Survivor's Quest

"Fine, but why stormtroopers?" Mara asked. "Why didn't you just design and create your own elite force if that's what you wanted?"

Fel shrugged. "Mainly because the psychological advantage was already in place," he said. "Thrawn had brought several stormtrooper legions out here, and used them very effectively against a whole series of troublemakers. Once potential enemies came to respect and fear men in stormtrooper armor, it paid to keep using it."

"Even if not all those inside the armor are men anymore?" Luke asked.

Fel smiled. "Yes—Su-mil. Also goes by the warrior name Grappler."

"Your stormtroopers have names?" Mara asked. "I thought they were just assigned operating numbers."

"Even some of Palpatine's stormtroopers had names," Fel told her. "We all have names here. In case you're interested, Aurek-Seven consists of Grappler, Watchman, Shadow, and Cloud."

"Colorful," Mara commented. "I hope you don't expect us to keep track of them in public."

"Especially since they don't seem to have gotten around to imprinting their names on their helmets," Luke added.

"And they never will," Fel said. "We don't put that kind of identification on stormtrooper armor. That way, no one can tell whether the stormtroopers he's facing are the absolute best the Empire of the Hand has to offer or a set of freshly trained recruits facing their first genuine action. It keeps our enemies from playing the odds against us."

"Were Su-mil's people one of those enemies?" Mara asked.

"Not at all," Fel assured her. "Su-mil is an Eickarie, one of the latest peoples to join the Empire of the Hand. They were a fragmented tribal people whom we helped liberate from the domination of a very organized warlord with a relative handful of disciplined troops."

"Helped how?" Mara asked. "Threw him out, then moved in yourselves?"

"Hardly," Fel said. "The Eickaries were actually very good fighters. They'd just gotten used to fighting among themselves over the years, and the Warlord took advantage of that to keep them working at cross-purposes. All we did was help organize and arm them. They did all the rest."

"And once they were free they simply decided to join up with you?" Luke asked.

"We're not Palpatine's Empire, either, Master Skywalker," Fel said. "We're more like a confederation than a true empire, in fact, with allies instead of conquered peoples. We keep the name, again, mainly for the historical aspects."

"And the psychological value, of course," Mara murmured.

"Of course," Fel agreed. "If you've gotten used to the notion of the Empire of the Hand being unbeatable, you're likely to give up that much sooner when a Star Destroyer appears over your planet or a squad of stormtroopers blows a hole through your defensive perimeter. Frankly, our philosophy is that the best battles are those where the enemy gives up before any shots have to be fired at all."

"You still don't strike me as a stormtrooper officer type," Luke commented. "What does your father think of your career choice?"

Fel shrugged. "Actually, I'm in the fleet end of the Imperial military," he said. "My usual command is a fleet-arm of clawcraft." He gri

They emerged from the corridor onto a deserted command deck. "No one on duty?" Luke asked, looking around.

"Is there anyone on duty in your ship?" Fel countered reasonably as he crossed to what appeared to be the main sensor station and waved his guests to a pair of chairs at nearby consoles. "Actually, we don't have a separate flight crew. This kind of transport is designed for a stormtrooper unit to be able to fly by itself, at least on routine operations. Takes some of the strain off our pilot cadre."

"Does that mean you're low on trained perso

"Everyone's always low on skilled pilots," Fel said, sitting down and swiveling his chair toward a rack of data cards. "I doubt the New Republic's any different. But at the moment we're doing all right. There are at least two alien groups within the Empire that have shown very good aptitude for general flight operations..."

He trailed off, and Luke caught a sudden dark flicker in Fel. "What is it?" he asked.

Slowly, Fel swiveled back to face them. "Well," he said, his voice studiously conversational. "I think I know now what that fire was all about. Whoever it was figured the Imperial Five-Oh-First would go charging back to help, nobly oblivious to our own safety."

"What are you talking about?" Mara demanded.

Fel gestured to the rack of data cards. "The Outbound Flight operational manual," he said. "It's gone."

CHAPTER 7

Mara looked at Luke, to find him looking back at her. "Really," she said, looking over at Fel. "That's handy."

"Isn't it, though," Fel said. His voice was still quiet, but his face suddenly seemed older and harder. More mature, somehow, than Mara's first impression of him as a kid playing soldier. "Yes, that's certainly one way of putting it."

"I take it you don't have another copy?" Luke asked.

"This was the copy," Fel said. "The original records are back on Nirauan."

"Of course," Luke said. "What I meant—"

"I know what you meant." Fel passed a hand across his face; and when he had lowered it, some of the hardness had faded. "Sorry. I'm just... I messed up. I hate when I mess up."

"Welcome to the club," Mara said, an odd feeling flickering through her. In all her time with the Empire, she wondered, had she ever heard an Imperial officer actually admit to having made a mistake? "Let's skip the finger pointing and see if we can figure out who's got it. You have any idea how many people are aboard?"

"Not that many," Fel said, sounding a little more on balance. "I think this size ship runs a crew of only thirty to thirty-five. There seems to be an honor guard ru

"Plus five Geroons, you and four stormtroopers, Jinzler, and us," Luke said. "Unless there's someone else we don't know about."

"Right," Fel said.

"Wait a second," Mara said, frowning in concentration as she searched her memory. "You said Formbi had a staff of twenty?"

"I said that was typical for an ambassador," Fel corrected. "I haven't actually run the numbers myself."

"And I presume most of them would be from Formbi's family," she said. "That means they'd all be wearing yellow, right?"

"That's the Chaf family color, yes," Fel confirmed. "Why?"

"Because I didn't see more than four yellow outfits at di

"She's right," Luke agreed. "Which family wears black?"

"None of them," Fel said, frowning. "That's the Chiss Defense Fleet. Black's a combination of all colors, since the military draws from all the families."

"What about his honor guard?" Mara asked. "Would they be from his family?"

Fel shook his head. "All honor guards wear military black. Huh. I wonder what he's done with the rest of his entourage."

"Maybe he had to leave them behind," Luke suggested. "With a mission of this sort the Nine Families might not have wanted any one family too heavily represented."

"I suppose that would make sense," Fel agreed slowly. "There's always been a tricky balance of power among the families."

"We can do a head count in the morning," Mara said. "Let's go on. How many of these assorted people might have known you had those files?"

Fel grimaced. "That's not going to narrow it nearly as much as you think. I was talking about it to Ambassador Jinzler this evening in the reception corridor before we were seated for di