Nick walked into the Red Home's small galley area, and saw J-
"'Lo Josh!" Nick said.
(Yeah, him. Anyway. . . .)
"'Lo Nick," Josh replied, his face blank. His hands rested on the table in front of him, his body entirely at rest. Nick recognised the pose. Josh's stormie-mind had shut down extraneous functions while waiting for the next period of combat.
"You have pie?" Nick asked.
"No. Have blaster," Josh replied, the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Blaster not as good as pie," Nick opined, heading for the cupboard.
A short while later the two friends sat facing one another over pie. Nick watched Josh carefully.
"So, what's been happening while I've been on my way?" he asked.
Josh scratched the back of his head, looking over Nick's shoulder as though compiling a list.
(Which he was. A typically eventful one.)
"Well, there was the explosion in the auction house," he began.
"They really shouldn't product test dynamite before selling it," Nick said, spearing some pie on his fork.
"True. Kristy got hit on that one, by the way," Josh replied, his eyes focussing on Nick's face.
"She's okay now?" Nick asked.
(Credit where credit is due, there wasn't even a hint of unsteadiness in his voice.)
"Yeah, fine. She just needs to learn to duck when something big and hot and nasty comes flying at her."
"Most people learn that fairly quickly," Nick said, through his mouthful of pie.
(Probably his table manners would be better in polite company, but who can say?)
"Then we evacced. Fake Josh did some Force stuff and we got clear," Josh added.
"Not jealous, are we?" Nick asked.
"No. I don't have to duck going through doors, so it's a fair trade," Josh replied.
"Fair enough, what next?"
"Ahh. . . . Next we got back here. Oh, I fractured my wrist, but it got fixed."
"These things happen."
"Usually. Anyway, we hung around for a bit, kinda boring really. Everyone seemed to be having some kind of moody spell."
"What did you do?" Nick asked
"Polished my blaster."
"Of course. Well, you never know when you might need it."
"Exactly," Josh replied. "Anyway, we sent people off to do scouting stuff. Becki did a turn, and Kristy."
"Religious types. Let loose in Jerusalem," Nick nodded. "Just how much intelligence did they turn up?"
"About as much as you'd expect," Josh replied, cutting himself some more pie. "Anyway, we also seemed to have picked up some stowaways. Two of those Ladies in Waiting. God knows what they were up to. They reckoned they were just holidaying."
"It's possible," Nick commented. "Who found them?"
"Becki and Vickie. Saw them out in the city first, so we don't know for sure that they came with us."
"Is that the same 'We don't know for sure' that we use when we say 'we don't know for sure who got into your X-Wing and took it for a ride, Lt. Cochran'?"
"One and the same. Did you speak to Yarg about that?"
"Well. . . . No, to be honest," Nick replied.
"Yeah, me either. He didn't crash it. Not really, anyway, so where's the harm?"
"Yep. Anyway, what happened next?"
"Uh. . . . Where did I get to?" Josh asked, his face screwed up in the effort of recollection.
"Ladies in Waiting," Nick prompted.
"Oh, that's right. Well, we picked them up, interviewed them, bugged their clothes, and sent them off on their way."
"Mike put the bugs on them?"
"How did you guess? Anyway, we lost the signal, so Vickie went walkabout."
(Here Josh paused. There really is no point in rushing a good story. Like a fine wine, these things need to be savoured.)
"Anyway, she found the two Ladies, but then trouble found them."
"It's us," Nick grinned. "Of course there was trouble. Get on with it."
"Well, they got jumped by a bunch of thugs. Vickie held them off until we got there, then we steamed in."
"So who's injured this time?"
"Well. . . ." Josh sighed. "A civilian, kind of. One of the other Ladies in Waiting got assigned to us by Thayer, and she got hit. Badly."
"Why didn't someone just order her out of harms way?"
"The other Josh tried, but she wouldn't go. When she got hit, he did this really cool Force thing, all slow-mo wind machine stuff. Really let loose."
"And the woman?"
"In the medbay. That new girl, Sylvana. . . ."
(Here Josh paused again. I'm not quite sure why. This isn't a great place for a pause in a narration. We know who Sylvana is. Get on with it!)
"Anyway, she's a doctor. She's operating on her, trying to stabilise her before she goes into bacta."
"Right. Is that it?"
"Nope. Speaking of Sylvana, she got into a fight with Mike."
Nick did a double take. "Our Mike? Mr. calm and reasonable and never fights anymore in case he gives someone a hangnail?"
"One and the same. Given the bruises and cuts they had on them, they beat the hell out of each other."
"I can't let you guys out of my sight, can I? Anything else?"
"Well, now you mention it. . . ." Josh paused again.
(This, for the record, is a good place for a pause in a narrative.)
"Well?" Nick asked.
"Well, it looked to us like this Lenka girl got shot because she got pushed in the way of the shots. Like, Force pushed."
"One of ours?" Nick asked, incredulous.
"No. Someone else. Vickie reckons someone . . . Dark."
Nick rocked back in his chair for a second.
"So." he began. "The auction got blown up and you all nearly got killed, we have loose civilians running around, there was a huge firefight, several of our team seem to be losing their minds, this pie has gone cold while we've been talking, and now, worst of all, even worse than cold pie, you're telling me there may be a Dark Jedi running around?"
"Yep," Josh replied, pushing the pie dish away.
"Ah well," Nick said, sitting back and putting his feet up on the table. "Sith happens."