Project Boussh: Double Indemnity
by Vickie Boyd and Josh Cochran

KILL WEDGE ANTILLES.

The crosshairs went red as she flicked her thumb over the firing 
control. The torpedo she expected to shoot out from her ship never 
appeared. She looked down and saw that she had discharged them all. In 
disgust, her finger pulled the trigger and began peppering Wedge's
shields with laser blasts.

Gate screamed. WE ARE BEING FIRED UPON BY RED TWO!

"I know, I know," he replied to the droid. Blasted, what is wrong with 
Vickie? Suddenly she had turned on him, unprovoked. What could have 
caused that? He flipped on his comm. "Stand down, Red Two. Cease fire!"

"I can't do that *GENERAL*," she spat his title out with venom.

His mind reeled. This was so unlike the woman he had gotten to know. He 
looked down to see his private comm light blinking. He flicked it on and 
replied, "Lead here."

Tycho's voice came through the static. "What the hell is wrong with her?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

"It sounds like Imperial reprogramming."

Wedge stopped. She had been in bacta after the fight with Erisi. Perhaps 
then is when they indoctrinated her. "I'm going to try and break her out 
of it. Get someone over here to help soon!"

"Roger Lead, Five out."



Wedge mumbled several Corellian curses under his breath and looked down 
to see that his shields had dropped to 64%. "Gate, put all shields to 
the rear. We'll stay in front of her." He began jinking and dodging, 
drawing her further away from the fight.

She continued the barrage of laser blasts until they ran out of power. 
She screamed and tried pushing the TIE faster to catch up with him. "If 
I can't shoot him, I'll just ram him." Her eyes flashed with fire and 
hatred that had never been there before.



Aboard the _Admonitor_, Vickie walked alongside Dorset. The Polearm 
pilot's face was hard and angry. The Jedi tried to send comforting 
thoughts to the other woman. She looked at Brad's back and sighed.

Brad had spoken with the troopers while Vickie calmed down Dorset. The 
trooper told Brad that they were to escort him and the prisoners to the 
bridge immediately. The "former" Imp nodded and let the Lieutenant lead. 
He followed with Vickie and Dorset behind him. To the rear were the rest 
of the troopers.

Vickie had no idea what was going to happen, only that there was nothing 
she could do. She was still a bit weak after using the projection on the 
troopers before. It was so frustrating.

Suddenly, her head filled with voices. She stumbled, falling to her 
knees as she clutched her head. Dorset grabbed her arm to support her. 
"Are you alright," she asked.

The following troopers did not stop. They came up behind and pushed them 
to move forward. "Keep moving," one said.

Dorset turned and punched her palms out into the man's chest. He 
stumbled backwards, stunned by the blow. "She is in pain. Can't you see 
that?"

The other troopers quickly pointed their rifles at her. "Move it," 
another said. "Pick her up or drag her. We don't care. Just keep moving."

Vickie pulled herself to her feet with Dorset's help. "I'll be fine." 
She glared at the troopers before turning around to find Brad standing 
before her. "I'm fine," she said again, staring hard into his eyes. *The 
battle has begun. There is something... wrong, though.*

His brow furrowed, but he nodded. "Let's go. Thrawn will be *displeased* 
if we are late."



Josh twisted his X-wing's stick through a tight spiral to avoid the 
expanding wreckage of his latest kill. He was finding it hard to stay on 
Ooryl's wing. He'd gotten his share of the kills today, but being the 
follower in a wing pair was wearing on him. Imperial fighters filled the
sky like a swarm of mosquitoes, and he longed to break away to swat at them.

He glanced up from the display showing the damage his fighter had taken 
- all of it minor - just in time to see a TIE Avenger swoop by so close 
he could read the serial numbers on the engines. It bored down on an 
X-wing ahead of it and fired blast after blast at the X's tail. Josh 
spared a glance at his cockpit instruments to identify the friendly
ship.

*Red One - Wedge!* His scanners showed the General's shields dropping 
steadily with each shot. Without consciously deciding to, Josh yanked 
his stick to the right and shoved his throttle all the way forward to 
fall in behind the attacking TIE. He centered the Avenger in his sights
and pushed the button on his throttle to target the enemy craft. And 
then he noticed that it wasn't an enemy craft at all.

*Why is Vickie shooting at Wedge!?* he screamed silently. Of course he 
couldn't answer his own question. Most likely no one would be able to 
until the battle was over. What he did know was that they desperately 
needed Wedge. Wedge was not only the best pilot they had, he was also
the heart of the mission. Losing him would drain the spirit from the 
Boussh team.

With Wedge's shields now down below 50%, there was no time to lose. Josh 
flipped his lasers to quad fire and tried to line up for a single shot 
that would shear off one of the Avenger's solar panels. He was just 
about to squeeze the trigger when the other ship jerked suddenly and
disappeared from his sights.



It wasn't until she was almost upon Wedge's ship when it happened. 
Suddenly, all she could see was orange as something leapt at her. She 
screamed and flailed backwards, pulling off her helmet. The TIE swerved 
to the side.

Wedge looked up and saw the ship flying erratically. He commed her, 
"Vickie? Are you alright?"

Sitting calmly on her lap was a large orange tabby. Macavity looked up 
at her patiently. He had all the time in the world.

Her eyes widened at the sight. "A CAT!" How did a cat get into the ship? 
Especially without her realizing it. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Macavity looked at her with his intelligent green eyes.

She blinked. "Do what?" There was a cat talking to her, wasn't there?

His head cocked to the side.

"You are talking to me telepathically."

The cat began cleaning its face.

She shook her head and another voice came to her, only much quieter. 
"Red Two, respond! You are careening out of control!"

Vickie looked out the viewport and gasped. Her ship was spiraling 
towards the _Admonitor_. She quickly grabbed the control stick and 
righted herself. She reached down and yanked the headset from the 
helmet. "What happened," she asked.

"You don't remember," Wedge asked.

Macavity cleaned his paws, watching her every move.

"Clone," she said quietly. "I'm a clone?"

"What was that? I didn't copy."



What Wedge's ears missed, Josh's picked up clearly. *A clone?* His mind 
raced, trying to grasp understanding from the vacuum surrounding his ship.

He reacquired Vickie's out of control fighter just as it settled on a 
course that would take it on a close pass by the Admonitor. 
Instinctively he turned to follow his target.

Although the immediate danger to Wedge had passed, Josh still felt a 
great sense of doom. The Avenger out ahead of him seemed to radiate 
darkness as a campfire radiated heat. He felt an enormous feeling of 
malice, hatred, and vengeance from the other ship. Even with three Star
Destroyers and hundreds of TIEs swirling around him, this one friendly 
craft seemed to him to be the greatest danger in the sky. He tried to 
shake the feeling, but it squeezed him like a vise.

Josh abandoned the inner struggle and focused on the outer one. Vickie's 
Avenger had gotten further away from him so he reset his lasers to 
single fire mode. He snapped off a couple of ranging shots before 
holding the trigger down. His first few shots missed wide to the left,
so he dug his foot into the right rudder pedal. The nose of his X-wing 
tracked across the rear of the TIE, and his shots finally began to slam 
home. Red bolts chewed up the rear of the port solar panel and slammed 
into the wing connecting spar before exploding the left ion engine. The
engine blew out, sending shards of molten metal spinning out into the void.

With one engine and a whole set of reaction control thrusters suddenly 
nonexistent and the other still running at full thrust, the TIE Avenger 
spun out of control headed directly for the Admonitor.



*Clone* Vickie looked down at her hands. "I... I'm not..." She couldn't 
finish the thought. It was impossible.

Suddenly, her shields began dropping. Looking up, she found that a 
single X-Wing, Red Four, was firing on her aft. Her mind was slow to 
catch on as she reached for the flight stick.

Too late.

She heard and felt the port solar panel rip from the ship. Her body was 
slung to the side as the ship began to spiral. She panicked.

Wordlessly she looked at the strange cat and nodded. Her mind blanked 
and she quickly was one with the Force. She pretended she was a god 
standing among the stars. She saw the ball of the ship spinning out of 
control and reached out for it. It evaded her grasp. She frowned.

Looking at the surroundings as a whole, she saw the _Admonitor_ sitting 
with several open bays, much like pockets in a pool table. "That's it!" 
She imagined a cue in her hands and lined up the shot. Flashes of what 
she thought was her life flew past her eyes. She pulled back and struck 
the ship.

The TIE spiraled towards the Star Destroyer. It looked as if it would 
slam into the side of the larger ship. It did, however, move towards one 
of the gaping holes in the side of the ship.

Like a pinball, the TIE bounced into the landing bay. People scattered 
as the ship skimmed across the floor and slamming into the back wall 
before rolling to a stop.


After a few minutes, one of the Imperial techs dared to move towards the 
ship. It was battered and broken. The other wing had broken off when it 
came through the bay doors. He walked up to the cockpit and peered in.

He hit the floor as he flailed backwards, screaming. "Monster! There is 
a monster in there!"

A pair of legs came through an opening in the hull, followed by the body 
of a slightly bloodied and bruised woman. In her arms was an orange 
tabby. The tech scrambled back away from her. She looked at him, fire in 
her eyes. "Surrender in the name of the New Republic."

The tech stopped, a blank look on his face. Several other people walked 
up behind him. The oldest, the bars on his uniform deeming him a 
captain, looked at her curiously. "You just crashed your ship and you 
want us to surrender to you? You are but one woman. What can you do to 
stop us?"

Vickie sighed and closed her eyes.