Hero of Cartao Part 12

By the time Tories returned from his sweep of the surrounding area,Binalie, Corf, and Doriana had taken up seats in the greenhouse's undergroundstoreroom. "All clear," the Jedi confirmed, lowering the trap door back intoplace and plunging the s.p.a.ce into complete darkness. "Go ahead, Corf."

A moment later he found himself squinting as the boy flicked on a small ceiling light. "All right, Master Doriana," Binalie said. "Let's hear it."

"This is a soldier's ID," Doriana said, producing a datacard. "I took itfrom a dead clone trooper lieutenant. Normally, it contains nothing but name,rank, and operating number. A field officer's card, however, also ha.s.something called a contingency deployment profile. It gives detailedinstructions as to where and how to regroup in case of command structuredisruption or the kind of disaster we've just experienced."

"I've never heard of anything like that," Binalie said.

"It's not well advertised, for obvious reasons," Doriana said dryly. "For the same reasons, the information's also not easy to access."

"But you can do that?"

"Yes," Doriana said. "By morning, when the townspeople are allowed tomove around outdoors again, you and Master Tories should be able to casuallytravel to the rendezvous point and make contact with the survivors of lastnight's battle."

"Just the two of us?" Tories asked. "You're not coming?"

Doriana shook his head. "Now that the Separatists are in control here, Ineed to keep as low a profile as possible. My face might have been seen in thebackground on one of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's broadcasts, and I can'ttake the risk that someone will recognize me. I can give you an authorizationdatacard, though, that will confirm you have the authority to give themorders."

"Wait a second," Binalie said, frowning. "What orders?"

"We have to get Roshton and his people out of there, Lord Binalie,"Doriana said, his voice suddenly low and sincere and very persuasive. 'Thelonger they're trapped inside Spaarti, the weaker and more vulnerable toattack they'll become. Don't forget, all those techs he took in with himprobably weren't carrying soldiers' field packs, which means the whole groupis starting out critically low on food and water. If we let them get too weak,our chances of getting them out alive will slip from poor to nonexistent."

"And you don't think the Republic will send help?" Corf asked quietly.

Tories focused on the youth. It was remarkable, he thought distantly, howrapidly Corf had grown up over the past few days. He'd started out as acheerful, carefree boy, content to track down siviviv weeds or just hang outwith Cartao's resident Jedi Guardian.

And then Doriana had arrived, and the events that had followed had turned Corf's home and his neighborhood into a war zone. Now, he was quieter, more thoughtful, more brooding.

The war had come to Cartao. Sadly, it had also come to Corf Binalie.

"I don't know, Master Binalie," Doriana admitted, his voice as grave asthe boy's. "I've spoken with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and I know he trulywants to help. The question is whether there are any Republic forces strongenough and close enough to deal with this particular Separatist army. I'm sureyou understand that there are many other worlds and systems out there inequally desperate situations."

He looked at Tories. "Unless there are other forces available that I don't know about?"

Tories frowned. "What do you mean?"

For a moment, Doriana gazed at him as if trying to read something hidden.

Then, almost too casually, he shrugged.

"Nothing," he said. "I just thought you might have a line to-never mind."

He gestured to the trap door above them. "I'd suggest the three of you go back up and get some sleep," he said. "I need to stay down here for awhile and get this contingency deployment decrypted."

Binalie looked at Tories, his eyebrows lifted slightly. Tories shrugged

microscopically in return. He could sense an air of secretive-ness surrounding Doriana's mind, but that could be nothing more than the natural caution of a man dealing with high-level military security. "All right," Binalie said. "Let us know when you're ready to come back up."

"I will," Doriana promised, turning off the light so the others could open the trap door without giving their presence away.

"Good-night. And don't worry," he added, his tone suddenly thoughtful in the dark. "I have a feeling that by tomorrow night this will all be over."

There had been seven possible rendezvous points listed on the contingencydeployment datacard, ranked in descending order of preference. The first, oneof the hangars at the s.p.a.ceport, was already occupied by Separatist forcesbusily working on damaged vehicles. The second, a warehouse on the northernedge of the city, had been effectively demolished in the night's battle. Atthe third, an automated hydroelectric plant straddling the Quatreen River,Tories and Binalie found the Republic forces.

"This is all rather irregular," their commanding officer, a young-lookinglieutenant, said as he handed back the introductory datacard Doriana had giventhem. "But it does seem to be in order." He gave a hand signal, and the ringof clone troopers that had suddenly appeared on their third step through thedoor lowered their blasters. "I'm Lieutenant Laytron. What's this all about?"

"What it's about is a couple hundred Republic troops and a thousand Republic techs trapped inside the Spaarti Creations plant," Tories told him.

"Yes; Commander Roshton's group," Laytron said. "We've been in briefcontact with him. It sounds like they're making good progress on whatever theproject is they're working on in there."

"That's nice to know," Binalie said sourly. "Did he happen to mention food or water or other irrelevant subjects?"

Laytron regarded him coolly. "For the moment, he seems to be doing all right."

"Which is a complete illusion," Tories pointed out. "And you know it."

"The question is, what are you doing to do about it?" Binalie added.

"Look around you, gentlemen," Laytron said darkly. "We hit Cartao withten guns.h.i.+ps and four hundred fifty officers and men. I'm the last officerstill alive, and I have exactly two hundred thirty-three troops -and novehicles-left to work with. Balance that against probably two thousandfunctional combat droids, plus STAPs and battle tanks, and you're talkingseriously poor odds. I'm cut off from higher authority, and I can't legallyjustify taking action on my own without a reasonable chance of success. Thatchance doesn't exist."

"So you're not even going to try?" Binalie demanded.

"I'm sure reinforcements are on the way," Laytron said. "When theyarrive, my men and I will be right there fighting beside them. Until then,there's nothing I can do except hope that Roshton's people can hold out."

"What if we lower our expectations a little?" Tories suggested.

"Instead of defeating the Separatists, how about if we just get Roshton and his people out?"

"Leaving the place open for the Separatists to move in?" The lieutenantshook his head. "I'm sorry, but our mission parameters were very specific onthat point."

"Then you condemn those troops and civilians in there to death," Binalieshot back, starting to sound angry. "Roshton won't surrender -he's toostubborn for anything that sensible. Do your mission parameters have anythingto say about that!"

"We understand your orders, Lieutenant," Tories said, throwing Binalie a warning look. "But what if the Separatists didn't know Roshton's people had escaped?"

The other's eyes narrowed. "Explain."

"I'm sure you came here equipped with a map of the area," Tories said.

"Do you remember how Spaarti Creations is laid out? A central manufacturing plant, plus three underground Outlinks two to five kilometers away for storage and product transfer?"

"All of them connected to the main plant via underground tunnels,"Laytron said, nodding. "Unfortunately, the Separatists have the same maps wedo. They've got the Outlinks and their tunnels covered."

"Actually," Tories said, "they don't."

He lifted his eyebrows at Binalie. The other still wasn't happy aboutthis, Tories could tell, but he'd made up his mind to go through with it. 'Thefact is, Lieutenant, that the maps are wrong," Binalie said. "We've actuallybuilt a fourth Outlink, west and a little south of the plant and about twokilometers away. It's not quite ready yet, which is why it's not on any of theofficial maps. But the Outlink structure itself is built."

"More to the point, so is the connecting tunnel," Tories said "The only thing missing is the opening into the main complex itself."

"Which a lightsaber-equipped Jedi could easily remedy," Laytron said, sounding thoughtful.

"Exactly," Tories agreed. "If you can stage some kind of diversion todraw the roving patrols away from that part of the grounds, I should be ableto slip in and get Roshton's people out without the Separatists being any thewiser."

"Interesting idea," Laytron agreed. "You have any particular diversion in mind?"

"We were hoping you could come up with something," Tories said.

"I'm sure you have a better grasp of the military situation than either of us do."

"Well, there's one obvious possibility," Laytron said. "With theircontrol s.h.i.+p destroyed, they have to be running their droid army off thesecondary control matrix they brought down here with them. If we threatenthat, they'll have no choice but to respond."

"Good idea," Binalie grunted. "Question is, where is it?"

"It's not in one of the battle tanks or MTT transports," Laytron said.'There's only so much miniaturization you can do with something like that. Ittherefore has to be in one of the landing s.h.i.+ps."

"Unless it's not even in this area," Binalie pointed out. "There areabout a million square kilometers of empty s.p.a.ce out there where they couldhave hidden it."

"No," Laytron said, shaking his head. 'There's no combat droid presenceanywhere else on the planet, at least nothing serious. Neimoidians aren'tnearly daring enough to leave something that important lying around without afull defense screen around it. No, it's definitely in one of the landings.h.i.+ps. Question is, which one?"

An image flashed back to Tories' memory: hurrying through the darknessacross the plant rooftop, noticing the STAPs circling the first landing s.h.i.+pthat had put down by the plant's west door. "It's in the first one," he said.'The one sitting right beside the plant."

"How do you know?" Laytron asked, frowning.

"It was under heavy guard during the battle last night," Tories told him."If the Neimoidians are as nervous as you say, they'd certainly want it wheretheir ground forces can protect it at the same time they're protecting theplant."