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.
A Note: The conversation between Wedge and Corran was influenced by a brief conversation I had with McEwok about revenge. And I apologize in advance, because this chapter kind of got away from me. I'll get back on track next time though. No more strange tangents.
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Chapter 28: Evacuation and Conversation
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"We're going home," Wedge said. "We've been recalled to Coruscant." He looked around at his mostly-recovered squadron.
Tycho's ribs were still healing – he'd refused to go into bacta any more than necessary. Corran still couldn't really walk, though it wasn't the Jedi's physical health that Wedge was concerned about. Wedge himself had a sore back, but was otherwise feeling better.
"They'll be sending a Corellian Corvette to pick us up tomorrow afternoon. Several shuttles will come down, as well as transports; Command wants all base personnel and New Republic property removed. Apparently, they feel our usefulness here has ended. They're afraid of another attack that might further weaken the structural integrity of the base."
"So we're evacuating?" Inyri asked.
"More or less, since we don't know how the bomber got into the base. Pack up and be ready to leave by 1400 tomorrow. We'll be flying out; the intelligence personnel will be shuttled out and the equipment will be moved by transport."
He looked at Wes, Tycho, and Hobbie in turn. "Get the feeling we've done this before."
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Mara looked Horn over. She was getting used to his defeated stature – strange as it seemed on a man as prideful as he typically was. But now he actually looked thinner, like he'd lost muscle tone. Probably a result of being restricted to bed rest, she decided, but it was odd just the same.
"You know, the longer you dwell on this, the more difficult you're going to make it for everyone – especially yourself. Because the longer you think about your failures, the easier it will become for you to convince yourself that you can't make up for it. And that will just increase the likelihood that you slide back to where you don't want to be."
"I know that, Mara. But knowing you have to do something doesn't make it easy," he replied testily.
She scowled at him. "You are the most stubborn man alive, Horn. If you want to do it, you can. The only thing stopping you is that it's easier to say you can't do it, and that's why the Dark Side wins. It's not stronger. It's just easier."
"You know me better than that, Jade," he shot back. "I've never been one to take the easy way out."
She nodded, pleased that he was starting to show signs of his old self. He was getting frustrated, but she didn't feel any anger emanating from him – definitely a good thing. "You're right. I do know you, and that's not how you are – which is why I can't understand why you're doing it now."
Then she turned and left, leaving him to think over things for himself. Hopefully, she'd planted a few seeds in his mind. Given time and the right motivation – say, a couple of fiery Corellian women more than willing to put him in his place – he'd snap out of it.
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"We're leaving," Mara said, sticking her head through Wedge's doorway. A moment later her body followed, and then Kyp entered.
"You're not heading back to Coruscant with us?" Wedge asked, not entirely surprised.
She shook her head. "I just got a message from Karrde, routed through about a thousand checkpoints. He's got something on Skywalker, and I want to take advantage of it. With Horn on the rocks, the last thing we need is for something to happen to Skywalker."
"You talk to him?" Wedge asked. He and Corran hadn't really spoken since that day in the Med Center. The Jedi had been withdrawn, doing little more but sit by whatever bed or bacta tank Iella had been in – bacta, most of the time.
"He seems to be doing all right. Looks like he's back on solid ground, for the most part. I think everything will be more or less all right once Wessiri wakes up and knocks some sense into him." She offered him a hint of a smile. "Keep an eye on him, okay?"
Wedge nodded. Kyp stepped back, and Mara turned to go. "Jade?"
She glanced over her shoulder. "Antilles?"
"Bring Luke back in one piece, all right? He told me he'd make it to my wedding if it killed him."
"Just so long as you don't expect me to make an appearance."
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"Is that everything?" Jesina shouted over the din in the south bay. She was back to directing the Intelligence personnel as they loaded up the transports. Her resignation seemed to have been unofficially postponed by Iella's injury.
The truth was, especially in light of recent events, she didn't trust anyone else to run the show. And she'd be glad to hand the whole mess off to Cracken the moment she set foot on Coruscant.
"The entire medical bay is cleared out, except for what's needed for Iella," Vayl told her. "Sleeping quarters have been emptied, and the monitoring equipment is loaded onto the first transport. Mess hall has been emptied – all remaining food has been packed up. They're finishing up in the lounge and moving the heavy equipment from the hangar. Other than that, I think we're set."
"The Rogues ready to leave?"
"They're about to get their clearance."
"Give it to them. And tell them to get ready to move Iella." Wedge's fiancé was still under constant medical attention. She was now spending more time out of the bacta tank than in, but she hadn't yet regained consciousness.
She glanced around. "I can't wait to leave this place."
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"How's she doing?"
Corran looked up when he heard his CO's voice. "Her breathing's better, but other than that there's been no change." He'd been sitting by Iella's side since she'd been brought up to the ship, and she had yet to so much as move.
"She'll be all right."
"She'd be all right now if I hadn't prevented Kyp from going with her."
Wedge lowered himself into a chair. "From what Kyp told me, he didn't have the strength left to do much more than he did."
"I might have been able to help him, though."
"I didn't think healing was your strong suit."
Corran shrugged. "It's not. But I know enough."
"You need to get past this."
The Jedi stood and turned away. "Do you have any idea how many times I've heard that?" he asked. "From you, Durron, Jade…" He shook his head, thinking back to his last conversation with Mara, right before she'd left.
"Well, you can add Mirax to that list as soon as we get back. And Iella, once she wakes up."
Corran managed a slight smile. He'd give anything to have Iella standing here now, slapping him around, instead of lying still in the repulsor bed where she was. "Have you ever made a mistake like this?"
"I chased down the people responsible for my parents' deaths, with a little help from Booster. You already know that."
"Yeah, but do you consider that a mistake?"
Wedge shrugged. "Some people would. You, Luke…" He trailed off. "Do I?" He shook his head. "No. Maybe it's the way I was brought up…maybe it's who I know, what I did later. But people pay for what they did. Most times, there's a fine line between justice and revenge, and when you deal with certain types of people, I don't know if there's a line at all."
He was silent for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I consider myself to be a principled person, and I'd say the same for Tycho, Wes, Hobbie…everyone in the squadron, really. Doesn't mean we're immune to the desire for revenge, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Was what I did about justice? No. It was about revenge. But did those people deserve to die for what they did? I think so. Most people would probably agree. My parents weren't their only victims. So, in a way, was it justice? Maybe. Not that I saw it that way at the time. Justice never crossed my mind."
"Look at Tycho. When he joined the Alliance, it was because he wanted the Empire to pay for what they'd done. He had other reasons, sure – even when he'd joined the Empire, he knew it was corrupt; he was looking for a way to bring about change. So there was that. But it wasn't about some noble desire to seek justice for those that the Empire hurt. It was primarily, at that moment, about revenge. Would you say his joining was a mistake?"
Corran shook his head, unsure where his CO was going with this. "No."
"Now look at what you did. That whole thing started with you wanting to save Iella. You weren't looking for revenge, or justice, or any variation thereof. You look at it that way, you're intentions were more noble than mine or Tycho's."
"Yeah, but it spiraled out of control from there."
"It did," Wedge agreed. "But look at it like this. Those men wouldn't have let you get away alive. Whatever you were thinking at the time, they probably would have ended up dead."
"You know," Corran said suddenly, "Mara did a little demonstration when she first came to Yavin. And then she said that a blaster was more fair than a lightsaber, because blasters have stun settings and lightsabers either kill or dismember a person." He shook his head. "And the Jedi, the peacekeepers, carry lightsabers."
Wedge nodded. Mara had been right. Corran did seem better than he'd been lately. "It's all in how you look at it. I realize that Jedi have to be more aware of what they're thinking when they act. But…I guess maybe I just have a different perspective. If your thinking is good but you do something terrible, that doesn't make it a good thing. Look at Luke – he thought he could defeat the Emperor once and for all. There's nothing nobler than that, I don't think. But we all know where that got him. And Tycho and I – what we did was about revenge. But no one can say Tycho shouldn't have done what he did, though you might say that about me."
"It's not the same, though."
"I know. I never said it was. All I'm trying to say is that, if you weren't a Jedi, what you did wouldn't be that bad. And I think that the only way you're going to get over it is if you forget for a minute that you are a Jedi. It becomes a lot more forgivable that way."
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Hobbie and Inyri were sitting next each other on the couch in the pilots' lounge. They were near enough to occasionally touch the other's hand, but not enough to raise suspicion from the rest of their squadron. Not that suspicions weren't already raised enough for Inyri's taste. Inyri reached for her caf, "accidentally" brushing her hand against Hobbie's knee in the process. "Jesina's going to join the squadron, right?"
He nodded. "I think so." He waved Tycho over and relayed her question to him.
"Yes, she is," the Alderaanian replied, "though I'm not sure where we're going to put her, since we have a full roster."
"That's a switch," Wes muttered, joining the conversation and glancing at Inyri and Hobbie's hands – which were just a little too close. Inyri noticed his gaze and tried to move away as subtly as possible. She wasn't sure he bought it, though.
"She can have my position," Teril said, stepping backward slightly when everyone fixed their attention on her.
"Is there something you haven't told us, Flight Officer?" Tycho asked.
"I just came from talking to General Antilles. There was a message waiting for me when we got on board. My old unit took heavy losses and they need people desperately." She shook her head. "They're being sent out again, short at least four. General Antilles just approved my transfer back. It might be only temporary, but…" She shrugged. "You have an opening now."