Title: Changing Course
Chapter: Chapter One
Author: bactaqueen
Author's e-mail:
Category: New Jedi Order, Alternate Universe
Keywords: Kyp Durron, Jaina Solo, NJO
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: New Jedi Order up to Rebel Stand
Summary: Jaina Solo had a tough road back from the Dark Side after the death of her brother. In the process, according to canon, she earned Colonel Fel. But what if she hadn't? What if Kyp Durron was her redemption?
Disclaimer: "Star Wars" copyright George Lucas. Characters copyright respective owners. No profit is being made and no infringement is intended. Characters and situations inspired by the Enemy Lines duology, written by Aaron Allston, and in some cases, the situations have been modified for the purposes of this story. Again, here, no profit is being made and no infringement is intended.
Changing Course: Chapter One
Pinpoints stretched into starlines and coalesced into a tunnel of blue-white light that closed protectively around the Raider's Prize. In the cockpit of the battered freighter, Jaina Solo locked down the controls for hyperspace flight and set the alarm that would announce the freighter's impending reversion to realspace. She unbuckled her restraints, but she did not get up.
Beyond the forward viewport, hyperspace reeled. It splashed the cockpit with cold light in shifting patterns. This was something she'd witnessed too many times to count. She knew the dance of hyperspace as Cilghal knew the rise and fall of the tide. It was something she understood, the one thing she loved that had not changed.
In a terrifying flash of insight, Jaina knew how quickly that could turn. One mistake too many on her part, luck or skill on the part of a single enemy, and it would all be over.
Once upon a time, she'd been invincible. Her family had been invincible. The New Republic that her parents and their peers had fought so hard to create had been invincible. The Jedi had been a beacon of hope, of light, of justice.
That simply wasn't true anymore. Jaina had learned that defeat was very real. And very painful.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a stir of movement. She turned slightly to find Kyp Durron slipping out of his own crash webbing. He had promised to bring her back. He would bring her back. If anyone understood mistakes, pain, the Dark Side, it was him. He was the best person-maybe even the only person-to help her.
Who would have guessed? Kyp Durron, galactic bad boy, her saving grace. It was almost too much.
She must have been smiling, because when he turned to her his expression became one of slight puzzlement.
"Is something funny?"
Jaina considered. "Yes."
"Care to let me in on it?"
"You are it."
"Oh." He frowned, even more puzzled than before. After a moment, he said, "Hungry?" It was a deliberate change of topic.
Jaina shrugged. "I'll eat."
Kyp glanced through the cockpit's low hatchway. "Good. While you were visiting the Queen, I had time to make friends with the synth unit. Whatever comes out should be edible."
When he looked back at her, his smile was inviting, almost teasing. Jaina returned it carefully. "At least you hope so."
"Can you operate a synth unit?" One dark brow went up over one dark eye.
"Not very well," she admitted.
"That's what I thought." Kyp pushed himself up, and suddenly, he was filling the cockpit. "Come on. I'll show you around."
The passageway that connected the cockpit to the rest of the ship's living space was a narrow, curving affair. Jaina reached out a hand and trailed fingertips along the smooth bulkheads. Though designed primarily for efficiency, the Hapan freighter had and element of beauty that revealed the origins of its designers.
They passed through a rounded hatchway and came into the galley and recreation area. Kyp waved a hand at the late-model food synthesizer welded to the bulkhead over a rations storage locker.
"Where all the meals will be prepared," he said, then gestured at the holoboard table set into an alcove between two other hatchways. "And that is where they will be served. The hatch on the left leads to the engines and cargo bays; the one on the right goes to sleeping quarters. One cabin, four bunks, one 'fresher. The cabin's yours, if you want it." He gave her a smug smile. "That's the grand tour," he finished.
Jaina looked between him and the space they would be sharing for the next three days. Confines were small, and there would be almost no privacy. She gave a mental shrug. Two years as an active member of the military had accustomed her to sharing small spaces with people she barely liked, and a lifetime of space travel had made her immune to cabin fever.
"Ah," was all she said.
She left him in the galley and when to explore the sleeping accommodations.
The narrow bunks were stacked two to a side, flanking the refresher. Directly across from the 'fresher was a closed hatch. Jaina passed a hand over the panel set into the bulkhead, and the door slid away to reveal the cabin. She stepped in.
The cabin was small, but she hadn't been expecting a large one anyway. It had room for a standard-sized bunk, a welded-to-the-bulkhead desk, and a footlocker. She found her duffel already sitting on the made bed, and wondered how much of that was Kyp's doing.
Jaina shrugged off her flight jacket and left it on the desk. She went to the bed and began rummaging in her duffel to find something to tie her hair back with. She was mildly amused to note that the red gown from the state dinner had been packed, and she wondered again how much of it was because of Kyp.
She caught a handful of fresh flightsuit and hesitated. She glanced across the hall at the 'fresher door. She became aware of how grungy she felt; her hair was uncomfortably tangled after hours in the Trickster's cognition hood, and her flight suit was stiff and somewhat smelly from too long on her body under stressful conditions. Jaina wrinkled her nose. She knew she needed a shower when she could smell herself.
"You're right," came the muffled reply to her silent observation. Jaina started, and Kyp poked his head into the cabin. She realized that she hadn't closed the connection between them. He made a face. "You smell like a bantha." He smiled in response to her glower, "Take a shower, please. Dinner's going to be a while."
"Thank you for your permission, Master," she grumbled.
He gave her a quick grin. "Glad you waited for it, Apprentice." Then he was gone.
Jaina turned and sank to the edge of her bed, still smiling faintly. Leave it to Kyp to be tactless. She yanked off her boots, then tossed them into her footlocker. She wasn't going to need them tonight. In fact... Jaina glanced at her wrist chrono. Her internal clock was right. It was late. Being tired was okay.
After a quick peek around the corner to be sure Kyp was busy with the synth unit-and that his back was turned to her-she unsealed her flight suit and left it in a heap on her desk. She snatched the fresh flight suit out of her duffel and ducked into the 'fresher.
Jaina sent a silent thank-you to the designer of the Raider's Prize as she stripped out of her underthings. The 'fresher had a real sonic shower, not a dribbling, tepid setup like some ships she'd served on. She'd once spent time on a ship that didn't even have a shower at all-just a drain in the deck and an extendable faucet.
Once she was clean and comfortable, she exited the 'fresher. She left the rest of her dirty clothes on the desk, intending to run them through the cycler before she put them in her duffel.
Upon entering the main compartment, she found dinner already on the gameboard. Bowls of a faintly musky-smelling stew shared space with full white plastic cups.
Kyp came through the other hatchway, carrying spices. His gaze swept over her.
"You look better." He closed the distance between them and sniffed the air just above her head. "Smell better, too. Big improvement."
"How can you tell with that junk stinking up the air?" She wrinkled her nose. "What is that?"
"Dinner," he replied with a grin. He set spices down on the table with a flourish and produced spoons from a pocket. "Have a seat."
Jaina slid into the booth and eyed the bowl in front of her dubiously. "What is it?"
He shrugged and discarded his Jedi robe. "I have no idea." The robe fell across the communications console against the bulkhead. "It came out of the synth. I figured I'd let you try it first." He slid into the other end of the booth.
She rolled her eyes. "You have got to be kidding me," she grumbled.
"Not really," he replied, with as much sincerity as he could muster. He was having a hard time refraining from laughing.
"All right, I'll make a deal with you. I'll try the drink if you try the..." She glanced down at her bowl. "Whatever it is."
He grinned. It was that one that did something tickly to Jaina's stomach. She remembered it well from the time before Sernpidal. "Deal."
He raised his spoon in toast, and she mimicked the gesture with the white plastic cup. At the same time, they tasted their respective poisons.
The drink was cool and thick, the consistency of bantha milk, but it tasted kind of like juri juice. All in all, not too bad. Jaina watched Kyp.
His expression turned thoughtful. After a few moments, he met her questioning gaze. "You first."
"You've finally done something right, Kyp." She lifted her cup in mock salute.
Kyp raised his own glass to his lips. Then he grinned. "Hey, not bad. You're right."
When he said nothing more, she prompted, "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Dinner. Is it edible?"
He shrugged. "Oh, that. Sure."
Still gently shaking her head, Jaina dipped her spoon into the gray-green muck that was supposedly edible. Upon her first taste, she gave a sort of exasperated sound. "You're a funny man, Durron."
His smile was smug. "I told you I knew how to operate a synth unit."
"Must be all those years of eating alone. Good training."
As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. When she saw the flash of acknowledgment in his eyes, she felt even worse. Things had been going so well... "I'm sorry," she murmured, dropping her gaze. "That was low of me."
"Good to know that recent events haven't dulled your tongue," Kyp countered easily. He paused to have a spoonful of soup. "I knew what I was getting into, Jaina," he added softly.
They ate in silence for a while, both of them looking at dinner, the table, the bulkheads, anything but at each other. The hum of the hyperdrives was a welcome sound after so long aboard the Trickster. Jaina could even feel the ship's movement, as if the inertial compensator was a few millionths of a gee off. Or maybe after working so closely with the living ship she was just better attuned to space flight.
If that were the case, it might come in handy whenever she got back to Rogue Squadron. Being more perceptive of sudden changes of speed and vector might increase her chances of survival.
Whenever she got back... Jaina remembered what Kyp had said back on Hapes. "My mother asked you to bring me?" she said aloud.
Kyp glanced up. "Yes."
"Why?"
The older man shrugged restlessly. "I don't know."
Jaina studied him. She said seriously, "Don't lie to me, Kyp. We can't lie to each other. Not anymore."
For long heartbeats, their gazes locked. Jaina saw a shrewd sort of calculation in Kyp's eyes, and she set her jaw stubbornly. Finally, he sighed.
"Han remembered what those guys wanted when they came to the tent. When the fight broke out."
Jaina nodded. "Me. We figured that out."
"Colonel Fel figured it out," he corrected. "With Ten-ah, the Queen Mother's help. Yes," he added, "we knew, but Han had no memory until a few days ago. Your parents want to see you. Leia..." Kyp trailed off.
"Is worried about me." Jaina's eyes hardened. "It's her right, as a mother." There was no sentiment in her voice.
"What about as competition?" Kyp suggested.
Jaina stared open-mouthed at him. "Competition?" she repeated, hoping this wasn't going where she thought it was going.
Kyp's grin was wicked. "You heard me. Maybe she's worried about her daughter gaining the affections of a certain prince of Hapes."
Jaina just watched him, unsure of what to say. He couldn't be serious... Could he?
His suggestive expression faltered, and he started to chuckle. Unfrozen, Jaina slumped back.
"You're making fun of me."
Kyp shrugged. "The base needs some supplies, anyway. Who better to bring them than the guy who led Han Solo through the Maw?" The self-deprecating tone of his voice made Jaina want to wince.
When she'd laid a course for the Jedi base, she'd set Kessel as the reversion coordinates. It would be easier to navigate the approach that way. Not that she had even expected to be doing any of the navigating or flying after they reached their final jump point. Kyp was the expert on that space; Jaina knew when to defer to experience. The Vong held Kessel and the area around the former prison planet. She'd planned on manning the weapons to keep the enemy off their back until Kyp could get them into the cluster of black holes.
She hadn't thought of how Kyp would feel to go back. Back to the site of so many mistakes. More than that, they were going to come out of hyperspace right on top of Kessel. She wondered what he'd feel to see the planet he'd been enslaved on. The planet he'd lost his childhood to.
Jaina tucked those thoughts away. "What kind of supplies?"
Kyp had picked up on her thoughts, but he did not comment. He had enough of his own that followed that trail. "You know, basic stuff."
"A lot of those boxes were unmarked," she commented. "And I saw those crates in the hold."
Kyp sighed and leaned away. "Medical stuff for Cilghal. She's working on something new. I don't know what, and I'm not lying to you this time." He smiled faintly. "Lots of rations. The Jedi expect to be there a while. Some sensory equipment they're going to deploy at the entrances of the known paths inside the Maw, so they can keep an eye on their visitors. Cilghal and Danni are going to work out the technical details.
"Some of the big crates are weapons. Not just for the base, but for the ships, too. We're also carrying some building materials. I think they want to use the Maw permanently."
"You're just full of information tonight, aren't you?" But she gave him a small smile to soften the blow.
He lifted a brow. "Okay, Captain Solo, why don't you tell me how we're going to get there?"
"In this ship," she answered smugly.
Kyp rolled his eyes. "Jaina."
She said, "We'll drop out briefly in the middle of nowhere to make a course adjustment, then we're back in. We'll reach Kessel in three days. Shortest ETA to Jedi base is eighty-eight hours."
Kyp nodded slowly. "Kessel?"
"Yes. Easier to get an entrance that way. We can also use long-range scanners to scout Vong activity. Might be useful to know what they're doing there."
"You think they want the spice?" he asked quietly. Jaina heard the rest of his question: 'Think they're keeping slaves there?'
"Glit is a pleasure-inducer," Jaina said. "They don't like pleasure. More likely, they've destroyed the planet's installations and turned it into a factory for their skips."
"Yeah."
Jaina watched Kyp as he sank into thought. She knew what he was thinking about; their bond was weak, but she'd have to be pretty dense not to guess his thoughts and guess correctly.
Kyp Durron had been a slave in the spice mines of Kessel, harvesting the drug in the black caverns beneath the surface, facing the danger of the arachnid that spun the webs of glitterstim. Confined for some reason or another-her dad was never very specific when he told that part-Han and Chewbacca had been sent to the spice mines. There, the three had met up. Kyp had been sixteen at the time, and Han had taken a shining to the kid. Reminded him of himself at that age. Han Solo had been Kyp Durron's champion since then, sticking up for the younger man when no one else would, standing by him through all that happened.
'He's had a hard life,' her father would say. Jaina had lost count of the number of times he had.
'We've all had hard lives, Dad.'
When Kyp had turned, when he'd killed a star and a system with the Empire's greatest weapon, Han had brought him back. Had saved him from himself, and had set him back on the right path. Jaina knew about the debt Kyp owed her father and her uncle. It was common knowledge; everyone but Han and Luke believed that Kyp owed the Solo and Skywalker family more than his life.
When he spoke, she wasn't surprised at all to know what he was thinking about. "Sernpidal was no way to repay Han."
He fell silent again, and Jaina had lost her appetite. Sernpidal. She closed her eyes briefly. Chewie had died there. And Kyp had betrayed her there. She had thought for a while that nothing could be worse than that. Nothing could be worse than trusting someone, and getting others to trust the same someone even though they didn't, and finding out that he'd lied to you and manipulated you.
She was wrong. There were worse things.
With the intimate knowledge of those worse things, Jaina could look back on what he'd done with the benefit of hindsight and experience.
Jaina found her voice. "I understand why you did it, Kyp. Why you lied to me. Why you used me. Understanding doesn't make it hurt any less." Jaina looked him dead in the eye. "I was a child, Kyp. A child. I believed you, despite what everyone else said and thought. I gave you my trust. And you played with me. You made me believe you needed me. Made me believe you cared. And how did you return that trust? You could have canned my career, you know."
"I know." His voice was soft.
Jaina pressed on. "You would have. That one lie would have been the end of me if Wedge didn't hate you. But he blamed it all on you and downplayed my involvement. Wedge protected me. But he couldn't protect me from you.
"You got me, Kyp. And any way I look at it, any way I turn it over in my mind, it's betrayal."
"I know."
"For a while, it couldn't have been worse than if you'd turned me over to the Yuuzhan Vong."
"I know," he said again. Jaina noticed for the first time how sad Kyp's eyes looked. "But you weren't a child. And I did feel bad about it, Jaina, no matter what you think or how it looked. I regretted using you. I regretted lying to you. I regretted betraying you-yes, I did realize it was betrayal. Not just because of your father and uncle, either. Because of you."
"Don't toy with me, Kyp."
The dark-haired Jedi Master spread his arms wide. "Who's toying? I used you because I knew you could do it. And you did. No one else could have, Jaina. No one. But you did pay the price."
Kyp settled his arms at his sides and dropped his gaze. "I felt you at Froz. You got four, and there was nothing. You should have been..."
"Cluttering up the comm with my whoops of joy," she finished for him. "Sernpidal made me old, Kyp. After that, it was all just me trying to stay alive. Trying to win. I had nothing in me."
"I know." Kyp looked up at her. His eyes were hooded, but sincere. "I'm sorry. For all of it."
Jaina stared at him for several long moments. Time seemed to stand still. Then she replied softly, "Me, too."