Justinian picked up on the transmission from the boarding party and his eyebrows shot upward in mild surprise. He sat in wait, watching the shuttles as they were coupled together and 'out the corner of his eyes' in a way, if anything else were to occur while they were sitting ducks. Not likely - aside from the one attack about a month and a half back, the convoy had been pretty undisturbed by the opposition.
'Jedi', he mouthed, flicking the comm. over to the squadron frequency, again.
"You hear that, Flash?" He queried.
'Another one?' Yoree shot back, surprise vaguely evident in his voice. Atreides wasn't certain if it was exasperation or defeat he heard in his patrol mates' voice, as well. 'Well, I guess this is the place for 'em, but... if we weren't expecting him - or her - then how did the supposed Jedi know we were here?'
Justinian smirked. "Maybe the Force told 'im. You know... works in mysterious ways and all that hoo-diddy."
'Ahh, right. Hoo-diddy.'
The comm. crackled with a third voice, interrupting their banter.
'Knock it off, patrol.' The stern, rebuking voice came through strong. 'Just because no-one is bugging us now, doesn't mean someone won't drop by for a listen if they happen to come across our transmissions. Keep the chatter down.'
"Sorry, sir. Shutting up."
'Aye, aye, Commander. Knocking it off, as requested.'
-----------
The next fifteen minutes were boring as heck. Either of the pilots would have commented on being able to take a nap while they waited, but having been rebuked for excess comm. chatter, nobody said a word to that effect. Instead, they listened in on the boarding party's channel as they worked to get the wings up for fly-in. Or tow-in, rather. Tractor-in.
You get the idea.
It wasn't much of an interesting listen, but it was better than nothing (read: nonexistant enemy presence, which was the entire point of the patrols). The crew had to pull some panels, jiggle or temp. fix some wires, but in the end, the desired result was achieved. It was almost cause for hoots and hollers of celebration. Almost. Half of the boarding crew had loaded the wounded, supposed Jedi onto the other shuttle as quickly as possible and taken him to be tended to. The other half tended to the shuttle.
The comm. came to life with the voices of the remaining crew. Well, one of them. The other was, no doubt, doing whatever it is that boarding parties did when they weren't talking.
'Command, wings are up and we're ready to tractor this bird in.' The voice on the end of the comm, paused. 'How's our new guest?'
The response came, clear as it could be over the buzz of ever-present comm. static. 'We've heard nothing as of yet, boarding party. Stand by, we'll reel you in.' A pause for that end. 'Patrol?'
Justinian sat up to thumb the comm., but Yoree beat him to it.
'We're here, Control.'
'Bring your birds in, patrol. Your replacements are up and ready to go.'
Thank goodness. At least the confines of the Valiant were less boring. Justinian watched as the Valiant began to pull the Lambda-class shuttle in. It was all he could do until it was in the hangar bay. He and Yoree would bring up the rear, coming in just behind the wounded bird.
'Be good men and pay our new guest a visit after you get in and tidy up. Command out.'
"Aye, aye, Control. Will Do. Blink, out."
'Flash, out.' Both pilots switched back to the squadron-exclusive channel.
'You really think the 'new guest' is a Jedi, Blink?'
Justinian snorted.
"I really think I'm fracking hungry, Flash. Let's get our tails back ship-side."
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