Wedge's Gamble Read Free

outside, Champions!”
    The Y-wing pilots complied with Corran’s order, but did so slowly. The TIE spun in on Champion Five, pouring verdant laser bolts into its shields. The Y-wing pilot continued his roll and dive, and the TIE corrected to follow him, allowing himself to fly a level arc as he pursued his quarry.
    You’re mine, now . Corran eased back on his stick, millimeter by millimeter centering the Imperial fighter on his targeting crosshairs.
    Whistler shrilled a warning.
    Behind me? Who? He glanced at his sensors and saw the other TIE closing in on him and he wanted to break away. Can’t, Five is history if I do .
    Corran hit his trigger, tracking ruby energy darts along the TIE’s flight path. Even as he saw the lasers hit the eyeball’s wings and cockpit, he braced for the other TIE’s lasers burning through his ship. He saw his targetexplode and knew, as green laser bolts scythed down toward his ship, he was a dead man.
    He prepared himself for nothingness.
    He was not wholly disappointed.
    Nothing happened.
    Corran rolled left and climbed. “Find him, Whistler.”
    The droid gave back a negative report.
    “What about Vengeance ?”
    Whistler reported it had gone to lightspeed.
    At least we’re clear there . Corran felt a shiver run down his spine. His left hand rose up and, through the fabric of his flight suit, touched a gold medallion he wore. It appears all my luck has not run out .
    “Five, Six, what happened to the other eyeball?”
    “I got him, Nine.”
    “With what, Six?”
    “The missile I launched.”
    It took Corran a second to make sense of the reply, then he remembered the missile that had almost hit him as he had come in on the TIE starfighter. “Six, you were aiming at the second TIE?”
    “Yes, sir, Lieutenant. Did I do something wrong?”
    Corran wanted to yell at him about choosing targets that have a higher threat factor—by virtue of being closer and, therefore, more likely to hit their target—but he stopped before he gave in to temptation. “Not wrong, Six, but it could have been more right.”
    “Yes, sir,” came a sheepish reply that remained full of nervous energy. “Next time, sir.”
    “Yeah, at least we can all be thankful there will be a next time.”
    Whistler tootled triumphantly as the X-wing’s shields came back up.
    Corran smiled. “Yes, I do appreciate your shaving seven seconds off the estimate, Whistler.” He keyed his comm unit. “Five, Six, mark the coordinates of your sleeping dupe, then we head in. We’ll have reports to fill out but the fact that we can fill them out means this has been a very good day.”

2
    Wedge Antilles shook hands with both of the pilots standing in his office. “Sorry to keep you waiting but we apparently have had another probe of the system by Imperial forces. The Imps didn’t make much of a fight of it, but we almost scrambled the rest of the squadron.” He walked around to his side of the transparisteel-topped desk, then waved the two of them to chairs. “Welcome to Rogue Squadron.”
    Both pilots smiled and thanked him.
    Wedge looked first at the Sullustan female. “Captain Nunb, I hope you do not think the fact that you were not selected to join Rogue Squadron six months ago reflects in any way a lack of respect for your skills as a pilot.”
    Aril Nunb shook her head, the slender plait of brown hair lashing one shoulder and another. “I harbored no such thought, Commander.”
    “But you were aware that I chose Captain Tycho Celchu to be my Executive Officer, not you?”
    A red-purple light flashed in her big garnet eyes. “Rumors to that effect were easily heard, but more easily ignored, sir.”
    Wedge smiled. Frank and practical, this I like . “Those rumors were true, Captain. My reasons were …”
    “Excuse me, sir, but you have no need to explain yourself to me.”
    “I think you will find, both of you, that Rogue Squadron is full of very good pilots. Our discipline is a bit more lax than in other