Project Boussh: While The Island Sleeps
by Durandir

MENDELLIA: RESISTANCE HEADQUARTERS

In the darkest hours of the night, Darwinia's last four TIE fighters
returned to Mendellia. Kell, Runt, Thayer and Reth brought their ships
in under strict comm silence, with hardly any lights to show their
path, flying low to avoid Eugor Atner's sensors. At last they saw the
flashes of light that made up the Resistance's all-clear signal,
blinking at them from the mouth of the Headquarters hangar. Shifting
their course, they approached the light, until the cavern yawned vast
before them as if it, like all good Mendellians, found this hour of the
night better suited to sleeping than to the overthrowing of
governments. The four TIEs alighted easily in a corner of the hangar,
and the pilots made their way upstairs.

Tyria looked up from one of the computers as they entered and ran to
greet Kell with a kiss. "You're back! We were starting to get worried."

"We had to lay low a little longer than expected," he explained. "The
Darwinia base might not have any TIEs left, but Atner's got more
somewhere, because they came looking for us."

"So we had a lovely picnic on the island and just waited for them to
give up and go home," Reth finished with one of his generous
smiles. "Is Kir around? I've got--"

"Right here," Kirret's voice, weary and thick with sleep, interrupted
from one of the adjoining rooms. The newcomers turned to see her
standing in the doorway, hiding a yawn. "Thayer, have any of those new
TIEs got medical supplies stored away in them?"

"I think so. Why?"

"Have them brought up here, then. We may need all of them. We need--I'm
not sure what we need. We need a regular doctor, that's what. Can't do
this all on our own; Iris is a fine nurse but--"

"Kir, what's happened?" Thayer interrupted gently.

"I'm sorry, I'm babbling, that's how tired I am. We've been on shifts,
Iris and all of us, nursing him. It's Rekla. He took a shot during the
raid. Fir shot the stormie off him, saved his life probably, dragged
him back to us; and we managed to drag him all the way back here, but
he's getting worse. We haven't the supplies to treat it, and we
especially haven't the skill."

"Don't worry, Kirret," Thayer soothed, "he'll be fine."

"We'll look after him now," Reth added. "You go get some sleep."

"Someone--" Thayer looked around and spotted Tyria standing by Kell--
"Tyria, go down to the hangar and get the medical kits out of the
TIEs."

Tyria nodded and disappeared down the stairs. Kell spoke up, "We've got
a medic in our team, Thayer."

"One of you three?" Thayer looked confused.

"No, in the larger team--he's with one of the other groups now, but
soon enough the others should be joining us here."

"That's good," Thayer murmured, with a sigh more of frustration than
relief. "The sooner, the better."

"I'll send out a message to the team."

"Do that. But first, let us see how the boy is." And the four of them
went into the bedchamber where he lay.

It was a cozy chamber, lit only by one small lantern in contrast to the
dozens lining the tables in the main room. Rekla lay in a small bed at
the back of it; his eyes were closed and he seemed to sleep peacefully.
Iris sat beside the bed, watching him with heavy eyes. And Macavity,
the great orange tomcat, lay at the boy's feet, purring and modestly
washing his furry face.

"What is it, Iris?" Thayer said, dropping his voice nearly to a whisper
by reflex.

"Shot to the side," she whispered back. "Didn't hit anything serious,
but he's lost blood. He'll lose more if he doesn't soon get better care
than we can give him."

"And the hospitals of Mendellia are as closed to us as every other
public place," Thayer's whisper became a quiet growl.

"There'll be bacta patches in the TIEs' medkits, but what the boy needs
is an all-out dip," Kell commented. For the Terrans' sakes, he
explained, "Bacta is a medicine where we come from. It'd have him cured
quicker than anything, but we're fresh out right now."

"The rest of your team?" Thayer suggested.

"They may have some. I'll ask."

Reth relieved Iris at her spot by Rekla's bed, and the others filed
back out into the main room. There they found Kirret, not sleeping, but
sitting at one of the computers, her fingers moving furiously over the
keys.

"My dear Kirret," Thayer smiled, "I know the computers are usually the
closest you come to sleep, but in this case, really--"

"Hush you, Prince Atner," she answered impatiently. "No sleeping until
we've got through this."

"You mean Rekla? It could be days, Kir--"

"Not that. I'm going through the data we got from the raid, Thayer. To
see if there's anything vital. Especially time-vital. That's why it's
got to be done right away."

"Oh, sure." Thayer sighed in resignation.

"Find anything?" asked Kell.

"Not really. Here, have a look. It's mostly quite trivial. See, here's
the garrison's mess hall menu for next week. Earth-shaking, isn't that?
Most of it's been of little more import so far. From the Imperial-model
computers we got a little bit about their defenses, but most of it we
knew already."

"Anything in connection with cloning?" Kell asked slowly.

She shot a curious glance at him, then turned back to the screen. "No.
Why?"

Briefly, Kell explained what the pilots had discovered in their search
for the TIE fighters: a room full of Imperial-style cloning cylinders,
all ready for whatever ill-conceived purpose Eugor Atner had in mind
for them.

"No," Kirret said again when he had finished, "I've seen nothing like
that. But I imagine it would have been in the high-security files,
anyway, the ones we couldn't get to."

"Well, keep an eye out, all the same," he nodded. "In the meantime, can
you put together any of those files that might be useful, compile a
report that I can send out to the rest of the New Republic team?"

"I can have that for you in, say, a half-hour, I think."

"Thanks."

Twenty-three minutes later, Kirret announced that the report was ready.
Kell quickly typed a message to accompany it, and soon the package was
wending its way electronically to all of Team Boussh:

***************
FROM: Hermit One
TO: Team Boussh
SUBJECT: The Game Is Afoot

Hermitage group and Resistance group pleased to report successful raid
on Imperial garrison at Darwinia. Resistance is now four TIEs stronger;
Darwinia is no more; and attached you'll find intelligence possibly of
use in future plans. Resistance suffered one casualty; medical
assistance urgently needed for blaster wound; bring bacta if you've got
it. Hope to see you soon.
***************