Ratnena and Sara walked into the briefing room together, but not together. Ever since that afternoon that Commander Loran and Major Tainer confronted Little Brother and her about their 'hobbies' during their last visit to the main base, Sara had been getting distant and closed up. Sara did not even crack a smile when she explained about the red bows. The only thing she said was she wished they had not done what they did to those two space slugs that they were not worth the risk of washing out. Little Brother had tried drawling her out of her shell too, with about as much success that she had. What really hurt was that Sara has not called her 'Rat' in five days. She did not even like that nickname! Really, who wants to be referred as a rodent? Why it should bother me that Sara is now using my full name, it fits her stupid down on the farm personality! It should not bother her, but it did bother her a lot. She had begun to see Sara as a little sister she always wanted, someone for her to torture and harass as her older brother did to her growing up. Now however she was reminding Ratnena of HIM!
Ratnena sat down on her right, not hoping Sara would talk or anything like that it was just habit. Just like when she sat near Sara during the morning meal and during exercise period, did not mean a thing just habit.
"Ok we are at the half way point people," Commander Loran said walking into the briefing room without any fan fare; the other senior members had been standing up on the main stage. "We should have only three more months to go before we are done. As you notice, we had another round of washouts during the weekend. That means there are only 14 of you left; I am hoping that we will not lose anymore. I had planned to have at least 24 out of the hundred we started with but you know how long plans can last. You 14 are the best we have so far, you made it further then the rest, no matter what happens after today this is something that you should be proud of for so many didn't even get this far." He stopped and scanned the room. "We set up phase 1 to make you fail. We wanted to see what you had inside you, we know now. Each of you took the challenge head on, met it and conquered it. We know that barring any unforeseen problems the chances are very good you will be Wraiths soon. Just don't get sloppy or lazy, we know how high you can reach, we expect you to keep working on climbing higher."
"From on now we will dispense with décor, we will issue Squadron positions and call signs, you may address by our call signs also. I am known as Poster Boy, Tainer is 'Explosion Boy', Shalla is 'Warrior Girl', Drayson is 'Circuitry Girl', Piggy is 'Droid Boy, Elessar is 'Charm Boy, Baljos is 'Science Boy' and of course you all remember our ever polite and helpful quartermaster Squeaky is known as 'Junk Pile'." Loran had to stop as a round of laughter went around the room. Ratnena knew why, helpful and polite were not exactly how she would describe but junk pile sure fit. She looked over at Sara with a grin, Sara however never looked at her nor was she smiling.
What is wrong with this kid?
"So let's start with you guys; Captain Mantic you are Wraith One, code name Demolitions." Ratnena had talked to him a few times he followed the same path that Explosion Boy had, he started out in commandos then transferred to pilots school after completing a couple tours as a commandos. He was also older then the rest of them, he was nearly 32; he started out in the enlisted ranks working his way up the ladder. He was also, as far as she can tell, the one with the most combat experience.
"And as Wraith Two is Flight Officer Elytra, code name 'Numbers'." Elytra is a 25-year-old Twi'lek female who had been an accountant before joining the military. She was also sweet on Mantic. Ratnena briefly wonder if Loran was aware of their mutual interest. She let out a small snort; of course, he does, nothing gets by him.
"Wraith Three is Flight Officer Gerta, code name Doc; I know hardly original but accurate." He said through the laughter. Gerta was a human male who was also a medic and had been in medical school before his home world had been over run by the Vong early in the war. She never heard why he chose fighters instead of returning to medical studies after joining the military but she could make a good guess; revenge was a powerful motivator. "And his wing man is Wraith Four, Flight Officer Ta'lye or as she will be known as 'Lucky'." Even Sara cracked a smile at the call name. Ta'lye was a early 20's Bothan female who was a slicer almost as good as Ratnena, a good pilot who was one kill away from being a ace, very quick thinker, very witty to talk to and she was a walking accident waiting to happen. Ta'lye had spent more time with Charm Boy and Gerta care then she did training. "I figured she shouldn't be to far away from her best friend."
"As long as she walks in front of me and no one lets her carry the explosives." Gerta said deadpan, but let out a smile when he saw her lean forward and stick her tongue out at him.
"Wraith Five and Six are Lt. Deloni and Flight Officer Saint; Deloni is our back up explosive expert and will be called 'Boom-boom'; while Saint will be 'Long shot'." Long shot had nothing to do with his gambling skills, which Ratnena had cleaned his clock one-night playing cards, but he was the best shot in the squad; even better then Sara who was the next best. "The next contestant is Lt. Hall as Wraith 7, she used to be a actual intelligent analyst, I thought it might be nice to have someone in her that actually knew what she was doing. Her call sign is 'Road Kill'; she picked it I did not so you have to ask her. Wraith 8 is our communication expert and will go by Sparks, Flight Officer Alpha tells me it is a long honor tradition in the communication field and so we will honor it."
"Wraith 9 is our supply officer when you are in the field away from Junk Pile; Flight Officer Ruler is a.k.a. 'Scavenger' with his wingman is Flight Officer Talnir; she is our computer expert with more learning towards droids, we will call her 'Bit'. Wraith 11 is Lt. Kertic, he is our weapons expert and called 'Sure Shot', his wingman is Flight Officer Fruge, she is our back up medic and supply person, we will call her 'Angle'."
"And rounding out the cast is Flight Officer Bora; her skills are in computers, mechanic, kitchen helper, great janitor, and wearer of red bows," he had to stop as the room burst in to laugher, "and being a general pain in the rear. The senior staff and I reviewed your choice of call signs, while we give you points on creativity; we just do not think 'Beautiful Princess and Glorious Ruler of the Galaxy' quite fit your personality."
Sara gave her a look that suggested that she was insane; Ratnena just stuck her tongue out at Sara, which did win her a small smile.
"Can you guess at the name we picked for you?" Explosion Boy asked while the room was laughing.
"I guess I can live with "Glorious Leader, sir," she said with a airy royal accent.
"Guess again ole girl with kitchen duty in her future again." Poster Boy said, "No, we all put our heads together and, well we picked 'Prankster'."
"I still say 'Red Bow' would be better." Science Boy said in the laugher.
"Last but not least, is Wraith 14. Her call sign is … "he stopped and looked down at his pad, "well for those of you who don't much about her let me give you a complete history. However, what I am about to tell you is classified information and will not be discussed with anyone out side this squadron without my direct order. Circuitry Girl if you would please."
"If you have any recorders or data pads or comm, equipment I suggest you take them out of the room now. We will wait." She said holding up a piece of equipment Ratnena never seen before. "This device will fry them complete, so please take a minute to deposit them out side."
Explosion Boy and Charm Boy gathered up the entire electronic devices on the stage and carried them out of the room. All the Wraiths were quickly following suit, as Ratnena removed her equipment she glanced over at Sara, wondering what was so important about her roommate that required this action. Sara was staring straight ahead and outwardly calm but Ratnena had been around her long enough to tell that she was as tense as she ever seen her. She was not even this tense around Starred. After everyone had returned to his or her seats and they got one last chance to save their gear, Circuitry Girl set the device on the ground and with a long insulated rod hit the control. Ratnena felt the hairs on her body stand on end, as if she was passing through a live current.
"Very well, first let me say Wraith 14 was allowed to join the Wraiths after and only if she agreed to certain conditions so if you have any problems with that you may come see me, not her. To tell you the truth I got the feeling lately she has had a lot of problems maintaining her cover story around you all, since you are all supposed to trust each other. I would like you to meet Tahiri, fighter pilot, spy, Yuuzhan Vong warrior and Jedi Knight."
Tahiri could hear a pin drop in the room, since Ratnena and her always sat in the back row alone, the rest of the trainees had to turn in their seats to look at her. Most of their faces were a mask of confusion and disbelieve. Doc was looking thoughtful as if was reviewing some information in his head and while Long Shot was looking very pleased. She cautiously looked over at her friend, or at least was her friend, who was radiating anger and confusion like a giant red star.
"You are a Jedi Knight." She asked, "we known each other for three months and you … here I thought you were this naïve, stupid, fresh off the farm, who needed her hand held while going to the refresher, never been around civilization little girl and you are a Jedi Knight! And you never told me!"
"She was under my direct orders Bora," Face snapped out, making his voice sound like a whiplash. Tahiri hardly hear him, her heart was already sinking past her waist and she tried to keep the dismay from showing on her face. She could not stand to watch how her only true friend was reacting to the news but she refused to show it. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"Yes!" she stared at Tahiri as if seeing her for the first time; "I mean do realize what kind of fun we could have had with those two before they got arrested! I mean what Little Brother and I did …", she stopped suddenly and for her a real rare blush. Her brain finial got up with her mouth, realized what she was admitting to, and now dug her self a rather large hole. Tahiri favored her with a raised eyebrow, the Jedi stare and a small smile as Rat squirmed in her seat. "I mean if … not that I would … I mean Little Brother and I could never … um I am just going to shut up now." She finished lamely and sinking it too her chair.
"Can you guess what else you will be doing?" Explosion Boy said over the rather loud laugher that had erupted in the room, Tahiri could even see the senior members having a hard time not laughing.
"I'll be in the mess hall for kitchen duty sir," she answered sinking even lower in her seat. Tahiri gave her a slight push on the shoulder; this Ratnena answered by a glare with her tongue sticking out.
"We should called you 'Mind Reader' Bora," Poster Boy said.
"You are the one the Shamed called 'The Jedi that was shaped'." Doc said, looking at her as if she was under a microscope.
"Yes," she answered simply.
"I have some questions I would love to ask you! Like the genetic make up of your cells now compared to …"
"I let her answer your questions after the briefing Doc, but we need to discuss some things first." Doc nodded in his agreement while Long Shot was still staring at her, happily if she was reading him right. Face noticed his attention also. "Is there a problem Long Shot?"
"Not now sir, I'm just glad we have a Jedi in our group! I mean what could possibly stop us now, hardly anything goes wrong with them around!" He answered honestly.
"You never worked with Jedi before, I can tell." Explosion Boy said as the room broke into laughter again. Tahiri flashed him a very human gesture and smiling sweetly. This produced more laughs, especially since she normally does not act in that manner. Tahiri was feeling very good, the atmosphere in the room was light and cheerful, not the anger and hostile like she imagined.
"Ok everyone, there is a very good reason why we are telling you this, since we had not planned to tell you until we were complete with training. Well you are now done and it is all Prankster fault." Everyone, except Face and Kell, looked around in surprise.
"My Fault!" She screamed sitting up straight in her seat.
"When Starred and High were arrested we had all the gear packed up and shipped to the main brig as is standard procedure. That would have been the end of the story except right after that Tahiri began to get very moody, even moodier then normal for her. So I called Little Brother in my office to see if he might know what was going on in side that Yuuzhan Vong organ she calls a brain. When he rolled in, he detected a 'bug' in my office. For those who do not know Little Brother he is not a normal R2 Unit, he is programming with the normal astromach duties as well as some special intelligent gathering and slicing programs. He also has a program to detect listening and tracking devices. We do regular sweeps of the area and determined only two recruits had been in the room between the last sweep and Little Brother discovery."
"Starred and High," Tahiri said as pieces of the puzzle started dropping into place. That would explain her reaction to him, as if he was attacking her.
"Correct. This morning I got a call from the Colonel in charge of the M.P.s' here on Borleias. It seems that both High and Starred dies last night, in their cells, of sever hemorrhage and burst blood vessels in the brain."
"They both had strokes at the same time, that is impossible?" Doc said loudly. "I don't believe it either," Science Boy, said facing Poster Boy, "the odds of that happing are too high to even bother with."
"Unless they were both encouraged to have the strokes, is that what you are thinking?" Charm Boy asked.
"I betting everything that who ever sent them here to spy arranged their release from jail. This was the first attempt to bug any place in the base since you all got here and it did occur right after that incident between Tahiri and Starred. Therefore, I am guessing that they were responsible since Starred was in my office alone while Explosion Boy was briefing me. I just don't know how they could have both died at the same time or why."
"Have they performed a autopsy yet?" Doc asked.
"No, I contacted General Sinclair and asked him to isolate the bodies till we get there. But before I send up a team I want some ideas on what it could have been that killed them." He looked at the three medical people, "can any of you think of any thing that could cause this?"
All three were silent for a minute but in the end, each looked at Poster Boy with troubled eyes.
"I will have to look at the bodies and run some test but nothing sticks out right now."
Poster Boy nodded his head and then addressed Tahiri.
"Lets assume it is the Peace Brigade at work here, with the help of the Yuuzhan Vong. Could the Shapers have given them something to kill them?"
"It is possible but I was thinking of something else, remember Tarc from the last time we were all here?" She asked reliving some sad memories, as her Tarc, who was only 12 at the time, had to relive a mistake everyday of his life. He allowed Senator Shesh, who died after the Fall of Coruscant, to change his appearance in exchange for his family getting passage off Coruscant when the Yuuzhan Vong attacked. She had him changed to look like a 12 year old Anakin Solo. Tahiri never heard if he found his family or not, but he had to live looking in the mirror everyday and seeing a stranger staring back at him.
"Yes I do," Face, answered sympatric knowing how she felt about the whole thing.
"The guy who sort of adopted him, he was under conditioning to spy for the Yuuzhan Vong while he was here. If he didn't do as he was told he would get headaches and he almost died from brain hemorrhage when he refused to assist them in capturing Colonel Solo."
"Yes, I remember him very well," Piggy answered, "also he passed all the security checks since it was implanted in his mind by force not by drugs or coral seeds. He could act normal because to all physical signs he was. The brain impulses only activated when he felt guilt for not completing his assignment."
"Yes, plus it would leave not trace in the blood system since the conditioning is actually causing the body to 'self-destruct' if you will." Tahiri added.
"Won't that make it harder to determined how they died?" Demolition asked.
"Not really," Charm boy answered, "it just gives us avenue to check if we don't find anything."
"Besides we might find out that it is nothing more then poison," Road Kill said then gave Tahiri a hard stare, "but that would leave the question, why were they sent here. To get a list of all of us or just you and if it is just for you then who had access to you coming here. I am taking from the security around your identity, you're being here is not common knowledge."
"It is not, the Jedi High Council are the only ones' who have knowledge of her being here." Poster Boy answered, "that is all that should know. See those two spies represent the whole reason we recruited you people. Somewhere there is a leak or a mole that is passing on information to smugglers groups, pirate groups and Peace Brigade since we have lost over a hundred agents since the end of the war. And it is not simple luck either, all the agents had deep covers and in position to keep us abreast of the their actions. Maybe the Peace Brigade could weed out a few but some of those pirate gangs could not find a Wookie at an Ewok family reunion. Our mission is to find the mole or leak and silence it anyway we can."
"So that leaves them here to get Sara … err mean Tahiri," Rat said, Tahiri could tell by her face she was thinking hard.
"Not necessary, they would love to have a list of us." Road Kill remarked, "No offense Tahiri but why waste the man power to track down one Jedi?"
"Well except if the mole is a good as Poster Boy says he or she or it is, they could get the list anytime they want but I am assuming even if we know who Sara is, the records would still show her as 'Sara Sandblaster' the annoying easily to embarrassed farm girl."
"You assume right Prankster, nice to see you are using that head for something other then to find ways to get me waken up on my leave." Explosion Boy said. "Actually for the record she is flying around the Unknown Region right now in her freighter with Little Brother."
"I am not a super genius or anything like Prankster or an analyst like Road Kill but should not we focus on who they really were and how they died, from that we may be able to determined why they were here." Angel interjected. "How they died could give us clues who they work for."
"True, ok we are dividing up in teams; Charm Boy, Science Boy, Doc and Tahiri will go and examine the bodies. Tahiri will use her unique Force awareness to help the medics' figure out how they died. Demolition, Numbers, Bit and Circuitry Girl; I want you guys to check our files here then go up to the main base and check their copies. I want to know any anomies in those twos' files that I missed when I screened them and I want any anomies in the rest if ours found also. Droid Boy and Lucky; I want you to take Little Brother and do a complete sweep of the entire base. Long Shot, Sure Shot, and Scavenger and Warrior Girl; I want you guys to examine the security here, change what is need. Boom-Boom, Explosion Boy, Road Kill and I will go through their gear at the base storage. Check it out see what surprises they might have left behind. Sparks, I want you to stay here and go through our communication equipment make sure they are secure. Junk Pile is waiting out front with hold out blasters and virob-knives for you; you are not to go unarmed until we know what we are up against here. Tahiri, is there anyway to hid your light saber on you?"
"I never had to hide my light saber before." She answered honestly.
"Sir, she is small enough we could give her a jacket with a pocket sewn inside to hold it." Scavenger suggested.
"Get with Junk Pile after this meeting, any more questions."
"Yes sir, what do we call Sara … I mean Tahiri, sorry going to take some time to get use to that." Rat said sheepishly. "Since you called her the Vong warrior …"
"Yuuzhan Vong." Tahiri said without thinking.
"Uh?"
"Sorry, it is proper to address them as Yuuzhan Vong, to call them just 'Vong' is a insult."
"It is?"
"Yes, you are saying that they are not worthy to be known by the gods." Tahiri could see, out of the corner of her eye, that the older Wraiths and a few of the new ones were getting amused; she wondered what she was setting her self up for now.
"Oh I did not know that." She said innocently, "thank you for clearing that up for me."
"You are welcome."
"So are we going to call her Vong Girl?" Rat asked Poster Boy, with that annoying sweet voice of hers. There was a new round of laughter going around the room.
"I am going to hurt you Rat." Tahiri said to her friend and was rewarded with a 'who me' look.
"We are not going to call her that, for one thing it is a dead give away as to who she is." Face said with a smile, "Plus I don't want her to go around breaking any one in half for insulting her. No, we will play safe for now, her call sign is 'Peacekeeper'."
Author's note, Just want to thank everyone for reading these stories and the reviews … below are a list of all the Wraiths
Loran, Garik 'Face'; Leader, code name 'Poster Boy'
Tainer, Kell; Major, code name 'Explosion Boy'
Piggy, Major; code name 'Droid Boy'
Nelprin, Shalla; Major, code name 'Warrior Girl'
Targon, Elassar; Doctor, code name 'Charm Boy'
Drayson, Behinda; Major, code name 'Circuitry Girl'
Arnjak, Beljos; Major, code name 'Science Boy'
Squeaky; code name 'Junk Pile'
Mantic; Captain W-1, code name 'Demolitions'
Elytra; Flight Officer W-2, code name 'Numbers'
Gerta; Flight Officer W-3, code name 'Doc'
Ta'lye; Flight Officer W-4, code name 'Lucky'
Deloni; Lt. W-5, code name 'Boom-boom'
Saint; Flight Officer W-6, code name 'Long shot'
Hall; Lt. W-7, code name 'Road Kill'
Alpha; Flight Officer W-8, code name 'Sparks'
Ruler; Flight Officer W-9, code name 'Scavenger'
Talnir; Flight Officer W-10, code name 'Bit'
Kertic; Lt. W-11, code name 'Sure shot'
Fruge; Flight Officer W-12, code name 'Angel'
Bora; Flight Officer W-13, Code name 'Prankster'
Tahiri; Jedi Knight/Yuuzhan Vong Warrior Flight Officer W-14, code name "Peacekeeper'