Chapter Three - Commclutter

Adra Tallon's X-Wing came out of hyperspace with its owner staring, disgusted, as her comm unit and Kell's voice coming over it. "Well you wanna know something Kell? I doubt any of us are going to be standing up to Master Windu in your defense! How's that? I've heard him yell. Sithspawn, he yelled at Anakin Skywalker just the other day!" Her voice intercepted Kell's, cutting him off rudely. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't be yelling at him as badly.

Kell rolled his eyes, almost glad that the others couldn't see him doing the action as he protested in vain, "But Adra, I've been better about that! And I only blew up one thing the entire time! I think that's a record for me!" He very much doubted that anyone was buying it, much less trying to figure out a way to help him escape the claws of the women pilots.

Finally fed up with Kell's feeble arguments and protests, Nicola switched on her comm unit to put in her own. "Kell, just do us all a favor and shut the Vong up! And if you do keep this Sithspit up, as soon as we land, I'll use some of my Targeter training on you, and then you won't be able to protest. Got it?"

Grumbling over the comm, Adra shook her head, cursing Kell silently again and again. "I don't really care Kell. It was one more than should've been thrown. Anyways, if you don't zip it, you won't be landing. I'll kill you in that craft of yours with the Force if I have to!" Adra was still glaring at her comm. Kell Tainer could be a pain in the ass sometimes, as he was right now. Her gaze flicked to Coruscant's approaching surface once before she turned it back to her navigation and controls... and the comm, still cursing at Kell.

Another voice- Nicola's- added its curses to Adra's string. Adra could almost see the diabolical smile forming on her friend's lips as she said, "And that's only if I don't get to him first, Computer Girl."

Adra almost laughed. Kell, however, was glaring at his comm unit. "Alright, alright! Just please, enough of the 'killing-of-Kell' talk!" His voice had an almost pleading tone to it. He continued quickly, this time imploring his fellow Wraith males for help, "Face? Bror? Cloud? Any of you guys want to help me here?"

Face's unseen head shook at Kell's plea. They were lucky that the women hadn't turned their accusations from Kell to all of them; it was a common thing for the fault on one of the squadron's men to turn into a fault in all of them, causing those that were usually innocent of the problems to always be on their guards. "Sorry Kell, I'd rather not have Master Yaddle hit me again. I'm being on my best behavior from now on." He grinned slightly at the comm.

Bror's voice came over the comm next, taking a similar view on the subject as Face. And there really wasn't any doubt as to why. "Sorry, too, Kell; even if Nicola's my padawan, I'd rather not go up against her."

"It's okay Kell," Cloud's voice reached out over the comm, "The Imps can get blown up another time...when we're not on duty. Now the rest of you, bug off." It was the first time Cloud had spoken since Cloud City, an oddity for him.

Kell was smiling with relief in spite of himself. While Cloud's defense wasn't much, and it was probably to do with the fact that bags of explosives were sitting in the back of Kell's X-Wing, he took all the help he could get.

"Finally! Someone who'll save me!" Kell's voice rang over the now silent comm, quite a change to what it had been moments before. Then his tone became reflective as he voiced his second-earlier suspicions. "Well, you wanting to help me might have to do with the explosives in my X-Wing, but I'll take all the help I can get!"

His laughter filling the comm, Cloud backed off at this point, in spite of telling the rest of the squad to lay-off, "Nah, you're pretty cool. But that doesn't mean I'm facing down Mace Windu for you."

Adra smiled at Cloud's words in spite of herself. She had no doubt as to what made Cloud say this, even if it was common knowledge that Mace had a wonderful ability to yell at fifteen Jedi in one day and be able to come back, voice still intact, to yell at another twelve the next. She could almost see Kell wincing slightly at the mention of Mace Windu as she felt it through the Force. She was not at all surprised by his next words.

"Thanks Cloud, I was trying to forget about that. Maybe I'll just turn my ship around and fly off somewhere and blow something up," He was joking, though in truth it was almost the idea he'd chosen. Unfortunately, Nicola and Adra put another of their 'two-credit' bits in.

Adra all but saw Nicola firmly shaking her head. Her voice came out hard across the comm. "Uh-uh, Kell. You're not getting away that easily. You're not getting away until Computer Girl and Targeter are done with you. Oh and Kell," she added, her voice sickly sweet, "Don't even think about trying to get away becasue I'm sure that Adra would just slave your controls to hers and that wouldn't help you very much, now would it?"

The vast Jedi Temple rose along the skyline to greet them, even as Adra laughed and then pretended to be outraged at Nicola, "Shush you! Don't go giving my plan away!"

"Oops," Nicola's voice purred innocently over the comm frequency, causing Kell's gut to wrench, "Oh well, you can still do it anyways. He's not that talented in the computer department."

Bror's comm unit was flicked back on as he sighed. "Adra, I think you and my padawan have been together for way too long. She already had the sharp tongue, but now she's got the sarcasm!" As soon as he said the words, he almost regretted them. Now Nicola was likely to turn that sharp tongue on him.

However, Adra raised an unseen eyebrow in mock-surprise, laughing slightly at the same time. "Then you obviously don't remember me as a padawan, Bror, because I'm quite sure that I had just as much a way with words as your padawan does. And there's nothing wrong with sarcasm." Adra was grinning at this point, maneuvering her X-Wing through the planet's high-rising and never-ending city. "Besides, you should be grateful I'm not teaching her how to rewire your lightsaber to the computer generator- which I've done. The results aren't very pretty for the X-Wing's computers or the lightsaber."

Adra knew that Bror's face had paled very rapidly at her last comment- all of the people she had threatened like that had the same reaction. Even Mace Windu.

Bror rolled his eyes at the memory of a younger Adra. It was an amazing thing that the Temple had allowed her the title of Jedi Knight at the minor age of 14, though he almost didn't blame them. It might've been a way to merely get her off their hands.

"Oh don't worry, Adra. I remember you as a padawan alright. And it wasn't exactly fun when I was the recipient of your sarcasm or your tongue," he winced at this point, remembering only too well some of those occasions. For even if Adra had been a full year younger than him, their Masters had hung around the Temple a lot, leaving their padawans to the tender mercies of tormenting each other. However, he said none of this, only elaborating. "And yes, I'm grateful you aren't teaching her that. Even if I do have an A- wing, not an X-wing."

Nicola cut in, grinning madly, before Adra could reply to Bror. "Ooooh, rewiring his lightsaber? Adra, you're going to have to teach me that one!"

Grinning, Adra nodded. Laughing at Bror's comment, she shook her head, remembering what had happened on earlier experiments. "I know that, Bror. I did my experiment on an X-Wing. Then I did it on an A-Wing sometime later...it comes off worse than the X-Wing." Searching out the hanger bay at the Temple, she brought her X-Wing down to land, smiling very happily at the curses that were spilling off the Alderaanian's lips due to her mentioning A-Wing test results.