Overshadowed (10.355 ABY)

[Bette Davis]

"Hey. Hey!"

Lieutenant Commander Bette Davis shook Ensign Zach Jak'el awake in his bunk. As he struggled to pull himself out of what had looked like a very deep and restful sleep, she threw his flightsuit at him.

"Get dressed and meet me by our ships. Ten minutes."

She was leaning over him, and put a finger on her lips.

"Don't wake anyone else up. We have a mission, but it's just you and me."

Bette gave him one last hard shake to make sure he was awake (and also because it was funny), then turned and headed toward the hangar.

[Zachariah Jak'el]

"Huh, what?"

The fog of dreams faded away so quickly that he could not remember what it had been about, only that he had been enjoying it. The strive to remember was given an immediate backseat when he saw who was shaking him awake; Shooter. Oh, god. Nonono! Not another sock beating! He brought his hands up defensively at first before he realized that she was alone, and her words finally sunk all the way into his foggy brain. They were instructions. Orders. Something was up, and she needed him.

Swinging his legs off the bunk, he immediately began pulling on the flight suit. It was so routine that he could have done it in his sleep, and had done so many times. Not this time. He was wide awake now. This was entirely out of the ordinary. It felt important. Dressing had his full attention. The all black body sock was stretched into place and then the life support harness. Snug. Secure. Finally he grabbed his helmet and ran out the door and down the hall as quietly as a human body could when it was primarily composed of legs and elbows.

[Bette Davis]

Ship’s time was about 02:00 when Bette entered hangar 2D. Jak’el wouldn’t be too far behind, and if she was very lucky he wouldn’t have woken up anyone else on his way out.

She trailer her fingers along the hull of her Defender, Maneater, but her eyes were on the five starfighters (https://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?15125-Project-Eidolon-(Tel)) on the other side of the hangar. More arrow shaped than circular, the TIE Wraiths (https://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?15279-Silence-(Bette)) were technically hers to use when she deemed it necessary, as Shadow Leader. Commander V’larr had been called back to R&D (perhaps because they hoped his half-alien brain would have more designs they could exploit inside it), and she’d accepted the promotion.

Commander Bette Davis gave her TIE one last pat as the Ensign entered the hanger, and walked over to him, interceptinghim before he could get to his Defender.

”We’re taking the Wraiths for this mission. I know we don’t have co-pilots for the sensor tech, but it is possible to use the cloak without a second person. If necessary.” She winked, as if to say not to worry about it.

”This is a classified mission, Jak’el. So look sharp, we’ve got clearance to take two ships out of the bay,” she looked at her chrono, “in fifteen minutes. Let’s get that preflight going.”

She indicated Wraith 04, Ghost, to Jak’el, and climbed into 01, Shadowhunter to start her preflight checks.

[Zachariah Jak'el]

As he entered the hangar his eyes and mind were focused on one thing; the last TIE/D in the rack of starfighters along the hangar wall. Emblemized with only a simple number nine beside the cockpit, the old girl had stayed simple and clean compared to her sisters. The others had all manner of non-regulation emblems and pet names. He'd hardly made it a dozen feet into the hangar before Shooter popped out from behind the first fuselage.

Her words caused Jackal's head slowly turned to look over at the starfighters on the other side of the hangar. Where the Defenders had a certain functional elegance to their design, the Wraith's looked like anger distilled in form. Sharp points on the wing fuselage and a forward sitting cockpit that looked a bit too much like an elongated eye. They looked evil.

"Oh boy." He whispered as he adjusted his mindset to the new task. He'd flown the Wraith without a sensor tech before, it was a requirement after all, but it was not exactly a great time. The comfortably snug fit of the cockpit felt empty in a bad way without a copilot. No time to worry about that, though. He nodded his head and fast walked over to his designated Wraith. Ghost. A creepy name for a creepy ship.

A quick walk around confirmed the exterior was intact. Climbing inside he grabbed the pre-flight checklist flimsi and began going over the many checkpoints. The list would go a lot faster with a co-pilot, cutting it down to a few minutes. Instead he had to painstakingly check every function of the co-pilot station before moving on to his own. With everything checked and double checked he finally strapped himself into his seat, pulled his helmet into place, fired up the life support system, and finally closed the top hatch. Sealing himself inside his oxygen-free flying tomb.

"Shadow Nine ready. All green."

[Bette Davis]

“Copy that, Shadow Nine.” Bette would normally crack a joke right as a mission started, but tonight she didn’t.

”This is Shadow Leader, taking us out. Just follow me nice and easy, Jackal.”

The Wraiths lifted from the flight deck and eased out of the hangar into the black. They’d made their window, which meant that they were now completely on their own. Jackal didn’t need to know that, though.

”I’m linking our hyperdrives for the jump, stand by.” Bette selected Ghost on her HUD and linked it to her navicomp, the jump already calculating.

”We are going over the border,” she said, knowing Zach could see the coordinates on his own HUD. “They wouldn’t let me run it without a wingman, and you’re one of our best so I asked for you.”

He’s also the most idealistic, naive, and expendable, she thought, and hated herself for it.

”Here we go.” They’d been flying away from the task group, and as the pair of black starfighters hit open space they winked away into hyperspace.

[Zachariah Jak'el]

"Roger that Shadow Leader. Following your lead."

It was moments like this that he wished he could rub the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes. No chance of that. Instead he cracked his neck and adjusted his grip on the yoke. It helped, and it helped a lot more once Wraith 01 released from it's rack and started floating out the airlock. Now his hands were occupied with controlling his starfighter instead of tapping nervously on the yoke. Easing off the rack himself he slipped into the void right behind Bette. If it wasn't for the FOF tag marking her ship, it wouldn't be too hard to lose the dark gray vessel among the blanket of stars.

There was a lot of troubling statements in her next comm burst. First, going over the border was not exactly outside of the kind of stuff they did on a regular basis, but it did seem a weird destination considering how few of them were going. A single pair over the border? While that might mean a smaller chance of being detected, they were already in some of the stealthiest starships in the galaxy, and more numbers meant more firepower in case something went wrong. Then she said he was one of the best. He sure didn't feel that way, especially compared to the rest of the squadron which were mostly older and more experienced pilots compared to himself. Zach still felt that he had made it this far on a fluke and that someday they were going to figure it out and sent him back to the medical corps.

This was becoming a big heap of uneasy. He didn't have too much time to dwell on it as they reached their launch vector point.

"Coordinates synced. System ready."

And then the stars stretched into infinite lines, and like an old space he leaned back in his seat and looked up into the canopy of his cockpit lest he succumbed to hyperspace madness.

[Bette Davis]

Bette fiddled with the instruments on the console as hyperspace enveloped them. After a few moments she opened a comm channel to Jackal.

”We’ve got three jumps to complete, and this first one is about an hour. I know I woke you up, so no shame in getting some sleep, Jackal. I’m going to close my eyes for a bit too.”

She sat back in her seat, the extra space behind her in the cockpit giving her a weird feeling and making it hard for her to relax. Or maybe it was just the mission that was keeping her on edge. She’d barely been able to sleep after Agent Kyris had slipped her the information that had led her here.

Bette Davis stared at the datapad she’d brought with her, her face set sternly as the two Wraiths slipped through hyperspace.

[Zachariah Jak'el]

"Affirmative."

If there was one thing that Zachariah Jak'el was the best at, it was sleeping anywhere. Life on the farm was all about sleeping when you could because you were working every other moment. Heck, there were times he'd gone weeks without bathing because there was simply no time. Those were the good 'ol days. When life was a hoot instead of a holler. Before the Civil War. Before the Rebellion tore the galaxy apart and pitted brother against brother. Pa would have had some things to say about the war. He would have some good advice to give in these dark times. If'n he was alive, that is.

Getting comfortable in the cockpit was a careful balancing act meant to immobilize your limbs. Hands tucked into opposite underarms, chin down, ankles crossed. Like sleeping on a tractor.

It wasn't long before he was out. Chasing that dream he'd forgotten.

[Bette Davis]

Bette dozed off at some point during the second hyperspace jump, but after the two Wraiths (and the Shadows who flew them) slipped out of hyperspace she was wide awake. Taking some time before the last jump that would take them into Alliance space, she opened the comm between the two ships as they hung in the black between star systems.

"I'm transmitting some information to you, Jackal. I need you to study the schematics of the building and tell me what weak points there are and how you'd gain entrance. I haven't really gone over the 'boots on the ground' part of being a Shadow with you, but use your best judgement and talk it out with me over the comm so we can compare notes.

"This is a highly classified mission, so I will tell you everything I can tell you. We are heading to Malastare to a recently discovered Alliance black site, retrieving a package, and getting the hell out. We are going over the Border with a capital-B, which means if we're caught at best we'll be disavowed by the Empire and hung out to dry." Bette paused.

"I know I didn't tell you what you were getting into before I dragged you out into space, Zach." Her voice softened a little. "You do have a choice. I'll be the one landing and going into the building. I can do that without you. I'd feel a lot better if you were here to watch my back, but if you don't want to cross the border with me I understand. You can go back to the Admonisher right now."

[Zachariah Jak'el]

"Well shoot, Commander. We already came all this way. It'd be a cryin' shame to waste all this fuel. Let's just pop in real quick and get back 'fore they miss us."

Smacking his console screen while rolling his eyes accepted the transmitted package from Bette. Opening the file up, the schematic of a multistory structure materialized on the screen. With flicks of his finger the three-dimensional render flipped back and forth until he was satisfied he had seen it from all angles. It was a big enough structure. Looked like duracrete. Probably pretty strong, but nothing that he couldn't strafe down with the right TIE. Buildings, he found, were often a fairly simple enemy. They just sat there and took the punishment. Entering one, on the other hand, was quite outside his usual scope.

"Everything I know says hit those main support points and make it fold it on itself. But if'n you want to walk inside it, you know, while it's still standing and stuff, well that's quite a different animal entirely. Shoot, I don't know. I guess we could try going in through those small basement windows along the ground. Probably go into a basement. We're both small, I bet we can slip in there; like a nerf on Christmas. 'course, if breaking windows sets off some kind of alarm then we are absolutely danged to heck."

Was the front door such a bad idea? It worked out pretty good on Frontier after all. Maybe he could trick his way in. Won't they think he's just the sweetest little Naboo boy they ever met? Naboo is on their side of the Border, after all. Bette would be a bit harder to sneak in. She had a face like a fist.

[Bette Davis]

Bette was looking at her own copy of the schematic. "Actually, not a bad idea. But what about if I land on the roof and enter that way? All the intel we have says that this site isn't extremely well guarded. The Alliance uses its isolation and off the books nature to keep whoever they've got there hidden. The more outer defenses you've got, the quicker someone will tell someone else about it. So there aren't any that we know of."

That we know of.

Bette pursed her lips, a sour feeling in her stomach. The intel was good. She only trusted the source to a point, but this was that point.

"There's 4-5 guards inside, and I feel pretty confident that I can take them out on my own. If I land on the roof you can stay in the air and protect my exit, plus you'd be a giant distraction. Shoot out a few windows maybe, that sort of thing. Once we're there we can run a thermal scan and make sure you don't target any rooms with ...political prisoners in them."

She paused. "Does that sound good?"

[Zachariah Jak'el]

"Sounds like you'll be the one having all the fun." He joked over the comm as he drummed his fingers on the edge of the console. A thought occurred to him and he immediately began taking the blueprint apart with swipes of his fingers, highlighting those same key support beams among other structurally important assets and marking safe to destroy sections and superfluous architecture. Effectively he created a map for what he could shoot out without putting Bette in danger or collapsing the building on top of her.

"Should work, so long as you've got your FOF beacon on so I don't Chiss Cheese you. Also, hold up. Political prisoners? We doing missions for ImpIntel again? I hate those spooks. We rescuing one of our own at least, or grabbing some nob everyone hates?"

It always sat poorly in his stomach all the clandestine operations they had done as orders from ImpIntel. He knew it was important to the war effort, and now the cold war standoff, but all that sneaking around felt like sinnin'.

[Bette Davis]

Bette chose her words carefully.

”If the intel is good the package is leftover from before the treaty was signed, which is why they were never returned. Or at least, that’s the reasoning Intel has ascribed to the Alliance’s actions.

”The only way to know for sure is to get in and find out.” She stared at the data, and then closed and secured the datapad. “Okay, let’s do this.”

The two Wraiths slipped into hyperspace.

***

Counting on their dark profile to keep them hidden against the night sky, Bette led Jackal at high altitude to the black site coordinates on Malastare.

”We’re dark, but even if we activated the cloak it wouldn’t hide our engine noise in atmo. When we go down, things are going to happen quickly. I’ll land and hop out and I need you to scan and feed me the info over the comm. Got it?”

Jackal answered in the affirmative. Bette took a deep breath, and pulled up on the steering yoke, angling straight neg-y and diving down on the site.

Leveling off at the last minute she went into full acceleration on the reverse repulsors, slamming forward in her crashwebbing as the Wraith dumped speed and then seemed to pause in place above the building. Teeth gritted, Bette activated the landing prongs and the black ship settled lightly on the rooftop.

She cut the engine and banged open the hatch, pulling herself up and out of the ship. Helmet still on, she drew her blaster and ran across to the roof access door, reaching it right as someone slammed it open from the other side.

Bette caught the person point blank with a blaster bolt, their body tumbling backward inside the building and down the stairs. She ducked inside, stepping over the body as she scrambled down, heading for the first room.

[Zachariah Jak'el]

Following in close behind Bette to hide their numbers in the very rare chance that anything was picking them up, Zach kept pace right up until their target came into view. While Bette angled for the rooftop, he brought further down, leveled up, and decelerated so that he came in alongside the structure. Pivoting about, he let the subspace engines turn him to face the base and keep him floating above the ground. The schematic he'd marked up was layered over his HUD and lined up with the structure of the building; giving him an almost holographic view of what laid beyond the duracrete facade.

Combined with the infrared scanner that was managing to penetrate a few meters through all that duracrete, it painted a picture of a lot of empty rooms.

The moment the weapons systems went green he laid into the trigger and blasted out the windows on a second floor room on the front of the building; cracking duracrete and shattering glass.

"Woo-wee. Knocked on the door real good. Got some movement below. Got a couple running up from the ground floor that gotta be guards. The rest... eh. Can't really tell. Lots of thermal signatures just loitering. A lot on the third floor."

[Bette Davis]

"Copy that, Jackal."

The building shook as Zach opened fire again, a short burst that was greeted with yells from down below. Bette's breath was loud inside her helmet as she checked down the stairwell, clear, and then faced the entry point for the third floor.

She held her blaster out at the ready as she carefully reached and pulled the door open, slipping into a hallway. It appeared to be a repurposed office building of some kind, complete with a water cooler and desks with ripped out holoterminals, only wires left behind.

A woman came around a corner, her face confused and then alarmed to see the intruder. Bette dropped to one knee and shot her in the abdomen before she could get her blaster hand up. The woman groaned and cursed, staggering backward, blaster still clutched tight, and Bette finished her off with two shots to the chest.

"Two hostiles down. Checking the rooms."

Bette patted down the fallen Alliance agent for a keycard and found it, crossing immediately to the closest locked office. Popping it open she found it empty, and so were the next two.

She could almost hear a chrono ticking in her head as she raced for the next closed door. The lock paused a moment before responding to the keycard. The light turned green, there was a slight click.

Bette opened the door, cautiously looking inside with her blaster at the ready. A figure was sitting up on the far side of the room, and she quickly crossed the room toward him.

[Silus Xilarian]

"Stupid fucking...gah..shit!"

Silus awkwardly stumbled out from beneath his TIE Advanced, the Hammer. He tossed away the wrench he was holding and began nursing the knot that was welling up on his forehead. For hours he'd been working on his ship, trying to get it running again, but no matter what he did it just sat there. He wiped his hands on a rag and walked across the hangar, staring out into the blackness of space.

It called to him.

He could just go out now. "In space you'll just float." It was calming. He looked back over his shoulder at the Hammer. He needed to get the Hammer running. He looked back out into space. It suddenly seemed strange. "Where are all the stars?" Space should have stars. And the drumbeat. The drumbeat was the strangest part. Or was that coming from inside the hangar? He turned and looked around, more and more confused. "Are we being fired on?".

Blackness

His eyes opened slowly in the darkness. It took all his strength to roll over and sit up. "I was in the hangar again." he thought to himself. He couldn't remember the details. His mind was, disorganized? He felt confused. He looked around to gain his bearings, trying to get a point of reference that could anchor his erratic thoughts. In the darkness of the room he saw a figure moving toward him. Dark and ominous. "They're not finished with me after all." The feeling of dread was barely a tug in the pit of his stomach at this point. Pain had become a constant companion to him.

"What's a little more?"

He looked up at the figure with a foggy indifference in his eyes. His voice was weak and raspy, but there was slight tinge of defiance in it.

"I don't need any more refills. Just the check please..."

[Bette Davis]

Bette looked around the room, forcing herself to clear it before focusing on Silus. She stood for a moment in front of him, blaster pointed down, taking in his appearance.

He was thin and hollow looking, hair and beard overgrown, eyes sunken into his face but still bright as he looked up at her. Her breath caught in her throat and she holstered the blaster, kneeling in front of him.

"Package located, Jackal, I'm going to come out top again. Once I'm clear we have to bring down the building. No witnesses."

She turned off the voice activation on her comm so she could speak just to Silus. "Xilarian, we're getting you out of here, okay? But we have to hurry."

[Silus Xilarian]

His head had a little bit more roll to it than it should have as he turned to look at the figure in front of him. It took a few moments for several blurry images to coalesce into one, bringing her into focus. It was... No, she was kneeling in front of him.

"You're new." He said, almost as if he were speaking through her. His eyes focused on her hip. "Been awhile since I've seen one of those." he thought. Almost on it's own, his hand slowly moved toward her hip before he stopped it. "Not the right time..." he thought, "...just wait."

He started to push himself to his feet, but fell back into the wall behind him. Before he could hit the floor, the woman caught him, supporting his weight. It was then that he noticed her flight helmet. Even through the fog of his mind he recognized what sort of helmet it was. His thoughts drifted back to the hangar, and the TIE that wouldn't work. Confusion washed over him again.

"You know we're grounded right?"

[Bette Davis]

The building shook as Jackal lit it up again, and plaster dust fell from the ceiling on top of them. Bette thought she would have struggled under Silus’ weight, but he felt frighteningly light and frail as she pulled his arm around her neck and tucked herself under his shoulder for support.

“Come on Nomad, we’re cleared for take off.” Bette kicked the door back open and shuffled them both back into the hallway, trying to look up and down it at the same time.

Which way is the stairwell? She felt rattled, and Silus’ feet weren’t quite underneath him correctly as they walked.

Picking a direction Bette got them moving again, past the dead Alliance agent she’d shot just a few minutes earlier.

”Jackal I’m on my way up.”

[Silus Xilarian]

As she carried him out the hallway, the sound of heavy blaster fire rocked the building around them. Then whole world went silent. All around him he heard a whisper. It was his own voice.

"Now...."

Indecision started to creep in, but his voice was back inside his head, forcing it out "Now is the time..."

His hand moved toward her hip again. "Slowly..." he thought, "let the noise distract her..." He knew he couldn't afford to miss his chance. His hand was almost to her hip when her voice echoed into his brain, shutting his entire world down.

"Come on Nomad, we’re cleared for take off."

He stopped. That voice. Very few people called him Nomad. Time stopped as realization rolled through his head. For a split second he gained a clear understanding of the world around him, every light and shadow, every sound registered. The tiniest surge of adrenaline broke loose inside of him, giving him a sliver of strength he didn't think was possible.

This was it. He had to act.

His left hand clamped onto her flight suit while his right hand shot to her hip. He snatched her blaster from its holster and shoved her forward, turning himself completely around with his back to her. He leveled the blaster and squeezed the trigger. As Bette turned she saw Silus struggling to keep his balance while a guard fell in front of him, smoke creeping upward from the blaster wound in his forehead.

[Bette Davis]

Bette fell forward but caught herself with her hands, quickly pushing herself back up and regaining her balance. As she took in the view, she put her hand over Silus’, slowly taking the blaster back. He didn’t resist.

“Good shooting Silus.” She wasn’t sure why she kept saying his names, but it seemed important. “Come on, this way, just up these stairs...”

Bette tucked herself under his arm again, supporting his weight as they made their way into the stairwell.

[Silus Xilarian]

Before he could even attempt to put her blaster back in its holster, she had already disarmed him and pulled him back over her shoulder. As they got to the stairwell he took one awkward step but lost his balance and nearly fell. This was its own kind of torture. The fog in his mind was starting to lift, and he was more aware of his surroundings, but his motor skills were absolute trash. It was almost as if he'd been put into a different body and was still learning the controls. He quickly found that it didn't matter, as Bette was basically carrying him up the steps, any effort he made to further that goal was more of a moral contribution than anything else.

The rapid change of scenery made him dizzy and it took time for his eyes to focus. As they reached the roof his heart sank into his stomach. He expected to find a ship waiting for them but all he could see was darkness. He found panic threatening to take control. Minutes earlier he had accepted the fact that he was about to be tortured, possibly even killed. When he realized who was here for him, it had been hope that had surged through him, giving him the tiniest spark of strength. Now that hope was beginning to drain out of him with despair filling the void.

He fought to keep his mind in check. They wouldn't come to the roof for no reason. He forced himself to breathe more slowly and fought the dizziness that was trying to overtake him. In front of him, seemingly out of thin air, a ship began to materialize. It was definitely a TIE fighter, but ...stranger. He didn't even bother trying to process what flavor of TIE this was, instead asking the most pertinent question.

"Are we both going to fit in there?"

[Bette Davis]

"Oh no, I didn't think of that," she said tightly, pushing him out onto the roof and turning to face down the stairs as she heard feet thundering up toward them.

Bette took two shots, trying to aim through the railings toward the lower stairs, but the Rebel stopped just out of sight. A blaster came into view and energy bolts splattered against the duracrete behind her head, chips of the stuff pinging off her helmet. Bette ducked, and fired back, missing again.

She thumbed her blaster to stun and fired again. The wider spread hit, and the Rebel stumbled on the stairs, his head falling into view.

Bette switched back to full, took a quick step toward the railing and shot him in the face.

Holstering her blaster she ran out onto the roof, to find Silus more or less where she'd left him. She got under his arm again, trying to pick up the pace toward the Wraith.

"It's a two seater, don't worry, I took care of everything Nomad." She boosted him up into it, scrambling in after. "Sorry, I shouldn't be sarcastic during a mission."

Bette switched her mic back on. "Jackal, we're almost clear. As soon as I lift off, take the building down."

[Silus Xilarian]

Getting him boosted into the ship and properly into the seat was an order, and he was out of breathe by the end of it.

"Have to be...sarcastic." He stopped for a second to catch is breath. "Wouldn't know it was you..."

He looked around and found a flight helmet sitting next to him. As she prepped for takeoff he started to say something but stopped. He was dead weight and she needed to focus. They would have plenty of time to catch up once they were gone.

[Bette Davis]

“Cockpit pressurization is optimal,” Bette reported as the hatch sealed, and she fired up the twin ion engines of the Wraith.

”I hope you’re strapped in,” she said, pulling Shadowhunter upoff the roof. She couldn’t turn her head around enough to get a visual on him, and had to trust he’d gotten himself situated.

As they pulled for the sky Jackal unloaded on the building supports with a salvo of proton torpedoes, the building crumbling into a pile dust and fire. Bette half-smiled as Shadow Nine whooped over the comm.

”We’re heading home, Jackal. Jump coordinates are set in reverse, go as soon as you’re clear.”

”Affirmative, Shadow Leader. See ya on the other side.”

Bette piloted her Wraith on the vector that would get them clear of Malastare the fastest, as security forces were starting to wake up to the fact something had just gone down in one of their sectors. The outside of the ship lit up as they burned through the atmosphere, the cockpit rattling and shuddering, and then just as quickly they were through.

”Jump coordinates set and hyperdrive engaged,” she announced, and then the starlines stretched and they were finally free.

[Silus Xilarian]

After they were in hyperspace Silus just kind of sat in silence. He found himself drifting in and out of consciousness, but never fully into sleep. His mind was hung on a certain thought, and every time he would start to complete it he would nod off a bit, and wake to find himself back at the beginning again. He was caught in a seemingly endless loop until mercifully the ship lurched and fell back into a realspace causing him to snap to full attention. He found himself looking out into space, trying to see where they were, looking for a space station or an ISD, anything familiar. Instead there were only stars. In the back of his mind he knew they probably had several jumps to make, but he was still anxious.

"Where are we?"

[Bette Davis]

“Somewhere on the other side of the border,” Bette said, loosening her crashwebbing and reaching for the store of consumables that were secured behind a panel. Rapping it with her knuckles the panel popped open and she pulled out some bags of water and ration packs.

”Thought you might be hungry,” she added, twisting around a bit to hand the rations back to Silus. “Oh, we’re not at war with the Rebels anymore. Thanks to you, really.”

After a moment her gloved hand appeared over the back of her seat again, a metal flask in its grip as she waved it a bit in front of Silus. “You dropped this last time I saw you. Took the liberty of filling it up for you.”

[Silus Xilarian]

The rations were barely over the seat before Silus was devouring them. He always hated standard rations, but found himself wolfing them down with zero hesitation or complaint. He started to speak when she handed a flask back to him. His flask. He'd had it since his early days in the Empire and she couldn't possibly know what I meant to him. He took the top off and took a careful sip, doing his best not to cough as the brown liquid set his chest on fire.

He sat for a few minutes in silence, finishing his food and turning the flask around and around in his hands. Bette had taken them on in to hyperspace already and looked as if she might slouch down a bit and take a nap. He listened to her breathing for a moment and determined she was still awake.

"Thank you Bette."

It wasn't often he called her anything except Shooter, and the tone of his voice suggested that he was talking about more than the food and the booze.

[Bette Davis]

She sat quietly for a moment, her chest tight with conflicting emotions. When she finally spoke, her voice was husky.

”Don’t thank me. I... I left you to die on Telos IV. I’m so fucking sorry, Silus. I thought you were dead. Kyris thought you were dead, or told me she did.” Her voice broke, and there was silence for a moment while she composed herself.

”They gave me a medal. For leaving you. I only found out you were alive a few days ago...Kyris slipped me the data. I don’t know where she got it.

“I came as fast as I could.” Her tone indicated that she believed it had not been fast enough.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus' eyes went wide. He didn't have many friends, and of that small bunch Bette was easily the closest. He never in a million years thought he'd ever hear someone who'd just saved his life apologize to him. It struck him as odd, wrong even, until he thought about what he would do in her shoes, how he would feel. "I would get it twisted up too...". He reached up and put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched for a moment, but seemed to somewhat relax.

"If you had come after me, you'd have been in the same boat as me or worse, and it wouldn't have done me any good. And then we would have failed the mission, and who knows what that would have meant!"

He realized as he said it that he had no clue what the information they'd stolen actually was. It didn't really matter.

"When I went down, you made the tough call. You completed the mission, and now you're bringing me home."

He squeezed her shoulder with an intensity that would be painful if he weren't still so weak.

"The only reason I'm alive right now is because of you. That's as simple as it is. You did the right thing."

[Bette Davis]

Bette took in a deep breath, and put her hand over his on her shoulder.

"It would have been the end of the Empire. We saved the fucking Empire and it was so classified no one can know it even happened."

She rubbed her fingers on the back of his hand, unsure what else to say, but grateful for his words.

"You should rest. It's a few more hours in hyperspace and then we'll be back at the Admonisher."

[Silus Xilarian]

"Yes ma'am."

He gave her shoulder one last squeeze then leaned back in his seat. The little bit of food that he'd eaten had made a world of difference, and the whisky was no doubt going to work as well. He twisted in his seat a bit until he felt comfortable and closed his eyes, easily drifting into the most restful sleep he'd had in years.

***

"I think that might do it..."

Silus closed the access panel stepped out from underneath the Hammer. He pushed the tool chest he'd been working out of aside and kicked away some debris on the floor. He took two easy bounds up the ladder and was sitting in the pilot's seat. As he closed the cockpit, everything lit up inside. All systems online, preflight diagnostics all coming up good. He fired up the repulsors and felt the ship lift off its stand, gliding gracefully over the floor of the hangar. He activated the engines and steered his ship toward the shimmering blue barrier that separated the hangar from open space. He slowly brought his ship through the barrier and drifted away slowly before going full throttle, hurtling off into the black.