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.
---------------
Chapter 12: Take a Chance
---------------
Inyri was leaving her quarters when Hobbie approached. She kept her eyes fixed carefully on the floor, determined not to look at him. He wasn't surprised.
When he got close enough, he put his hand on the wall, arm stretched across her path. Because she'd suddenly found the floor so fascinating, she didn't see and walked into him. "Hobbie," she murmured, still studying the floor.
"Look at me, Inyri," he said softly.
Finally, she raised her head, trying valiantly to maintain the glare she'd pasted on her face. "Let me by, major. I'm due for patrol."
He shook his head. Then he put his free hand behind her head, effectively trapping her against the wall. Slowly, he brought his lips to hers. He waited until she was kissing back to pull away just as slowly. Then he moved his arm. "You can go."
---------------
Corran knocked on Wedge's open door again and Wedge inwardly groaned, feeling a sudden disturbing sense of déjà vu. "If you tell me you got shot at again," he began before he'd even looked up at the other Corellian, but Corran cut him off.
"I could sense him."
"What?" Wedge looked up at him, startled.
"I could sense him. And he could sense me. But it was strange."
"Strange how?"
"He seemed…confused. I got the sense that he realizes he's being used to harm people, but like it's just that."
"Corran, now I'm confused. It's just what?"
"I got the sense that he's being used. That, somehow, he's in a position where he doesn't have a choice, or something." He shook his head. "It doesn't make sense to me, either. I don't mind telling you I'll feel a lot better when Luke gets here." He hesitated. "He is getting here, right?"
"He'd better be," Wedge replied. "Let's put it that way." He paused as Tycho came in with Jesina right behind him, then said, "Corran, tell Tycho what you just told me. I need to talk to Jes." He got up from behind the desk and left the office, and she followed.
"Have you transmitted your resignation to Coruscant?"
"Yes. I did it right after I told all of you."
"Then you're technically a civilian. This isn't the Alliance anymore. We have restrictions as far as how involved civilians can be. And they can't use military-issue vehicles. I'll bend the rules enough to keep you flying until Hobbie is cleared again. But after that, unless you get accepted into Starfighter Command, you're out."
"That's fine."
"Jes, are you sure about this?"
"It's a little late for that, Wedge."
"Jesina, be serious."
"Wedge, even when the Alliance was all I knew – after I'd lost my memory? – I never felt like it was all I had. The New Republic is your life, just as the Alliance was before. But it isn't like that for me. I can exist outside of it. And, if necessary, I will."
He decided to change the subject slightly. "Are you going to try to get into Starfighter Command?"
She thought back to her conversation with Wes and wondered if there was any reason to try. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "I know Wes doesn't trust me, and Tycho doesn't really either. And I know you don't, not completely. I think Hobbie's the only one does." She shrugged. "Is there a reason I should try for Starfighter Command?"
Janson again. He found it interesting that he was the first person she'd mentioned, as opposed to Tycho, or even himself. He'd made about a hundred mental notes so far to find out more about it but hadn't yet. He made it a hundred and one and pushed it aside for a moment. "You could have your own command," Wedge pointed out.
"I don't want my own command. I feel the same way about command that Janson and Hobbie do. I don't want my own command. I've been fighting with bureaucracy for the last two years, commanding every agent for three sectors. I'm done with it. I want something new."
He nodded. "All right. Transmit your application to Starfighter Command, Colonel. That's an order."
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Isn't that a little presumptive, General?"
"Not at all." He smiled. "Cracken owes me. Put your application through. It'll be accepted."
She smiled and turned to go. At that point, he decided to erase all of those mental notes. "Jes?"
She turned back. "Yeah?"
"What's going on with you and Janson?"
"You should have asked that ten years ago," she murmured. Then she shook her head. "Nothing."
---------------
After watching her go, Wedge headed back into his office. "Corran, you said he could sense you?"
Corran nodded. "Yeah. But when he did, I didn't get any hostility from him. More like he was trying to communicate with me, maybe even trying to warn me." He shook his head. "I don't know, though. Like I said, I'll feel a lot better when Luke gets here."
"I think that goes for all of us," Tych murmured. He glanced at Wedge and nodded at the door. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine. Do me a favor, though? See if you can get her to talk about whatever the problem with her and Wes is? I promised her I'd make sure they transfer her into Starfighter Command, and she'll probably end up in Rogue. If there's a potential problem, I want to know about it."
Tycho frowned but nodded. "All right."
"What do you want us to do about the asteroid belt?" Corran asked, bringing the conversation back to the subject at hand.
"I don't know what we can do, other than keep doing what we're doing. We can't increase patrols – no one will ever sleep. I don't know," he repeated.
"We could always go after them," Tycho spoke up.
Wedge and Corran stared at him. "And give away our position?"
"It's either that or sit here and wait for them to come after us," Tycho pointed out, "which is an idea I'm not particularly fond of."
Wedge chuckled. "Remember Hobbie on Adumar?" he asked Tycho.
"Hopping from foot to foot because he wanted so badly to be able to do something – anything? Yeah, I remember," he answered.
Tycho went on. "This feels the same, to me. Only we don't have people challenging us to duels here. We just have someone shooting at us from the middle of an asteroid field. The longer we sit here with nothing happening, the more nervous I get. I think we need to make something happen. And see if we can't find out exactly what's going on here."
Corran nodded slowly but frowned. "I get it, but I don't like it." He sat down. "What do we do?"
"I want to start by mapping the asteroid belt – the largest at least – and projecting their movements. It's going to only be a rough estimate, but it'll be a place to start, at least. In the meantime, I want to outfit a freighter or shuttle with deep surface scanning equipment, in case they're holed up inside one of the big ones."
"If Jes has her ship here – even if it isn't the Nightwind anymore – she probably already has that kind of equipment."
"Find out, huh?" He looked at Corran. "Try to come up with some theories about what's going on with this Force-user, all right?" When Corran nodded, Wedge said, "Now, get out of here."
---------------
Gavin walked into the hangar and stopped when he saw his wing mate perched on one of the wings of her x-wing. "What are you doing?"
"Meditating," Inyri replied dryly. Then she pushed off the edge and dropped to the floor, landing in a crouch. "Absolutely nothing," she told him, straightening.
"Inyri…."
"No. Really." She brushed her hair back from her face. "I was doing nothing. It was just the first place I could think of where people might not find me."
"Your fighter, I get. But…why on the wing?"
"I was thinking about jumping?" She said it like a question. Then she shrugged. "I don't know. Because."
"What's going on?" Gavin asked pointedly.
"Huh?" She looked up at him. "Nothing." She moved to duck around him, but he stopped her by putting his hand on her x-wing. When her chest bumped into his arm, she started and blinked a few times, her mind flashing back to the corridor outside her quarters.
Gavin saw the expression on her face change and frowned. "Inyri, what's going on?"
Shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot she admitted, "Hobbie kissed me."
Gavin arched an eyebrow. He and Inyri had gotten close after a few years of flying together. But he felt like he missed something here. "He kissed you? How, Inyri?" He could feel his protective instincts kick in. He couldn't imagine Hobbie pushing anyone into anything, but Inyri seemed bothered, and he'd taken it upon himself to kind of look after her since they'd become friends. He felt he owed her sister Lujayne that much. "Did he—?"
"What? Oh! No, he would never do something like that. Just…I…when he was having those problems when Wedge told us we were going to Hoth, I got to feeling kind of close to him. And I guess he noticed. I'm pretty sure he was trying to ask me – or something – yesterday, but I freaked out and took off from his quarters. And this morning, he stopped me on my way to patrol – the same way you did now, actually," she said, offering him a grin, and watched as he hurriedly removed his hand from the fighter, "and he kissed me."
"So, this is a good thing?" Gavin asked, unsure of how Inyri was perceiving the whole situation.
She sighed. "I don't know. He—he's a superior officer. I'm his subordinate."
"You just gave the same excuse two different ways. You know that, right?"
She sighed again. "Yes. I do."
"Inyri, if that's all you can come up with for why you shouldn't get involved with him, you really don't have anything. Look at the Wraiths – Loran dated his subordinate, and the XO – Tainer – married his." Gavin sat down on a toolbox and Inyri sat opposite him on the bottom rung of a ladder. "Do you trust him?" He knew that she's had difficulty trusting men since the ordeal with Zekka Thyne – despite the time that had passed – and was concerned that, because of that, she didn't want to let herself feel anything for Hobbie – or anyone, for that matter.
"I do trust him. I think." She paused. "I respect him, at least."
Exactly what he'd been worried about. "Inyri, I'm not going to tell you that if you and Hobbie got together everything would work out perfectly. But he would never try to hurt you." He bit his lip, not sure whether he should tell her what had just popped into his head. He decided to anyway, even though it might upset her. "I think Lujayne would tell you to take a chance."