Course Diversion

Caelestis Kibeth

Although he couldn't explain it, Wedge knew there had been something distinctly peculiar about Mirax's holonet message. Just what exactly, however, was the question that he battled, even as he found himself dutifully answering its plea–a plea which had sent him dashing at top speed across the upper levels of Coruscant.

He dodged past a group of Sullustans, nearly tripped over a pair of Twi'leks strolling hand-in-hand.

"Ah–Lieutenant Horn! Corran!"

His fellow Corellian pilot turned as the voice finally reached his ears, shooting a curious look past his shoulder and down the lengthy domed transparisteel walkway. What now? Or rather, what could Wedge Antilles possibly have come up with that he thought was so important as to separate Corran from his wife for one nanosecond longer than the two months it had already been?

Pondering whether or not it was against military regulation to ignore your commanding officer while on leave, he stood frozen only as long as it took for Wedge to catch up before immediately resuming his brisk pace towards the nearby bank of turbolifts.

"With all due respect, sir, if we could make this fast..." Despite his carefully controlled voice, the harshness with which he punched the buttons on the lift for the residential levels betrayed Corran's frustration. Two months!

"Faster than," Wedge assured him as they began their ascent.

Ten levels.

Twenty levels.

Thirty levels–

Corran just barely hid a grimace at the other man. "Well?"

What to say, what to say–"A drink!" Wedge finally blurted, with all the enthusiasm of a green cadet who had just discovered the answer to a troublesome astronagivation problem. "Let me buy you one. Since we're off duty now," he quickly added at seeing Corran's dubious stare. "I wanted to catch you before Myra got a hold of you."

The turbolift pinged, letting them off directly in front of the Horns' cozy planetside quarters. Patience spent and military decorum forgotten now that he knew there was no galactic crisis to solve, Corran pushed past the other pilot heavily. "No offense, Commander," he laid his hand over the apartment door's activation pad impatiently, "but Mirax is the only one I want getting a hold of me tonight."

He tipped his head in what he hoped was an appropriately polite but obvious dismissal, only to notice his commanding officer's rapidly reddening face. Corran followed Wedge's mortified stare through the threshold into the apartment.

"M-Myra–"

She screeched to a halt, caught mid-dash across the rose petal and half-lit candle-strewn living room, either too surprised or too furious to even attempt to cover up her decided lack of garments.

"Wedge Antilles, you must be the worst diversion ever!" she burst, even as he furiously averted his eyes and cut back towards the turbolift as quickly as his feet would carry him. Her next words were dampened by the metal of the doors shutting mercifully at his back.

"I should have known better than to trust him with you!"


A/N: So this was just a little fic challenge started up between myself and the wildly talented, ever sweet Face of Poe. I thought this might be a fun way to get back into doing some EU writing and she was so kind as to play along and do a small mutual fic exchange! The key words/ideas/items that I had to include that she gave me for this one were:

- an item that has lost its other half/a separated pair

- an unfinished task

- the phrase "I should have known better than to _ with you!"

I perhaps got a little less literal with the first one than was intended, but two people can be a pair, right? Right. Right. Our first drabbles had to be 300~500 words, with each consecutive drabble being a few hundred words longer and with one more keyword to incorporate. I came up at exactly 500 words with this after having to cut it back from 533. SAFE. Being less wordy is something I'm just so horrible at.

Anyhoodle, if you liked this one, look out for a couple more to come and be sure to check out hers too!