Project Boussh: All Aboard
by Durandir

They were not yet halfway to the docking bay when the great ship 
shuddered.

Corran shot a wide-eyed, grim-faced glance at Becki. "Not good," he 
said. "This thing can't hold together much longer."

"What - " she began, but her question was cut short when the 
Admonitor suddenly shook again, violently enough this time to knock 
Rescue Team One off their feet.

"What happened?" she tried again, as Tede helped her up.

"Torps from our fighters, maybe," Corran said, "or maybe one of our 
commando teams blew something up. The Addy has to have been seriously 
weakened from all the damage it's sustained while we've been in it. 
But to shake like that - it must be weaker now than I thought."

"If we don't get away soon, we never will," Tede warned. "By the time 
we reach the docking bay it could be too late."

It seemed Tede was not alone in this opinion: his words were 
punctuated by a calm-sounding meow, as Macavity, hovering near 
Becki's feet, reached up to sink one of his claws into her leg.

"Ow!" she complained, batting his paw away. "Can't you get my 
attention any other way, Mac?"

The ginger cat only purred, blinked, and then turned and began 
strolling back the way they had come. Becki paused only a moment, 
then said firmly to her team, "Come on," and turned to follow the cat.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Corran frowned. "We might 
still make it to the docking bay, if we run."

Becki shook her head. "Fenya can't run on that leg. I don't think I'm 
quite up to running myself yet, either. And anyway, in my experience, 
good things happen when you follow Macavity, and bad things when you 
don't. You wouldn't think it to look at him, but he's...well, he's 
Mac. That's enough."

So they followed: and they'd been following Macavity for only a few 
seconds when the Admonitor shivered yet again, more violently than 
before, and there was the sound of a loud crash. When they had picked 
themselves up again, they looked back to see that several meters of 
the ceiling behind them had collapsed, not much farther along the 
route they'd been taking until Macavity turned them back. When Corran 
met Becki's eye, she gave him a wry grin, then silently turned to 
follow the cat once more.

~

"Break to port, Grace One!"

Thayer obeyed instantly and instinctively, recognizing Reth's voice 
over the comm. Lasers flashed behind him, where his Avenger had just 
been. An explosion followed; on his sensor board, a red icon winked 
out, the symbol that had been a TIE relentlessly pursuing him, until 
now. "Thanks, Two," he said.

But there was no response. Another glance at the sensors sent a 
shiver of alarm through him: Reth's icon was no longer where it 
should have been. In its place was a new pair of red markers, closing 
quickly on his position. Thayer turned the Avenger even harder to 
port, bringing it around in a loop, frantically searching the skies 
for his wingmate even as he tried to get the new enemy TIEs into his 
sights. The TIEs - an Interceptor and a Defender - were having none 
of it; they kept up a lively dance just out of reach. Just as Thayer 
finally drew near the Interceptor, the other broke away, looping back 
towards Thayer's tail. But it wasn't quite enough to distract him 
just yet: moments later the squint was dust. Then it was just the two 
of them, Defender and Avenger, locked in the dance of death.

Be there, somewhere, General Nivag, Thayer begged silently as he 
dodged the TIE's fire and replied with his own. Be alive, Reth, 
somewhere in the night of space, somewhere where I can find you. For 
what am I going to tell Kirret, if I never again find you?

What am I going to tell myself?

~

"I guess the Force is strong with this one, hm?" Corran grinned, 
stooping to pet Macavity. The orange tomcat purred in contentment 
there in front of the escape pod cluster to which he'd led them.

"It's a cat thing," Becki shrugged. "Survival instincts, I suppose. 
Mac always seems able to sense a way out of danger, no matter how bad 
it is. Just instinct." But there was a quizzical look on her face 
that belied the skepticism in her words.

"Don't know too many cats as can smell their way to escape pods," 
Fenya said with a grin.

"I don't know of too many who've ever had the opportunity," Becki 
grinned back. "Maybe any cat could, if that was what it took for 
survival. But...well, it's Mac." And that was that. They piled into 
the pods, which were cramped little three-passenger models. Tede went 
with Fir and Fenya in the first; Becki waited to see them safely 
launched, feeling, as the team's leader, somewhat responsible for 
their well-being, and then she and Corran settled into a second pod, 
and Macavity immediately claimed her lap for his throne.

The pod's launch was much smoother than she had expected, especially 
given the rate of its host ship's deterioration. And then they were 
off. It reminded her, more than anything, of the Saint Louis Arch, of 
the trams, the little shuttles in which one rode to the top to look 
out over the city. Here there were three seats rather than five, and 
a complexity of webs for strapping oneself in, but otherwise it was 
eerily similar to the tram, even down to a little viewport in the 
hatch through which they'd boarded the escape pod. Of course, in the 
Arch the viewport showed only the Arch's insides. Here, that little 
window showed the void of space.

And the void of space was filled with light - the flashes of lasers, 
the brief flares of explosions that winked out again so quickly in 
the vacuum. The pod seemed to be drawing closer to the lights. "Look -
the dogfight still isn't over. We're not heading toward the 
starfighters, are we?" Becki asked, trying not to sound as anxious as 
she felt.

"Not too much," Corran murmured as he flipped switches at a sort of 
streamlined miniature pilot's console in the center of the pod. "But 
closer than I'd like. We'd better set this thing's course a little 
farther away from it anyway, I think, to give us time for our ships 
to pick us up. This pod's got emergency thrusters; I should be able 
to - Oh. Oh, sithspit."

"What?" She stared uncertainly at the controls he was working, 
wishing she could make sense of them. "What's wrong?"

"No thrusters."

"What! How?"

"How would I know, they should work, they're there, they should be 
there - wait, let me try - No. That doesn't work either. They must 
have just malfunctioned."

"Can't you do something?"

He glanced up from the controls long enough to glare at her 
inquisitiveness. "I'm trying. If it were an X-wing, maybe, but I'm 
not quite as familiar with Imperial escape pods, you know."

She frowned and looked down at the cat purring in her arms. "I know, 
I'm sorry, it's just - can't *I* do anything? To help? We're heading 
straight for the battle."

"We've never once *left* the battle since this morning, technically," 
he smiled. "You want to do something to help, you'd better just pray. 
Anything else will only get in my way."

He turned back to his efforts with the controls then. For a moment 
she frowned down at the blissfully oblivious Macavity, but in the end 
she decided Corran was right: they had to hope one of their ships 
could tractor their pod in before it reached the dogfight, and all 
she could do now was pray. And so she did.

~

In the moment that he finally got the Defender in his ship's sights, 
Thayer spotted Reth's TIE fighter. That was enough of a surprise to 
make him miss his opportunity to fire on the enemy fighter, and so 
the dance of death continued.

He lost sight of Reth's ship again as he tried to get the enemy TIE 
back in range. Memory would have to serve until he found it again: 
how had the ship looked? Something wasn't right, he thought - well, 
for one thing, it hadn't been moving, had it? Dead in space. So 
maybe -

The impact of the Defender's lasers against his shields warned him to 
keep his attention on more urgent matters. At least he had the 
shields - the rest of the Graces, Peas, and Finches, in their ill-
defended TIE fighters, had not fared quite so well once Thrawn's 
reserves of Avengers and Defenders joined the fight. If Reth was now 
among those who had fallen...

Then he spotted something again, but it wasn't Reth's TIE. It was 
moving, speeding from the direction of the Admonitor, right toward 
the place where the remnants of the Mendellian squadrons fought with 
the Aces and Masters against the remnants of Thrawn's reserves. It 
was an ovoid sort of ship, and it took a moment for Thayer to 
recognize it from briefings before the battle: an escape pod.

He recalled that Wedge had already given the order to evacuate the 
star destroyer - so there was a chance that it was their people in 
that pod. Whoever they were, though, they were in trouble; in a few 
seconds they'd be in among the starfighters, and it would be a small 
matter for a TIE's stray shot to find them. Thayer broke away from 
his opponent in the Defender and headed for the escape pod, 
accelerating for all his ship was worth. And the Defender followed.

~

Sometimes peace was just a matter of perspective.

Corran went on swearing at the escape pod's controls, becoming more 
and more frustrated the longer they kept on their current course. But 
neither Becki nor Macavity were paying much attention to him now. The 
cat was washing his face with the calm of the sun glowing steadily 
golden at midday, while Becki gazed thoughtfully out the viewport. It 
was the first sight of space she'd had since their arrival at the 
Admonitor, and it was magnificent, even through so small a window. 
She went on praying as she and the stars regarded each other so 
calmly; they seemed to smile and say that the prayer was heard. For 
the first time that day she was at peace, for the sight of the stars 
restored her perspective. Life was but the twinkling of one of those 
stars: it would end when it would end: as high as the heavens are 
above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him, and 
that was that.

Then they reached the dogfight, it would seem, for suddenly she saw a 
TIE's solar panel sweep past the viewport.

"Corran," she said quietly; the pilot looked up, and she nodded to 
the window. The TIE flew past again in that instant, or perhaps it 
was a different TIE; there was something different about the panel on 
this one.

"Sithspawn," Corran grumbled. "Too late."

She nodded, feeling oddly unconcerned about the chances of their 
pod's survival if the TIEs took a notion to attack it. Of course, 
perhaps they wouldn't take that notion; it could as easily be the 
Admonitor's crew in the pod, for all the TIE pilots knew.

Then the first TIE, at least she thought it was the same one that had 
flown past first, flashed by the window again, and Becki's eyes grew 
wide. "Wait," she cried, "look!"

"Look at what?"

"That one's not Imperial. That's Thayer!"

"What? How can you tell?"

"Well - for one, it was an Avenger, and he's the only one in our 
group flying an Avenger besides Vickie - um, Kelly - and Kelly landed 
hers on the Addy."

"It could just as easily be one of Thrawn's Avengers, you can't - "

"No, look. The colors."

"Colors?"

"It's bearing the Mendellian colors."

Corran looked at her as one might appraise a Hutt who's just declared 
his intention to donate all his worldly possessions to the poor and 
downtrodden of the galaxy. "What are you talking about?"

"Just look." The Avenger flew by again a moment later, this time with 
lasers firing at something they couldn't see. But the colors they 
certainly could see.

"Red and purple, with the gold double helix separating them, just 
like in Mendellia's flag," Becki explained, though Corran hadn't 
asked. "All the Mendellian ships bear those colors."

"But the Avenger - we've only had that since this morning. When would 
it have been painted?"

"Actually, we did that just after breakfast."

"We?"

"Thayer and I, of course."

Corran blinked in surprise, then finally laughed. "Of course. I see. 
Well, what's he doing out there?"

"I don't know. Fighting someone." She glanced at him and grinned 
merrily. "Protecting us, I think."

"He can't possibly know it's us in here."

"No." Then her face lit up with an idea. "Corran - do we have comm 
equipment in here? To contact him?"

"We should, but I already tried that, when I was sure I couldn't do 
anything about the thrusters. The comm systems don't work either. In 
fact, most of the systems on this thing aren't working. It's a dud if 
there ever was one."

"And yet we're still alive in it," she noted distractedly, glancing 
down at the cat in her lap.

Macavity, for his part, yawned and twitched his whiskers twice and 
promptly went to sleep.

~

Now the dance was even more complicated, for there was a third 
dancer: the escape pod still flying headlong on its course through 
the heart of the dogfight. Thayer and the Defender circled the pod, 
trying to keep ahead of one another, occasionally popping out 
suddenly to take a shot at the enemy on the other side of the pod. It 
was a dangerous game, for what if a stray shot reached the pod? 
Thayer flew out away from it once, twice, again, to draw the 
Defender's fire away, but each time he had to return, keep near 
enough to the pod to protect it. Fortunately, the Defender too seemed 
to be taking care about the pod - perhaps the pilot was thinking that 
it might be the Admonitor's forces aboard it, just as Thayer was 
thinking it might be his own allies. So they were both trying to 
protect the pod and destroy each other, all at once.

He was flying out away from the pod again, with the Defender in close 
pursuit, when suddenly a voice snapped, "Break to port, Thayer!" And 
he did so instinctively, instantly, and saw the lasers and then the 
Defender itself shoot past just where he'd been, and all the while 
his mind reeled in disbelief. Looping around to come up behind the 
Defender again, he replied: "Reth? Is it you?"

"Yessir, Grace One, I'm here," came the cheerful, familiar voice. He 
wasn't dreaming, after all.

"Here is where?" Thayer insisted. "By Darwin's beard, where are you, 
Two? What happened?" The Defender was leading him back toward the pod 
once more; he followed almost out of habit.

"Shorted out my fighter flying through the explosion of that last 
fellow I picked off your tail," Reth explained. "But I was able to 
eject, and Mirax came along and picked me up while you were playing 
tag with your friend there."

Thayer almost laughed with relief. "Good for her, we'll have to make 
her an honorary duchess. Good grace, Reth - " but he broke off then 
to take a shot at his opponent; it was a hit, but the Defender's 
shields still held. A glance at his sensors told Thayer that his own 
shields wouldn't be doing likewise too much longer; this dance was 
getting more dangerous all the time. "Reth," he said after a 
moment, "are you near? The escape pod I'm following, can Mirax bring 
it in? It might be one of ours."

"We're on our way. More pods are launching now; looks like we may be 
on tractor duty for quite a - Thayer! Break to starboard!"

But the warning came too late. The Defender's lasers hit, and 
suddenly the shields that had kept Thayer in the battle so long faded 
away to nothing. And then his opponent fired again, and suddenly the 
Avenger was flying with one less solar panel. And not flying so 
terribly well, at that - the loss of that panel sent him into a 
sudden spin.

But in the moment when death seemed certain, a giant's hand stopped 
the spin and plucked his ship out of the sky: or that, at least, was 
what it felt like. As soon as Thayer's head caught up with his ship 
enough to stop spinning, he heard Reth's voice again.

"Skate here. We've tractored you, Grace One. Prepare to board. Hey, 
Rekla, Iris - we've got him now, you can fire at will."

The Pulsar Skate now filled his viewport. From behind him, a 
magnificent explosion illuminated its belly, as the Skate's gunners 
found their marks on that annoyingly persistent Defender.

~

The escape pod lurched, much worse this time than when it had 
launched. Becki looked at Corran with the question on her lips, but 
he answered before she could ask.

"Tractor beam. Someone's got us. Let's hope it's one of our own."

She nodded and looked back out the viewport, absently scratching 
Macavity's ears. After that explosion just half a minute ago, they 
hadn't seen anything more of either of the TIEs out that window. 
Corran said he thought he sensed the presence of the young Dictator 
not too far away, so presumably it wasn't Thayer's ship that had 
exploded. Becki figured he was right, for the peace had not left her, 
and that seemed a good sign. Macavity continued to sleep through it 
all as only a cat can sleep.

They were moving now, but in a different direction and not nearly as 
quickly as they had been before: the tractor was reeling them in. In 
moments, for good or for ill, they would be free of the pod.

"Well," Becki said, "if it turns out that it isn't one of ours, or if 
anything should go wrong, well, I just wanted to say thanks, Corran. 
Thanks for coming all this way, you and all the Rogues and Wraiths, 
for putting your own lives on the line for our sakes. It's been great 
working with you."

Corran grinned. "It was worth it. I've been very impressed with you 
Terrans. Thrawn's a formidable enemy, even as a clone, yet you've 
beaten him. You've saved your world."

"With your help," she shrugged shyly.

"But not without yours. Terra Group hasn't had the smoothest ride 
these past weeks - but you've made it. You've succeeded. Rogue 
Squadron may have a taste for the impossible, but even we couldn't 
have accomplished all this without your group's efforts."

She made to reply, but just then the escape pod lurched again and 
came to a stop; they'd reached the tractoring ship, and even now 
someone on board it would be establishing an airtight tunnel to let 
them pass from their pod to the ship. The passengers quickly released 
themselves from their safety straps as the exit hatch opened.

The face at the other end of the short tunnel was familiar to both of 
them. "Mirax!" Corran gasped. "The Skate!"

The surprise and delight in his face were mirrored in his 
wife's. "Corran!" Mirax laughed as her husband fairly flew out of the 
pod to catch her up in an embrace. "Emperor's black bones, if I'd 
known it was you in that thing - "

"What, you'd have scurried off to the other end of the battle to see 
if you couldn't find someone else to rescue?" Corran teased, as the 
two of them moved off.

Back in the escape pod, Becki slowly stood to her feet, spilling the 
orange tabby off her lap. Macavity, so rudely awakened, cast an 
indignant glance at his person before darting out into the Skate. She 
hesitated, unsure why she did so; but then Mirax glanced back and 
said, "And Becki. Who'd have thought, of all people, you two - well, 
you'd better just hurry and get in here. Someone will be happy to see 
you." She smiled a secret-keeping smile as she and Corran passed out 
of view, away into another part of the Skate.

Curious, Becki hurried out of the pod after them. Rekla was there, 
manning the controls for the tunnel. "Miss Becki," he grinned. Was 
this who Mirax meant would be happy to see her? But Rekla took her 
hand, tugged until she followed him into the Skate, around a corner -

And then it was all clear; how had she not guessed it at 
first? "Thayer!" she cried with delight, and then she was in his 
arms, and their kiss of reunion held all the sweetness of life 
reaffirmed after death has crept so near.

"You're alive," he whispered. "You came back to me."

"I promised, didn't I?" she giggled. "Oh, Thayer, remind me in future 
never to make such promises. I had an awful time trying to keep it."

He laughed and held her at arm's length to look at her. "But you did, 
I'm glad you did. You're alive, and we're together - thank Heaven!"

"Yes," she murmured, while he held her close as if to drive away even 
the cold of space. With such thanks she could heartily agree.