escorted to Sentinel Base, and finally to Geonosis.”
“Not this convoy,” Knotts said. The world-weary human broker had helped pilot the hodgepodge carrier from its place of concealment near Lantillies. “Rancit did us a great favor by reallocating the convoy’s protection.”
“He promised us clear skies at Carida and gave us just that here,” Teller said. “He had no reason to believe he’d be leaving the convoy vulnerable. He was simply shuffling ships around for show.”
“Any word from Carida?” Knotts asked.
“Nothing yet,” Artoz said.
“The evidence trail that links him to us is too much of a maze for anyone to follow,” Teller said. “Accusations will be flying every which way about our not getting apprehended, but the assumption will be that we simply abandoned the cause.”
“Rancit won’t be happy with being denied his expected promotion,” Knotts said. “He’ll be on the hunt for us for betraying him.”
Teller shrugged that off and glanced at Artoz. “Any suggestion Rancit makes about our being involved in the attack on the convoy would only make matters worse for him for pulling ships away. Rancit’ll be lucky to be removed from Naval Intelligence with his pension intact, let alone be in a position to pose a threat to us.”
“And Tarkin?” the Mon Cal asked.
“He gets back what’s left of his precious corvette,” Knotts said before Teller could reply.
“Tarkin won’t be held accountable for any of it,” Teller added. “He’s a Moff. And besides, it wasn’t his idea to go to Murkhana.” He shook his head with finality. “I’m guessing he retains command of Sentinel Base.”
Knotts nodded in agreement. “The question is, will he come after us?”
“Oh, you can count on that,” Teller said. “We’re going to need to scatter far and wide. The Corporate Sector’s probably our safest bet.”
No one spoke for a long moment; then Knotts said, “Once the convoy is history, how far will we have set them back?”
Artoz replied: “Work on the hyperdrive components alone had been in progress for three years before I was sent to Desolation Station. Even with perfected plans and a redoubling of their efforts, I suspect that we will set them back four years.”
Teller smiled lightly. “I wish we had a better sense of what they’re up to at Geonosis.”
“A weapons platform of some sort,” Knotts said. “Do we need to know more than that?”
Teller looked at him. “I suppose not. If we can just keep delaying them with strikes … Once the rest of the galaxy gets to know the Emperor as well as we know him, we won’t be alone in the fight.”
Doubt surfaced in Artoz’s huge, glistening eyes. “With shipyards turning out Imperial-class Star Destroyers, any revolt will be hard-pressed to make so much as a dent in the Emperor’s armor. Even if we can continue to impede construction of whatever they are building at Geonosis, something unexpected is going to have to enter the mix in order for any rebellion to succeed. Yes, people will begin to recognize the truth about the Empire, but numbers alone will never make the difference — not against the likes of the Emperor, Vader, and the military they’re amassing. And don’t expect the Senate to restrain them, because it is even less effective than it was during the Republic.”
Teller gave his head a defiant shake. “We can either decide right now that it’s hopeless and call it a day, or we can hold out for hope and do what we can.”
“That decision has never been in dispute,” Artoz said.
“For Antar Four, then, and for a brighter future,” Knotts said.
Heads nodded in concert.
While the assembled pilots were moving toward their starfighters, Cala hurried into the hangar. “The supply convoy has dropped from hyperspace. HoloNet and communications jammers are enabled, and all weapons systems are standing by.”
Knotts extended his hand to Teller. “Good luck out there.”