Intelligence headquarters was anything but spectacular-looking on the outside. On the inside though, the place was amazing. I was led past offices and closed doors, and innumerous people passed us, walking in the other direction. Iella led me to a turbolift and hit one of the buttons. A few moments later, we were on another floor.
For lack of ability to see outside the building, I couldn't tell which floor we were on. Before I could ask, I was led into a room and heard the door swish shut behind me. A girl who looked as though she were three or four years older than me was sitting at one of the computer banks. Upon the door's release, she seemed looked up from her work and to Iella and me. I was led the few paces across the room to where the girl was swiveling her chair around to face us.
"How's it going?" Iella asked her. Apparently she was talking about whatever the other girl was doing on the computers.
She shrugged, looking over her shoulder at the screen for a moment. "I've got a few more to crack, but other than that I'm getting pretty bored with it."
"Well, you can quit for a while if you like." Iella nodded in apparent appreciation, then put a hand on my shoulder. "This is Adra Tallon. Adra, Tyria Tainer." Tyria offered her hand to me, which I took and shook. Iella, meanwhile, continued. "The information that turned up on Bastion City a week ago was from Adra." From Tyria's expression, I couldn't tell anything about what she was thinking. She looked me up and down once, then nodded, seeming to accept what Iella said.
"So you're a slicer as well then?" she asked me.
"Er, no, not really. I just got bored." It sounded lame, but it was the truth.
Iella's grip on my shoulder tightened a bit, but then she released it. "Tyria's the NRI's official head slicer, Adra," the director stated. "With the Temple's permission, we'd like you to come and work with her. What do you think?" She was looking at me with a blank expression, but I knew that a refusal to her offer would mean more to her than she let on.
Thinking about it for a moment, I managed a glance over Tyria's shoulder. The screen she was working on was entirely made up of numbers. Did I really want to turn myself into an Intelligence officer before I'd even become a Jedi? Some parts of me said yes, while the others detested the idea. I wanted to be a Jedi, and I wanted to be a pilot. If I joined Intel, could I ever do the other two without worrying over it interfering with one or both? With a sigh, I shook my head.
"I'm sorry, but I can't." I paused, cringing slightly as I saw the look in Iella's face. "I want to be a Jedi, and I want to be a pilot. I've been around Bastion's Imperial Intel enough to know that those who join thinking they'll be able to eventually pursue other dreams and ideas become so controlled by Intel that they can't. I honestly do want to be a slicer for the New Republic, but I want to be a pilot and a Jedi more." As I had been speaking, I watched Iella's face suddenly clear, and then brighten in a smile.
She and Tyria exchanged glances, and then Iella spoke once more. "Adra, if you wanted to become a pilot, all you'd have to do was tell me. Being married to Wedge Antilles, though difficult at times, has its advantages." I gaped at her, suddenly remembering that 'tiny' fact. This was Iella Wessiri Antilles, after all. Her husband was the head of New Republic Starfighter Command. And, after all, this wasn't the Empire in any way shape or form. This was the New Republic. While I was realizing this, Iella had continued on. "I'll make a deal with you, okay? Join Intel as a slicer for a while, then when you're old enough I'll have Wedge put you into a squadron's roster. The Wraiths will probably be ready for new officers by that time, considering they've got Tainer and Loran following them around and driving them farther into insanity than before." Tyria laughed at that comment. "Anyway, even if you became a pilot, you could still slice for the NR. And besides, it'll give you experience in the military, to some degree. You'll probably end up being sent on some kinds of missions later on down the road as it is should you have chosen to become strictly a Jedi."
Taking this all in, I nodded slowly. The idea had never occurred to me that joining Intel meant that you could do undercover operations, and the likes. Besides, if I did join, I could probably meet a whole bunch of pilots... I nodded again, more sure of myself this time and opened my mouth to speak.
Before I got one word out, the door behind our trio opened again, admitting someone new. I turned to see who it was and nearly jumped in shock. Two people had entered the room, both of them dark-haired, one of them with blue eyes, the other had green. The blue-eyed boy was in a jumpsuit, a flight officer's insignia over his name. The other boy was wearing an overly-bright neon green version of a flightsuit, which had a feather boa- red, of all heinous colors- sewn on as an overly-extravagant collar. He had dozens of obviously-plastic medals attached to the flightsuit under his flight officer's insignia. He had so many medals, in fact, that I couldn't make out the name directly under the insignia. On the elbows of his oddly- colored attire, there were black and white checkered squares to cover what might've been spots with holes. And for shoes, he wore a stormtrooper's pair of white plasteel boots. Something close to horrified disgust rooted itself in my mind.
As I had been studying the boy, I hardly noticed Tyria get up from her chair to hug the more normally-dressed one. Suddenly I noticed the may mouth was hanging open as I stared at the one dressed in green. Despite my instant feeling of dislike, he looked oddly familiar to. Perhaps he was one of the people I had noticed in Coruscant's crowded streets at one time or another, though she highly doubted I'd forget someone in neon colored clothes.
Upon closing my mouth, I looked away from him, and instead to Iella. Intelligence's director was smiling at the two older boys and Tyria, though she appeared to be laughing internally at the odd one's flightsuit. Not that I could blame her.
"Hullo madam director, Iella, ma'am!" The boy I'd labeled 'odd' grinned, almost saying the words in a sing-song fashion. Iella smiled at him, biting back obvious laughter. To me the flight officer was just becoming annoying, not something to be laughed at. But still, his face suddenly wasn't the only thing familiar to me. His voice struck a memory too... Tyria had returned to where I was standing, as I hadn't moved, and she quickly pulled me forward.
"This is my brother, Kell," she explained, stopping me in front of the blue-eyed one. I was turned were I stood by the older girl once again, and I was now looking at the green-eyed freak again. "And this-"
I interrupted her two words into her introduction, quite content to let myself get in my sarcasm quota for the day. "And this must be some green- eyed freak who thinks that the universe is a playground and has no sense of pride, which is easy enough to see by the fact that you're wearing plasteel medals." This I said straight to him, ignoring Kell and Tyria's sniggers. The boy's jovial expression turned to a thoughtful one, and then, to my immense disquiet, he bowed extravagantly.
"With pride." He came up from his bow and his smile was back. "And it's plain as day to see that someone was most definitely raised an Imperial," he continued, beginning in on what sounded like a mocking tone. "Since we've already established you don't like me by the way I dress, Madam Imperial, let me add to your list of dislikes. I'm Garik Loran, pleased to meet you."
He offered me his hand, though I was too stunned to bother taking it. The Face didn't appear surprised when I didn't shake his hand, though he was probably thinking that I was seething at him inside, rather than me truly being shocked and amazed and cursing myself in seven languages.
In a haze that was my own stupidity, Tyria nudged me with her elbow and leaned down slightly to fake-whisper in my ear. "This is the part where you're supposed to start talking in a breathless voice and then go 'Garik Loran? The Face? Oh I think I'm going to faint!'"
Her voice was exactly as she'd described to me, slightly higher and a bit breathless. And then the older girl seemed to sway on her feet, then fell backwards, her brother catching her.
I half-ignored this, going back to yelling at myself. How could I have been so stupid, anyway!? Somehow I'd recognized him in spite of the costume, but had refused to believe it was him when Kell and Face had entered. It was beyond stupid on my part, and it still didn't stop me from- very deep down- liking the older boy.
However, in the course of less than five minutes in talking to him, I'd already decided to myself that it would be more worth getting him back for his little monologue. Yes, 'The Face' Loran and his green flightsuit would very certainly be in for it when I got my hands on him.