Project Boussh: Enter The NRI
by Vickie Boyd

Vickie paced back and forth in the back yard. She looked over at her
makeshift landing pad. It
consisted of a large patch of land with a circle of the plastic
jack-o-lanterns she had used
for decorations at halloween with candles in them. She had placed the
strobe light that had
flashed on the fake tombstones in the center facing skyward. Luckily the
night was clear so the
light wasn't reflecting off clouds.

She wasn't sure why she was nervous. This was a dream, wasn't it?
Sometime soon she was going
to wake up and it all would be over. The sudden rumbling above told her
it wasn't a dream. This
is real. She is about to meet the one character in a fiction that she
dreamed about.

The sleek form of the A-Wing lowered to the ground. Vickie's jaw dropped
as she looked at the
ship. It was just as she had thought, sleek, fast and easy to hide. She
unplugged the strobe as
soon as the repulsors kicked in.

The canopy popped open and a tall figure stood to remove his helmet. She
ran over just as the
pilot dropped to the ground. He just over half a foot taller than her
with beautiful red hair.
"You must be Vickie," he said. "I'm Pash Cracken."

His deep baritone voice melted her. "Uh, yes. Wow, this is... wow." She
stuttered as she spoke.

He chuckled. "That is not the response I expected."

She shook her head, clearing the cobwebs. "I'm sorry. It's just that...
I never expected to
ever meet my hero."

"Hero?" He blushed a deep red that accented his hair.

She shuddered inwardly. "That's going to be a long story. Come on in the
house. I've got some
food warmed up. You must be hungry."

He smiled and followed her towards the house. "Yeah, and we need to
talk."



An hour later, they piled into the car and headed for Greensboro (NC).
They needed to get on
the internet and the T1 line at work was much faster than the lousy 56K
modem at home. Vickie
logged on and began scanning the news. She heard the distinctive "uh-oh"
from her ICQ. She
pulled it up and noticed a message from someone not on her list. She
opened the message and her
eyes grew wide.

WE KNOW HE IS THERE

The id on the message was someone called ImpStar1138. She swallowed
hard. Opening the detail on
the person, she found nothing. "I have a bad feeling about this." She
quickly sent an email off
to Nick and Kristy to let them know.

"About what," Pash asked as he looked over her shoulder.

She looked up and caught her breath. I wish he wouldn't do that, she
thought to herself. "Um,
it seems you have been noticed. I guess it's the hair." She grinned.

He chuckled and ran a hand through his tousled locks. "Who is
ImpStar1138?"

"I don't know," she replied. "That's why I'm sending messages to Nick
and Kristy. I believe
Piggy is with Nick, so maybe he can crack who this person is."

He laid his hand on her shoulder. "Smart thinking. We could use you in
Intel."

She snorted. "I could never work for your father. We'd clash more than
Leia does with Borsk."

He shook his head and smiled. "Mind if I sit here for a while and see
what I can find?"

"No problem," she said as she pushed her chair back and stood. "I need a
Coke anyway. Can I get
you something to drink?"

"Sure," he said as he sat down. His hands flew across the keyboard.



A short time later, she came back with two Cokes. The background of the
screen was very
familiar. "That's my homepage."

"I know. Your writing is very interresting."

The Cokes hit the floor. She was stunned. "You read my stories?"

"Makes more sense why you called me a hero."

"I just have a very vivid imagination." She stooped to pick up the cans.
"Here," she said as
she handed him one. "You may want to tap it down before opening it."

He took the can and tapped the top for a moment before pulling up the
tab. "This one is really
interresting," he said pointing to "Station Leave". "You really think I
was that stuck up when
I first joined the Rebellion?"

"Um, well, it was the first thing to come to mind. We have no records of
when you first joined.
Most of what we know is when you joined Rogue Squadron and then during
the Thrawn crisis. Not
much has been written about you."

"Why me?"

She blushed. "Well, I... uh... I like red hair. And I always pictured
you as being someone I
could get along with, as well as being quite handsome."

It was his turn to blush. "Well, thank you. I do think we're getting
along rather well."

She placed her hand over his and moved the mouse to open "Home, Sweet,
Home". "Read this one.
You might like it better. It's where we get to know each other a lot
better."



Halfway through the story, Pash stopped and turned to her. "Are you
really a Jedi?"

"We really don't have Jedi. Nobody has that kind of mental
capapbilities. I just always thought
it would be neat to have. I do love space flight sims. I would hope that
in your galaxy I would
be a really good pilot. Not up to Rogue Squadron standards, but maybe
eventually."

"I've noticed a lot of others write stories about us. You are different
in that you made
yourself Wedge's sister. Why?"

Vickie leaned her head back against the wall. "It was a name I had
always admired. I mean, he
was the only character to make it through all three movies without being
killed. To me, that
made him more of a hero than farmboy."

"Farmboy?"

"Yeah, Luke. That's what we call him down here. He has some fans, but
most of us think of him
as a farmboy who got a lucky break. However, with the new information we
are receiving, well,
what George is letting out now, we are getting a better understanding of
Luke. The later books,
like the Thrawn trilogy and so forth, have made Luke grow as a
character."

She paused, realizing she was talking about people this guy knew as
being real as if they were
characters in a novel. "Uh, what I mean is..."

"It's ok," he said with a smile. "I had to do research before I arrived.
I know that to you, we
are mythological. It must be rather confusing to know that we actually
do exist."

"Not confusing, just unbelievable at times. I mean, I'm sitting here
talking to you right now,
but in the back of my mind I'm thinking that I'm going to wake up
sometime and realize it all
was a dream."

He reached over and pinched her leg.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You're not asleep."

She began to laugh. He joined her gaiety. It wasn't until a voice from
the computer said, "I
think we have something, sir," that they stopped.

"What was that," he asked.

"That was my email alert sound. It's actually a clip from one of the
movies." She moved to sit
in the chair he vacated and checked her email.