Project Boussh: Finding Crispy
by Vickie Boyd



Before following Hobbie, Wes stopped. He quickly picked up Alison's
sword and strapped it to his side. Jogging, he caught up with them
quickly.


They stopped at a corner before the hallway to the medlab. Korak growled
quietly. Wes checked the setting of his blaster while Hobbie readjusted
the piece of stormtrooper armor he had picked up. Vickie looked around
the corner and frowned. It was too quiet.

"He's in there," Vickie said.

Hobbie's comlink chirped. "Sith," he mumbled as he pulled it out and
turned it on.

"Our Moment of Triumph, Underestimated Chances," Sci's voice said.

Vickie recognized the voice. "What the Hoth does that mean?"

"They got Thrawn," Hobbie said in awe.

She waved her hand in dismissal. "Pht, I knew that already. What's the
rest mean?"

"Um, we need to evac immediately."

"Like Hoth we are. I'm going to get Crispy."

He put a hand on her arm. "I don't think we can make it. We're so far
away from escape pods, we wouldn't be able to get off the ship in time."

"Bantha poodoo," she said pulling away. "I am not leaving one of us
here."
She moved around the corner and into a sudden crowd. "What the Sith!"

Then they heard the message from Niritz. Hobbie reached out for her.
"Come on, they're evacuating." But she had gone too far.

Wes nudged Hobbie and slipped into the crowd, going in the opposite
direction as everyone else. Hobbie looked for the Ewok, but he too had
gone. With a sigh, he followed them.

Halfway through, something made the hairs on the back of Wes' neck
stand. He turned and looked back down the hall. He saw an officer and a
pilot, the pilot assisting the officer. The officer was hurt. It wasn't
an unusual sight. He wondered why it stuck out in his mind.



Vickie looked around inside the medlab. A shiver went down her spine
when she spotted the bacta tanks. Memories flooded her mind of the past
few days.  Shaking them off, she headed to try and find Josh.

Korak was hot on the Jedi's heels. If Josh was alive, he had to see it
for himself. She stopped short in front of an empty tank and put her
hand on it. He had no idea what she was doing, but hoped she would
hurry.

The tank was cold, just as she had felt when she was inside. Or were
these memories Kelly's? A sudden surge of the Force hit her. She
collapsed to the floor. "Ok, that was strange."

Wes ran up to help her. "Are you ok?"

She grabbed her head with a hand. "I will be, but we need to find Josh."
Pushing herself up, she moved through the rest of the tanks.

They soon came to one where three techs were pulling a young man out.
Vickie made her way over. "Is he safe to travel," she asked them.

One of the techs looked up and noticed her clothing. "Oh, Doctor. Yes
ma'am. He has passed the critical point."

"Good." She pulled her fist back and punched the tech in the face.
Hobbie and Wes quickly shot the other two and all three went down. "Ow,"
she said shaking her hand.

Hobbie came over. "Let me look." He saw the red marks on her hand where
she had hit the tech. "You didn't do it right."

"Like I know how to hit anyone." She turned towards Josh, who was being
propped up by Korak. Biting her lip, she tried to come up with a plan of
where to go next.

<"Thank you, Lady Jedi,"> Korak finally said to her.

"For what," she asked.

<"Josh is still alive. You saved him. Thank you.">

"I haven't saved him yet," she replied. "Or any of us for that matter."
She looked around the medlab. "This place is deserted."

"That's because everyone has already evacuated," Hobbie said with a
tense voice.

She chewed on her lip again. "Ok. Wes, Hobbie, grab some bags and let's
take as much of this stuff we can... you know, bacta patches, medicine,
whatever else is useful. Korak, you start heading towards the nearest
landing bay with Josh."

<"And that would be where,"> Korak asked.

"Sith, I have no idea." She moved over to a terminal and tried to find a
map. Unfortunately, it was completely in Aurebesh. "Hoth, this isn't
going to work."

A familiar beep from beside her made her look down. "Yes! You lead him
to somewhere there's a ship that the five of us can fit in. Or even two
ships. We've got three pilots."

"Three," Wes asked curiously.

She nodded. "Three. Now go. We'll be right behind you. Korak, leave your
comlink on and we'll use Hobbie's to home in on it."

The Ewok nodded and began to drag Josh off behind the mousedroid.

"Korak, wait." Vickie looked around and found exactly what she needed.
She pulled the gravstretcher from the wall and threw it to the floor. It
soon hovered less than a meter above the floor. She went over and helped
the Ewok put Josh on the stretcher. "That's better."

<"Thank you Lady Jedi."> Korak pushed the stretcher out.

She sighed deeply and smiled at a job well done. Turning, she looked at
Wes and Hobbie. "What are you two standing there for? Get busy!"

All three grabbed up bags and began to stuff them with medical supplies.
Vickie avoided going near the bacta tanks again and stuck to getting
bacta patches. Hobbie, being most knowledgeable about medical supplies,
snatched up the medicines. Wes, on the other hand, picked up all the
painkills. He had a feeling they were going to need them.

After they finished, Hobbie plugged his comlink into a datapad to trace
Korak's signal. "This way," he said leading them to the turbolifts.

Vickie searched the turbolifts for a sign. "This one," she said pointing
to the symbol scratched on the door. It said Diablo.

They entered the lift and pressed the button. Quickly they were taken
down into the belly of the huge ship. Around them, they could hear the
metal breaking apart. Vickie shuddered and wrapped her arms around
herself. Hobbie put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm ok," she said softly. "Just... a bit unnerved."

He patted her back. "We'll be ok."

She smiled up at him. "Thanks."

The lift finally came to a stop and they stepped out into a small bay.
Sitting by itself was a sleek black Svelte-class shuttle. There were
archaic letters written in a light blue on the side. Vickie ran her hand
along the letters. "Is this Chiss?"

Wes shrugged as he opened the hatch. "Probably." He entered the ship and
headed for the cockpit.

Hobbie followed his roommate. "Come on. We've got to figure out how to
get out of here."

Korak took Josh up the ramp and into one of the rooms.

She looked over at the magcon field. "How are we going to get that down
when we're all inside?"

"One of us will have to stay out here," Hobbie said with a frown.

She looked down. "I have a better idea. Hey droid, can you drop the
field so we can fly the ship out?"

OH YES, EASILY.

"Good. Here's what we're going to do. Hobbie, you and Wes get the ship
ready to fly. When you're ready, let me know. I'll stand here by the
hatch and tell this mousedroid to lower the field. The droid'll run back
over here and the second it hits the ramp, I'll close it and then yell
for you to take off."

"Woah, that's too dangerous. You can't do that. Leave the droid."

"Are you kidding? It has saved my life several times now."

Hobbie sighed. "Ok, your call. I'll tell Wes."


A few minutes later, Vickie heard screaming coming from the direction of
the cockpit. It calmed shortly and the comm beside the hatch beeped.
"Ok," came Hobbie's voice. "We're ready in here."

She nodded to the droid and watched it skitter across the floor to the
controls. It talked to the computer and told it to lower the field. As
soon as the other computer complied, it sped back to the ship.

She could feel the pull from the decompression of the chamber. Grabbing
the handle beside the hatch, she held on until the mousedroid got there.
The moment its front wheels hit the ramp, she palmed the switch to close
the hatch and the comm at the same time. "Ok, you can go!"

She was thrown from her feet as the ship passed out into the sky. With a
chuckle, she sat up and leaned against the bulkhead. She'd done it. She
had gotten two NR officers, an Ewok and a Terran off the Admonitor
safely. Wedge would be proud. Now she could concentrate on that headache
she now had.