Free Starfighters of Adumar by Aaron Allston Page B

brought in specialists to link up their computer systems with ours. They’ve contrived to bring in pilots from the Empire at the same time we’re here, and even set things up so that the two opposing groups of pilots wouldn’t know about one another until we bumped into one another tonight. What do you want to bet that we haven’t been brought here chiefly because they love pilots? We’ve been brought here to duel with our opposite numbers.”
    “It’s worse than that,” Hobbie said.
    The others looked at him. “You know,” Janson said, “whenever the name of Derek ‘Hobbie’ Klivian comes up, the words ‘It’s worse than that’ ring in my ears. Sometimes I hear them when I’m dreaming.”
    Hobbie ignored him. “Wedge, while Janson was politely asking Iella about her love life—”
    “I wasn’t!”
    “—I was talking to people about things. Asking questions instead of answering them. And I found out that Adumar doesn’t even have a world government. The perator of Cartann doesn’t represent the whole world.”
    “That would certainly explain why they all seem to identify more with this nation than with their world,” Wedge said. “What do they have?”
    “Well, remember that all the answers I got were from Cartann loyalists.” Hobbie shrugged, apologetic. “But if you read past the text stream to the data stream, it looks as though Cartann is the biggest of a large number of nations, and it controls several other nations besides. Through tradition and military. It controls something like more than half the planet. So they could set up trade treaties, that sort of thing, for Cartann, but they couldn’t negotiate to bring all of Adumar into the New Republic.”
    “You’re right,” Wedge said. “It was worse than I thought.”
    Janson grinned. “Oh, it’s even worse than that.”
    Wedge sighed. “Look, this is your last one. The next person after Wes who has bad news, we all just shoot him. Go ahead, Wes.”
    “Cheriss is sweet on you.”
    Wedge felt his shoulders sag. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
    “Sorry, chief. Do you see the way she looks at you? And she gave you the decision on her challenge duel, to kill or not to kill. They say that’s a really big thing here. As subtle as flowers and sweets.”
    “Wes, she’s half my age.”
    “True.” Janson looked resigned. “I’ll help you, Wedge. I’ll go break the news to her, console her in her time of grief. I’ll—”
    Wedge held up a hand. “Never mind what I just said. Let’s just shoot Wes.”
    “I’m for that,” Hobbie said.
    “What’s our strategy?” Tycho asked.
    Hobbie gave him a curious look. “I thought we’d just all draw and fire. But I could count down to zero, and then we could draw and fire.”
    Tycho gave him a mock-scowl. “Quiet, you. Wedge, what’s our strategy in dealing with all these serpentine politics?”
    “Play dumb for now. Let everyone—Tomer, the rulers of Cartann, our own Intelligence network—think we believe everything they’ve told us so far. Follow Tomer’s plans for use of our time with just enough belligerence to remind them we’re fighter pilots. And find out what we can on our own. I’ll talk to Iella tomorrow. Hobbie, Tomer said that Intelligence certified our quarters as free from Cartann listening devices—but nobody certified them free of New Republic Intelligence listening devices; I want you to screen our quarters and see if our own people are eavesdropping on us. Tycho, Wes, I want you to visit Allegiance tonight; I’ll wager every credit I’m carrying that there’s an Imperial capital ship orbiting Adumar opposite our ship, and I don’t want Allegiance taken off-guard if there’s trouble.”
    Janson spoke up, sounding hurt: “Can it be later tonight? I, uh, sort of made an appointment for this evening …”
    Wedge just looked at him.
    “I suppose not,” Janson said. “Tycho, didn’t anyone ever tell you that when you ask Wedge for strategy, he gives