Shadows in the Stars (~8.329 ABY)

[ACTUAL TIME STAMP IS CLASSIFIED]


"Lieutenant Commander Davis?"

Bette looked up from the report she was writing on the last training exercise, and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Can I help you...Lieutenant?" She eyed the man's rank plate, and then looked down at her datapad with the half-written report in a pointed fashion.

"You're needed in the briefing room. Said your reports could wait."

"Who said?" Bette straightened up, but the lieutenant had already ducked out of the pilots common room. She sighed, tucking her datapad away. Better just get this bullshit over with.

Expecting to find her fellow wing commanders in the briefing room, Bette was surprised to find it empty when she arrived. After a moment's hesitation she found her usual seat and waited for the CO to show up and tell her what was going on.

Nelaa Kyris had never been a big fan of star destroyers. They were ok when all you saw was the landing bay while you were switching shuttles, but actually having to walk around inside them wasn't for her. Every single one was the same. Same layout, same colors. They were just so...bland. This was one of those times, however, where she would have to just deal with it.

The ISD Admonisher was currently stationed near Bespin, which was pretty much on the exact opposite end of the galaxy from where Nelaa needed to be. The truth was she needed and pilot and with the mission that she was tasked with, you didn't settle for anything below top notch. And when you're going for top notch, it has to be done face to face. Plus, the details of this mission weren't something that you'd want to broadcast, even on secure channels.

She walked into the briefing room to find the person she sought had already arrived.

"Lieutenant Commander Bette Davis, it has been awhile..."

I should have guessed.

After a moment Bette stood up, standing at attention with her hands behind her back until the other woman waved her back into her seat.

"Agent Kyris. It's been a while." She looked around at the otherwise empty room and raised an eyebrow. "I take it this is classified."

It had been at least a year since Bette had seen Agent Kyris, but ImpIntel had never quite released the hooks they had in Shadow Squadron. She'd spent quite a bit of time with Kyris when she'd first joined the Shadows, learning hand-to-hand combat. Even though they'd spent a lot of time together, Bette had never quite warmed up to her. Kyris definitely knew her shit, though, and that had earned her respect.

"You know me too well."

Nelaa slid a datapad across the table to Bette.

"So classified that I can't discuss it here. I will say, with absolutely no exaggeration, that the fate of the Empire hinges on the success of this mission. If you're in, I have an agent in shuttle bay 2C waiting for you."

"I'm in." Bette put a hand on the datapad, but Kyris kept a finger on it for a moment.

"Do not approach this flippantly," Kyris said, and Bette raised an eyebrow. The agent removed her finger from the datapad.

"You've got 2 hours to get packed and ready. Pack heavy, it'll be a long trip. Your CO has been informed of your absence already, and you are to say you're going on leave if anyone asks. I'll see you there."

"Shuttle bay 2C. Got it." Bette tucked the datapad away as Kyris exited the briefing room.

An hour and forty-five minutes later she was carrying her kit into 2C, wondering who she was going to be flying around this time. The bay was empty except for one shuttle, and she walked up into it.

The first thing she saw was a pair of boots. The agent had apparently made themselves at home in the cockpit and was kicking back with their feet up.

“Hey asshole, that shit is sensitive! Get your goddamn boots off the console.” Bette dropped her kit on the deck and put her hands on her hips.

The man removed his feet from the console, then slowly turned around and stood in one motion. He gave a lazy salute as a grin cracked across his face.

"My apologies Lieutenant Commander. It won't happen again..."

“What!” Bette grinned, still standing there hands on hips. “Silus?!”

She shook her head, finally walking forward and giving him a fierce hug. “Goddammit it’s been years.”

She released him, standing back a little awkwardly. “Is it Agent Xilarian now, or still Commander?”

Silus nearly picked her up off the ground as they embraced.

"Agent now. Kellison made it clear that the Navy wasn't going to be a welcome home anymore, so Nel pulled some strings and got me over to intel full time."

He reached down and grabbed her kit off the deck.

"We've got plenty of time to talk, I'll take care of this if you want to get us out of here."

“Of course.”

Bette stepped around Xilarian to sit in the pilot’s seat, and looked over her shoulder to watch him walk into the crew area. She grinned, turning back to the Lambda’s console, running her hands over the controls. He’d already taken care of the preflight check, so after double-checking a few items out of habit, Bette got permission from Admonisher for departure and fired up the repulsors.

As she eased the shuttle out of the bay there was a familiar jostle as the ship passed through the forcefield and into the black. Freedom.

Bette picked a vector through Blood Fang Task Group, keeping one eye on the HUD while she pulled out the datapad Agent Kyris had given her. Quickly scanning the mission parameters, she frowned. Task Group Centauri Delta was stationed outside of the Carshoulis Cluster. It was almost quite literally the other side of the galaxy from the Anoat system.

She raised an eyebrow and called back to Silus, “You weren’t kidding about this being a long trip!”

Bette punched in the coordinates into the navicomp. “It’s going to be at least four jumps to get there.”

Silus raised his voice to carry across the shuttle while he was stowing their gear.

“Could be more, we gotta keep a low profile and I don’t have a full report on which jump routes are secure yet.”

He came back to the front of the shuttle and plopped down in the co-pilot’s chair.

“Everything’s moving fast on this one, we’ll be getting updates all through the trip.”

“Just like old times.” She smiled at him, then turned back to the navicomp.

”I’m letting it calculate the best route, but only sending the first jump to the hyperdrive.” Bette accelerated past the last ISD in the task group as the navicomp crunched the numbers.

It pinged ready, and the hyperdrive spooled up, sending a vibration through the shuttle.

”Jump vector acquired.” She opened up the sublights to maximum, shooting away from the nearby gas giants and their enormous mass shadows, and then pulled the hyperspace lever.

They were both pressed back into their seats for the long moment while the stars stretched into lines and then smeared into multicolored swirls.

Bette turned in her seat to look at Silus. “So, what the hell have you been up to, Nomad?”

Silus shook his head and looked over with a smile. It had been a long time since anyone had used his old call sign.

"Living up to my name. I've been to every end of this galaxy and most every place in between. I don't even know where I'm at half the time. Ever since Nel started riding a desk I've been out doing most of her legwork."

He caught a puzzled look from Bette.

"I guess you didn't hear, she got messed up pretty bad on a mission, nearly died. She's not cleared for field work anymore. Hasn't really slowed her down though. She's been eating and breathing this mission for months now, and she's just about ran me ragged in the process."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal flask, took a drink and offered it over to Bette.

"I figure that's why they make us wear all this black. Can't tell when our ribs are starting to show."

Bette looked at the offered drink, then the hyperspace timer. She raised an eyebrow and took the flask, helping herself to a long sip.

“Do I get to know what the mission is, beyond,” she looked at her datapad, “data retrieval?”

Bette handed the flask back, undoing her crashwebbing and getting more comfortable. “Actually, it doesn’t matter. I’d be here either way. Looks like you need someone to do some fancy flying and I don’t mind saying I’m one of the best in the fleet.”

Silus took the flask back from Bette.

“I’ll tell you everything I’m allowed to tell you.” He took a drink. “Then I’ll tell you everything else.”

He looked around at the streaks in of light streaming by the shuttle.

“How’s the Navy been treating you?”

“Not too bad. Got kicked out of the Shadows for a bit, at least on paper. Our old CO, Captain Kellison, he had it in for me. Plus I may have drank a bottle of his favorite scotch. That I found in his office.”

Bette held out her hand for the flask and Silus passed it back.

“Taught nuggets for a while in Hellfire Squadron. Then we got the band back together, or Intel did, or who knows.” She shrugged, taking a sip and then holding the flask out to Silus. “It hasn’t really been the same since you left.

”Thank the gods,” she winked.

“No shit. I bet you haven’t even shot Tannis V’larr.”

He took the flask and took a big drink. When he was finished he shook the flask once or twice to confirm it was empty.

“That’s probably for the best. Gotta stay sharp for the mission.”

He got up and went back to his locker to put the flask away. When he came back he was holding a bottle of whisky.

“But it will be a long fucking flight...”

“The first jump ends in...thirty-three minutes,” she laughed, reaching for the bottle.


33.8 minutes later...


“Okay, got anything on the ol’ comm about our route? I’ve got, uh, the next jump almost ready.”

Bette swiveled around in the chair to face Silus, but kept turning until she was facing the bulkhead. She pushed gently with her toe to turn all the way around again.

Bette eyed the half empty bottle on the console between them. “I swear I’m not drunk right now.”

"I think I got something hold on."

He rotated that datapad in his hands a few times until I finally got it right side up. He kept tapping on the datapad and muttering to himself.

"Just do the thing...the fuckin...the.."

A nav map with highlighted coordinates sprang to life on the shuttles viewscreen.

"There I did the thing.."

Silus set the datapad on the console, where it rested for the space of about a breath before falling to the floor. He found himself reaching for it, but ended up grabbing the bottle instead.

“Oh, yeah, you haven’t missed a beat Xilarious.”

Bette scooped the datapad off the floor and squinted at it, carefully copying the new coordinates into the navicomp. There were quite a few new jumps to plot and it took a while to input them all. When she was done she turned to see Silus tipping back the bottle again.

”Hey, don’t drink it all without me!” Bette swiped it from him, spilling a little in the process. She made a show of wiping off the top with her sleeve and then took a swig.

”Th’ next jump’s plotted, better strap in.” She winked, tightening her crashwebbing across her chest with one hand, the bottle in the other.

As they made the jump to lightspeed, Silus popped off his crash webbing and reached over the bottle. With a wicked smile on her face, Bette held the bottle just out of his reach, causing him to stretch further and further until he was leaning completely over the console.

"Come on gimme a drin....Shit!!!"

He hit the point where his drunkenness and agility could no longer find any middle ground and tumbled over the console, landing on the floor behind Bette's chair laughing his ass off.

She laughed so hard she snorted, getting up and stumbling out of Silus’ reach as he sprawled on the ground. “This - this jump is three hours. So I’m going to go -”

Bette paused, putting her hand on the bulkhead to steady herself and moving her feet away from Silus as he tried to get up. She shook the bottle in her hand, listening to the slosh.

”You nearly finished it while I was doing all the work.“ She tsked, pitting the bottle to her lips and tipping it all the way back.

Silus started to get up but decided the floor was probably the better of two evils. He watched as Bette tipped the bottle up.

“No...save me a dr...hic..drink.”

Bette pretended to glare at him as she took a third swallow, and then she straightened up and passed him what was left. Or, at least, she tried to. The handoff was a bit sloppy.

Hell, I’m a bit sloppy.

Bette left Silus to fumble with the bottle and staggered into the crew quarters in search of water.

Silus started to follow Bette to the back of the shuttle but his battle with drunkenness was seriously not going his way. With walking and generally doing things that normal people do becoming less viable by the moment, he decided his best course of action was to make himself comfortable.

His first challenge was to remove his belt, which was much harder than it really should have been. He was able to figure it out though and triumphantly tossed it to the other side of the shuttle.

He laid down with his arm under his head but it just wasn’t comfortable enough. He sat up and looked around his immediate vicinity but couldn’t find anything that would make a suitable pillow. In a moment of clarity he reached behind his head and grabbed his uniform shirt and undershirt and pulled them off with a single tug.

He balled both shirts up and laid down. The floor of the shuttle was much colder now, but it seemed a decent trade off. Once he was settled in he called for Bette, but he was sound asleep before getting any reply.

Bette heard Silus call her name and walked slowly back to the cockpit, water bottle in hand. When she got there he was shirtless and asleep on the floor.

”Figures.” She rolled her eyes and thought about shoving him awake, but slumped into the pilot seat instead. “Someone has to keep an’ eye on... things...” She eyeballed his half naked body, and then reluctantly turned her attention back to the console.

According to Imperial standard time, which all ISDs adhered to religiously, it was ...pretty late. Bette wriggled down into the seat, and after a minute her eyelids began to droop.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Bette jerked awake, half-empty water bottle dropping from her hand to the floor as she lurched toward the console. The real space reversion warning was going off.

“Fuck!” She kicked Silus’ feet as she pulled her crashwebbing on. She stared down at herself, confused. When had she taken off her flightsuit?

There was a vague memory of getting water and comfortable at the same, which left her in her tank top and boyshorts. Annoyed, she yelled at her traveling companion.

”Wake up! We’re reverting in ninety seconds!”

She still felt a little tipsy. That must have been some good whisky.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me..."

Silus wasn't sure if he was waking up or being stabbed in the brain.

"Where the fuck are my clothes?"

He got up and plopped down in the co-pilot's chair and pulled his crash webbing over his chest. It wasn't until then that he actually noticed that Bette was missing some clothing as well. He went blank for a minute and started rewinding the trip in his head. Waking up half naked, whisky, whisky, whisky, whisky. It didn't occur to him that while this was processing he was effectively staring at Bette the entire time.

The reversion to real space went smoothly, as it usually did. It was that 1-in-1000 occurrence where you got thrown to the back of the cockpit in a rough transition that made you realize why regulations for crashwebbing were what they were.

Bette input the next jump, stretching across the console to hit a button Silus easily could have gotten for her, and caught him staring.

”Eyes up front, flyboy,” she barked, and then she winked, slapping the hyperdrive controls.

"Yes ma'am." He said with a slight grin.

As soon as they were in hyperspace Silus was out of his chair and in the back of the shuttle digging through his stuff. He yelled back to Bette who was still at the controls.

"I'm gonna get a shower an......" Bette interrupted him. "This is is a short jump, we have thirteen minutes before realspace." Silus rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna get a short shower..."

Nine minutes later he came out of the bathroom wearing track pants and a t-shirt with a white towel draped over his head. He grabbed two bottles of water from the coldbox and plopped down in the co-pilot's chair, offering a bottle of water to Bette.

She hadn’t gotten out of her seat and was sitting with her legs tucked up underneath her when he returned with water. Bette accepted one when he offered it.

”Thought you might have to ride out the reversion in the sonic,” she said, popping the top of the water and taking a swig as the shuttle reverted. Spluttering as water surged past the opening and down her neck, Bette coughed and wiped her mouth with her hand. Reaching for the controls she wedged the open bottle between her thighs as she reoriented the shuttle with sublights and set the next jump.

”You can jump in here at any time, you know,” she said, then grinned when her brain caught up to her mouth. When they’d worked together before Silus had always been a mentor, looking out for her as she navigated what life was really going to be like in the Imperial Navy. They’d never screwed around and she’d been pretty sure he wasn’t interested but the vibes she was getting during this reunion were definitely a thing.

Or maybe it was just the whisky talking.

Bette got the shuttle safely back into hyperspace and slowly released her crashwebbing. “It’s almost 02:00 and we’ve got twelve hours and twenty-five minutes until we arrive at our final destination.”

She got to her feet and stretched out her petite frame. “I’m gonna have to change my shirt,” she grumped, walking back toward her bunk with a little extra wiggle in her hips than was strictly necessary.

Silus was fairly confident that Bette had been flirting with him earlier. Now there was absolutely no question about it. As he watched her disappear into the back of the shuttle indecision flashed into his mind. He re-examined his entire history with her, from the moment she ghosted him in a training sim to the day that he was kicked out of Shadow Squadron. All of that was weighed against 'Did you seriously not just see that?!'. There was a devil on his shoulder who was incredulous that he was even still sitting in his chair.

Silus knew that trap though. The devil in him only spoke of reward, never consequence. He had to see further than his own wants, he had to gain a measure of clarity. He looked to the angel on his other shoulder, who peered back at him with heavy lidded eyes and slurred 'We just drank nearly that whole bottle, I don't know what you're expecting out of me...' That was pretty much everything he needed.

As Bette pulled her shirt down over her body she felt hands clasp around her waist, followed by lips pressing against the base of her neck.

Bette grinned as Silus came up behind her, tilting her head to the side to give him better access to her neck. This was a moment when she should have had something witty or seductive to say, but instead her brain was coming up empty.

She leaned back against him for a moment as his lips traveled up toward her jawline, then she pulled away and turned to face him. Her eyes were hungry as she grabbed his shoulders and jumped into his arms. Bette wrapped her legs around his waist and put her hands on either side of his face, locking her lips onto his.

Silus pulled her tight against him as he took two stumbling steps backward, bringing her with him as he dropped down on the cot behind them. As they hit the cot Silus bumped the back of his head against the wall which managed to briefly stun them both before they frantically began pulling each other's clothing away.

**Some time later**

Silus and Bette laid side by side behind the pilot and co-pilot seats, starting out of the viewscreen into the swirling vortex of hyperspace. Beneath them was a pile of mattress and blankets they'd pulled from the crew quarters when it became obvious that the cots back there weren't designed for their activities. Silus leaned over and kissed Bette on the forehead before kissing her on the lips.

"You know I missed this..."

Bette gave him a confused look and laughed "We've never done this."

He laughed and pulled her closer to him. "No, I mean just being off the ground, being out in the middle of the black with nothing but freedom in every direction."

“Mmmm,” agreed Bette, snuggling in tightly against him, one leg draped across his lower body. She fit just so under his arm, her head on his chest as they watched hyperspace swirl past.

”Flying is ...almost the best feeling in the world.” She looked up at him and winked. “The first best is what you did to me a few minutes ago.”

Bette pulled herself on top of him, hands on his chest to steady herself. “I suppose we should probably get some slee-eep!”

She yelped as he surged up and wrapped his arms around her, neatly putting her on her back and reversing the situation. “Or, this is ...good too..!”

***

Bette stepped out of the refresher in sweatpants and a tank top, padding over to the tiny seating area in the crew compartment.

“I’m starving, is there anything beyond basic rations in here?”

"Not at all. I've got some stuff I snatched from one of the machines back at HQ before I left. Check my bag, if you can find it."

He looked around seeing the chaos they'd wrought.

"We made a fucking mess."

After a few moments he grinned, way more proud of himself than he should be.

"Get it?"

She laughed, rolling her eyes at him as she looked around for his bag.

“Found it!” Bette bent over and picked it up triumphantly, setting it on what was left of her bunk to investigate its contents. Pulling out a sealed bag of cheese crackers she sat cross-legged on the floor to open them.

”So,” she said, popping a cracker into her mouth. “What’s the mission?”

"That was it. Been planning it for months."

Bette laughed at threw a cracker at him. "You shit!"

He laughed as he sat up, rolling his shoulders a bit and stretching.

"The mission. Well, what I can tell you is that we're heading to the Telos IV. We'll be flying a custom Corellian freighter that's rigged up with a few data servers." He got up and walked over to sit by Bette.

"I'll drop in, get to their server array, plug in a gizmo and all the data will be beamed to the freighter. Then you'll pick me up and we'll celebrate all the way home."

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek before kissing her on the lips. "Oh god, you taste like cheese crackers...gimme one of those." He popped the cracker in his mouth and got up headed for the refresher.

She got up and dragged some of the bedding back to where it was supposed to be, piling all the pillows into her bunk and snuggling down into them. When Silus re-emerged she was finishing off the crackers and barely visible in her makeshift pillow fort.

”So that’s it? Drop in, gizmo, data, and retrieval?” Bette frowned, thinking. “What’s on Telos IV?”

“The part I’m not supposed to tell you.”

He went over and sat on the cot across from her.

“We don’t know for sure yet, but Nel thinks that the Cizerack may have thrown in with the Rebels.” He watched Bette’s eyes go wide.

“Right now, a lot of the higher ups are thinking Nel’s talking big shit to keep her career safe. Doesn’t seem like her to me, but I’ve never seen what she’d do if you backed her into a corner. The data we’re after is a weapon system that Nel believes was developed by the Pride and given to the Rebellion. Something big...”

Bette sat up, a couple pillows falling onto the deck. “Woah.”

The Carshoulis Cluster was called the breadbasket of the galaxy, it’s main export grain that went straight to Coruscant and other Core worlds. If the fiercely independent system was about to finally pick a side...

”Woah,” she said again. “The Ciz are so protective of their ship specs. Sharing weapon plans? It doesn’t... sound like them.”

“That struck me as curious too. I’m pretty sure all the info she has is from sources in the rebellion. I know we’ve bought information from sources in the Pride, but none of it can be verified and a lot of it’s probably bullshit anyways.”

Silus rubbed his eyes and stood up, stretching.

“I hope it’s bullshit. It’ll suck for Nel, but it’s light years better than the alternative.”

Since Endor and the crippling losses of the Death Star II, half the fleet, the goddamn Emperor himself and his Executor, the Rebellion had been continuing to grow in power and presence in the galaxy. They called themselves a galactic government now, and while not many systems had defected completely to the “Alliance,” there were many more that teetered on the edge of outright treason to the Empire. At some unknown junction there could be a tipping point.

A tipping point like a mysterious new weapon developed in the Carshoulis Cluster.

Bette patted the bunk next to her. “We should get some more sleep while we can. There’s still a few more hours until we arrive at Task Group Centauri Delta and we’re going to need to be fresh, not...” She grinned, biting her lower lip a little as she surveyed the mess they’d made of the shuttle.

”Just get over here.”

Silus hopped up and started climbing over the small mountain of pillows and blankets that Bette had used to fashion her little nest with. As soon as he was able to get over next to the wall he gathered Bette up in his arms and pulled her to him.

He planted a few small pecks on her neck and wiggled around a bit, settling himself in the blankets before closing his eyes.

Bette watched him settle in, his eyes closed and his body slowly relaxing. She moved a little, getting more comfortable, and considered putting her hand down his pants and waking him up again.

On the other hand, she would need to be sharp for the mission and so did he. She half-smiled at the thought of the long flight back to Bespin, and trailed a finger across his chest.

Silus stirred a little and Bette laid her palm flat on his chest, closing her eyes.

***

”There it is, Centauri Delta.”

Bette pointed the shuttle toward the task group of four Star Destroyers, an Interdictor, and various smaller support craft. After sleeping they had managed to restore some semblance of order to the shuttle and their personal effects, and were appropriately dressed in their uniforms as they approached their destination.

“Do we have a code word or something? I didn’t see one in the file I got.”

“I didn’t see anything in the mission brief. They should know the shuttle.”

Silus was back in business mode now. Mostly. The fact that Bette was wearing a flight suit helped, those things weren’t as easy to remove as shorts and a tank top. It did look good on her though. He shook the thought out of his head.

“From the moment we step off this shuttle until we’re back on the shuttle home, everything we say and do is recorded.”

He said it to remind himself as much as he did to warn her. After she landed the shuttle, they got up and made their way to the exit. Right before he hit the button to drop the ramp, he turned to Bette and took her face in one hand and kissed her one last time.

They broke apart right as the shuttle unsealed, and Bette bit the inside of her cheek to keep a grin off her face. Descending the ramp she presented the flight deck officer with a copy of their heavily edited orders, which he scanned quickly.

”The freighter’s this way, sir.” The officer looked from Silus to Bette and added, “Ma’am.”

She inclined her head frostily, hands clasped behind her back, and they followed the officer across the hangar to where a YT-2400 sat. It was nondescript except her trained eyes could pick out where additional armaments had been added and disguised against the hull plating.

”We’ll be back within a day, Lieutenant.” Bette stared at the officer until he awkwardly excused himself, and then she opened up the freighter with the code they’d been given.

As they stepped on to the ramp, there was a large bag sitting at the top of the ramp. He opened it slightly and peaked inside.

"Yep, this is me. It's going to be a short jump, so I'm going to head on in here and suit up. Excuse me.."

He brushed by Bette way closer than he had to, letting a hand drag across her hip 'accidentally' as he headed into the captain's suite to get suited up.

“Sounds good, Agent.”

Bette walked into the cockpit, taking her seat and running the preflight check. Within ten minutes she had the repulsors fired up and the freighter was ready to go.

”Everything okay back there?” She called over her shoulder. “We’ve got a short window.”

Bette heard him call from around the corner.

"I'm good, don't come in though, I'm not completely dressed!"

The gear he was trying to put on was fitting pretty tight on him, though luckily he'd burned off some calories on the way there. He didn't see a camera in the room when he came in, but if there was one it would be catching a hilarious sight as he struggled to get everything on.

"Go ahead and take us out, I'll be ready before we make the jump!"

He hoped.

As Bette fired up the repulsors, her comm screen lit up.

"Lieutenant Commander Davis, this is Agent Kyris. I'm getting all green lights on your ship here at HQ. I'm transmitting a readout of Telos IV now, it'll have all the vectors you can safely approach without being spotted. Local weather conditions are on there too, everything should be clear for Xilarian to make a high altitude jump."

She paused for a minute.

"Where is he anyway?"

“Agent.”

Bette pulled the yoke and the freighter lifted off the deck. “He’s in the back getting suited up. Should be here any minute.”

As the ship cleared the hangar Bette fired up the sublights, directing the freighter away from the looming capital ships.

“Almost ready to make the jump,” she called out, mostly for Silus but also for Agent Kyris.

Once Silus was suited up, he moved around a bit, testing the joints to make sure he had enough flexibility. As hard as it was to get on, it was surprisingly comfortable and allowed a full range of movement. The chestplate, utility belt, and hip holsters on the suit were linked together and functioned as a harness for the small jetpack that connected to the back. The helmet had a built in HUD that displayed information various information on his surroundings. He knew that the suit wasn't top of the line tech, but he was impressed with all the tools he had available to him.

Satisfied that everything was good to go, he removed two blasters from the bag and holstered them then pulled his helmet off. It was about that time when he heard Bette letting him know they were almost ready to make the short hyperspace jump.

"On my way..."

He took one last look through his gear to make sure he didn't forget anything then made his way to the cockpit.

Intensely aware of Agent Kyris on the comm, Bette barely looked up as Silus sat in the cockpit next to her.

”Okay, entering hyperspace...now.” She reached for the lever, pulling it down to engage the hyperdrive. The freighter surged forward and then winked out of realspace, leaving the task group behind.

Inside the YT-2400 Bette loosened her crashwebbing.

“I’ll go over the plan again but it seems pretty straightforward. After I drop you off, I’ll stay in range of the signal from your gizmo. I don’t see any outer defenses on this layout, but is there something I’m missing?” Bette looked up at Silus and then quickly slid her eyes to the comm screen and Kyris’ face as her cheeks pinked up a little.

"This base doesn't have heavy outer defenses because they don't want to draw attention to. It's primary defense is us not knowing it's here. We've managed to quietly blind some of their scanners so as long as you keep above eight kilometers they shouldn't detect you. Once Silus is on the surface, he'll plant the data transmitter outside."

Nelaa paused for a moment, looking around the cockpit.

"Silus, where's the pack with the transmitter."

She saw him reach into his utility belt and pull a small device with data probe on the end.

"No, that's the breacher that's going to be plugged into the server array. It's max range is one kilometer, probably less. You'll need to place a transmitter outside to relay to the freighter. Where is the transmitter."

Silus shrugged. "It's in the bag. Didn't figure I'd need it."

Nelaa narrowed her eyes and scolded him through gritted teeth.

"You need everything in the bag..."

She spoke to Bette as Silus grumbled something about a fanny pack as he left the cockpit.

"Davis, once he gets the transmitter placed, it'll be able to beam to your freighter as long as it has line of sight. You could fly out and get into a synchronous orbit, but it'll be hard to get back quickly if Silus needs a rapid extraction. I'd suggest scouting to see if you can find a good spot to land. It's tough to board a ship in mid air with a jetpack, though he should be able to do it if he has to."

She saw Silus return with the pack containing the transmitter.

"Look familiar enough?" She asked. "Yeah, I've used one before." He replied.

She nodded, apparently satisfied.

"Ok good, use this channel if you need me. I'll notify you if anything happens."

Nelaa glanced between Silus and Bette and gave the very slightest hint of irritation.

"Silus, the suit looks good on you."

The transmission ended.

Bette looked sideways at Silus. It did look good on him, but Agent Kyris who spent so much time with him didn’t need to say it.

”Exiting hyperspace in ten minutes.”

She kept her eyes on the console. “When you say we’re being recorded do we mean audio as well as visual?”

Bette fiddled with a readout, looking over at him finally, as casually as possible.

"Probably both. I know what you're feeling though, that little tingle on your neck like someone's watching you all the time. You get used to it after awhile."

He got up and stretched, moving himself casually in front of the commlink camera. He leaned back, completely obstructing its view and pointed at the door, mouthing the words 'Captain's Quarters'.

Bette nodded at him in a conspiratorial fashion then said, "Hopefully you're right. I'll be right back, I need to use the refresher."

Silus had to hold back a chuckle as she got up.

"No problem, I'll watch things up here."

As she left, he sat down in the pilot's seat. He started musing aloud on the conversation they'd had with Kyris just before. He scrunched his nose up a bit and stuck out his bottom lip, mocking Kyris.

"You need everything in the bag...mneh."

It was a pretty childish play on his part. Childish like a genius that is...

"Oh shit, I think I left something in the bag."

He jumped up and hauled every ounce of his genius and method acting ability back to the Captain's Quarters with him.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed when Silus came into the private quarters.

“Could have used this a few hours ago,” Bette said, patting the mattress. She got to her feet and met him in the middle of the room, pulling down his head for a kiss.

“This could be my career if there’s a camera in here,” she said breathlessly when they separated for air. She spared a glance for the chrono on her wrist. “Eight and a half minutes left.”

Silus scooped his hands under her butt and picked her up to eye level with him, kissing her as he walked her over and sat her on the bed.

"It would take me all of that just to get this suit off..."

He reached down and tugged on the zipper of her flight suit. He was a bit disappointed that the only bare flesh he was able to get to was just below her collar bone, but he kissed his way there all the same.

Bette reached up and slid her fingers under the seal on her flightsuit, grasping the industrial zipper and yanking it down further... a lot further. Silus followed it down and she curled her fingers in his hair, arching her back against the bed.

When he finally relented she managed to look at her chrono again, breathing heavily. “Two minutes!”

Silus helped her zip up again, and she laughed, trying to smooth down hair that had escaped her braid. “We’re super subtle. How did you get to be a secret agent, again?”

"Failing upward..." He winked. "You ready for this?"

"Ready." She said with a little wink of her own.

He had her pulled close and was straightening the edges of her collar, not so much because they needed it, but more just to keep her there for a few more seconds.

"When you go out, just bitch at me for leaving the cockpit."

He gave her one last kiss for good measure.

“I think I can manage that.” Bette licked her lips, gave her flightsuit one more tug to make sure everything was in place, and stalked out of the room. Just before she opened the door Silus lightly smacked her ass.

”I can’t believe you left the cockpit,” she said loudly, jogging toward it. “What the hell is wrong with you, you said you’d watch it.”

Bette slid into her seat and pulled the crashwebbing into place. “One minute.”

"I was watching it from in here! I thought I left something in the bag!"

He came stalking into the cockpit with the bag in tow. He plopped down in the co-pilot's set and put on his crash webbing.

"She said everything in the bag right? I don't need the actual bag do I?"

While Silus was absolutely nailing his performance, the ship transitioned into realspace just over Telos IV.

Bette took a deep breath, focusing her mind on the task at hand. Switching quickly to sublights she piloted the freighter down toward the planet, following the trajectory Agent Kyris had supplied.

Before she hit the atmosphere Bette cut sublights and switched on repulsors, firing them in reverse to dump as much speed as possible. Air began to roar around the outside of the freighter, the two humans jostled in their seats as Silus pulled up the active sensor readings.

The freighter slid through the atmosphere as quietly as possible, Bette keeping the angle just right to avoid turning them into a giant fireball for entry.

“It’s coming up quick,” she said, the steering yoke fighting her as she kept the ship on target. “Looks like we’ve got low clouds.”

As they entered the atmosphere over Telos IV, Silus fished out a commlink from his belt. He switched it over to voice activation and set the channel to the one they'd used earlier before placing it in his ear. As the flight smoothed out he undid his crash webbing and put his helmet on. His ears popped slightly as the helmet pressurized and he had to work his jaw a bit to get back to normal. Once he had everything settled he stepped out of the cockpit and hit the button to seal off the entryway.

"Nel, Shooter, do you read me."

He nodded to himself as he received a confirmation from both of them. A minute later, Bette broke in over the commlink.

"Alright Nomad, we're almost there, ready up."

Silus opened the door without extending the ramp. The wind rushed in to meet him and he had to brace himself to keep from getting blown out of the ship to early.

"Roger that Shooter, waiting for the green light."

A few moments later the light when from red to green. Just before Silus jumped, he glanced through windows on the cockpit door and made eye contact with Bette.

"I'll be right back."

He winked and made a little finger gun gesture at her then leapt backward into the night sky.

Bette couldn’t help but grin as he winked, but she quickly returned her attention to the console as she pulled the freighter up and around pos-y-x.

”Reading you on sensors, Nomad, you’re right on target.”

She watched the little sensor dot that was Silus as it traveled toward the planet’s surface. There were no indications from the little Rebel base that they had any idea anything was going on. Hopefully most of them would be asleep, this far into the planet’s night cycle.

The Silus-dot slowed and connected with the line that was the planet on her HUD, and a few moments later the console pinged that it was picking up the signal from the data transmitter. There wasn’t anything being actively transmitted yet, but she reached over and locked in the signal, readying things on her end for the data dump.

As Silus fell through the night sky he kept his legs straight and his arms to his sides to avoid as much drag as he could. It was hard to make out any detail on the ground below due to the darkness, and he fought back a pang of panic at the idea of not being able to gauge his distance properly. Instead he relied on his HUD which was feeding him information on his altitude and velocity, among other things. He waited a little longer than he meant to on his jetpack and had to decelerate a little faster than he had planned, but years of piloting star fighters meant his body was well adjusted to the extra g-forces. For the last few meters of the drop he brought himself to almost a complete stop in midair and deactivated his jetpack, dropping the last three meters and landing in a crouch. He took a quick stock of his surroundings, looking for any indication that his arrival had been noticed. No news was good news though, so he moved on to more pressing business.

The first order of said business was to get the data transmitter setup. He was just outside the south wall of the building and there weren't any real indications that this would be a place where people would happen to walk by and notice an out of place transmitter. He found a good spot in some tall grass, activated it, and plopped it down. So far, so good.

The next order of business was to get inside the building. He eased past the south wall to the east wall, keeping himself in shadow the entire time. Based on the floor plan he'd studied, the best point of ingress was just up ahead. This was the part that always made him nervous. He removed a small device from his belt that was vaguely shaped like a code cylinder and inserted in into the security panel. If it worked, the door would open, if it failed, he was jetpacking for the nearest treeline. After a few seconds, the door swished open.

Once inside he quietly took in his surroundings. No activity, all quiet.

In the softest voice he could manage he whispered, "I'm in..."

“Copy that.”

Bette continued to circle, finally locating an area she could set the ship down, far enough away from the base that the noise shouldn’t carry to the occupants. She marked it in green on the HUD and aimed toward it, nestled up against the edge of a forest.

It would be a hike for Silus but Bette was already plotting where she could skim the ground and pick him up once he was on his way. Dragging her fingers across the sensor readout she marked his best route to her and sent the coordinates to his suit with a flick of her wrist.

Silus made his way slowly through the compound. Twice he had to hide to avoid patrolling guards, but so far it had not been an issue. His biggest problem was the coded access doors that he had to get through. He had a device to slice them but it took time, and there was always a risk that it could fail.

After going through two of them he noticed two things: First, these weren’t air tight blast doors, which meant they were only used to restrict personnel access. That meant cheaper doors with lower security. Second, these doors were only coded on entrance. That reminded him of something Kyris had taught him.

If a door was only coded on one side, that meant it was designed to keep people out, not in. Since the interior of the door wasn’t coded it meant that there was a sensor on that side that would open the door for anyone who was leaving.

Silus reached onto his belt for a small canister with a spray nozzle on the top. This was a vapor spray used to reveal laser motion sensors. He walked up to the security door and put the tip of the sprayer to the very top of the door and sprayed a small cloud of vapor through. Less than a second later the door slid open.

Using this trick got him through the compound much more quickly, and soon he found himself outside the server room. Much to his dismay, this was a real security door with a biometric lock.

“Nel, I’ve got a retina scanner here, and my door thing won’t fit anywhere on here. Do I need to knock out a guard?”

“No need to bash anyone over the head just yet. Look around and see if there’s a fire alarm.”

After a few moments Silus came back over the comm “Found one. Do you really want me to the pull this?”

Nelaa let a ting of urgency slip into her voice. “Don’t pull it, just look for a panel underneath.”

Silus came back “I see a lock on here, I think I can gizmo it.....yep, it’s open.”

“Good, there’s an emergency key in there that should get you in. Davis, we’re almost ready, make sure you’ve got a signal from the transmitter.”

“Still locked on to the signal,” Bette confirmed. “Ready to receive data.”

Her eyes tracked to the chrono. It felt like this was taking forever, but Silus was still on schedule.

She didn’t like him being in there by himself, but Kyris had planned the op and Bette knew the agent was good. She didn’t leave things to chance.

Silus opened the panel and found an oddly shaped key inside. He went back to the security door and sure enough there was a slot on there that matched up with it. He inserted the key and waited, but after a few seconds nothing happened.

"Nel, this isn't working. I put the key in and nothing's happening. Wait, there is a green button to the side of it, what happens if i I press that?"

Kyris dryly replied, "The door will open."

Silus pressed the button and yes, the door did open.

"Okay that worked. Just for the record, if I hadn't asked that button would have set off an alarm or killed me or something."

Silus went on inside and looked around the room. There were three large shelves full of server boxes. On the wall behind him was a green button just like the one he'd pressed outside. Before he could ask, Kyris chimed in.

"If you leave the emergency key in the door you can shut it behind you. No one can remove the key with the door shut, safety precaution."

Silus walked over and shut the door, silently mocking Kyris. Now alone inside the room, he went around to the farthest wall, putting three shelves between himself and the door.

Each server box had a connection that matched the gizmo he had to plug in. At first he was just going to plug it into the very first one he could get to but his keen strategic instincts kicked in, reminding him that there was a chance he'd have to leave this room and that it would be best to put the gizmo somewhere less easily noticed. He looked up and grinned. If Nel knew what he was about to do she would absolutely blow a gasket. In fact, nah, no need to torment her. Silus tapped on his wrist and closed his hands. His jetpack activated and in an eyeblink he was hanging on to the top of the server rack. He waited for a moment to see if he'd set off any alarms, but the only sound he heard was swearing in his commlink. Satisfied that this was the best idea ever, he happily plugged the gizmo in to one of the top row serves, then climbed onto the top of the shelf.

Bette raised an eyebrow at the sounds coming through the comm, but Nelaa Kyris didn’t hold back.

“Was that your fucking jetpack? Do you even know the meaning of the word stealth?”

Silus didn’t reply, but Bette grinned at his brashness. She looked at the signal from the transmitter and saw the data packets begin to stream through.

“Signal is still strong, and data is transmitting,” she said quietly. “Ship’s servers are green lights across the board.”

“Davis, I need you to check the data after it’s saved to the server. Just pick a random file or two and open it up.”

“Roger that.” Bette flipped through screens and found the server the data was streaming to, hundreds of files greyed out as they had not come through completely yet, but a few were bright and able to be opened. As she hesitated a moment before selecting one, more files downloaded.

The one she picked was a text file about the base on Telos IV, with personnel names. It wasn’t even encrypted.

”Seems to be working fine.”

“Is there anything with the word ‘starkiller’ on it.” Kyris sounded tense.

”No.. wait, yes. Looks like a big file, it’s downloading now,” replied Bette.

"That file is our target. Silus, guard the slicer drive until it's done downloading then get the hell out of there. We'll leave the equipment in place. Anything else it grabs will just be a bonus."

She pressed the knuckle of her index finger against her teeth as she waited. When she was young, she had a bad habit of biting her nails when she was nervous and sometimes in situations like this she would find herself regressing. It made sense that the transfer was taking a long time to download but it didn't make it any less maddening. The fate of the Galactic Empire was resting on this information, not to mention her career.

Silus was being mercifully quiet through this process, which was probably a good thing. Quiet meant he wasn't actively getting into trouble, but it could also mean that he was about to get into trouble. He had excellent instincts in the field, but he was prone to poor decisions if left idle for too long. It was one of the reasons he was drummed out of the Navy in the first place. The stunt with the jetpack had nearly given her a heart attack and her heart rate spiked just thinking about it. The only upside is that he probably did it to get a higher vantage point in the room. Now that the stupidity was out of the way he was probably in a better strategic position if things did go south.

Her thoughts strayed from Silus to Bette. Nelaa had put the two of them together on this mission because of the time they spent together in Shadow Squadron. On the surface it was a great decision. They worked well together with very little communication and had a good sense of what the other was going to do before they did it. What Nelaa didn't count on was a mutual attraction between them. In all the time that she had observed them together they'd never really shown much interest in each other in a romantic light. It was possible that the time they'd spent apart had changed their dynamic and she kicked herself mentally for not considering that. Even if she had considered it though, she couldn't think of anyone better for the job. Not only was Bette probably the best pilot Nelaa had ever seen, she was also hard working and attacked her mission objectives with an unrivaled tenacity.

She let that thought ease her nerves a little. She was just about to ask for a status report when Bette came through on the comm.

"It's done, transfer complete."

"Let's wrap it up. Silus, get out of there. Davis, try to keep the transmission going, but get in position to pick him up."

Almost home...

Silus was kicked back on top of the server rack thoroughly enjoying the mini freakout Kyris was having. It wasn't often that she would lose her composure, but the times she did were high quality entertainment. He contemplated hopping down and leaving early, but with his luck someone would come along and find the gizmo and ruin everything. When that didn't happen he almost felt a bit let down. Almost. But now, he needed to be literally let down, since in order to leave he had to hop down off the server rack that he was standing on.

He was tempted to use the jetpack again. He was getting pretty good with it was almost certain that he could launch from the server rack all the way to the door. He wanted to do it so bad. He was right on the edge of jumping when he stopped and decided to climb down like a good secret agent. If he were to pull that stunt twice, he was pretty sure that Kyris would literally kill him, and last he checked he wasn't quite ready to die.

With a sigh, he climbed a few feet down the server rack then dropped to the floor, glancing up one last time at the little gizmo before making his way toward the exit. As he started reaching for the button to open the door the entire room went red and and a blaring alarm nearly deafened him. He heard Kyris and Bette through his comm, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. Instead he drew his blaster, hit the button on the door and tore off out of the room in a full run.

The hallway was still clear of guards so he bolted toward the way he went. The alarm wasn't quite as deafening outside of the server room.

"What the fuck just happened, I didn't touch anything..."

The alarm rang through the comm, sending a shock down her spine. Bette fired up the repulsors, bringing the ship up and around, and turned back toward the base.

“I’m coming your way Nomad, just get yourself outside!”

Red circles popped up on the HUD, highlighting anti-aircraft weapons placements that hadn’t been active previously. Bette bit her lower lip as she tightened her hands on the yoke, trying to plot a course that wasn’t suicidal.

"I'm working on it."

The initial shock was starting to wear off and he was getting accustomed to the sound of the alarm. He adrenaline was pumping but combat training was edging in to help keep panic at bay. He came to the first security door and utter gloom set in when it wouldn't open. The panel was on the other side of the wall so he couldn't slice it. There had to be an override panel somewhere, or they would have to be pried open.

"Okay this may take longer than I expected. Shooter, the longer I'm here the more likely they are to start lookin up..."

He didn't finish his thought, but instead ran back toward the security room.

"That server room is climate controlled, I'm going to see what the ventilation system looks like..."

As he he turned the corner of the hallway there were two guards running into the server room.

"Okay, this might get ugly...."

"Silus those vents are going to be too small for a person to crawl in. You can check, but I'm almost positive I'm correct."

Nelaa was completely relaxed over the comm, but she was pacing like a caged animal.

"The one way doors will have an override, but it may be difficult to find. They can be pried open but I don't know what you could use."

From one end of the room to the other she went. She knew precious time was wasting but thankfully she hadn't heard blaster fire.

"Okay, here is what we do. Davis, get out of atmo, if you get shot down everything is lost. Silus, that server room isn't safe anymore, if you're in there and they pull that emergency key you're stuck. There's going to be more guards coming. Go the way they come and the doors they use will probably still be open. You're going to run into some heat though."

Bette pulled up on the yoke, pushing power to the repulsors as the ship strained for a higher altitude. Even as she followed orders, however, she found her mind still on Silus, trapped inside the base.

”I can get down to him,” she said, almost as if it were someone else saying it. “Let me get down there.”

Silus whispered into the comm.

"Shooter, you gotta keep that ship high. I'll let you know when I bust out of here."

He hung back until both guards had entered the server room. A few moments later he heard one calling in a status report.

"We're in in the server room now, no sign of the intruder. The door was open though."

He knew they would be coming his direction soon. Using his blaster right now was likely to bring even more guards so he holstered it and got low instead. As soon as the first guard entered his line of sight, Silus sprung, hitting him firmly in the temple before he could react. As the guard started to fall, Silus shoved him toward his partner and took advantage of the distraction to close the distance. The guard pushed his buddy to the side before Silus pounced on him, knocking the man's blaster away and tackling him to the ground. They were a mess of arms and legs for a few moments until Silus was able to get control. He grabbed the guard by the neck, holding him in place while putting pressure on the man's jugular vein. It took what seems like an eternity until the man finally passed out.

Silus immediately grabbed the comlink out of the man's ear and started rummaging their pockets. He found two code cylinders that he took as well.

"Nel, do you have a schematic on the building, where I could I go to cut the power?"

She answered quickly "I'm looking."

Bette pulled the freighter in a tight circle, still climbing higher.

“I have weapons on this thing, I can just blow a hole in the building.” Her voice was tight as she leveled out the ship.

​Everything went quiet for a moment before Silus spoke up.

"Nel, would that work?"

She thought for a few moments.

"It...actually, I think it might. Davis, can you get close enough to fire on the south wall?"

She didn't want to risk Bette getting any closer to that building, but if any pilot could pull it off..

“Hell yes. Ma’am.”

Bette turned the freighter’s nose around and pointed neg-y, diving down. If she was fast enough the weapon placements might not be able to lock on in time. Swinging along the x-axis, Bette targeted the south wall of the base.

Just when she was pressing on the trigger of the foreign, a weapons lock klaxon shrieked, and she was forced to pull up and swing wide.

”Coming down for round two, sit tight Nomad,” she said, her voice flat with concentration.

Silus stood up and started making his way back toward the server room. It was a big enough wall that he could post up just on the other side of the security door.

"Shooter, if I were sitting any tigh......."

"Shooter, if I were sitting any tigh......."

Nelaa's eyes went wide as Silus was cut off by the sound of blaster fire, followed by a loud thud. For a few moments she stood in complete shock listening to the sounds coming in over his comm.

"Confirmed hit. Intruder is down."
"Ten-four, veri...."

She silenced his communicator and spoke quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Davis...get out of there."

“No, I’m coming around for another pass, just give me a second!”

Bette yanked on the steering yoke, opening fire on the base even though she was too far up to do any real damage.

”Hold on Nomad, I’m coming!”

She was halfway between shock and full out panic. The normally tight control she spoke with was frayed at best.

"Davis..get out of there now. If you get taken out..."

"I know what I'm doing!"

That was the point when Nelaa lost her cool.

"YOU CAN'T HELP HIM! YOU HAVE TO COMPLETE THE MISSION." She heard Bette trying to edge a word in and wouldn't let her. "IF YOU FAIL, HIS..." She paused and swallowed the lump in her throat.

Tears sprang to Bette’s eyes as she held up the yoke, keeping the nose of the ship down.

“Get out of there Davis! That’s an order!”

She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood in her mouth, pulling down on the yoke at the last minute, taking evasive action pos-y to break another weapons lock from the base defenses.

”Fuck!”

Nelaa's worst fears were coming to life.

"Commander. He's gone."

Her voice was trembling.

"Please don't make it in vain..."

“Shit, shit, shit.” Bette circled high, but there wasn’t an obvious opening to get back down to the base.

“Commander! Get out of there!”

Bette slammed her hand on the comm, silencing Kyris.


she

screamed


Bette knew what Agent Kyris was telling her was correct. Whatever this data was, Silus had given his life for it. She had to get it out of there. Make the jump back to Centauri Delta. The long trip back to the Anoat sector.

With a shuddering groan Bette aimed the nose of the freighter up toward space, and floored it.

Three hours later...


“I don’t care what your orders are, Lieutenant, I’m not leaving this freighter until someone with proper clearance arrives to take it off my hands.”

Bette sat in the cockpit of the YT-2400, poking the comm angrily with her finger to talk and then releasing it. She’d flown back to the Centauri Delta task group in a daze, and settled the freighter back inside a landing bay. Since then, however, she’d kept the freighter locked up tight.

In another hour they’d probably force the hatch, but she wasn’t going to let just anyone in here.

The fate of the Empire.

That’s what was on those servers in the hold.

Bette stared out the viewscreen and all the way past the shimmering blue forcefield and into the black of space.

It wasn't until she'd heard that Bette had arrived safely back at Centauri Delta until Nelaa packed up to leave the forward command post. Everything was set already. She had a tech team ready to go in and retrieve the data from the freighter on site and analyst's to start parsing through what they had brought back. Things would be on autopilot now.

Her shuttle was waiting on her when she got the hangar. As soon as she was inside and strapped in did she begin to assess her condition. She was exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. She'd bitten all of her fingernails down to the quick, and her index finger stung where she'd chewed it down even further. She found that whenever she started to review the mission in her mind she would lose focus, which was very out of character for her. If she tried to force herself into focus she would become anxious. She sat silently in this haze all the way back to Centauri Delta.

As soon as her shuttle landed she was back into reality. The first word that she received was that Bette was refusing to release the freighter. Understandable, she thought to herself. It was a short walk from her shuttle to the YT-2400 Freighter. Nelaa buzzed the comm.

"Lieutenant Commander Davis, may I enter?"

Bette sat up, suddenly alert, as Agent Kyris' voice came through the speakers. Unable to sit still, she lurched to her feet and paced through the cockpit for a moment before bending over the console and activating the comm to reply.

"Give me a minute, Agent."

Her heart was pounding and her neck was tight as she walked down the passage to the hatch, one hand on the blaster strapped to her hip. Using the outer camera she verified that it was indeed Nelaa Kyris standing outside.

Bette stood there for another long moment, just staring at the closed hatch.

She pressed her left hand to the hatch controls and the freighter opened, the ramp descending toward the ImpIntel agent on the deck.

As the entrance to began to open, Nelaa saw Bette standing at the top of the ramp. The woman was far enough on the edge of the ramp that she was behind the entry lighting, the effect of which left her a dark shadow against a bright background. Nelaa took slow measured steps up the ramp. Bette appeared calm but radiated anger, as if it were coming out of her very pores. The blaster on her hip wasn't a comforting sight either. Nelaa spoke softly, her trademark calmness finally back in place after the harrowing events of earlier.

"Lieutenant Commander, I have a team ready to come in and begin processing this data. Can they come aboard and begin their work?"

Her calm voice and demeanor were a stark contrast to her feelings. Every muscle in her body was tense and ready for action. She could hear a voice in the back of her head. "This one is capable of anything."

They stood there like that for another long moment, like they were facing down in the middle of a dusty street in an old holomovie. Bette finally moved to the side, biting the inside of her cheek so hard she could taste blood. With effort she relaxed her jaw.

"Of course, Agent Kyris." She took her hand off her blaster, but left it hanging by her hip. "Everything is secure."

Bette moved further into the freighter, matching Kyris as she stepped inside, and her foot nudged something. Looking down, Bette saw it was the equipment bag that Silus had been digging through just a few hours previous. She caught a gleam of something metallic inside and knelt beside it, slowly pulling it open wider.

The clothes Silus had been wearing before he'd put on the suit for the mission were haphazardly folded inside, his flask lying on top of them.

Bette closed her hand around the flask and stood up. The anger inside her was building up to a breaking point. Behind the anger was just a black void that she desperately didn't want to look into, so she held onto the anger and her knuckles whitened around the flask.

Nelaa bit her bottom lip slightly. She was a bit unnerved by the fact that Bette seemed to be in her own little world, like she consulted some other entity that no one else could see before reacting to the world around her. Nelaa had a pretty good grasp on Bette's personality, it was that other entity that scared her. In her training, she had dealt with people in this mindset before. The smart play would be to keep everything professional. Bette would do her duty even if it killed her, she wouldn't be on this mission if that were the case. He instincts, however, told her to toss the playbook out the window. On top of that, after all Bette had been through...

"Look, this isn't something I'm very good at so please, bear with me" She looked away for a moment, gathering herself.

"I know it won't seem like it right now, but you did the right thing today." She saw Bette tense up, but continued. "Silus was my friend too and losing him...and knowing.." She looked down at her feet for a moment, then met Bette's stare. "I'm sorry...I don't know what to say..."

Bette stared at the red-haired agent. You did the right thing. The words seemed to snap her out of the daze she was in, and she dropped the flask back into the bag near her feet.

"Permission to speak freely, Agent?"

"Of course."

Bette took a quick step forward, her arm swinging and forming a fist that caught Nelaa Kyris across the jaw. As the ImpIntel agent staggered back a pace, the pilot scooped up the flask, shouldered her kit and stalked down the ramp.

"Fuck you, Kyris."

Bette walked across the hangar to the waiting Lambda shuttle she would be flying, alone, back to the ISD Admonisher.