Jabba took his place in the location 'allotted to the Desilijie members, and cautioned the other represen-tatives to 'allow him to do the talking. As Jiliae~ top lieutenant, he had that right, and they readily agreed.

Jabba noted that even his parent, Zorba, had sent a rep- resentative. The two of them were not close, but it was comforting to know that Desilijic was well-represented, and that all of the Clan families had taken Jiliac% sum- mons seriously.~ When the representatives of all the kajidics were present, the Executive Secretary of the Grand Council, a recent appointee named Grejic, called the meeting to order.

"Comrades-in-power, siblings-in-profit, I have con-vened you today to discuss concerns raised by Desilijic. I ask Jabba, Desilijic% representative, to speak."

Jabba wriggled out in front of Grejic% dais and lifted his arms for quiet. Wben the other Hutts continued to whisper to each other, he raised his tail and brought it down against the stone floor with a loud WHAP! Silence ensued.

"Fellow Hutts, I come to you today with some seri-ous allegations of wrongdoing on the part of Besadii ka-jidic. Over the past year, their actions have grown more and more reprehensible. It all started with the Battle of Nar Shaddaa. All of us suffered because of that attack- except Besadii. We lost ships, pilots, cargoes, part of the Moon% shield-not to mention how much trade we lost! And then there was the aftermath of the battle. The loss of part of Nar Shaddaa's shield caused the de-struction of several blocks of buildings from the crash of the Peacekeeper. Cleanup and reconstruction is still go-ing on. And who has paid for it? Each clan lost property and credits-except Besadii. And they alone-they who suffered no loss, who could most 'afford it-they have paid nothing! We have all suffered and lost- except Besadii!"

The other Hutts murmured to each other when Jabba paused. He looked over at the section of floor re-served for Besadii, and saw that Durga had not deigned to appear. Instead he had sent Zier and several lesser members of the kajidic as his representatives.

"And what did Besadii do while Nal Hutta was threatened? They sold slaves to the very Empire that was attacking their homeworld! All of the clans cooper-ated in paying the credits for the exorbitant bribe of Ad-miral Greelanx-which proved to be the only thing that saved our world from a devastating embargo. All of the clans, that is... except Besadii."

The other Hutts murmured muted 'affirmatives. Jabba was proud of the way his speech was going. He was verging on true eloquence, he thought, and even Jiliac, acknowledged orator that she was, could not have done better. He was actually glad that Jiliac had been too occupied with her baby to appear today. She wasn't as versed in 'all of this as he was, and things didn't 'affect her these days the way they used to ....

"And in the months since that battle, fellow Hutts, what has Besadii done? Helped us rebuild? Offered to recompense the other clans for their share of the bribe? Sent a single work crew of slaves to help with the re-building?" Jabba let his voice scale up to a near-shout. "No! Fellow Hutts, what they have done is to raise the prices on their spice to the point where the profits of every kajidic are compromised-at the worst possible time! Some may say this is just good business, just the urge for profit but I say, No.t Besadii is trying to take over! To put us 'all out of business! Besadii wishes that there was no Hutt clan on 'all of Nal Hutta-except Besadii?

Jabba's voice had risen to a thundering pitch. He slapped his tail for emphasis, hard. The echoes fled around the cavernous hall.

"I demand that Besadii be censured! I demand that the Grand Council take a vote to censure them now, and levy a fine, to be distributed ~among those they have wronged! I demand this in the name of all Hutts everywhere!!"

The hall erupted into pandemonium. Tails slammed, voices cried out with indignation. Some Hurts turned on the Besadii contingent with threatening tail-waves, shouting insults and curses.

Zier looked around wildly, and saw no friendliness in the hall. He raised his arms and voice, shouting in turn, but his voice was drowned out by the combined fury of the other Hurts.

Finally the furor began to die down. Grejic slapped his tail for quiet, and finally got it.

"By custom, Zier, as the ranking member of Besadii, has the right to answer his accuser. What have you to say to all this, Zier?"

Zier cleared his ma.s.sive throat, swallowed. "Fellow Hutts, how can you condemn Besadii? Making profit is to be lauded, not denigrated! Jabba and Jiliac lost the most in the attack on Nar Shaddaa, and they are at- tempting to sway you into siding with them against Be- sadii. The truth is, Besadii did nothing wrong! We did nothing-"

"You did nothing, all right!" the leader of Trinivii ka-jidic shouted, breaking in. "Desilijic offered the strategy that saved us. Besadii grabbed profit at all our expense!"

Zier shook his head. "What we did was-"

"We are Hutts!" another leader shouted. "It is our pride to take from other species! It is our pride to make profit! But we do not seek to destroy our own kind!

Compete, yes... destroy, no/"

Chaos erupted., A cacophony of tail-thumps, shouts, curses, bellows, and raging diatribes filled the air.

Grejic had to tail-thump many times to restore order. "I believe it is time for a vote," he called. "All kajidic representatives in favor of officially censuring and fining Besadii-vote now, yes or no, on the motion."

Each kajidie leader pressed a thumb against the vote tabulator before him.

Moments later, Grejic raised a hand. "The votes are tallied. Forty-seven to one in favor of censuring Besadii."

Cheers rang out.

"Zier of Bes-"

"Wait!" A voice broke in. Jabba recognized that voice, and turned to see Jilia/c undulating across the room. "Wait, I did not vote!"

"Jabba voted for your kajidic, Lady Jiliac. Why this interruption? Do you wish us to re-take the vote?" Gre-jic was respectful, but clearly impatient to get on with the matter at hand.

"Re-take the vote?" Jabbe looked at his aunt and their gazes locked. After a moment, she shook her head. "My nephew is my accepted proxy, Lord Grejic. Please proceed."

Jabba let out his breath very slowly. For a moment he'd thought Jiliac was going to question his judgment and his authority in front of everyone. Many of the other Hutts were giving him curions glances, clearly wondering why Jabbe had been voting if Jiliae was not going to support his position unreservedly.

Jiliac glided over to lie beside her nephew, but Jabba found himself wishing she'd just stayed away: It was em-barra.s.sing to have his judgment questioned in front of his own people. He thought again of what it would be like just to run Desilijic by himself, without interference--- and unthinking interference, at that.

"Zier of Besadii," said Grejic, continuing where he'd left off, "it is the will of this Council that you be ex-cused from our ranks until your clan has paid one rail-lioncredits in damages, to be divided among the other kajidics equally. May I suggest that you endeavor in fu-ture not to regard your own people as you would those of other species-as dupes to be exploited."

The Executive Secretary waved to the guards and their ranking officer, who were standing at the en-trance. "Guardsmaster, you will escort the Besadii dele-gation from this hall."

As Zier and the other Besadii undulated 'along toward the entrance, Jabba saw that they were 'all trying to look confident and scornful and failing utterly. The soft mutter of the other Hutts swelled into a tumult of hooting laughter, raucous bellows, and shouted insults, jeers and threats.

Jabba smiled inwardly. Not a bad afiernoon~ work, he thought smugly. Not bad at all ....

Bria Tharen walked briskly down the corridor of her command ship, the light cruiser Retribution. She was on her way to review her troops before their planned raid on the slaver vessel Helot~ Shackle. Inwardly, Bria was excited and eager, but her features were composed and her blue-green eyes were as cold as deep glacial ice.

Mentally she reviewed her battle plan, a.n.a.lyzing it for weaknesses, making sure she'd covered every possi-ble contingency with a backup option. This operation should go down smoothly, but the Helot~ Shackle was, 'after all, a heavily-armed Corellian corvette, a formida-ble vessel in her own right.

Retribution was 'almost the same size as the Shackle, so they should be relatively evenly matched. Bria~ ves-sel was a Republic Sienar Systems Marauder-cla.s.s corvette, sleek and streamlined, capable of both s.p.a.ce and atmospheric combat. The Marauders were among the most common capital ships in the Corporate Sec-tor's picket fleet. The Corellian underground had pur-chased this Marauder second-hand from the Authority, and given it to Bria for her flagship.

The Corellian commander had an operative working on the s.p.a.ce station orbiting Ylesia. The operative had tipped Bria off a few days ago that the Ylesian priests were planning on shipping out nearly two hundred Exultation-addicted and malnourished slaves to the mines of Kessel.

For a moment Bria wished she could give in to her own desires and go out with her people in tile first boarding wave. The troops aboard those three shuttles would see the maximum amount of combat, make the most kills. And Bria had a personal grudge against this particular slaving vessel. Nearly ten years ago, Helot~ Shackle had narrowly missed capturing Bria, Han and their two Togorian friends, Muuurgh and Mrrov, as they'd made their escape from Ylesia.

Bria sighed, but she knew that her place during the first wave was aboard her command vessel, coordinat-ing the attack, identifying pockets of heavy resistance in order to best allocate her troops for the second wave.

This was Retributiong fifth mission for the Corellian resistance, and Bria was glad to be back in action. Dur-ing her eight years with the Corellian underground, she'd done whatever she'd been a.s.signed to do, and done it well. But she had hated the undercover spying projects... and hadn't much liked "liaison" work. She'd been glad to leave them behind and get back to real fighting.

It was Mon Mothma who had made it possible for Bria to go back into the real action. The renegade Im-perial senator had both the influence and the' eloquence to convince individual resistance groups that a Rebel Alliance was a necessity. The Senator was better at it than Bria had ever been, and spent 'all her time travel-ing from world to world, meeting with underground leaders. Just a month ago Bria and the rest of the Corellian resistance had celebrated the signing of the Corellian Treaty.

Publicly, Mon Mothma was credited with engineer-ing the Treaty, and there was no doubt that she had helped. But Bria had heard a rumor that Corellia~ own Senator Garm bel Iblis had secretly been one of the main architects of the Treaty. In addition to CoreIlia, the other signatories to the Treaty were Alderaan and Chandrila-Mon Mothma~ home planet.

Traveling system to system, world to world, Mon Mothma made contact with resistance groups where they existed, and created new groups where there had been none. The former senator~ fame was both help and hindrance; on the one hand it gave her access to important n.o.bles and leade~ of industry, but on the other hand, especially in the beginning, some groups had expressed the fear that she might be an Imperial plant, sent by Emperor Palpatine to test their loyalty.

The renegade senator had faced death many times, both from Imperial troops and from suspicions resis-tance leaders. Bria had met Mon Mothma and con-ferred with her soon 'after the senator had fled the Emperor~ charge of treason. She'd been impressed- 'almost awed-by Mon Mothma~ quiet dignity, her unswerving resolution and her formidable intelligence.

It had been one of the high points of Bria~ life when Mon Mothma had shaken her hand and told her that she, Bria Tharen, had been one of the people who'd been instrumental in getting Bail Organa to change his u mind about Alderaan~ pacifism. The Viceroy was now committed to the thought of armed revolution against the Empire. He faced considerable resistance from his government, however, and, so far, Alderaan's efforts at arming itself were small and extremely clandestine.

The Corellian Treaty had inaugurated the Rebel Al-liance Bria and the other Corellians had been working toward. The individual Rebel groups would retain much of their autonomy, but, in theory at least, strategic command of the Alliance was now vested in Mon Mothma. To date, the fledgling Rebel Alliance had not been tested' in battle. Bria was hoping that would soon change.

Bria rounded a corner in Retribution~ corridor, and was joined by her medical officer. Daino Hyx would be in charge of handling the slaves once they were res-cued. Hyx was a short, bearded man with the brightest blue eyes Bria had ever seen, and a shy smile that most people found irresistible. Hyx had been a scholar at one of Alderaan~ top universities. There he'd studied medi-cine and psychology, and had wound up specializing in the treatment of addictions. Since joining the Corellian resistance six months ago, he'd applied his formidable skills to the problem of the Ylesian Pilgrims.

Bria was convinced that there were many frustrated idealists to be found among the underfed, overworked ranks of the Ylesian Pilgrims. Since her first raid on Yle-sia nearly two years ago, sixteen slaves that she'd res-cued were currently topnotch fighters or operatives for the Corellian resistance. Another ten had been awarded medals for valor... posthumously.

Bria had pointed out to her commanding officers on CoreIlia that Ylesia, with its thousands of slaves, was a potential goldmine of Rebel recruits-if only they could find a way to overcome the addictive effects of the Exultation. True, Bria herself had overcome addic-tion to the Exultation to become a valuable addition to the Corellian underground. But it had taken her nearly three years of unrelenting effort to cure herself. She'd tried everything from meditation to drugs-and had only found the strength she needed when she decided to dedicate her life to the eradication of slavery and the Empire that condoned it.

But they didn't have three years to devote to curing the Pilgrims. They had to find a cure that would work in weeks or months, rather than years.

That was where Daino Hyx came in. By thoroughly a.n.a.lyzing the physical, mental and emotional effects of the Exultation (at one point he'd traveled to Nal Hutta to meet a number of t'landa Til males and studied how they produced the effect) Hyx believed he'd found a cure. Hyx~ cure involved a mixture of mental, emotional and physical treatments, ranging from anti-addiction drugs to interactive and group therapy.

Today, if all went well, Hyx would get the chance to begin putting his new treatment to the test.

He glanced up at Bria. "Nervous, Commander?"

She smiled faintly. "Does it show?"

"No. Most people wouldn't notice a thing, I'm sure. But I'm not most people. I got to know you pretty well while we were first working on the new therapy. And as-sessing the mental and emotional states of humanoids is my job, remember."

"That~ true," Bria admitted. "Yes, I'm a bit nervous. This is different from capturing a customs patrol ship or raiding some lonely Imp outpost. This time, we're going up against the people who used to own me, body and spirit. I'm always just a bit 'afraid that when I'm exposed to the Pilgrims' addiction that my own will somehow come back."

Hyx nodded. "You have an emotional stake in this raid, not just a military goal. It~ perfectly understand-able that you'd feel anxiety."

Bria gave him a quick glance. "That won't keep me from doing my job, Hyx."

"I know,'] he said. "Red Hand Squadron is very effi-cient, I hear. From what I've observed about your peo-ple, they'd follow you into a black hole and out the other side."

Bria laughed a little. "I don't know about that. If I were crazy enough to mess with black holes, I hope they'd be sane enough to hold back. But my troops would follow me into Palpatine~ Imperial Palace, that I knOW."

"You wouldn't last very longff he said dryly.

She smiled, but no warmth reached her eyes. "But we'd have fun for a while. It would be worth my life to get a shot at Palpatine."

"How soon does the first wave launch?"

She glanced at the tiny chrono-ring she wore. "We're waiting for the signal from my operative on the s.p.a.ce station. Then we'll microjump into position. He'll tell us the moment Helot~ Shackle undocks from the Ylesian s.p.a.ce station. We want to catch the slavers before they can leave the system." "Makes sense."

Bria turned right and entered the turbolift. "I'm go-ing down to do a final check of my troopers who will be going in the boarding shuttles. Want to tag along?" "Sure."

They took the lift down to the shuttle launch bay. When they stepped out, the launch area was a con-trolled frenzy of crews making last minute checks of vessels, equipment and weapons. One of the troops, seeing Bria, put two fingers in his mouth and whistled piercingly. "Commander on deck?

Bria spoke to her lieutenant, Jace Paol, who was overseeing the last pre-battle preparations. "a.s.semble troops, please."

One quick order later, and the boarding squads were falling in. There would be one squad per shuttle, about ten troops on each. Two waves of three shuttles each, first wave and second wave. First wave would have the respon-sibility for boarding Helot~ Shackle and neutralizing the slaver resistance. The second wave would reinforce the first, and help with the mopping up.

Bria walked slowly down the lines of troops, inspect-ing them, checking their uniforms, their weapons, their expressions. At one point she stopped before a young trooper whose eyes glittered with more than eagerness. Studying his flushed cheeks and reddened nose, she frowned. "Corporal Burrid..."

He came to full attention. "Yes, Commander!"

She reached up, touched his cheek, then his fore-head. "Fall out, Burrid. You've got at least a degree of fever."

Sk'kot Burrid s.m.u.ted. "Respectfully, Commander, I feel fine!"

"Right," Bria said. "And I'm the Emperor~ Wookiee concubine. Hyx?"

The medical officer took a reed-probe out of his belt pouch and touched it to the young man~ face. "Two de-grees fever, Commander. White cell counts indicate in-feetion, possibly contagious."

"Report to the reed droid, Corporal," Bria ordered. Crestfallen, the young man opened his mouth to protest, then he thought better of it and obeyed. With-out a word, his backup from the reserves moved into his place in line.

When Bria had finished her inspection, she paused, then addressed her soldiers. "All right, people. We're waiting now for the signal to make our microjump. The Y-wings will go in first, and make their runs to bring their shields down. Then it will be up to you people. You'll be docking with their airlocks where they have them, and fighting your way in. Where there are no air-locks, we're going to make ones. Special engineering teams will accompany two boarding shuttles. Those squads will cut through the hull just in front of the engi-neering sections."

She paused. "Remember, there are going to be slaves underfoot, confused, frightened, and probably begin-ning to suffer from Exultation withdrawal. They may try to attack you. Don't risk yourselves, but make every rea-sonable effort not to harm them seriously. Use stun beams on those slaves, 'all fight?"

There was a general murmur of agreement. "Are there any questions?"

There weren't. The troops had already been briefed by their squad headers and platoon leaders, and they'd been through repeated drills.

Bria nodded at the troops. "This is Red Hand% most ambitious undertaking yet, people. If we can pull this off, you can bet we'll be seeing more action. So let~ im-press the Sector Command... right?" Agreement was unanimous.

As Bria turned to confer with her platoon leaders, suddenly her comlink beeped. She activated it. "Yes?"

"Commander, the signal just came through. Helot~ Shackle has just undoeked from the Ylesian station."

Bria nodded, then turued to the platoon leader. "First wave, board your shuttles. Second wave... stand by."

The deck reverberated to the pound of running feet as the thirty troopers scrambled into their respective shuttles. u Bria keyed in her personal frequency. "Attention, Crimson Fury, this is Red Hand Leader." "Go ahead, Red Hand."

"Prepare your ships to microjump in three minutes.

Retribution will be right behind you."

"Copy that, Red Hand Leader. Preparing for micro jump."

Quickly Bria and Daino Hyx left the shuttle fighter launch bay, took the turbolift up, then jogged forward until they reached the bridge. The ship% captain looked up as they entered. Bria slipped into a seat behind the tactical schematic. From her station she could also see the viewscreens. "Captain Bjalin," she said. "Ten sec-onds 'after the last of the Y-wings has jumped, we will jump."

"Yes, Commander," Bjalin said. Tedris Bjalin was a tall young man whose hairline was receding, despite his youth. He'd joined the Corellian resistance just recently, after his entire family had been murdered during the Imperial ma.s.sacre on Tyshapahl. Before that time, he'd been an Imperial lieutenant. His Imperial training had served him in good stead, earning him a promotion in the Rebel forces. He was an able officer, a decent man, who'd told Bfia that he'd already been thinking of de-serting the Impefi'al Navy when his family had been murdered. That had pushed him over the edge.

Bria watched tensely as the seconds counted down, and, two by two, the six Y-wings jumped into hyper-s.p.a.ce. Then the starlines stretched out before them, as Retribution jumped, too.

The moment they arrived back in reals.p.a.ce, Retribu-tion opened her shuttle bays and the first wave of boarding shuttles launched. They approached Helot~ Shackle at half speed, behind the Y-wings, which were barreling in at full speed.

Bria watched with satisfaction as the first pair of Y-wings streaked toward the Corellian corvette, firing salvos of two proton torpedoes each, targeting the steru and amidships. Their goal was not to blow a hole in Helot~ Shackle, but to take down the shields without harming the vessel unduly. Bria intended to take the Shackle intact and bring it back to be added into the Rebel fleet. One of the shuttles in the second wave would be carrying a prize crew, consisting of computer techs, engineers, a pilot and damage control and repair teams.

Bria would not have minded catching Helot~ Shackle unprepared, but she wasn't counting on that, and wasn't surprised to find that the corvette was traveling with its shields up. As the Y-wings hurtled in, the big ship opened fire, but the agile Y-wings easily evaded its blasts. Retri-but/on stayed carefitly out of range of its fire.

As Bria watched, the four proton torpedoes launched by the Y-wings flashed blue-white, impacted against the shields, and splashed over the slaver's hull without penetrating the defenses. The first pair of Y-wings peeled away and went circling back in case they were needed again.

Helot~ Shackle blasted away again, and this time one of its shots grazed one of the Y-wings-a minor hit, but enough to put the fighter out of the action.

Bria was figuring it would take four proton torpedoes to bring down the Shackle's shields. The second pair of Y-wings went streaking in, and the first fired.

This time the blue-white burst spread out, then, suddenly, there was a visible impact against the side of the vessel. A blackened streak marred the armor.

"That's it!" Bria said, and keyed the comm unit, ad-dressed her Y-wing team leader. "Crimson Fury, good work! Shields are down! Now let's use those ion can-nons of yours to finish 'em! Warn your ships to take eva-sive! We don't want any more hits?