Tahiri heard Rat scream out in surprise as the hatch closed but she had to get to the controls before she could go find out what was happening. Lucky the pilot had left all the controls on stand by, a clear violation of security protocol HB-097-78. Not that she was going to complain, it would save her precious minutes going thru the pre-flight check and warm up phases. Moreover, it didn't take some one with Rat's I.Q. to see that time was something she didn't have a lot of; on the scanners, she could see four X-wings, S-foils already locked into attack mode, flying towards them with the rest of the squadron launching from the nearby frigate. There were also a large number of ships launching from the planet and another body coming around from the far side of the planet.

"FAS!" Too many to fight even if she wanted to which she didn't want to. They all knew that the Wraiths had no choice but to limit the number of bodies they left in their wake. One day they would have to answer lot of questions about their activates during the past six months and wanted to leave bloodshed off the list as much as possible. Disengaging from the liner, she did the only thing she could do, set a course and ran. She didn't dare to lay in a hyperspace course until Rat had a chance to check out the system and make sure that the pilot hadn't done at least a partial HB-097-78.

Speaking of Rat, she though as the X-wings began firing range shots at her, what is taking her so long. Tahiri could hear sounds of the fight still going on in the next compartment. After looking over the scanner Tahiri decided, she could spear a couple seconds to go help her.

"Rat, will you quit playing around back there," she called over her shoulder as she locked in the autopilot. She got up from the pilot seat and headed aft, carrying the rifle in one hand and the amphistaff wrapped around her left arm. When she opened that hatch, she saw Rat to one side looking like she was getting the worst end of the deal and across from her was the dark skin Lt. Jillian, looking like she would enjoy nothing more then to spend the day beating on Rat. As she turned, Tahiri picked up the subtle shift in her weight that told her that the young lieutenant was about to attack her. Without a word, Tahiri shot her with a stun bolt, dropping her to the deck. "See, now was that so hard."

"Well sure I guess you could do it that way if you like taking all the fun out of getting beat up." Rat said picking herself up off the floor, groaning in pain.

"You just have to do everything the hard way don't you," Tahiri said with a smirk as she used her amphistaff to bind their attackers arms behind her back. The ship started to rock from the near misses. Standing the unconscious woman up so she could be carried into the bridge, Tahiri let all amusement drain from her expression and voice, "are you sure …"?

"I'm fine," Rat said helping her carry the woman forward, "nothing a few years sitting on a beach being waited on hand and foot by 50 young hot men won't fix."

"I bet you can't go longer then 10 minutes without thinking about guys can you." Tahiri said swaying with the shuttle as the range shot became more accurate.

"Gee wiz, get married and suddenly they think they own you," Rat shoot back as she sat down at the co-pilot's seat while Tahiri strapped the agent in the seat directly behind the pilot's station. "Besides one day you grow up and learn about the birds and the bees and then you will understand. Four X-wings still closing and another eight about five minutes away. The frigate is finishing its turn and will be here in about 17 minutes. We got three blast boats and 34 fighters heading up from the surface and from their primary moon, all marked as custom ships. They will be here in a half hour. Do you want to stick around and throw them a party?"

"This is X-Wing Squadron Bones to Shuttle, you are order to stand down and prepare to be boarded."

"Check everything out and lets burn jets." Tahiri said strapping herself in at the pilot station. She grabbed a headset, she scanned the comm channels listening to the chatter between the frigate and the planet but the fighters were taking in code. If Little Brother was here, he could break the code quickly enough but it would take her years.

"Course set, ma'am," Rat said.

"You check out everything, right?"

"Trust me."

"Because you know if what will happened if you forgot to by-pass," Tahiri said pushing the hyperspace control forward. The navigator computer started to smoke and hiss and the ship didn't go anywhere, "the security code HB-097-78 it will fry the navigation computer."

"The what?" Ratnena sat there with her jaw sitting in her lap; Tahiri would have found it funny if they haven't been in such trouble.

"HB-097-78 states that if you are boarding a vessel with hostile forces on board you are to rig the vessel so that it will become inoperable and escape is impossible." Tahiri grounded out as she sent the shuttle in an evasive pattern due to the increased fire coming from the fighters. "See if you can fix it!"

"Shuttle power down and prepare for boarding."

"You are in command Vong, why didn't you remind me!" Rat said as she removed the cover to the navigation computer and hyper drive controls.

"Oh sure now you say I am in charge; when Face told you that, you spend days arguing with me," Tahiri said spotting a way they might get out of this mess.

"Shuttle this is your last warning power down and prepare to surrender."

"He sounds cute," Rat commented as she pulled wires out of the hyperspace relays, "why couldn't we kidnap him instead of Miss Sunshine back there?" Rat got up and started rummaging through some of the storage compartments. "I mean at least he would be worth something to me when we get home."

"We can't take any one back to the base, the boss will have our heads," Tahiri setting a new course that would loop her around to her destination and increase the distantness between her and the local ships but gave the frigate's X-Wings a better shot at her. Win some you lose some. She thought as she listens to the increasing chatter between the frigate and the liner and planet.

"Shuttle if you don't power down we will destroy you."

"We're going to have to, she knew who I am," Rat said slamming doors, "where is that damn emergency repair kit?"

"What do you mean she knows you?"

"She knows who I am," Rat said with her head stuck in a storage bin, "she asked me how much it took to betray and kill the Wraiths. Ah found the kit." She started back forward and sat back down with a large bag in her lap. "Uh Vong we are we going?"

"Do you know her," Tahiri asked ignoring her question.

"No, never met her before," Rat said staring out the front view port. "Uh Vong do you …"

"Ok we'll take her back and let the rest decided. You better get that hyper drive fix thought." As the ship rocked from more near misses, Tahiri turned and looked at her partner who was staring outside, her face was pure white. "Don't worry I heard about this being done once."

"Who would be insane enough to hid in an asteroid field!"

"I'll tell Captain Solo you said that," Tahiri said with a grin, "relax and remember you always wanted me to take you somewhere fun."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kell watched the line of ships that landed and took off from the Teyr main spaceport; most of the traffic was out going. Even though Teyr was in the Colonies Region and was a very wealthy planet with a tourist industry that was tied in very closely with some natural landmarks, it was not a 'visitor friendly' planet. These people love rules and regulations the way most people like sweets. It would have not been his first choice as a place to meet up with Prankster and Peacekeeper but it was a short jump from Hershel and about half way through the liners schedule trip through the Colonies and Core regions. The plan was for them to come down with the rest of the tourist, when they got here tomorrow, and make their way to the Sweet Sunrises without drawing any attention to themselves.

Given the strict security measures here Tahiri had already been instructed to find a place to hid her skin, they came up with the idea of having it shipped to a neutral location, and her and Ratnena would both come down as women. They believe the special poach that Ratnena was wearing should get through security and well as Tahiri's amphistaff since they only do skin test on each visitor that arrives. To be on the safe side Road Kill and Little Brother will be in the area just incase they have any problems.

Until then Kell, Road Kill, Little Brother and Sparks had nothing to do but play the cargo crew relaxing until the next load was ready. It wasn't too bad, he had been working on the Sweet Sunset pretty much non-stop since they 'borrowed' it from the shipyard, but he wanted to get back to work. Even with Ratnena, the droids, and if Tahiri doesn't try to help, there was more work then there was time to do it all. Even as he sat there relaxing, he was trying to visualize how to get the droids to rewire fire control so it could be fired from the helm control.

"Uh major, we may have a small problem," Sparks said from the hatchway leading down to the main hold.

Kell turned from the view and saw not only Sparks but also Road Kill and Little Brother behind him.

"Right, let me guess Prankster and Peacekeeper?"

"Yes sir," Sparks said sitting down at the communication station and slipped in a data chip, "they were discovered by a undercover agent who was tailing Fusty. She had the captain call in for back up from the military. About two hours ago, they boarded the Hollow Nebula to arrest the spy and 'his' girlfriend. Prankster and Peacekeeper were able to over power a Jedi named Alema Rar and the guards plus the crew of the Nebula and steal the shuttle."

"Were they identified?"

"Not yet," he said hesitantly.

"What do you mean yet? They got away correct."

"Not entirely no," Road Kill said sitting down at the co-pilot's seat. "It seems that they were unable to go to hyperspace."

"But they hid in the asteroid field, um deep in a asteroid field. So deep they aren't really sure if they survived."

"They survived, Tahiri is a good enough pilot." Kell said swing back around, "but she really needs to stop listening to every Han Solo story he tells her. Little Brother, slice us some clearance. Sparks, send a quick note to the rest to stand by. Road Kill, plot a course then help me with the pre-flight. Once we are in space everyone help me come up way to save those two."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Which wire, the blue or orange/white one?" Tahiri asked from the crawl space under the deck. Ratnena really wished that she could squeeze under there herself; it was going slower then it needed to be. It wasn't Tahiri's fault really, she meant well, it was just that she couldn't fix anything and had to be talked thru it step by step. In addition, patients were not either one of their strong points. They had been snapping at each other since they started trying to repair the hyperspace navigation computer. "She is coming around again."

"Right, and cut the orange/white and slice it into the purple/green one." Ratnena said getting up and walking over to the prisoner. Ratnena shot her with a stun bolt as she opened her eyes. This was the third time since they started that Ratnena had to shoot her to keep her under control. "Did you get it done yet or you waiting for a special occasion?"

"Flight Officer Ratnena Bora …" and that was all that she understood the rest was a mixture of Yuuzhan Vong and Tusken Raider. Ratnena knew, in the back of her mind that pushing her right now wasn't the smartest move but she need to get rid of some of this tension within her. Ratnena knew she screwed up, she should check the systems like Tahiri had ordered but she figured she could squeak by just like everything else she does. "So if you are so mad at yourself why are you taking it out of me?"

"Stay out of my brain ma'am," Ratnena snapped back, "now take those two slices and plug it into port '0087'."

"I am not reading your mind," Tahiri snapped back, Ratnena heard a snap pop and Tahiri let out another curse, "and trust me right now I am a little too busy to waste my time reading that trash pile you call a brain."

"Hey, a lot of people would love to get a peek in there."

"I am getting more of a look in there then I really ever wanted," Tahiri snapped back sounding truly angrily for the first time since they met. "You screwed up, live with it. Quit taking it out on me and yourself, learn for your mistake and then move on."

"That is easy for you to say."

"You think that. That shows how much you really know. I plugged in, what is next."

"Take the connector A-23 and plug it into coupling A-67." Ratnena said getting up and sitting down at the control panel, she knew as soon as Tahiri finished because the power began to flow back into the control panel. "Look …"

"Stop that though right there," Tahiri said crawling back out of the crawlspace. Ratnena looked down at her and saw two of the fiercest green eyes she ever seen staring back at her. "You know what I have been through, what I have done and all the people who died because of my mistakes. It doesn't matter if it was 'Riina Kwaad' or 'Tahiri Veila' or I; we all have screwed up big time. The only way we could ever make up for those mistakes were to make damn sure they never happened again. We did that by first acknowledging that a mistake was made, learn how we did that mistake and then we had to forgive ourselves."

"It is not that easy …"

"You know what your problem is Rat? The same thing is always keep popping up and derailing you. You are so smart, such a high I.Q. that you don't think you can make a mistake that you can't screw up, because you know everything. So when you do screw up it throws you unbalanced, you start second guessing yourself some much and feeling like a failure. That is the mistake you keep making, guess what you are human and you will screw up! So you better wake up and smell the caf sweetheart because I never look down at anyone who screws up but I hate dealing with someone who refused to learn." Ratnena didn't say anything she just turned and looked back out at the asteroid that they had landed on to do the repairs. "I know you don't believe me but I am not mad at you for screwing up. I don't think you as a failure or thinking that you are less then I expect, you are my best friend and if there is anyone who I want to work with it is you and Little Brother. What I am mad at is the way you are sitting over there pouting because you screwed up, taking it out on me and even worst taking out on yourself."

Ratnena didn't say anything as she went through the test program to make sure the jury-rigging would hold long enough to get them somewhere safe. She didn't look down at Tahiri but she could guess she was sitting down there just waiting for some kind of answer.

"How?"

"How do you forgive yourself?"

"No, how can someone with a brain that has been through the blender be so right?"

"That because I am special."

"A special pain somewhere alright," Rat said with a small smile and looking down at the Vong who was sitting there with an innocent smile on her face and a gesture that proper ladies should never use. "So Vong we have hyperspace drive but we are still missing something."

"No we can't go back and get you a guy."

"I wasn't going to say that … well that would be second on the list," Ratnena said with a grin, "but I was thinking more in the way of how do we get out of the system. We have the drives working but the navigation computer is still blank. And while I may not be up to your level of piloting I do know jumping blind is almost as stupid as living with you."

"Trust me I'm going to leave that part as a surprise for you," Tahiri said leaning back with a large grin on her face.

"Oh a surprise, a Jedi surprise."

"Of course this is a standard Jedi rescue after all."

"Oh goodie, shall we shoot ourselves now or will wait for them to kill us." Before Tahiri could answer the comm board pinged, a message that came in on a Wraith frequency and in a code that Ratnena was familiar. "I don't believe it, was this your surprise?"

"What," Tahiri got up and lean across Ratnena to see the board.

"It is the Sweet Sunrise they just sent us their coordinates here in system."

"Well shoot that wasn't my surprise."

"Oh good that means we have a chance of surviving now."

"Hush," Tahiri said slapping her head lightly, " how well do you know this code?"

"Well I have read the code book more often then I seen you naked," Rat said innocently which got her another slap in the head.

"You have never seen me naked."

"I know, I mean we just been on our honeymoon …"

"RAT!"

"I can do this ma'am," Ratnena said in a serious tone. Tahiri watched her for less then a second then slapped her on the back.

"Send them our coordinates, tern 'No navigate' and our out bound course. And if you get me killed I will never speak to you again."

"That's it Vong, just keep temping me to screw up."