Title: A New Path
Summary: Tycho Celchu's journey from the Empire to the Alliance.
Disclaimer: Star Wars is, quite clearly, not mine, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is not written for profit.
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Chapter 18: Easy
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Daxon glanced at Jesina, and then at the other two agents assigned to Rothana. Trying to make himself comfortable in the hard-backed chair he'd made the mistake of taking when Trae and his partner, Lanara Tierk, had arrived at the rented apartment he and Jesina were sharing, he asked, "I take it you know who the defector is?"
Lanara tossed her head, reminding Jesina of the character – she refused to think of the role she'd been playing as an identity – Ilina that Cracken had created for her. She almost told the other woman she could stop acting now, but remembered just in time that she was the one who'd been acting. "Of course we do. Who do you think communicated the information to General Cracken?"
Trae, his back to his partner, rolled his eyes and Jesina couldn't help but ask herself just what, exactly, this woman was doing with Intelligence. A subtle glance at Daxon told her that he was wondering the same thing. Rolling his eyes once more, Trae hit a couple of keys on his datapad. "I've just transmitted to you everything we know about her." He gave up on his chair – identical to Daxon's – and moved to the floor, stretching his legs out in front of him. "If you'll open it, we'll get started."
"Her name is Kalix Teshi. She works here with her husband. They came together from Imperial Center almost five years ago – which is where they lived all their lives prior. He's a die-hard Imperial. She, obviously, is not."
"We never would have found her," Daxon muttered, and Jesina nodded her agreement.
"What are their positions here?" she asked, carefully directing her question to Trae rather than Lanara.
"He's an engineer. She's a physicist by trade – specializes in astronavigation and gravitonics."
"Gravitonics?" Jesina asked.
"Melding technology and gravity," Trae explained.
"Do you know what information she plans on bringing over?" Daxon asked.
Trae opened his mouth but Lanara spoke first. "We can only surmise that it's in some way related to her research," she said in bored voice.
Yes, Jesina thought to herself. Because we couldn't have figured that much out without your invaluable assistance. Aloud she asked, letting annoyance creep into her voice, "Do we know what, specifically, she's researching?"
"She's head of a gravitonics project right now," Trae answered quickly. He could see that Jesina's patience was wearing thin. Truth told, so was his, as he wondered for the thousandth time which of the many Gods in the galaxy he'd angered to get stuck with Lanara. "Something to do with vehicular manipulation of gravity, but that's all I know."
"All right." Jesina thought for a moment. "You said she and her husband work together here?" When he nodded, she went on to ask, "Is there any point during the day when we know for sure that they'll be apart? Any specific time, for example, when she's scheduled in the lab and he's supposed to be on the floor in engineering?"
"Not for certain," Trae answered.
"No matter," Lanara put in. "I can get close enough to her at some point during the day when she is alone and arrange a time for her to slip away and meet us somewhere."
"Then you can let me know," Trae pointed at her. "And I'll pass it on to you," he finished, turning to Jesina.
"That'll leave arranging transportation to me," Daxon said, standing up and stretching for a moment. "Once I know what time." He paused. "Speaking of, how are we going to get off this rock? We need an excuse to leave, and a way to do it."
"The excuse will be easy," Trae said. "We can fake a holo-call that you have a family emergency – initiate it here and reroute it trough various satellites so it looks like it's coming from off-planet, in case anyone takes an interest."
"You have the equipment here to do that?"
He nodded. "The same equipment we've used to communicate with Cracken. It won't take long, either. I set it up tomorrow morning and you can receive the call tomorrow, early afternoon. Then you let people know in advance that you'll be leaving the next day. It'll make it that much more believable if you give advance notice."
"And how do we actually leave?" Daxon asked, beginning to pace around the room behind her.
"We could always rent a vehicle," Jesina suggested. "We have the excuse. It won't be armed, though."
"And neither of you are supposed to be able to fly," Lanara pointed out. "Correct?" she asked snidely.
Jesina muttered a few choice words under her breath, annoyed that she'd caught her on something. She chewed her lip for a moment. "I know what we can do."
"Do tell," Lanara remarked, just a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Jesina willed herself to relax. Force, she couldn't stand this woman. An hour in her company – less than an hour, really – and she wanted to shoot herself. "I was about to," she hissed through gritted teeth. Daxon stopped his pacing for a moment, resting his hands on her shoulders. She leaned back slightly as he kneaded her tense shoulders.
"That project she's working on? Well, I've just taken an interest in it."
"It's top secret, even over your head," the most aggravating woman on Rothana protested.
"Well," Jesina began, putting on her best Ilina voice, "I don't particularly care. I want to know about it anyway. And I demand that she meet with me."
Daxon snickered and Trae laughed outright. Lanara just looked annoyed at all of them and Jesina thanked the Force for small favors. "Anyway," she said after a moment, bringing them back on track and looking at Trae, "arrange a meeting between us in my office in the morning before we leave. Make it early, so there won't be too many people here. But not so early that it'll raise suspicion." She glanced at Lanara. "You'll have to tell her sometime relatively early tomorrow to be ready. I'd like to be able to give her more time to prepare, but once we make contact with her we'll have to move quickly. The longer we wait after first contact, the higher our risk."
"Engineering comes in at 0700, and so do the researchers," Lanara supplied. "I'll talk to her then. And we can arrange the meeting for not long after that."
Jesina was shocked into momentary silence at the fact that Lanara had actually proven useful. After she'd recovered she said, "Make it 0730, and we should plan on leaving by 0900. We'll disguise her – I can bring in makeup, hair coloring and other supplies with me. She'll pretend to be our pilot when we head to the rental hangar." She sighed. "From there on, we pray."
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Rumors were flying through the squadron at light speed about what Narra had said to Janson and what – if anything – was going to happen to him. Tycho had heard everything from "It was just a reprimand" or "He's getting demoted" to "He's getting kicked out of the squadron" and "He's being put up on charges." He didn't believe the more extreme suggestions, but wanted to talk to Narra about it. Which was why he now stood in front of his CO's assistant, waiting to be granted entrance.
The woman brought him out of his thoughts, saying "You can go in now, Lieutenant."
He nodded and walked by her desk, hesitating a moment before he opened the door and went in.
"What can I do for you, Celchu?" the commander asked before he'd even made it through the doorway.
"I was hoping I could talk to you for a moment about Lieutenant Janson, sir."
"I assure you, he's been duly reprimanded."
"I…Yes, I'd gathered that. It seems that everyone has some idea of their own about that."
"Oh really?" Narra raised an eyebrow, looking amused.
"Yes, sir." He paused. "I don't know what actually happened, and I'm not here to ask. But on the chance that any disciplinary action is being taken against him – that seems to be the more persistent rumor – I wanted to ask that nothing be done."
"And what makes you think you have any say in whatever action might be taken, Lieutenant?"
"I don't, sir. Not really. I just think that there won't be a problem anymore. We spoke after the battle and he said something that I'd rather not repeat, but I think we've gained an understanding."
Narra folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "I will say, I'm impressed with your selflessness, Lieutenant."
"It's not entirely selfless, sir. There are still people here who aren't particularly fond of me and Lieutenant Janson is well liked, although his recent actions have been somewhat unpopular. In all honesty, if he were to be needlessly disciplined, it would make things that much more difficult for me, both with him and with the rest of the squadron."
"Duly noted, Lieutenant. And, for the record, no action is being taken against Janson at this juncture. Dismissed."
He watched as Celchu saluted, turned on his heel, and left. He was an interesting character, that was certain. Noble to a fault – which could very likely get him in trouble here. Or at least induce one hell of a crisis of conscience. A good pilot, though, he thought to himself. One less good one flying for the other side.