Jaina blinked at the ceiling a few times, not sure whether or not she should move. The contact made by Saba moments before had been broken, but it still comforted Jaina immensely. There was a fierce pounding in her forehead, and it hurt to breathe too deeply. She levered herself up onto her elbows but fell back again with a slight moan of pain. She heard footsteps as someone walked over to her, but they didn't come within the range of her peripheral vision. "It's about time you came around. We were starting to worry about you." Jaina's ears weren't working properly, and she couldn't even distinguish if the voice was male or female.
"Why does my head hurt so much?" she managed to groan.
"You took a nasty bump. I think you must have hit the console. You're lucky to still be in one piece from that crash."
"How long have I been out?"
"Around a standard week." Jaina let out another groan. "I need to get back to my unit," she said with as much urgency as she could manage.
"You won't be able to do that any time soon. You've got four broken ribs and a stress fracture in your arm."
"I've flown in pieces before; I can do it again."
"When you can't even sit up? No. Even if you got your ship running again, you'd pass out in space."
"My ship! How bad is the damage?"
"Well, I'm not much of a mechanic, but it doesn't look good."
Jaina struggled to look at the person. He wasn't much older than she was, with light blond hair and brown eyes. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Chev Kline. Any chance you'd be willing to tell who you are? We couldn't find any identification in your ship."
Jaina was a little startled at this. Her ship was still painted a signature white with a running voxyn on either side. She was under the impression that its appearance was somewhat well known, but it didn't matter. "Colonel Jaina Solo. I'm a pilot with the Twin Suns Squadron."
"I've heard of the Twin Suns. Weren't you in the defense of Borleias?"
"Yeah. Just out of curiosity, did you find an astromech near my crash site?"
"There was one nearby. It looked like it had been thrown clear by the collision. As I said, I'm not much of a mechanic, so I don't know if the damage is fixable. We brought it in anyway."
"Who is this 'we' you keep referring to? You most certainly are not multiple people."
"My parents and I."
"Oh. Well, where did you put the droid?"
"It's over there in the corner." Jaina glanced where he was pointing. It was a hard angle to cran her neck, but she immediately recognized the battered form of Cappie. She swung her feet off the bunk and tried to stand, but she fell to her knees with a painful gasp. "What do you think you're doing?" Chev demanded. "I told you, you have four ribs and an arm broken."
"So?" Jaina wheezed, crawling across the room towards her beat up R2 unit. "Get me a tool box." Though his expression said he was certain she was insane, he acquiesced without further question.
****************************
"Colonel Fel!" Jag turned in annoyance when he heard his name. He was eager to get under way. As soon as Luke had heard about Saba's discovery, the Jedi Master organized a team to fly back to Bakura to get the downed pilot. Jag and Kyp were going in small fighters; Mara and Jacen were coming in the _Jade Shadow_. The last thing Jag wanted right now was another delay.
"Yes, sir?" Jag asked, allowing a slight edge to creep into his voice as he faced his father.
"I hope this doesn't mean you're planning to go on this pointless mission."
"It's not pointless. Solo is a valuable pilot. And yes, I am going."
"I forbid it."
Jag drew himself up to his full height, now at eye level with Soontir. He met his father's glare with one of his own, one that was equally dangerous. When he spoke, his voice was low, cold, and threatening. "I am not a child. I am capable of making my own decisions, and I will except the consequences of my actions."
"Might I remind you, Colonel, that you are still under Chiss order and that I have the power to deny you permission to go?"
"I shall go anyway."
"You will not. I won't allow you to go running off after a Solo."
"I refuse to leave her there to die."
"Don't try to play hero."
"I'm not. I do not care about any recognition. All I want is to see this pilot safe again."
"Why is that?" Jag hesitated at that question. A wrong answer here and this conversation would take the same direction as the last he had with Wyn.
"Hey, Jag!" Kyp shouted across the hanger. "We need to get going. Are you coming or not?"
His resolve hardened. He faced the general once again. "If I may pose a question? If you knew Mother was in trouble, would you abandon her?"
"This has nothing to do with your mother."
"I know. But think about that question, and then maybe you'll understand. If you have any heart you will." With that he pulled on his helmet. Once more an anonymous pilot, he turned away from the general and clambered into his waiting ship.
Soontir made no move to stop him.
**********************
Chev watched on in interest as Jaina pieced together the damaged droid. It was only a matter of hours before the R2 unit tootled back to life again. During that time his parents returned. His mother had been a medic earlier in her life, and she proclaimed that Jaina would be as good as new in only a few weeks. The pilot growled angrily to herself at this declaration, insisting that she return to her unit within days lest they write her off as gone.
The day after she woke up, Chev took her over to see the crash site. It took just a few minutes of poking around in the engine compartments and by the hyperdrive for her to give up. "There's no way I can fix that. Not here in the middle of nowhere. Even if I had all the right parts it would take months. I would have to do complete overhauls of every system, and it would be easier just to get a new ship."
"Will you be able to send for a transport?"
"I hope so. Do you have a long range comm unit?"
"Not here, no. There's one in the city. It's a day's walk south of here."
"A day's walk?! Don't you have a speeder or something?"
"Sorry."
"Sith, I can't walk that far with three broken ribs. There has to be another way." She looked around the room carefully, though Chev didn't know what for. She sat cross-legged on a short footstool. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she didn't respond at all when he called her name.
About fifteen minutes later, from the next room over, Chev heard her stir. "What was that all about?" he asked curiously.
"I'm a Jedi, right? They've already sent people to come find me." To this, Chev only shook his head in complete confusion.
********************
Mara was deep in meditation when she felt the brush in her mind. At the time, she was sitting in the lounge of the _Jade Shadow_. Jacen, Kyp, and Jag had docked their ships and were arguing over a card game across the room. The feeling Mara got was more of a string of images than actual words, but she got the jist of it.
//Mara? Are you there?//
//Jaina?! Where are you? Are you still on Bakura?//
//Yes. My ship is down, and it's beyond repair. I am injured, but nothing too serious.//
//Thank goodness for that. Did you reach out to Saba? She found your presence yesterday.//
//Yeah, I felt her. Can you have Luke or General Antilles or someone send a transport for me? I'm a little stranded.//
//We're a step ahead of you already. I'm in hyperspace right now with Kyp, Jacen, and Jag.// When she mentioned Jag, Mara caught a slight mental blush from her niece, not to her surprise. //We'll be there tomorrow. Is there any chance you know the coordinates where you are?//
//Sorry. These people have almost made a conscious effort not to use technology. It's really getting on my nerves. Mara, I hit my head, and this conversation is really hurting.//
//Okay, go. I'll see you when we get there.// And the connection was broken.
Mara blinked a few times as the real world came back into focus. By this point, Jacen and Kyp had escalated the argument while Jag watched on, looking amused. All three jumped when she suddenly spoke aloud. "Jaina's hurt." They looked up, startled and not wanting to believe it. Jag's emotions rolled through the Force, despite his inability to use it, so hard that Mara had to pause. "She says it isn't serious, and that she's fine."
"Fine?" Jacen demanded. "My sister is lying on Bakura in pieces and she's _fine_?"
"That's what she said, kid. She'll be able to hang in there until we reach her."
"You had better be right," Jag growled.
"Why does my head hurt so much?" she managed to groan.
"You took a nasty bump. I think you must have hit the console. You're lucky to still be in one piece from that crash."
"How long have I been out?"
"Around a standard week." Jaina let out another groan. "I need to get back to my unit," she said with as much urgency as she could manage.
"You won't be able to do that any time soon. You've got four broken ribs and a stress fracture in your arm."
"I've flown in pieces before; I can do it again."
"When you can't even sit up? No. Even if you got your ship running again, you'd pass out in space."
"My ship! How bad is the damage?"
"Well, I'm not much of a mechanic, but it doesn't look good."
Jaina struggled to look at the person. He wasn't much older than she was, with light blond hair and brown eyes. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Chev Kline. Any chance you'd be willing to tell who you are? We couldn't find any identification in your ship."
Jaina was a little startled at this. Her ship was still painted a signature white with a running voxyn on either side. She was under the impression that its appearance was somewhat well known, but it didn't matter. "Colonel Jaina Solo. I'm a pilot with the Twin Suns Squadron."
"I've heard of the Twin Suns. Weren't you in the defense of Borleias?"
"Yeah. Just out of curiosity, did you find an astromech near my crash site?"
"There was one nearby. It looked like it had been thrown clear by the collision. As I said, I'm not much of a mechanic, so I don't know if the damage is fixable. We brought it in anyway."
"Who is this 'we' you keep referring to? You most certainly are not multiple people."
"My parents and I."
"Oh. Well, where did you put the droid?"
"It's over there in the corner." Jaina glanced where he was pointing. It was a hard angle to cran her neck, but she immediately recognized the battered form of Cappie. She swung her feet off the bunk and tried to stand, but she fell to her knees with a painful gasp. "What do you think you're doing?" Chev demanded. "I told you, you have four ribs and an arm broken."
"So?" Jaina wheezed, crawling across the room towards her beat up R2 unit. "Get me a tool box." Though his expression said he was certain she was insane, he acquiesced without further question.
****************************
"Colonel Fel!" Jag turned in annoyance when he heard his name. He was eager to get under way. As soon as Luke had heard about Saba's discovery, the Jedi Master organized a team to fly back to Bakura to get the downed pilot. Jag and Kyp were going in small fighters; Mara and Jacen were coming in the _Jade Shadow_. The last thing Jag wanted right now was another delay.
"Yes, sir?" Jag asked, allowing a slight edge to creep into his voice as he faced his father.
"I hope this doesn't mean you're planning to go on this pointless mission."
"It's not pointless. Solo is a valuable pilot. And yes, I am going."
"I forbid it."
Jag drew himself up to his full height, now at eye level with Soontir. He met his father's glare with one of his own, one that was equally dangerous. When he spoke, his voice was low, cold, and threatening. "I am not a child. I am capable of making my own decisions, and I will except the consequences of my actions."
"Might I remind you, Colonel, that you are still under Chiss order and that I have the power to deny you permission to go?"
"I shall go anyway."
"You will not. I won't allow you to go running off after a Solo."
"I refuse to leave her there to die."
"Don't try to play hero."
"I'm not. I do not care about any recognition. All I want is to see this pilot safe again."
"Why is that?" Jag hesitated at that question. A wrong answer here and this conversation would take the same direction as the last he had with Wyn.
"Hey, Jag!" Kyp shouted across the hanger. "We need to get going. Are you coming or not?"
His resolve hardened. He faced the general once again. "If I may pose a question? If you knew Mother was in trouble, would you abandon her?"
"This has nothing to do with your mother."
"I know. But think about that question, and then maybe you'll understand. If you have any heart you will." With that he pulled on his helmet. Once more an anonymous pilot, he turned away from the general and clambered into his waiting ship.
Soontir made no move to stop him.
**********************
Chev watched on in interest as Jaina pieced together the damaged droid. It was only a matter of hours before the R2 unit tootled back to life again. During that time his parents returned. His mother had been a medic earlier in her life, and she proclaimed that Jaina would be as good as new in only a few weeks. The pilot growled angrily to herself at this declaration, insisting that she return to her unit within days lest they write her off as gone.
The day after she woke up, Chev took her over to see the crash site. It took just a few minutes of poking around in the engine compartments and by the hyperdrive for her to give up. "There's no way I can fix that. Not here in the middle of nowhere. Even if I had all the right parts it would take months. I would have to do complete overhauls of every system, and it would be easier just to get a new ship."
"Will you be able to send for a transport?"
"I hope so. Do you have a long range comm unit?"
"Not here, no. There's one in the city. It's a day's walk south of here."
"A day's walk?! Don't you have a speeder or something?"
"Sorry."
"Sith, I can't walk that far with three broken ribs. There has to be another way." She looked around the room carefully, though Chev didn't know what for. She sat cross-legged on a short footstool. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she didn't respond at all when he called her name.
About fifteen minutes later, from the next room over, Chev heard her stir. "What was that all about?" he asked curiously.
"I'm a Jedi, right? They've already sent people to come find me." To this, Chev only shook his head in complete confusion.
********************
Mara was deep in meditation when she felt the brush in her mind. At the time, she was sitting in the lounge of the _Jade Shadow_. Jacen, Kyp, and Jag had docked their ships and were arguing over a card game across the room. The feeling Mara got was more of a string of images than actual words, but she got the jist of it.
//Mara? Are you there?//
//Jaina?! Where are you? Are you still on Bakura?//
//Yes. My ship is down, and it's beyond repair. I am injured, but nothing too serious.//
//Thank goodness for that. Did you reach out to Saba? She found your presence yesterday.//
//Yeah, I felt her. Can you have Luke or General Antilles or someone send a transport for me? I'm a little stranded.//
//We're a step ahead of you already. I'm in hyperspace right now with Kyp, Jacen, and Jag.// When she mentioned Jag, Mara caught a slight mental blush from her niece, not to her surprise. //We'll be there tomorrow. Is there any chance you know the coordinates where you are?//
//Sorry. These people have almost made a conscious effort not to use technology. It's really getting on my nerves. Mara, I hit my head, and this conversation is really hurting.//
//Okay, go. I'll see you when we get there.// And the connection was broken.
Mara blinked a few times as the real world came back into focus. By this point, Jacen and Kyp had escalated the argument while Jag watched on, looking amused. All three jumped when she suddenly spoke aloud. "Jaina's hurt." They looked up, startled and not wanting to believe it. Jag's emotions rolled through the Force, despite his inability to use it, so hard that Mara had to pause. "She says it isn't serious, and that she's fine."
"Fine?" Jacen demanded. "My sister is lying on Bakura in pieces and she's _fine_?"
"That's what she said, kid. She'll be able to hang in there until we reach her."
"You had better be right," Jag growled.