Disclaimer: Still not mine. Although I will gladly wash Mr. Lucas' car if he'll sign the rights over to me.
Chapter 5:
"That… Isn't Coruscant," Gus pointed out as the starlines which surrounded the vehicle collapsed back into tiny pinpoints of light, a backdrop for a white, icy planet which hung lazily in the sky, like a pearl on black velvet.
"No, it's not." Kirney shook her head.
"I don't know if I was unclear about this, but I told you that I wanted to be transported to Coruscant, right?"
"Yes."
"So, what are we doing… wherever we are?"
"Making a pit stop."
"Hey, I'm paying you to take me to Coruscant, not to go sightseeing across the galaxy."
Kirney sighed, annoyed, "If I take you to Coruscant now, you'll be dead before the week's out."
"What?"
"Do you really think that they didn't get a trace on our jump back there?"
"I guess I didn't really think about…"
"They got a trace on our jump, going in exactly the opposite direction of Coruscant. So they'll have to follow us here or risk losing us. That gives us the upper hand. Here, at least, we can mount a good defense, and since nobody actually visits this ball of ice unless they're completely crazy, we'll know exactly when they're coming."
"Oh. Well, in that case, carry on." The diminutive Verpine nodded at her.
"Welcome to Hoth," she told him.
The four years of neglect since the battle of Hoth had done little damage to the remains of the old rebel outpost. No, from her cursory examination, it looked as though just about all the damage that had been done had been done by the battle itself. The blast doors had been blasted inwards, opening the giant hangar to the brutal, unforgiving cold. But at least they would be sheltered from the winds which whipped over the worn surface of the planet.
The Hope slid into the hangar bay, its repulsors humming as its wings folded to the vertical position. Kirney expertly pushed the large craft into the bay and allowed it to settle to the ground, as far towards the back of the bay as she could. It looked like the superstructure was largely intact. As if the Imperial navy hadn't seen destroying the base as being worth the trouble. She spun the craft around, pointing its large cannons at the gaping maw that had once been the hangar doors.
Myn had been remarkably silent during the transit to Hoth. He'd spent most of his time seated in the pilot's chair, watching the stars streak past the transparisteel canopy; watching the timer slowly count backwards to zero. He hadn't spoken more than a couple of words to her since he'd come to her cabin to ask what she had planned; and with the Sentinel's relatively slow hyperdrive, it had been nearly a six-hour transit.
That was a record, even for Myn.
She'd seen Myn withdraw into a shell from which no force in the universe could extricate him so many times during her time with the Wraiths, but this was different. It wasn't as if he was cutting himself off from those around him, it seemed more as if he was taking a step back, taking a moment to look at the situation from an arm's length. Like he was studying a work of art, or analyzing a preflight briefing.
His face was blank, but not because he had wiped all emotion off of it. She could tell when he did that. No, he seemed lost in thought. As if he had more important things on his mind than putting some expression on his face.
Gee, Kirney, got any more brilliant insights? Of course he had a lot on his mind. A little over a month ago, he'd learned that someone he'd cared about had been almost directly responsible for the slaughter of eleven of his squadmates; and had tried to kill her for it. A little over a week ago, he'd heard that she was killed, and justice had been served.
Last week, he'd received a message from her, telling her that she was alive and well on Corellia.
Yeah, he probably had quite a bit to think about.
But he was here, which to her thinking was a step in the right direction.
For the first time in weeks, she allowed herself to hope.
Never had Myn seen the biological differences between species so dramatically demonstrated. Givin are largely considered among the most resilient humanoid species in the known universe. Their planet had the most brutal tides in the Galaxy. So brutal, in fact, that the atmosphere itself was pulled away from the planet's surface, often leaving half of the planet exposed to the unforgiving vacuum of space. As such, they had evolved two separate mechanisms for survival. Their tough exoskeletons could be sealed against a vacuum for short periods, and they had developed a mathematical acuity which was second to none. They learned, through complex mathematical formalisms, to predict the tides of their planet with eerie accuracy. They were so good, in fact, that Givin routinely mined the bottom of the ocean during low tide. They were quite possibly the only mathocracy in the universe. The most prominent members of their society were the mathematicians. Whole religions on their planet were based upon mathematical formulae.
However, in spite of his ability to seal against a hard vacuum, the Givin child shivered uncontrollably in the cold.
The two verpine children, along with Gus had been heavily bundled up, and given special personal heating units, usually assigned to Imperial Snowtroopers. Verpine, cold blooded creatures, depended upon their environment to regulate their body temperature. They radiated no heat and therefore, a simple insulating jacket was completely useless to them.
The two human daughters and Minos fared a little better. They all wore heavy jackets, and seemed a little chilled, but still relatively comfortable.
The Wookie seemed to fare best of all. His (or was it a "her?" Myn wasn't exactly sure) long body fur seemed to provide ample protection against the cold. He (she?) wore no jacket, or, as far as Myn could tell, no clothing whatsoever. Regardless, she (he?) seemed quite comfortable. He (she) howled mournfully at his (her) mother, and somehow Myn doubted that he (she) was complaining about the cold.
Lara appeared at the top of the boarding ramp after everybody except for the two droids had disembarked.
"Okay, people," She started, "don't let yourselves think we're out of danger yet, because we're not."
She let that sink in for a moment.
"We managed to dodge a blaster bolt on Corellia, but I guarantee you that they got a fix on our jump vector and are on their way here as we speak. Some of you may have noticed that this isn't Coruscant. I brought you here because it's a relatively low-traffic area. Nobody comes here. So whoever comes after us has nowhere to hide."
"That gives us the advantage."
She paused for a moment, "I'll be honest: I don't like our chances. We're against someone who has the backing of an Imperial warlord; and who, right now, wants to see each and every one of us dead or captured more than anything in the galaxy. In three days, we'll either all be dead, or all be safe. Either way, this is the best chance you have."
"Minos, Gus, take the portable heaters through that door there," she nodded at a narrow doorway at the end of the hangar, "you'll find a small room off to the right about four meters down. Get your family in there and start up the heaters. They should be enough to warm up the room. Myn and I'll take the first watch, you can spell us off in eight hours. I recommend you spend those eight hours getting some sleep."
It took them about twenty minutes to get the heating units operational in the small quarters. Outside, just in front of the large landing craft, Myn had prepared a somewhat lower-technology heating unit. He'd lit a fire. It was a small fire, but it warmed up a small globe around them quite nicely. Kirney could remember her mother from so many lifetimes ago telling her a story about the foolish rebel who had built a big fire, and had had to stand far away and had frozen to death, when the imperial stormtrooper had built a small fire and had stayed warm through the night. She wasn't sure what brought that particular memory up in her mind at that moment. The fire was warm, and had the added advantage that she would have to sit right next to him in order to be warmed by it, and keep an eye on the gaping maw of the hangar bay.
Myn sat cross-legged on the cold metal floor. His sniper rifle (it seemed like he slept with the thing) lay an arm's length away. His well-trained eyes swept over the distant hangar bay doors, looking for any telltale sign of movement.
"You know, I've got Clink and Tonin plugged in to the Hope's sensors. They'll detect anyone approaching long before they reach the hangar doors."
Myn nodded, "how long do you think we have?"
"For them," there was no need to specify who they were, "to get a fix on our direction, gather a bunch of people with guns and no morals, get on a transport and come out here?"
Myn nodded.
"Subtracting the six hours we spent in hyperspace, as few as eight hours, as many as twenty-four. May I?" She gestured at the empty space on the floor next to him.
"It's a free galaxy."
She sat down, laying the blaster rifle in her hand on the ground, and inched her way forward, ostensibly to get closer to the fire.
A long, uncomfortable silence followed; broken, surprisingly enough, by Myn.
"Why are we here?"
"I told you, this is where we have the best chance to fight them off."
"You weren't hired to fight their battles for them. You were hired to transport them to Coruscant."
"I told you, they wouldn't stand a chance on Coruscant." She frowned. What was Myn getting at?
"So?"
"So!?" She practically spat the word back at him, "I, for one, have issues with sending six innocent people to their deaths."
Myn turned to look at her, almost quizzically.
"What," she demanded, incensed, "you think it's stupid of me to protect six people I barely know!?"
Myn shook his head, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "No, I don't," he replied, "but Gara would."
His words struck her dumb. There, in a nutshell was the gaping maw between them. Part of him would always see her as the woman who massacred his squad mates. She had tried so hard to kill that person in every way she could think of, but deep down she knew that Gara was never far below the surface.
Kirney had always prided herself on her independence. She liked the image of a "tough babe." She liked being the cool, calm one who would always be the one left standing after the echoes of blaster fire died down. She liked being able to take care of herself.
But right now, the one thing she wanted more than anything in the universe was to have Myn put his arms around her and tell her that everything would be alright.