Chapter Two – The Offer
Cloud Ritril smiled as he watched his daughter, Cerise, fiddle with the small hyperdrive unit he had salvaged from a beyond-repair X-Wing about ten years ago. The girl was definitely mechanically inclined. He glanced down at his wrist chrono: 1600. Tyria was supposed to have been back 24 hours ago. He'd give it another two hours before he'd comm Iella to ask where she was.
He looked up as Kell Tainer came into the room and picked Cerise up. "How's my favorite niece?"
Cerise giggled as he swung her around and then set her gently back down again.
Kell turned towards Cloud. "Is my sister back from Bastion yet?"
Cloud shook his head. "She was supposed to be back 24 hours ago. I'm going to ask Iella about it soon. She'd not normally late."
The big man nodded. "I know, especially if she's just been hacking. In fact, I-"
He was cut off as both his and Cloud's comlinks started to beep. They pulled them from their belts and answered them.
"Cloud, Kell, you both need to come over to Intelligence right away," Iella's voice came out. "It's about Tyria."
"What, has she sent a message?" Cloud asked.
There was a pause. "Not exactly."
Cloud cursed under his breath. "We're on our way. Ritril out." He shut his comlink off and picked Cerise up. He walked quickly to the lounge, dropped her off with one of her many "aunts," and then, simultaneously, both men broke into a run and sprinted down to the hanger bay.
Cloud started to go for his X-Wing, but Kell pulled him back and instead got into one of the landspeeders.
"X-Wings will take to long. Besides, I can get us both there faster."
Two minutes and twenty broken traffic rules later, Kell pulled up to the Intelligence Headquarters. Both Wraiths ran up the stairs to Iella's office, knocking over several people in the process. The pilots came to an abrupt halt as they almost ran headlong into Wedge Antilles. He held up a hand.
"Either of you have any explosives? If you do, give them to me right now. Oh, and blasters and lightsaber too."
Cloud's eyes narrowed but he did as ordered and beside him, Kell did the same. Satisfied, Wedge moved aside and let them pass. Iella sat in a chair behind her desk, head in her hands.
"Iella, where the hell is my wife?" Cloud demanded. As if in answer, the air above the holocomm behind them shimmered and resolved into the image of one Admiral Daala.
Cloud opened his mouth but Kell stepped forward and said something first. "Where the hell's my sister, Admiral?" he demanded.
"Right behind me, Tainer. Now I trust you won't be as rash as you were last time, Commander?"
Before either Wraith could respond, Wedge had placed restraining hands on either one of their shoulders and Iella had stood up to come help.
Daala's eyes narrowed. "Oh wonderful, now we're all one big happy family."
"Make your point, Daala," Wedge said, his tone dangerous.
Cloud tensed up. If the hologram had been real, his hands would be at her throat way before now.
"Same thing as before, Antilles. I get Cloud City, you get back your little hacker girl, Tainer gets back his sister, and," Her gaze turned towards Cloud, "Ritril gets back his wife."
Silently, Cloud begged Wedge to agree even though he never would.
Wedge shook his head. "Nope, no deal, Admiral Daala. But how about this one; we get Captain Ritril back and in return, you save yourself an ass whooping."
Her green eyes narrowed. "Don't toy with me, General. I believe I'm the one with the upper hand here. Tyria Tainer Ritril's caused the Empire problems. I could order her death without remorse any moment." She turned slightly and beckoned. Two young officers stepped forward, a struggling Tyria held between them. Her eyes glanced blankly at each of their faces for a moment before recognizing them.
Cloud took a step towards her, hand outstretched. "Tyria, what is she doing to you?" he half-whispered.
Her flightsuit was ripped, the sleeves were next to nonexistent, and her normally neatly tied back hair was in total disarray. But that wasn't by far the worst. She was now sporting a black eye, a large cut on her forehead, and more bruises and small cuts everywhere that he could see. The rest of her body probably sported similar bruises. He couldn't tell, but it looked like her hands had been stuncuffed behind her back.
"Say 'hello' dear. Say hello and goodbye," Daala said viciously.
"Hi Iella, Wedge. Kell, Cloud, don't-" she winced as one Imp tightened his grip on her arm. "do anything," she winced again, "stupid."
She looked straight at Cloud and her eyes softened. Cloud had long since learned to read Tyria's emotions from her eyes. As she mouthed "love you," to him, her eyes held a silent apology.
Before either one of the couple could say anything else, Daala roughly shoved Tyria back out of the holocomm's range.
"'Ria!" Cloud took another step forward and Iella pulled him back again.
"Now then, back to business. I have what you want and you have what I want. Think it over Antilles, I'll be in touch." With that, Daala broke the connection.
Kell and Cloud immediately cast around the room for their explosives, blasters, and in Cloud's case, lightsaber. Both men were headed towards the door when Wedge bellowed, "Attention!"
Out of reflex, both of them turned around and came to attention.
"Wedge, can you teach me how to bellow like that?" Iella asked her General husband.
Wedge nodded and turned back to the pilots. "Tainer, Ritril; sit." He nodded again as they sat. "I would've though that you'd figured out from last time, Kell, that going and blowing up the nearest Imperial stronghold does not help."
Kell cracked his knuckles. "How long has she been missing? What was the last time she checked in with Intelligence?"
Iella sank back into her desk chair. "Two days ago when she sent us the datapackage. She was supposed to stop on Kuat to refuel and then come right back to Coruscant. She disappeared en route from Bastion to Kuat."
Cloud's head shot up. "You mean you've know she was missing? You knew?"
"We only had suspicions Cloud, only suspicions."
He stood up abruptly. "Excuse me, I need to get back to base and try and find a way to explain to my children that their mother won't be coming back for a while and try to explain where she is."
Wedge nodded and handed the Wraiths back their stuff. As Cloud was leaving, he heard Kell ask Wedge, "Any chance that this is like the thing with Adra a couple of years ago, General?"
He heard Wedge sigh. "No, I'm sorry."
He clipped his lightsaber back to his belt and then stalked out of the Intelligence Headquarters, slamming the door behind him.
Demolitions Range first, or inform Kavin and Cerise first? There really wasn't much of a decision there; he'd better blow off some steam before he went near his children. He really didn't need to mentally scar them for life.