"Cheater!" Falynn was only a split second behind him. Well before they reached the bottom of the slope, she'd drawn almost even with him to the left. She sideslipped into him.

Wedge felt rather than heard the impact, but it didn't maneuver him out of line. He grinned. Only the greenest pilot would have failed to antic.i.p.ate the maneuver and compensate for it. He gunned his engines and leaned into his leftward slide. The nose of his hauler was still a few meters ahead of hers and thus able to push hers out of line. He shoved her until her left side began to sc.r.a.pe along the rift wall; the sudden friction slowed her and he shot out ahead.

"Keep trying, Sandskimmer. I'm old. I might be tiring already."

Her curses lit up the comm unit.

The other pilot trainees gathered in the briefing room and watched the visual sensor feed from Janson's X-wing. Janson was pacing the ore haulers at an alt.i.tude of about fifty meters. Kell guessed that Janson was running on repulsorlifts, occasionally hitting the thrusters, else he wouldn't be able to move slowly enough to keep them in his sensor view.

Donos said, "She's actually moving that bucket around pretty well. She was probably a pretty hot stick back on Tatooine." He sounded more a.n.a.lytical than admiring, but it was the longest single statement Kell had heard from him.

Kell shook his head. "I've serviced rigs like that. They're not like recreational skimmers. Their repulsor fields extend out ahead several meters. They have to be antic.i.p.atory to keep those haulers from gutting themselves on rough terrain. If she doesn't know that, she'll bounce-there she goes." Indeed, the front end of Falynn's hauler rose an additional two meters as the craft approached a boulder outcropping. The hauler went skyward, gaining enough alt.i.tude to lose repulsorlift contact with the ground, and Wedge's vehicle gained another handful of meters on her.

Donos said, "She'll take him."

Kell pulled a handful of coins from his pocket. "Ten credits."

"You're on." Donos's coin joined his on the tabletop.

The other pilot candidates rummaged through pockets and began pulling out coins, money-transfer cards, jewelry, pieces of candy.

They ran now with Falynn's bow to Wedge's stern. Whenever she sideslipped to try to pa.s.s, he broke in that direction, blocking her move. The richness and color of her nonstop cursing were testimony to his success.

It couldn't last forever. She slid rightward, he followed suit-and noticed too late that the maneuver led him right onto a nest of boulders.

Their proximity kicked his bow up into the air and she slid around to his left, pa.s.sing him before he reestablished contact with the rift surface.

He laughed. "Not bad, Falynn. You've proved you can learn at least one thing a day."

"You're going to look funny spitting out lunar dust while you're teaching me, sir."

Ahead, the rift turned leftward. Near the right wall was a tumbled pile of stone; between it and the wall itself the floor curved gently upward.

Left of the pile was broad, open ground.

Falynn headed for the broadest open area. Wedge slid rightward, angling between the stone pile and the wall. As he squeezed between them, his repulsors kicked loose stones from the pile of boulders, raining them down on Falynn's hauler. Her reflex slid her leftward and he gained on her going around the turn; he was a few meters ahead as they came out of the curve.

"Obviously you can't win by flying fair, sir. What happens when we get to the end? Do you shoot me?"

"I'm thinking about it."

The end of the run was within sight, a distant red glow where Janson had dumped his flare. The rift bottom was flat and smooth to the right of the straightaway, but grew stony and broken along the center.

Falynn drifted right. Wedge drifted left, toward the more difficult terrain. He saw Falynn turn to look at him; he couldn't read her expression through the vacuum suit's polarized shield, but knew she had to wonder what his plan was in giving up the speediest approach to the finish line.

She gained on him as they approached the rockiest portion of rift floor.

But as they reached the point where the tumbled boulders were worst, he sideslipped right and his nose crossed over the highest of them. The move kicked him up several meters.

And he came down right on top of her hauler.

His vehicle's weight forced hers down, compressing her repulsor emissions, slowing her vehicle. His own repulsors kicked him forward off her hauler. He held his control wheel on course by brute strength. His hauler straightened out as it came fully down off hers and onto the rift floor-and a second later he pa.s.sed the glowing flare, Falynn's hauler tucked in right behind him.

"You-you-"

"That's right, Sandskimmer. I won."

"You cheated."

He laughed as he slowed his hauler and swung its nose around. "Falynn, consider this. When an Imperial laser cuts through your canopy and hits you, the energy will superheat the water in your tissues. They will literally explode. If there's enough of your X-wing to retrieve, they'll have to hose down the inside. When that happens, will you complain that the TIE fighter pilot cheated?"

Her voice was grudging. "No, sir." She followed him through his maneuver.

"What will you say?"

"I won't say anything. I'll be dead."

"So to keep one of these bad boys from cheating until you're dead, what are you going to do?"

"I guess I'll have to learn to cheat, sir."

"Congratulations. You've proved you can learn two things in a single day.

At mission briefing that afternoon, Wedge announced, "We have two pieces of good news. Our other four snubfighters are in, and Cubber's crew has cleared them for use." He paused as the squadron applauded, then continued. "Also, we now have a unit designation. Courtesy of Tyria Sarkin, we are Wraith Squadron."

Several of the pilots made appreciative noises. Face merely looked disgusted.

Runt asked, "What is a wraith?"

"Something I heard about in my childhood," Tyria said. "Dark things that come in the night for you. That's what I think we are. For the Empire, for the warlords, we're the phantoms under the bed, the monsters in the storage cubicles."

Runt smiled, showing big teeth, and narrowed his eyes. The expression made his long face look sinister. "We like that."

Wedge said, "So Tyria wins the three-day pa.s.s... but not today; we still have a run to do. A full squadron run, for the first time. Other news: we now have a squadron supply officer. Please come on in."

The pilots turned toward the entrance. The supply officer's arrival was heralded by a set of rhythmic squeaks.

"We are in trouble," Kell said.

Squeaky, DownTime's 3PO server, walked in and up to the speakers podium.

He turned to the pilots. "Let me begin by saying that I am delighted to bring my years of experience to this novice squadron. I expect that my skill will keep some of you alive."

Phanan whispered, "Inevitably, some of us will prefer to die."

Squeaky continued, "I am also pleased once again to be serving a fine officer named Antilles. A pity what happened to the last one. I am sure we will all pitch together to keep fate from repeating itself."

Wedge looked pained. Most of the pilots knew that a Captain Antilles, no relation to the commander, had been master of the Tantive IV and had died at the hands of Darth Vader.

"In dealing with you," Squeaky said, "I will match courtesy with courtesy, insult with insult, incompetence with incompetence. I have transmitted requisition forms to your astromechs and to your datapads; please use them, and always check your spelling. Thank you." He bowed to Wedge and moved to sit by Lieutenant Janson.

Wedge's mouth twitched as he too obviously restrained a smile. "Thank you, Squeaky. Wes?"

Janson stood and tapped his datapad. The room's holoprojector glowed into life, and on it appeared a dark field with a few dozen glowing points arranged within it: a small-area starmap.

He pointed into the ma.s.s of stars at a bright golden one. "Here's Commenor. You are here. Here's Corellia and more Core systems. Farther out, we reach border and then Rim territories. This star is nicknamed Doldrums for its lovely, featureless, uninhabited planets. That's our destination.

"Each of you is to spend an hour with your astromechs putting together a three-stage course to get us to Doldrums and a two-stage course to bring us back. These navigational paths should follow normal security guidelines for limiting observers' abilities to follow our course or trace our routes.

"When you're done, transmit your course to Control. We'll choose the one we like best, the one that burns the least fuel and appears the most elegant... and then we'll fly it as a test of your hypers.p.a.ce skill and accuracy. Questions?"

There were none.

"Good. We'll see you in the hangar in an hour."

The pilots rose to head toward their X-wings and astromech droids. Face looked rueful. "I can't believe you, Tyria. I thought I had that pa.s.s locked up."

"What squad names did you suggest?" she asked.

"Well, there was Silly Squadron."

She shook her head. "We'd have to repaint the X-wings."

"Then there was Rogue Squadron."

"Taken."

"I know, but it was a good idea. Then there was Dinner Squadron."

"I take it you were faint from hunger when you were coming up with these.

"How did you know?"

Less than two hours later, Wraith Squadron was skirting Commenor, preparing to slingshot past it to get clear of its gravity well and into the proper orientation for the first leg of Piggy's proposed course.

Folor was moments from disappearing behind Commenor's horizon when Jesmin transmitted, "Wraith Leader, this is Two. I have transmissions on an Imperial channel."

Kell knew Jesmin had installed an upgraded communications and sensor package in her X-wing, appropriate to the squad's communications expert.

Wedge's voice was next. "Squad, break off the exit maneuver. Circle here at a diameter of fifty klicks. Two, are they transmitting in the clear?"

"No, sir, it's encoded. I'm working on that. But there's something else.

It's a tight-beam transmission, and the origin of the transmission is pretty close to our flight path from Commenor. Two possibilities are that they're waiting there for us, or they're using Commenor as a backstop for the signal so it won't reach Folor."

"Right. I'll inform Folor. Wraiths, maintain station. Make yourselves useful."

Kell gritted his teeth. Another test. The crucial duties, of warning the base and breaking the transmission code, were a.s.signed; Wedge obviously wanted to find out what additional use the other Wraiths could make of themselves without suggestion from him.

Almost immediately, Face's voice came back: "Twelve, here's an idea.

Query Two's R2 unit for the signal she's receiving. a.n.a.lyze it for Waveshift and see if you can determine how fast the signaler is coming."

Piggy's voice, distorted by the comm unit, was completely mechanical and inflectionless: "Will do, Eight."

Kell's shoulders tightened. Once again, Face was jumping right into a useful task, showing leadership qualities. If Kell wasn't careful, Face would grab control of Two Flight. Kell had to respond, to do something just as useful. He had to think fast.

Commenor was a planet fringing on Core worlds territory. Its government dealt and traded with the New Republic, with the shrinking Empire, even with warlords. So if the incoming vessel or vessels, which were either Imperial or warlords because they were using Imperial frequencies, were transmitting to Commenor, they were either announcing their arrival or making requests of the government. "Four, this is Five."

"I hear you, Five."

"In all the time you've been here, have you sliced into Commenor's official computer system?"

Grinder was slow in responding. Finally, "Yes, Five. Just to keep in practice."

"Good. Can you slice in now, with the gear you have on your snubfighter?"

"In no time, Five. I have my list of key codes with me. Always."

"Right. Punch in now. We're going to look for a few things."

"Making contact, Five. Starting the approval dance. What are we looking for?"

Kell thought back to the sorts of record changes the commandos had taught him to look for. "First, any new mobilizations of government forces.

Second, new reservations for ship berths. Sort by ship cla.s.s, prioritize for military ships and hyperdrive-equipped shuttles. Take reservations made for tomorrow as well as today. Sudden large-block hotel and resort reservations, especially the cheaper ones, just in case there will be some rest and recreation for a capital ship. Also, I want astronomical data, if possible, from any observatories pointed out toward the origin of Jesmin's signal."

"Would you like breakfast in bed with all that, Five?"

"That's right, Four. But that's after everything else."

They waited in silence for a few minutes.

"Five, this is Four. I read one government shuttle a.s.signed in the last few minutes to convey doc.u.ments and an observer to the incoming flight.

Granting it the right to perform military exercises above Folor."

"Thanks, Four. Leader, that marks the base as their probable target."

"Leader here. I read you, Five."

"Five, there's more. Orbital s.p.a.ceyard 301 has been ordered to clear a servicing berth for private yacht Implacable."

Kell frowned. "Implacable is the kind of name they give to Imperial capital ships."