Back at the Coop, the three of us were questioned and requestioned about the fiasco on Ulasas. Ari lost his temper a couple of times; I was merely worried.
"I don't see how they could possibly blame us," Rix said anxiously.
"Don't worry, they don't," I reassured him. "Not you anyway, for you were kicking your heels back on Swift."
We were watching as a couple of astromech droids and technicians refuelled and checked over Swift. I sat on the landing ramp, swinging my feet. Rix was sprawled down the middle of it, chin on his fists.
"How come you're so good at everything, Keitin?" he asked admiringly. I nearly fell off the ramp.
"Oh, I'm not. Shamma-my grandmother-made me learn how to fly and shoot, and I can't do much else, really. I don't know what sort of job I would have got if there hadn't been a war on."
"Pilot," he suggested.
"Actually, I miss being planetside. The stars are very beautiful, but I want to feel grass under my feet and see mountains and blue water again. I'd probaby have been a middle-ranking ATT manager or engineer, and eventually have been married and had babies."
"How boring!"
I laughed. "Rix, haven't you learned the value of a quiet life yet? I wish I had had the opportunity to have one."
Ari appeared at the far side of the hangar. I wondered, if I had had my quiet life, would I still have loved him. Probably not, for he had worked on Coruscant. I could not imagine I would ever have had many suitors, with my dubious descent. However, I was an Avram, and that had once counted for something. I imagined Aunt Shosha and Aunt Talith trying to manage my love life, and grinned. Getting them to agree with each other would have been a major feat, let alone with Shamma or with me.
"Hey," Ari said, flopping down on the ramp beside Rix. "Apparently it has been decided that the total screw-up on Ulasas was in no way our fault, and we are completely exonerated of all blame."
"They never said 'total scew-up', Ari!" I exclaimed.
"No, but they said all the rest of it," he returned lazily.
"Vann Zeiss had a look at Swift's electronic log and he said you did great to get out of there at all," Rix told us. I grinned smugly, then remembered what it had actually been like under TIE fire, and how little room there had been for heroics. My grin faded.
"They're looking for more bodies for the Imperial raids, so I hear," Ari remarked after a brief silence. I sneezed twice.
"'Bodies' will be about right," I said. "I had actually rather be dead than in Imperial custody."
"I think most people would," Ari replied, shuddering. "Come to think of it, Keitin, we would be the logical choice for them-no families. It wouldn't surprise me if 'Grandfather' pulled in one of us."
Before he had finished speaking, I had decided with all the fervour of twenty that I would rather be dead than lose Ari.
"If he does, I'll go," I said quickly.
"Nah, why should you, you're younger."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
He shifted uneasily beneath my gaze.
"I honestly don't think you could cope, Keitin. I mean, emotionally, after-"
"Oh, don't you, Ari Oharran?"
I scrambled to my feet, not listening to the end of his sentence, and stamped off. I'll show him-not able to cope, indeed! I'll get killed, and then he will be sorry-it's all his fault!
I went straight to 'Grandfather' and put myself on his volunteer list. As soon as my fit of childish pique was over, I regretted it, queasy apprehensive fluttering in my stomach, but I had put my hand to this thing and I would not turn back.
It was two or three missions after that when the call came-a round of raids on Imperial property, to last six weeks or so. Now I was for it.
Thirdmonth 1103
I was dreaming again.. I saw the black-eyed boy I had killed on Ulasas, and a girl weeping over his body. I trembled, knowing that I was dreaming, but unable to wake. Suddenly, the jar of ion engines firing freed me from the dream. I sighed with relief, stretching. I lay on a narrow strip in the hold of a transport, along with the other members of the strike team for our latest raid. The shuttle, I worked out, must be braking from orbit around the planet of Mamrosp. Somewhere down there was the Imperial research and development facility we were going to raid, our target a series of high-tech communications equipment.
Our leader, codenamed Nek, was rousing the other team members. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, shaking my brain into alertness as we gathered around the holoprotector for a last briefing.
"The military are providing fighter cover for the transport. The fighters will attack the front part of the facility, here. They will attempt to knock out the shield generators, which will distract the guards from us. You will have to get in, break into this store on Level Two, open the magnetic shield from the inside and let the carrier in. Now, there has been a slight change of plan; you will now be dropped here. That's nearest to door three; who was on that one?"
I raised my hand, as did another member of the team I had been partnered with.
"We're counting on you to be the first in, then." Nek grinned. "Now get moving, and may the Force be with you!"
-~-~-~-~-
I ran over the door code, and my route in, for one last time. We were crouched on the slope beyond the facility, amid the brushwood and whispering grass. This vegetation was tall enough to cover our movements as we crept to our assigned positions.
"Fireworks should start around now," my partner, Peko, whispered to me. I stared down at the buildings, biting my nails; the bulk of the main facility outlined against the sky, the low outbuildings huddled round it, and between us and them, the faint shimmer of the energy barrier. As if on cue, I heard the low roar of snubfighters approaching through the atmosphere.
"This is it," I said. Our comms crackled.
"Barrier's down-we're in. Go go go!"
I was up and running, the grass breaking around my legs. It was downhill to the perimeter-a chain fence first, to stop passersby and stray livestock from blundering into the energy barrier and killing themselves. I trotted along it a few paces, looking for a foothold. I braced a foot against one of the supporting poles and grabbed the top rail-only to find that it rotated. My body swung against the fence.
"Stang!" I swore. Peko gave me a boost from behind, and I managed to haul myself up to perch on top of the post. The aeriel battle was raging fiercely, laserbolts flying, the air full of the smell of ionised gas. One of the X-wings had been hit, and was plunging to the ground. I hauled Peko up and dropped on the inside of the fence. We turned, pulled out our blaster pistols, vaulted the low grid that had generated the energy barrier, and ran.
My feet pounded on the duracrete, between two sheds, around a corner, along a low building marked 'Munitions Store'. I could see ahead of me an open yard, and on the other side of it our door. I put on an extra spurt of speed, not slackening even when I saw the two figures in black and white armour. I raised my blaster and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
My feet were still carrying me forward by their own momentum. The troopers were closer. One of them raised his rifle with a yell. I'm going to die, I thought clinically. But before he fired, a shor rang out from my right, and the trooper crumpled. His companion swung round, but before he could get a bead on my defender he also fell.
"Hey," Peko shouted, waving his blaster. "What d'you think you're playing at?!"
"My blaster's jammed!" I shouted. "Cover me!"
More Imperials were appearing from a gate on our right. Peko fired at them; I holstered my useless blaster and ran for the door. It was set in a small alcove, and we dived for its cover. Peko leaned against the jamb, picking off stormtroopers, as I flipped open the cover of the keypad.
"Hurry up!"
"I'm trying!" I retorted, my fingers flying over the keys. The door hissed open. I sighed with relief to see an empty corridor, and ducked inside. Peko backed in with a few parting shots.
"Blast the lock," I ordered, fumbling for my comlink. "Nek, this is Grasshopper. I'm in!"
"Great, now get that field open!"
"Yes, sir. Grasshopper out."
I pulled out my blaster again as we jogged down the corridor, wrestling with its catches.
"Got yourself a working weapon again yet?" Peko asked.
"Nope. Keep in front of me, and keep your blaster out."
I could have found the way in my sleep. Two rights, a left, another corridor. We met no one, probably because of the ongoing battle outside. The muffled sounds of it still filtered through to us, and sometimes the ground shook. Through a door and onto a catwalk crossing a floor full of machinery, yawning dark below us. I felt very exposed and vulnerable up on the naked catwalk, although I thought I had finally got my blaster unjammed.
"Keep your eyes open," Peko warned. The catwalk terminated at another door with its keypad.
"Holocam!" I hissed.
"Where?"
I pointed upwards; Peko blasted it, rousing the echoes. An alarm siren added its wail to the general clamour.
"I hope it wasn't active," I fretted. Our spies had not been able to discover the code for this door, but we had come prepared. I opened my belt pouches, pulled out a detonator and a small amount of plastic explosive. A hoverbot buzzed up, spinning and beeping.
"Error! Error! Security Level Gamma or above required to access this area!"
I fired. The droid crashed smoking against the wall and fell to the distant floor.
"Blaster's working again, then?" Peko said, packing the explosive against the lock. We activated the detonator and skipped back to a safe distance. It blew with a small crump, barely noticeable against the background noise. I ran back to the door and reached inside the smoking hole we had created, glad I was wearing my piloting gloves. I shorted out the wires, and the door opened.
"Woohoo!" Peko said, and we both grinned with our success.