Project Boussh: Baedeker's Mendellia
by Durandir

Thayer Atner, by blood the rightful heir to the throne of Mendellia and
by circumstance the head of the resistance movement against his uncle
who now wrongfully held that throne, unrolled a heavy bundle of paper,
yellowing with age. Smoothing wrinkles and creases only to have them
spring back again as soon as his hand had passed, he spread the map out
on the table before the assembled members of the Mendellian Resistance
and the three Wraiths. He had just finished, with the help of the
Wraiths, briefing the Resistance members on the recent events in Terre
Haute that had led him to the decision to offer not just information
but all-out assistance to the New Republic pilots. The Resistance team
had agreed; and now it was time to plan their next step.

Kell Tainer looked up at the resistance leader doubtfully. "You sure
this map is current?"

"My friend," Thayer smiled, "you needn't worry about that. The map is
old, certainly; but in Mendellia, things have changed very little since
the time when the artist's ink was still wet on this page. This is only
to give you an idea of the layout of the country, anyway."

"You do have more up-to-date information in other regards, though, I
hope? Statistics, Imperial presence, that sort of thing?"

"We do," said Kirret Xarim coolly. "On the computers. We have newer
maps there as well, but they are not so detailed as this old relic. And
as Thayer says, you would find few differences between this map and
those."

"Mapmaking's not the most lucrative career in Mendellia," Reth Nivag
grinned. "Never anything new to map. 'Course that makes it difficult to
find any maps newer than this one, too, because no-one ever makes any."

"And it is difficult enough for *us* to find anything at all as it is,"
Iris Sewallei noted. "Eugor Atner has not yet been able to crush our
little group or even to find us, but he has done all he can to restrict
our movements. We place ourselves at great risk when we seek goods in
the open markets; and in a country the size of Mendellia, there isn't
much of a black market for us to turn to. So this is the newest map
we've got."

"As I was saying," Thayer resumed, "all of Mendellia is situated on
this one island. We are here," he pointed to a spot along the sea-
cliffs of the western coast. "Over here is the capital--Mendel City--
where the High Palace stands." Mendel City was represented on the map
by a cluster of bluish-white smudges that Kell assumed were meant as
buildings, growing denser and taller as they came closer to the High
Palace. Mendel City was a coastal town, on the eastern coast, just a
bit north of the Resistance HQ's latitude. "The capital city serves as
the island's main seaport," Thayer said. "There you see the Palace,
with the steepest cliffs of Mendellia at its back. It will be no easy
target--but we are not without options even there. The docks are south
of the Palace," he indicated the location on the map. "And you can see
here Atner River, which flows down from Mount Atner in the center of
the island, marks out Mendel City's southern border, then meets the sea
here at the capital city's docks.

"The Imperial presence," the resistance leader continued, "will be
strongest in Mendel City, but they have not limited their occupancy to
the capital. Imperial garrisons are stationed at intervals all along
the coast. These two," he tapped two cities on the map, smaller than
Mendel City but portrayed with similar assemblages of building-
smudges, "will be of primary concern to us. This city is called Beagle;
it is the second-largest city of Mendellia and sits on our other main
river, the Grace. Beagle's docks are far less utilized than the
capital's, though it is popular as a vacation spot--the coasts there,
on the southern side of the island, are ideal for swimming, and you can
see these little inlets here and there. They are much pleasanter to see
in person than on the map, I assure you. Now, the Imperials have set up
one of their garrisons here, in Beagle. It is, in fact, the garrison
against which our group recently carried out a minor raid; my TIE
fighter came from the Beagle garrison.

"Finally, this," he pointed to another smudgy city on the northern
coast of the island, "is Darwinia, the site of another Imperial
garrison. What intelligence we've been able to obtain suggests that the
Darwinia garrison is considerably less well-defended than any of the
others. The Beagle garrison in particular has seen a sudden increase in
security," Thayer grinned, "since it lost a TIE and a few dozen
stormtroopers to our raid. We'd do best not to move against them again,
but Darwinia is another matter. It should be ideal for our purposes."

"Those purposes being...?" Kell prompted.

"We've been wanting to repeat our raid, in hopes of acquiring a second
TIE fighter. Both Reth and I are capable of flying a TIE, you see, so
it seems our group could be more effective with both of us flying."

"That reminds me," Tyria interrupted. "How did you learn to fly a TIE
fighter, anyway?"

"I've trained as a pilot of the flightcraft native to this world,"
Thayer shrugged. "Reth has, too. So once we had acquired a TIE fighter,
it was only a matter of adjusting to the differences in controlling it.
We've both put in many hours practicing with the TIE--far away from
Mendellia, where we needn't worry about Eugor's people spotting us."

"Have you flown in combat yet?" Tyria asked.

"No. We haven't had the TIE long, nor dared do much with it, since we
have only the one and the Imperials have what seems, in contrast, an
unlimited supply."

Tyria's face darkened. "So, essentially, you're both still very new at
this, no training with TIEs specifically, except for some hours logged
flying around in the one you've got. I know you're a good pilot; we had
a chance to see that on the flight here from America. You've certainly
got skill--but combat flying is something totally different."

Thayer grinned and answered, "I know. I'm sorry, I didn't explain
*where* Reth and I learned to fly. We were in the Mendellian Air Force
together, years ago before Eugor Atner came to power."

"Ah!" Runt spoke up. "So it is Terran combat craft you have flown?"

"Precisely. Although, when I said that we haven't yet flown in combat,
that goes for the Terran planes as well. There just weren't any wars in
Mendellia when we flew for her defense. When Eugor took power, it was
too quick for anyone to fight back against him; we both left the Air
Force after that and eventually ended up here, with the resistance
movement. So we are not untrained for combat, but we are untried."

"If you intend to fly TIEs against Atner and his Imps now," Kell
warned, "you'll get plenty of trying. Are you sure that's how you want
to fight?"

"No," Thayer said plainly, "and we probably won't, for the most part.
But if the need arises, we want to be ready to fight in that manner.
So, since two of us are pilots, we think it best to have two TIEs on
hand. In case the need arises."

Kell nodded. "All right, then. Looks like Darwinia's our first target.
What do we--"

Just then there was the sound of footsteps from the stairway leading
down to the cavern where Thayer's TIE and the Wraiths' X-wings waited.
The Wraiths and members of the Resistance all tensed with the fear of
discovery, turning to see who it was, but a moment later they were able
to relax again as Rekla Wyksekul's youthful face appeared in the
doorway.

"Tide's coming in, Thayer," the young man announced, blushing slightly
when he noticed the three Wraiths, unfamiliar to him as yet.

"Good," Thayer nodded. "Nothing suspicious down below? No indication
that Eugor might know we're here?"

"No, none," Rekla shook his head. "Everything's--"

He broke off suddenly when he felt something brush past his legs. The
others in the room were all staring wide-eyed now, especially the three
newcomers; Rekla looked down, following their lines of sight.

A huge orange cat had appeared at his feet. "Good Grace!" exclaimed
Rekla. "Where'd that come from?"

Purring steadily, the cat paused a moment to regard the gathering it
had interrupted, then calmly made its way toward the group.

And with a sudden leap and a friendly meow, it settled into Runt's lap.

Thayer, recovering from surprise, arched an eyebrow at the Wraith. "You
know this cat, Runt?"

"Actually," Runt said, himself not yet quite recovered from that
surprise, "we do. It is Macavity."

"Macavity?" Kell asked, wide-eyed.

"From the Hermitage. He followed me around enough while we were
stationed there that I recognize him, but he followed Becki around
more. He's her favorite, we think--or perhaps she is Macavity's
favorite."

"What's he doing here?" Tyria asked in wonder.

"Followed her all the way from Terre Haute?" Runt suggested with a
shrug.

"Sure, but how? Cats don't fly."

"More than that," Kell put in, "what's he doing in the Resistance
headquarters? How'd he get in here, with that sheer cliff and the tide
coming in--"

"Perhaps I can answer that," Thayer smiled. "The hangar cavern isn't
our only entrance, you see. There's a series of tunnels in this island,
quite the labyrinth. One entrance to them connects to our headquarters."

"Where's the other end?" Kell asked.

"Several places, actually. Mount Atner, for one; also, some of the
major cities, and some smaller villages as well, are near entrances.
There is even a tunnel that links to the High Palace itself."

"No kidding?" Kell raised his eyebrows. "What about security? Is it
safe having these tunnels at your back?"

"Few people know of them," Thayer shrugged, "and we have guards
stationed in the tunnel that connects to our headquarters here."

"Macavity got past the guards," Runt noted, stroking the contented cat.

"Yes," Thayer frowned. "Perhaps they weren't expecting anything so
small. Well, I'll talk to them."

"All right," Kell nodded. "For now, let's see what sort of plans we can
come up with for Darwinia..."