Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Star Wars, other than Aurora. It all belongs to the bearded genius in flannel. As this is based on the book, some of the dialogue is taken verbatim from Shadows of the Empire. That belongs to Steve Perry and George Lucas. I do not intend any copyright violation and am not making any profit from this. It is merely a way to avoid working on an eighteen-page paper.
Shortly after their arrival near Zhar and Luke and Aurora had transferred to their respective ships, they were greeted by a dozen X-Wings and a familiar voice sounded over the comm.
"Hey, Luke, Aurora! Welcome to the end of the galaxy."
"Sorry, Wedge, but you're wrong. We just left the end of the galaxy." Aurora corrected dryly.
"Hey," Luke protested, "You're talking about my home planet."
"Which explains much."
Wedge's laughter sounded over the com. "Good to see you both again. It's just not the same without you. I hope you've got something interesting cooked up for us; things have been a little slow lately."
"Well, if you want to talk about bad cooking, you'll need to speak to Lando-." Luke said slyly.
"I heard that," Landos's voice came over the com.
"Hey, Calrissian, long time. I figured you'd be in jail by now."
"Not yet, Antilles, not yet."
"Follow us, Luke," Wedge said, "We've got camp set up on a little moon called Kile in the planet shadow, opposite Gall. We've fixed it up real nice, got air, gravity, water, all the comforts of home."
"Lead on," Luke replied. "We're right behind you."
"You call this 'real nice'?" Leia asked, her lip curling as she looked around the building they currently stood in. Made of the grayish cast-plast prefab material so common in Alliance buildings, it was little more than a hard-walled tent set down on the solid rock of the moon. It did little to hold in heat and was cold and dim, with a strange ozone-like smell which came from the ships.
Wedge, far from taking offense at her tone, simply smiled. "Well, you know the Rogues. All we need is a ship and a rock to land it on."
"You got that second part right." Leia commented sourly.
Aurora nudged her. "At least it's not hot and there's no sand." She whispered.
"Good point."
Wedge led them around several of the X-Wings and a few crates to a corner of the building where several tables and chairs had been set up; a holoprojector sitting on one of them. In one of the chairs a man was stretched out, seemingly asleep. He was around Han's age, and appeared to be tall, with red hair and pale skin. A sleek blaster was holstered low on one leg. As they approached, his eyes opened and he stood, making a low bow.
"Princess Leia. How delightful of you to visit us here in our humble castle, Your Highness."
She just barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Pilots.
Lando stepped forward. "This is Dash Rendar, thief, card cheat, smuggler, and an okay pilot."
The broad smile the other man was wearing grew. "What do you mean, 'okay pilot,' Calrissian? I can fly rings around you in a one-winged hopper with a plugged jet."
"And modest, too." Leai commented.
Dash made another bow. "I see that the princess has a keen eye to go with her stunning beauty."
Leia distinctly heard a snort from one of her companions.
"Bottle the serpent oil, Dash." Lando said. "Let's take care of business."
"First good idea you've had in years, Lando." The other man replied.
Lando gestured to Leia's side. "So you know who Princess Leia is, and you know Chewie. This is Luke Skywalker."
Luke stepped up and nodded to Dash. "Have we met? You look familiar?"
"You might have seen me on Hoth. I was delivering a shipment of food stores when the shield went up. I flew a snowspeeder during the battle while waiting my turn to leave."
With his usual good manners, Luke smiled. "That's right. You took down one of the Imperial walkers, I remember now. You were pretty good."
Once more that cocky smile appeared. "Pretty good? I slept through most of that battle, kid. I could have stayed and knocked those walkers over all day without raising my heartbeat, if I hadn't had an appointment to pick up paying cargo elsewhere."
A voice from behind Leia spoke up sarcastically. "It's amazing you don't hurt your arm, patting yourself on the back like that, Rendar."
Dash's eyes shifted to look past the Princess and a huge grin split his face.
"Well, well, well. Aurora Kenobi, as I live and breathe."
"Dash." Her voice was even as she came level with Luke, neither welcoming nor hostile.
Dash's eyes swept up and down her figure in blatant admiration. "The years have been generous to you. You look good."
One eyebrow rose. "Thank you." She said dryly.
Luke looked back and forth between the two of them. "You know each other?"
Dash smiled widely. "Oh yeah." His tone lent all kinds of insinuations to the simple statement, and Luke couldn't help the scowl that crossed his face.
"We met several years ago." Aurora said repressively. "Dash did a little freelance work for the organization I was working for."
"Yep, we were an item for a while there." The pilot explained helpfully.
Luke felt an ugly twist of jealousy in his stomach. He was gratified to note that Wedge was giving the mercenary a rather unfriendly look too. The overprotectiveness of the Rogues irritated Aurora to no end, but he personally had no problem with it.
"We were not an item." Aurora glared at Rendar.
"Well, we dated."
"One dinner does not constitute dating."
He shrugged. "Whatever you say, babe."
Aurora was in danger of cracking a tooth she was clenching her jaw so hard. "Don't call me 'babe'!"
Taking note of the white-knuckled grip Aurora had on her blaster as well as the truly evil way Luke and Wedge were eyeing Dash Rendar, Leia intervened before someone shot the man. Pompous ass or not, they needed him to locate Fett's ship. "Perhaps we can get back to business?"
Lando, looking relieved, gestured towards Wedge to turn on the holoproj.
Tension was understandably high during the presentation. While Wedge showed them images of Gall and a holographic map of the moon, Luke found himself contemplating this new development. He was rather alarmed at the degree of jealousy he was experiencing over something that had happened, by both parties' admissions, several years ago. He found himself glancing periodically over at Aurora, and was relieved to see that she still looked rather irked. Although her eyes were fixed on the holo images Wedge was displaying and she seemed to be paying attention, one finger was tapping irritably against the hilt of her lightsaber; a sure sign of aggravation. It made him feel immeasurably better. He tuned back into Wedge's words.
"…moon has some bad atmospheric conditions, big cyclonic storms that get real mean, mostly in the southern hemisphere. You wouldn't want to try to fly through one of those."
Dash laughed. "Maybe you wouldn't want to, Antilles, but I eat thunderstorms for breakfast."
Aurora snorted and rolled her eyes. Luke found himself inexplicably smiling.
The briefing continued, revealing the presence of two Star Destroyers in the system, which meant two full wings of TIEs. With each wing consisting of six squadrons and each squad having twelve fighters, that meant a total of a hundred and forty-four TIEs against their fourteen X-Wings. A little shy of twelve to one odds. Not bad.
He found himself snorting internally. How crazy was his life when that didn't seem like bad odds?
Wedge wrapped it up. "That's about it. What do you think, Luke?" He asked, turning to look at his Commander.
To his surprise, Luke found himself smiling as an idea shimmered into being. "Piece of cake. I know just how to do it."
He ignored the incredulous glances that Leia and Lando gave him.
Page Break
"That's your plan?" Leia asked, laughing derisively.
Luke felt a little defensive. "What's wrong with it?"
"You, Aurora, and Rogue Squadron will attack the Imperial Enclave, keep a hundred and some-odd TIE fighters and two Star Destroyers busy while Dash leads the Millennium Falcon to where Boba Fett's ship is docked? We'll just land, rescue Han, and fly away? Why, nothing is wrong with that plan. What could I possibly be thinking was wrong? It's perfect." She threw up her hands in exasperation and paced away several steps.
"Okay," Luke said judiciously. "So it's simple –."
"Simpleminded!" Leia shot back, whirling around.
He felt his jaw set. "If you have a better idea…?"
He paused, waiting to see what she would say. Leia glared at him for a few seconds, and then her shoulders slumped on a sigh.
"That's what I thought." Luke said smugly.
Aurora kicked him in the leg. His cocky expression turned to one of indignation.
After a few minutes of debate, Luke's plan was decided on and both Chewie and Lando agreed to fly the Falcon. There was another brief argument when Leia announced her attention to go along as gunner.
"I don't know if that's a good idea-." Lando began.
"You don't think the Imperial commander is going to send all his TIEs out to deal with a dozen X-wings, do you? He's bound to have somebody on the planet. If they start shooting at the Falcon, you'll need somebody to shoot back. If Chewie is in the dorsal turret, who is going to cover your belly?"
Luke and Lando exchanged dubious glances.
"Oh, for -!" Aurora huffed. "What is it with you guys? Is it that fact that she's a princess or female that makes you think that she can't handle herself? I don't see Leia or I protesting your involvement in this little escapade! Last time I checked, having a penis was not a requirement for shooting a laser cannon. And if it is, I'd love to see that little maneuver." She aimed a lethal glare at each of the males.
Wedge held up his hands in self-defense. "Don't look at me! I'm not saying a word."
Luke sighed resignedly. "She is a good shot."
"Thank you." Leia said primly.
Lando dropped his head into his hands. "Han is going to kill me."
