Project Boussh: Update 11/23
by scifantasy

"Now hear this..." Sci kept his voice calm, though inwardly he was shaking. 
Bad enough that he had to break comm silence, he had to tell a story like 
this. That might lead to the codes being cracked. But he had no choice. The 
comm lines answered him with a babble of voices.

"Sci," came word from Wedge, "do you know what's been happening?"

"Yes. Probably more than the rest of you do. Now, all due respect, shut up 
and listen. Vickie was cloned." That got everyone's attention. "The Vickie 
who was flying that Avenger was the clone, and she'd been reprogrammed to 
kill Wedge. Unsuccessfully."

"What happened to her? How do you know? Where is she?" Hobbie, no stranger 
to crashes, was quick with the practical questions.

"After she was shot down, Vickie managed to get her ship into a docking 
bay, where she made a few people and a lot of droids badly damaged until we 
caught her. We don't know exactly where the other Vickie, the original--" 
He saw Kelly cringe a little at that, but he ignored it-- "is, but we'll 
keep looking. This is purely an informational message. Mission parameters 
are unchanged. The clone, who we're calling Kelly, is alive and well." He 
heard a few sighs at that, and was able to pick out Pash and Josh among them.

"As to how we know, Vickie managed to piece it together for herself. I 
don't exactly know how, but I have a few guesses. None of which I will care 
to share at this time. Now then, status update."

"Well," said Tycho, "the fighters are handling well--these pilots are very 
good, but we're better."

"The capital ship fight," Face interjected, "is another matter. Thrawn's a 
genius, even with three ships and no Jedi. One of the support ships has 
sustained critical damage, and most shield levels are under 75%, some under 
50%. That's our side. We've managed to severely damage one of his ImpStars, 
but on the whole we might be in trouble."

Sci grimaced. "Understood. Keep going--kill enough fighters and the danger 
of catching TRD becomes all the more present."

As he clicked his comlink off, Sci looked at his chrono. It had been almost 
half an hour since the battle had been joined. "All right," he said to his 
team. "Let's give our Grand Admiral something else to think about besides 
thrashing our fleet. To the bridge!"