Chapter Nine – Leaders and their Twics
Nicola shifted absently from foot to foot for a moment before deciding to speak up. After all, it seemed that at least two of the Council members were okay with the idea of Jedi dating. As for Mace Windu, Jaina looked as if she'd bite his head off if he decided to yell. Stepping around the group so she could see the Council members and vise versa, considering she was the shortest present, she cleared her throat.
"Um, actually, the other three simply want to date. But, um, Bror asked me to marry him, and I accepted, and we will, provided the Council gives us permission."
A sense of relief washed over her as Yaddle, and not Windu, got up and approached. The Jedi Master was funny in a way; she didn't seem to notice or care that she was half the rest of their sizes. Yaddle had a completely no-nonsense attitude about her that made you respect her- and she knew it.
The green Jedi stopped in front of Nicola, tapping her chin twice. Then, Nicola noted, she looked over at Bror and then back to Nicola herself. The green eyes smiled before the face did, but when the face did, she nodded.
"Be married, the two of you shall."
* * * * *
Though Master Yaddle's words were simple and short, Astarta was pleased with them. She smiled very slightly, a rare emotion coming from her. Then her gray eyes flicked to rest on Adra and Face. They made an interesting pair, those two. According to what Yaddle had said about the Cloud City mission, Face had been yelling at Adra.
She watched quietly as Bror bowed to Yaddle, saying softly, "Thank you, Master Yaddle."
Astarta looked over at Mace, only to find him smiling very slightly at Yaddle's proclamation. The gray eyes followed the brown as they tracked to Jaina and her rather blatant accusations. Well, technically they were honest facts with an added touch of the Trickster impetuosity. Mace's eyes then flicked over to her, as if he were trying to get her opinions on the matter. Smiling slightly to him, Astarta shook her head. I have no objections.
Though she could tell he was wondering about Face and Adra, she smiled as he began to speak.
"Then by all means, it looks as though we have more Jedi who are likely to marry."
About to put in her own remark on the matter, a look of half-confusion, half-annoyance passed her face as her comunit began to beep. No, not just her comunit, but the comlinks of Jaina, Jag, Adra, Face and Nicola as well. Without pausing to think another second, she flipped her comm open, and calmly answered it.
"Siennt here." Privately, she registered that this wasn't some little thing; no, not at all. Not with all the squad leaders and their twics being paged.
Half consciously, she saw Jaina grab her comm and open it, saying sharply, "Goddess. What's up?" Jag's comm was thumbed on not a moment after Jaina's. "Fel here."
Face was busy reading something, it appeared, but he was soon done. His comm was open, just as Nicola's was, and the two spoke at nearly the same time.
"This is Poster Boy. Wedge, is this about the message I just received from Iella?"
"Wild Knights Leader here."
The tone that answered the array of calls was grim and to the point. "Yeah, Face, this is about that. I need all squadron leaders and twics to report to Rogue headquarters immediately. Alert your pilots and tell them to report to their own headquarters. This is not a drill. We've got some serious Imperial problems here."
* * * * *
Half an hour earlier
Wedge smiled down as his two daughters as they stood side by side in front of him. Iella had ventured to Coruscant so that his children might actually get to see him once in a while. Of course, he was home. Sometimes. Every other night. Maybe. At best. However, that wasn't the point right now. The point was talking to his children.
"So, you want to be a fighter pilot when you're older, Myri?"
He couldn't help laughing when he saw the expression on her face. Next thing he knew, his younger daughter was climbing onto his knee. "Yup!" She confirmed his statement with high enthusiasm, "Just like you and Uncle Tycho and Uncle Wes and Uncle Hobbie!"
The pilot glanced up at his wife once more, finding her watching down the hall to make sure Syal, their older daughter, didn't find a way to get into trouble. Something on the docking bay, however, caught her eyes. A slight smile creased her face as she obviously recognized which ship it was. Iella turned to face Wedge, speaking as she did. "Wedge, I think you've got company."
He followed her gaze out to the docking bay, immediately recognizing the Millennium Falcon that had just seemed to settle there. With a slight laugh, Wedge watched as Han came down the ramp, muttering darkly, so it seemed. However, the strides that brought Han into the building were more purposeful. Han appeared in the doorway all of a minute later, nodding to Iella.
"Wedge, this is urgent."
The smile on Wedge's face faded and was instantly replaced by a serious one. Setting Myri on the ground, he said, "Myri, go find your sister. Your mother and I need to talk with this old Pirate." A slight hint of a smile crossed his face as he watched Myri leave and he closed the door behind his only slightly grumbling daughter. Then he looked back to Han. "Alright Han, what is it?"
Han didn't appear to be amused by his usual nickname; he didn't say another thing until the door was closed. However, once the latch was shut, he turned to face Wedge once again, his expression tried.
"What is it?" he repeated dryly. "It's Knight Hammer and Chimaera being spotted moving around as if they were a day old. And they're headed towards Coruscant System. In other words, they've caught us at the perfect point- when we're still building our frelling fleet. We're going to need every squad you can scrounge up into the air. Including whatever there is as a remnant of Wraiths. They can do more than information if they've got guns."
"Sithspawn!" was all Wedge could say for a minute. Then he suddenly snapped out of thinking only in curses. Absolutely wonderful. Imperials. Reaching for a datapad, he called up the comm frequencies for the squad leaders and their twics. At the same time, he began sending out a stream of instructions to his wife. "Iella, I need you to get a hold of Face and see what information the Wraiths can give us. While you're at it, get in contact with Talon Karrde and that niece of his, Charisma. They might know something. And then see if you can get Tycho, Hobbie and Janson up here."
Hit by another brain wave, Wedge looked once more to Han. "Have you told bel Iblis about this yet?" As he spoke, his hands punched in the comm frequencies for the Trickster, Astarta, Tycho, Jag, Tyria Sarkin, Nicola, Adra, Face, Kell, Erysi and Alinn.
Iella, it seemed to Wedge, had merely grabbed a datapad and send out messages as fast her hands would allow. Face and Talon Karrde, no doubt. And then she picked up her comm, getting it to what was, again no doubt, Karrde's frequency.
* * * * *
Talon Karrde was sitting calmly onboard the Wild Karrde when a text message came through to him from Iella Wessiri Antilles. Brow furrowed, he sent a reply back as quickly as his datapad could transmit, giving her his comm's frequency. The moment he knew she had the connection, he began talking.
"All I know without pulling out datacards is that both Grand Admiral Thrawn and Admiral Daala are back and they have their ships mobilized. Other than that, when I get to Rogue headquarters, I can give you datacards. I'm nearly there."
He was almost shocked- even appalled- with himself. He was going to give out information free of charge. But then again, anything to thwart Thrawn and Daala would be worth not making credits off of. Especially after what had happened last time, with the Katana fleet, and everything revolving around that.
Looking over at his niece, he smiled slightly as he saw her chair swivel around. Charisma, it seemed, began accessing all recent information they had on the two admirals. After a moment, she found the storage of the datacards, got up, and went off to find them. Talon Karrde merely shook his head after her. She was something, Charisma was. That's for sure.
She reappeared about one standard minute later and passed the datacard to him. "Here, all the information we've got on them. I'm going to the Shatterglass." Karrde nodded and watched as Charisma nodded to the crew members, then headed towards the docking bay and, undoubtedly, the Shatterglass.
After a moment, he turned back to his comm, only half listening to Iella talking with Wedge. When she was done, he made mention of the cards. "Charisma found the datacards. I'm going to be landing soon."
* * * * *
Wedge looked back over to Han, still waiting on the answer to the bel Iblis question. The ex-smuggler seemed to realize the same thing, for he answered it at once.
"No, sorry, came straight here. I didn't think that far."
He nodded slightly to Han. "Okay, can you call him for me then? I've gotta talk to the squad leaders soon." As the last tiny voice checked in, he said half to Han, half to himself, "As in now." Then he swiveled his chair around to face the wall and began talking.