TRI chapter 10
Jacen Solo glanced round the crowded hangar again, offering a nervous smile to the eager young mechanic - an apprentice to one of the older mechanics, no doubt - attending to his fighter. He shifted his weight to his other foot, looking out into the evening Coruscant sky for any traces of his siblings' X-wings.
He had felt the approach of his twin ten minutes earlier, while finishing the evening meal in his aunt and uncle's apartment. He couldn't feel Anakin, but lately, that was no surprise - his younger brother had been closing himself off to everyone, it seemed. If Jaina was here, though, then Anakin would be, so he had excused himself, claiming to need to work on his own X-wing.
Which was an obvious lie.
Jacen could fly a fighter, sure, and was a better pilot than most...but fixing one? Repair work was best left to the professionals - and other Solos - and that was something he had decided long ago. He didn't know any more about X-wing systems than his sister knew about the life patterns of creatures on Yavin 4: a basic grounding, perhaps, but not nearly enough to call himself a mechanic.
So Jacen was content to simply lean against the side of his X-wing, waiting for his brother and sister, while the teenage apprentice worked away.
Well...maybe 'content' was a little extreme.
"Uh, excuse me," he called up to the boy. "How are the repairs going?"
A second of anxious fumbling passed, and Jacen winced as he heard the metallic clank of something hitting against something else. Then a grease-smudged face appeared over the side of the cockpit, a boy of no more than fourteen, with a wide grin on his face. "Fine, fine so far, Master Jedi!"
"I'm not a Master," Jacen mumbled, but the boy continued in his cheerful lower Coruscant accent.
"The port stabilisers need a little more recalibrating and the upper starboard turret needs a little tweaking, and, well, I'm sure you already know about the little skip in the negative power flux-"
Jacen didn't know and he didn't want to.
"-but I should be able to get it all sorted in the next hour or so! I've got the best tools in the business-" The boy held up a red case, and Jacen ducked as a hydrospanner toppled over the side and crashed to the floor. "-oops, sorry, Master Solo-"
"I'm really not a Master," Jacen insisted, a little louder this time.
"-anyway, it'll be a piece of ryshcate, and you don't have to stay the whole time! You can go off and do whatever it is you need to do, I'm sure you're busy, being a Jedi and everything. In fact-" The boy paused and dumped the case of tools down in the cockpit seat with a clatter, and fumbled in his left pants pocket for a second. "-here," he called triumphantly, holding up an indistinguishable piece of plasteel, "you can use my card and hang out in the lounge over there if you want." He pointed a grubby finger at a murky corner of the hangar. "If you have nothing else to do, I mean, they've got sports coverage from all over the galaxy, and all the premium Holonet channels and some of the latest sims - non-military, I mean, they'll always have them before us, unless we get a black market deal from the guy a few levels down - and it's a fun place-"
"Um, no, I'm OK," Jacen interrupted, forcing himself not to step back under the torrent of almost indecipherable words from the boy. "I need to wait for my brother and sister here anyway."
The boy's eyes shone with delight as he returned the card to his pocket. "You mean Anakin and Jaina Solo, they're going to be here, soon? And I could get to meet them?"
"Uh-"
"Wow, I've always wanted to meet Jaina! I mean, I've always wanted to meet you, you're my hero, Master Solo-"
Jacen didn't bother this time.
"-but wow, Jaina Solo! You think she could teach me a couple things about the mechanics of Corellian freighters, I mean, I've got the best teacher in the galaxy and I'm not so bad myself, if you don't mind me saying, but wow, Jaina Solo, she's an expert with those types of ships, isn't she, and I've always had a little trouble with hyperdrives."
Jacen hadn't realised he'd closed his eyes in a semi-permanent wince until he opened them again. He looked up at the boy warily, but while he was still grinning, he seemed to have stopped talking for the moment. "Well," he started carefully, "when she gets here, we're going to be pretty busy, I think." Busy was an understatement. Aunt Mara's going to kill her, he thought glumly. He cheered up a second later with the realisation, and Kyp, too.
"Oh, I'm sorry, of course you will be, you're Jedi and everything! Not like us mechanics, we have our breaks and we only work ten hours a day usually, you're Jedi, I bet you never get a break! But if she does get a chance, could you ask her, maybe, if she'll come and help out Jace in Docking Bay Thirty-seven?"
Jacen nodded slowly, committing the boy's name to memory. Jace, huh? I'll have to remember to never ask him to repair my fighter again. "I will," he promised. Well, maybe he would. Jaina deserved it after what she'd done. Running away with Kyp and Anakin like that! And she'd always been the sensible one.
Another second passed, and then the boy gasped loudly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I almost forgot all about your ship! I'll get right back on those repairs, it was nice talking to you, I hope your brother and sister get here soon!" And then, thank the Force, he shut up and continued to work on Jacen's X-wing.
After the loud jumble of one-sided conversation, the hangar seemed almost silent to Jacen, despite the constant clanking and clattering and shouting and swearing coming from the corvette at the other side. To describe it as a corvette...was perhaps slightly generous - there was nothing but framework and a single sublight engine, with other components scattered round about it, but--
Jacen shook his head and stared out at the twilight sky again. He was here to wait for Anakin and Jaina, not to hypocritically judge ship repairs. A speaker mounted on the ceiling at the other end of the hangar crackled and hissed, and a low rumble of words - How can anyone ever understand what's being said on those things? - echoed around the large room and out into the traffic. Jacen almost thought he'd heard the word squadron, but only if he added most of the letters in himself.
"Hey, kid - Jace," he called up tentatively. "Did you catch that message?"
"Sure!" Jace's grimy face appeared again, the same wide grin spread across it. "It said there's an X-wing squadron with eleven fighters coming in to land here in about two minutes, and that all the work that needs done on the ships should be filed under Kyp Durron's account." The boy frowned momentarily. "His Dozen always need lots of repairs." And then, inevitably, he grinned again. "Which means lots of experience for me! And pay," he added dismissively, quickly, as if it were a disgusting term that had to be said, but by Force, he didn't have to like it.
"Kyp's Dozen?"
"That's what it said."
Jacen nodded thoughtfully. It was a conflicting feeling, to actually be looking forward to the arrival of Kyp's squadron. Anakin and Jaina were with Kyp. . . Oh, but he just couldn't understand why they had allied themselves with him! Jaina hated him, she'd said that before, hadn't she? And Anakin respected Uncle Luke far too much to go against him, even if he did dare to say that Kyp made sense sometimes. Jacen shuddered. The very idea of Kyp Durron making sense, well, it was preposterous. Wasn't it?
But then why had Jaina joined him?
He didn't know. He just didn't know. But he didn't have time to work it out now - he could see, maybe a couple klicks away, a group of X-wings approaching the hangar. Jacen stepped in closer to his own fighter as the Dozen - and Anakin and Jaina - came in to land at the far side. He counted them off as they set down, got to eleven, then frowned. Jace had said there were eleven, so these must have been all of them. But he could've sworn Jaina had said there were fourteen of them altogether, counting her and Anakin...and not one of these fighters was painted like his little brother's.
He looked over them again, studying them a little closer this time as all the pilots finished off their post-flight checks, then frowned. No, Anakin's X-wing definitely wasn't here. And if he reached out through the Force, he could sense his sister as bright as he always could, but he caught not a trace of Anakin - or Kyp, for that matter. He wouldn't pretend to be disappointed that Kyp wasn't there, but the lack of Anakin was confusing - and troubling.
Glancing up at Jace and waving a goodbye, Jacen walked the few dozen metres over to the first new arrival - his sister's fighter. Now that he noticed it, the fact that Jaina was first was confusing as well - shouldn't it have been whoever was leading the squadron to land first? He shrugged - what did he know about squadron procedures? Especially for something like the Dozen.
Another few seconds passed, then Jacen heard the hiss of a canopy opening. Before he could even glance up to confirm that it was from his sister's X-wing, he heard the thud of boots hitting the ferrocrete floor, then all he could see was a tangle of brown hair as Jaina hugged him tightly.
"Uh, Jaina, I missed you too, but I-"
"Sorry! Didn't mean to suffocate you," she mumbled, taking a step back so Jacen could see her properly. She was dressed in one of her scruffiest jumpsuits, one she usually wore for working on a ship, with her black jacket over the top. Her hair had been pulled roughly back into a ponytail, though only half was still in it, and she had that determined look on her face. The one that meant she wasn't going to argue with you, she was just going to go ahead and do whatever it was she needed to do.
Jacen swallowed and glanced round as the other Dozen pilots jumped down from their own fighters. Nope, definitely no Anakin or Kyp. . . He turned his attention back to his sister. "Um, where's Anakin?" he asked, trying to make it sound casual.
"He's...still on Yavin 4."
"What?" Jacen was stunned. Why was he still on Yavin 4? Weren't the Yuuzhan Vong heading there, wasn't that why he'd gone in the first place? What on Coruscant had happened to make him stay?
"So's Kyp," Jaina added after a second.
Oh, great. So not only was Anakin still on Yavin 4, for whatever reason, he was stuck with Durron, too. Even Anakin didn't deserve that! "Why are they still there?"
"The kids are still there, I don't think Karrde has them yet-"
"So Anakin and Kyp are going to 'protect' them?" Jacen shook his head. He wasn't sure what anyone's plan had been, but he was pretty sure nothing was going to it very well.
Jaina stared at him, frowning slightly. "Look, Jacen, it's not exactly ideal, but it is what it is. Now, can we just get this whole thing I know there's going to be with Uncle Luke over with, because as soon as Nym's ship's repaired, we're heading back out to get Kyp and Anakin."
Jacen's eyes widened and he glanced round again at the Dozen pilots, who had now grouped behind Jaina. One of them, a rather beat-up looking human male with scruffy dark-blond hair, raised a hand guiltily and shrugged. Jacen shrugged too, and looked at Jaina again. "You say that like you're in charge of making the decisions for them," he said slowly, suddenly suspicious.
"Yeah."
Jacen blinked at the short answer and stared at her. "You're in charge of them, aren't you?" It wasn't really a question.
"Well, I mean..." Jaina glanced over her shoulder at the pilots. "I mean, Nym and Adi are kind of maybe sort of as well, but, yeah."
Jacen looked at the pilots again, and the blond-haired one - Nym - pointed to a tall woman with long dark brown hair. Then he shrugged guiltily again. Jacen stared at him and shook his head as he turned back to Jaina. "I don't think I want to know how that is. Wait, of course I do. How in all the nine hells are you in charge of Kyp's Dozen?"
Someone behind Nym muttered something to one of the other pilots. Jacen didn't quite catch it, but Jaina went red and turned to glare at them for a moment until they stopped snickering. "Because," she started, staring determinedly at a patch of grubby floor near Jacen's feet. Her face was still faintly red. "Because," she repeated, continuing, "I joined the Dozen and Kyp put me in charge of these guys until we get him back."
"Sorry, I think I'm going deaf. I could have sworn I just heard you say you joined Kyp's Dozen. Could you clarify for me?"
Jaina finally looked up and met his gaze, her brown eyes glaring at him. "I joined the Dozen," she repeated. "What about it?"
What about it indeed, Jacen thought, blinking. Oh, wait - it was Kyp Durron's squadron, that's what! "What on Coruscant were you thinking, Jaina? I'd expect Anakin to do something that crazy, maybe, but not you. You hate Kyp, what'd you want to join his Dozen for?"
The same pilot behind Nym made another comment Jacen couldn't hear, and this time, the only ones not laughing were Adi and Jaina. Jacen was starting to get suspicious that he perhaps knew the nature of the pilot's comments after all.
Jaina spun round and glared at all the gathered pilots, and they promptly stopped laughing. "Will you guys knock it off already? Shut up, Dayvie, or I'll give everyone else something to laugh at that you might not find so amusing."
"Well, Jaina?" Jacen interrupted her, trying hard to ignore the pilots' knowing smirks. "Why'd you join the Dozen, of all the squadrons in the galaxy? You're still in Rogue Squadron, aren't you?"
"Because I-" She sighed and frowned as she turned to face her brother again, fidgeting with the sleeves of her jacket. "Look, I get the feeling I'll have to explain this to Luke and Mara, too, so can I just do it all at once? And after I've had something to eat that isn't stolen-"
"Re-allocated," Nym corrected indignantly, anticipating Jaina's next words.
"-New Republic rations?"
Jacen frowned for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. And we can probably fit in a decent last meal before Aunt Mara kills you."
Jaina winced and glanced back at the Dozen pilots again. "That bad?"
"Oh yes."
"And she doesn't know I've actually joined the Dozen yet, huh?"
Jacen flashed a lopsided grin, suddenly amused. "I need to reserve my seats for that show, I think."
"I'm glad you find it so funny," Jaina said dryly. She closed her eyes for a second, then sighed and spun round to face the gathered pilots once again. "OK, I need to go...do stuff. Can you guys all, I don't know, occupy yourselves somewhere? Preferably in a legal manner."
"Well, stang," Dayvie called out with an exaggerated sigh. "Legal. I guess that rules out the underground black market deals and high stakes gambling."
"Yeah...anyway," Jaina continued, "just meet back here when Nym's ship is fixed."
Jacen looked over the group of X-wings. "Which one is Nym's?" he asked Jaina, unsure of why she kept mentioning it.
"Mine's the one with the wrecked S-foils, cracked canopy, and pretty much junked sublight drive," Nym answered him glumly.
"Don't forget the jammed torpedo launchers," Adi reminded him.
"Oh." Jacen could see it now, the fighter right at the end of the row. "Wouldn't it just be easier to get a new X-wing?"
"Oh sure. Loan me a couple hundred thousand credits?"
"It'll probably take a couple days of work, so long as there's a new drive we can put in it right away," Jaina interrupted, her tone dismal. Jacen knew she didn't want to wait that long, and if he was honest, neither did he - that was a couple days Anakin would have to spend in the company of Kyp Durron. He wasn't on the best of terms with his little brother, but that wasn't something he'd wish on anyone.
"I know someone who would probably make it his top priority," Jacen said slowly, wincing at the very idea of talking to that teenage mechanic again.
"OK, well, we'll get on that as soon as I finish talking to Uncle Luke," Jaina said, nodding. "You guys," she said to the pilots, "go wherever it is you want to go, legally, and I'll comm you all whenever. Oh, except Nym - as soon as I get back, we're going to start work on your fighter. So don't go too far..."
With several shouts of, "Seeya, Sticks," the pilots dispersed, most of them heading straight for the turbolift that would take them to a lower level of the building. Probably headed for a bar further down, Jacen thought with a grimace.
Nym and Adi, however, remained behind.
Jaina looked at them both for a moment. "Why are you two still here? Nym, you don't have to wait here - you can go get a drink or something for an hour or so."
Jacen caught a flicker of surprise from both pilots as they glanced at each other - apparently, neither had expected the other to stay behind as well. Then they both shrugged, and Nym spoke up. "To make sure you stay safe, I guess."
Jaina glanced at her brother, amused, then turned back to Nym. "I'm going to talk with my aunt and uncle, in the company of my twin brother, all of us carrying very dangerous weapons. I'm fairly certain I'll be safe, thanks."
"Moral support?" Nym suggested.
"We have to be certain the Dozen's best interests aren't compromised," Adi explained quietly. "We need you if we're going to go back and get Kyp."
"I'm still pretty certain I'll survive this meeting and be able to return to Yavin 4."
Adi frowned thoughtfully and glanced sideways at Nym. "I don't mean your safety - that's fairly assured. I mean to make sure you stay-"
"What she means," Nym interrupted, raising a hand to stop Adi's explanation, "is moral support. You're not going to get rid of us, Sticks."
Jacen realised what Adi meant, and felt a flicker of indignation from his sister as she did, too. He knew - knew - that nothing would stop Jaina going back to the Yavin system to get Anakin, no matter what Uncle Luke or Aunt Mara said. But he wasn't sure whether Adi's fears were valid or not - and he wasn't entirely sure whether he wanted them to be. He didn't want Jaina to be in Kyp's Dozen, would never want that, but he didn't know what he did want. Maybe it was the best thing for the moment.
...Nah.
"You think I'm going to bail out on the Dozen?" Jaina's voice was hard, indignation just barely evident. She glared at the pilots: Nym winced a little, but Adi stood her ground and stared back just as determinedly.
"I just think you might need reminded of what your priorities should be at the minute," she told Jaina, her voice still quiet.
"Kyp's told us how persuasive both Skywalkers can be," Nym added, shrugging and half-smiling.
"If you think-"
"Jaina," Jacen interrupted, keeping his tone carefully neutral. "Let's just get this meeting over with, huh? You can prove Adi wrong--" Or right. "--afterwards."
"Vapin' right," Nym said cheerfully, lifting his right arm to rest it on Adi's shoulders. She half-turned her head and glared sideways at him, and he slowly took it away. "Now, let's all get something decent to eat first," he suggested, rubbing at his arm self-consciously. He fished in his flightsuit pocket and held up a crumpled twenty-cred note, grinning. "My treat."
"Ooh, and what are you going to get us with that?" Adi asked him cynically. "A nerfburger? To share?"
"I know plenty of places round here I could get us all a three-course meal for twenty creds," he told her smugly.
"Point them out on a map for me, Nym," she replied, "so I can avoid them."
"When you're done," Jaina interrupted, zipping up her jacket and spinning to face the hangar exit, "we'll go grab something from the tapcaf upstairs. Dad's got a tab there."
He did indeed. Jacen suspected, however, that with the number of meals the Solo kids had eaten there since their parents had left on their latest mission, it would soon be cancelled. Time to make the most of it, then.
-----
Nym shifted against the wall, trying to find a comfortable leaning position, but nothing seemed to be working. He glanced sideways and was annoyed - but not surprised - to see Adi leaning back with her eyes closed, obviously more comfortable than Nym would ever be.
They were standing just outside the door to Luke Skywalker's apartment, because his wife had simply refused to let them in. Nym wasn't sure why. Maybe something to do with being in Kyp's Dozen, or maybe just because neither he nor Adi had had a shower since arriving on-planet - since before leaving Yavin 4, in fact. Either way, he hadn't wanted to argue with someone who could - and would - kill him without taking time to blink.
"Can you hear what they're talking about in there?" he asked Adi, pointing to the door and shrugging.
"No, and it's none of my business."
Nym regarded her cynically for a moment. "Are you just saying that to annoy me? Because you seemed pretty desperate to be a part of that conversation earlier."
Adi didn't answer and continued to stare down the corridor, doing a good impression of not caring. Nym shrugged again and leaned over to press his ear against the door, trying to catch what was being said.
"All right," he murmured, glancing up at Adi. "I can sorta hear Sticks, saying something about Kyp...Skywalker's asking her about Anakin, and I think the whiney boy's telling him they're still on Yavin 4...Now they're talking about us, and Scary Lady's saying-"
"...possessed you to join the kriffing Dozen!"
Adi sighed and turned to lean her head against the door as well, her interest obviously piqued. Nym grinned at her, but didn't say anything, instead straining to hear Jaina's reply.
"That's something you just don't understand-"
"Kriffin' right I don't understand! You're in Rogue Squadron, Jaina-"
"I've been on so-called leave for more than two months now - my eyes are fine, they just don't want me back! At least this way I'm doing something in this war-"
"If you wanted something to do, Jaina, I could give you a mission." Skywalker's voice was unnervingly calm compared to his wife's and niece's. "In fact, I need someone to go find Booster Terrik for me, maybe you and Jacen could do that."
"Find him where? No, I can't, the Dozen need to head straight back out to Yavin. I'm not leaving Kyp and Anakin there any longer than I have to."
"Talon Karrde's there, he'll pick them up-"
"You said he sent you a message saying he's got the kids, right?"
There was a slight pause before Mara answered, "He did. They're on their way with Shada, about twelve hours out."
"Then he's not going to risk landing again for Kyp and Anakin. We just left that system and it was chaos then, by now the Vong'll have moved in and everything'll be crazy!"
"Then what makes you think you and the Dozen will be able to help?" Skywalker reasoned. "Find Booster Terrik for me - you'll be a lot safer with a Star Destroyer at your back."
"But I can't leave the Dozen-"
"Take them with you."
"She can't take them with her!" Mara's voice was an angry explosion, and Nym almost stepped back from the door warily. "Ignoring momentarily the fact that they're all untrustworthy Sithspawned idiots,-"
"Hey," Adi muttered. "Only Nym."
Nym scowled and elbowed her in the side, scowling even more at her smirk.
"-Corran's even less likely to let them on the Errant Venture than I would be!"
"I imagine Booster would be very happy to let them onboard, then," Skywalker replied, and Nym could almost hear the smirk in his voice.
"OK, it makes sense," Jaina admitted reluctantly, her voice so quiet that Nym could barely hear her. "Having a Star Destroyer around would be useful...I just don't want to leave Kyp and Anakin any longer than I have to! The Vong have probably taken over the system by now, they won't be able to get out-"
"Which is why having the Errant Venture along will help you."
"Space battles tend to be easier with a Star Destroyer present," Jaina's brother noted.
"When it's on your side," Skywalker corrected him thoughtfully.
"All right, I guess...I don't know, it might take too long to find him, but I'll run it past Nym and Adi-"
"They're standing right outside the door eavesdropping," Mara informed her wryly.
"Pfft...Jedi," Nym sighed, nudging Adi's shoulder and straightening just as the door whooshed open. Both pilots stood there blankly for a second under Jaina's glare, then Nym grinned. "Got a mission for us, Sticks?"
"Yeah," she muttered in reply, "getting your vaping ship fixed. The sooner we get that done-" She hesitated, then sighed, as if making a reluctant decision. "-the sooner we can go find the Errant Venture - I guess you heard all that?"
"We did," Adi murmured, then hesitated. Nym glanced sideways at her, then smirked as she replied, "I guess - sorry for doubting you, Solo. I just thought, this far out, maybe Kyp wouldn't mean anything to you."
"Yeah, well, my brother's there too, remember? It's not all about Kyp." She chewed at her lip for a second, glancing round briefly at her twin, then sighed as she turned back to the pilots. "Come on, Nym. We're not doing anything until we get your blasted X-wing fixed. Let's go," she told him, and pushed past both of them into the corridor, heading towards the nearest turbolift.
"Jaina!" Nym winced as Mara stepped into the doorway and shouted over his shoulder. "This talk isn't over yet!"
"I'm going to go down to the hangar again," Jaina's brother said quickly, pushing past his aunt and following his sister. "Get that kid to help with the fighter."
Adi leaned in closer to Nym, one hand on his shoulder. "I'll go find the other pilots and tell them what's going on. Good luck with your ship," she added, smirking and raising a hand to spike his hair up at the back. Then she walked off in the same direction as Jaina and her brother, leaving Nym to stand in the doorway by himself.
He nervously flattened his hair and tried not to back away under Mara's glare. "Um," he started, glancing over at Skywalker, horrified to find the older man amused at him. "Nice meeting you, we all promise to take care of Sti- of Jaina, and, I guess..." He waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the turbolift. "I guess I'll get to work on my ship." He nodded decisively and turned to leave, but froze midstep as Mara spoke up.
"You'd better take care of Jaina," she told him in a voice that very much reminded him she had a lightsaber and knew how to use it.
"Promise," he assured her, half-turning, smiling reassuringly.
"Because if anything happens to her when she's with the Dozen - even though it was a stupid thing for her to do, joining you guys - I will kill you."
"Mara..." Skywalker's voice was a warning as he walked over to stand beside his wife.
"After I kill Kyp, of course."
"Mara."
"You'll have to do that quick, then," Nym told her, smiling ruefully. "Kyp'll probably kill me first."
He turned and continued towards the turbolift, leaving Mara to figure that out by herself.
-----
"Wow!"
Jacen winced at the boy's excitement, and looked over Nym's X-wing again. He didn't quite see the wow.
"This is almost a textbook example of a totalled XJ3!" Jace dropped his tool case on the floor and ran up to the ship, running a hand over the hull and staring up at it in awe. "I saw a mock-up of this a couple months ago, in the training manual. Fizz said I'd never get to see something like this in real life, he said no one could wreck an X-wing that badly!"
Jacen couldn't help a grin as he glanced over at Nym. The pilot was scowling at the young mechanic now, and raised a hand to stop his examination of the X-wing. "I don't care what your stupid teacher said, can you help fix it?"
"Well...sure, I'll try." The boy frowned suddenly and studied the fighter closely again. "You need a new shield projector, huh, and a sublight engine...that's gonna cost you. Um, the S-foils we can probably salvage, the torpedo launchers shouldn't be a problem, the canopy I think we can patch. . ."
Jacen looked up at his sister to see her nodding at the boy's evaluation. She smiled a little, wistfully thought Jacen, then frowned and studied the X-wing herself. "How long do you think it'll take?" she asked Jace.
"Oh, I can do the S-foils and launchers straight away, the canopy's pretty bad, might take an hour or so - or we could just find a new one, I think there's a spaced XJ in Bay Thirty-three we could take it from." He stared up at the X-wing again thoughtfully, rubbing at the back of his head and getting even more grime into his dark hair. "It's the parts that are the trouble, the projector and the engine... I reckon there's a decent enough shield projector knocking around here somewhere, ought to fit an XJ3... The engine though, I don't know, we might have to order that 'specially."
"How long's that going to take?" Jaina asked, her tone disbelieving.
"And how much is it going to cost?" Nym's expression was getting more and more mournful.
"Hmm, if we get it on express from the company in this sector, ought to be here some time tomorrow afternoon. Cost, uh, I don't know, a couple thousand maybe?"
"A couple thousand?" Nym stared at Jace for a moment, then raked through his pockets desperately. After a few seconds, he held up a pitifully small collection of notes. "I've got seventy credits, cash." He paused for a second, then shrugged. "I can get maybe five hundred wired from my uncle's account without him noticing."
"Without him noticing," Jaina repeated, turning a suspicious glare on Nym.
"If we can find a good slicer," he added.
"I know a slicer!" Jace was suddenly bright and cheerful again, practically hopping from foot to foot with glee. "He can do it for you, I'll send him a message-"
"No way, we're not going to steal money from anyone," Jaina said firmly. "Why don't you just ask your uncle for a loan or something, Nym?"
Suddenly, Nym didn't look too comfortable. "Um, we're not exactly on the best of terms. He wasn't best pleased when I joined the Dozen - not that he was ever pleased with me before then - and he pretty much considers me the scum of the galaxy."
"And why would that be?"
"Oh, you know...wrecking his enterprises, stealing this X-wing from him in the first place, hanging out with Jedi..."
Jaina sighed and continued to stare at Nym cynically. "Anything else, that maybe doesn't just emphasise what a kriffing idiot you are?"
"He's Peace Brigade."
Jaina nodded and turned abruptly to Jace. "So, who's your slicer friend?"
Jace grinned and crouched down by his tool case, raking through it and pulling out a datapad. "His name's Ric, he's the best slicer in the galaxy! Except for that one, um, in NRI," he added thoughtfully as he started typing up a message. "Don't remember his name, the guy who used to-"
"OK, kid, just tell your little slicer friend to get me some credits," Nym interrupted him. "From Travis Stanta's account to Nym Stanta's... Need me to give you the account numbers?"
"Nope!" Jace finished up his message and hit the send button. He frowned and stood up, and Jacen took a wary step back as the boy waved his datapad around, trying to get a decent Holonet reception. "Knew I should've upgraded this piece of junk instead of buying more tools - ah, there! Sent!" He grinned at Nym. "He can do it in ten minutes or so, I told him I'd get him Jaina Solo's autograph - uh-" He spun round to face Jaina and smiled brightly. "If you don't mind, Miss Solo."
Jaina caught Jacen's eye and grinned slightly. "Not at all. Now..." She turned back to Nym and frowned again. "Where are you going to get the other fifteen hundred or so from?"
He grinned ruefully and shrugged. "Sell my body?"
"Ha! You won't get a credit from that."
"Gee, thanks. Now you sound like Adi." He shook his head sadly, then grinned again. "Maybe Dayvie'll win big time at whatever casino he's in, and will feel generous enough to lend me some cash."
Jaina sighed and caught Jacen's eye again. He shrugged - this whole conversation had nothing to do with him. He'd kept quiet so far and wasn't about to start talking when someone was looking for money.
"Ric'll get you the money you need," Jace told Nym cheerfully. "He knows plenty of people like your uncle who wouldn't miss a couple hundred creds. He's got plenty of contacts, y'know, loads of these political targets and the like. He'll think it's great, stealing money from the Peace Brigade to fund Kyp's Dozen. Kind of like..." He paused and frowned thoughtfully. "What's that story again? About the Corellian who stole from the Empire to fund the Alliance? Or something?"
"Don't know, don't care," Nym replied, leaning back against his fighter. "But tell your friend thanks."
"Yep! All right," Jace said, squinting at his datapad again. "I'll get that sublight engine ordered now, then I'll go find that shield projector. Oh, and the canopy from Thirty-three, someone'll have to help me get that up here."
Jacen hesitated a second, then shrugged. "I'll help," he offered.
"We'll get started on those S-foils while you're gone," Jaina told the teenage mechanic, stepping closer to Nym's fighter and looking up at it carefully.
Nym glanced at his wrist-chrono, then yawned and slid down the edge of the support bracket he was leaning on, shifting into a comfortable position on the floor. "You have fun there, Sticks," he murmured, closing his eyes.
"Oh no you don't," Jaina muttered. She crouched to grab Nym's arms, then straightened up and pulled him to his feet.
He stared at her with a hurt expression on his face. "Sticks, it's late, and I haven't had any sleep since - since - I don't even know. Can't we fix my ship in the morning? The sublight drive won't get here til then anyway."
"You should've slept during the jump, then. We have to start work now." She sighed and stared at the other X-wings. "The sooner we get this fixed, the sooner we can go find Booster Terrik, and the sooner we can pick up Kyp."
"And Anakin," Jacen reminded her, frowning.
"Oh - yeah." Jaina shook her head, distracted. "The sooner we can get Kyp and Anakin. And you want to do that as much as me, right?"
"Oh, I don't know," Nym started slowly, a faint smirk on his face. "Maybe not as much as you, I don't quite - oh, Sticks, I'm kidding." He rolled his eyes at Jaina's glare, but the smirk was still on his face. "Of course I do. All right, you made your point, we'll get to work now. Suppose I can sleep when I'm dead, huh?"
"That's the spirit," Jaina agreed. She turned to Jacen and waved a hand towards the turbolift. "Get a move on, Jasa. Your little friend left about thirty seconds ago. As amusing as it would be to watch him drag an X-wing canopy up here, I think you'd better go help him."
Jacen looked round and was surprised to see his sister was right - Jace was gone, undoubtedly headed downstairs to the other docking bay. He looked from Jaina to Nym and back again, then sighed. "OK, we'll be back soon. Have fun with those S-foils."
He headed over to the turbolift and towards Docking Bay Thirty-three, wherever that was. As he walked, he couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on with his sister. First she runs off to Yavin 4 with Anakin, then she joins the Dozen, and now she's remembering Kyp before she remembers her own brother? He was definitely missing a module in this program - and he hoped, desperately, that it had nothing to do with that pilot's jokes from earlier. He didn't think he could cope if it did.