Toryaz Station- Friday Fandom time

[solo_sword]

The bad thing about knowing parts of the future, Jaina had decided, was not knowing all of it. For instance, she knew that there was a war surrounding the Jacen stuff, but she didn't know with who or why or when it happened. After the parties involved in the negotiations with Corellia were attacked in the middle of the night, though, she had to accept that this was most likely it.

The next day's investigations had led to her and Zekk running into Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu while they were walking through the Narsacc Habitat, where those involved had been staying and the attack had happened. Or they caught Wedge and Tycho by surprise. Either way.

"Sorry, have I interrupted a veterans' parade?" Jaina greeted them.

Wedge and Tycho stopped briefly and exchanged a look.

"Jedi are quiet," Tycho said. "They sneak up on you even when they're supposed to be your friends."

"Maybe you're just losing your hearing," Wedge told him.

"I was deafened by the sound of your joints creaking."

Ah, pilot snark. Jaina almost missed it. Okay, she definitely missed it.

"That could be it," Wedge said, and looked back at the datapad in his hand, which seemed to show a map of the place. "Tell her that I'm not sure I should be talking to a traitor."

Tycho turned to Jaina. "General Antilles says-"

Jaina blinked, stunned. Maybe it was the fact that she knew her actions as a Jedi might get her into trouble with her dad (though he'd been as okay about her part on Corellia as he possibly could have), or maybe it was because Wedge was a Corellian calling her a traitor, but she immediately jumped to the defensive. "Traitor? Wait a minute. I'm half Corellian by birth, sure, but I wasn't raised as a citizen. And as Jedi, we're supposed to put the interest of the greater good ahead of planetary concerns-"

"Not what I meant," Wedge said, unruffled.

Tycho nodded. "She's young. She jumps to conclusions."

"She also talks too much."

"She has to. The boy who follows her everywhere doesn't say anything."

Zekk took this in, and simply nodded his agreement with that statement. Sometimes, Zekk was a dork.

"No,, what I mean is," Wedge began, "that anyone as good as you are in a snubfighter, but who gives up the flying life to run around in robes and swing an impractical energy sword, has committed treason to her natural aptitudes."

That didn't make it better, actually. "I still fly," Jaina pointed out, "and I still fly X-wings, and you're avoiding the subject."

Wedge nodded. "All right. No more avoidance." He drew a deep breath, then let it out in a guilty sigh. "This is not a veterans' parade."

"Well done," Tycho said. "Confession does cleanse the spirit, doesn't it?"

"It does."

What Jaina didn't miss was pilots thinking they were funny. If this kept up, she was going to strangle a galactic hero to death. Maybe two, because she didn't think the one she didn't immediately kill would stop making jokes. "So what have you found?"

Finally she got a straight answer. "As you know, the head security officer for the habitat is missing," Tycho told her.

"We know," Jaina frowned, sighing. "That's what Zekk and I have been doing, looking for him. We looked at the holocam recordings-"

"Which don't exist for the time period of the attack," Tycho said.

"Correct. We also went through his quarters, tried to get a sense of him..."

Tycho paused, waiting to hear the rest. "What is it?"

Jaina smiled. "Oh, at last you're curious. At last I have something you want to know."

Tycho rolled his eyes. "Better tell her, Wedge. She's going to get difficult."

Still paying attention to the map on his datapad, Wedge came to a stop so suddenly that Jaina almost bumped into him. They were in front of an air lock when he snapped the device shut. "In the wake of the attack, Tycho and I did the first, most obvious thing-"

"You asked for brandy?" Zekk asked.

"The tree speaks at last," Tycho said. "No, we asked for those selfsame holocam recordings that don't exist."

"So you got nothing," Jaina said.

From a pocket, Wedge pulled a cable. One end went into a jack in the datapad. The other was a wall plug, which he fit into the jack beneath the air lock's control panel. "Running diagnostics," he explained. "Seems to be pressurized. No unusual pulses through the internal sensors. No, Jaina, we asked whether this is the sort of place where the engineering department logs all door openings and closings. You know, to measure wear patterns, predict replacement needs, that sort of thing."

"That would never have occurred to me," Jaina admitted.

"Me, either. Something my wife taught me," Wedge grinned. "Or, rather, taught my younger daughter while I eavesdropped. I have one daughter going into my line of work, one going into my wife's. Genetically and culturally speaking, isn't that perfect?"

Jaina knew his daughters Syal and Myri, but she couldn't exactly say she was close with them or anything, and even if she was... not the time. "Perfect. So... the door openings?"

Wedge gave the rundown on when the door was open and for how long around the time of the atack, then began inspecting the airlock while Jaina watched closely. "Wish Iella were here," he said.

"Or Winter," Tycho added.

"Both our wives are ex-Intelligence," Wedge told Zekk as he worked. "Tycho's wife used to babysit Jaina, in fact. Whatever we've learned, we've picked up mostly through osmosis."

"Normally, we just shoot things," Tycho added.

"We keep trying to retire," Wedge said. "Give up this life of shooting things."

"We're really men of peace at heart."

Jaina owed much of her military career to these men and yet she was obviously going to have to snap and kill them both.

Wedge stepped out from the air lock and shrugged. "Nothing."

Not so fast. "Give it over," said Jaina, holding out her hand.

"What?" he asked, surprised.

"I saw you palm something when you were bent over looking at the floor," she said. "Hand it over."

He didn't deny that he'd found anything. Instead, he shook his head and said, "Our lead, our investigation. You and your pole-like shadow can tag along if you want."

"Trade," Zekk said.

Wedge shot him a curious look. "What?"

"Trade. I give you my lead, the one I found on my own."

Jaina scowled up- way up- at Zekk. "You didn't tell me you found a lead."

He ignored her. "You give Jaina your lead. An even trade."

Wedge glanced at Tycho. "What do you think?"

"Jedi bluff," Tycho decided.

Zekk smiled. "To sweeten the deal, the lead I picked up, if you take it, means you'll have to commandeer a shuttle or a rescue craft and go flying around outside."

Wedge sighed, apparently caving. "It's always the quiet ones. All right, master motivator, you have a deal." From a pocket he removed a clean orange rag that appeared to be wrapped around something. He held it above Jaina's hand but did not release it. "Your clue?"

"We were looking for Tawaler, too, as Jaina said. His comlink reads as being off-base," Zekk replied. "So I dismissed it for a while. But then I remembered. Off-base, as a comm term, is normally used on groundside bases. We use the same terms in the order, probably because Master Skywalker is ex-military. Means that the wearer is not on-base, but his comlink is still returning a signal. Right?"

"Right," Wedge said. "Oh."

"So our suspect's comlink is still returning a signal from nearby... but we've all been assuming it meant that he'd flown off to some planet somewhere. Give it," Jaina said, wiggling her fingers.

Wedge dropped the rag into her hand, and she turned the rag over and unfolded it. "Huh," she said.

*****

They spent the night investigating in teams, reporting back in the lounge not long before dawn. Somewhere along the line these sorts of meetings had begun including mainly the Skywalker-Solo family, including Ben, with the inclusion of Wedge and Tycho, and Admiral Pellaeon of the Imperial Remnant, who had been there on behalf of the GA to negotiate with Prime Minister Saxan. No one looked weary; the Jedi sustained themselves through Force techniques, while Han, Wedge, and Tycho relied on caf and stubbornness.

"So what have we learned?" Luke asked, ticking off points on his fingers. "The killers were mostly Corellians, which doesn't mean anything, since anyone can hire Corellian killers."

Ordinarily that would have been taken as an innocuous statement, and there was really no doubt Luke meant anything malicious by it. But with things the way they were, that was met with silence and stares from Han and Wedge. "That didn't come out the way I intended it," he said.

"Forget it," Han said.

Luke nodded, and continued. "This was a sophisticated plan, at least in its setup. The planner made use of powerful narcotics to subdue the agents on perimeter duty, and a powerful alkaloid to kill assassins who might have otherwise survived. These toxins aren't easy to get. The planner knew exactly where everyone was sleeping- or, rather, was supposed to be sleeping, since Admiral Pellaeon and his personnel occupied different chambers without informing the base security detail. Captain Tawaler appears to have been influenced, both into participating in the plan and into killing himself, by means of use of the Force... meaning that, regretfully, we have to conclude that a rogue Jedi or equivalent is involved. Supporting that point is the fact that the weapons they carried were designed for use against Jedi."

"Much the way the Corellian response to some recent missions was optimized against Jedi," Wedge added.

"It was Thrackan," Han decided.

"That's one possibility," Luke said.

"Possibility, nothing. Does anybody here not know that it was my boy Jacen and Luke's boy Ben who wrecked Centerpoint Station?"

Again there was silence. Ben and Jacen had been the only ones who'd managed to complete their mission at Corellia when everyone else had been waylaid by ambush. They'd destroyed Centerpoint Station, a station which, by the way, had never seemed to do anything good and Jaina wasn't sorry to see it go, but it was a major blow for the Corellians. And the idea that the Corellians might be acting against them because of it said bad things. That wasn't lost on Ben, either, who at thirteen hadn't yet had a lot of people coming after him for something he did. At least, Jaina assumed that was why he looked the way he did at hearing that.

"I've seen the security recordings from the assault on Centerpoint Station," Wedge said finally. "As the one person present least likely to know otherwise, I'd have to say the answer is no."

"So?" Han countered. "He wants revenge. The damage at Centerpoint throws his plan back years. But if this assault here, last night, had been one hundred percent successful, he'd have avenged himself and cleared the way to take complete control in Corellia. He's the only one who profits from what happened here."

"Not quite," Leia protested. "He only profits if he can take control and then achieve peace. The killing of Prime Minister Saxan reduces the likelihood of peace. The Corellians are going to be hopping mad and pushing for war... Thrackan's smart enough to realize how ruinous war would be to the Corellian economy. Even if they were to win."

"It's Thrackan," Han said stubbornly. Which, to be fair, could be a valid argument.

"Jacen?" Luke said, leaning forward in his seat. "While you were running around, chasing Sal-Solo as a distraction for Ben, did you get any sense from him that he'd take your actions more personally than an old conspirator should?"

Jacen was quiet for a moment, probably thinking over every bit of that time to come up with an answer. It was infuriating that he could still take that long to decide yes or no. "No, I really didn't," he said.

Luke leaned back now that he had his answer. "We'll investigate the Thrackan angle, of course. Anything else?"

"I've got something," Jaina said. She reached into her robe, pulling out the cloth that Wedge had given her earlier. She unfolded it, showing the others what lay inside. It was a tassel of some kind, multicolored and patterned, with the occasional knot in it. She hadn't been able to discern if it had been pulled off of something or if it had had another purpose, but it certainly was unusual. Possibly totally pointless, but unusual. "We found this in the air lock that Tawaler used when he was going out for fresh air. I haven't had time to scan it for inorganic toxins, but there's no biological activity going on in it. It just seems to be beadwork."

"Accidentally dropped, or left for us to find?" Luke asked. "Carried by Tawaler, or someone else?"

Jaina shrugged. "No way to tell."

A voice came from the overhead speakers, apparently one of the Imperial lieutenants. "Excuse me. I have a priority holocomm contact coming in for Admiral Pellaeon. Is there any chance he's still in the lounge?"

"I'm here," Pellaeon said, standing. Tycho followed suit. "That'll be the crack-of-dawn, report-any-changes call, and as soon as I report, this conference is done. I'll be back in a few minutes." He walked stiffly from the room, and the door closed behind him and Tycho.

Wedge checked his chrono. "The Prime Minister will be receiving one of those, too. And though she wouldn't be obliged to receive it, I will be. If you'll excuse me?"

"Leaving only Jedi," Zekk said, "and a Jedi-in-law."

Han scowled at him, and Jaina resisted the urge to bang her head against the nearest wall.

Luke stared at the others over his hands, which he held steepled before him in a meditative pose. "I think we can safely say that our mission at this station has been an utter failure. We've been outmaneuvered, and we have at least one enemy we didn't know about before... and we know very little about now. In a few minutes, the delegations will be recalled. It'll be time for Jedi investigations to get under way for real. Jacen, Ben, please see what you can find out about Captain Tawaler. We need to find out about the Force-user he apparently had contact with. She can't have left no trace. If you can't pick up a trail, continue with the shuttle she apparently escaped on."

Jacen nodded. "Consider it done."

"Jaina, Zekk, I want you to find out whatever you can about that tassel you found. Try to determine whether it was left accidentally or deliberately, where it came from, what it means," Luke went on. "When that's done, please return to the task force at Corellia and take command of Hardpoint Squadron until Mara and I get back from our groundside mission."

He went on to explain his mission with Mara, and asked Han and Leia to continue to try to cool things down between the GA and Corellia. Then Ben spoke up for the first time since the meeting began. "They're after me too, aren't they?"

It was weird, Jaina thought. The way he looked when he said that, the way he said it, was the first time she'd really thought he sounded like the Ben in Fandom. It wasn't that they were different, but there was a difference in Ben as a kid versus Ben as a teenager. All of a sudden there seemed to be just slightly less of one.

Luke really didn't look happy with the answer he had to give. "Yes. If they're after Jacen because of Centerpoint Station, they're after you, too. Your youth may not mean anything to them. But understand me. Regardless of who they are, or how highly they're placed, I'm not going to tolerate the continued-" He paused, apparently reconsidering his words to be more Jedi. "-the continued freedom of people who target children for assassination."

"How delicately expressed," Mara said. "I don't think there's any way they'll refrain from trying to kill us if we confront them, Luke. And when they do..."

"It's never a good thing to hope for an opportunity to kill, Mara," Luke said. Jaina had to wonder if he hadn't been thinking along the same lines before he stopped himself. "All right. Let's go. Ben, join me and your mother for a few minutes before it's time to leave."

With the meeting over, the other Jedi began filing out of the room, and Jaina saw Jacen gesture to her, asking her to stay behind. She didn't really want to. For two people who'd been inseparable their entire childhood right up till they were sixteen, they were hardly ever alone anymore, and it felt uncomfortable when they were. But, she told herself, this was clearly about work, and she could drop the attitude for that.

"Can I see that thing again?" Jacen asked.

Was that all? "Sure," she said, and handed the tassel over. She explained in more detail where Wedge had found it and what she had been able to make of it, and then she realized Jacen was too busy studying the thing to hear a word she was saying.

He realized it at the same time, and smiled almost sheepishly. "Sorry. I was daydreaming."

"That's not like you," she said.

"More like Anakin," Jacen agreed. "Listen, would you like to trade?"

Jaina frowned. "Trade what?"

"Assignments. I'm feeling something from these tassels- can you?"

"No, not really," she said, peering at the thing again to try and see whatever it was that he did in it. Nope, nothing. She shook her head.

"So I should be the one to investigate them," he said. "You look into Tawaler, then go and take command of Uncle Luke's squadron."

It sounded reasonable enough. But she didn't trust Jacen anymore, and she was still wary of being used somehow to further whatever he thought was the right thing, so she said something she'd probably never said before and would never say again. "Let's clear it with Uncle Luke first."

Jacen frowned. "Let's not. He's been second-guessing a lot of my instincts lately, even though he keeps telling me to trust them. Well, I trust this one- I need to be the one to investigate the tassel."

While he'd become a pretty guarded person, he wasn't guarding himself now, and Jaina couldn't read any deceit from him. Whatever this thing was, he really did think he knew what to do with it, and she was more suited to do anything but that. Logically, he was right on this. That didn't mean she wouldn't tell Luke if she felt she should. "And when he asks about it-"

"It'll be all my fault."

She nodded, even teasing a little. "He'll believe that. You are male, after all."

As it turned out, Jaina really should have said no.

[NFB, NFI, OOC cool. Cool cool cool. Dialogue and a couple bits I couldn't bring myself to leave out from Betrayal by Aaron Allston]