Chapter 10: No Rest for the Weary
The goodbyes are brief. With the alarm sounding and the shoot out behind the factory, the Empire is not far behind. Jyn is glad Cassian had the foresight to have them pack before leaving that morning.
By the time she gets Ellie onto the ship, Cassian is strapping their pilfered supplies into the cargo bay and Bohdi is initiating take off.
Jyn stands behind the cockpit door for a moment, watchful. The men aren't really speaking, but they work smoothly together, Cassian running op checks on life support systems, and Bohdi plotting their course off planet.
She takes a few steps back into the hold when the whole ship wrenches abruptly to the left. She hits the door jam hard, and the floor even harder.
"We're under fire!" Cassian yells back. "Get strapped in!" The ship jerks and bucks and Jyn leverages her way into the back by the netting above her head.
Her head is spinning and she can't quite focus her vision, but she swings herself into a seat and yanks a belt across herself. Ellie is struggling with her weak arm beside her, so Jyn manages her buckle too.
This is the worst part she thinks as they jump and twist through the air, presumably evading fire. At each jerking movement, Ellie makes a whimpering sound, trying hopelessly to stabilize her injured arm. Jyn wedges her elbow under hers, as much cushion as she can manage.
"I've been in worse scrapes than this," she tries for an airy tone. Ellie's blood is warm on her forearm.
"I can't say I'm surprised." Ellie snarks back through a grimace. A sudden spin of the ship makes her stomach roll, compressing under the centripetal force that the artificial gravity cannot correct quickly enough to mask.
"Well, maybe this will surprise you. Back when I was with Saw, we had this mission…." Jyn launches quickly into an engaging story, something about breaking into an imperial armory under the guise of a surprise military inspection. "...we had them all lined up in their rank and file." Jyn crows. "Quizzing them on rules and regulations that we didn't even know the answer too, while everyone else loaded transports full of ammo from the back! They only realized when somebody got the answer wrong and we didn't notice!" Ellie lets herself get sucked into the drama. Her knuckles regain a little color as her fingers loosen. The ship gives the tell-tale shake of a hyperspace jump.
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Bohdi's leg jumps up and down in a nervous twitch even as his hands twist and pull the control wheel. A U-wing is slower than Imperial patrol craft, he remembers from pilot school. It has a dampened response time due to the possibility of aerodynamic flutter at high speeds. It makes the ships safer for crew transport, but it makes them less than ideal for a dog fight. He also remembers the things he learned from his fellow pilots when he first joined the transport crew; an unburdened U-wing can be just as fast as a fighter plane; it just doesn't have the maneuverability to correct if the ship is thrown off course by turbulence. For that reason, most U-wings have software governors; the ships can only achieve a certain speed before the power is throttled.
The computers have almost completed the hyper-jump calculations, but it won't matter if they are shot out of the sky. Time to be a fighter pilot, I guess Bohdi steels his nerves.
"Andor," he starts. "I need you to type something into the computer command line."
The captain nods and pulls the software input up. "Go ahead." Bohdi recites the line of code he'd learned, but never used.
"And captain?" He adds. "Loosen up the trim tabs for roll and yaw, and have your hands on the entry thruster controls. I'm going to have more power than I can manage with the wheel."
He can't afford to look away from the displays, but he can feel Cassian's appraising stare. The pilot is about to launch into a defense, but right then he feels the tell-tale tremor in the controls of free-swinging tabs. Out of his periphery, he sees the other man rest his fingers over the buttons of the thrusters.
Bohdi takes a deep breath and pushes the throttle. The power is unbelievable. He can almost hear the disbelief of the ships in pursuit. An alert passes across the view screen; incoming missile. He pulls hard starboard, and the ship rolls. The missile screams past, and Bohdi eases them out of it. Cassian drops a single burst to twist the ship back toward open space.
It takes 3 more maneuvers to bring them beyond the atmosphere. He's never felt so alive; his heartbeat is loud in his ear but slow. He feels every part of him narrowed to the task. Suddenly, the nav computer beeps; hyper jump is ready.
"Where are we headed?" He asks.
"Dantooine. It's an abandoned base; we can't risk them following us home." Cassian presses the hyperspace button, and a blur of stars wipes across the view port.
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It'll be an hour to the desert planet. Jyn fills the time with nervous energy, re-securing the cargo that shifted in their hasty exit. She can't believe how calm the men are; Bohdi patiently works out pre-planned exit routes from Dantooine and Cassian is quietly typing out a report of their mission to Command. After she's checked and re-checked every strap and ensured the integrity of every piece of fragile machinery, she paces back to the hold.
From the doorway, she watches Ellie's back. She is trying and failing to secure a bandage over the blistered wound on her bicep. After a moment of struggle, she throws the bandage roll to the ground, yelping in pain when the still attached end yanks at the injury. Jyn moves quickly to help, scooping up the bandage. She freezes though when she sees her tear-stained face.
She runs quickly through a list, and settles on one. "We made it out just fine." She says in a soothing tone as she leads her to sit and starts pulling the bandage in a tight wrap around the wound. "Bohdi really is a great pilot. Cassian said the rebellion left some caches of supplies at the base, so we'll be able to resupply and then go home." The word sounds strange to her. Ellie's face crumples.
"I wasn't thinking about any of that…" She chokes. "All those people in the factory…" She's struck with sudden clarity by the perfect nature of the girl's profession; even as she bandages her blaster burns, Ellie can think of nothing else than the suffering she could not stop from happening. Jyn takes a breath and opens her mouth, but Ellie jumps in quickly. "I understand what you said. That we had to stop this disease. I know better than anyone how horrific it could be if it got out before we could develop a vaccine. I know what we talked about too; that the Empire would have let it wipe out a lot of people. I know all that, I even know we did the right thing it's just…"
Jyn nods. She is as familiar as anyone with the strange, twisted faux-logic of survivor-ship. "We owe them. Even if they didn't want to die, they died so that more lives could be saved. The only thing we can do is make sure it was for something. If you want to let them live on, you've got to give them some of your life. Do the things that have to be done to make their sacrifice mean something."
Ellie is still crying, but her hands are steady on her knees. Jyn ties off the bandage and stands uncertainly in front of her. "I'm sorry you came with us. You were only here because you were trying to keep me alive. I haven't forgotten that."
The hand wave is aborted because of her limited motion, but still dismissive. "I'm not a doctor for the thanks, Jyn. I'll live with what I did for better or worse. Don't need any excuses." But she pats her knee gratefully and her smile is less watery than before.
A little uncomfortable, Jyn takes her leave.
As she steps into the cockpit, the stars streaking by shimmer and flatten out; in front of them, Dantooine bursts into focus. Cassian consults the navigation systems map. "Head starboard around the planet, near the southern pole." Bohdi obliges.
There about a mile above the first wispy layer of atmosphere when the ship jumps and an alarm shrieks to life. Jyn stares disbelievingly through the view port. "How'd they beat us here?!"
Cassian is already typing into the comm. "They're coming up from off planet." He tilts his head at the 4 crafts soaring up out of the atmosphere. He snatches the page with Bohdi's calculations. "Point us toward Yavin, those types of ships won't be able to track us through hyperspace," he instructs tersely.
"What the hell was that?" Ellie yells from below.
"Imps were lying in wait!" Jyn answers as she climbs down to strap in again.
She's swearing like a sailor. "Can't we solve ANYTHING without blasters?!"
"What did she say?" Bohdi yells from above.
"A lot of foul words! She's a keeper!" Jyn shouts back with a grin. It's amazing, she thinks, how quickly we adapt.
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Before they open the ramp, Cassian stops them. "Jyn, you and Bohdi need to stay together. They didn't find any accomplices to Vosix, but they could still be there." He's been wary of addressing Bohdi, and Jyn is disappointed that their cooperative flying hasn't eased the tension.
"I agree," Bohdi volunteers, but his head is down, and his eyes turned away. Jyn just nods. Satisfied, Cassian opens the bay and leads the crew down to meet Commander Ym.
"She doesn't look mad," Ellie whispers to Bohdi.
"Why be mad?" Ym frowns. "My opinion seems to me very little to the lot of you anyway. Captain, with me. The rest of you, be easy to find. You'll all be interviewed on the events of the day you departed soon. Very soon."
She turns smartly on her heel and Cassian follows without looking back.
AN: This story has got probably 2 or 3 more chapters to go...not sure how much I want to elaborate and describe a few things, and how much I can put into implication. If the viewing stats are any indication, a lot of people hated Chpt 6! Please let me know if there is something I can do better! The heart of progress is criticism. :)