"Station 421 to unidentified ship. Please state your name and business."
"Station 421, this is Captain Antilles of the Zena’s Revenge requesting permission to land. My business is to visit my brother, Lieutenant Wedge Antilles."
"Transmit your clearance code."
"Transmission commencing." Kelly Antilles punched a few buttons on the control board of her TL-1800 transport and sent the information requested. She sat back and relaxed, wondering what kind of looks would be on their faces when they saw those codes. She should get immediate clearance.
The lieutenant sitting at the comms station nearly fell over when he ran a check on the codes. "Um, Commander," he said urgently to the officer on duty.
"What is it Logran," Commander Smyth said as he came to look over the Lieutenant’s shoulder.
"You need to see this, sir."
Smyth looked at the check on the codes and couldn’t believe his eyes. "And she’s just here to visit Antilles?"
"That’s what she said, sir."
"Dock her in bay three. Send Cracken to escort her to wherever Antilles happens to be."
"Aye, sir."
Kelly grinned to herself. Everything was going as suspected so far. She moved the Revenge on a course to land in bay three. She gawked at the many battle-scarred X-Wing fighters that were also in this bay. The Revenge landed gently and she powered down the ship. She stretched as she stood. Her muscles were tired from all the practice and exercise Master Aulduin had told her to do.
Looking down beside her, she saw her R2 unit starting to unlock himself from the droid slot that was in place of the co-pilot seat. "You stay there, Winger," she told the droid. "I want you to guard the ship."
Winger beeped at her. "Well," she replied, "do it anyway. I don’t want you getting into trouble." She looked out the cockpit window and saw a tall redhead walking towards the ship. "That must be my escort. I’ll be back later."
The man who greeted her at the bottom of the boarding ramp was very military. He stood straight and tall and even made the flightsuit he was wearing look like a uniform. "Hi," she said to him. "I’m Kelly Antilles."
"Yes ma’am," he said rather formally. "I’m Lieutenant Cracken. The Commander asked me to escort you to your brother."
"Cracken? As in General Airen Cracken?"
"Yes ma’am. He is my father. Now if you will follow me." He walked off, not even waiting to see if she was behind him.
"Boy, a thrill a minute is this one," she mumbled to herself. She jogged to catch up with the taller man.
He led her down many corridors. Her sense of direction told her they were heading further into the station. Kelly never had been one who liked silence so she tried to make small talk with the Lieutenant. "So, where are we going?"
"Your brother is currently in the mess hall having lunch," he said without turning his head.
She took a couple of quick steps in order to come up beside him. She was determined to get more information from this guy. "You’re an X-Wing pilot too?"
"Yes."
"How long have you been piloting?"
He stopped and glared down at her. "I was told to escort a fellow pilot’s sister to the mess hall. There was no mention of an interrogation."
Kelly sighed inwardly. "Sorry. I was just trying to make conversation."
"If you wish to do that, I would appreciate it if you would stick to general topics."
"Sure." She looked at him curiously as they started down the hall again. "You definitely went to the Academy," she mumbled.
The Lieutenant’s shoulders noticeably stiffened. So, she had hid the nail on the head. It didn’t matter to her. There were many pilots in the Rebellion who went to the academy.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the mess hall. Kelly stopped just inside the doorway and looked around. She barely noticed that Lieutenant Cracken had already left. She found Wedge sitting alone. Smiling, she started to walk over.
A tall blonde man walked up to speak to Wedge. Her brother didn’t even acknowledge his presence. That seemed to agitate the blonde. "Come on chicken," he taunted. "Admit you were scared. Admit you ran away from the Death Star."
Kelly’s face turned red with anger. Quickly she crossed the room to stand directly behind the man taunting her brother.
"You are such a looser, Antilles."
"I’d watch what I was saying if I were you," Kelly said angrily. She clinched her hands into fists in frustration.
The blonde turned at looked down at her imposing figure. "What do you care, shorty?"
She gritted her teeth "Look, that man right there is one of the bravest souls I know. He left the trench under direct orders. Had he stayed and gotten killed, the Rebellion would be less one great pilot. Yeah, Luke Skywalker was the one who fired the shot, but he wouldn’t have had that chance if Wedge hadn’t taken a bogey off his tail. Wedge WILL be important to the success of the Rebellion. That has already been foreseen."
Wedge looked up when he recognized her voice. Taryn had no chance. She was the best at defending people, especially him. She always could "tell it like it is".
"And why the hell do you have such an interest in this," Taryn said angrily.
Wedge stood. "Because she is my sister," he said quietly.
Kelly smiled at her brother as Taryn turned to face him. "You need to tell her when not to butt in."
She frowned. "It’s as much my business as it is yours." She tapped him on the chest as she continued, " Look, if you don’t think my brother is that good a pilot, why not challenge him? Better yet, I challenge you. I bet my brother and I can out fly you and anyone else you choose." Kelly felt Wedge’s hand on her shoulder. She refused to acknowledge him because he would try to talk her out of this preposterous idea. This was the only way she saw to prove to everyone that Wedge was a great pilot.
Taryn grinned devilishly. "You’re on, kid."
"Wait," Wedge said as he interposed himself between the two. "The Commander will never let us do this."
"Why don’t we just go ask him? Or are you chicken?"
Kelly glared hard at Taryn, "my brother is not a chicken."
"I can handle this," Wedge whispered to her. He turned his attention to Taryn. "Ok. We’ll go see Commander Roth and get this settled. So, if you’ll just lead the way," he gestured to allow the other to pass unhindered.
Taryn looked curiously at Wedge then smiled. "Ok. Let’s go."
Commander Saren Roth was a busy man. Keeping control over eleven young pilots was no easy task. He sighed deeply when his comlink beeped. "Roth here."
"Sir?" The voice of his XO sounded curious. "Lieutenants Taryn and Antilles are here requesting permission to speak with you."
Not again, thought Roth. Taryn constantly hassled Antilles because he had survived Yavin. Roth saw both sides of the story. Antilles was right to follow orders, but there were so many others who had sacrificed themselves. Who knows, Biggs Darklighter may have survived if Antilles had stayed in the trench. That thinking led to many "what ifs". Right now, his priority was keeping his squad together. "Let them in, Cherin," he finally replied.
Taryn entered first. Roth could tell it was going to be a long day from the cockiness he was displaying. Behind him was a woman. From the similarity in appearance, she must be Antilles’ sister. Antilles came in last.
Taryn and Antilles stood at attention before his desk, the former grinning and the latter scowling. Roth let them sweat for a few moments before laying his data pad down. "At ease, gentlemen," he said. "What is it this time?"
Taryn began to open his mouth. Roth decided that he better get the correct information. "Why don’t you tell me, Ms. Antilles," he said to the young woman.
Taryn’s jaw hit the floor and Kelly looked surprised. "Um, well, Sir... Commander... um, I walked into the mess hall to find Lieutenant Taryn harassing my brother."
"I was not," Taryn said defensively. "I was only..."
Roth cut him off with a look. "Please continue," he said cordially.
"In short, sir, I suggested that Lieutenant Taryn and another pilot fly against my brother and myself in a battle to see who is the best pilot."
The Commander mulled this idea over in his head. It certainly would put all doubts about Antilles’ abilities to rest. He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Whose idea was it to come talk to me about this?"
"Mine, sir," Wedge said quietly.
Roth looked over the three pilots standing before him. Suddenly an idea came to him. "Ok, you can have your little challenge." Taryn and Kelly smiled. "However," he continued, "this will also include the rest of your squadron as well as Yellow. Taryn and Antilles will lead the squads. That way we can see your commanding abilities as well."
The shock on their faces made Roth smile inwardly. "We will have a full squad meeting at 16:30. Go tell Cherin to spread the word."
"Yes sir," Taryn and Antilles said simultaneously. They turned and headed for the door. Kelly started to follow.
"Ms. Antilles," said Commander Roth. "May I speak with you?"
Kelly turned back to face him. "Sir?"
He waited until the door closed completely before continuing. "Please, have a seat," he said gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.
She sat. Oh no, she thought, what have I done now?
"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"No sir," she said feeling even uneasier.
"How did you come by such," he searched for the word, "high clearance codes?"
It took her a moment to realize to what he was referring. "Oh," she finally said as she relaxed. "One of the last jobs I did included escorting Princess Organa’s personal confidant to Bespin. Actually, we kinda saved her life. They offered us a bonus and I asked if I could come see my brother."
"I see. To be honest with you, the fact that your codes are the Princess’ personal codes is the only reason you are still here."
Her eyes widened. She had obviously really screwed up this time.
Roth raised a hand. "Wait. The only reason being that you stepped in where you shouldn’t have. Your brother and Taryn are my responsibility. I can handle their disagreements."
Kelly lowered her head; ashamed of the way she had acted. She wouldn’t be surprised if Wedge asked her to leave.
"There is a good side to this," the Commander continued. "I have been looking for a reason to have the two squads work as a cohesive unit. This is a perfect opportunity. Also, it will prove your brother’s worth to this squadron. There are others who feel the same as Taryn."
"Yes sir," she responded.
Roth sat back and looked at the young woman seated before him. If her hair had been dark, she would be a dead ringer for Antilles. But looks seemed to be as far as that went. She had a temper and was a very determined lady. "Have you ever flown an X-Wing?"
She looked up confused. "No sir. But I have flown Z-95 Headhunters before. Wedge says they are very similar to an X-Wing."
"True. The X-Wing was modeled from the Headhunter. I suspect you have a droid that helps you pilot your TL-1800."
"Yes sir, an R2 unit. He’s my co-pilot and my best friend."
"Good. You’ll have to get him into the computer or hook him up with another pilot’s droid so he can learn the systems on the ship."
"Sir?"
"You’re the one who started this. You’re going to see it all the way through."
She realized that she really was going to fly with Wedge’s squadron. "Yes sir," she said enthusiastically.
"I can’t let you on a sim until the competition begins, but perhaps Lieutenant Antilles can give you a crash course."
"Thank you sir," she said with a smile. She stood and began to leave.
"Oh, one other thing."
She turned back. "Yes?"
"I believe you and your brother will prove yourselves. If you don’t, I ask that you leave the station as soon as you can. Taryn will be even worse than he is right now."
Kelly nodded. "I understand."
Cherin nearly fell out of his chair when he heard the Commander’s door open. The Antilles woman walked out alone. "Ms. Antilles, your brother said he would wait for you on your ship."
"Thank you, Captain," she said. He could tell the Commander had gotten to her. She had to same look all the other pilots had when they had a face-to-face with Roth. His comlink beeped and made him jump again. "Cherin here."
"Get in here Captain," said Commander Roth. "We need to talk."
Kelly only got lost twice trying to get back to her ship. Luckily, she found two friendly pilots who helped her get back on track. She stomped up the ramp and into the ship. The entire way back she had thought about everything the Commander had said. She wasn’t confused, just worried she was going to make a complete fool of herself in front of her brother’s entire squad.
"Could you walk any louder?"
The sound of Wedge’s voice right beside her made her jump. "Geez! Don’t do that," she scolded.
Wedge grinned then sobered. "What did the Commander want to talk to you about?"
"Oh, this and that."
"This and that what?"
Kelly walked over to the sitting area and flopped down on the acceleration couch. "He just wondered how I got Princess Leia’s personal codes and told me to have you teach me about X-Wings."
"The Princess’ personal codes? How did you get those?"
She grinned. "Hey, don’t act so surprised. I’m out there busting my butt as much as you guys are. Anyway, we had escorted her confidant Winter to Bespin and were given a bonus for that job. My bonus was the codes so I could get clearance to see you."
"Wow, that is impressive."
"Yeah, well," she shrugged his compliment off. "When you have as many Jedi around you as I do, things get real interesting."
"That’s right. How is your training coming along?"
"Slow. I pick up on things ok, but I’m kinda reluctant to use them. Master Aulduin has told me the horror stories of the Clone Wars and about the Emperor and Vader’s search to purge out all the Jedi. It’s really scary."
Wedge reached over and hugged his sister. "I’m sorry."
"Hey, it’s not your fault. But anyway, we need to get working. Commander Roth said for me to get you to teach me about the X-Wing and either get Winger into the system or hooked up with someone else’s droid so he can learn the system too."
"Ok, we can hook Winger up to Mynock, my R5."
"Oh no."
"What?"
"Well, I’ll make sure to tell him that Mynock isn’t the R5 he knows. We have a R5 unit that helps us out. He’s a bit, um, unstable."
Wedge chucked. "An unstable droid. That’s a new concept."
"Wait until you meet him."
"Well, come on, we’ll go to my quarters so we can study."
Wedge and Kelly spent the next few hours going over the X-Wing systems. Winger picked up the workings quickly from Mynock. He wasn’t the only fast learner. Kelly nearly had everything down to a science.
The siblings were deep in a discussion about the shielding when the door opened. "Hey, Antilles, you have any idea about this," Wes Janson stopped short as he came in and saw Wedge with a girl in his room. That shocked him, but it didn’t take long for him to realize who she was. "I’ll be damned."
Kelly looked up and smiled. "Why hello to you too, Wes." She stood and went to hug her friend.
"When’d you get here, cutie," he asked her as they embraced.
"About midday. And to answer the question you were about to ask Wedge, I’m the reason for the meeting, but I don’t have time to talk about it. I’ve got to be able to step into an X-Wing and fly it."
Wes looked confused. Wedge just shook his head. "Don’t wonder Janson. Just get over here and help."
The two X-Wing pilots shared all their knowledge with Kelly and deemed her ready by the time they needed to leave to go to the meeting.
The briefing room was crowded with pilots as Wedge, Kelly and Wes slipped into some chairs in the rear of the room. Commander Roth and Captain Cherin stood at the front of the room talking quietly to each other. Kelly caught sight of Taryn out of the corner of her eye. He had the most maniacal look on his face she had ever seen. He was confident that he was going to blast them out of the air. Cherin whistled to get everyone’s attention and silence fell over the room.
Commander Roth addressed the assembled pilots. "I’m glad to see everyone made it. As many of you probably already know, because of a certain person’s mouth, a challenge has been issued." Roth glared at Taryn who just smiled broader.
Roth scowled and continued. "Because of the nature of this challenge, I have deemed that both the Yellow and Blue squads will be a part of this deal. We have divided the squadrons in two. There are six Yellow and six Blue on each squad." That brought a few moans from the crowd. The Commander raised his hand to calm them. "If you wish to blame anyone, you should blame those who issued the challenge. Lieutenant Taryn, Lieutenant Antilles and Captain Antilles, the Lieutenant’s sister, are the ones responsible. In fact, the Lieutenants are going to be the commanders of the two squads. Cherin is handing out the assignments. You have until 21:00 to prepare yourselves. Anyone not in an assigned sim by 21:00 will be disqualified and the squad will have to fly a pilot short. I’m using this as a test to see how well you can work together as a cohesive unit. Any questions?"
Roth looked around and saw most of the pilots looking over their assignments. Nobody spoke up. "Ok, dismissed." He turned and started talking to Cherin again quietly.
Wedge looked over the list Cherin had given him. He recognized many of the names and realized they had divided the factions. He had those who supported him and obviously Taryn had his own. Pilots began gathering around him and he felt Kelly nudge his arm.
"Okay, boss," she said. "What’s our first move?"
Wedge looked up to find ten of his fellow pilots surrounding the table. Looking past them, he saw that Taryn’s group had done the same thing. "Let’s go somewhere a bit more secluded," he said as he stood.
Wes grinned and slapped him on the back. "Good idea. But where to?"
"How about the pilot’s lounge," suggested Karyn Donne. She had been a supporter of Wedge from the moment he joined this squad. This little bet was justice to her.
Wedge nodded in agreement. "Ok, the pilot’s lounge it is." He led everyone out the door and towards the lounge.
Once everyone was inside, Wes closed the door. "We don’t want anyone to hear," he said grinning.
Kelly sat in a chair near where Wedge was standing. For some reason, she felt nervous. Looking around at the pilots in the room made her chest clinch. That was it. She felt out of place. These were all great pilots who were loyal to the Rebellion. And they all had experience with X-Wings.
Wedge tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, I need a second in command," he said.
She looked up at him. "Why not Wes. He’d make a good XO."
He just looked at her blankly.
"What," she asked.
"I was asking you to be my second."
"Oh no. I’m no good at making decisions."
"You don’t have to make the decisions. I just want you for input."
"But?"
"No buts. Quit arguing with me for once."
Kelly sighed. She was beaten. At least it was by the best. "Ok. I’ll do it."
Wedge smiled then turned to the rest of the group. "Ok everyone, let’s get this started." He waited for everyone to be seated. "First off, I have chosen my second in command as Kelly. If anyone has a problem with my choice, please take it up with me separately."
"I don’t believe any of us have a problem with that," Karyn said. Many heads bobbed in agreement. "This is your show. We’re just the cast of characters."
Wedge looked and saw that everyone did agree. "Ok. Let’s get the planning underway."
For the next three hours, twelve pilots discussed their peer’s abilities and how they were going to kick some serious butt. Many ideas were thrown out. They chose the best course of action and were ready to go.
About an hour before launch time, they separated so everyone could get their flightsuits on and otherwise be ready. Karyn took Kelly to her quarters to get a suit for the rookie. Luckily, they were about the same size.
"Here, try this," Karyn said as she brought a neon orange jumpsuit from her closet. "It’s a little older than the rest, but it should fit."
Kelly took it from her and held it up. Looking in the mirror, she saw herself dressed like a proud Rebel who would fight to the death to be free of the Empire’s grip. She grinned.
"Wow, you really look like your brother," Karyn said as she sat on her bed and began to dress in her own suit.
"Only difference being the hair," Kelly said. She began undressing from her own clothes. "How many times have I heard that?" She chuckled, "it’s pretty helpful sometimes. Other times it can be a pain."
"Why is that?"
"Well, Wedge started out smuggling weapons. I pretty much did the same, but I wasn’t as, um, generous as he was."
Karyn chuckled. "Your prices were higher, huh?"
"Something like that." Kelly zipped up the front and pulled her hair out of the collar. "How does it look?"
"Great. You really look like one of us now."
"Now if I can just attempt to fly like one of you."
The sim room was crowded with pilots. Kelly walked in and looked for Wedge. Instead, she found Taryn in front of her. "You’re going down, Antilles," he said vengefully.
She stared at him for a moment then shook her head. "You are definitely not worth the effort," she said as she moved past him.
Commander Cherin stopped her. "Nice move," he said.
"Thanks."
"Here, let me get you to your sim. Your droid has already been loaded. How long have you had that thing?"
"About four years."
"That’s what I thought. He’s really beat up."
"Well hell, he’s my copilot," she responded with a grin. "With my flying, of course he’s beat up."
"That’s not what I hear," he said as they walked up to a sim.
Winger beeped a hello to Kelly when he saw her.
"Hi Winger," she replied. "Are you ready?"
The droid rattled off several beeps and noises. She seemed to understand them. Cherin was quite impressed.
Kelly nodded as she ascended into the sim. "Well," she said, "You better be ready. Somebody around here has to be." Kelly grinned and looked down at Cherin. "What are my odds, Captain?"
"They’re giving you 7-1." He stopped quickly after realizing what he had done. "Uh, not that I would know," he said to cover up his error.
"Not to worry, Sir. I wasn’t even expecting them to be that low."
"Your name seems to carry a lot of weight with some of your teammates."
"Well, we Antilles try our best." She looked into the sim cockpit and swallowed hard. "Well, I guess this is it."
"Good luck," Cherin told her honestly.
"Thanks, Captain."
"Watch the crossfire!"
"I’ve got one on me I can’t shake!"
"Gotcha!!"
Kelly watched X-Wings zoom all around her. Winger chirped that she had a good lock on one of the enemy fighters. She thumbed the laser cannons over to link and fired a strafing shot. She clipped one of the S-foils. Jinking the fighter back towards the left, she got him in the crosshairs. Triggering another shot, she took out an engine this time. There was no way he could get anywhere. He was out of this game. Kelly mentally chalked up her first kill.
"Great shot, Twelve," said a familiar voice.
"Thanks, Wes," she replied.
Kelly concentrated on weaving through the ship-to-ship fights that were going on around her. She saw that her wingman had one tight on her. "Hang on, Karyn. I’ll be right there."
"Negative, Twelve. I can handle this."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. You go help someone else."
Kelly frowned and turned back towards another fight. She dodged several more skirmishes before finding an enemy without anyone on him. She began her pursuit. This one didn’t take near as long as the last. After she took him down, she searched for Karyn. There was no sign of her. In fact, there were very few fighters left. She sighed and began flying through the wreckage of several ships.
She had just come around a rather large piece when Winger squealed. There was an enemy on her tail and closing fast.
"Hahaha! I have you now," came Taryn’s voice over the comm.
She froze. His voice had sent shivers down her spine. Now is not the time for this, she told herself. Snapping out of it, she quickly turned her ship into a steep dive. Taryn kept up with her. His laser cannons relentlessly tore at her rear deflectors. Kelly switched all the power evenly between the engines and the rear deflector. Everytime she thought she had outfoxed him, Taryn was suddenly on her tail.
She had to find a way to get rid of him. Her shields were nearly gone and her power was almost depleted. Ahead of her, she saw the large chunk of debris she had skirted earlier. Hopefully she could make it before her shields gave way.
"Come on Antilles! Give up. You are DEAD!" Taryn taunted her.
"Come on, come on," she whispered as she tried to coax more power out of the engines. She reached the debris as her rear deflector failed. She pulled back hard on the yoke and went into a climb. Then the cockpit went black.
She let go of the yoke and stared blankly. He had gotten her. She was furious at herself for letting it happen. They had lost because she couldn’t get away from him.
The hatch opened and a hand reached down towards her. She grabbed the hand and was helped out. She saw that Wes was who had helped her. "Sorry about that," she said dejectedly.
"What’s there to be sorry for? You did great! You even got a half kill on Taryn."
"What?"
"Yeah, right as you pulled up, Wedge took out his engine so he hit the debris. That was classic!"
"Really," she asked in shock. "Who was last man standing?"
"I think it was both of you, but your ship did explode right as Taryn’s hit. Technically, I think that makes Wedge last man standing."
Karyn walked up with a huge smile on her face. "Great job, Kelly," she said.
"What happened to you? I thought you said you had that one on your tail."
"I did. However, he took my shields down enough that it only took one stray shot to take me out."
A loud and angry scream followed by a clatter as a helmet was thrown against a wall cut through the room. "ANTILLES," Taryn screamed as he ran towards Kelly. "You cheated," he said angrily as he pushed her.
She stepped back a bit. "I did not," she said softly.
"There is no way you could have beaten me. You had to have known that Wedge was behind me." He pushed her again.
"That’s two," she said nonchalantly. "I had no idea Wedge was there. I thought I was the one who had lost. Just ask Wes and Karyn. I just knew you had beaten me."
"Yeah right," he said as he moved to push her.
"If you push me again, I will be forced to defend myself."
"Oh yeah? And how are you going to do that? Call in your brute squad?" He moved so that he was face to face with her and then puffed his chest to move her out of the way.
Kelly frowned and suddenly Taryn was thrown halfway across the room and landed against a sim. "I warned him," she said.
The room grew deathly quiet. Not a sole even dared to move. Kelly moved over to Taryn and offered a hand to help him stand. He glared at her, "I don’t need or want your help."
"Taryn, your anger in unwarranted," she said to him. "You know I didn’t cheat because you were the one who was cheating."
Commander Roth appeared beside her. "Are you accusing Lieutenant Taryn of cheating," he asked.
Kelly turned towards the Commander. "I promise you that I did nothing to provoke any sort of response from the Lieutenant. However, now that the challenge is over, I have reason to believe that he was cheating."
"That is a very serious charge, Ms. Antilles."
"I know sir. But the Force has guided me to this answer. One thing Master Aulduin has always said was to be mindful of my ‘hunches’. They usually turn out to be correct."
Roth looked down at Taryn who was beginning to try and stand. "Lieutenant, do you have anything to say about this? Remember, you are still being tested."
"Sir," he said as he weakly stood at attention, "I would like to request that we discuss this in your office."
That request took Roth aback. He stared curiously at Taryn. "Alright. Cherin, escort Mr. Taryn to my office."
"Yes sir," Cherin said rather exuberantly. Roth gave a look that stopped him. "I mean, of course sir," he said more sheepishly. "Right away."
"Commander?"
Roth turned to face who had addressed him. Kelly stood with a rather worried look on her face.
"Sir, I think he learned the lesson. Go easy on him. He is just misguided."
"I had always heard that Jedi were wise beyond their years. You are proof."
"I’m not a Jedi. At least not yet. I have a long way to go."
"Well, you’ve got a great start."
"Thank you sir. With your permission, I would like to go get my ship prepped to leave as soon as possible."
"Denied."
"What?"
"You think I’m going to let you leave before the victory party? Lieutenant Janson would be in the brig for weeks for what he would do to me if I did that." The Commander smiled and winked at her.
Kelly grinned. "Aye sir, as long as those are your direct orders."
"Would you just go have fun while I figure out what to do with Taryn?"
"Yes sir," she said as she saluted.
Roth shook his head and smiled. He returned the salute then turned and left.
Kelly flopped down on a couch beside her brother. Everyone in the pilot’s lounge was having a great time. "That was a great move you made, big brother."
"You didn’t do so bad yourself," he responded. "But how did you know Taryn was cheating?"
She grinned and tapped her temple. "The Force, my dear brother. It knows all and tells all."
He just shook his head. "I can’t understand all that Force mumbo-jumbo. I just know that I don’t have it and you do. Doesn’t that seem odd?"
"To be honest with you, I haven’t asked Master Aulduin about that. I’ve been too busy training."
Wedge smiled. "That’s ok. I’m just glad you’re learning something."
A small group, which included Wes and Karyn, walked up to them. "Hey, there are the guests of honor," Wes said. He handed Wedge a glass and Karyn handed Kelly one.
"What’s this," asked Wedge.
"It won’t bite," Karyn said with a grin. "It’s only lum."
"Thanks," said Kelly. "You guys are really great pilots."
"You lasted longer than we did. That makes you better than us."
"Only because Winger and I figured out that Taryn was cheating."
Wes dropped on the couch between the siblings. "Yeah, and what exactly was he doing?"
Karyn sat beside Wedge and the others pulled up chairs. Kelly looked at her brother for confirmation. He nodded so she began to tell what she suspected. "Well, mind you that this is all speculation on my part."
"The first thing Winger noticed was that there was something fishy about their laser cannons. He checked several of our opponents and noticed that no matter how much extra power they would draw from the cannons, they always stayed 25% more power than what we had."
"How did he do that," one of the pilots asked.
"We guess that he distributed a program to all the droids that ran right after the checks."
Karyn spoke next. "You said ‘first’ like there was more."
"There was. There’s a reason you were shot down so quickly. Of course, we didn’t realize this until my shields were almost completely gone. Some how, they sabotaged our shields. When a ship’s shields got to 25%, they would lock up. No matter how much power you would try to divert from other systems, the shields would not get above 25%. In fact, the power you diverted went nowhere. That’s why you went down so quick after your shields got that low."
"How did you stay up so long," asked another pilot.
"Well, Winger realized the problem as soon as I hit 25%. He was able to disengage the part of the program that would not allow any more power diverted to the shields. Then he stored whatever power I diverted and drained it into the shields whenever I dropped below 25%."
"Wow, that’s one amazing droid," Karyn said in awe.
Kelly just grinned. "Hey, he can fly a TL-1800 by himself. Decoding a program on a starfighter was nothing."
"I give you the incredible Antilles siblings," Wes said with a wave of his arms.
Everyone chuckled as Kelly ducked before being slammed in the face. She shook her head as she stood. "We’re not that incredible Wes." She grinned down at the obviously tipsy pilot. "Now if you would excuse me, I’d like to catch up a little with him."
Kelly moved over to the bar and ordered another lum.
"Can I buy you a drink," a male voice spoke from just behind her.
She turned to face Lieutenant Pash Cracken. "Why," she asked. "I didn’t think you were one for social activities."
Pash blushed slightly, but regained his composure quickly. "I’m not all that bad. And besides, it’s customary for the pilot of your first kill to buy you a drink."
"I don’t ever remember hearing that one before, but I like it. So you were the one that nearly got away from me."
He nodded. "You flew great."
"Thanks. You really kept me thinking."
He cracked a grin that Kelly found stimulating. "Frankly, I thought it was Janson behind me. I had no idea it was you until I checked the tally."
"Well, it was Wes who told me about that move."
They stood in silence sipping their drinks. Kelly looked at him differently than the first time they met. He was dressed in a black flight suit that really made his hair seem like a flame above his shoulders. The suit was just small enough to accentuate his muscles. His green eyes seemed to pierce into her very soul. Gone was the militant air he had when he escorted her to the mess hall earlier that day. She decided she liked this Pash much better.
"Excuse me," came Karyn’s voice from behind. "Are you two just going to stand here or are you going to come back and join the party?"
Kelly blinked and pushed aside the image she was dreaming. "Uh, yeah. Pash, would you like to join us?"
He smiled warmly. "Sure."
Now, journey on to Part 2: The Battle at Goldaan