Summary: Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

Disclaimer: Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

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Chapter 9: She's Still...Her

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"What am I missing?" Wedge asked Keyra, frustrated. He glanced at Tycho, and the expression on the other man's face said he was wondering the same thing. Iella didn't look any more confident.

Keyra shook her head. "Nothing. At least, not anything we haven't missed. The activity has been primarily in the asteroid belt, and looks like nothing more than a mining operation. But it isn't registered with any operation that the New Republic knows of, nor of anything that Karrde knows of – and that's what really put us on edge."

"Do you sense a problem there?" Tycho asked. "That we're more concerned about Karrde not knowing something than we are about NRI not knowing about it?"

"Karrde has contacts we can only dream of, unfortunately," Iella replied. "But getting back to the situation at hand, we have absolutely nothing to go on, and that worries me. That's actually why they wanted you out here. The fact that we can't get anything on them is disconcerting."

Keyra leaned back and sipped from the cup of caf that had become almost permanently attached to her hand since she'd been at Hoth. "I can say that I'm almost certain it's not linked to any organized Imperial activity. It may be Imperial in nature – in fact, it probably is – but probably a small, independent offshoot."

"So, what are we talking about here, as far as expectations? Should we continue with the patrol schedule Tycho decided on yesterday? Or should we step it up?"

"We have six headhunters here," Keyra said, "in addition to the x-wings I mentioned to you before. I'd suggest having one patrol a day – four or six, its up to you – head up to the asteroid belt and cruise around up there for a while, see if you find anything. Using x-wings would probably tip them off that we're in the system. A lot of smugglers use headhunters."

"Including Mara, and a lot of Karrde's other people," Iella added.

"All right." Wedge thought for a moment. "Patrols of six at, say, 1400 hours every day. And we'll keep our standing patrols."

"Hobbie can't fly though," Tycho pointed out.

"I can," Keyra said. "I'm probably the best you've got. And it'll be good practice."

"Good practice?" Tycho asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Wedge didn't tell you?" she asked, glancing at the Rogue CO.

Tycho followed her gaze. "No, he didn't."

She met his eyes evenly. "I'm leaving Intelligence, transferring into Starfighter Command."

Tycho blinked, but didn't say anything in response. Instead he said, "All right. I'll let everyone know about the change. Who do you want flying first?"

"Us up to six, so, Keyra. Seven to Twelve have it tomorrow."

"I'll let them know," he repeated, and left quickly, leaving an awkward silence behind him.

Iella broke it. "How long is Hobbie unable to fly?" She'd heard about his hand.

"Well, between the bone knitters and bacta, he'll be physically able," Wedge said. He'd talked to the pilot this morning, and it was still painful but not as bad as it had been.

Iella caught the qualifier. "Physically able? You don't think he's okay?"

"I don't know," Wedge said. "I think he's fine. But if it happened once, it could happen again. And I don't know how I feel about taking that risk."

"Wedge, you have to give him a chance," Keyra objected. "He needs to adjust to being here, and he's not going to do that if everyone protects him. If you want my advice, stick him in a simulator with a Hoth simulation as soon as the Too-OneBee certifies him fit to fly."

"That seems cruel," Iella protested.

"Look, I've seen pilots who've taken a bad crash – Hobbie's here was worse – and never gotten in a cockpit again. I've seen pilots caught in a cockpit fire but never even injured developed a pathological fear of fire – to the point that they're convinced it's going to happen again and never fly again. What's going on with Hobbie could very well develop into that if we don't do something about it."

"Still, the Battle of Hoth? It sounds like you're looking to render him completely catatonic."

It was entirely possible, and might be unavoidable. "She's right, though," Wedge said finally. "We need to know if there's going to be a problem the first time he gets in a fighter here. And the safest way to figure it out is in a sim. Plus, it might snap him out of it." He paused and thought for a moment. "I'll talk to Wes, see what he thinks. And then I'll talk to Hobbie. I won't force him, but I will make sure he knows what I think."

Keyra nodded and glanced at her chrono. "I've got a meeting with some of my people in about fifteen minutes. Are we done here?"

"One more thing," Wedge said. "What are we expecting? Are we thinking that they're going to leave us alone?"

"I think as soon as they realize that the New Republic has people here, they're going to want to get rid of us. How soon that is depends on us, and on them."

"All right. Thanks." She disappeared out the door, and Wedge turned to Iella. "Something isn't right here."

"You think?" She paused. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine hundred hours." Corran's flight would be back from patrol in another hour or so.

"I've got to go to. I asked Mara to hang around a couple of hours longer, and I want to talk to her before she takes off."

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"She's coming over to Starfighter Command?" Tycho exploded. "And you didn't feel the need to tell me?"

"I—"

"You didn't think it was something I needed to know?" His voice was growing louder, if possible. "What's next? She's going to come into Rogue?"

"Colonel Celchu!" Wedge bellowed over his friend's rant. He couldn't remember ever using Tycho's rank in that manner. "Attention!" The Rogue, despite his anger, snapped to attention, holding his salute though he was actually shaking. Wedge waited a moment before returning the salute. "At ease."

He sighed. He hated pulling rank on his friends, despite that he was their CO. But sometimes – like when they were bordering on out of control – it was necessary. "Calm down." Tycho remained stonily silent.

Wedge's voice remained high. "Between her being here plain and simple, Corran trying to find out who she is, Hobbie's problems, and our less-than-clear reason for being here, her future plans pretty much fell to the bottom of my list. Yes, she did tell me she was leaving NRI. And yes, while she didn't come right out and ask, she's looking to transfer into Rogue. And I told her I would have to talk to you, Janson, and Hobbie before I made any decision."

"You want her in the squadron," Tycho said quietly, in stark contrast to a moment before. He didn't have to ask. He could tell by the look on Wedge's face what he wanted.

"Yes, I do. She's extremely skilled as a pilot and as a general operative. Her contacts and experience would be invaluable. But I won't bring her in if it's going to cause problems with all of you."

"When were you going to tell me?"

"As soon as I got a chance. In case you hadn't noticed, it's kind of been one thing after another." He paused, glad Tycho had calmed down – calmed, but not relaxed. "Now that you know, what do you think?"

"I think Wes isn't going to go for it."

"Yeah, I meant to ask you about that. Where is that coming from?"

"I think that something was going on with them before she left. They were together a lot when we were at Hoth. I don't know if anything had happened there, but I'm pretty sure they were headed in that direction."

Wedge nodded. It made sense. "So Wes won't go for it. It looks like Hobbie will. What do you think?"

Tycho sighed and dropped into a chair opposite Wedge. "I don't know. I'm angry at her. I don't trust her. But she's still...her. I don't know."

"All right. Did you tell Janson she's flying as his wing?"

Tycho nodded. "If I had left right away, we might have had two pilots with broken hands. As it is, we almost did." He rubbed his hand lightly.

"He hit you?"

"No. Not really. I caught his hand when he went to punch the door."

"They need to stop doing that."

"Yes, they do."

"I don't see it happening though."

"Neither do I."

Wedge sighed, turning the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Well, he may not like it, but he'll deal with it."

"Just like with Narra, huh?" The Rogues first commander, Bennington Narra, when faced with Janson's intense animosity toward Tycho, had paired them together. Eventually, Janson had gotten over it – namely when he'd been given the choice to save Tycho's life or let him get blown out of space by one of his former squadron mates, and had chosen to save him.

"Exactly. It worked then. It'll have to work now. And maybe it'll help him to warm up to her."

"Maybe." Tycho hesitated. "I still don't know how I feel about this."

"Think about it. And let me know. If it's going to hurt the squadron, I won't do it."

"I know."