Epilogue: Back in Black

One hour later

Jay sat back in the pilot's set of Void, rubbing her eyes wearily. It felt like every muscle in her body was on fire and she was sure every other member of her team was just as weary.

The stars twinkled innocently outside the front viewport, beckoning to her. She wanted to just plot a random course and jump to another system than the one they were in, anywhere but here.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to reach a hyperspace jump point for some time; the Imperials had increased their patrols since the destruction of the Facility. It may be some time before Jay and her team were presented with an opening to leave the system and return to Mandalore. But after all they'd been through, no one was complaining about the delay. It almost seemed like everyone was too exhausted to do anything but get along. Even Vhetin and Les were cooperating, though their interactions were stiff, awkward, and suspicious.

Jay wasn't surprised the calm was having such a noticeable effect on her group. The firefight down on the planet's surface had been one of the most harrowing of her career. Without D'harhan's last-minute intervention and everyone else's specific talents over the course of the infiltration, she was sure none of them would have made it. She was surprised they had all made it at all.

"Yeah," she said into the comm. "Yeah, we're all fine. Vhetin's looking better since Rame sedated him. He's sleeping in the medbay last I checked. Les has disappeared somewhere in the cargo bay, exercising I think. D'harhan is... I don't know, recharging or something. He's sitting in the engine room and hasn't moved in hours. Everyone else is just unwinding from all the adrenaline."

"Then what's wrong?" came the response.

She stared ahead for a few moments, lost in her own thoughts. Then she rubbed her eyes again. "Trassk... he didn't make it out. He was swarmed by those things the Imperials were making in that research base. We had to leave him behind."

"That's not your fault."

"I was in charge," she said. "It was my duty to get everyone out safely. I failed."

"You kept Ti'ica and Laniff and all the others safe."

"Eight out of nine isn't good enough, Venku," she murmured. "Not this time."

"I'm sure you did everything you could," he reassured her. "More than most would be able to, Jay."

"I know..." she sighed. "I know. I just wish I could have done more. Now Trassk isn't going back home because I dragged him into that damn place. I just keep thinking... did he hate me at the end for leaving him behind? Was he scared of dying in his last moments?"

"Come on. He was a Trando for te Manda's sake. He would have wanted to go down fighting. Hell, he probably had the time of his life."

"Maybe you're right. Nothing I can do about it now, I guess." She sighed again, then sat forward and said, "How's everything on the home front?"

"Quiet as can be. And speaking of which, there's someone who'd like to talk to you. Hang on a sec."

There was a slight clatter as the comm set was handed to someone else. After a few moments, a familiar voice said, "Hey there."

A weary smile tugged at her lips. "Hey you."

"You had me worried for a while there. Things sounded pretty bleak."

She shook her head. "You have no idea."

"You okay?"

She closed her eyes for a few moments. Eventually, she murmured, "I will be. In time."

"Well I'm glad you got out of there, in any case. I'm in no mood to hit the dating market again. If you'd died, where would I be?"

She laughed. "I'm glad I could spare you the embarrassment."

"But you managed to get your partner out of there," he said. "That's something worth celebrating, isn't it?"

Jay thought about everything she'd done to rescue Cin, every sacrifice she'd made, every sleepless night she'd spent searching. It was good to finally have him onboard. But at the same time, she felt slightly uncomfortable in his presence. It was like being reunited with someone she'd known from her childhood, someone she remembered, but had little experience dealing with face-to-face.

True, it had only been three months since their separation on Mon Calamari, but it may as well have been three years. She was a different person now and so was he. The experience had changed them both, and only time would tell if it had changed them for the better or worse.

"Cyar'ika? You still with me?"

She blinked and said, "I'm sorry... what were you saying?"

"I asked if you were glad you managed to get Vhetin back."

She frowned, then nodded. "Yeah. I'm glad he's back. It was... difficult, though. Seeing him again."

"I'll bet. It sounded like last time you saw him, the odds were not in his favor. I mean, hell, everyone else thought he was dead."

"I did too," she reminded him. "At first."

"But you stuck to your gut. You never gave up on him, even when everyone was telling you to just move on. That's more than most did."

"Yeah," she sighed. "I guess you're right."

"You sound exhausted." His tone was sympathetic. "Tell you what, cyar'ika; when you get home, I'll take you to dinner. My treat. What do you say?"

She laughed again, feeling a little better. "That sounds great, but I'm going to have to take a raincheck. Vhetin is going to need medical attention and I don't want to leave him alone. I'll probably be spending the night at the medcenter."

"That won't be necessary."

Jay turned to find Vhetin striding through the door. It was like looking at a ghost; he was dressed from head to toe in his old black and gray Mandalorian battle armor. He was moving stiffly, as if his bandages were impeding his movement. But she couldn't stop herself from grinning at his appearance. Finally, finally, the old Vhetin was back.

"How are you doing?" she asked, moving to stand and help him.

"I can walk," he said and waved her off. He eased himself into the copilot's seat, leaning back with a sigh. He put a hand to his stomach plates and grunted, "But I do feel like someone's scraped me across a cheese grater. Give me a few days and I'll be back to normal."

"I think you're underplaying your injuries," Jay said, raising an eyebrow as she examined his current condition. "Even you can't bounce back so quickly."

"Watch me."

The voice over the comm chuckled and said, "I'll leave you guys to it. You two deserve some private time after all you've been through."

"Talk to you later?" she asked.

"Count on it, cyar'ika," he replied, then shut down the comm. She powered down the ship's communication suite and sat back in the pilot's chair, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. After a few moments, she looked over at Vhetin, who was staring at her intently through the familiar T-visor of his old helmet.

"What?"

"Cyar'ika?" he echoed, amusement in his tone. "Sounds pretty serious. You'd better slow things down or he'll be proposing marriage next. We Mandos marry young, you know."

She laughed. "Back for precisely three hours and already giving me relationship advice? I should have known you'd be dying to stick your nose in someone else's business after being cooped up in that cell for three months."

He shrugged, then winced at the motion. "Just figured I'd give you a head's up. Don't say I didn't warn you."

He looked around the cockpit, running a hand across the leather armrest of the copilot's seat. He sighed and murmured, "It's good to be back here. It seems like a lifetime since I was... well, anywhere but that damn laboratory."

He turned and stared at her again. "And I owe it all to you, Jay. Thank you again."

She didn't meet his gaze. "You don't have to thank me."

"But I do," he said insistently. "I'm sorry to sound so rude, but you... you have no idea what it was like in there, Ja'ika."

She nodded. "I understand. I saw what they did to you."

"It's... not something that's going to leave me for a while," he sighed. "But I've been thinking a lot since we got out of that place and what you said back in that cargo bay was right. We need to destroy this project so they don't have the ability to continue their research."

She nodded. "I thought you'd reach that conclusion. And I'll be right there with you, every step of the way."

He chuckled. "I can't think of anyone else I'd want watching my back."

He gingerly stood from the seat and turned to the door. He paused, then put a hand on her shoulder. "It's good to see you again, Jay. I... well, I missed you."

She smiled. "I missed you too, Cin."

Then he nodded and limped out of the room. She stared after him until the door slid shut, then sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, glad to be able to relax after so much pain and fear.

Within minutes, she had slipped into a calm, dreamless sleep.

Quorbus

With a mechanized, rasping breath, Darth Vader surveyed the smoking ruin that was all the remained of Imperial Medical Facility 38-B. He disregarded the muttering of the assembled doctors behind him and instead simply stared out over the massive crater that, only that morning, had been one of the Empire's most advanced and expensive scientific research bases.

The crater had to be several hundred meters deep, but it was filled almost to the brim with debris, twisted durasteel supports, and the remnants of the station's large power reactor, the destruction of which had carved the crater out of the ground. TIE fighters screamed overhead, searching the area for survivors or other escaped prisoners. For the moment, however, Imperial Intelligence had classified 38-B as a total loss of personnel.

Scaling the wall of the crater some distance away were several teams of Imperial Commandos, descending by rappel line into the wreckage to salvage what equipment they could and eliminate any potential surviving test subjects. Whatever could be recovered would aid the rebuilding of the project, but Vader was not concerned with such minute concerns as equipment replacement.

It was some time before he finally turned and said, "Doctor Uthalian. Step forward."

The aging Doctor Uthalian strode out of the crowd, chin raised imperiously, unapologetically. Vader watched the man with distaste, resting his fists on his hips as the man approached. Uthalian came to a halt in front of Vader and hooked his arms behind his back.

"Yes, my lord?"

Vader stared at the man, taking another long, wheezing breath. "Perhaps you would care to explain how this..."

He gestured to the crater behind him.

"... came to pass."

Uthalian bowed his head slightly, green eyes flashing. "At approximately oh-five-hundred hours, a small team of infiltrators managed to penetrate Facility defenses and-"

"I have read the reports, Doctor," Vader boomed. "What concerns me is how your incompetence allowed this team of infiltrators to escape with the Primary, an asset that managed to evade our special agents for almost five years."

"My lord, the fault lies with the late Colonel Packard, who did not manage to defeat the infiltrators, even with the thirty troops at his command."

"The colonel was acting on your orders, Doctor," Vader said.

Uthalian blinked, then said, "We also had a security system failure early on in the assault. Courtesy of the Primary, we can assume."

"And you had no contingency plans in place for such an occurrence?"

Uthalian was now sweating visibly. "I-if I may, my lord-"

"This facility was placed under your supervision," Vader said, turning back to study the crater again. "You were given strict orders to prevent an escape by any means necessary. In that duty, Doctor, you were deplorably unsuccessful."

"I-if it would please you, my lord," Uthalian stammered, "I would be happy to turn in my resignation, effective immediately."

"I thank you for your willingness to accept your failure," Vader said. Then he clenched his right fist. There was a sudden rumble over the air, quickly followed by the crackle of bones. Uthalian twitched and fell to the ground, dead before he could even clutch at his throat.

Vader turned to the late doctor and stared down at his corpse. "Resignation accepted, Doctor Uthalian."

Then he strode past the body and placed himself before the few remaining doctors who had been evacuated before the Facility had been destroyed. They were milling about, staring fearfully between Vader and Uthalian's remains. Vader surveyed the group, folding his arms across his chest with a slow, mechanical breath.

"Doctor Torch," he finally rumbled. "Your findings."

The doctor stepped forward, swallowing nervously. "Um... we managed to remove a rather substantial amount of research material before the reactor went critical. The initial inventory is still ongoing, but we believe we still have enough equipment and genetic material to continue our research, my lord."

"Good," Vader said, "begin preparations to move the salvage to the new location immediately, Doctor."

"Y-yes, my lord," Torch said, quickly shrinking away as if he half-expected Vader to change his mind and snap his neck like Uthalian.

"As of this moment," Vader said to the rest of the group, "Project Whiteclaw is now to be considered under emergency contingency directives. All of you shall be reassigned to the viral weaponry division of Imperial Intelligence, effective immediately."

The doctors nodded nervously. Torch looked slightly ill at the prospect of the reassignment. Vader disregarded the man's squeamishness; he would do his duty to the Empire or pay the consequences. It was that simple.

Then his gaze fell on a dirty, bruised Twi'lek with purple skin. "Doctor Kasiporo," he said. "Step forward."

The Twi'lek now took his place at the head of the group, staring at the ground and refusing to meet Vader's helmeted gaze. "Yes, Lord Vader?"

"You were Doctor Uthalian's second in command, is that correct?"

"That is correct, Lord Vader."

"Good," Vader said with a slow nod. "The contingency project will need a new senior researcher. You are now in command of this operation, which will be codenamed Project Blackwing. That is all."

He turned to the other doctors and gestured to them with a wave of one gloved hand. "You are all dismissed."

The doctors quickly bowed their heads and shuffled away, all to glad to be out of his presence. Vader watched them file toward the shuttle waiting to take them to the new research location, then turned back to the crater. After a few moments, he pulled a palm-sized holotransmitter from his belt and activated it.

With a crackle of static, the flickering blue hologram of a hunched, wrinkled old man in a hooded cloak appeared in mid-air before him. Vader inclined his head and boomed, "What is thy bidding, my master?"

"Ah, Lord Vader," the Emperor hissed. "Your presence on Quorbus has been noted by Imperial Intelligence agents. I take it there were complications with your research there?"

Vader nodded. "The Primary Test Subject escaped our control and the research facility was destroyed."

The Emperor narrowed his yellow-tinged eyes. "And the research?"

"I have reassigned the doctors under the Blackwing contingency, master. The research shall continue."

"Very good," the Emperor growled, then cut the connection. The hologram flickered and faded.

Vader let out a wheeze and clipped the transmitter back to his belt. He stared out across the ruined research facility for a few moments more, then turned and strode away.

To be continued in Star Wars: White Snow: Contention...