Wedge handed Luke a cup of coffee as they walked into an empty lounge at the Bilbringi Shipyard headquarters. "How's Lando?" Wedge asked.
"Oh, he'll be fine," Luke said. "He was a bit grumpy about going to the infirmary, until Leia pointed out to him that that was half the reason we came out here in the first place. You know her, she's persuasive."
"True," Wedge said. "What was the other half of the reason?"
"Fix my X-Wing," Luke said as he sat down. "Blew the motivators out."
"Both of them?" Wedge asked. "Doing what?"
"Would you believe me if I said I was single handedly escaping an Interdictor Cruiser from a full stop?"
"Coming from you?" Wedge said. "Absolutely."
"Oh." Luke leaned back in his chair and took a sip of coffee. "Good."
Wedge looked at him wide-eyed. "What the hell were you doing?"
Luke sighed. "It's been a strange couple of months," he said. He briefly told Wedge about the attacks on Leia, Lando's mole miners getting stolen, the Jedi master he was looking for, the Interdictor Cruiser, getting picked up by Talon Karrde, and then escaping Talon Karrde with Han and Lando. Wedge listened patiently, as always, but kept shaking his head as the story went on.
"That's the craziest thing I have ever heard," Wedge said, as Luke finished at Bilbringi.
"No kidding," Luke said.
"You should have name dropped me," Wedge said.
"Name dropped you?"
"Yeah," Wedge said. "With Karrde. I know him."
"You do?" Luke said. "Since when?"
"Since...I don't know, maybe a year and a half ago? Booster conned him into helping us out with the Tyferra operation. Didn't I tell you that? I could have sworn I told you that."
Luke frowned as he thought for a moment. "The Tyferra operation? I guess...I've only seen you once since then. Han and Leia's wedding reception. We didn't have much time to catch up."
Wedge's face sunk into disappointment as he slid from the chair arm he was sitting on to the seat. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. "Life moves fast."
"I'd slow down the whole universe if I could," Luke said.
"What are you going to do next?" Wedge asked.
"Can't do anything until my X-Wing is fixed. And I'm not exactly high on the priority list."
"You want mine?"
Luke stopped mid-sip. "Sorry, what?"
"You can have mine. We'll be stuck here for several days anyway, and I'll probably be busy playing bureaucrat. I'll fly yours back and we can swap."
"What? No, Wedge, you can't just hand your military X-Wing to a civilian. That's crazy."
"Not half as crazy as half that story you just told me."
"I'm not taking your X-Wing."
"Okay." Wedge took another sip of coffee. "You change your mind, you let me know."
Luke sighed and shook his head.
"Okay, fine," Wedge said. "What are you going to do after that?"
"You mean after I get back to Coruscant and help Leia sort out whatever Borsk Fey'lya's latest escapade is?"
Wedge wrinkled his face in disgust at the name. "Yeah, after that."
"I'm going to try finding Master C'Baoth again."
Wedge frowned. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You don't think that seemed a bit...off?
"No, what do you mean?" Luke asked.
"I mean, you just hear about this person and the second you go looking for him, you just happen to be waylaid by an Interdictor Cruiser. Where has he been all this time? And don't tell me hiding out from the Emperor, because that wasn't a good answer last time either," Wedge said.
Luke shifted in his chair, remembering Wedge's initial skepticism about Yoda, that, in some respects, turned out to be right. "It's...not entirely clear where he's been," Luke said. "But the cruiser wasn't even looking for me anyway."
"That you know of," Wedge said.
"Why would they be looking for me?" Luke said, getting exasperated.
"Because they'd always be looking for you anyway. And if you've heard of this guy, maybe they have too, and figured you'd go looking for him."
"The point is," Luke said, trying to redirect the conversation, "that I need a teacher."
"You don't even know who this person is," Wedge said.
"Well, how else am I supposed to find out?" Luke said. "Leia is going to trust me to train her children at some point and I barely know what I'm doing myself."
"That isn't true either," Wedge said.
Luke leaned back in his chair. "When we were leaving Lando's mining operation," he said, "there was this TIE fighter following us. We were trying to leave undetected, so I sort of, you know, reached out, and, I guess, distracted him a bit, confused him. It bothered me, and for a while I couldn't figure out why."
"But then you did figure it out," Wedge said.
Luke turned his cup around in his hands. The episode still made him uncomfortable. "Yeah. I think, Wedge...I think that's what happened to Biggs." Luke felt Wedge's emotions jump at the sound of Biggs' name.
Wedge looked at him closely. "What are you talking about?"
Luke spoke slowly. It was still painful. "Do you remember," he said, "after we got set up at the new base, Command had us review all the sensor data from Yavin? And we both agreed, remember, Biggs doesn't get confused in a cockpit. That's not him. But that's what happened. He was there, behind us…"
"Stop," Wedge said. "You're not responsible for anything your father did."
"But I just did the same thing," Luke said.
"Did you blow up the TIE fighter?"
"No."
"Then you did not do the same thing," Wedge said.
Luke sighed. "Look, I have no idea what the upper limit is of what I can do, or if an upper limit even exists. I keep coming up on these ethical implications that I hadn't thought of, and I need guidance."
Wedge tapped the arm of his chair. "Did you talk to Leia about it?" he asked.
"No," Luke said. "Well, looking for Master C'Baoth, yes, but not...the other thing." Wedge raised an eyebrow. "Well, I don't want to scare her," Luke said. "Besides, you know she doesn't like talking that kind of, you know, family stuff."
"Right," Wedge said.
"I at least need to go check it out," Luke said.
"What you need to do is be careful," Wedge said.
"I will be."
"You are the least careful person I know," Wedge said. He sighed. "Look, if I thought I could spare him, I'd send Corran with you. He's got enough natural suspicion for both of you."
Luke had to smile at that. "How is Corran, anyway?"
"Good," Wedge said. "I think he's read everything you've sent him a dozen times each. Loves to talk about it. I suggested he have Whistler program remote droids for him to do lightsaber practice, the way we used to have R2 do for you."
"That's a good idea," Luke said. "If this works out, I'll have more stuff for him." Luke watched Wedge finish his coffee and turn the cup around in his hands. Wedge always seemed to be struggling between wanting to be supportive and wanting to be protective.
"I mean, I hope it does work out," Wedge said. He looked at Luke.
Luke tried to give him what he thought was a reassuring smile. "I know," he said.
Wedge pointed at him. "But if it doesn't, your ass better be back here so I can say I told you so."
"I will," Luke said. Wedge raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I promise!"
"Hm."
Luke watched Wedge go back to staring at his empty cup. Luke leaned back and closed his eyes. He could feel Wedge's concern churning, as Wedge fought to keep it from coming too far out. Luke smiled to himself. He couldn't have had this conversation with anyone else in the universe. "Wedge?"
"Mm?"
"Thanks for listening."
Wedge reached over and gave Luke's shoulder a squeeze. "You can always come find me."