Chapter Nine

Wedge pulled back from the hug that he and Mirax were sharing. He hadn't seen his childhood friend in months, but he wished they could meet under happier circumstances. Wedge may have hated pulling Mirax into these suicide missions more so than Corran did. Still, he trusted no one else to smuggle them in. The daughter of the great Booster Terrik proved to be a fantastic smuggler in her own right.

"Corran's going to kill you," Mirax said.

Wedge smiled, "Ah, but you're the one who volunteered. I think you're missing out on your true calling in life. You're crazy enough to be a rogue…I could put in a word with the Academy."

"Thanks, but no," Mirax replied with a grin, "I prefer to have my ego in check."

Wedge feigned a hurt look, "My ego is in check!"

"Keep saying that, flyboy."

Wedge took a seat in the copilot's chair, looking out the forward viewport. The Skate was in the midst of hyperspace, and would be so for a few more hours.

"Who's flying escort?" Mirax asked.

"Wes and two of our newer pilots," Wedge responded. "Ace Azzameen and Dap Zorvan."

If something were to happen, he knew that he could trust Wes and Ace to keep their cool and handle the situation. With Darvix, he wasn't so sure. Wedge had seen something in the young pilots last simulator run that had scared him. Like a Jedi Knight, unbridled anger will lead a pilot to certain doom. He wasn't sure if Darvix could control his emotions well enough. Did I make the right decision to clear him?, Wedge thought to himself

"Got a message from Wes," Mirax said. "Says to open up communications channel Alpha-Three-Zeta and put it over the Skate's PA system."

Wedge rolled his eyes, "This should be good. Make it so."

***

Darvix leaned back into the ejector seat of his Y-Wing. Zone warbled softly behind him. "Wes? Hoo boy…better patch him through."

"'Lo Dap," Wes said, "Beautiful day for a mind numbing cruise through hyperspace."

"Isn't every day?" Darvix replied

Mind numbing didn't even begin to describe these hyperpsace jumps. For hours on end a pilot would stare at the molten black and blue tunnel, wondering where the hell the end was. The fact that he was cramped inside the tight Y-Wing cockpit only compounded matters.

"You know," Wes said idly, "You never did finish up your little story"

Darvix let out a loud groan, "You have got to be kidding me, Wes!"

"Kidding? Me?" Wes said in a mock shocked voice, "I'm insulted, pistols at dawn!"

"Alright, alright!" Darvix said, "Just shut up and I'll talk!"

"I knew we could come to an agreement."

The young pilot let out a heavy sigh, "Alright, after I stole the mercenary's X-Wing, I was on a mad dash to get out of Imperial space. I had no idea what the kriff I was doing, so I searched wildly through the navicomputer for any predetermined routes. I selected the only one that came to mind. I knew that Farmboy hero was from there, so-"

"That's rich," Ace said over the comm. "Of all the Republic worlds, you selected Tatooine."

"Unfortunately, yes. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen something along the lines of Mon Calamari. In any case, I popped out of hyperspace about a day later and declared asylum with the New Republic. I ended up in the Embassy at Anchorhead where I sat doing absolutely nothing for a month.

"I suppose it was by dumb luck that I ran into Jula Darklighter, Gavin's dad-"

"We're aware," Wes said, "When are you going to get to the juicy details that I can circulate through the Rogue gossip mills?"

"Patience, young apprentice," Darvix replied, "As I was saying, I had run into Jula, who was looking for some hands on his farm. I begged him to let me go work for him-"

"Because you felt that it was your duty to repay the Republic who had taken you into their fold, and you felt that this was an appropriate way to start?" Ace asked.

"…No…not really. Mostly I was just bored to tears and was willing to do anything to entertain myself. In any case…"

***

"In any case," Darvix's voice said over the intercom. "I ended up at the Darklighter farm where I spent the better part of a year. I'd do odd jobs like fixing the vaporators and fixing the terminals. You have no idea how much dust gets into machinery out there."

Gavin smiled slightly and shook his head. It'd been a while since he was home, and it was refreshing to hear some stories from there. He took a sip from his caf and listened in to the conversation again.

"Few months after I showed up was the rather popular Moisture Festival in Anchorhead. Social gathering that occurred every year. Jula was under the impression that I was working too hard and insisted that I go."

"Good for you," Wes said, "You never get out enough, young man."

"Cut the chatter, Wes. There was a catch, however. Traditionally teenagers were supposed to go with a date. Naturally, of course, I had no idea who in the Force's good graces to ask. It wasn't until the day of the event itself that I found someone

"Anya Darklighter- Gavin's younger sister- had just broken up with her boyfriend a few days prior and was without a date to the Festival. Out of desperation on both of our parts, we decided to go together as friends.

Next to Gavin was Cheriss, who snickered, seeming to balk at that idea, "Has she no honor? Or is she truly that desperate?"

"Hush," Inyri said, "He's about to get to the juicy part."

"Jula let myself and Anya off work for the day and said he would pick up the slack himself. I drove us by speeder to the Festival…What a day, music, food…dancing. Even though we just went as friend we ended up sharing a number of dances together. She showed me some of the steps popular on Tatooine and I showed her some from my homeworld.

"We had a great time, came home past dusk. I uh…walked her back to her room. We made the usual comments, how we had a great time with each other."

"Did you…?" Wes asked.

"…Yeah. We shared a kiss in front of her room. Her mom walked in on us at that point, so no, Wes, We didn't go further. Things took off from there, went steady for about a year. Jula came up to me one day and sat me down. He had been watching me flying the family's Skyhopper and felt that I should go to the Academy to receive flight training. He pulled some strings, and I got permission to take the entrance exams. Not long after that I was accepted into the academy. Regardless, this meant that I would be leaving Tatooine…and Anya. We had grown close, so it was a hard decision for me.

"She was incredibly supportive, but I could tell she was heartbroken…as was I for that matter."

The day after Darvix left, Gavin had gotten an enormous letter from Anya. She was crushed, but he knew she would move on. Anya was tough, like every Darklighter.

"Did you stay in contact with her?" Ace asked.

"We did…"

***

Darvix leaned back into his seat again. "We did, we're still close friends.... I suppose that's it."

His comm. came to life again, "Touching story, Dap," came a new voice…Wedge's voice? "Just letting you guys know we're dropping out of hyperspace in about an hour."

Darvix was silent for a moment. How did Wedge hear that…?

"…WES!"

"It was rather touching, Dap," Wes said.