Chapter 20
"I think I got something," Jag said excitedly as the comm unit emitted a loud staticky hiss. Jaina raised up from the backseat, peering over his shoulder at the unit.
"What is it?" she asked.
Instead of replying, he hit the switch again. "This is Colonel Jagged Fel of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet. Repeat, this is Colonel Jagged Fel, in need of assistance."
The otherwise solid hum of static popped and crackled for a few minutes, then went quiet. Jag's jaw muscles tightened in frustration. "Repeat, Colonel Jagged Fel in need of assistance. Is there anyone there?"
More pops.
"If you can hear me, click twice," Jag said.
Two clicks.
Jaina burst into a smile. Finally, someone had come for them. So Jag had been right; Syal had not let them down. Jaina placed a hand on her husband's shoulder and squeezed gently, the small gesture letting him know the glee bubbling just beneath her calm facade. He reached up and laid a hand over hers.
"Acknowledged," he spoke into the comm. "Awaiting visual confirmation."
"Visual?" Jaina asked. "We can't see them through the snow. And I doubt they can see us. Will their scanners even pick up through the ice?"
"I don't know," he said as he began to gather their randomly disarrayed garments that had not yet been recovered. "That's why we need to go outside."
Jaina hugged herself at the thought of going back out into the icy tundra. But if it would get them rescued, then she would do as he said. She reached for the door latch, and eventually resorted to kicking it free. Snow poured into the floor of the speeder around them. "How do we get out?"
"We dig," he said simply, and began pushing and shoving the snow aside until there was a hollow beneath the iced over surface. He moved outside the speeder then motioned her to follow. "Your lightsaber," he instructed plainly. She unhooked the blade from her belt and pressed the business end against the frozen ceiling. As she depressed the ignition switch steam erupted from the crystal surface, and hot water poured down onto the ground at their feet. Cracks evolved from the point where her blade met the ice, spreading rapidly outward in long jagged seams until the whole upper surface caved in around them.
The ice-rocks pelted their head and shoulder, but eventually settled around them. Jag scrambled out from the opening and up onto the sheet above them. He extended his hand to her, offering his help. Jaina, feeling suddenly coddled by his protectiveness, spurned his offer and leapt Force-assisted up onto the ground beside him. The effort took more out of her than she wanted to admit, and so smiled superiorly at him to cover her sudden dizziness. He just shook his head at the futile attempt.
They settled back against the slightly bulging mass of their speeder, Jag pulling her back into his parka to keep her warm. This time she had no objections to his coddling. She leaned gratefully against his solid chest, hoping she wouldn't have to forsake the warmth of the speeder for long. "What's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?" she asked to pass the time.
He pondered the question for a while before answering. "That's hard to say, since I'm not leaving you with the medic alone."
"Medic?" she asked, her eyebrows shooting up.
"You need treatment for overexposure," he said matter-of-factly.
"What about my healing trances? They took care of all the frost-bite."
"I'm not taking any chances," he stated firmly. "The first thing we're going to do is demand you be taken to a Medcenter."
"So I have no choice in the matter?" she asked, suggesting she felt otherwise.
"Of course. You can go peacefully or you can choose to make me stun you into submission."
Jaina laughed heartily at the proposition. "Don't suppose I'm that easy to capture, Colonel Fel."
He gave her one of those half-smiles, the one that made her want to smack him and kiss him at the same time. "And don't suppose that I'm so easily put off."
Thoroughly satisfied at their bout, she smiled and leaned back against him. She would rather sit there and banter with him all day long than to laugh with anyone else. In fact, it was almost as satisfying as—
The whir of engines sounded suddenly in the distance, and Jaina sat up in anticipation. "Can you hear it?" she asked excitedly.
Jag stood and placed a hand over his eyes, staring into the distance before letting a grim smile overcome his features. "It's a rescue team all right. Come on, we need to be ready for our deliverers."
"I want out of here," she stated flatly. "I've been spending entirely too much time in a Medcenter lately."
"I agree," Jag said, stopping his pacing to stand at the foot of her bed. "That's why I want you to stay here until released. No relapses."
Jaina frowned at his concern. "I'm fine Jag. If something was really wrong with me they would have said something by now."
"Jaina," he said, clearly exasperated, "when the test results get back, I'll be more than happy to take you home."
"Well, you certainly don't seem to eager now." It was cheap jibe, and she knew it.
A muscle in his jaw ticked. "I want you to stay here so you won't overexert yourself too soon."
Jaina snorted derisively. "I think we've already tested the limits of my stamina, don't you?" Jag blushed slightly, looking away, but at least she had cracked his serious mood. Now she just had to go in for the kill. "Come on, Jag. You're doing that overprotective thing again, the one that got us into this mess. You know I'm okay. Just let me take care of my self for a little while, will you?"
He sighed in defeat, and she knew she had him. "All right," he conceded. "I'm going to go settle some business with my father, then I'll come and check you out."
Jaina smiled lovingly, suddenly the picture of innocence. She reached out and kissed him lightly as he left. "Thank you," she said as he pulled away.
"Just don't make me regret it, okay?"
"Okay."
Jag kept his eyes fixed on a point above his father's head, jaw set, eyes determined. But what was taking the greatest deal of effort was keeping his anger in check. "That's not what I said at all," he rasped finally.
"Then what did you say? Because that's what I heard."
"I said," Jag spoke carefully, "that in the interest of protecting the Ascendancy, as well as myself and her family, Jaina accessed some files in my private computer and used them to benefit the war effort." It had been a concept that Jag himslef had not swallowed easily, so how did he expect his father to? But he still had to try.
"Isn't that what I said?" the Baron rumbled. "She stole high-security files without your permission, then turned them over to New Republic operatives whom we have yet to officially inform about the Yuuzhan Vong."
"They aren't," he spoke with exaggerated calm, "Republic operatives. The Jedi are a completely separate entity from the New Republic. They are her family. She did it to protect them."
"Attacking a Chiss star system that posed no threat to Coruscant was protecting her family? That sounds more like offensive objectives to me, Colonel," Soontir scoffed.
"I am assured that Skywalker's motives were purely in the interest of intelligence gathering. It only turned confrontational after negotiations took a wrong turn." Deciding to be brave, Jag pushed on. "And frankly, I am not seeing the act as quite so deplorable for the Ascendancy as you are insinuating. They freed countless slaves and an enemy-held world, then left it for us to take back, casualty free. I would think that such involvement would be welcome."
"But at what price did they do these things? What are they asking in return?"
"Nothing," Jag said, unable to keep the acid from his voice. "They act only in the interest of others, in accord with the will of this Force of theirs."
Soontir eyed him suspiciously from behind his massive wooden desk. "Since when do you defend organizations you have no interest in, or, in fact, have never been acquainted with?"
Jag had asked himself the same question. He had forgiven Jaina, but that was due more to the fact that he loved her and trusted she thought she had been doing best than to any understanding of her actions. He put it on the same plane as her accusations against him, supposing that her intentions had been pure, if misguided. And also the fact that she would never do such a thing again. So how was he supposed to justify Jaina to someone else, who didn't have the excuse of love to warrant her actions?
Jag took a deep breath, and in that time search frantically for a response to his father's question. Finally, "I trust Jaina. Explicitly. And so I trust what she has told me. I have no other choice."
Soontir fumed as he stared at his son. "You trust her, after what she did?"
"I believe that she did what she thought was best in a tricky situation. I admit I wish she had done differently, but she has apologized, and I forgive her. She will never betray my trust again."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because she is my wife. And I love her."
The silence was tense. Jag wasn't sure why he said what he had said, but he was confident it had been the right decision. There was no reason he should hide it. But Soontir hadn't even so much as blinked since Jag had spoken, as if frozen in time. Finally he let out a shuddering breath, and lowered his gaze to the wooden desk. "Well that will make what I am about to say much more difficult. Jag, Jaina is not the only one who behave out of accordance with their orders. You abandoned your post in Imperial Space. You are to return there immediately. But Jaina will not come back with you."
"What?" Jag asked, not sure he understood.
"The Four Families no longer trust her. She is never to set foot back in Chiss space again. When you return, she will not be permitted to return with you."
Jag didn't know what to say. How was he supposed to choose between duty and his family and Jaina? It wasn't a choice he should ever be force to make. "What of the alliance with the Republic?" he managed finally.
Soontir leaned back in his chair. "It will remain; as will your marriage. But we cannot tolerate her presence on Csilla. I am sorry, Jag."
Jag took in a ragged breath, knowing he should say something, or just leave, but he was grounded in time, fully cognizant of the repercussions of such a decision. And there was no room for appeal. Once a judgment had been laid by the Ruling Families, it was final. There was nothing he could do.
"Do you know what this will do to me?" he hissed finally.
"It was an order laid down to me by my own superiors, not a decision I myself made. You will simply have to deal with it, Jagged."
Jag had recovered himself by then, at least enough to feel something other than numbness. "Or perhaps I won't," he mused aloud icily, then turned and left, knowing he had severely breached protocol. And also wondering what he had meant.
Jaina was already busing herself dressing when Jag arrived back in the Medcenter. She smiled as he entered, pulling on her shirt. "How did it go?"
Jag sat—collapsed, really—in the chair beside her unoccupied bed. "Not well."
She crossed the distance between them in two strides, her face a mask of concern. "What happened, Jag? What did he say?"
As Jag looked into her beautiful face, innocent eyes, he couldn't find it within himself to tell her. It was beyond him, beyond his capability to endure. He couldn't break her heart like that. "I have to return to Imperial Space," he said instead, hoping it was cover enough to fool her, if only temporarily.
She stood, her concern replaced with distress. "Does that mean I have to stay here while you leave again? Because I won't do it. I'm not letting you leave me again."
For once, Jag was grateful for her stubborn resolve. It made it so much easier on him. He nodded, but slowly enough so as not to appear too eager. "I'm not going to fight you on this one. I want you with me as much as you want to be there." It was the truth.
She smiled, and kissed him tenderly. Jag held her close, hating the Chiss for doing this to them. He wouldn't let this break them apart, not when he had so recently been reunited with her. He just wouldn't.
"I guess it's convenient at least. You're already packed, anyway, and your stuff would have taken most of the time. It shouldn't take me more than twenty minutes to get all I need."
"That long?" Jaina asked from her seat on the couch in their apartment. Jag threw her a sardonic look over his shoulder. She just smiled. Jag copied the sight to memory, knowing it was the last time they would ever be in this home together.
Their first home.
But they would move past it, find something new, something theirs. Just where at, he wasn't sure, but they would overcome.
Jag smiled back, then returned to his packing. As predicted, it took his only slightly less than the time he had predicted to gather everything he valued. He was taking no chances, leaving nothing behind, mainly because he didn't know if he would ever be back. If they turned their back on Jaina, they might as well be turning their backs on him.
"Ready?" she asked, slinging one of his duffel bags over her shoulder. He nodded, sliding his free arm around her waist.
"As I'll ever be," he sighed.
They hurried to the docking bay where Jaina had landed the loaned Chiss freighter, the Warrior's Grace. Jag's clawcraft had been docked in its hold, and it had been prepped for takeoff before they ever arrived. All that was left was the preflight, which Jag performed quickly and expertly. They had just received clearance and broken atmosphere when an idea struck Jag. It was worth a shot, at least.
"Jaina," he said casually as she was running the navicomputer for the jump to lightspeed, "what would you say if I didn't want to go to Bastion right away?"
She looked up from the screen and frowned. "Why not?"
He adopted a more serious tone. "You've seen everything about my home and my life, and I know relatively nothing of yours. I want to go to Coruscant, meet your family, see your home."
Jaina raised a skeptical brow. "I thought you were supposed to report directly back to your post."
Jag smiled nonchalantly. "Perhaps I don't always do everything I'm told."
At this Jaina laughed lightly. "Jagged Fel, I do believe you're developing a rebellious streak!"
He feigned mock horror. "Never! I don't see why we can't, you know, just kind of get lost and end up in the New Republic instead."
Jaina laughed hysterically at this, but began to plot the new coordinates anyway. "You know," she commented as she did so, "I'm beginning to think married life might not be so bad after all."