Lieutenant Vane frowned, and watched as the remnants of the Ravelin's crew were marched back off their ship - Navy officers with broken noses and arms in slings, escorted by her troopers as if they were still prisoners. "So we just let them leave?"
"Seems so," Kogo shrugged. "I just get to wear a fancy cloak and break things. The Grand Admiral tells me what direction to point my big dumb vibe in, and makes the big decisions."
She had to suppress a half-smile. "Yes sir."
They both turned, as a dark-haired girl in Imperial uniform came marching down the corridor, moving with the confident swing of a TIE Pilot. She seemed to have found a pair of non-regulation high-heeled boots from somewhere. She halted, and snapped a smart salute at Kogo.
"Spur Two, reporting for duty," she said, with an insubordinate smile.
"At ease, Flight Officer," Kogo said. "Lieutenant Vane, can we have a moment to ourselves?"
"Yes sir," she answered automatically, suppressing an irritated thought about overconfident TIE Pilots, turning back and raising her voice. "All right, troops, let's get these Navy people safely seated on our shuttle and we can ship them back aboard our nice big triangular space barracks where they can fight their campaigns over caf and cake in comfortable chairs and fly us around to do all the work, as usual."
(O) (O) (O)
Jaina stood in front of Kogo - feet apart and hands behind her back, holing the pose a little uncertainly, though whether that was her new Imperial conditioning responding to their disparity in rank, or just old-fashioned ambivalence and the fact that he was taller than her, she couldn't say.
"So, Lieutenant?" Kogo asked. "The Grand Admiral gave you my frigate?"
"Yes sir," she smiled. "I have a brother to rescue from himself. And from one of your ex-girlfriends."
She understood, intellectually, that they needed to make the jump quickly - the only way they had to follow the Yavin Turtle forward to the right date was by using the specific telemetry they'd obtained from the freighter, but the calibration she'd designed wasn't nearly as precise as a normal navacomp calculation, and if they waited too long, there was a real risk that they would overshoot the point from which Jacen and Alema Rar had been thrown backwards in the first place. A few more hours might make all the difference.
Even then, they weren't completely sure that they'd intersect the timeline established by the Turtle's return from the past, but Anakin seemed to think that the fact both ships were breaking the time barrier meant it ought to work. The lack of precision in the adjustments might actually help with that.
"Well, then. I never like to say goodbye."
"You're not coming with us?" she asked. If she was honest, she felt a little disappointed, and not just because a platoon of heavy weapons troopers and a great big idiot with a vibroax would have added to their infantry firepower.
Kogo gave a rueful version of his usual grin, his dark eyes uncharacteristically thoughtful. "I'd love to. But I have responsibilities here. And besides, you'd just end up regretting you asked me."
She hugged him, anyway - spontaneous, before they could evade each other, and then she stepped back, reaching for her blaster. "You're an idiot, Kogo."
Kogo grinned. Apparently he really did like being held at gunpoint by a pretty girl. "You still haven't told me your name, Lieutenant."
"Let's keep it that way," she laughed. Does he still not know, or is that just a chat-up line? "I just want you to know, you've been my least terrible boyfriend who's not been a Wookiee."
"Oh, thanks."
She slammed the hatch shut before her impulse to kiss him took over, and left him with a flash of her best smile.
(O) (O) (O)
Anakin was sitting in the pilot's seat on the bridge of Ravelin. Tahiri was sitting in his lap, her feet saddled over his thighs, arms around his neck, murmuring something in his ear in Yuuzhan Vong.
"Hmm," he agreed, nuzzling up her jawline in response. They found each other's lips for a soft moment, then she lifted up slightly on him, her body pressing against his near the belt-line, and they exchanged glances, Tahiri testing whether he was willing to do more than just make out in front of a Wookiee.
"There goes Kogo's shuttle," he said, as the Imperial assault barge swung past the frigate's bows, wings folding down as it headed back to the Chimaera.
"Don't change the subject, dummy," Tahiri chided. "So, you were trying to explain to me why Admiral Thrawn's just letting us go...?"
"I think he doesn't want the timeline messed up any more than we do. From what Kogo and Jaina were saying, he's going to keep his copy of the time-travel calibration in reserve, somewhere like Mount Tantiss." A new thought struck him, and he frowned. "I suppose he wants us gone in case we tell the New Republic about things like that."
Tahiri smiled, amused. "Or he has some secret Imperial base on some planet in the Unknown Regions, some dusty warehouse on some forgotten backwater world out beyond the Remnant, where no-one would think about looking?"
Anakin shifted under her, as she tapped the point of her knife below his chin, and drew his lips upwards for a teasing kiss. "Mmm. Maybe."
Tahiri nodded, approving. "Mmm, yourself. Do we believe him?"
Anakin needed a moment to collect his thoughts, grinning as she ran the back of the blade along his jawline. "You think he might try and change the timeline?" he asked. "I think he'd have to have pretty strong motivation to risk that, and knowing that there are a handful of teenage Jedi skulking around in a freighter like the Turtle isn't exactly going to tell him that the future isn't somewhere he'd approve of - anyway, he ought to realise that the timeline's already been distorted, and he's better off using whatever knowledge he's picked up and fixing things from here. More likely he wants his scientists to look at the technology and see if there's some way to prevent incursions, like what Shimrra's people already did with us…"
"Shh," Tahiri murmured.
Anakin glanced round as the hatch slid open, and Jaina walked in, looking like she was enjoying herself immensely in her new Imperial uniform. "Coming with us, sis?"
"If it's the choice of you two having loud Vong torture sessions, or the risk I might decide to have children with Vess Kogo, I think this is the less appalling alternative." She gestured them out of the seat. "Also, you're in my chair."
For a moment, her expression was stern, the look of an Imperial officer regaining control of her ship from a Rebel prize-crew. But she smiled as they swung to their feet.
Anakin gave her a quick hug. "Welcome back."
"Let's go and get your worthless Rebel ship back for you, Little Brother." She dropped into the pilot's seat and picked up the comm headset, grinning at Lowie's grumbled insubordination, leaning over sharply and pressing the hailing keys on his console. All of them looked out at the big triangle and tower of the Imperial Star Destroyer, high among the stars in front of them. "Chimaera, this is Flight Officer Solo of Spur Squadron, acting commander of the Imperial light cruiser Ravelin, requesting permission to depart in pursuit of a stolen Rebel freighter."
"That's a slightly irregular request, Ravelin. But I think we can let it pass."
Did Imperial officers sound less like Jagged Fel when they were talking to each other, less stressed by the prospect of ambush or betrayal by Rebel agents? Probably.
"One moment, Lieutenant." A cool, slightly distant voice, taking command with casual ease.
Anakin frowned.
Jaina tensed, as her Imperial programming took over. "Yes, Grand Admiral?"
"Am I correct, Lieutenant, to think that your brother and his first mate both speak Yuuzhan Vong?"
She frowned, and glanced across at him. "You'd, uhh, have to ask my brother, sir. I'm still a little foggy on the details. I feel I ought to thank you for helping us out, but that may just be my Imperial braintwisting talking."
"Why are you wanting to know?" Anakin scowled, but Tahiri gave him a nudge, and he seemed to relax.
"You both come from, shall we say, a part of the Galaxy beyond the space presently controlled by the Empire, or occupied by Rebel forces. One where the Yuuzhan Vong are already a known quantity."
Anakin didn't feel like playing Thrawn's game. "The New Republic fleet got smashed at Coruscant about three years ago - a few weeks after the timepoint we're trying to get back to, actually. The Yuuzhan Vong stopped their advance too, but the Defence Force lacks both the firepower and the basic military competence to push them back from what they hold. The Jedi are in hiding. We thought it gave us the independence to continue the fight, but honestly, we spend most of our time trying to get enough 'fresher paper for our secret base."
Anakin wasn't sure he understood the silence that followed. Was that how people found him, sometimes?
Finally, Thrawn spoke. "I would advise, Captain, that you might want to investigate the Lothal system, and specifically an archaeological site in the northern wastes." There was a slight pause, as if the Grand Admiral was finding something uncomfortable, for once. "And tell your hold-mother that I send her my best wishes, and I am glad I was right about where to leave her lost property."
"General Syndulla?" Anakin asked, frowning darkly. "Yeah, we'll tell her."
"Thank you, Captain Solo. Good luck in getting your ship back."
"My brother's a bit more important to me. But thanks for the sentiment anyway."
And that was that.
(O) (O) (O)
She swung the Ravelin away from the Chimaera, giving the bigger ship a slightly rueful look, her gaze sweeping across the running lights and turbolaser batteries, the command-tower viewports and the armoured overhang of the main bridge. A part of her would have happily stayed with the Grand Admiral and Vess Kogo, even if they gave her a TIE Fighter and told her to shoot down Rogue Squadron.
But the mission Thrawn wanted her to perform was more-or-less the same one she'd have chosen for herself.
Jaina focused on flying the ship, or tried to. Things were, somehow, almost back to normal.
"So, tell me about Lothal?" Tahiri asked, her eyes dancing with excitement.
Anakin gave her a wry look, lacing his fingers playfully with hers. "Their national hero's more-or-less a cross between Jaina and Alema Rar. She was one of the Alliance's top fighter aces… and back during the Rebellion, she seduced a Jedi Knight and had his love-child."
"Sounds like a good place to visit, then," she smirked.
Jaina snorted. "Look, that flash-learning rig is still in Kogo's quarters. If you two don't start to behave, I'm going to figure out some way to use it on you." She frowned, realising the idea appealed to her a whole lot more than it sanely should have.
Her brother gave her a frown. "Should we discuss the fact that you willingly let the Empire brainwash you?"
She smiled at that. "Nope. I like the new me." She wasn't sure why she'd done it, or why she felt so relaxed about it, but she didn't think it was just her Imperial flash-learning talking. Somehow, she felt in touch with her emotions in ways that hadn't been as easy for her when she was just a scruffy Rebel pilot. Or perhaps that was the way Imperial behaviour-conditioning worked, a weird thought that discouraged further self-reflection. "Go find a private place to do things with your Vong owner if you want to have a serious discussion about how being brainwashed by the enemy isn't always a bad thing."
"Point," Tahiri said, the curved tip of her couffee along her boyfriend's ribs, beckoning him up from where he was leaning on the back of Jaina's chair. "Heel."
Jaina laughed, and settled back in the pilot's seat, Lowie beside her, Anakin and Tahiri on the walkway to one side, leaning on the console below the viewports in almost-matching poses, reminding her of a pair of kids looking out at the view from the top terrace of the Imperial Palace. Fiver was locked in at the back, confirming that the frigate's motivator had accepted her hotwired upgrades to the compensators. "We all ready?"
They were.
The constellations lengthened into starlines, the lightning-storm breaking past the sharp bow of the ship, and the Ravelin was in hyperspace. Was the sensation any different, racing forward through time, ten thousand times faster than the speed of the events in realspace? The Galaxy outside the ship, tangible through the Force from somewhere beyond the surrounding brilliance of hyperspace, seemed to be going past in a blur, as they sped forward, leaving Thrawn, Chimaera, and the past behind them.
She felt her lip twist. "We should be arriving in the middle of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion by just before fifteen-thirty hours. I hope you know what we're doing here, Little Brother."
"Uhh, I think so," Anakin affirmed. "Anyone need anything explained to them?"
"So let me get this straight?" Tahiri asked. "We're rescuing Jacen, but Alema Rar's fair game for making lekku lightsaber kebab, right?"