Project Boussh: Ecologist For Hire
by Kristy Henscheid

Kristy looked up from her spot on the floor in the cabin's living room as
Emily came running in.  She and Morwen had been listening avidly with
Iella and Mirax as Winter explained how, exactly, Leia had pulled off the
cinnamon-bun hairdo.  Emily's pounding footsteps stopped all discussion in
the room instantly.

"Wedge and Sci want everyone in the briefing room on _Red Home_
pronto," the bright-eyed young woman gasped out.  Kristy had to once again
remind herself that even though she was graduating from college in another
semester, it hadn't been all that long since high school, and she wasn't
really as old as Emily sometimes made her feel. "There's been an oil
spill in the Galapagos."

Assorted groups of Rogues, Wraiths, and AFW'ers shot to their feet and
headed for the door, a thousand questions on their faces.  It was probably
a measure of their growing level of professionalism that they didn't
actually voice those questions--they just hurried for the briefing, where
their commanders would (hopefully) explain everything.

Entering the briefing room on Morwen's heels, Kristy snatched the laptop
out of Wes Janson's hands, for once not even thinking about how amazing
his appearance was.  (When she'd first met him during the initial
excitement of the get-together in Alison's cabin, she had been struck by
his uncanny resemblence to actor Russell Crowe, and had promised
herself to re-start the Casting thread on AFW once this was all over and
Quiara was safe.)  It took her a few moments to get the hang of the
touch-pad, and then she was fervently taking in the article on the screen,
tuning out the initial suggestions being thrown about by the group.

"Bloody hell," she murmured under her breath to Morwen, who was reading
over her shoulder.  "There are some seriously unique and threatened
species on those islands--they'd better get that under control
*fast*."  Morwen nodded, her dark, intelligent eyes wide with
apprehension.

Alison stood at the front of the room with Sci, Wedge, Tycho, Iella, and
Corran as the group settled, explaining her find, and her suspicion that
Eugor Atner had something to do with the disaster.

"Are you sure Atner had something to do with this? A spill would only
bring more people to the area," Wedge was saying as Kristy passed the
computer to Morwen and tuned in again.

Alison caught her bottom lip between her teeth, frowning.  "No, I'm not
sure. That's why we need to send someone down there to check. If it was
his fault, then we need to find out why. There are a lot of endangered
species that live on and around those islands."

Kristy nodded fervently in agreement.  Of all the awful places to have an
ecological disaster....

Suddenly she realized Sci had suggested sending *her* down there--but
before she could protest, Tycho was proposing sending Ooryl with them to
look underwater, and Mirax and Iella were volunteering to accompany them
as environmental investigators.  As her mind babbled in terror at her--**I
don't even have a degree yet, I'm just a lab peon, not a PI**--Wedge was
approving all their ideas and issuing orders.

"To head the crew going to the islands, we have chosen Kristy. She is a
biologist and the most likely candidate."

"Me," Kristy meeped. **Bloody hell,** was what she really wanted to
say.  "Um, are you sure about this?"

Wedge grinned.  Damn that grin, and damn him.  He was *Wedge*, how could
she say no?  "You're the most logical choice, with your biology
background."

Morwen's hand crept into Kristy's, and she squeezed it thankfully, glad
for her good friend's presence.  **Dear gods, I'm actually going to do
this.  Okay, think.**  "I'm going to need to get some stuff from Idaho."

"We'll make sure you get whatever you need.  Mirax and Iella will
accompany you, and Ooryl, I want you to go too, to go underwater and check
out what happened with this ship."

"Ooryl would be honored to escort the ladies."

"All right, any questions?" Wedge scanned his group.  Interesting that he
had automatically taken charge even though technically the Terrans were in
command.  He was the most qualified to do it, though.

Alison quickly volunteered to go with them as a helper and spy among those
helping to clean up affected shoreline, and Kristy felt an irrational
lifting of spirits at that.  What could be more fitting than the two
seaQuest fans among the AFW'ers helping to save a part of the seas?

"I'd like to take Morwen with me too," Kristy added, glancing quickly at
the quiet woman sitting next to her as she straightened in
surprise.  "She's as good a scientist as me, if in the wrong
discipline.  But we may need an electrical engineer if we end up sneaking
around."

*

It took surprisingly little additional planning to get the ball rolling
for the ecology group.  In the end, Winter decided to accompany them as
well, and they began gathering their gear aboard the _Pulsar Skate_, which
would leave within the hour.  Kristy let the rest of her team take care of
the supplies as she accepted a stream of advice and pointers from GFFA'ers
and AFW'ers alike, the strangest from Nick.

"I thought I might give you a bit of warning about the UberGand," the
long-haired young Australian told her in his cool accent. "He might
get Findsmanny on you."

"What?" Kristy raised an eyebrow at his cryptic statement.

"I don't know what it's all about, but if he starts leading you somewhere
odd while spouting nonsense at you....follow him.  He'll be right."

"Okay, I guess," she responded.  Her last phrase was almost drowned out by
a sudden roar of starfighter engines overhead, and both of them looked up
to see a TIE interceptor roar overhead.  Nick let out a potent curse and
took off running for the cabin.

"That was Fel's TIE!" Mirax's voice yelled behind Kristy, and she
whirled.  The ecology team had all appeared at the open hatch of the
_Skate_.

"Stay there!" Kristy yelled back at her group, falling naturally into a
command role.  "I'll go see what's happening."

Halfway to the cabin, she met Wedge running toward her, as Tycho's X-wing
took off in pursuit of the TIE.  "Are you ready to go?" he asked her.

"I think so, but what's going on with the TIE?"

"Vickie gave Brad the codes to Fel's TIE and he took off."  Wedge's face
was drawn, serious, but he wasn't quite frowning.  "We've got it under
control; you need to haul jets."

"But--"

"Get going," Wedge said firmly, staring her down.  "You're not to let this
affect your mission.  We'll let you know if we learn where Brad headed,
but Corran says he didn't go south, so he's probably not running to
Mendellia.  You need to get down there and shoot your intelligence back to
us."

Every bone in her body screamed against it.  She wanted to know what the
hell Vickie had been *thinking*, and how the rest of the group was dealing
with this.  But she merely nodded.  "Yes, sir.  We'll get down there by
nightfall."

*

After a hurried stop in Idaho, where Kristy had gathered textbooks and lab
coats, as well as borrowing some chemicals from a friend who did research
on surfactants in the chemistry department, the group aboard the _Skate_
sped south to a small group of islands off the western coast of
Ecuador.  Mirax flew and Ooryl catalogued and organized the gear they'd
brought.  Winter and Iella planned out their personas with occasional
suggestions from the Terrans aboard, and worked at producing necessary
documentation.  Morwen and Alison gathered around the laptop and studied
developments on the oil spill as soon as they hit the Internet.  And
Kristy studied, reading every bit of data she could get her hands on and
sometime misplacing the girls of the computer to pull papers off of
PubMed.  All the while a small part of her mind tried to convince her how
ridiculous this was.  She was studying molecular biology and biochemistry,
not marine ecology.  And yet if Atner's actions destroyed the very species
on the islands that had so intrigued Darwin....

Now she followed Iella and Mirax as they stalked through corridors of
Mendellia's High Palace, dressed in her knee-length lab coat and trying
not to burst into a rage about the misinterpretation of molecular biology
that the place represented.  Mendel City, indeed!  If her hero was still
alive he would have been the first to condemn Atner and all he stood for.

It had been almost too easy to gain access to the Palace on the pretense
of checking shipping records, and Mirax was on her toes.  Kristy thanked
whatever deity cared to hear that she had the resources of these
incredibly talented women from the GFFA.

Morwen, Alison, and Winter were out on the water near the oil spill in an
inflatable raft, keeping watch over Ooryl's underwater efforts while they
attempted to do some chemistry on the spill with the surfactants and a
procedure downloaded from the Internet.  Kristy worried about them when
she didn't worry about her own mission.  So this was what it was like
being in charge: lots of worrying.  And she'd thought being president of
the chemistry club was bad.

The lackey they'd been following showed them into a marble-panelled room
that had been adapted to more modern pursuits.  It was lined with
floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets (and the ceilings were maybe fifteen,
twenty feet high), with a cluster of computers on the heavy oak desks in
the middle of the room.  Kristy got herself settled at one of the
computers after the functionary logged her on; Iella and Mirax looked on,
one at each shoulder.  She was faster with Terran computer interfaces than
they were, but they knew what they were looking for--hence the compromise.

The two led her through a dizzying maze of records and data, stopping
every once in a while to add something quickly to their datapads when no
one was looking.  Finally Mirax said something vehement and unintelligible
which Kristy guessed was a Corellian curse.

"What?  What is it?"

"Atner's too obvious; he can't be this much of an idiot, can he?" Mirax
replied, mostly to Iella.  She passed her datapad to Wedge's wife, who
shrugged.

"I guess maybe he is."  Kristy made a low sound of impatience and she
looked up.  "He's implicating the resistance group in the accident," Iella
told her.  "The military's preparing to run a thorough sweep of the
caverns on the other part of the island."

"Bloody hell," Kristy whispered.  "We've got to tell them."