A Long Time Ago
12. Landing

"The security forces have done all they can. It's been fourteen days. We've searched all over Coruscant, neighbouring planets...there isn't a trace of him..."

"But he can't be..."

"Your brother is dead, Tass. Accept it..."

But she could tell from her father's expression that he hadn't accepted it himself.

"He's not dead."

"Tass, please..." That was her mother, tears in her eyes.

"He's not dead!"

Then she ran upstairs. She buried her face in her pillow and cried for a few minutes. Then she opened the secret cupboard once more, in case there was a note left inside that she'd somehow managed to miss. There was nothing.

She found her comlink and contacted Dekabyn.

"Dek,"

"Yes?" He sounded worried.

"It's been fourteen days...they're giving up, they think he's dead."

"Oh, Tass."

"He's not dead, Dekabyn. I won't believe it. I can't..."

"I know, Tass. I don't believe it either."

"You don't?"

"I don't. So they've stopped looking altogether?"

"The security forces have. You know what they say...they say if someone goes missing on Coruscant and are gone for more than a week, they're probably dead. And my parents...they..." She couldn't finish.

Dekabyn didn't say anything. There was a long silence.

"Are you going to go look for him, Tass?" he finally asked.

"Yes." Then she clamped a hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say that. But she'd been thinking it...she had. Yes. She was going to find her brother now. "I am. But I don't know how. My parents are watching me all the time, they won't let me out of the house in case I disappear as well...and I have no money. And..." Her heart was sinking now. "We can't search the whole galaxy, however much we'd like to. It's impossible. And we're going to need transport..."

But she got the feeling Dekabyn was smiling.

"What are you thinking...?

"I'm thinking," Dekabyn said, and she could almost see his grin, slightly taunting, "that all we need right now is Faith."

------

Tass ended up sneaking out. She left a note on the table. It said simply: I'll be back soon. I have my comlink so you can contact me. I'll be with Dekabyn. Tass. She considered adding And when I get back Nerra will be with me, but decided against it. She stuck it to the door of her bedroom, tiptoed past the closed door of the living room...her mother was crying..and escaped. She ran to Dekabyn's house faster than she'd ever run before.

"Okay...tell me what we're going to do."

"We're going to go to Faith's house, and she is going to fly the Merlin for us."

"But she can't...can she? Whatever made you think of that, anyway?"

"I have no idea. I've been...I was just thinking, alright? And we'll see. Come on!"

Running as quickly as they could...Tass's parents would have raised the alarm by now...they caught an air-taxi to take them to the higher levels. Dekabyn found them seats. Tass was glad to see he'd thrown some things into his bag before they'd left...another comlink, money, some food and drink, even a vibroblade. All she had was her comlink. Good thing one of us is organized.

After the airtaxi dropped them off, they ran to Faith's apartment. She was waiting for them. Dekabyn must have called her before Tass had arrived.

"Tass, I'm really sorry about your brother -but you're both completely mad!" she said, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. "I can't fly!"

"And why not?" Dekabyn asked.

"Because of what happened last time. You know all this, Tass...my parents stopped me from flying! I don't want you two to get hurt if something goes wrong. And it will. That thing can hardly lift off the ground, anyway, it's so old!" She was getting agitated now.

"We give you our word that we won't be too annoyed with you if we die," Dekabyn said serenely. "We'll be too dead to care."

"Stop it, Dek!" Tass snapped. She turned to Faith. "Nerra took all the money. There isn't any other way we can fly out. I know you can do this. You're our only hope. Our last hope, I suppose." Truth be told, she was thinking of other alternatives in her head even as she was speaking, and most of them were actually more practical, but she felt it best not to mention this.

Dekabyn said nothing. Faith's hand fell from her hair. Then she sighed.

"Alright, Tass. C'mon."

Tass and Dekabyn exchanged a smile, and they followed her into the hangar. The Merlin sat in the center. Faith pressed a button and a ramp came down. The three of them climbed it in silence. Faith sat in the pilot's seat.

"Okay," she said shakily. "Before we go, I have a couple of things to say..."

"What are they?" Dekabyn said.

"I really was sorry about Nerra, Tass. I'm sorry if I didn't sound like it. You're my best friend. And Dekabyn..."

"What?"

"Actually, I can't think of anything to say to you."

She started the engines.

"Sorry that I've been abandoning you for Dekabyn so often," Tass said hurriedly. Anxiety was growing in her now. Darn Faith for being so melodramatic.

"That's alright..."

She pushed some buttons. They were starting to rise. Tass suddenly remembered something. The oldest ship in the galaxy, pretty much...

Argh if Faith can't do this we're going to die we're all going to die we're going to DIE...

The ship rose into the air. One hurdle down. Faith was sweating.

"I mustn't get too anxious! That's what makes...things happen. Tass, say something to calm me down!"

Tass's mind switched itself off. "What?"

"Anything will do!"

The engines grew louder. Even Dekabyn looked a little worried now.

"Um...may the Force be with you, Faith."

Dekabyn turned to look at her. Faith nearly did, but then she stopped, concentrating purely on the controls. There were a few awful seconds of shaking, then...

...then they were out of the hangar.

Tass cheered, and didn't even realise she was doing it until Dekabyn joined in. Faith looked only slightly relieved.

"We're not even off Coruscant yet! I still have to navigate the airways without killing anyone. Anyway, Tass...where are we going?"

There was a very pregnant pause.

"I don't know," Tass finally admitted. "I was just going to..."

"You don't know?!" Faith howled.

"I don't know yet. I was going to wait until we got off Coruscant, and then...see what happened."

"Oh, good grief!"

Dekabyn suddenly put his hand on Faith's shoulder. "Let's just follow Tass," he said. "It's her brother we're looking for, after all."

Nerra! Tass felt a flash of shame. In the heat of the moment she'd almost forgotten about him, impossible as that sounded.

Faith started to drive into one of the airways, still rather nervous.

"I'm tell you when I think of the planet we're going to," Tass said. "Okay?"

"Okay," Faith said.

They continued on.

-----

"Tass!" Dekabyn was shaking her. "Tass!"

She opened her eyes, and realised with some embarrassment that she'd fallen asleep.

On Dekabyn's shoulder.

"Damn!" She sat up. "Where are we?"

"Well, we're off Coruscant," Faith said. "I'm not sure how I managed that."

"And now it'd be helpful to know where we're going."

"Tatooine."

I just said that. I just said that...

"I have a bad feeling about this," Faith muttered, but she took the controls anyway.

"Your parents phoned, by the way," Dekabyn told her. "They're angry. Very angry. They can't believe you were so selfish." Tass looked at him. "Their words, not mine."

"What did you say to them?"

"I said I'd pass their message onto you. And now I have. Are you going to phone them back?"

"Better leave it for later."

"Good idea."

"It's quite a long way to Tatooine, you know," Faith said. "You'd be better off going to sleep again. I wish I could," she added.

"Yeah well, you know what they say about low-levelers owning pretty ships like this," Dekabyn said. "You know what they say about them even being taught to fly."

Tass realised that she, in fact, did not know. "Maybe if you're really tired, I could have a go."

"You shouldn't switch pilots in the airways," Faith murmured. "It's against some rule or other."

"And it's against the rule for people under eighteen to drive in a airway, too," Dekabyn said dryly.

They continued on. The world started to disappear and be replaced by stars.

-----

Finally, Tatooine came into view. Tass's parents had phoned again...twice...and both times Tass had had to tell them that she was fine.

"Please, Tass," her mother had begged. "I understand why you're doing this, but we want you safe with us..."

"I promise I'll be okay," Tass had said.

Then she had just hung up as quickly as possible. She didn't much like the idea of her parents sitting at home and worrying...again.

"Everyone, hold onto something!" Faith yelled. "We're going to land."

Tass considered holding onto Dekabyn, but she gripped the sides of her seat instead. "Er...they say landing is always the hardest...maybe I could help."

At that very moment, the comlink rang again. "Answer it," Dekabyn said. "They'll panic if you don't."

Tass answered it. Faith went back to the business of landing the ship.

"Don't land on anything, alright?" Dekabyn said. "I can't afford a lawsuit."

"QUIT TALKING ABOUT ALL THE THINGS YOU CAN'T AFFORD!" Faith yelled, starting to panic now. "I don't talk about all the things I can, so you should show the same courtesy!"

"You don't understand, you spoiled, selfish, useless-"

"Tass, what's going on-" Lelleri said over the comlink. But then, as the ship landed with a crunch, the comlink flew from Tass's hands and hit the ground. She picked it up, and it appeared to have broken.

She swore. Dekabyn looked rather surprised.

"Who would've thought it," he said, gesturing to Faith. "You control your Force powers by getting angry and yelling at innocent people."

"Shut up, Dekabyn. I'm not useless, see? I just proved it," Faith said. "I think I broke the ship, though."

"Possibly," Dekabyn said. "Well, you'll be blamed for it, I suppose. Let's go."