Two Months Later…

     To put it frankly, Seven was bored.  Very, very, bored.

     He had reason to be bored, too.  Everyone, it seemed, was out on a mission of some sort, or out having fun.  Everyone, that is, except for him.  He was stuck on the SSD pretty much doing absolutely nothing.  Well, nothing except for looking after Palin, who was now four months pregnant.  And while he didn’t necessarily mind looking after the woman who was having his baby, she didn’t seem too keen on being waited on.  She didn’t like having others do things for her.  Even though Star had taken her off active duty and told her to rest and relax, Palin still insisted on trying to do things without Seven’s help.  And to her credit, there was nothing right now that he could do that she couldn’t.  There might be later, but there wasn’t now.  And since she didn’t need help, and Star had taken Seven off active duty to help her, he had a lot of free time lately.

     A lot of very boring free time.

     He supposed he could’ve spent the time training.  He could always use time in the flight simulators.  And there were generally always other Sith there to train with, so he wouldn’t be alone.  He could also use some lightsaber practice.  Skate was pretty much always practicing, but she liked to practice alone.  Thunder, though, would be glad to teach him.  She liked fresh meat.  He didn’t like dueling with her much, though, considering how handily she usually—always—defeated him.  He could even spend some time up on the bridge learning tactical stuff from Vanicus, or down in the fighter bays learning the finer points of starfighter mechanics from Gimmer.  But, that would require, well...effort, and there was something that Seven had recently become reacquainted with that didn’t require any effort at all.

     With nothing to do, Seven once again found a friend in his HoloNet Communications Unit.

     It dawned on him during his recent little vacation that after joining Sith Squadron, he had pretty much stopped watching holos, either shows or vids.  He had no idea what kinds of shows or vids were even popular among the public these days.  He had heard about a series of holonovels recently that were surprisingly popular about a small boy whose parents had been killed by a Sith, and who found out years later that he was Force-sensitive.  The boy then went off every year to train at the Jedi Temple, where he had all kinds of wacky adventures and got into all kinds of crazy shenanigans.  What was the boy’s name?  Seven couldn’t remember.  He had never read the novels, or seen the vids that followed, since they focused on the Jedi.  Besides, supposedly they were kid’s novels...

     Seven plopped down on his couch and grabbed his remote.  He turned on the HoloNet Communications Unit.  With the SSD’s awesome communications array and satellite system, they got pretty much any channel that was out there.  Sports, porno, news, porno, sci-fi, porno...you name it, they got it.  Yes, with the awesome power of the SSD Seven had thousands and thousands of channels to choose from.

     And yet, nothing was on.

     He started to flip channels randomly, hoping that perhaps the Force would guide him to something that was worth watching.  It didn’t turn out that way.  Sadly, the first channel he clicked on was Fawkes, which was currently airing Imperial Icon, a show where talent-less denizens of Coruscant and other Core worlds competed in a singing contest while being ridiculed by obnoxious judges.  As it was right now, a young human was being ridiculed for his lack of talent by one of the judges.

     “You are just dreadful,” a man said with a heavy Coruscani accent.  “You are so bad that you make me wish my head would implode.  I’d rather listen to Princess Leia sing that horrid Life Day song while high and drunk than listen to you utter one more note.  Spare me more pain and just put yourself out of my misery—”

     Click.

     Seven hated that guy, as well as the show itself.  What a product of Coruscant’s pop culture and sudden love of “reality holos,” perhaps the fakest things on the ‘Net.

     Flipping the channel didn’t help much, as the next show he ran upon was Imperial Icon’s biggest ratings competitor, Outlive: Tatooine.  The show took a bunch of people—usually attorneys, accountants, stock brokers and generally nobody that "normal" people could relate to—and stuck them on Tatooine (or another planet, depending on the season) and made them compete against each other in a bunch of silly games…to the death, and death there was. The show, of course, was nothing like real life on Tatooine, as Jace Sidrona had said many times.  Jace, a native of Tatooine himself, despised the show to no end.  Especially this season, since they were on his home planet.

     “Try living out in the desert for a week without trained guards protecting you on the perimeter of your camp as you sleep,” Jace had once told him, “and without food and water supplied to you, and then let’s see how long you last.”

     Although Seven wasn’t exactly the biggest Jace Sidrona fan, he couldn’t help but agree.  Without giving the show another second, he changed the channel.  This time he ran across some kind of wrestling show, though no one was currently “wrestling.”  It was just two guys talking, though one seemed to be at an arena, while the other was talking to him via split screen and satellite.  

     “No, Dan. You can't have your old theme music back,” one of them said.

     “Dang. But that's not why I called you. I—”

     “That's not why you called me what?”

     “...That's not why I called you...via satellite in your new truck.”

     Click.

     The news was on.  Some stodgy old Imperial politician was giving a speech about recent terrorist activities by the Rebels aimed against Imperial civilian outposts.

     “Fool me once, shame on you,” the politician said, starting an old cliché.  However, he suddenly seemed to stumble on his words, forgetting how it was supposed to end.  It looked to Seven like he was making it up now.  “…um…fool me twice…uh, well, the fool can’t be fooled again.”

     Click.

     Back to Fawkes...

     “…might as well pour acid directly into my ears, because that’s what you sound like.  Shoot me, shoot me now...or better yet, shoot him…”

     Click.

     Seven was already getting tired of this.  He was suddenly forgetting why he started watching the HoloNet again.  Like he said...thousands of channels, yet nothing good to watch. 

     He started to doze off as he flipped channels, his eyelids dropping, his attention wavering.  Slowly, he started to let go and drift off into sleep, letting his dreams take over…

     “Seven!” he heard someone yell.

     Seven, still partly asleep and aying on his couch, lazily answered back, “What?”

     “We are cut off from the shuttle!”

     “I hate it when that happens,” he mumbled, slipping further and further into sleep.

     “Do you know what this means?”

     “That we can’t escape…?” Seven said softly, his voice in a daze.

     “No…what are you saying, Reno?” someone replied back.

     “I am saying…we cannot escape!”

     “That’s what I just said,” Seven sleep-complained.  He was very confused, though.  Why was Reno in his quarters talking to him about being cut off from a shuttle?  And what was with the overly dramatic way he seemed to be talking?  It was all very confusing.  More so, since he knew he was drifting asleep.  Well, better see what the hell Reno was talking about…

     Seven opened his eyes and immediately felt foolish.  Reno wasn’t there, of course.  He must’ve just been dreaming that, or hallucinating.  Figments of his tired mind.  Of course.  That made a lot more sense than Reno being in his quarters talking to Seven about shuttles and…

     “We will die like men, if that is what it comes to!” he heard someone say.  It was then that he realized it was only the HoloNet unit talking.  He must’ve left it on some channel while he dozed off and caught the end of some sci-fi show or something.  Seven liked sci-fi shows.  Sci-fi was cool.  Must be some war movie, from the sounds of it.  Must be some general or something giving some inspiring speech on the eve of a great battle.  “We shall go and charge valiantly into battle, against hopeless odds, risking our very lives and futures.  But we fight for the greatest prize there is!  The only thing truly worth fighting for!”  

     “Hope?  The future?  Peace?”

     Seven laughed at the corniness of it all.  What kind of stupid show was this, anyway?  Who would actually say things like this?  Must be some rebel propaganda film released to put over how great and glorious and noble and pure they were, fighting the good fight against the Evil Empire for the sake of all beings.  Only they would fight for stuff like that.  Now in Sith Squadron, he knew what they would fight for.  There was only one thing they treasured enough to really risk everything for, and it sure wasn’t hope, peace or the future.  It was—

     “Whyren’s!” he heard the HoloNet unit say.

     Seven jumped off his couch and for the first time actually looked at the show he was watching, only to find himself looking at...well, himself.  Kind of.  The appearance was a bit off, but it was definitely him.  And the person doing that long dramatic speech looked uncannily like Reno.  And they fought for Whyren’s Reserve... 

     He continued to watch.

     “I shall fight with you ‘til the bitter end!” the ersatz Seven said proudly, while striking a ridiculous pose, which struck the real Seven as odd, since they were in the middle of a battle.  Seven was the first to admit that he wasn’t the greatest soldier ever, but he wasn’t that stupid.

     “Reno” then made an equally ludicrous hand pointing gesture, as if pointing to the sky, and bellowed out “Then let us do it to it!”

     And with those words, the screen faded to black and the words “to be continued...” popped up on the screen.  As the credits began to role, a voiceover started.

     “Be sure to tune in next week for Part II of the two part series premiere of ‘Sith Squadron’, starring ‘Owen’, as the Lord Baron Reno, ‘Zak Tucker’ as his loyal apprentice Jace Sidrona, ‘Nicole Vest’ as the sexy but violent Lord Pilot Thunder, and introducing newcomer Michael Hicks as ‘Seven’, the loveable loser of the group.”  After that, clips from next week’s episode began to air, before finally the show ended.

     Seven sat there dumbfounded for a minute, unable to speak.  And it wasn’t just the ‘loveable loser’ comment that was causing his silence (though he had to admit that it did sting a bit).  This…was bad.  Very, very bad.  Having a show called ‘Sith Squadron’ that is totally unrelated to the real Sith Squadron was bad enough.  Having a show that was actually about the real Sith Squadron, complete with names and personalities, would be worse.  Who knows what kind of secrets would be revealed about them?  Or what kind of image the show would give them?  As it was, Seven wasn’t too happy with his portrayal as a “loveable loser.”  Oh no, this would definitely have to be brought to the squad’s attention.  Something would have to be done about this.  There was no way they could let this fake Sith Squadron continue on.

     He grabbed his remote and punched in some buttons, programming the HoloNet unit to record the previous show in its entirety on his datapad.  Once it was done, he grabbed the datapad and burst out of the room.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     The briefing room wasn’t full, as a couple of the seats were empty.  Thunder, Jace, Ryvo and Skate were all out on a mission and wouldn‘t be back for a while.  Everyone else in the squadron was present.

     “Opinions?” Reno asked, as he shut off the recording

     “That scarf is just fabulous…” Jen said, the sarcasm in her voice not exactly hidden.

     “Any opinions that matter?” he asked, ignoring Jen.

     “They certainly caught your flare for dramatics,” Fox commented.

     One look from Reno shut him up.

     “Well, we have to do something,” Star said.  “We can’t let this show continue to air.  They could expose our entire operation here.  Talk about a security risk.”

     “Yeah, they could reveal that Seven is a loser…” Palin muttered.  “Oh wait, they already did.  Great, the gig is up…”

     Seven humored her with a sarcastic smile that quickly vanished.

     “All joking aside,” Reno continued, “Star is right.  Something needs to be done about this situation and it needs to be done soon.  I leaned on some of my sources and found out that they’ve already finished the first three episodes of a thirteen episode season—”

     “We only got thirteen episodes?” Sky asked.

     “The studio didn’t want to invest in a full twenty-two episode season yet.  They wanted a test season before they put any more money into it than they already have.  They’re not sure if ‘Sith Squadron’ equals ratings.”

     “So what do we do?” Seven asked.  “Ask them to stop?”

     “Yes, ask them to stop,” Sky sarcastically muttered.  “Brilliant plan.  Maybe they’ll actually do it if you say ‘please’…”

     “Well, it’s better than anything you’ve come up with—”

     “Quiet, both of you,” Reno interrupted.  “In case you haven’t noticed, this is a rather serious matter as it promises to expose every secret of ours to the public.  And more than that, we apparently have a huge security leak.  This show doesn’t just use our names and characters, it uses our situation.  The pilot episode was apparently created by the executive producer and writers and has no relation to us except for the names, but all of the episodes after that are about our exploits.  Our incident with Isard and the Rogues, Narska Plo’kre, Thunder’s trip to Adumar, my capture by TOS, and even our trip to Coruscant more recently to recruit Sky.  Whoever leaked this must be very highly ranked, as no one else could possibly have that many details about us.  And whoever it is will pay the ultimate price.”

     “Where’s Jace been lately?” Seven asked, bitterness creeping into his voice.  He was still a bit sore about the incident with Jace a couple months ago, and he didn’t try to hide it.  Seven hadn’t spoken a word to Jace, in fact, outside of squadron business.  And even then only when absolutely necessary. 

     Reno shot him a sharp look.  “Considering what Jace did to get me back from TOS, I would say that he is above reproach.  Jace wouldn’t sell us out.  Especially not to a studio executive for a holoseries.”

     No one else in the room seemed so sure.  Reno ignored their silence and continued.

     “We’ll have to send a team to Coruscant to stop them from filming,” he said.  “And we’ll have to try to weasel out our leak on the SSD.  The Coruscant team can’t be big, though, and it has to be done subtly.  We can’t go in there with lightsabers blazing and guns blasting.  It needs to be done quietly.  At least as a Plan A.”

     Seven didn’t want to miss this chance to be able to leave the SSD and get out and do something.  He couldn’t stand to be cooped up here any longer.  He had to be on this team, or else he would probably go stir crazy.

     “I’m in,” Seven said quickly.  “I want this one.”

     Reno gave him a strange look, though Seven couldn’t figure out if it was an approving or disapproving glance.  “Is that so?” he finally said.

     “Yes, it is,” Seven said, before adding,  “with your permission, of course.”

     “Of course,” Reno said.  “Jen is volunteering, too.”

     Jen shot him a surprised glance.  “I am?”

     “You are,” he confirmed.

     Jen turned to the rest of the group and nodded.  “I am.”

     “Well, I’m obviously out of this one,” Palin said, in a Ric Olie moment.  “I’m not in any condition to go out.”

     “Considering I’m her doctor, I need to be with Palin right now,” Star commented, “so I’m staying here as well.”

     Reno looked at the last two.  “Sky?  Fox?”

     “I’ve spent more time on Coruscant than I would care to,” Sky said.  “I’m out.”

     “I’ll go,” Fox put in.  “I didn’t get to go to Coruscant on the last mission.  For some reason, despite being with the squad, I just wasn’t around during that adventure.  Strange.”

     “Yes, strange,” Reno admitted.  An awkward silence followed.  “Anyway, the team is settled then.  Jen, Seven and Fox will go to Coruscant to stop this fake Sith Squadron show from happening.  The rest of you are going to stay here and find out just what this leak is, and then fix it.  Jen, you’re in charge, and you guys leave as soon as you can get packed.”

     “Anything else?” Jen asked.

     “Yes,” Reno said.  “I want this handled quickly.  Very quickly.  I realize it’s an immediate concern, but we do have more important concerns.  Mainly, the upcoming mission we have in the Argolis sector.  That mission is going down in seven days.  I want all three of you back in time for it.  That timeframe is not negotiable.  You will be back in seven days, regardless of the success or failure of your mission.  Keep in mind it’ll take you a day just to get there and a day to get back.  That means you have five days.  Make good use of that time and don’t waste it.  Questions?”

     “You said things had to be done quietly,” Jen noted. “At least as a ‘Plan A’.  And you also said we had to return at a certain time, whether we succeeded or not.”

     Reno nodded.  “That’s correct.”

     “The mention of a ‘Plan A,’ though, indicates there is also a ‘Plan B’,” Jen said.  “And if A is the subtle destruction of the show, can I then assume that B is the not so subtle destruction of it?”

     Reno nodded again.  “The show does need to be stopped.  I would prefer it done quietly and not have unnecessary attention drawn to it, but if it can’t be done that way, then you do have permission to use any means necessary to stop it.”

     “At my discretion?” she asked.

     “Your discretion,” Reno agreed.

     Jen rubbed her hands together eagerly.  “Oh, goodie,” she said. 

     “If that’s all,” Reno said, standing up, “then you are dismissed.”

     The group all stood up and started to file out of the room.  On his way out of the room, Seven again noticed that Reno was giving him a little stare.  Odd… 

     Seven was halfway through the doorway when he heard Reno behind him.

     “Jen, wait, a moment of your time, I need to talk to you about Seven…” he said.    

     Seven cast a glance behind him and saw Jen stop before Reno.  They began to whisper conspiratorially back and forth, but when they noticed Seven was watching them, Reno hit a switch on a wall panel and the door shut in his face.

     If he weren’t so used to having doors shut in his face, Seven would be offended.  As it was, that was common place for him, so he just took it in stride.  But why would Reno want to talk to Jen about him?  He had no idea, nor did he have the time to think about it.  He had a mission to pack for, and someone to say goodbye to.         

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     “And you’re sure you’ll be able to get along without me around?” Seven asked, as he stuffed some clothes in a small travel bag.  He didn’t expect it to be a long trip, but he thought it was better to be prepared than to be…well, not prepared.

     On the other side of the room Palin gave a tired sigh.  “I’ll be fine,” she said.  “I didn’t need your help when you were here, and I promise I won’t need it now.”

     “Well, if you’re sure,” Seven said as he zipped up his bag.  “I guess I better be off.  Jen and Fox are already prepping the Seal Breaker.  We don’t want them to leave without me, now do we?”

     “Oh no, definitely not,” Palin agreed as she gently started to push him towards the door.  “In fact, you’d better run there just so you don‘t get left behind.”

     She finally got Seven out the door, and he turned around to face her.  There was a brief awkward silence, broken by Seven.  “Well?”

     “Well…” she asked back.

     “No goodbye kiss?  I‘ll be gone for seven days, ya know,” he said.  “Could be the last one we have for a while.  Thought maybe a goodbye kiss was in order.”

     Palin smiled.  “I’ll bet you did.” 

     Then the quarters to her door shut, leaving Seven to face her door.  He stood there for a long moment, shifting uncomfortably.  Certainly not what he had hoped for, but nothing less than he expected.  He had thought after all they had been through, and especially with a kid on the way, Palin would be a bit warmer to him.  That hadn’t been the way it turned out so far.  Oh well.  Even if she didn’t openly show it, he knew how she felt about it.  That was good enough for him. 

     Seven turned and headed down the corridor.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     “You’re late,“ Jen said to Seven as he entered the cockpit of the Lambda-class shuttle, Seal Breaker and took a seat behind her.  “We were ready to go a few minutes ago.  Where were you?”

     “Oh, uh…” he stammered, searching for an answer that didn’t make him sound like a total loser.  “…Palin was just hesitant to let me go.  She needed her man around to do stuff for her.”

     Yeah, that was good…

    Judging by her face, though, Jen wasn’t buying it.  “If she needed a man around, why would she ask you?”  Seven didn’t have an answer for that.  “She close the door on you again?”

     Seven sighed.  “Yeah…”

     “Welcome to relationships, kid,” she said, then hit the comm switch.  “SSD, this is Seal Breaker, requesting permission to leave.”

     “Seal Breaker, this is the SSD,” Captain Vanicus said back.  “Permission granted.  Good luck.”

     “Thanks,” she responded, shutting off the comm.

     The Seal Breaker shot out of the SSD and towards open space.  Seven shot a glance back at the SSD, which was shrinking as every second went by.  Somewhere on that ship was Palin, the woman he loved, the mother of his future child.  He was going to miss her, however long he was away.  He only hoped that despite her attitude, she was going to miss him too.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     “Finally, he’s gone,” Palin said, breathing a deep sigh of relief as she fell back onto her couch.  It wasn’t that she didn’t like Seven.  She did like him, despite what logic and instinct told her.  They seemed to fit well together.  And they were having a kid, even if it wasn’t something that either of them had exactly planned.  It was just…well…after months of Seven trying to wait on her hand and foot (with the knowledge that there was another five months on the way) she was just kind of tired of him.  Granted, he had loosened up a bit lately and kept a little distance from her, but still…

     She had a feeling that a few days, or maybe weeks, away from Seven would do them some good.  And despite what Seven might think, she didn’t think she was actually going to miss him too much.  If at all.  Peace and quiet and time alone was exactly what she needed right now. 

     No, she wasn’t going to miss him at all.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Day One

     The Seal Breaker shot out of hyperspace.

     Seven looked at the massive city-planet in from of him.  “Coruscant” he said.  “The entire planet is one big—”

     “Oh, shut up,” Jen interrupted.  She dropped the shuttle down into the atmosphere.  “Taking her down.”

     Seven had only been to Coruscant once in his lifetime, during Sith Squadron’s recent trip to recruit Sky.  Considering what had happened on that trip, he didn’t have good memories of the place.  While chasing Sky down the streets of Coruscant, he had run into a vendor’s cart and toppled it.  In the ensuing fall, a piece of wood had punctured his chest and left him injured.  And the only thing that saved him from the wrath of the furious shopkeeper was Palin, his angel.

     He thought about Palin the entire time it took the shuttle to descend and land.  It had only been a day of travel and already he missed her.  It was the longest he’d spent away from her in months.  Suddenly, despite his earlier urge to get out and do something, he slightly regretted jumping at the chance to take on this assignment.

     Jen shut powered down the shuttle once they landed, then turned to Fox and Seven.  “All right, here’s the plan.  Sacul Productions, the studio that makes Sith Squadron, is located about a click to the east.  It would be easiest to just go there and blow it up, but that isn’t an option.  At least not yet.  That’s Plan B.  Reno wants us to try this quietly first, which means we’re going to have to work from within.”

     “How can we get inside?” Fox asked.  “The studio will have tight security.  They won’t let just anyone in.”

     “No, they won’t,” Jen responded.  “Only cast and crew get in.  Luckily for us, though, they’re holding open auditions for some parts…and you two are going to audition.”

     Seven and Fox exchanged glances.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     “Alpha Lead, this is Bravo One, do you read?  Over.”

     “Bravo One, Alpha Lead.  Report.  Over”

     “The Drunks are leaving the bar.  Repeat.  The Drunks are leaving the bar.  Over.”

     “All of them?  Over.”

     “Negative, Lead.  Only two.  Over.”

     “Which two?  Over.”

     “Drunk Two and Drunk Three.  Drunk One is still at the bar.  Over.”

     “Copy that, Bravo One.  Over.”

     “Orders, Lead?  Over.”

     “Bravo, Gamma and Delta will continue to watch the bar.  Alpha and Sigma are already in their positions.  Over.”

     “Copy that, Lead.  Over.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     “Next!” Seven heard the director yell as he cautiously walked into the room.  Besides the director, a hyperactive man named Trotter, there were three other people in the room.  One of them was Owen, the guy who played Reno in the show and who also happened to be its executive producer.  The second was the casting director, a woman named Anise.  The third was a short and stocky—yet muscular and fit—man who was serving them what seemed to be lunch, though it was a bit too early for it.

     Seven walked over and shook each person’s hand and introduced himself by the fake name he had created for himself, Gar Brink.  Well, perhaps not so fake.  Gar Brink Hacker was his father’s full name, with Seven—real name Brink Hacker—being partly named after his father.

     “Yeah, hi, Gar, nice to meet you.  Got a copy of the script?  Good.  Okay, let’s get started.  We got a couple open spots to fill today, and if you’re good, we can use you to fill one.  All right, turn to page—”

     “What parts?” he asked.

     “Excuse me?” Trotter asked.

     “What parts are open?”

     “Does it matter?” Trotter asked back.  But before Seven could respond, Trotter continued, sounding a bit annoyed.  “Fine, fine...we need to fill the roles of Gimmer, Fox, Nuprin and Xanthis.  We wanted you to read the role of Xanthis.  So turn to page—”

     “You want me to be Xanthis?!” Seven blurted out.  The irony of that statement was enough to make someone fall over laughing.  None of the people at the casting table was laughing, though.

     “Do you have a problem with that?” Trotter asked.

     “No, no,” Seven quickly covered.  “None at all.  I can be Xanthis, see?  ’I wanna kill everyone...Xanthis is good, Xanthis is my pal.’  See?”

     Trotter, Owen and Anise exchanged glances.

     “Next!” Trotter yelled out.

     “Wait, wait!” Seven said.  “Sorry, I was just nervous.  Let me try again.  What page?”

     Trotter sighed.  “Thirteen.  Owen will read opposite for you.  At your convenience.  And hurry with it.”

     Seven quickly turned to page thirteen on the script and found his dialogue.  He had to fight to hold back laughter.  Whoever had written this stuff certainly wasn’t a genius. 

     “So, Reno, we meet again, for the first time, for the last time…” Seven read, all the while trying to understand what he was saying.

     “It will only be the last time for you, Xanthis, my evil arch-nemesis,” Owen said, his flare for dramatics coming out even in the audition.  “Here, today, in this very place, we will end our long and bitter feud.”

     “The only thing that will end here, old enemy, is your life.  You will blow before me…” Seven suddenly stopped and everyone in the room stared at him.  He looked at his script again.  “Sorry, the ink was smudge…um…You will bow before me.”

     “Never, Xanthis!” Owen yelled.  “Sith Squadron shall never bow to the evil evilness of TOS!”

     Evil evilness?  Who wrote this shi—

     “I suppose it is time, then,” Seven said, as he was starting to get a bit into character,  “to…how you say…do it to—”

     “Whoa whoa whoa,” Owen said, in full Reno-mode, “Never steal Reno’s catchphrase.  That’s for only Reno to say.  Now, let us do it to it!”

     And those words ended the scene.

     “Nice, nice,” Trotter said, nodding his head.  “Not too bad, kid.  One sec.”  He turned and whispered to Anise and Owen.  They conversed silently for a minute, before Trotter finally looked back at him.  “Normally we don’t case a character after seeing one actor, but we’re going to go out on a limb here.  Good job, congratulations, you have the part, Mr. Brink.  You are now Xanthis.”

     “Thank you, Mr. Trotter.”

     Seven let his true happiness to show, knowing that he would be expected to smile.  He had succeeded and infiltrated the set of Sith Squadron, just as was the plan.  However, that wasn’t the whole plan.  They still wanted to get another Sith Squadron member on the set to help out, and Fox still had to do his audition.

     “Do you think it would be okay if I hung around for the rest of the auditions?  Just so I can see who else might be in the cast?”

     “Sure, sure, whatever kid,” Trotter said.  “Just sit behind us and shut up.”

     Ever used to being told to sit down and shut up, Seven did as he was told.  Fox, sadly, was not the next audition.  They didn’t want anyone on the crew to know that they were friends before the show, so they decided to come in at different times.  Fox was about twenty or so people behind Seven in the audition line.

     Suffice to say, it was a very long twenty people.  Never before had Seven seen such a collection of bad actors.  He actually thought that he was better than most, which was very sad, since he had never acted before.  After the tenth person he was starting to feel like he was at a live taping of Imperial Icon.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Fox’s turn came up.

     “Okay, your name is…Ben Ring?” Trotter asked.

     Seven groaned silently.  Of all the names he could’ve chosen…

     “Okay.  Whatever.  All right, turn to page thirty-five. You’re going to be reading for Nuprin.”

     “You want me to be Nuprin?!” he asked.

     “What the heck is it with you people today?” Trotter asked.  “You’re here to audition for a part in a show.  Any part in the show.  Especially any part that I tell you to audition for.  Now what have you got against reading for Nuprin, considering that you know nothing about any of the characters?”

     “Well, I just thought maybe I could audition for Fox,” he said.  “I mean, seeing as how I look exactly like him.  I’m already a part human/Ryn/Bothan.  You wouldn‘t even have to do makeup for the show.”

     “No can do, kid,” Trotter said.  “I can tell things about people just by looking at them.  You wouldn‘t be a good Fox.”

     Seven tried to hold his laughter back.

     Fox didn’t think it so funny.

     “I wouldn’t be a good Fox!?” he burst out. 

     “No, no, totally wrong for what we’re looking for,” Trotter said back.  “The voice is just all wrong.  See, we don’t need a live actor for Fox, he’s going to be totally CGI.  We just need the voice.  The way I see it, Fox is a very rough character.  He’s an alien hybrid with DNA from several very mean species...he wouldn’t have the soft, wussy voice that you have.  He’s mean, he’s edgy, he’s sharp, he’s dangerous…he has an attitude and he lets you know it.  Fox is in your face.  You’ve heard the expression “Let’s get busy?”  Well this is a hybrid human-alien that gets “biz-ay”.  Consistently and thoroughly.  You’re just not right for Fox.  Now Nuprin is also CGI, and we want Nuprin to have that high pitched, whiney voice that you have, so you might be good for him—”

     “High-pitched?!  Whiney?!  I am not whiney!  Nor am I high-pitched!”

     Trotter smiled.  “That’s it, that’s the voice we‘re looking for!  No need for further reading, kid.  Congratulations, Ben, you’re hired.”

     Fox seemed about ready to complain when he caught Seven’s eye.  Seven shook his head side-to-side slowly and waved off any further comments.  He thanked Trotter then walked over and took a seat next to Seven.

     “Good job…Nuprin,” Seven said, not even trying to hold back his laughter this time.

     “Oh, shut up,” Fox said.  “At least I got in.  Since you’re here I assume you did, too.  Who are you playing?”

     Seven sighed.  “Xanthis.”

     “I can see the resemblance,” Fox muttered.  “Except the real Xanthis is taller.  And scarier.  And your hair is the wrong color.  And the eyes aren‘t exactly right…”

     “Oh, shut up,” he said back.  “And come on…Ben Ring?  Don’t you think they might piece that one together?  Could you have made it a little more obvious?”

     “I panicked,” Fox admitted.  “But I doubt they’re going to piece anything together.  These people don’t strike me as the most intelligent bunch.  I could’ve told them I was the real Fox and they wouldn’t have figured it out.”   

     Seven had to admit that Fox had a point.

     “I was thinking the same thing,” he said. 

     “Next!” Seven heard Trotter yell.

     Another actor came in.

     “Let’s see…Barnwell?” Trotter asked, looking at a list of the candidates.

     “Doug Barnwell,” the actor corrected.

     “Whatever, just read for Fox on page twenty three.”

     Suddenly, Doug Barnwell, reading as Fox, burst into a little rap.

     “The name is Fox, and I‘m really rockin‘; I’m part-Ryn, part-Human and then part Bothan; I’m a hybrid Sith, but not part Bith; and I’ll kick your butt down to the Cron Drift.  Word.”

     “Beautiful, wonderful, excellent!” Trotter gushed.  “Now that is attitude.  That is edgy!  You were in more than just my face there, Barnwell!

     “Doug B—”

     “Whatever,” Trotter interrupted.  “You’re hired, go sit with the others.  Next!”

     Seven and Fox exchanged glances.

     “And ya know,“ Seven started, “after reading and listening to some of the dialogue for this show, I’m not entirely sure that we need to sabotage anything.  I think that they’re doing a pretty good job of that themselves…”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     “So you both got in?” Jen asked when they got back to the ship, sounding a bit surprised as she did so.  They had found Jen in the lounge of the Seal Breaker sitting at a table with a couple of empty bottles.

     “Well, yeah.  Why?” Seven asked back.

     “No reason,” she said back.  “I just didn’t expect either of you to succeed, let alone both.”

     “C’mon, give us a little credit,” Fox said, taking a seat at her table.  “We had to work hard to get those parts.”

     “I’ll bet you did,” Jen muttered while taking a sip.  “So what parts did you get?”

     Seven and Fox were silent for a minute and exchanged glances.

     “Well?”

     “I’m Nuprin,” Fox finally said, embarrassment creeping into his voice.

     Jen let out a sharp laugh.  “Wait, weren’t they auditioning for the role of Fox?  What happened?”

     Fox sighed.  “They said I wasn’t right for the role of Fox.”

     Jen didn’t even try to contain her laughter.  “The real Fox isn’t right to be Fox, but he’s good enough to be Nuprin?  Did it even matter that you just happen to be a Human/Ryn/Bothan, and probably the only one in existence?  They could’ve saved a lot with makeup…”

     “Fox is going to be all CGI,” Fox said.  “So is Nuprin, actually.  I’m just doing the voice and the motion capture stuff.”

     Jen, who still hadn’t finished laughing, continued.  “Oh, that’s priceless.”  She turned to Seven.  “So who were you lucky enough to be cast as?  I’m guessing you’re not quite Seven enough to be Seven...”

     “Seven was cast a while ago, thank you,” he shot back sarcastically.  He hesitated.

     “And…?”

     “I’m Xanthis.”

     If possible, her laughter got even louder.  “Oh man, of all the people to play Xanthis…I almost wish I had gone now, maybe I could’ve ended up being Jace…”

     “Look, this isn’t that funny,” Seven said.  “Regardless of who we got hired as, the fact is that we got hired.  The mission is going just as we had planned.”

     “You’re right, you‘re right,” Jen said.  “So what’s your next step, Xanthis?”

     Seven ignored her taunt.  “Principal shooting on the next episode starts tomorrow.  We don’t want to cause any problems the first day, so it’s going to be a scouting day.  Fox and I will go in, meet the rest of the crew and just act normal.  I think after a couple days, or maybe even just after tomorrow, we’ll have a much better idea of what we have to do to shut this thing down.”   

     “Not bad,” Jen said.  “But I’m warning you right now, you don’t have a couple of days to gather information.  We’ve spent one day traveling and getting cast, which means you have a maximum of five days on the set before we institute Plan B.  If you don’t have everything settled by then, we blow the place on the last day.  Now you’d better get to work.”

     “Huh?”

     “Tomorrow is the first day of shooting,” she said, taking another sip and finishing off the bottle.  “If you’re gonna be Xanthis, you gotta get in character and remember your lines.  If it helps, I can poke your eyes out.”

     Seven didn’t bother responding.  He just shook his head and headed towards his small quarters.  After he left, Jen turned her attention to Fox.

     “And Fox…to help you learn to be Nuprin, why don‘t you fetch me another bottle of Whyren’s.  And make it quick.”

     Fox let out a short laugh, then walked away towards his cabin.

     Jen shook her head slowly and let out an exasperated sigh.

     “Well, he’s got Nuprin down already…”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     “Alpha Lead, this is Bravo One.  Over.”

     “Go, Bravo One.  Over.”

     “The Drunks are all back at the bar.  Repeat.  The Drunks are back at the bar.  Orders?  Over.”

     “The previous orders stand, Bravo One.  All teams are to resume their last instructions.  Over.”

     “How did Drunks Two and Three do?  Over.”

     “They weren’t pretty, but they’re in.  They start tomorrow.  Don’t worry about them, though.  They’re not your concern.  Alpha and Sigma will deal with them.  You just keep your teams focused on Drunk One.  Speaking of which, how was Drunk One today?  Over.”

     “Never left the bar.  We did intercept several transmissions.  Over.”

     “Did you track the destination?  Over.”

     “Did you one better, Alpha Lead.  Drunk One was being very sloppy and didn’t encrypt the transmission.  We got the entire conversation.  It’s…confusing, sir.  Over.”

     “Send it to me, Bravo One.  Over.”

     “Roger that, Lead.  Over.”

     He listened to the message.

     “Eleven to Bright Eyes, Day One was a success.  Six and Seven have infiltrated the set.  Mission is going as planned.”

     “Copy, Eleven.  Good work.  Stick to your mission.”

     “Eleven to Bright Eyes, what was my mission again?”

     “I will not put up with your attitude, Eleven.  You know your mission.  Accomplish it.”

     “Your sense of humor never ceases to amaze me, Xan—”

     “No names over an open channel, Eleven!”

     “Fine, fine, Bright Eyes.  Sheesh.  I’ll contact you tomorrow at the designated time with another status report.  Eleven out.”

     The message ended.

     “Interesting.  That’s good work, Bravo One.  Keep at your mission.  Keep your men around the bar, and never let Drunk One out of your sight.  Over.”

     “And the other Drunks?  Over.”

     “Leave them to me.  Over.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     Palin sat on her couch alone, the lights in her quarters turned off.

     It was about twenty-two hundred hours and there wasn’t much to do.  War of Words, a political talk show on the NovaNetwork, had just ended, and so had her interest in watching the HoloNet for the night.  She had surfed the ‘Net for a while looking for something to watch, but only ran across a bunch of pop culture crap shows that she had no interest in even thinking about.  War of Words had entertained her enough for a while, though she hadn’t caught the entire show.  The host, Meur Kolajin, had been leading a panel discussion with some politicians, both Imperial and Republic, about whether or not it was important that the New Republic eventually take over Coruscant, or if they should establish a new capital somewhere else.  While not terribly exciting, the senators’ petty bickering had at least made the show entertaining. 

     The night continued on, and she eventually got so bored that she turned the holopad off.

     Sure is quiet in here, she thought to herself.

     She wasn’t used to the silence.  At least not anymore.  Usually Seven was up and about, either trying to help her or trying to annoy her.  Generally speaking he only accomplished the latter.  Well, that wasn’t technically true.  He didn’t ever try to annoy her…that was just how it always worked out.

     All I need now is a tumbleweed to blow by…or maybe some chirping crickets…

     She had never really realized how quiet it was without Seven around.  However annoying she found him to be, if nothing else he caused enough ruckus and noise to keep people from dying of boredom.

     She supposed she could try sleeping, though it was a bit early for that.  She didn’t have many other options.  She had given up drinking for the time being, seeing as how she was pregnant.  She really couldn’t train in the flight simulators, and lightsaber training wasn’t ideal for her considering her condition.

     There wasn’t even anyone else to talk to at the moment.  Thunder, Jace, Ryvo and Skate were still off on a mission somewhere.  What they were doing she had no idea.  Meanwhile, Reno was leading Star and Sky in a search of the SSD for a possible leak.  They were all busy.  She didn’t really know Vanicus well enough to go up to the bridge and chat with him, nor did she want to make the long walk there.  Besides…she still got the impression that Vanicus wasn’t totally comfortable around her.  One of the last times they were on the bridge together was during the Narska Plo’kre incident, during which she had threatened to kill him if he didn’t tell her what she wanted to know.  He was out.  Gimmer?  No.  He wasn’t much for talk.  Nuprin?  Heck no.  He just complained a lot and ended up being more annoying than Seven. She could go hit Benny’s Place…or not. The only thing Palin hated more than Benny’s “advice” and smirking face was his music. Jizz…that was like her parents’ music or something.

     That left her alone for the night. 

     Sure is quiet in here…

* * * * * * * * * * * *