Chapter Seven - Food Fight!

Mirax grinned at Ari as the younger girl explained her plan, a delightfully evil plan of putting Wedge and Han in the simulators against Ari and her twin, Aurra.  The squadron had just gone over the new roster listings, and they were now eating a noisy meal in the mess hall.  Wes was standing on a table, saying gleefully that Red Flight was once again reunited and that he must, once more, protect Hobbie from his favorite button:  the eject button.

"But I like that button..." Hobbie said, face falling past its normally downcast look.  The pilot sighed and ate another bite of what looked like pasta in front of him.

General Antilles looked up at Wes, rolling his eyes as well as Mirax could make out, at the pilot standing over his plate.  "Wes, get off the table.  People actually have to eat here."  Wedge got up and dumped his trash, then went over to another table to see if he could collect Tycho.

As he passed, Mirax saw him glance over at her, Ari and Lujayne.  Ari was still talking about how she and Aurra couldn't wait until they were eighteen and could perform their little trick on their grandfather and 'Uncle' Wedge.  A second later, Mirax elbowed her new wingmate, gesturing to him.  He was talking to Tycho, but still... Mirax didn't want Ari's plan ruined.

Oh... Ari's voice came across, sniggering slightly.  Hope he didn't hear.  If he did, he'll have time to teach Grandpa Han how to fly an X-Wing without being killed.

That much caused Mirax to laugh outright.  Tycho said something that made Wedge curse slightly.  Next second, Ari was calling over to them, obviously having heard the conversation between the Alderaanian and the Corellian.

"Tycho!" she gave him a scowling look as he looked over.  Wedge turned to look at her, glaring.  The girl merely shrugged, nonchalantly at him.  "Well what did you expect?  That's what happens when you let me get ideas from Wes."

Wedge stared at their table- and occupants- for a few minutes.  Behind him, Mirax noticed him grabbing at something on the table, though she couldn't make out what it was.  Tycho was hurriedly standing to throw his garbage away.  At that exact moment, Wedge threw the unidentified object at Wes.  Next to her, she felt Ari reach out with the Force and grab the nearest tub of gloop that was today's meal.  The bucket of 'food' turned itself bottom up over Wedge's head.

She was still glaring at him as he removed it.  "Don't you ever throw stuff at Master Janson," Ari said seriously.  Mirax glanced at her quickly, only to find the girl trying not to laugh.

Across the hall, Wes's voice rang out again.  "Food fight!!"

Those two words sent Wedge and Tycho to stand as far from the tables as possible, Wedge trying to get the mess off his jacket as best he could.  Mirax spun around quickly and grabbed her plate, then turned to see food flying in every direction.  Ari was grinning wickedly next to her, her own plate in hand.

Mirax grinned slightly, and then gestured to the two plates.  "Mind using TK?"

She saw Ari look over, a grin plastered permanently on her face.  The girl nodded enthusiastically, looking around.  "Who are we aiming at, Nine?"

"Our glorious leader, of course, Ten," Mirax replied.

The next second, Mirax's plate was flying from her hand, Ari's following as if it were stutter fire from an X-Wing's lasers.  The first plate collided evenly with the back of Wedge's head, the second one hitting his back, completely covering the back of his jacket.

Ari was still sitting up as Wedge began to turn.  Mirax herself was hidden down underneath the table, laughing silently.  Before Wedge could see Ari's stupid grin, she grabbed the back of the girl's shirt and pulled her down.  Unfortunately, Tycho had seen them.  And Tycho being Tycho the Alderaanian Tycho...  Mirax cursed at him as he pointed them out for Wedge.

"Why do all Alderaanians have to be peaceable?" Ari asked her quietly.

Mirax hardly paid any attention to the question other than to shrug, knowing full well it was merely a rhetorical question meant to be funny in its sarcastic way.  She whispered some very uncomplimentary words at him as before saying, "I have no clue...  Get him!"

The glass of juice- half full- that Mirax had been drinking with her lunch launched itself to spill all over Tycho's head.

Over at the other table, Janson was dumping a huge bucket of food over Hobbie's head.  Mirax, her attention diverted from Wedge and his faithful Executive Officer by Hobbie's curse, looked over to watch as Hobbie picked up his plate and shoved it into Janson's face.  Behind them, Aerolin was standing from her seat to, presumably, walk towards the nearest exit.  Rhysati ran after her, grabbed her wingmate's arm, and dragged her back into the fight.  Mirax laughed evenly as she saw a plate of food delivered squarely to Aerolin's face.

Returning to her own 'problems', Mirax quickly decided on her course of action.  Her lightsaber was taken from her belt and quickly activated, the blade hissing to life.  She touched it to her skin and immediately focused the energy to her otherwise nonexistent telekinesis powers.  Another pitcher of water dumped itself over Tycho's head.  The Alderaanian could be heard muttering nonsense words; then he grabbed a plate of food and shoved it in Wedge's face.

Gleefully laughing, Mirax looked over at Ari, nodding towards their head of squadron's new attire.  "Remind me to thank Wedge later for bringing me into this squadron," she told her wingmate.

"Sure thing, Nine," came the reply.  Next second, they were both on the floor in fits of laughter; Wedge had delivered the same 'favor' to Tycho's face.

* * * * *

Behind him, his Aunt Iella was walking with his mother, their paces evenly matched, as they moved in the direction of the mess hall.  He didn't have nearly as much patience.  However, as a six year old, he did have a viable excuse.  Besides, Aunt Iella walked too slowly for his taste.

"Calik, don't run," his mother reminded him as he made to sprint ahead.

Calik ignored her request, considering he could now see the entrance to the mess hall, and he slipped through the door gleefully.  A few paces in front of him, his father was standing with Uncle Wedge, both of their uniforms covered in food.  Giggling slightly at the sight that he knew he'd remember forever, he looked around the room some more, seeing Ari Solo and Mirax Halcyon hiding under Lujayne Forge's table.  Uncle Wes and Uncle Hobbie were flinging food left and right even as Rhysati dumped a glass of something over Aerolin's head.

He grinned to himself and quickly hurried over to stand in an out-of-sight place behind a free table.  Here, he knew he could listen to both Uncle Wedge and Daddy, along with Mirax and Ari.  The latter two usually were pretty funny anyway.

"You know," he heard Uncle Wedge say, even as he looked over to them, "Winter and Iella are so going to kill us later."  He paused, then grinned.  "Oh well."

Calik sniggered slightly into his hand, knowing full well it wouldn't be 'oh well' when his mother and aunt walked into the room in a few minutes.  But Daddy was talking, so Calik had to listen and find out what they were saying.  "Yep.  Speaking of those two, we should probably bail before they decide to waltz in for lunch."

Before he could really take in the concept of his father's words, he heard Ari saying something to Mirax.  "Hey, if they've not come for lunch yet, what's say we pelt 'em with food?"  Calik's eyes widened at the thought that they would try to involve his mother and his aunt in a food fight, his mouth gaping.

"Why couldn't you have gotten Wes up to the emotion age of at least 15?" Calik heard his Uncle Wedge ask suddenly.  That was a question he often heard, and not just from his uncle.

His father looked at Wedge incredulously, saying, "Me?  Why would you ask me that?"

"Because being the busy person that I am, I thought my XO might have been able to accomplish what I don't have time for."  Privately, Calik thought it was more like 'didn't have the ability to do'.  However, he was not part of this conversation; he was merely an observer.

"I see," his father replied.  "Well, I can always see if I can find the time in my busy schedule, since it seems that whenever you are overloaded, I get the extras.  Meaning, debriefing every other squadron, making Janson understand he can't do X, X, or X anymore..."

Calik watched and listened to his father rant on and on, only stopping as a hand suddenly covered his mouth.  With a gleeful laugh, he ran over to where his mother was holding her hand over his father's mouth.  As he got there, he wrapped his arms around his father's legs, barely making it to his knees in height.

Before he even knew what was going on, he was in his father's arms, being hugged.  Next to him, Aunt Iella had just pulled Uncle Wedge in front of her.  A second later, he understood why: a plate of food smacked into his uncle's shoulder, obviously having been from Ari and Mirax in an attempt to hit Aunt Iella.  He started laughing again at the face his uncle wore.  Now his uniform was covered from nearly head to toe...and, of course, Aunt Iella's was impeccably spotless.

"Welcome," Uncle Wedge began, even as he moved away from standing in front of his wife, "as Kell Tainer would say, to Dinner and Silly Squadron."

Calik looked over at his mother as she lifted him from his father's arms- he now had food particles on him- and spoke.  "I see.  Weren't those Face Loran's ideas?" she asked in her soft way.

Wedge nodded, a smile on his face.  "Yes, but it was Kell who voiced them to the Imps."  As he spoke, he reached over and rubbed Calik's hair around by way of greeting.  When he withdrew his hand, Calik shook his head out of whatever food might've ended up in it, hands searching in the same process.

He felt a clothe rubbing something from his face as soon as he was done; quickly, he looked up to see that it was Aunt Iella with a napkin.  She was speaking to Uncle Wedge as she rubbed his cheek clean.  "Silly Squadron is more appropriate.  Oh, and Wedge, I'm not cleaning your uniform this time."

His uncle shrugged, obviously not worried about hearing she wouldn't clean it.  "That's what Janson's for, after all."

Once his aunt finished her cleaning of his face, Calik rested his head on his mother's shoulder, his arms wrapped loosely around her neck.  He saw her glance over at him, then look over at Uncle Wedge.  "Oh.  I never knew he liked talking with Imperials.  Although, it certainly seems as if the rest of your squadron doesn't mind it."  She was obviously drawing the talk back to Rogue Squadron as a whole, no doubt ready to tell them what Calik had helped them find in the datacard piles.

Uncle Wedge, poised to throw another plate of food, paused, glancing at his wife and Calik's mother.  "Wait a second... Winter, do you mean like another Dlarit?"

Next to him, Calik saw his father look at his mother with a bit of surprise.  Then she nodded so both of them could see, not bothering to cover the truth by any pretty words.

The plate of food dropped to the ground from his uncle's grip as the man asked, sounding a bit like he dreaded the answer, "Please tell me it's not in Rogue Squadron.  It's not, right?  Please, please, please tell me this!"

His mother glanced at his aunt, her expression unchanging.  She sighed, then answered.  "I would tell you that, but I'm afraid I would be lying."

"Shavit," he said, unthinking.  Calik saw his parents exchange a glance, then he saw Uncle Wedge look at him quickly.  "And don't you go repeating that one, Cal."

Calik nodded into his mother's shoulder, still not saying anything.  "That's actually what we came to tell you, since I'd just given Winter the updated rosters.  She was showing Calik how to update them and he thought a certain holoimage looked familiar to something he saw on another Imperial file we hadn't looked at in over four years.  Winter agreed with him.  While they had been working, I went to Wraith...and walked in on an interesting conversation.  Apparently this isn't just a hunch."

As his aunt finished, Calik felt his mother nudge him with her shoulder.  He had known all along that he had the datacard- how could he forget, after all, with his memory?- and he quickly fished it from his pocket.  As it was offered, his uncle took it an inserted it into a datapad his father offered him.  As soon as the information was loaded, Calik watched the two of them read it silently.

When they finished, Wedge looked around the room, his gaze landing on Aerolin Kast.  He watched the pilot for a moment, as did Calik himself, and then Uncle Wedge looked at his father.  Calik saw his father return the look, the only difference was that his Dad had an eyebrow raised.

"Well," hi uncle spoke at last, "at least they can't blame you this time."  There was a rather odd pause, in which time Calik could hear Uncle Wes saying something to Aunt Rhysati, then, "Would you like to do the honors?"

"Wedge," Aunt Iella's voice stopped the two of them.  "We can't bring her in yet.  We have no evidence that she's transferring data to the Imperials at all.  We don't even know for certain if she's Ryok Necxo's sister."

Calik saw his uncle heave a sigh, then nod.  "Alright, then what do you want us to do?"

Before either his aunt or his mother could say anything, Calik's father suddenly asked, "Wait.  Who's behind this?  Daala isn't intelligent enough to come up with a way to brainwash and torture at the same time.  She might've done some of it, but it can't have been just her."

The pause lasted longer this time, almost as if no one wanted to say anything that would set things off.  At last, Calik decided it was his job to say it.  He lifted his head from his mother's shoulder and looked around the group of four adults.

"It's Ysanne Isard, Daddy," he said quietly, not wanting to say it too loud.

All eyes turned to him and then Uncle Wedge went off in a stream of thick curses.  His father looked a bit paler than usual and both his mother and aunt were grim.  The noise of fun from the food fight suddenly didn't seem as loud as it had moments before.  Not if it truly were the person his mother had called Iceheart.