Project Boussh: What the Morning Brings
by Durandir

MENDELLIA: RESISTANCE HEADQUARTERS

At the table normally reserved for the Resistance movement's briefing
sessions, Becki sat regarding her new piccolo by the light of one of
the ubiquitous lanterns. Macavity had purred himself to sleep in her
lap, and now his steady rumbling was making her drowsy, too. The
faraway look with which she gazed on the instrument had more than a
little of slumber in it.

The arrival of the refugees to the hidden cavern, not more than an hour
ago, had caused surprisingly little stir. She and Tede had been
introduced to a quiet man called Fenya, guarding a gate in the tunnel,
and later to a pleasant woman Iris, who'd been nursing a boy wounded in
some battle the group had fought recently. The boy himself they'd
introduced as Rekla, but he wasn't awake to exchange greetings. As for
the rest of this curious band of revolutionaries, Thayer'd promised a
round of introductions in the morning; the four of them (and one cat)
had entered quietly enough not to awaken any of the others in the
group, and he wanted to keep it that way. Runt had hugged her and said
again what a relief it was to see her safe at last, then disappeared to
his own bed somewhere in the maze of caverns, graciously consigning
Macavity to her care. Tede had disappeared too. To rest? Would a droid
sleep? Perhaps to recharge. But somehow she doubted he really needed
recharging; if he slept now, she wondered if it wasn't just to keep up
appearances.

"You don't have to sleep at the table, you know. We do have more
comfortable rooms to offer our guests." She blinked away the dreaminess
and looked up; Thayer had sat down across from her while she'd been
lost in reverie.

"I know," she answered quietly, "but I doubt I could sleep now anyway.
It isn't that I'm not tired; it's just--with all that's happened, the
escape, and Runt, and you, and finding out about Tede, that he--that
he's one of Cracken's agents..." She'd been about to say, "that he's a
droid," but somehow felt she oughtn't. Tede hadn't yet mentioned that
detail of his identity to any of the others, and something held her
back from making the announcement for him. Perhaps he wouldn't want it
known.

Thayer's answering smile hadn't a hint of weariness in it. "I
understand. Not much chance I'll sleep tonight, either. It's certainly
been an eventful night. I never would have guessed, when we set out for
the High Palace, Runt and I--and that cat! He's been underfoot ever
since he showed up here, and then he goes and finds you for us. I shall
have to forgive him being underfoot, I think. But I'd have never
guessed how this would turn out, tonight. Somehow I felt drawn to the
Palace, but--whyever are you looking at me like that?"

She blinked and looked away. "Sorry--it's just that I can't shake the
impression that I should know you. You look familiar, somehow." Then a
memory clicked. "Wait. Tede said--when we first met you and Runt, Tede
called you Prince."

"Yes."

"Prince of what?" A suspicion, half-formed as yet, stirred through the
fogs of sleep in her brain.

"Mendellia, of course."

"Mendellia? Then--that's it. General Atner?"

"My uncle," Thayer admitted, almost reluctantly.

"Of course. I saw the resemblance but couldn't figure out *who* you
resembled."

"You've seen my uncle?"

"Only a couple of times, while I was his prisoner."

Thayer's face darkened. "He didn't--do anything to harm you, did he?"

"Oh! No, really, I think at first he was just trying to decide what to
do with me. He implied when I first saw him that I wasn't the prisoner
his troops had been sent for, so I guess he was hesitant...and then,
too, I had Tede's help, though I didn't know it till the end. Whatever
Atner might have planned to do to me, I expect Tede could've
circumvented it. Probably did circumvent more things than I know as
yet. Tede was the better part of my fortune in that place."

"Indeed. But even with Tede, you're lucky to have come out of it so
safely. You don't know my uncle as I do."

"No. Is he so bad, then?"

"Worse. Didn't he seem so to you?"

"Well...he seemed dangerous. He seemed conniving, ruthless, ambitious--
I could imagine he'd do anything for his own advancement. But he also
seemed a fool."

"Amend that with one word: say a wicked fool, and you'll have summed
him up," Thayer smiled.

"Wicked?"

"You said he seemed ambitious, one who would do anything for his own
gain. You don't know how true that is. But you haven't asked how it is
that I, who am Prince, hide here beneath the island's surface when my
uncle is the Dictator of Mendellia."

"I'd wondered..."

"It is because he reigns that I am compelled to hide. Eugor Atner holds
the office of Dictator wrongfully. My father--his brother--was the last
True Dictator. Eugor took the throne by force--and my father's life,
too."

"Oh, no. Thayer, I'm so sorry." She laid her hand on his in a sudden
impulse of compassion, but he looked away. "I guess I see now why
you're fighting him."

"No." His eyes, when he looked back at her, were brighter than
ever. "You don't. It isn't revenge. Well, there's that, certainly:
sweet Grace, I'd be happy enough of the chance to return to him what
I've suffered for his ambitions. But that's not why we fight. It's just-
-a man like that mustn't rule, and especially he mustn't rule
Mendellia. My uncle is capable of anything, Becki. There's no
wickedness known under the sun but that he'd be quick to embrace it if
he saw chance of gain in it. As long as he's on the throne, Mendellia
groans under his cruelty, toils under his whip, shrinks in fear from
his evils. I can't allow it! This is my land, my people, and they
deserve better."

She looked on him in wonder a moment; when she spoke, her smile was
wistful and her voice soft. "So they do. And they shall have it. God
speed you to your throne, Thayer."

A moment's silence; then, as if a spell were broken, each looked away.
Realizing her hand was still on his, she pulled it away suddenly; but
one couldn't tell, in that dark cavern, if it were a blush on her face
or only the flickering of the lantern.

"Do I really look that much like my uncle?" Thayer asked after a bit.

She considered for a moment. "You resemble him, yes. But it's as if all
that's wicked about him becomes something good and right in you. One
might say that in you the Atner features are redeemed. Especially your
eyes; they're every bit as bright as his, but his are bright with
cruelty, with anger, with madness even. Yours, I think, are bright with
joy."

"With joy," he repeated, doubt on his face but amazement in his voice.

"Of course. What should burn brighter in the soul than joy, after all?
Joy, and love, and hope."

"You speak in riddles," he said softly.

"I read too much," she grinned.

Footsteps at the door brought a sudden end to the conversation. They
turned to see Kell appear there. "Thayer, we're--hey!" He broke off
when he saw Becki, his expression registering first shock, and then
confusion, and then delight. "Where'd you come from? When did you get
here? How in the name of..." Running out of words, he looked from one
of them to the other; both were grinning broadly now. "Did I miss
something?"

"Only a night's adventures, Kell," Thayer assured him. "Macavity led us
to her, and here she is."

"Emperor's black bones! If I'd slept a month I doubt I could have woken
to a better surprise. You don't know how glad I am to see you safe
again, girl."

"Sure I do," Becki laughed, "because I'm just as glad to *be* safe."

"Well, this explains why Runt's been grinning at me like that ever
since he woke up. He wouldn't tell me what was going on. Come on out
here, though--Tyria'll want to see you, too."

"Are the others awake now?" asked Thayer.

"Everyone," Kell began; then he grew grave for a moment. "Except Rekla,
of course. Still no change."

Thayer frowned. "Not that we had expected one. May your team's medic
have the wind at his heels to get here, my friend!"

Then they went out together into the main room, where the group was
beginning to gather as Fir handed around breakfast rations. They were
all there, the three Wraiths, Becki, Thayer and his five deputies--at
present some of the lower-ranking revolutionaries were standing guard
duty in the hangar and tunnel, so Reth, Kirret, Iris, Fir, and Fenya
were all present in the main room. Tede also had reappeared from
wherever he'd spent the night, and now came the ritual of introductions
as both he and Becki made the acquaintance of all those they'd not met
the night before.

After that, animated by their success at Darwinia and enthused by the
tale of the night's rescue, they sat down to compare notes and think
what they should do next. Becki and Tede were updated on the status of
Team Boussh's mission. From Tede--he'd still not informed the others of
his being a droid, though they all knew now that he was an NRI agent--
they learned much that they had not known about the High Palace. Of
particular interest was the matter of the war droids and the note by
which they could be restrained. But the most important thing he had to
tell them concerned Eugor Atner's prisoners.

"I don't know now where Quiara has been moved," explained the agent
who'd been introduced to the group as "Tede Iestu." "I can't even
confirm that she's still in the High Palace, but I think it most likely
that she is. Atner tends to centralize whatever is most important to
him, and he also tends to think of the Palace as impregnable (it is, at
least, the best defended of his strongholds, though perhaps not so well
as he imagines). However, if we're going to rescue her, we must move
quickly; my absence will no doubt confirm whatever suspicions Atner was
beginning to have about me, and that'll put him in a rage. There's no
telling what he'll do.

"There's also the matter of his other prisoners."

"What other prisoners?" asked Kell.

Tede's face was calm as ever, but his voice grew grave. "You know about
the cloning cylinders. I can tell you what Atner's intent for them is.
He wants to build himself an army of followers--servants--soldiers, I
don't know what. He plans to create this army by cloning the best
specimens he can find of humanity. To that end, he's begun kidnapping
anyone he thinks is a fit source for a clone. The prisoners are mostly
Mendellian now, but he's begun collecting others from outside the
country as well."

"So now we have innocents involved," said Thayer darkly, "potentially
to be caught in the crossfire when we strike."

"More than that," Tede glanced at the Prince, then at Kell. "Among this
group are a couple who are something more than innocents. A new
shipment of them came in not long before Becki and I made our escape--
but long enough that I still had Atner's trust at that time, I suppose,
for I had the sorting of them. I recognized two."

Kell groaned. "Oh, sithspit. I think I know where this is going. Who
were they, Tede?"

"One was Garik Loran, a member of your team--my briefing before coming
to Terra included a list of the other teams assigned here, so his
presence here was explained. As for the other, she is still a puzzle to
me. As far as I could tell, it was Mara Jade; but I know no reason why
she should be on Terra."

"Simple," Kell laughed in frustration, "she was born here."

"Jade?"

"No. It wasn't Mara Jade, Tede; it was an actress named Shannon Baksa
who portrays her for--well, my teammates' report didn't really explain
why. It wasn't long after we got to Mendellia that we got the report
that Face and Shannon had disappeared. Should've realized they'd end up
in the High Palace, sooner or later."

"So we have three to rescue now," Tede nodded.

"Plus all those innocents," noted Reth, "General Atner's cloning
samples."

"To work, then," said Thayer with resolution. "Before another day
passes in a Mendellia bound by my uncle's wickedness."