Project Boussh: CorSec Arrives On The Scene
By Kelly Grosskreutz

     Corran landed his X-Wing at the predetermined spot, behind a bunch of
farm buildings.  As he did so, he marveled at how different this farm looked
than the agro-combines of his native Corellia.  So primitive-looking.
     And, even though it was a primitive farm, Corran still thought
something looked wrong about it.  Then it came to him.  No animals, no
equipment of any kind was sitting around.  Just the buildings, and a young
woman with brown hair, waving excitedly to him.
     *This must be her,* he mused, still wondering exactly what the flimsy
had meant by her being the "keeper of things Halcyon."
     He walked up to her and shook her outstretched hand.  "Corran Horn, I'm
so pleased to meet you!  My name is Kelly Grosskreutz, but you can call me
Kelly."
     "Too bad it couldn't have been under different circumstances, Kelly,"
he said, looking again around his surroundings.
     "So, Corran.  I hope you don't mind me calling you Corran?"  He shook
his head.  "I suppose you'll want to get on the case right away.  My car's
over this way."
     She started walking, and he followed.  "Your car?" he asked, not quite
sure what a "car" was.  Then he saw a small, maroon vehicle resting on four
tires.
     "She opened the door and turned back to him.  "Yep, this is my car.  I
know it must seem really primitive to what you're used to, but it's the
common form of transport on this planet."
     Corran looked around again.  "Don't you live here, though?"
     She laughed.  "Oh, no, this is my grandparents' place.  I live in town.
My grandparents take care of the place and used to farm it until my grandpa
got too old to do that anymore.   But it was the best place I could think of
for you to land your X-Wing inconspicuously."
     "That explains the absence of equipment or animals," he said, happy
that one of his questions had been answered.  *Now if only finding Quiara
can be that simple...*
     Corran got into the car without too much trouble, and Kelly drove a
short ways to a small city.  The car ride fascinated Corran.  He saw many
different varieties of four-wheeled transport, and the city was like
something out of Corellia's past.  He felt like he'd walked right into
history.
     As they drove down what looked like one of the major streets of the
city, Kelly asked, "Ok, so where would you like to start in investigating
Quiara's disappearance?"
     "Why don't you tell me what you know about it first?"
     Kelly thought for a moment, then began to speak.  "Quiara became our
campaign manager since before I joined AFW."
     "AFW?"
     "Alt.Fan.Wedge.  This is the group that wants to get Wedge elected."
Corran nodded, and Kelly continued.  "Anyway, Quiara worked tirelessly on
the campaign, and then she went missing awhile back."
     "How long ago?"
     "About five months ago, at the beginning of the summer.  She was gone
for the whole summer, then she posted again a couple of months ago, claiming
that she hadn' had computer access for the summer.  Seeing that a lot of
college students lost computer access during the summer months, we thought
nothing of it.  She posted a few times after that, but then she disappeared
again, I'd say a couple of months after her reappearance, and we haven't
heard from her since.  This close to the election, we suspect foul play."
     "I see," Corran said thoughtfully, eyes staring off into the distance.
"So she had disappeared once before, not too long ago?"
     "Yes, but that's because she was home for the summer."
     Corran looked over at Kelly.  "Was that the first time she'd
disappeared?"
     Corran felt the surge of surprise run through Kelly's body.  "No," she
whispered.  "She's disappeared a few times before over the years.  If I
remember past archives correctly, AFW even mounted a search team for her one
other time, although not quite like this."
     Corran stared away, thoughts racing around in his mind.  *Could it be?*
But, no, it couldn't be that.  She couldn't be behind this.  She was dead.
Iella had killed her, and Wedge had gotten her clone.
     He looked over at Kelly, who was concentrating on driving her car into
the garage.  No, he'd keep this theory to himself.  She had enough to worry
about, and besides, what if he was wrong?  He'd do some of the digging
himself, maybe let the other Rogues and Wraiths in on his theory, and then,
when he was sure, he'd tell Kelly as well.
     Kelly and Corran got out of the car, walked through the back door of a
two-story white house, and headed straight for the upstairs  portion, which
Kelly said was her room.
     Kelly turned to him and asked, "Now what?"
     "You say that this campaign is taking place electronically, with your
delegation, AFW, posting back and forth to each other."
     "Yes."
     "Is there a way I can see past posts to AFW, especially ones to and
from Quiara?"
     Kelly sighed.  "Yeah, but there's a lot there.  I can give you a few
starting points, though."
     Kelly turned on and started doing various things on a very primitive
looking machine that could only be what the Terrans called a computer.  She
showed him how to navigate various sites such as deja.com, the AFW home
page, Quiara's campaign page, and how to access the AFW newsgroup.  Corran
leaned back in Kelly's computer chair and resigned himself to a long search.