Project Boussh: Brand New Day
By Josh Cochran

I awoke slowly, feeling utterly sapped of strength. The long night on the stone floor had
leeched all the heat from my body, and I shivered slightly despite my long sleeve flightsuit
I sat up slowly and propped my back up on the nearest wall. Every muscle and joint in my
body screamed in protest of the movement. I was stiff and sore enough to have lost a
wrestling match.

I hadn't felt this good in months.

The spotlessly clean corridor bore no evidence of the blood spilt here the day before. The
night's uncomfortable, fitful sleep had dulled the worst of the memories to the point that
I no longer felt my brain would explode. What was done was done. Dwelling on it wouldn't
help. Besides, I'd been living in the past long enough.

I pushed myself to my feet with only the slightest of grunts and headed for the stairs.
Within minutes I stood outside, basking in the warmth of the rising sun. The warm and humid
Mendellian morning quickly pushed the aching cold from my body. I took a long, deep breath
and cleared my mind of the uncertain future. For a few long minutes, I stood facing the sun
with my eyes closed. For the first time in a long time I was happy simply to be alive.

Long before I was ready to return to the real world a footfall behind me opened my eyes. I
turned to find a young Mendellian smiling at me. "If you're hungry, your friends are having
breakfast in the servants' kitchen," he said.

I hadn't realized I was hungry until he mentioned food. Now I felt so hungry I could barely
stand. I looked back at the palace with despair, wondering how long it would take me to
find the kitchen.

The Mendellian boy must have realized what I was thinking. He pointed back through the
doors we'd both come out and said, "All the way down this hall on the left you'll find
another hallway. All the way at the end of that hall is the kitchen."

I smiled back at him. "Thanks, uh..."

"Rekla," the youth said, extending his hand to me.

I took it firmly. "Josh Cochran. Nice to meet you, Rekla."

I could almost here the click in his head when he said, "Oh! You're the new Terra Eight!
Everyone's anxious to meet you."

"Well, I won't keep them waiting then." I followed Rekla back through the door and headed
off in search of food.

***

To say that the rest of the group was "anxious" to meet me might have been overstating it a
bit. When I finally found them, most of my new teammates didn't even seem to notice my
arrival. Sci acknowledged me with a nod and Alison smiled at me. Everyone else either
seemed busy attacking large stacks of pancakes or trying futilely to remain upright in
their chairs.

Walking into the makeshift mess hall felt a lot like walking into the Mos Eisley cantina
to me. I knew that Piggy, Runt, Elassar, and Ooryl were really here, but suddenly seeing
real aliens in the flesh set me back a step or two. I knew intellectually that I'd met
Tycho the night before, and technically he was an alien too, but it wasn't the same thing.
He wasn't a man-sized green pig. They all just sat there, eating their pancakes like nothing
was unusual. Well, Ooryl didn't, but I figured someone who looked like a six foot ant was
probably in search of a really big picnic basket anyway.

Aaron got one thing right. Bright orange looks damn strange on a Gamorrean.

I decided it would be best to just avoid looking at them for the time being. It might seem
xenophobic, but staring was just as rude. I spotted an extra seat at the table with Alison
and the Aussie from the prison fight, so I wandered over and sat down with them. "Morning,"
I said by way of greeting as I pulled up my chair.

"Morning," they both answered dully.

I turned to the Australian. "In all the commotion the other night I didn't manage to catch
your name," I said.

"Josh," he said, then added, "Josh Nolan. Terra Five." We nodded to each other and Josh
went back to his breakfast.

"Get much sleep?" Alison asked.

"A bit. More quantity than quality, really. I wouldn't have thought I would have slept so
long after twelve hours in the bacta tank."

"Bacta's for healing, not resting up," the other Josh said quietly.

Alison grinned devilishly. "He ought to know. He's had some experience with it."

Josh grimaced. "Hell, who hasn't?"

At that moment Terra Three appeared wearing an apron and covered in flour and sat a plate
full of steaming pancakes in front of me. "Good morning!" she said with a huge smile on her
face. "Good to see you up and around. Feeling better?"

*She is just WAY too happy* I thought to myself. "Much, thank you."

"Good," she said. "I wanted to thank you for your help the other night. We wouldn't have
made it out without you."

I waved my hand dismissively. "It wasn't any big deal. It needed to be done."

Three smiled again. "Still, thank you. By the way, I'm Becki."

"Josh," I said. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," she said. "Well, I must get back to the kitchen. Let me know if you want any more
pancakes." She smiled again and headed for the kitchen. I stared after her for a moment, a
bit bewildered.

"What's with her?" I asked.

Alison smiled slightly. "Little miss Becki seems to have found favor with the current
Mendellian government."

That comment was just as bewildering to me as Three's sunny happiness in the middle of a
war until I turned and looked into the kitchen. There was Becki in the midst of a warm 
embrace with a short Mendellian man. "Atner?" I asked.

"The younger," Josh replied. "The new and improved model."

That reminded me how little I knew of the people with whom I had and would fight. "So who's
who in here, anyway?" I asked Alison and Josh. "So far I've only met you guys, Becki, Sci,
and Tycho."

Alison and Josh spent a few minutes telling me who all the faces in the crowd were. I was
pleasantly surprised to see that in most cases my guesses had been right on. Some were more
obvious than others, of course. I paid special attention to the Terrans in the room, trying
hard to remember for more than a few seconds which name went with which face. It wasn't
something I was good at, and I had a feeling I'd be working with these people for a while
yet.

I tried to make eye contact with as many of the people gathered in the kitchen hallway as I
could. Those that noticed nodded or waved in my direction. As much as I wanted to, I still
couldn't bring myself to take more than a passing glance at the non-humans present. I just
knew that if I did a few seconds would turn into a minute...or two or three...and I'd be
staring again. That made me laugh quietly at myself. Normally I wasn't quite so concerned
with little things like that.

Alison glanced up over my shoulder and nodded at someone approaching the table. "Uh oh.
You're in for it now, Josh."

Just as I was about to ask why, a short, brown-haired young woman stepped directly in front
of me, just a couple of feet away. Her eyes were flashing and her jaw was clenched in anger.
The way she was glaring at me left no doubt in my mind that I was the target of her wrath.
*Now how have I managed to piss off someone here already?*

"You're Josh Cochran?" the newcomer demanded.

"Yeah..." I answered uncertainly.

The angry girl before me crossed her arms and somehow managed to glare even harder. If she
hadn't been about half my size I would have been scared to death. As it was I didn't feel
any temptation to break out into a laughing fit. "Just what the hell were you thinking?"

"Uh..." I started uncertainly. "Excuse me?"

"What were you thinking when you attacked that TIE squadron? Did you *want* to die? What
good would it have done you, or us, for you to get yourself killed?"

At the time it had seemed like such a good idea. But I wasn't about to tell *her* that.
"I don't know."

"You don't know!? What kind of answer is that? I thought you were some kind of big, tough
soldier boy. The best you can manage is 'I don't know'?" I started to protest, but she held
a hand up to stop me. "No, don't try to explain. You can't. You were a great help to us the
other night. But going and getting yourself killed won't solve anything, for us or for you.
This is a war, and we may lose people in battle. Which makes it just completely stupid for
someone to go and try to get themselves killed on purpose. And you didn't just do it once,
you did it twice! In less than an hour!

I just sat there in stunned silence, not even trying to respond. I was pretty sure my mouth
was hanging open in a brainless expression of shock. This girl was making me feel like a
first year cadet again.

"Let me tell you something," she continued. I could swear I heard the sound of a generator
winding up to power her second round. "We could use you. From everything I've heard you're
a damn good pilot, and a good ground fighter too. We can never have enough of either one.
But unless you're head is screwed on straight, we can't use you, because we can't *trust*
you. We'll never know when your death wish is going to suddenly reappear, and I won't take
the chance that you'd plow a shuttlecraft into a TIE squadron when it's loaded with my
friends."

"Actually, I'm feeling better now..."

"That's good. You better be. No matter what's wrong with your life outside of this place,
it's not worth dying for. Nothing is. You hear me?"

I nearly barked out a "yes ma'am!" at the top of my lungs as a reflex, but managed to
contain the instinct. "Yeah, I hear you."

The angry girl leaned down to put her face just inches away from me and dropped her voice
to a low, menacing tone. "Just remember: if anything happens to anyone on this team,
including you, because of this little death wish of yours, you will be *very* sorry.
I'll give you a crystal clear understanding of what hell would be like."

And with that, she spun and stalked away. I became aware of Josh and Alison looking at me,
waiting for some kind of response, but absolutely nothing came to my mind. Before my stunned
brain could reengage, three pilots wearing New Republic flight suits dropped into empty
seats around the table. The one in black was Tycho, and I realized the two in orange must
be Gavin and Inyri. Gavin and Inyri looked to be fighting back a case of the giggles,
apparently at the expression on my face.

Tycho smiled at me reassuringly. "Don't mind Kristy. She cares very deeply. Listen to the
words-"

"Not the volume," I finished.

"Exactly. Listen, Josh, we need some extra pilots today, as many as we can get. I could
really use you. Are you interested?"

If I'd been asked that question ten minutes earlier I'm sure I would have jumped at it, but
Kristy had made a good point. "I don't know, Colonel. Are you sure you want me up there?"

Before Tycho could respond, Gavin cut in. "We've seen you fly, Josh. You're good at it.
You're a hell of an instinctive pilot. You got five TIE's in a jet powered fighter. I
wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. You don't have experience,
but you've got talent. In a battle like we're up against today every little bit will count."

Tycho nodded his agreement. "We're going to have people flying fighters today that have
never flown before in their lives, other than in simulators. If we can add even one more
person who even halfway knows what they're doing it could really make a difference."

Make a difference. What I'd always wanted to do with my life. When he put it that way...
"What'll I be flying? My ship's on the bottom of the ocean in pieces."

"We've got some X-wings being ferried down from the task force," Inyri said. "You can take
one of them."

I wanted to shout. I wanted to cheer. I wanted to get up on the table and jump up and down.
I was even tempted to dance around, and I do *not* dance. Suddenly the whole world snapped
back into shape for me again. It wasn't the world I'd known most of my life - sharing
breakfast with a group of people who belonged at MIB headquarters had taken care of that -
but it was a way that made sense. Everything that had happened and all I'd seen in the last
few days suddenly made perfect sense. It was all leading up to this moment.

An X-wing. The very first thing in my life to inspire me to want to fly. The food of
daydreams for far longer than I would ever admit. They wanted *me* to fly it.

I suddenly became aware of the bemused expressions on the New Republic pilots' faces. I
realized I was grinning like a kid at Disneyworld. I tried to find a more dignified
expression, but found it most elusive.

"Is that a yes?" Tycho asked, obviously stifling a chuckle.

"Oh yeah... Absolutely!" I said.

"Good," Tycho said. "Of course you'll need some familiarization with the X-wing and how to
fly it and things like that. You're going to be Ooryl's wingman. I'll send him over to talk
to you."

I groaned and buried my head in my hands.