Jaina Solo Fel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solo_sword) wrote2009-09-24 05:34 am
solo_sword) wrote2009-09-24 05:34 am
Bilbringi- Thursday Fandom time
Luckily the battle was going okay on Jaina's end. Otherwise she might be slightly miffed at the fact that her comm was buzzing now. Or at least she would until she realized it was Wedge, and that he was contacting her privately on a coded channel. "Sir?"
"I've got a task you might find a little more exciting than bug burning," Wedge said from his end.
Jaina looked out the viewport of her cockpit, thinking she didn't need more excitement. They were doing well right now, she wanted to keep it that way. "I'm about to have my hands full, General. What do you need?"
"I need you to find Admiral Kre'fey for me."
She frowned. "Admiral Kre'fey, General?"
"Something's wrong with the HoloNet," he explained. "We were the advance for two more fleets. We can't contact them, so they haven't shown. I need you to find him, fast, and bring him here. Have him send someone to find Pellaeon."
"Sir, won't they come when they realize it's the HoloNet and not something gone wrong here? " Jaina asked, though she recognized that yes, this was a problem.
"They're not supposed to. For all they know - for all I know - the downing of the HoloNet is cover for an attack on Mon Cal or the Imps, and this battle group is already starfood. I need you to let him know we're still kicking."
Jaina tried to keep the frustration out of her voice in her reply. "General, you want me to leave the battle?"
"A few starfighters can get out of the interdiction cones. Our capital ships can't. Still, I doubt they're going to make it easy for you, so I wouldn't worry about lack of action," Wedge pointed out. He knew her so well. "Anyway, there's another part to this deal, if you really don't fancy leaving the Bilbringi system. Our long-range sensors indicate that one of the Golan Two Battle Stations may still be operational. If things go badly here, we might be able to use it as a rally point, but I need it working. If it's not, and can't be made to, I need to know that as well. Send one of your flights to find Kre'fey and secure the station with the other two."
"Yes, sir."
"We're all counting on you, Colonel."
Yeah, yeah. It didn't look so bad to her out here, and she really, really didn't like being pulled out of the action again to go run an errand. But orders were orders, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Even with the shiny new Colonel rank.
She switched channels to give Twin Suns a heads up and to let the Scimitars know they were being left to the battle, which was received only slightly worse than she would have thought. Unsurprisingly, the question came from Jag. "We're running, Colonel?"
Yes. "Not exactly."
"We've got a head start," Eight reported. "We've got pursuers, but they're pretty far behind."
"They'll catch up, Eight. Before they do, I want some distance from the fleets. We're splitting up," Jaina explained. "Jag, as soon as we're out of range of that interdictor, you're taking Five and Six to the coordinates I'm sending you. We'll cover you until you've made the jump."
The surprise in his voice didn't go away. "Jump, Colonel?"
"Yes. I don't know how secure this channel is, and I'm sure somebody's paying a lot of attention to us just now. Make the jump and contact your superior there. Tell him it's all go. Do you understand?"
"Copy. What about you?"
"We've got another job to do."
For as much as Jaina thought she was being sent on an errand mid-battle, she quickly figured out how right Wedge was. From the second she sent Jag off with the others, they came under heavy fire from the coralskippers, and they lost Nine to three skips at once. As much training as she gave, sometimes you couldn't prepare for being stranded without a working ship when you got that heavily attacked before anyone could get to you. At least when Jag's group jumped into hyperspace she could relax some knowing that they were on their way. Which left Jaina's group to get to the Golan battle station, leaving behind the suddenly far outnumbered New Republic forces...
...Through an asteroid field, chased by dozens of skips who were stupid enough to follow them. That part was kind of just fun.
Once they were nearing the station, Jaina clicked her comm on to talk to her pilots. "Okay, Twins, here's what we're going to do. Our primary objectives were to see if the station is operational and to bring it on-line if it was. I don't think General Antilles figured on half the fleet following us out here, though. We're going to get there a few seconds ahead of them. The rest of you will cover me while I enter the docking bay, then you're going to punch to the outer system."
"Are you saying we're supposed to leave you, Sticks?" Her squadron never ever seemed willing to leave someone behind. While ordinarily Jaina would be thrilled they'd always learn to function as a team, times like this she wished they'd just do what she said.
"With any luck, they won't see me drop in. They'll think I jumped with the rest of you," she explained.
"With all due respect, Colonel, that's crazy," Two said.
Losing patience here, yes. "General Antilles needs to know the status of this station, and he needs to know soon. If any of you can think of a better plan, tell me now."
"Same plan, but one of us stays behind," Three said. "It doesn't make sense it being you, Colonel."
"It's the way it's happening. The last thing I need right now is an argument." And frankly, if this went horribly wrong, she'd rather risk herself than any of her pilots.
Three seemed to get that there'd be no convincing her otherwise, and at any rate, they were too close to the station to argue. "Yes, Colonel. Understood."
As she'd told them, she started off in formation with the rest of the group, then dropped out to try and make a run for the docking bay. Quickly, though, she realized it wasn't going to work. Some of the skips had seen what she was doing and were following her.
She didn't even have a chance to turn around and formulate a new plan. Her vision flooded with flashes of green lights, and when she was able to get in position to see, she found that the Golan was very much online, and was on their side.
*****
Jaina left the rest of her squadron to fend off the Vong while she went aboard the battle station and see how else they could help. When she got out of her ship, she noticed that her X-wing was the only ship in the enormous docking bay when she landed with permission, but before she could dwell on it, she was being welcomed aboard. She was met by two humans and a Rodian, and the male human, a gray-haired man about her father's age, extended his hand to her when he got close enough. "I'm Lieutenant Erli Prann," he greeted her. "We spoke a moment ago. These are my associates, Zam Ghanol and Hiksri Jith. I really can't say how glad we are to see you..." He glanced at her insignia. "Colonel...?"
"Solo," she finished.
"Solo? Not the one from the holos? Jaina Solo?"
She was pretty convinced she was never going to get used to the fact that her reputation could precede her. "'Fraid so. And I hate to be rude, but could we cut straight to the situation? I need to assess this station and report to General Antilles as soon as possible." And her pilots were still out there fighting while she got to have small talk.
"Of course," Prann said. "It's just such a surprise and such an honor. If you'll follow me, please?"
"If you don't mind me asking, Lieutenant Prann," Jaina said as they walked, "what in blazes are you people doing here?"
Prann laughed. "I suppose that does require a little explanation, doesn't it? We were part of a crew sent out here to overhaul the station." He paused as the turbolift came and they stepped into it. "You might have noticed it's way out here."
"Yes. I was wondering about that." And the fact that there was no other ship in the docking bay, that there was carbon scoring on the walls there like there had been a firefight... She had a few questions already.
"In fact, we didn't know it was here for years. It was cloaked, you see." As they continued on, he told her the story of how Grand Admiral Thrawn had cloaked the station and no one could ever find it. Following a lead, the restorers did, but the Vong invaded Bilbringi while they were still aboard, which left them stranded there for a year. "This morning, though, we swept and saw your fleet. We dropped the field, hoping you would spot us. We've got limited sublight communications, but no hyper-wave or HoloNet. And here you are."
Something was wrong here. If the feeling through the Force didn't alert her to that, the way he said those words certainly did. Jaina had thought at first it was just the fact that she'd always get twitchy being away from the fight, but no. She reached for her lightsaber, but didn't even get halfway to it before she felt like she'd been hit with a ton of duracrete. She didn't even realized she'd hit the deck until she was already down...
When she woke up, she was strapped to a table, and her head hurt, and even just looking at anything made her dizzy. Seriously? This was happening again?
"Sorry about that," Prann said. When Jaina looked up, she found him in the room with her, and his Toydarian accomplice had a blaster on her. She was getting scarily used to having guns pointed at her. "Sonics leave I you with a terrible hangover without the benefit of ever having the fun."
Luckily she found she could still talk. It was her first time getting hit with a sonic, but the aftermath was so far better than it had been after getting stunned at high voltage on Bakura. How terrifying was it that she had basis for comparison? "Prann, what's going on? Who are you really?"
"Oh, that name's as good as any," he replied easily.
"What are you, Peace Brigade?"
"Colonel Solo," Prann frowned, "now you're hurting my feelings. That pathetic bunch of collaborationists? Hardly. I'm a liberator."
"Of what?"
"Technology, actually."
Fun with euphemisms. "Ah. You're a thief and a smuggler."
"What I do is more like emergency salvage," he shrugged. "I haven't taken anything the Vong wouldn't have destroyed anyway. Remember Duro? We got some good stuff there, in hit-and-run raids after New Republic forces pulled out. If we hadn't it would have been wasted. The Vong sure weren't going to use it."
"So you came here after the Vong took Bilbringi?" she guessed. This was definitely better than Bakura. She could already think straight again. That was good, she needed a clear head.
"Nope, this job was a little different. Most of my story was true-except that it was Vel, here, who discovered the missing station in the shipyard databanks. I'd heard a story that one of the Golans disappeared right before the New Republic forces invaded. A few of us got jobs in the shipyards, and Vel managed to slice into the old Imperial records. One of the best slicers in the business."
"Ah, just average," Vel said.
"So what do you want with me?" Jaina asked. "Why did you stun me?"
"Well, frankly, Colonel Solo," Prann said, "I don't want anything from you, especially trouble. But I need to borrow some parts from your X-wing."
Jaina frowned, while some underlying part of her couldn't help but be pissed off he'd think about taking her ship apart. "You can't all escape in a single X-wing."
"No, we can't. We're going to escape in the station itself."
Um. "Come again? I thought you said it isn't equipped with hyperdrive."
"No, I said Golans aren't usually equipped with hyperdrive. This one wasn't, either. But how do you think we were planning on salvaging a space station without the Bilbringi authorities noticing?"
"You brought your own drive." At least they weren't going to make her install it?
"Yes. We almost had it installed when the Vong showed up and torched our transport. Unfortunately, the motivator was still on the transport. No motivator, no hyperdrive. So we've been waiting."
"You can't use an X-wing motivator to jump a station this size," Jaina said. It wasn't that she thought they were this stupid, she just needed the information from them to figure out what was going on.
"No, but we can cobble one together from seven."
If he wanted to get a reaction out of her, he got it. Jaina struggled against the webbing strapping her in, suddenly very determined to get out. "Leave my squadron alone!"
"Hey, calm down. They're all okay," Prann assured her. "We hit them with ion beams, hauled them in with tractor beams, and stunned them with sonics. And that wasn't easy- not with the Wookiee and that crazy Twi'lek." Jaina was really proud of Lowie and Alema right now, just for putting up a fight.And if he thought Alema was crazy now, just wait a few years. "Look, I'm not trying to make any enemies, here."
From where she was forcibly strapped to a table after being stunned, Jaina stared at him.
"Look, Prann," she said, "General Antilles needs this battle station."
"I'm sorry, Colonel, but we've all invested a little too much in this baby to just hand it over to be destroyed," he said with a laugh. "Do you know how much I can get for the cloaker alone? No, forget it. In a few hours we'll be ready to jump. Meanwhile, we've put the cloak back on."
"And what about me?"
"You're a bit of a problem," Prann admitted. "I know enough about you to know that the longer I keep you around, the better the chance you'll be able to use those Jedi powers of yours to- Well, I don't know, do I, and that's the problem. On the other hand, I don't want to kill Han Solo's daughter. I mean, I respect the guy, and I know he's already been through a lot."
"You're just afraid he would hunt you down and kill you." And Han would. There was no question in her mind about that.
"Yeah, that, too. Look, I'm a businessman. This is business. Once we've got the hyperdrive working and jump out of here, we'll put you all off someplace safe- with your starfighters. Okay?"
"No, not okay. Who are you going to sell your cloaker to, Prann?" Jaina asked. "The Vong? Because they're going to be the only ones around to buy it if you don't help us here."
"That's a little dramatic, don't you think? I mean, there's still plenty of market for this sort of thing in the Corporate Sector- heck, in lots of places. A small planetary government is what I'm looking for, one afraid they'll soon need negotiating power," Prann said with a shrug. "If this battle here goes sour, it'll only make the market that much better."
"Until there is no market. Until the Vong have everything, because Huttoads like you are still trying to make a profit rather than doing what they can to help us win."
"We sat out here for a year surrounded by Vong," he said angrily, "in constant fear that they would find us. Sure, they can't see us when we have the cloak on, but we can't see them either. Every single time we pushed out the probe we all got the shakes. And who knew what the Vong have that might detect us at any second? Do you know what it's like to be surrounded by that kind of pressure every day for a year and not be able to do a single thing about it? After what we've been through... Sister, you can keep your platitudes. I'm taking this station, I'm selling it, and I'm going to take my share and retire to some little backwater so far away the Vong won't reach it in my lifetime and sip cool drinks on a hot beach."
"There's no place that far away," Jaina said.
"I'm willing to look."
She wasn't going to get anywhere with him and she knew it. Jaina looked to Vel, focusing the Force on him as much as she could. Luckily the stun had cleared enough that she could concentrate. "He's crazy," she said. "Stun him and help me out of this."
Vel blinked, and looked at her blankly, then laughed. Well, there went that. She knew Toydarians were resistent to mindtricks, but she'd had hope.
"So it's true, then," Prann said with a grin. "Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to help get those motivators coupled together. Vel, I've changed my mind. Take her to fire control and watch her there. I can't spare you just to be a guard during this. Just keep an eye on things, and don't let her talk to anyone."
"I want to see my pilots," Jaina demanded. And if she could do that, she wouldn't need to talk to Lowbacca and Alema to work out a plan. See, there were reasons for wanting enough Jedi in her squadron for a meld.
"After we've made the jump," Prann told her. "Not before."
He turned and left the room, leaving her trapped in a room with the one person here she couldn't mindtrick while a battle raged on so close that she could see it from the viewports from here, trying desperately to figure out the next step.
[Open for calls and Emails! Okay, no not really. NFI, NFB, OOC okay. Jaina is having a bad week.]
"I've got a task you might find a little more exciting than bug burning," Wedge said from his end.
Jaina looked out the viewport of her cockpit, thinking she didn't need more excitement. They were doing well right now, she wanted to keep it that way. "I'm about to have my hands full, General. What do you need?"
"I need you to find Admiral Kre'fey for me."
She frowned. "Admiral Kre'fey, General?"
"Something's wrong with the HoloNet," he explained. "We were the advance for two more fleets. We can't contact them, so they haven't shown. I need you to find him, fast, and bring him here. Have him send someone to find Pellaeon."
"Sir, won't they come when they realize it's the HoloNet and not something gone wrong here? " Jaina asked, though she recognized that yes, this was a problem.
"They're not supposed to. For all they know - for all I know - the downing of the HoloNet is cover for an attack on Mon Cal or the Imps, and this battle group is already starfood. I need you to let him know we're still kicking."
Jaina tried to keep the frustration out of her voice in her reply. "General, you want me to leave the battle?"
"A few starfighters can get out of the interdiction cones. Our capital ships can't. Still, I doubt they're going to make it easy for you, so I wouldn't worry about lack of action," Wedge pointed out. He knew her so well. "Anyway, there's another part to this deal, if you really don't fancy leaving the Bilbringi system. Our long-range sensors indicate that one of the Golan Two Battle Stations may still be operational. If things go badly here, we might be able to use it as a rally point, but I need it working. If it's not, and can't be made to, I need to know that as well. Send one of your flights to find Kre'fey and secure the station with the other two."
"Yes, sir."
"We're all counting on you, Colonel."
Yeah, yeah. It didn't look so bad to her out here, and she really, really didn't like being pulled out of the action again to go run an errand. But orders were orders, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Even with the shiny new Colonel rank.
She switched channels to give Twin Suns a heads up and to let the Scimitars know they were being left to the battle, which was received only slightly worse than she would have thought. Unsurprisingly, the question came from Jag. "We're running, Colonel?"
Yes. "Not exactly."
"We've got a head start," Eight reported. "We've got pursuers, but they're pretty far behind."
"They'll catch up, Eight. Before they do, I want some distance from the fleets. We're splitting up," Jaina explained. "Jag, as soon as we're out of range of that interdictor, you're taking Five and Six to the coordinates I'm sending you. We'll cover you until you've made the jump."
The surprise in his voice didn't go away. "Jump, Colonel?"
"Yes. I don't know how secure this channel is, and I'm sure somebody's paying a lot of attention to us just now. Make the jump and contact your superior there. Tell him it's all go. Do you understand?"
"Copy. What about you?"
"We've got another job to do."
For as much as Jaina thought she was being sent on an errand mid-battle, she quickly figured out how right Wedge was. From the second she sent Jag off with the others, they came under heavy fire from the coralskippers, and they lost Nine to three skips at once. As much training as she gave, sometimes you couldn't prepare for being stranded without a working ship when you got that heavily attacked before anyone could get to you. At least when Jag's group jumped into hyperspace she could relax some knowing that they were on their way. Which left Jaina's group to get to the Golan battle station, leaving behind the suddenly far outnumbered New Republic forces...
...Through an asteroid field, chased by dozens of skips who were stupid enough to follow them. That part was kind of just fun.
Once they were nearing the station, Jaina clicked her comm on to talk to her pilots. "Okay, Twins, here's what we're going to do. Our primary objectives were to see if the station is operational and to bring it on-line if it was. I don't think General Antilles figured on half the fleet following us out here, though. We're going to get there a few seconds ahead of them. The rest of you will cover me while I enter the docking bay, then you're going to punch to the outer system."
"Are you saying we're supposed to leave you, Sticks?" Her squadron never ever seemed willing to leave someone behind. While ordinarily Jaina would be thrilled they'd always learn to function as a team, times like this she wished they'd just do what she said.
"With any luck, they won't see me drop in. They'll think I jumped with the rest of you," she explained.
"With all due respect, Colonel, that's crazy," Two said.
Losing patience here, yes. "General Antilles needs to know the status of this station, and he needs to know soon. If any of you can think of a better plan, tell me now."
"Same plan, but one of us stays behind," Three said. "It doesn't make sense it being you, Colonel."
"It's the way it's happening. The last thing I need right now is an argument." And frankly, if this went horribly wrong, she'd rather risk herself than any of her pilots.
Three seemed to get that there'd be no convincing her otherwise, and at any rate, they were too close to the station to argue. "Yes, Colonel. Understood."
As she'd told them, she started off in formation with the rest of the group, then dropped out to try and make a run for the docking bay. Quickly, though, she realized it wasn't going to work. Some of the skips had seen what she was doing and were following her.
She didn't even have a chance to turn around and formulate a new plan. Her vision flooded with flashes of green lights, and when she was able to get in position to see, she found that the Golan was very much online, and was on their side.
*****
Jaina left the rest of her squadron to fend off the Vong while she went aboard the battle station and see how else they could help. When she got out of her ship, she noticed that her X-wing was the only ship in the enormous docking bay when she landed with permission, but before she could dwell on it, she was being welcomed aboard. She was met by two humans and a Rodian, and the male human, a gray-haired man about her father's age, extended his hand to her when he got close enough. "I'm Lieutenant Erli Prann," he greeted her. "We spoke a moment ago. These are my associates, Zam Ghanol and Hiksri Jith. I really can't say how glad we are to see you..." He glanced at her insignia. "Colonel...?"
"Solo," she finished.
"Solo? Not the one from the holos? Jaina Solo?"
She was pretty convinced she was never going to get used to the fact that her reputation could precede her. "'Fraid so. And I hate to be rude, but could we cut straight to the situation? I need to assess this station and report to General Antilles as soon as possible." And her pilots were still out there fighting while she got to have small talk.
"Of course," Prann said. "It's just such a surprise and such an honor. If you'll follow me, please?"
"If you don't mind me asking, Lieutenant Prann," Jaina said as they walked, "what in blazes are you people doing here?"
Prann laughed. "I suppose that does require a little explanation, doesn't it? We were part of a crew sent out here to overhaul the station." He paused as the turbolift came and they stepped into it. "You might have noticed it's way out here."
"Yes. I was wondering about that." And the fact that there was no other ship in the docking bay, that there was carbon scoring on the walls there like there had been a firefight... She had a few questions already.
"In fact, we didn't know it was here for years. It was cloaked, you see." As they continued on, he told her the story of how Grand Admiral Thrawn had cloaked the station and no one could ever find it. Following a lead, the restorers did, but the Vong invaded Bilbringi while they were still aboard, which left them stranded there for a year. "This morning, though, we swept and saw your fleet. We dropped the field, hoping you would spot us. We've got limited sublight communications, but no hyper-wave or HoloNet. And here you are."
Something was wrong here. If the feeling through the Force didn't alert her to that, the way he said those words certainly did. Jaina had thought at first it was just the fact that she'd always get twitchy being away from the fight, but no. She reached for her lightsaber, but didn't even get halfway to it before she felt like she'd been hit with a ton of duracrete. She didn't even realized she'd hit the deck until she was already down...
When she woke up, she was strapped to a table, and her head hurt, and even just looking at anything made her dizzy. Seriously? This was happening again?
"Sorry about that," Prann said. When Jaina looked up, she found him in the room with her, and his Toydarian accomplice had a blaster on her. She was getting scarily used to having guns pointed at her. "Sonics leave I you with a terrible hangover without the benefit of ever having the fun."
Luckily she found she could still talk. It was her first time getting hit with a sonic, but the aftermath was so far better than it had been after getting stunned at high voltage on Bakura. How terrifying was it that she had basis for comparison? "Prann, what's going on? Who are you really?"
"Oh, that name's as good as any," he replied easily.
"What are you, Peace Brigade?"
"Colonel Solo," Prann frowned, "now you're hurting my feelings. That pathetic bunch of collaborationists? Hardly. I'm a liberator."
"Of what?"
"Technology, actually."
Fun with euphemisms. "Ah. You're a thief and a smuggler."
"What I do is more like emergency salvage," he shrugged. "I haven't taken anything the Vong wouldn't have destroyed anyway. Remember Duro? We got some good stuff there, in hit-and-run raids after New Republic forces pulled out. If we hadn't it would have been wasted. The Vong sure weren't going to use it."
"So you came here after the Vong took Bilbringi?" she guessed. This was definitely better than Bakura. She could already think straight again. That was good, she needed a clear head.
"Nope, this job was a little different. Most of my story was true-except that it was Vel, here, who discovered the missing station in the shipyard databanks. I'd heard a story that one of the Golans disappeared right before the New Republic forces invaded. A few of us got jobs in the shipyards, and Vel managed to slice into the old Imperial records. One of the best slicers in the business."
"Ah, just average," Vel said.
"So what do you want with me?" Jaina asked. "Why did you stun me?"
"Well, frankly, Colonel Solo," Prann said, "I don't want anything from you, especially trouble. But I need to borrow some parts from your X-wing."
Jaina frowned, while some underlying part of her couldn't help but be pissed off he'd think about taking her ship apart. "You can't all escape in a single X-wing."
"No, we can't. We're going to escape in the station itself."
Um. "Come again? I thought you said it isn't equipped with hyperdrive."
"No, I said Golans aren't usually equipped with hyperdrive. This one wasn't, either. But how do you think we were planning on salvaging a space station without the Bilbringi authorities noticing?"
"You brought your own drive." At least they weren't going to make her install it?
"Yes. We almost had it installed when the Vong showed up and torched our transport. Unfortunately, the motivator was still on the transport. No motivator, no hyperdrive. So we've been waiting."
"You can't use an X-wing motivator to jump a station this size," Jaina said. It wasn't that she thought they were this stupid, she just needed the information from them to figure out what was going on.
"No, but we can cobble one together from seven."
If he wanted to get a reaction out of her, he got it. Jaina struggled against the webbing strapping her in, suddenly very determined to get out. "Leave my squadron alone!"
"Hey, calm down. They're all okay," Prann assured her. "We hit them with ion beams, hauled them in with tractor beams, and stunned them with sonics. And that wasn't easy- not with the Wookiee and that crazy Twi'lek." Jaina was really proud of Lowie and Alema right now, just for putting up a fight.
From where she was forcibly strapped to a table after being stunned, Jaina stared at him.
"Look, Prann," she said, "General Antilles needs this battle station."
"I'm sorry, Colonel, but we've all invested a little too much in this baby to just hand it over to be destroyed," he said with a laugh. "Do you know how much I can get for the cloaker alone? No, forget it. In a few hours we'll be ready to jump. Meanwhile, we've put the cloak back on."
"And what about me?"
"You're a bit of a problem," Prann admitted. "I know enough about you to know that the longer I keep you around, the better the chance you'll be able to use those Jedi powers of yours to- Well, I don't know, do I, and that's the problem. On the other hand, I don't want to kill Han Solo's daughter. I mean, I respect the guy, and I know he's already been through a lot."
"You're just afraid he would hunt you down and kill you." And Han would. There was no question in her mind about that.
"Yeah, that, too. Look, I'm a businessman. This is business. Once we've got the hyperdrive working and jump out of here, we'll put you all off someplace safe- with your starfighters. Okay?"
"No, not okay. Who are you going to sell your cloaker to, Prann?" Jaina asked. "The Vong? Because they're going to be the only ones around to buy it if you don't help us here."
"That's a little dramatic, don't you think? I mean, there's still plenty of market for this sort of thing in the Corporate Sector- heck, in lots of places. A small planetary government is what I'm looking for, one afraid they'll soon need negotiating power," Prann said with a shrug. "If this battle here goes sour, it'll only make the market that much better."
"Until there is no market. Until the Vong have everything, because Huttoads like you are still trying to make a profit rather than doing what they can to help us win."
"We sat out here for a year surrounded by Vong," he said angrily, "in constant fear that they would find us. Sure, they can't see us when we have the cloak on, but we can't see them either. Every single time we pushed out the probe we all got the shakes. And who knew what the Vong have that might detect us at any second? Do you know what it's like to be surrounded by that kind of pressure every day for a year and not be able to do a single thing about it? After what we've been through... Sister, you can keep your platitudes. I'm taking this station, I'm selling it, and I'm going to take my share and retire to some little backwater so far away the Vong won't reach it in my lifetime and sip cool drinks on a hot beach."
"There's no place that far away," Jaina said.
"I'm willing to look."
She wasn't going to get anywhere with him and she knew it. Jaina looked to Vel, focusing the Force on him as much as she could. Luckily the stun had cleared enough that she could concentrate. "He's crazy," she said. "Stun him and help me out of this."
Vel blinked, and looked at her blankly, then laughed. Well, there went that. She knew Toydarians were resistent to mindtricks, but she'd had hope.
"So it's true, then," Prann said with a grin. "Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to help get those motivators coupled together. Vel, I've changed my mind. Take her to fire control and watch her there. I can't spare you just to be a guard during this. Just keep an eye on things, and don't let her talk to anyone."
"I want to see my pilots," Jaina demanded. And if she could do that, she wouldn't need to talk to Lowbacca and Alema to work out a plan. See, there were reasons for wanting enough Jedi in her squadron for a meld.
"After we've made the jump," Prann told her. "Not before."
He turned and left the room, leaving her trapped in a room with the one person here she couldn't mindtrick while a battle raged on so close that she could see it from the viewports from here, trying desperately to figure out the next step.
[Open for calls and Emails! Okay, no not really. NFI, NFB, OOC okay. Jaina is having a bad week.]