Today's Senate audience was significantly more orderly than the day before. Today, the Imperials seemed ready to take back their power with this ludicrous vote. Today, Leia pulsated with resolve not to let that happen. Luke and Kess struggled to maintain neutrality inside themselves because, today, both of them had swollen eyes from crying most of the night. Out of reach of each other, they sat behind the command console and just let Nik handle it.
Nik managed the day in almost complete silence. He used a protocol droid to randomize and announce the names. He timed the mike-mute controls for exactly five minutes speeches, no matter who was doing the talking or where their diatribe ended up. He learned to ignore random shouts trying to order him to do anything else.
No less than 61 nominees finalized the list of people vying for the position of Chamberlain. The speeches took two days.
On the first day, Nominee Grand Moff Jakobi took the floor.
Jakobi presented a historical summary that this whole war started with the corruption of the Senate, that the Jedi already tried to overthrow the Republic, and this new Jedi atop the Chancellor's spire today were trying to do the same thing now. He insisted the rebellion was borne by a civil war they themselves had started. The Empire rose up and gathered an army only to stop the cessation of the violent Separatists. Jakobi reminded them that the Empire had been invaded. Coruscant was currently under enemy occupation. And he insisted that the only solution to this madness was to vote him into power so they could quash this disorderly circus and kill all the remaining Jedi to prevent the whole thing from happening again. Peace could only be assured through the purity of the Palpatine Empire.
Many were swayed by Jakobi's passionate speech.
But the cease fire held. . . .
As they exited the Chancellor's chambers and prepared to run the evening gauntlet to the speeder, Kess couldn't wait to get back to the apartment and hide in a closet. Luke and Nik were equally focused to push through the crowd, eyes down, mouths shut, and ignore anything anyone said to them. As usual, people shouted their names in the demand for attention, but Luke and Kess were so numb they even ignored vaguely familiar faces and friendly calls.
That Geoffrik was wearing his uniform didn't seem to grab their attention either. Shouting their names only got lost in the rest of the noise. The Gold Group deck grunt looked around and thought quickly, and before the entourage walked too far away, he motioned over a stranger and shoved him down onto one knee just so he could stand on the other knee and lift himself in the air.
For the brief moment he was aloft, Geoffrik cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted in his loudest voice. "ROGUE GROUP IS LANDING!"
Whiplash.
Luke and Kess turned instantly to the source of this news and recognized the shipmate beyond the crowd. Many others shut up to seek clues on how this guy managed to get the Jedi to stop and listen.
Geoffrik cupped his mouth again. "Destiny Airport! Flight Wesk432!"
Luke shouted over the crowd. "When?"
Geoffrik poked a finger down at his feet and spoke in a regular voice. "Now."
Luke, Kess, and Nik quickly eyed each other with a new plan. Kess paused only enough to look Geoffrik in the eyes and press her fist to her heart with the deepest of thanks. Geoffrik nodded back as she turned and joined the others in a full run.
Nik insisted he would do the flying so he could dump them at the entrance, park, and catch up later. But as they moved through the traffic to get there, he questioned this meet-up. "Isn't this going to hurt our precious appearance of neutrality?"
Luke answered before Kess had the chance. "I don't give a damn."
They opened their doors before Nik fully landed at the front entrance and jumped out like they were racing into battle. Luke and Kess ran together, side by side, dodging masses of travelers. They paused on skipping feet only to seek out the flight number and gate on the display screens, and dove into a hard run toward that wing of the terminal. Their eyes searched for familiar faces in the crowd but saw no one. By the time they got to the gate archway, the transport had already landed, but the gangway hadn't yet lowered.
Kess grabbed Luke's hand with silent intensity as the ship to opened up and let out its hundreds of passengers. At first, both waited obediently behind the yellow safety line until they began to see the dejected faces of their pilots.
Rogan. . . . Janson. . . .
Their minds automatically began taking muster roll.
Ommis. . . . Jewie. . . . Josey. . . .
As the pilots began to find them standing there, faces lifted and sad eyes smiled to see them.
Seth. . . . Klivian. . . . Exati. . . .
Their boots inched forward onto the tarmac, searching for the rest of their friends.
Tarrin. . . . Endomar.
Kess and Luke ignored the auto-warnings shouting at them to back up.
Where's the rest?
They stepped out to cross the tarmac, but there were no more familiar faces coming out of the transport.
Where's the rest!?
The gang stepped to Luke and Kess like the two were the only good thing to come out of all this. Kess's feet began to walk faster and close the distance, indecisive of which one she wanted to hug first, until the last pilot stepped down from the transport behind them all—
He had a cast on his right arm and a bandage on his forehead, but Wedge wore an expression as if he had been shot in the chest.
Kess ran hard and landed against Wedge's body.
The pilot closed his eyes and held her head with his one good arm. Luke watched it for a beat before he stepped over and hugged Wedge too, holding the other man's forehead to his own with the woman practically smashed between them. Rogan turned around and hugged Kess from behind. Then Seth came over and hugged them both. Klivian stepped up and hugged Wedge's back. The remaining pilots closed in until they were all embracing each other in one, big, woeful, knot.
Kess struggled, but forced herself to do it, even though she already knew the answer. She lifted her face to Wedge, but then couldn't bring herself to ask the question.
Choking, Wedge shook his head and tears welled up in his eyes.
"All of them?" She squeaked.
Wedge closed his eyes. "I tried, Kess. I tried. . . . I tried. I tried. I tried. . . ."
"I know. I know. I heard." She consoled him with a new hug.
They stood on that tarmac longer than they were supposed to and airport security came up too soon to usher them all away to the busy mess in the terminal. The others spoke of finding a pub in which they could all hide for a while before reporting to their new barracks, so the gang of them invaded a little restaurant inside the terminal and filled up three tall-tables in the corner.
A lot of the pilots took a moment to hug Kess specifically, for she was the last of the repair side of their family. And Wedge took more than one opportunity to hug her again. He held her like a superbly relieved big brother to have the proof that she was alive too. In truth, he was hugging Kess because he couldn't hug Kayla . . . or Ashten . . . or Seidrik . . . or. . . .
After filling the silence with numb conversation until each had drinks to sip and food to nibble, Wedge finally brought himself to tell them all what happened.
He saw the TIE fighter aim for the hangar, pound its thrusters, and the pilot eject. He fired at it, but his shots hardly slowed the 'meteor' plowing for the hangar deck. Wedge saw only a glimpse of the repair crew running for cover. He slammed on his dampers to slow himself in front of it, but the move was too clumsy, and the TIE was moving too fast, and the carrier's shields were already in trouble. The only reason Wedge survived was because he was double-safe in his enviro-suit and the cockpit, but the last thing he remembered was the explosion rolling over the entire deck and his canopy when Rogue Three crashed into the hangar too.
At the end of his explanation, no one pressed him for more detail.
All twelve Rogue Group pilots raised their glasses to their fallen repair crew and held the drinks aloft for a long minute of silence.
Condolences and forgiveness showered Wedge for his attempt to save them. Voices tried to turn to better news of those friends in Green Group and Blue Group who had survived this disaster. Someone also noted that Yana Deitrich —Wedge's 'secret' crush that everyone seemed to know about— was still WIA somewhere, and Kess promised her next off-Senate project was to find her old roommate.
Toward the end of the evening, when the subdued laughter of old tales began to roam through the conversation, Kess excused herself to the lavatory.
In her absence, Luke wrapped an arm around Wedge's shoulder and rested the sides of their heads together. He enjoyed every splinter of relief to know that at least this friend had lived.
"So. Skywalker?" Janson peeped up in code in case the other Jedi could listen in even from the bathroom. "You still working with that chinkle tool set?"
All eleven of them knew instantly what the real question was. And all eleven of them raised their faces for an answer. This was the one piece of good news Rogue Group could grasp onto; the one piece of news that could ease some of the pain of their terrific loss.
Luke grinned through this somberness to report. "The project continues, but it's going to be a while before that mission can launch."
They all understood what he meant and asked no more questions. Kess returned and was too upset to notice anyone who tried not to grin at her about it. When the gang dispersed for the night, Wedge paused to ask Kess before he left too. "When you find her, ask her if it would be okay for me to come see her too."
"I don't have to ask her that." Kess felt she already knew Yana's answer.
"Ask her anyway," he whispered.
Kess nodded obedience, kissed him on the cheek, and got out of the way so Luke could give the man another powerful hug before they went home.
Nik had hovered in the background for the entire event. By the time he caught up with them at the airport gate, a dozen men and women crowded his sister like she was some kind of queen bee. His big brother instinct was to rip them off of her so he could console his sister himself. This was his job. But he saw how she was hanging on all of them as much as they seemed to need to hang onto her. He saw how she held Luke's hand under the table at the same time she rested her head on the shoulder of the other pilot, and none of the crew blinked at either display of affection.
This was a tight gang, Nik noted. Incredibly strong people. But today they were suffering abject defeat. It wasn't until that other pilot told the story that Nik understood the details and immensity of that grief. Their entire repair crew was gone. The cease fire was holding; this was supposed to feel like a victory. Now Nik understood why it didn't. He watched how the gang interacted in that airport bar. He watched they supported each other, how they loved each other. Kess had found herself the kind of family that their own family struggled to be. Nik felt a little twinge of jealousy that he wasn't a part of it, and then realized the wry humor of that irony.
In all the years since she left for the military, Nik had worried about her. Worried about her being alone, facing the big galaxy all by herself, with no one to lean on when times got tough, no one to muscle away the men who didn't take 'no' for an answer. But now he saw the truth. Kess didn't adopt a new 'big brother' to fill his roll while they were separated; she adopted twelve of them.
Well, eleven of them, plus one that wasn't getting a 'no' for an answer. When Jedi Master and Apprentice visited Tatooine a few months ago, Kess had claimed nothing was going on between them, and Nik believed it. He even defended her in bars when strangers made loud comments at the gossip on the vid. Was he wrong to do that? Was she lying all along?
Did it matter?
It had given him quite a pause to find them wrapped hard around each other in sleep the other day, if not completely naked, they were close enough. At the time, his brain was still too intoxicated to trust his own response to that, not to mention the bigger sand drifts in need of shoveling that day.
But watching them in that bar, surrounded by friends in sorrow, and seeing how the two supported each other under the incredible stress and pressure of these last two days, how they always seemed to be on the same page about everything, from deciding dinner to tender galactic politics, Nik saw the deeper truth.
Little Kay Kay and The Luke Skywalker were already married. They just didn't know it yet.
Nik was glad to fly them home so the two could cuddle in the backseat. He ordered up an easy dinner so they didn't have to worry about the task of it. He ordered the droids to shut down so the couple could have some peace and silence in the apartment, and he was ready to grab a serving and disappear into the office so they could have the whole place to themselves.
But Kess ate only a few bites and murmured on her way back to their bedroom, and Luke stood at the window, staring as if in numbness as she did.
Nik paused. Kess was hiding to cry. If Luke wasn't going to console her, perhaps big brother should step in.
"Let her be," Luke whispered, before Nik had the chance to move. The Jedi hadn't even glanced his way.
Nik considered, but he capitulated. He realized again how well Luke knew her. He knew her. And he knew her because he loved her. The man stood at the window as if staring out, but now his eyes were closed. As if it was killing him not to go back and console her too.
Nik acknowledge that little Kay Kay was in good hands, and he disappeared into the office to get out of the way.
Luke listened to the other man leave the room, regretting that he couldn't get to know Nik under better circumstances. Luke felt this was the time they should be trying to become the kind of friends that were on the road to being family. He should be reaching out to start Nik's training. He should be asking for Nik's approval of the locket currently hiding next to his ankle. But there was too much happening. Too many emotions weighing him down.
Luke felt a little ashamed of this weakness; that these pressures and losses disabled him so badly that he didn't have enough strength left to extend the hope of brotherhood. He had long envisioned that Nik would become like a brother to him, not only as his next apprentice, soon also as a marital connection. But right now, the whole idea surrounding that word cut Luke to the core.
Brother.
"I don't know, you think a Princess and a guy like me. . . .?"
Luke opened his eyes again, but the neon lights out there blurred in his teary vision.
"Maybe we should wait this out back at the strip club?"
At the time, he didn't know the Socorro man who reached up from the Falcon's access tube to pluck him off Cloud City's antenna, handless and half-dead, and damn close to slipping entirely. All he knew was the man was instantly his brother.
Lando quipped, bright and loud, "Well, hey! Why don't we just all turn ourselves in and then we won't have any more battles!"
Han spread a palm to the side and announced it with flare, "And for our next segment, Jedi porn!"
Crix pointed at Kess's lightsaber like she was crazy. "Aren't you going to want that thing in working condition while you're up there?"
Rieekan looked Luke up and down and grinned at the parka. "You're wearing more fur than the damn tauntaun."
Dodonna aimed his pointer at the diagram, "You're required to maneuver straight down this trench. . . ."
Brothers. Fathers. Wingmen. Soldiers in arms. Buddies. Friends. . . . Family.
Dreis. Porkins. Dinnes. Branon. Nozzo. Nett. Ralo. Puck. Biggs. . . .
"You keep it up and one day wham-o! You'll be nothing more than a dark smear on a canyon wall"
Teak. Zev. Kit. Hobbie. Dak. . . .
"I feel like I can take on the whole Empire myself."
Luke had no more energy to cry, but tears bled down his face anyway.
This war had to end.
It had to.
The Rebellion didn't have anyone left to lose.
Kess stared at the black bedspread, made again by the housekeeping droid, and looked out the window to the facing buildings across the side street outside. But she forced herself to focus. She shoved herself into the action of taking care of herself. She stepped into the black and sand lavatory and got distracted again by the strange shower that poured out actual water.
Such a waste.
This time, she turned the heat up a little more and stepped in naked to let the water pour over her head and unraveled hair. It felt like a hard, hot rain. She thought of the rains on Yavin 4, and the way the grass steamed when the sun came out afterwards. She remembered the night Joanne lent her a coat leaving the Mash Pit because the poor Tatooine girl couldn't handle cold breeze that night. She remembered when Kayla handed her a compression unit as they were sharing gossip so it would look like they were working. She remembered Ashten trying to carry so many datacards in her arms in such a rush that she bumped into Teak on the way into the office and the whole mess scattered all over the floor. She remembered young Seidrik trying to throw that stupid ball at the back of her head. And good ol' salty dog Stev Shorkey, "Why aren't you at your fencing class this afternoon?"
Too many. This was too many.
Yana flushed a little pinker. "I can't believe I just did that."
Ashten angled her head at Yana with a smile. "I can't believe it took you so long."
Kayla spread her arms with an announcement. "New project!"
Still using Kess's side as backrest, Joanne spread her arms too and joined the long shout. "New project!"
Ashten 'reported in' to Kayla. "Do we have a mission plan, commander?"
Kayla poked a finger over. "You, my girly girl, just became a member of the Girly Girl Team."
Half of the people at that picnic. . . .
Half of the family. . . .
Half!
This was way too many.
Kess curled into a ball right there on the deck of the shower stall and cried more tears than were falling onto the top of her head.