Chapter Thirteen

After escaping Tatooine, Jim had the sneaky feeling his troubles with the Empire and the Rebellion were just beginning. He never regretted what he'd done on Tatooine, but he did worry about his Cadets. Worry about his fellow Cadets deepened when, as he sat in the cockpit with Han, a sharp pain bloomed behind his eyes. Jim squeezed his eyes shut and doubled over, shielding himself from…something.

"Jimmy? Kid, you okay? You don't look so good." Han reached over and squeezed Jim's shoulder. Jim looked up as the pain faded, along with the faint screams.

"Something's happened."

"What?"

"Something's very wrong. Where's Obi-Wan?"

"Back in the passenger compartment with your brother. Jim, what's going on?" Han watched Jim get up, concerned.

"I don't know, but something terrible just happened." He left the cockpit and found Obi-Wan, who looked awful. He sat down next to the old Jedi, "Please tell me you felt that, Ben."

"I did. We must hope that our loved ones and friends are safe." Obi-Wan tried to smile but he couldn't. Luke went back to practicing with his lightsaber, a practice not entirely necessary but still useful. When they came out at Alderaan, Jim knew exactly what had happened and how.

"Tiberius, there weren't any Cadets on Alderaan were there?"

"I don't know how many groups were dropped on Imperial worlds and how many were on Federation worlds. I hope not, that's not a job I'd want." He shuddered as they cleared the debris field. Alderaan was gone, just…gone. As if it had never existed. They were buzzed by a TIE-fighter and Han, hot to shoot something, took off after it.

"Look, it's heading for that small moon!" Luke cried as they tried to run it down. Jim looked at the object looming in the view-port and knew they were in big trouble.

"That's not a moon, Luke, that's a battle-station!"

"I've never seen a battle station that big before!" Han shook his head, "It's too big to be a station!"

"Tiberius?"

"That's the Death Star." He swallowed hard, "Andorian spies brought us a copy of the plans for the Death Star a week ago. We were on Tatooine, but Dad told me all about it."

"Those are the same plans Artoo is carrying in his memory, no doubt. Would Starfleet Command have done anything about it?" Obi-Wan looked concerned.

"Probably not. Unless the Death Star posed a direct threat to the Federation, they wouldn't do anything, and there was never any indication the Empire was going to bother with us." Jim felt the deckplates shudder and heard Luke and Han arguing. They were tractored into a holding-bay aboard the Death Star, taken captive. Jim surprisingly felt no fear, and no real anger.

Getting off the Falcon and into the control room above wasn't hard, despite the amount of noise Han and Chewie made blasting everything they could see. Jim ran to the officer in charge, whom he had stunned a moment ago, checked his uniform, and quietly stripped out of his jumpsuit and duster.

"You make a very convincing officer, Tiberius." Obi-Wan smirked, "I leave you in charge here."

"Yes, Master." Jim nodded and watched him leave. Luke wasn't happy about that, and Han had his own opinions about the mess they were in. Artoo finally got their attention with strident beeping and whistling. He'd located Leia in the station itself, all they had to do now was a find a way to get to her, rescue her, and get out of the Death Star alive. With Jim disguised as an Imperial officer and Han and Luke posing as Storm Troopers with Chewie as their "prisoner", they went in search of Leia. They didn't have any trouble until they got to the detention level. They were greeted by a suspicious senior lieutenant, Jim had to resort to a mind-trick to keep him from calling for clearance.

"Do you question my authority to authorize and oversee a prisoner-transfer from one part of this station to another, Lieutenant?"

"No, sir." the man was grinding his teeth. Jim just arched an eyebrow. Behind him, Chewie broke his binders and grabbed Han's rifle. Jim hit the floor and covered his head. It was over quickly and Han pulled him from the floor.

"Good reflexes, kid. When you ducked, I got the bastard."

"Thanks. Now let's find my sister and get out of here." Jim looked up the number of the detention-cell they were holding Leia in and went to get her out. He found the cell and got the door open to find his sister asleep. She look alright, but the thought of her at the mercy of the Empire made him angry. He went into the cell and touched her on the shoulder. She woke with a start and he covered her mouth so she wouldn't scream.

"Shh."

"James!" she sat up, "What are you doing here?"

"We got your message, Leia." Jim helped her off the bench and led her out of the cell, "You're lucky I was on Tatooine at all."

"What were you doing there?"

"Fourteen Days of Hell."

"Basic Training? Oh, James, you did it!" Leia hugged him and he coaxed her out of the cell. Luke showed up with bad news. Someone had found out things weren't quite right and the detention area was under siege. Han joined them with Chewie.

"Should have killed that guy, kid! He talked!"

"They'd have found out some other way, Han, don't blame me!" Jim snarled, firing shots from his blaster. Leia got them a way out and it was down a garbage-chute. Jim was thinking if he got out of this mess alive, it would be a bloody miracle and nothing less. The Empire didn't exactly take prisoners and then just let them walk away.

After a close-call escape from the Death Star, Jim was relieved to arrive safely on Yavin IV. He wasn't exactly looking forward to the visit to Yavin IV made necessary by the death of Obi-Wan on the Death Star. That was something to worry about later, right now he had something else to worry about. When they set foot inside the temple that housed the Alliance base on Yavin IV, Jim instinctively looked around for any of his Cadets. Around here, a Starfleet Cadet would stand out. While Leia and Luke reunited with their father, who just smiled at Jim but said nothing, Jim quietly slipped away and wandered the bustling hangar. There were Incom T-65 X-wings in the hangar, and a lot of them. He ducked under the wing of the nearest fighter and touched the smooth, cool metal.

"Hey, Jim!" two voices called his name simultaneously, and Jim raised his head to find them. He saw two figures clad in the hazard-cone orange flight-suits waving furiously from an X-wing off to his right. They were sitting on the cockpit rim, looking for all the world like a pair of hotshot rookie kids having fun on the big deadly toy they'd been handed. He cocked his head to one side and studied the pair. One of the pilots was female, a pretty, dark-skinned girl of slight build. In the same moment he realized the difference in gender, Jim realized something else.

"Bones? Nyota?" he headed for the fighter they were sitting on and stopped at the foot of the ladder, staring up at them in utter shock, "You have got to be kidding me!"

"Cheers, kid!" his cranky doctor friend waved cheerfully.

"Bones, you hate space, and space-flight especially. What are you doing up there?"

"Wasting time until something interesting happens." Bones grinned down at him and Jim folded his arms.

"Alright. Who are you and what have you done with my friend?"

"Aw, lighten up, Jimmy." Nyota pouted, "We found something Bones hates more than space-flight."

"And what, praytell, would that be?"

"The Empire."

"Oh." Jim looked around, "So, you hate the Empire more than you hate space and space-flight, and enough to overcome aviophobia in order to take up your place as an X-wing pilot?"

"Yep."

"Well done, Bones!" Jim smirked, "There's hope for you yet!"

"Hey, don't get all up in arms, kid, you're next."

"Me?"

"Yes you."

"Jimmy Skywalker?" someone on the ground called his name, Jim didn't think he'd ever been addressed quite like that before. He turned around.

"Yeah?"

"Biggs Darklighter." The tall, broadshouldered man introduced himself, "I've been wondering how long I'd have to wait to meet you."

"Oh, you're Luke's friend!" Jim smiled and shook hands with the pilot, "He keeps talking about you."

"Hey, the feeling's mutual." Darklighter smiled and Jim looked over his shoulder at Bones and Nyota, shooting them a dirty look.

"I can't imagine the wild stories you've heard, sir."

"Nothing too bad, I promise." Darklighter chuckled and slung an arm around Jim's shoulders, "I hear you're kind of the leader of this crazy, rag-tag band Admiral Skywalker dumped on us."

"Twenty fresh-faced Cadet Trainees right out of Basic Training probably came as a bit of a shock to the Alliance Command." Jim could see most of his trainees from here, they seemed to be adapting well, "I can't begin to imagine what Starfleet Command will say when they find out we abandoned our trek on Tatooine for this."

"I always said stranding twenty kids in the middle of a wilderness was a poor way to judge their character and battle-readiness. You want to train good future officers?" Darklighter snorted, "Give them realistic situations, and I don't mean those pathetic simulations they shove down your throats. I mean real, first-hand experience on those starships or even ours, let them get a taste of what you're getting them into."

"You feel pretty strongly about that, don't you?"

"Hell yeah. When I realized we had twenty perfectly good recruits on our hands, I just got down on my knees and thanked every god I could name." Darklighter looked at Jim, "Your Cadets need experiential training, we need pilots and technicians."

"Looks like most of them picked option one." Jim looked at Bones, "Including my aviophobic doctor friend. How did you talk him into that, by the way?"

"We didn't, he decided the Empire was more hateful than space-flight."

"Wow. Man, if you could have seen the mess I sat next to on the shuttle three months ago, you wouldn't believe it was the same person."

"Speaking of people." Darklighter shook him by the shoulder, "Come on, kid, let's get you suited up." Jim didn't ask, he just followed. Fifteen minutes later, he was suited up in the familiar bright orange flight-suit and all accessory gear. Darklighter even showed him his X-wing. It was the same one Jim had been standing under when Bones and Nyota got to him. Giddy and wavering on exhaustion, Jim climbed the ladder and sat down on the cockpit rim, watching the bustle of the hangar. He did some thinking, reflecting on what had happened and how this would change everything.

Along with the flight-suit and X-wing, Jim also got a rank and a responsibility. He was, for as long as he was with the Alliance, a Lieutenant Commander and would answer to the call-sign of Rogue Leader. Twenty trainees had picked the dangerous path and enlisted as pilots, Jim had the fun job of splitting them up. Ten of them would answer to Rogue call-signs, the remaining ten would answer to a differing, unique call-sign of their own. He decided to get creative and named the second battle-group Ghost Squadron. They had no leader, answering to him, and the first of those ten responded to Ghost One.