SOME FROM SIMMING WITH VICKIE AS HOBBIE, ALISON AS WEDGE, MIDDOUR AS TYCHO

Hobbie grabbed Anreson's arm before she got too far down the ramp. "Be careful."

She looked up at him, "I will, Derek." She gave him a quick kiss then twisted out of his grasp before jogging down the ramp and into the treeline.

Just past the circus treeline she paused, leaning against a tree to take a few calming breaths. She closed her eyes briefly, willing the exhaustion away.

He watched her leave, and sighed deeply. Cutting his eyes to Janson, he noted the other Rogue was otherwise occupied. He took off after her. "Amanda, wait!"

Hearin him, she opened her eyes and stepped back out from the treeline. "What is it?" she asked in a professional manner.

Hobbie jogged over to her. "I... I just wanted to apologize."

Anreson folded her arms before herself. "For what?" she asked curiously.

"For missing our dinner date."

She waved a hand dismissively, "Wes sent me a message that I got the following morning. There was nothing you could have done about it."

He winced slightly at her manner, "I wanted to comm you.... But Wes wouldn't let me."

"Standard military intelligence operations.... To be honest, I'm amazed, now, that he even told me you folks were going on a mission." She looked at him steadily, hiding the hurt in her eyes.

"I was really surprised to see you. How did you get assigned to the Rogues?"

"Admiral Ackbar said he wanted to revamp the roster," she shrugged. "And I've got experience in places most of you don't," she finished by lifting a hand before her mouth to hide a yawn.

He stepped closer to her then, and brushed some of the bangs that had fallen in her eyes back behind her ear. "You look exhausted. When is the last time you slept?" he asked softly.

"Got about half an hour last night," she shrugged. "Before that I was up pre-dawn to trail Celchu...."

His hand stayed at the side of her face as his thumb gently carressed her cheek. "I wish I could help you find Tycho so you could get some sleep."

She shook her head and pulled slightly away. "No, Wes is right - you need to stay here and get your own sleep." She smirked, "I'll sleep when this mess is over... Sir Clown."

He tried unsuccessfully to hide his hurt at her pulling away and cleared his throat. "Okay. Go and be careful, I'll be upset if something happens to you. Especially if I'm not there to save you."

She put a gentle hand on his arm. "Nothing'll happen to me," she told him as she flashed her near-lopsided grin. "I'm a Rogue now."

Hobbie smiled sadly, "That's what I'm afraid of."

She tilted her head, her long braid falling to the side a bit. "Didn't you say, the other day, that you folks wanted a new CFS?" She stepped closer to him, "Be careful what you wish for."

Leaning up, she gave him a quick kiss for luck, but he slipped his arms around her and pulled her into a deeper kiss. After a moment of melting against him, she pulled away, her dark eyes bearing unshed tears. "I have to go," she turned and jogged away.

Shoving his hands in his pockets he watched her leave, and hoped against hope she would return safely.

* *

After leaving Hobbie, Anreson headed straight for Celchu's hotel. She bounded tiredly up the stairs to the fifteenth floor and over to his door. After knocking once, she let herself in.

Palming the door shut behind her, she entered the room and looked around. It was empty. Just as she turned around to leave, a thought struck her.

Once she had seated herself on the bed, she pulled out her intel-datapad. Popping open a secret compartment, she pulled out an empty disc and slid it into the reader. Anreson copied the holo-record of Siee's torture onto it, then disengaged it, putting it back into the hidden compartment. She then left Celchu's hotel room and headed for the spaceport. Next stop on this second search for him would be the Wayward Star.

*

When she got there, Ugh wouldn't let her onto the ship. That meant that Celchu probably wasn't there, so she headed over to the Skate and knocked lightly on the hatch.

The hatch lowered slightly to reveal Antilles, his blaster leveled at her. She held her hands up. "I need to talk with you..." she said in a low voice. "Privately."

He let the hatch lower the rest of the way, and motioned with his blaster for her to come in, shutting the opening behind her.

She waited until the hatch had closed. "I have something here I think you need to see," she spoke quietly so as not to draw any attention from others who might be nearby, or sleeping.

Wedge nodded, "What is it?"

"Evidence of Siee's condition," Anreson pulled out her datapad, then the hidden disc from it's compartment. She ignored Wedge's curious look at the ordinary looking datapad's extrordinary attachments and handed him the disc. "This holds a holorecord of what happened to her. In case I don't come back, someone needs to have it for proper..." she tried to think of the word and just decided to leave it at, "witness." She paused. "I also thought you might like to know what kind of monsters we're dealing with here, Antilles."

He took the disc and turned it over in his hand. "I'm guessing this is something I shouldn't show Wes or Jagged right now..."

She shook her head, "Probably not. I leave it at your discretion."

He nodded and stuck the disc in his shirt pocket. "Thanks Doctor. Now, you had better get going... unless you have anything more to tell me."

She shook her head and palmed the hatch open, "I'll see you when this is all over, Antilles."

"You'd better.... Otherwise, from what I'm hearing, I'll have a more depressed Hobbie on my hands."

She nodded, "I will," she assured him. She turned and jogged down the still extending ramp, then out of sight.

Wedge closed the ramp behind him and went off to an empty room to view the file for himself. He slipped the disc into his datapad.

*******

WARNING: If you wish to read what was on the disc, click HERE. This contains an explicit torture scene, and is not for one with a weak stomach.

*******

Wedge sat back as he pulled the disc out of his datapad. "This has gone much too far...."

* *

Tycho watched the Imperial Troop movements from the treeline. Luckily they hadn't found him in their searchings. Desperately, he tried to come up with a plan.

After a short while, he rolled to his side in the mud-puddle he had taken up sentry in, and pulled a new clip from his belt. Shaking the moisture off, he quietly inserted it into the blaster-carbine.

Hearing footsteps nearby, he took out a pair of macro-binoculars and set them on infra-red. He saw that it was only Anreson and put them away.

She moved carefully between the trees, looking around to see if Tycho had stayed there when she bolted after all. She saw him laying in the mud-puddle behind a small rise, and slowly approached him.

"Hey," she said quietly, barely a whisper as she crouched down beside him.

"What took you?" he whispered back.

She ticked off her fingers quietly. "Hadda find the Rogues, hadda talk to them, hadda shoot down baddens, hadda get orders, hadda kiss Derek, hadda find you..." she grinned at him lop-sidedly.

He looked at her, "Hope you didn't leave anything out," he said sarcastically. Then he groaned, "On second thought.... I don't want to know if you did."

She opened and shut her mouth a few times soundlessly in search of an appropriate retort. "Anyway, we're supposed to keep an eye on things here," she yawned slightly.

Tycho turned his gaze back through the trees at the stormtroopers. "Any idea what Wedge has planned?" he whispered.

"Well," she replied in quiet tones. "They're gonna put on a show."

"And?"

"We keep an eye on things here, and let them know if there's any changes. That's about all they had figured out when I left." She paused, "Oh, and I gave Antilles a copy of the disc," she told him off-handedly.

He sighed, then whispered, "If I know Wedge... he'll send in a ground strike most likely covered by air, in case the Imps have any flyboys."

"Well, nothing's going to start for another," she thought a moment. "Oh, maybe six hours... whatever they have planned launches at noon."

Hmmm.... Six hours, huh? He shifted uneasily as the puddle's dampness began creeping through his black and mud-covered flightsuit.

Anreson sighed. "You had to pick a puddle..." she shook her head and stayed at a crouch, only her boots getting wet.

He looked down at the mud, then back to her, "Afraid of a little dirt... Doc?"

She reached down to cover her fingers with the wet mud, then flicked it at him. "No, but the less dirty I get, the less of a trail I leave." She yawned slightly again. "Anyway, I was thinking we could at least spell eachother for an hour. We've both been up for over fourty-eight, and I don't know how much good we'll be when things begin."

He wiped the bit of mud from his cheek. "Just for that... I may give you laundry duty when we return... Lieutenant."

She chuckled easily, "I hope you like pink underclothes," she quipped.

He shrugged. "Clothes are clothes.... Get some sleep if you want."

She stood slightly, staying out of view, and patted his shoulder. "Thanks. One hour."

Tycho watched her move back through the trees a little bit then climb up into one of them, her dark clothes masking her from sight of anyone not knowing where to look.

Anreson settled herself into a crook and fell into an exhausted sleep.

*

He thought as he watched the goings on in the clearing and the burned out hotel. Then, it came to him. Ah ha! I've got it! He took out his datapad and started scribbling on it with a stylus.

*

An hour later, Anreson woke up. She stretched slightly, and climbed back down before making her way slowly back to where she'd left Tycho. She looked at him curiously as she crouched back down beside him. "What are you doing?" she asked him quietly.

"I have a plan," he whispered back.

"A plan.... Okay, so what is it?"

He handed her a datapad then stood. "It's all there. I have to go, you keep an eye out."

"Alright." She looked up at him. "Be safe, Celchu."

He nodded once and disappeared quietly into the shadowed woods.

She looked down to the datapad. Most of the message was in a code she didn't recognize. But the last line was basic.

Welcome to the squad, here is your first test. I figure it'll take you at least two hours to slice the RS code, and that will keep you out of my way. It was signed, Col. T. Celchu.

She growled and slapped the datapad onto her thigh, then glared in the direction he'd gone in. "Celchu..." she snarled out quietly. Moving to sit on an exposed root, out of the mud, she got to work.

*

Tycho got back to the Wayward Star half an hour later, and got Ugh working on being sure the laser cannons were charged and ready. He cleaned up in the 'fresher and put on a new flightsuit. Telling Ugh to wake him in an hour, he collapsed into a dreamless sleep on his bunk.

*

Anreson sighed an hour and a half after she began, and pushed her bangs back away from her face. She lifted the datapad to read the decrypted message.

Now you know the Rogue Code. I will fly into the combat zone and recover the ground crew as I provide cover fire support from the shuttle. Try to stay out of the way of my lazers.

She chuckled quietly, shaking her head. "Of course...." She sighed and went back to watching things.

*

Ugh woke Tycho at the proscribed time. The Alderaanian rubbed at his eyes then checked the chrono. "Hmm... that time already, eh?"

The droid beeped at him impatiently

"Okay, okay, okay... just get to the cockpit. I want you to jack into the city's central flight control and slice me out anything that looks Imperial." He sat up. "And, keep me aprised of the location of the Skate and that Z-95 we saw Corran fiddling with the other day."

The droid whistled an affirmative and took off.

Tycho stood, and yawned again. Leaving the squadron had one bonus.... I got more sleep than this. He smiled and jogged off to the cockpit.

*

After watching for only a few minuts, Anreson began fidgeting. I can't do this.... Serruptitiously, she made her way back to the shed and pulled the vent from it's place. After slipping in unnoticed, she pulled the grate back in place behind her.

Moving silently, she made her way along the ducts back to the room in which she'd last seen Siee. She looked down to see the girl curled up in a corner of the bunk, still wearing the short, tattered flightsuit, and sleeping fitfully. Shaking her head, Anreson pushed down the anger rising in her spirit, then moved on further to where she knew Dana was being held. She hadn't had a chance to look in on the girl the last time she was there.

She looked down into the room to see Dana sitting in a corner, fiddling with something... she couldn't quite see what. Though she had been knocked around a bit when she was first caught, it looked as though she had been locked in the room and forgotten since then.

She reached beneath her shirt to finger the ring-necklace that Gavin had given her to give Dana. She decided that giving it to the girl was, at this time, too dangerous. If she gave it to her now, and the Imperials suddenly remembered her....

Anreson shook away the train of thought and decided to give it to Dana only if something happened to Gavin. If not, she would return it to the Tatooinian, and he could give it to the girl himself.

*

Ugh tootled with excitement as Tycho lowered himself into the pilot's seat. He looked over at the display. "Hmmm.... Three eyeballs parked out by the old hanger, huh? Mark 'em as targets one through three."

The droid complied as he thought a moment. "You know what, Ugh? While we're at it, mark anything that matches a Z-95 or X-wing configuration."

Ugh beeped a confirmation that Corran's Z-95 had been marked, and matched the Z-95 they had saved when they had first arrived on Tralus.

As Ugh went back to slicing, Tycho did an intensive pre-flight.

*

Anreson moved along the venting shafts to get a feel of the burned out hotel's layout. This way, she figured, she would be able to tell the Rogues just where to find the girls.

Finally she crawled back to a place equidistant to the girl's room-cells, and settled back to listen and wait. Often unconsciously fiddling with her jade ring.

*

Ugh beeped again.

"What is it?"

The droid sent data to the display as Tycho looked on. "An X-wing, huh? Under NRI cover no less.... Well, mark it as friendly two unless I tell you otherwise."

-------END-------