Project Boussh: Retrospective
by "Prophet" Kristy

18 November: 1600 Eastern Standard Time

Kristy felt another thrill as she watched her home planet drifting slowly
by beneath the _Pulsar Skate_.  The green and brown tones of Terra were
slowly being overtaken by blazing red-gold as the sleek Corellian craft
flew steadily east into nightfall.  She watched the sun set from above the
fluffy white clouds shrouding the Earth, thrilling to the sight, though
she couldn't shake the near-disappointment that weighed down the back of
her mind: this was probably as close as she'd ever get to being in space,
given her chosen field of study and her poor vision.

Winter came up behind Kristy, moving with her usual graceful economy of
motion.  "Your home is quite beautiful."

Turning slightly to face the lovely white-haired woman, Kristy cocked her
head slightly, hoping her question wouldn't seem impertinent.  "We've been
lead to believe that Alderaan looked the same.  Is that true?"

Winter smiled slightly, but there was much less sorrow than Kristy would
have expected to see.  A bittersweet expression crossed her face, to be
sure, but more sweet than anything.  "From space the two planets do look
quite similar.  Terra has much more ocean, but the two worlds share many
of the same ecosystems."

Kristy wanted to ask what Aldera was like--the Ralph McQuarrie paintings
she'd seen of the city were absolutely gorgeous--but she wasn't sure this
was a really good subject of conversation.  Winter had a photographic
memory, she realized; she *couldn't* forget the tragedy.  "I'm...sorry for
bringing it up.  Many of us mourn your loss."

"It's quite all right, my dear," Winter said gently, though she looked a
bit surprised as Kristy's second comment.  "There are more good memories
than bad.  And I assure you that your home will not suffer the same fate."

Kristy looked down, embarassed and relieved at the same time, that she
hadn't hurt Winter with her question.  There was so much she wanted to
learn about the GFFA that none of the licensed sources had been able to
tell her.  There were some things that were probably better left
alone; though that hadn't prevented the same subject coming up before....

*

{A few days earlier}

"I'm back!" called Kristy through her campaign-sticker-festooned door,
pulling her key out of the knob as she pushed it open.  "I come bearing
food to--"

Her statment was cut short by a dull "bonk" as the door encountered
resistance, followed by a male voice muttering, "Sithspit."

Kristy drew in her breath quickly and slipped through the partially open
door, shutting it quickly behind her.  Immediately, she encountered her
erstwhile obstacle: Tycho, who stood behind the door rubbing his nose
ruefully.  "Ohmigosh, I'm so sorry," she said, feeling herself blush as if
she wasn't already embarassed enough.

Tycho grinned his devastating smile, making her knees go a bit
weak.  "It's okay--I was just looking at your decorations."  He sobered a
bit, nodding toward the back of her door.

Kristy bit her lip as she glanced up at the photocopy of an "ad" in
support of the New Republic that had appeared in West End's RPG
guidebook:  "Alderaan: A world of culture and learning.  A world of
peace.  A world helpless before the merciless cruelty of the
Empire.  Never Again.  Never Forget."  

**Dammit, I knew Tycho was coming here, why didn't I take that down?**
She couldn't look at him.  "Oh...I'm sorry about that..."

"No, it's all right.  I guess I'm just a little surprised that you Terrans
knew about it--though I shouldn't be."  He shrugged, turning to watch
Kristy as she moved deeper into the room to rid herself of coat, bookbag,
scarf, hat, and gloves.  "That's in another one of your novels?"

Kristy suppressed a wince.  "Actually I've seen it.  The Death Star's
attack on Alderaan is shown in the first movie released in the Star Wars
saga."

What was going on behind those sharp blue eyes?  Had they gotten a bit
colder, or was that just her imagination?  "You've--seen it."

"Yeah.  I had a really hard time watching, the first time I saw the
re-release on the big screen." She dreaded what his inevitable next
request would be....

"Would you show me?"

She couldn't hide her wince at that.  "Um, are you sure?  I mean, it's
even painful for me, and I live on Terra..." **Which just so happens to
look an awful lot like Alderaan.**

"It will never happen again, you know."  The rock-solid conviction in his
quiet voice struck her, and Kristy looked back up at Tycho.  His blue eyes
were filled with determination.  She found herself recalling the thread
where AFW had discussed this man's motivations, and realized they had been
dead on.  "But I'd like to see...as a memorial."

So Kristy had shown him the video of ANH, sitting beside him on the bed in
her dorm room, almost wanting to hold his hand during the critical
scene--though she wasn't sure if it was for his comfort or for her
own.  Halfway through the film, Wedge had returned from his inspection of
their parked X-wings, and he'd quietly joined them, with his own demons to
face for his departure from the trench under Skywalker's orders.

*

{Back to present--dream sequence end}

"Kristy," called Iella from the cockpit, jolting her from her recall, "you
might want to come take a look at this."

Winter followed her through the _Skate_ to its control center, where Mirax
sat at the helm, flying them toward Washington, D.C.  Through the
viewport, Kristy could see the vague shape of Tycho's X-wing pacing them
to port.  Wedge would meet them in New Hampshire after picking up Gate
from the field in Idaho and shaking any pursuit.  Iella sat in the
copilot's seat, perusing a text file on the comms board that she had
picked up through Wedge's link back to Kristy's computer Knave.  She
yielded her spot so Kristy could read the report from the Hermitage team.

"What is it?" Winter asked Wedge's wife.

"Kell, Tyria and Runt are in Mendellia with the local resistance
group.  They've sent us some inside intel."

"Bloody hell!" Kristy exclaimed, cutting off Iella's briefing.  "They've
got a whole Hamlet thing going on down there, for TAWG's sake! Let me
guess, Atner married his dead brother's wife."

"Hamlet?" Mirax asked from next to her, puzzled.

"It's a play famous in Terran literature.  The king of Denmark dies, but
instead of his son inheriting, the king's brother seizes power and marries
the queen.  The son comes back and feigns madness while plotting revenge."

"The resistance contact is crazy?"

"No, but he's the rightful heir to his father--instead of his uncle
Eugor.  There's not *that* much similarity, we don't have Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern to drive the story."  A brief chuckle.  "They're probably
dead....  Anyway, let's hope the similarity ends there, because Hamlet's a
tragedy.  Almost everyone dies at the end."

"We're getting Becki and Quiara back alive," Iella replied quickly, "so no
worries there."

Kristy wished she could be so sure.  This was taking a lot longer than
she'd thought it ever could.  Sometimes she found herself wishing she'd
never heard of the Antilles/Celchu campaign.  **And let's not even talk
about this maniac's crazy-ass warping of Darwin...**

In front of her, the panel bleeped, and she jumped.  "What did I do?"

"It's probably Wedge checking in," Iella said, leaning over her shoulder
to look at the impossibly technical controls.  Kristy quickly moved so
that Iella could work her GFFA magic and talk to her husband.

"I'm going to have to meet you tomorrow," he told them, his voice
distorted in that characteristic Alliance-comm fashion.  (Mike had gotten
it so right.)  "I wanted to make sure there weren't any more stormtroopers
on Kristy's campus, and there are, so I'm going to lead them a merry chase
for a while."

"Be careful!" said Iella and Kristy at the same time.

Mirax laughed at that.  "We may have a problem of our own, Wedge.  I don't
know if we'll be able to get Morwen out of her lab.  She's pretty
hard-core..."

"You have my permission to drag her kicking and screaming, of you have
to.  It's time to pool our intelligence and make a plan for getting
Quiara--and Becki--out of Atner's hands."

"You know, technically you're not in command anymore, you know.  Cracken
gave the Terran team full authority."  Mirax smirked.

"Well then, *I'll* tell you to drag Morwen away from her lab," Kristy
said.  "There's no way she's not wild to spend time with you guys."

"There you have it, Myra," replied Wedge, getting his digs back from his
longtime friend with the nickname.

"We're coming up on Maryland," Winter said, watching the viewport.

"I'll see you all tomorrow, then," said Rogue Leader, signing off.