Chapter 4

Disclaimer: It should be pretty obvious that I do not own the Star Wars galaxy nor anything in it, this is purely for fun and love of writing, and should not be considered canon.

Xan was riding back to the Artell ranch with Marnist on the back of the swoop, holding him around the waist, she seemed to be enjoying the ride, snuggling against Xan's back. He kept it under control even though he wanted to let loose on the swoop, it always helped him to get aggression, and anger out by going out and driving something like a stung mynock. But Marnist was with him, and he couldn't risk his boss's daughter like that.

Xan was spinning the swoop around a turn when he caught sight of a group of local thugs, apparently causing problems for one young women, alone, Xan instantly noticed she was unarmed. He stopped the swoop, and dismounted hurriedly pulling out his blaster and handing it to Marnist.

"Do you know how to use one of these?" Xan asked, holding forward the DL-44.

"Of course." She said taking up the weapon and checking the power level.

"Don't shoot unless I'm in trouble, got it?"

"Of course Xan." She said again.

Xan sprinted from beside the swoop towards the group. There were three of them, two humans and a Trandoshan. There was no way he should have been able to get so close with heavy thudding boots, but he was within range and leapt, planting his foot in the back of the Trandoshan. The reptilian alien was sprawled out on the ground unconscious before his friends had any idea what had happened.

From the ground Xan kicked one of the others in the side of the knee, popping the joint, and crumpling the thug to the ground. The third had plenty of time to prepare for Xan's attack, and countered when Xan was trying to position himself for the final assault. The last man tackled Xan, skidding across the pavement; he landed a few punches before Xan could retaliate with a punch across the jaw. That was all Xan, with his heavy grav honed muscles, needed. He rushed the attacker and landed a punch in his stomach with all of Xan's weight behind it. A quick jab to the solar plexus finished him.

"Come on let's go." Xan said extending a hand to women now cowering on the street. She had dark brown hair with blonde highlights. She lifted her face and looked at Xan, it was the girl from the tapcafe on Carida. "Are you alright?" She didn't respond, only nodded an affirmative. "Then let's go." She took Xan's hand and the two rushed to Xan's swoop and headed for the Artell ranch.

Just as Xan and Haara stepped up to the swoop a squad of Stormtroopers rounded the corner. Xan snatched the DL-44 from Marnist's hand and fired a few shots at the Stormtroopers. The white armored soldiers snapped their E-11's up but didn't fire.

"Xander Parck! Halt, we were sent by your fath. . ." The sentence went unfinished due to a blaster bolt from Xan's DL-44. Blue stun bolts rung out from the weapons, and Xan returned fire, and the troopers scattered, taking up cover. Xan put Haara on the swoop and mounted the vehicle in front of her and headed off towards the ranch.

Xan kept his eyes peeled for Imperial troops on speeder bikes, but he couldn't allow to much of his concentration to be taken from piloting the swoop through the alleys that he was using to get back to the ranch. As soon as the suburban terrain turned into plains that would lead Xan back to the ranch, he hit the thrusters and shot off over the open land. Haara was gripping Xan tightly around the waist the same way Marnist had only a few minutes before, her fear was almost tangible, and Xan felt bad, because he knew that flying the swoop that fast was part of the problem.

Xan spotted the ranch off in the distance and thumbed the comm Switch on the swoops control board.

"Rydell open the hangar." Xan bit out quickly.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Rydell asked.

"I'll tell you when I get there, shouldn't be too much longer." Xan said as the swoop shot over one of the vineyards.

The hangar doors gaped as Xan approached on the swoop, amazed that he had managed to keep both of the women on the swoop. Rydell was waiting by the control panel for the doors and had them closing as Xan entered.

"What's going on?" Rydell asked, as he ran over to the swoop.

"It can wait, just let me get her to a room, and checked out." Xan said as he picked Haara up off the back of the swoop. She wrapped her arms around Xan's neck and began to weep softly as he carried her into the mansion, and out of instinct to his own room.

"You aren't hurt, are you?" Xan asked as he put her down in his bed.

"No." She answered between sobs.

"I'll just let you relax hear for awhile, alright." Xan turned for the door but she grabbed his hand before he could take a step, she held fast and wouldn't let go till Xan turned around.

"Thank you, I told you I'd find you." She said, the tears beginning to disappear from her face.

"I'll be back in a little while to check on you." Xan said.

Rydell and Marnist were waiting when Xan got back to the hangar.

"What was that about?" Rydell asked when he saw Xan enter the hangar.

"Ran into some old friends." Xan said flatly, to full of adrenalin to give a real answer.

"You mean some Imps?" Rydell asked.

"Yeah, exactly." Marnist put in. "And they didn't even shoot to kill after Xan picked one of them off."

"You were in the way."

"And since when do Stormies care about collateral damage?" Rydell asked.

"Who cares? Let's get your sorry excuse for a ship together." Xan said.

"Yeah, oh, and by the way, we got into the Academy."

With the three of them working together it took a little less than a standard hour to get the to peaces into place, and setup for attaching. It wasn't much longer before the setup was ready for all the internal wiring that had to be done, which Rydell started the next morning.

The three were finished by dinnertime, and afterwards Xan took Marnist back to her father's house, both of them keeping an eye out for Stormtroopers. They were safe the whole way. Almost all the lights were off when Xan finally got back to the ranch. Xan helped himself to glass of wine before turning to his room. It was out of tiredness and just plane forgetfulness that Xan opened the door to his room. The dark lump on his bed immediately reminded him that his bed was already occupied. Xan turned around quickly; he plopped down on the couch right outside the door and fell to sleep.

•••

"Captain. Have you read the report from the squad we've sent to Katal?" The Grand Admiral asked. He could see that Captain Parck had read the report already, most likely more than once in the hour since the Admonitor had received it.

"Yes, sir. I find it a little difficult to believe that a squad of highly trained Stormtroopers failed to capture, or even persuade my son." The Captain responded.

"Yes, I agree Captain. But it seems that your son's first reaction to anything remotely Imperial in nature is to run. The Lieutenant reported that Xander fired before the Captain could even finish his sentence. It's obvious that since our agent didn't make contact before the news went out of our exile that your son believes that if he's captured than he will be sent out here with us, or, executed. I've been informed that Rydell and your son have been accepted to the Academy again." The Grand Admiral stopped, leaving Captain Parck to finish the sentence.

"And once they've completed their training we'll have them transferred out here to us."

"Very good Captain. Although we can do nothing as obvious as having their orders issued to join us out here, we'll have to go to them. A question?" Thrawn asked as if reading the Captain expression.

"Yes, sir. What are they being trained in?"

"Ah, of course. Xan and Rydell have both been assigned to a BlastBoat squadron. He will have plenty of opportunities to join Unity fleet command."

•••

Xan woke up the next morning to someone gently nudging him. He reflexively slapped the hand away. The pushing got more insistent, and Xan slapped it away again.

"I can't help you if you wont wake up." A vaguely familiar female voice said. "You could have kicked me out of your bed last night."

"Huh," Xan uttered, blinking sleep from his eyes. "What?"

"Do you always forget the name of people you save?" She asked sarcastically.

"Oh, no. Haara, it's just to early, and what in space do you mean about helping me?"

"What do I mean about helping you? Do you happen to remember when we first met? You were so disturbed when I first saw you that I had to help, so what's the matter with you?"

"Ha, a lot of stuff."

"That doesn't make it easy for me to help you."

"You don't want to help me, it will only get you in trouble. Probably dead." Xan warned matter of factly. "Don't you remember those troops that jumped us right after I got those thugs off of you? There's more out their waiting for me to mess up."

"So why are they after you?" She asked.

Xan was as unprepared for this as he had ever been for anything in his life. Never before had he met someone who was so out going and caring that he'd only just met. There was part of him that wanted to tell her, to have someone beside Rydell that he could tell everything to, someone that was as unjudgeing as the women that was sitting next to him. His other side won out though. The side that said he couldn't involve someone else in his problem, to tell her what was really wrong would bring the Empire down on her also, and she was a good hearted innocent person who was only trying to help. Xan knew that eventually she was going to get caught in the crossfire.

"So what is it? I can see that your thinking, I can see how upset you are. You nerf herder, you haven't even told me who you really are. Who are you?"

"I'm not upset. And as far as you're concerned I'm Xander Hodgins."

She made a face at Xan, "What, you don't like it? Well I'm not changing my first name, and an other last name would be to expensive."

"You're joking aren't you?" She paused as she examined his face, searching his eyes, she closed her eyes, not quit knowing why, but she felt him. Not physically but mentally, some kind of connection, but she suddenly knew that he wasn't joking, and that it was a matter of life or death. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." She made an other face at him.

"It's really alright, you didn't know. But I really think it would be best if you didn't get involved, you're to nice a person to get involved with someone like me, it would be to dangerous and I can't let you do that."

"I want to though. You need me."

"Ha," Xan scoffed, "I don't need anyone."

"You obviously need someone, this isn't your house." She pointed out.

"Alright, so you got me there, but I've been building that ship that's in the hangar."

"And your other ship is still on Carida."

"So when did you decide to turn against me. You said you wanted to help."

"Oh, don't worry Xan I do. It's just that I have to point out that you need me to help." Haara said again.

"Ah, and exactly how do you propose to help me?"

"Well, I'm not supposed to be back on Carida for an other two weeks. When I go back you'll come with me and you'll find a way to get your ship out. You probably want to bring your friends along to help you get the thing out. You and Rydell and your girlfriend can plan all the fine points." Haara said in a playful tone.

"She's not my girlfriend." Xan said flatly. "She wants to be."

"You don't like her?"

"She's to young and the boss's daughter, and I don't want to get anyone involved in my problem."

"Even me?" Haara made a pouty face like a Katal flame fox pup.

"Sorry, it's to dangerous, and I don't want to see you get hurt because of me."

"I bet you're worth the risk Xan."

•••

The Captain sat at his desk in his quarters looking over the holos of his son. Xan had been off at the Academy for six months before he and Thrawn had been 'exiled.' Captain Parck had wanted his son to join him, it was lonely out here in unexplored space with only the Grand Admiral and the men under his command, he wanted some semblage of a regular life, even though he knew going into this that it would be difficult.

Xan had been happy, that's what the Captain tried to remember, now though, he looked distraught. Granted, the holos taken by the Stormtroopers helmet cams were not the best but it was still his son. Impressive too, his son looked just like stills from all of the popular holomovies, except he was not wearing an Imperial uniform, or fighting the Rebels. If he didn't get Xan soon, he would loose his son forever. He filed the holos away on a data card, and stood up, it wasn't wise to keep the Grand Admiral waiting.

He walked briskly along the halls from his quarters to the Admiral's office. He passed small clutches of Chiss and humans in the halls. The door to Thrawn's chamber opened, and the Captain tensed, looking past the Royal Guardsmen standing on either side. The room was lit, and he could only imagine whose art the Grand Admiral had on display today. To his surprise there was no art floating in the air, no painting, or portraits on the wall, just the Grand Admiral.

"Please, take a seat, Captain." Thrawn said in his cool modulated tone.

"Thank you, sir." The Captain replied. "Why have you asked me here?"

"I know it is of personal of importance to you that you son join us. As he had proven over our last few attempts to speak with him he believes that this is a sentence for insubordination. As a result he fears what will happen to him if gets caught by us. What we need to do Captain is get him to us without him knowing what the end result will be."

"And I suppose you've already devised a plan? Will it work?" The Captain, asked, although he knew from experience that it would work, the Grand Admiral's plans almost always worked. Not that Xan was, unintelligent; it was that the Grand Admiral was so smart.

"I do. As you know your son has been accepted to the Academy at Carida again, along with his friend Rydell. What I've planned to do is have them assigned to a new group that is being formed. They will be trained as commandos, and once they've finished their training they'll be assigned to Unity Fleet. Of course your son will be the group sniper, he was very impressive last I saw."

"What is the possibility that they might get wise to this plan?" Parck asked.

"They, Captain?" Thrawn paused, allowing Captain Parck the moment to think about his statement. "They will be separated Captain. With the Artell's history, to keep you son near him would jeopardize his allegiance to the Empire."

"Do you think that Rydell is a rebel?" Captain Parck asked. The last he remembered Rydell had been a good member of the upper society of Katal.

"Not, quite, but you can't ignore the fact that his father was involved in the very early stages of the Rebellion. But no I don't believe that he is a Rebel, but he has taken up with Black Sun. It could be a security risk to keep him and your son close."

"Could I request, sir, that Rydell and Xan not be separated. They work very well together, and Rydell is a very good pilot."

"Agreed Captain, but at the first sign of subversiveness from Rydell, he will be transferred from the unit on my orders."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Dismissed Captain."

•••

Xan knelt down and snapped the access hatch closed, and then sat back on his heals. After replacing the alluvial dampers on the 1300 Xan had flown it and the maneuvering jets needed to be recalibrated. Once that had been done he'd gone back into the ship and turned down the acceleration compensator. Marnist needed to learn how to pilot a ship, and as long as there was a freshly repaired 1300, that belonged to someone else on hand, why shouldn't she learn on that? Just to be on the safe side he had tuned down the acceleration compensator, so that she would feel more of the affects of flight.

"Mar?" Xan asked flipping on his commlink.

"What?"

"Could you bring me my jug of water?"

"What, did you brake your legs trying to recalibrate those maneuvering jets? Get in here and get it yourself." She joked with him, in her usual manner.

"I'm finishing up." Xan said, and took a hydrospanner and began to hit it on the deck of the ship.

"So since when does hammering the inside of the ship do any good for maneuvering jets?" Marnist asked, not over the comm, but from the top of the boarding ramp. "Or did they teach you something at the Academy that they don't want us knowing about?"

Xan half turned around to look, and there she was, holding his jug of water in her hand. "Thanks for bringing my water." He said wiping the sweat from his forehead. She held the jug out to him, and as soon as Xan reached for it she pulled it away. Mar knew that if he wanted to, at any second Xan could get the water from her. But it was fun to tease him, and it would be even more fun if he chased her around the empty ship. She looked at him with a look that Xan knew that she was concocting something. "So, since when does fixing alluvial dampers consist of pounding on the deck of the ship? Or did I miss the memo?"

"Hm, oh, it just something that the guys at the Academy came up with. You see when you hit the deck right here." Xan slammed the deck with the wrench again, a reverberating ring sounding through the innards of the ship. "You loosen the alluvial master cross member, and then it makes it easier to get into the access area." Xan said.

"You made that up." She said and held the water jug out to Xan. He took it this time flipped off the cap and took a long drink. "Well, yeah." Xan shrugged. Mar opened the access hatch that Xan had been working in and leant down into it head first.

"So why did you set the inertial compensator back so far." Her muffled voice came from the hatch.

Instead of answering, Xan quickly shook her ankle, eliciting a scream. Marnist clambered out of the repair crawlspace and hit Xan in the upper arm.

"What were you thinking, I could have fallen on my head!" She yelled at him.

"No, cuz I wasn't going to let go." Xan said. Marnist, having no response for this just made a face and stuck out her tongue.

"Are you going to answer my question or not?"

"Oh, the compensator. Well I figured I had to test fly this thing. So you should come along and we can get you some flying time before we have to get the Comet off Carida."

"Why do I need to know how to fly your ship?" Mar asked.

"Because if anything happens so I can't fly someone has to get you and Haara out of there, and I don't think she would respond well under that kind of pressure."

Xan looked at her, she had gone stiff and pale. Young, Xan thought, too young, hadn't experienced death, not even heartbreak, never lost anything. Marnist had been to young to remember when her mother had died, Xan cocked a smile, and said; "Don't worry, I'm not planning on getting hurt." He chuckled. "Nothings going to happen."

Mar offered a weak smile in return, looking back at him with a big-eyed gaze, almost on the verge of crying.

"You sure?"

"Positive, not even a scratch."

Xan pressed the hatch control and headed for the cockpit, holding Mar's hand to lead her along. Mar slumped down into the co-pilot's seat next to Xan, while he prepped the ship to fly.

"Don't worry, even if something does happen to me my astromech will be there to help."

"You have an astromech?" She said, seeming a little amazed.

"An R2 unit." Xan put in.

"How did you get an R2 unit, while you have to work for my dad? That doesn't make any sense."

"You've seen where I live." Xan said trying to deflect the question.

The young lady looked at him, and Xan knew she hadn't bought the ploy, she also hadn't opened her mouth, and so that was a plus. Quickly, so she wouldn't have time to question him again he went over the basic controls, and without hesitation he threw power to the repulsorlifts. When they had cleared the tops of the buildings Xan made for the plains. It would be safer for Marnist to learn how to fly out there than it would be in the city, as long as Xan had his hands by the controls. He tested the ships, back and forth, and through a series of tight turns, feeling the added pressure of G-forces from the toned down inertial compensator. He pushed a barrel roll till Marnist almost passed out; having felt that, and how the ship was behaving Marnist was ready to take the controls.

Ideally Xan would have like to have her fly something other than an YT-1300, something smaller like a T-16. Then he realized it didn't really matter, it was someone else's ship. Better yet though, it was like the Comet in many respects. Xan was confident she would be able to handle it.

Xan put the ship down among the tall golden grass of the plain, and he and Mar swapped places. Once Xan had snapped the restraints he looked over to his companion, she had moved the pilot's seat as forward as it would go, and she was still having a little trouble reaching the control yoke and pedals.

"You worried or something Xan, I've never seen you strapped into a ship."

"I've also never seen you behind the controls of a ship. Just go easy, and make it so I don't need to strap in next time."

"Right." She said, and reached for the repulsor levers. Slowly she moved the levers forward, and got no response from the ship. Almost fed up, she moved the levers forward a little to fast, and the old freighter jumped into the air, protesting with creaks and shudders. The force crushed them down into their seats. Xan's left hand shot over to the repulsor controls and brought the ship down gradually, fighting Mar the whole way. Xan settled the ship down onto the plain and looked over at Mar.

"I said take it easy. Stuff like that will tear this bucket apart. Now let's try that again, slowly."

Mar only nodded in return, and dropped her hand back to the repulsor controls. Slowly, so slowly the repulsor lifts wound up, and with a slight shudder, and a dip to port the freighter was airborne, all be it only a few centimeters off the plain.

"Good," Xan encouraged. "Give it a little more and then give the sublights some power, slowly remember."

She made a face at him, and brought the ship up to 20 meters above the golden grass plains. Applying power to the sublights went much smoother than the repulsor. Every time at the first hint of G force Mar would back off. It wasn't long though before they were doing a casual 150 kilometers and hour.

"Good, now give me a turn to port." Xan could see Marnist's knuckles white around the control yoke, and even though she didn't need to, she leant forward in the pilot seat with a straight back. Again slowly she brought the ship into a lazy turn, reluctant to push the ship, not quiet comfortable with piloting yet.

"Relax Mar, there's nothing out here to hit."

"What about the ground?" She countered.

"Yeah, well, unless the repulsors fail we'll be alright. I think they checked out when I ran the tests." Xan joked. "Don't worry Mar, I'm not going to get hurt, and we're going to be out here a couple of more times before we leave for Carida."

"Here's a question Xan? Well two. One, why don't you just get Haara to fly your ship out?"

"Because I don't think she'll do well under the pressure, you'll be able to respond better. Second question?"

"Why is it so important that me and Haara don't get caught if something happens to you? We are only trying to get your ship back, right?"

Xan didn't answer right away, trying to come up with a plausible alibi. "The Empire doesn't like me." He responded.

Marnist looked over at him as she straightened out the ship again and prepared for an other turn, a skeptical look on her face.

"Will that do?" Xan asked.

"For now Xander Hodgins, but there's going to be a time when I want to know all these dark secrets your hiding."

"You don't want to know." Xan said in a low voice.

With out warning Marnist rolled the ship, forcing Xan down into the co-pilots seat, when she finally righted the ship after a little wobbling Xan looked over at her open mouthed.

"I'm full of surprises." Marnist said with a playful tone.

"Good, let's get back to the shop." Xan said, and he gave Mar the heading for he shop.