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June Two Thousand One, Back in the days of Fun....

PILOTCHAT WARS

Episode XV - They say it's Shel's birthday.

(C) Shadoedancer Creations 2k1

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To: "Shelonei" ElvenLady@juno.com

From: 18.15.7.21.5.19@anon.com

Date: 28 May 2001

Subj: An Appointment With Fate

-

Shelonei,

We know of you. We want to meet with you. If you do not comply, a disaster beyond your imagination may occur. Be at the airport, from which you fly most often, by nine ante meridian, local time, you will find instructions at gate E7. All you have to do is state your name, Shelonei.

If it makes you feel better, you may bring along your husband.

Sincerely,

A+J

-

-

"A and J? Who the-" Shelonei shook her head as she printed up the email. 'Good thing I happened to wake up early this morning.' She thought as she ran up to the main level, leaving the beaded curtain swinging behind in her wake. "CD!" she called to her husband, stopping him in mid chord as he played a song on Frankenstein, a rebuilt electric guitar.

"What is it?" he asked, looking up. She handed him the printed email, and waited for his reaction.

"That's what I'd like to know. Did you do this?" Shelonei had her hands on her hips, and looked as though she were about to shoot lightning from her eyes.

CD's eyes widened as he shook his head, "no I didn't..."

"Promise? 'Cause I know you used to send emails from non-addresses back in university..."

"I promise with my heart, Dæwen, I didn't send this."

"I wonder who did then.... Wait a minute. This was sent to Shelonei...." she hit her forehead with her palm, then looked at her husband intently. "Is there any way of tracking this to its source beforehand? No, not in the amount of time we have. Do I have a bad feeling about this? No. No premonitions at all about this. Am I curious? Certainly. Have I taken to answering my own questions? Apparently," she stopped as her husband burst out laughing.

"You know, if you didn't do that at least twice a week, I'd think you'd lost your marbles," he said as he shook his head.

"You should know better than anyone that I never had any to lose in the first place," she replied with a grin, and kissed him on the forehead.

"So, shall we find out what's going on? Personally, I believe that this whole "disaster" thing is a hoax, just to get me there..... But still.... I really must know!"

"Curiosity killed the cat you know...." he began.

"But I'm not a cat, I'm an elf - and I've gotta find out!"

CD let out a longsuffering sigh and looked up at the clock, "well you'd better get ready, cause if you wanna get there in time, we've gotta leave in ten minutes."

Shelonei nodded and ran up the four steps to their bedroom - she threw a Swiss army knife in one pocket of her army-issue cargoe pants, stuck her wallet in the back pocket, strapped her leatherman knock off to her belt, put her wood Bible in one button over side pocket, and stuck Blync in the other. She sent up a prayer. "This'd better be just a practical joke, cause if it isn't...." she shook her head, and grabbed the butterfly knife as she went back to the living room.

"Okay, let's beat feet," she threw on her bomber jacket (the weather was still fairly cool around there in the evening), and they went to the car. Shelonei put the butterfly knife in the side door, no way she'd be able to bring it into the airport, but still. Having it nearby made her feel that much safer.

On their way to the airport, they spoke little, both wondering what was going on. When they got to gate E7, Shelonei went straight up to the attendant station.

"Excuse me, ma'am, My name is Shelonei, do you have something for me?"

The attendant looked startled, and then rummaged through a pile of papers in front of here. "Ah, here it is, ma'am," she said as she handed over a small white envelope.

"Thank you," Shelonei replied, turning it over in her hands. She took a seat in the corner by her husband and took a good look at it before opening. The paper had an odd, unfamiliar feel to it. Her name was written across the front in a blocky, childish handwriting. Either this WAS a practical joke, or whoever was trying to contact her wasn't familiar with English writing. She took out her pocketknife and opened the envelope.

Inside was a small notecard made of the same odd stuff as the envelope. Again, the childish handwriting. 'Go to lot Green2, you'll find another note on the corner pole in the lot, on the lower right, roadside. A+J'

Shelonei sighed and showed the note to her husband. "Looks like we're on a treasure hunt. Let's go!"

They found a parking space in Green2, and wandered over to their destination. Towards the bottom of the lower right pole in Green2 was another envelope, just as promised. Shelonei opened it, and a small blue marble fell into her hand. She handed it to CD who looked at it curiously as she pulled out the note. "'In the corner diagonal to this there is a winnebago. Knock on the door, and present this marble. You will be told what to do from there.'" Shelonei looked over to her husband, who was still looking at the marble. "What do you think, shall we continue this adventure?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

CD sighed, running a forefinger down the scar on her right cheek. "Like I'd be able to stop you."

Shelonei smiled, "you have a point there. Can you let me back in the car, I'd like you to have that butterfly on you - never hurts for a bit of insurance."

Again, the longsuffering sigh. "You and your weapons," he smiled. They retrieved the knife, and headed to the far corner of the lot.

'Shelonei, marble, winnebago..... this reeks of AFW...' she thought.

Just as the note said, there was a winnebago parked in the far corner. "Well, it looks pretty normal," he said.

"Gimme the marble, let's see what hand has been dealt us."

"If this 'hunt' hadn't been so well thought out, I'd say odds were this was still some sort of elaborate prank, but..."

"Hey, who needs odds?" Shelonei smiled, and knocked on the door.

"I got it, I got it!" a voice came from inside the 'bago. A dark haired man, looking to be in his mid to late thirties, popped his head out the door, a boyish grin on his face. "You have striped hair!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, I do."

"You got the marble?" he asked her. She held it up. "You must be Shel-OH-nee then."

"It's pronounced SHEL-oh-nay. And yes, I am she," she pointed to the man standing behind her, his long ponytail blowing around in the wind. "This is my husband." she said simply.

The man nodded, and looked back into the 'bago. "She's here, and she DID bring her husband!" he shouted. Soon he reappeared, swinging the door the rest of the way open, another dark haired man behind him.

"Welcome Shelonei," the second man said with a smile. "Please come in and join us."

She stood her ground. "Am I right in assuming that you two are A and J?" she said, crossing her arms before her.

They both nodded.

"Are there any more in there?"

"Why did you send that email to my wife?" CD asked.

"And what is this disaster?" Shelonei finished.

"Oh, that," started the first man, "we just wanted to see you. I figured that bad stuff would get your attention."

"It sure did."

"What bad stuff?" the second asked. Shelonei handed him the printed copy of the email. "A disaster beyond your imagination may occur..." he looked up, hazel eyes wide. He then thumped the first man on the back of the head with the paper. "This is almost as melodramatic as something Elassar would write!"

"You gonna tell me what's going on? Cause I'm not dumb enough to enter a car with a couple of guys I don't know." Shelonei narrowed her eyes, "until we have a better idea of what's going on, we're not going anywhere." She looked from one to the other, 'Elassar?' Shelonei thought as she raised an eyebrow, "well? What is it going to be, A," she looked at the second man, "and J?" she finished with the first. She had a pretty good idea who they were, but wanted them to say it. She was satisfied to see a slight look of surprise in their eyes as she picked them out. 'I must be right.'

"Well, maybe I will let the fearless leader explain what's going on?" the first man looked behind to the second.

"Well, I do suppose that after the message he sent perhaps we should explain, huh?" he ran his left hand through his hair.

Shelonei nodded, "Yes I think you should. How about starting at the beginning, Mr.'s A and J?"

The second one nodded for the first to begin to explain.

"Well it's like this, I've been looking at some things on Alison's Internet, including AFW."

"I thought as much..."

"Including AFW," he said slowly. Shelonei nodded for him to continue. "We saw a post that said it was your birthday," he finished, as though that explained everything.

"Who ARE you?" CD asked, moving to stand ahead of his wife.

The second man brushed past the first to stand before CD. Shelonei's husband braced himself, ready to protect his wife if need be. He'd heard of AFW, but didn't really know much about the whole thing. The second man raised his hands as a show of peace. "I am really and truly sorry about this," He held out his hand. "I am Wedge Antilles, and this delinquent here is Wes Janson."

Wes bowed, "at your service," he said with a grin.

Shelonei nodded, 'I thought so,' she said to herself. Out loud she said, "Pleased to meet you both." She smiled.

CD shook Wedge's hand, "I have heard a lot about you, but I thought you were just a character in a story."

Wedge laughed, "yes, I've been getting that a lot lately. Now that Project Boussh is over, I figured everyone knew by now. I suppose I must have been wrong."

"Will you come in now?" Wes asked.

Shelonei tapped her husband on the shoulder, then whispered in his ear. He turned back to Wedge, "I suppose that'd be alright, General."

"No formalities, please. We're on leave anyhow."

The group entered the 'bago. Wedge took the driver's seat, and Wes took shotgun. Shelonei leaned over the seat and looked at the controls. "I may have never been in a winnebago before, but I don't think those are normal controls..."

"They're not, this is the Super Bago!" Wes stated with another grin, looking back at Shelonei. "We 'borrowed' it from Alison."

Wedge sighed.

A short time later, they found themselves greeting another member of AFW. Someone named Mike. Mike looked like he'd just walked out of Matrix, and Shelonei just couldn't help laughing.

"What?"

More laughing.

He looked down, "It's the coat isn't it?" he stated.

Laughing, and nodding, and an attempt to stop.

"And I thought I was done with the bloody coat jokes," he said, shaking his head. "Shelonei, right? You're here for your free sim?"

She finally was able to stop laughing, "yes, I suppose so. And truly, I'm sorry about laughing... if it helps, I have one just like it."

Mike let out a sigh, as he lead the four to the sim.

About an hour later, Shelonei emerged wearing a huge smile. "That was awesome!" then her face fell. "Unfortunately, I don't think I did too well. But it was fun just the same!" the grin returned.

Wedge was looking at a sheet of paper printed up about her Sims.

"So how bad am I? I betcha I'd bomb out of even joining the Wraiths."

He looked up, and handed the sheet to Wes, who was eagerly waiting his turn to look at it. "Have you played any of the game Sims you have here on Terra?" he asked.

"No, I bet if I did, maybe I'd have done decently. Seems that I got shot down every time I turned around," she said with frustration. "But, like I said, I haven't - my computer at home doesn't have enough memory for games. At least, not now." Wedge looked at her, something between amazement, and puzzlement crossing his handsome features. "What? What'd I do now?"

"Do you realize, that you're practically a natural?"

"What do you mean by that? I got vaped constantly!"

Wes let out a low whistle, "hey, it goes fast in there, and it wasn't constantly." He spared Shelonei one of his famous grins. "Wedge's right - you ARE a natural. You only got vaped six times. That's once in ten minutes."

Wedge nodded at Shelonei's look of shock, "and most dogfights don't last that long. Either way, if you're that predictable - as long as you didn't get into anything longer than ten minutes, at a time, you'd be just fine."

Shelonei leaned back into her husband, who wrapped his arms around her. "Are you sure? I mean, far be it for me not to believe you but.... are you certain?"

Mike nodded along with Wes and Wedge. Shelonei looked up at her husband, then back at the three before her, zeroing in on Wedge. "So, if I get these computer games, I'd actually be good?" More nodding.

Shelonei let out a joyful squeal and jumped up and down a few times. Then she grabbed CD in her Hyper Ewok Dance of Joy (tm). She looked up at her husband, "so, does this mean we can upgrade our computer so I can practice?" she said with a lopsided grin.

CD just smiled and shook his head, "what am I going to do with you?"

"Hey, you married me, you're stuck with me," she replied with a grin.

"Well, hate to sim and run, Mike - but we're supposed to bring these two up to Alison's spaceport.

"Alright then," he shook each of their hands. "You take care, and I'll see you," he said as he shook her hand, "on AFW," he smiled.

The four piled back into the 'bago, and soon found themselves in earth's orbit. Shelonei's eyes widened at the sight, "gosh, it's beautiful!" she whispered. Soon, they blasted away from the planet.

A couple of hours later, they found themselves at a spaceport. "Where are we?" CD asked.

"Jedi-Child's Spaceport," replied Wedge.

"Yeah, and here's where the fun begins," Wes said with a gleam in his eye.

CD and Shelonei exchanged perplexed looks as the disembarked.

Another dark-haired man, a little bit younger than Wedge and Wes, ran up to Wedge. "Hey, can I talk to you a sec?"

Wedge nodded and turned to the rest of us, "I'll be right back." He and the newcomer stood a little away. Shelonei strained to catch the conversation.

"Mirax couldn't get any Corellian stuff.... had to use Terran ingredients...."

"Well, as long as it tastes the same...... alright."

Wedge and the stranger returned. "This is Corran Horn," he introduced the younger man. "Corran, meet Shelonei and her husband, CD."

Shelonei's eyes widened, "pleased to meet you, Mr. Horn," she shook his hand.

"Just Corran's fine," he replied as he shook CD's hand.

"C'mon, I'm starved!" Wes said, beckoning for the rest to follow him into the spaceport.

Shelonei quickly lost sense of direction, but she didn't mind.

"I'll catch up wit you later," Corran said as he sprinted off in another direction.

They went down several mazelike halls, and soon arrived before a set of double doors.

"After you," Wes proffered, opening the door for Shelonei with a wink.

Shelonei went through the door to find the room full of people, human and alien. Some were wearing what she recognized to be New Republic uniforms, and others were dressed in more traditional Terran styles. Corran and Mike were among them, grinning.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELONEI!" they all shouted.

Shelonei gasped with surprise, and froze on the spot. Someone came over and took her arm, "took you long enough to get here," she quipped with a smile.

"And you are?"

"Mirax, and there's some Ryshcate over on the table with your name on it."

Shelonei laughed, and let the Corellian guide her into the crowd.

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