Wedge sat in a folding chair in the Auxiliary Two hangar with a datapad in hand, reviewing his notes on the morning’s simulator scores. The work kept him focused. Because if I don’t keep working, I’m going to fantasize about hanging Luke by his ankles off the nose of his X-wing. Taking just Sarkli and Jade to crack an Imperial blockade was insane. Didn’t even talk to me before they launched. He tried to focus on the datapad again. Tatooine farmer blows up a Death Star with a lucky shot and thinks he’s invincible. Even if somehow he is, Sarkli and Jade aren’t.
A brief image played in Wedge’s head, a nightmare that he’d had twice now since leaving Yavin IV: General Syndulla, arriving on the Independence, then ordering him out an airlock.
Focus on the datapad.
An alert klaxon blared, then a voice on the loudspeaker. “Clear Auxiliary Two. Fighters incoming. Clear Auxiliary Two.”
Wedge ignored the command to clear the hangar, instead waiting and watching as two X-wings breached the magcon field, came down on the hangar deck with a jarring bounce on their landing struts, rougher than he would’ve expected from any of their pilots.
Two.
Wedge dropped the datapad on the chair and started running to the X-wings. Who didn’t come back?
Luke’s canopy was open and his helmet was off, and he was already dropping to the hangar deck before Wedge could reach him or the ground crew could bring a ladder.
“What happened?” Wedge asked.
“Call Rieekan. We need a full security lockdown immediately.” Luke’s jaw worked, teeth grinding. “Sarkli betrayed us at Ralltiir. We got to Derlin’s corvette, started punching our way out, and he tried to put a pair of torpedoes into its engines.”
Wedge stared, jaw slack.
“Wedge, focus,” Luke said. “Security lockdown, now.”
The Corellian snapped into motion, his hand fumbling in his pocket for his comlink. “What happened after?” he asked as he tried to find it.
“Mara shot down the torpedoes and went after him. I barely kept the TIEs off the Bright Wake. Sarkli got away, the Bright Wake took a pounding but got out, and Mara and I jumped after.” His shoulders were tense and raised, and Wedge saw real anger in his friend’s eyes. “We need to lock down now. There’s no way to know if he left us any unpleasant surprises.”
Wedge finally found his comlink, brought it up and adjusted the frequency to connect to Rieekan’s office. “That’ll be a full security sweep,” he warned Luke.
“I spent the whole flight back thinking about that,” Luke said impatiently. “Make the call, Wedge.”
Wedge looked over, saw Jade still sitting in her X-wing with helmet off and her red-gold hair a sweaty, matted mane. “General Rieekan, this is Captain Antilles,” he said. “We need a full security lockdown for Auxiliary Two and Rogue Squadron’s berthing immediately.”
Within fifteen minutes, the members of Rogue Squadron were gathered in their common area, and security personnel from the Independence were crawling all over their territory.
Wedge surveyed the Rogues as they arrived: Hobbie, dour as usual; Puck Naeco, his usual charm and good humor muted by confusion and concern; Wes Janson seemingly unaffected by Alliance Security as he joked with an unamused lieutenant about the required bribe to overlook a still that Wedge was pretty certain didn’t exist; Karie Neth, pressed into a corner while she seemingly tried to track everyone at once with her eyes; Zev Senesca, arms folded as he leaned against the wall next to Neth, expression unreadable; and Cesi Eirriss, sitting on the overstuffed couch, her lekku wrapped around her shoulders as she tapped through her datapad, apparently unconcerned. Mara arrived next-to-last, her face pale. Wedge suspected she was still shaken from the betrayal.
Luke arrived last with General Rieekan.
“Rogue Squadron, listen up,” Luke said, his voice tight. “We’re under lockdown while General Rieekan’s staff conducts a security review. In short, while we were on a mission to Ralltiir, Lieutenant Sarkli betrayed us to the Empire. Flight Officer Jade and I escaped, and we got the Alliance personnel we were sent to rescue out, too. But we don’t know if Sarkli left any surprises behind, and I’m not going to risk any of your lives on the assumption he didn’t.” He paused for a moment, his blue eyes sweeping the room to make contact with each of the Rogues in turn. “I’m sorry. I barely know some of you, and I’m going to fix that, but for now we’re confined to our territory here on the Independence. No flight operations, no leaving marked Rogue Territory, no outside communication, and unfortunately, no simulators since they’re several corridors away in Pilot Country.”
Wedge couldn’t help but grimace. So much for training. If we had access to the sim bay, we could at least put the downtime to good use.
Hobbie raised a hand. “What’s this security review going to look like?”
General Rieekan cleared his throat. “We’ll be reviewing your service records, communications records, and doing a full sweep of all of Rogue Squadron’s quarters, supply rooms, and the hangar. For your safety and the safety of Alliance Security, you’re required to turn over any and all personal weapons as well. I apologize in advance, but for the safety of you and your fellow pilots, you’ll have no real privacy for the duration of the review.”
Wedge caught a glimpse of Mara by chance; her expression was unreadable, but her skin was as pale as flimsiplast. He felt a pang of sympathy. She’s probably never been through one of these. He managed to keep his expression neutral as the next thought followed. Syndulla may be throwing me out an airlock sooner than I expected.
Senesca asked, “How long will the review take?”
“Depends on what we find,” Rieekan grunted, “but if I were you I’d assume at least a week.” The general looked around at the Rogue pilots. “You don’t have to be happy about it. I’m not happy about it. But before Rogue Squadron can resume operations, we need to make sure your unit is secure.”
Janson raised a hand, and Rieekan ignored it. The general has clearly met Janson before now, Wedge mused.
Luke stepped forward again. “If you have any questions, find me or Wedge.” He smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “We’ll both be here, too, undergoing the same review. We won’t be hard to find.”
Rieekan gestured, and an Alliance security agent stepped in from the doorway, pulling a repulsorcart stacked with boxes. “Security lockboxes for your personal effects,” he said, “including any weapons. We’ll screen the contents and return the boxes to you when we’re done. Key it with your biometrics and only you and Alliance Security’s override code can open it.” He glanced around at the pilots. “We’ll make this as quick and secure as we can. The Alliance needs you.”
Wedge caught up with Luke in his quarters a few minutes later.
Luke had a security lockbox and was studying it intently.
“It’s unkeyed right now,” Wedge said without prompting. “Press the release button and hold it. After a couple seconds, it’ll beep at you, you press your thumb against the lock, and it keys to your biometrics a couple ways.” He frowned. “Thumbprint and genetic, I think. It might store more.”
Luke nodded and did as Wedge had directed. The box popped open and Luke glanced inside to ensure it was empty.
“So, do I get the full story?” Wedge asked.
Luke unholstered his blaster, a Merr-Sonn Model 57, and laid it gently in the lockbox. “Rieekan came to me with a mission. Tight window, because the Empire was already closing on Derlin’s corvette and the people he went to Ralltiir to retrieve. We only had three X-wings ready to fly, and the general said if we waited for the others, it’d be too late.”
“So you took Sarkli and Jade and left?”
“You already know that,” Luke pointed out. “But yes. And in hyperspace…” he hesitated for a long moment as he unhooked the lightsaber hanging from his belt, studying it for long moments before laying it in the lockbox. “In hyperspace I kept thinking that something was wrong. That someone was going to die.” He winced. “The thought I had was ‘Someone isn’t coming back.’ So I pulled diagnostics on all the X-wings, planned our tactics for the fight. Everything looked good.”
Wedge frowned. “Why did you think that?”
Luke shrugged uneasily, freeing a sheathed vibroblade from his belt and adding it to the lockbox. “Gut feeling, I guess. Maybe because we hadn’t had time to do a proper test flight of the X-wings right after a new ground crew had their hands in them.”
“The Force?” Wedge asked quietly.
“Wedge, I don’t know what I’m doing with that,” Luke said helplessly. “I’m not a Jedi. I want to be one. Ben Kenobi showed me how to start. But now he’s gone, and I don’t have anyone to teach me.” He smiled self-deprecatingly. “I thought about that already, too, you know. But I don’t know how it works. Maybe the Force was trying to warn me. But I don’t know enough to claim that, and if I start labeling every feeling as a premonition from the Force, I’m going to get everyone killed.” He raised an eyebrow at his XO. “One of the reasons Dodonna assigned you as my executive officer is to keep me honest.”
Wedge nodded slowly as Luke closed the box, latching it securely. “So nothing looked wrong on the run in to Ralltiir,” he prompted.
“Right. We came out of hyperspace, and the Imperial blockade was configured how we expected. I picked a target, a Raider corvette, and we hit it with torpedoes on the way in to punch a hole. I signaled Derlin, and he brought the Bright Wake out from under cover to start his escape run. I led Sarkli and Mara down, we set up a loose escort, and I was focused on the TIEs coming to attack our corvette. Artoo warned me about a torpedo launch, but I was positioned too far forward to see it.”
“Sarkli’s attack on the Bright Wake.“
“Right. Mara saw it in time and shot down the torpedoes and went after Sarkli.”
Wedge frowned. “You had a ship full of people depending on you to get them out and you sent Jade after Sarkli?”
Luke winced. “I didn’t send her. She went after him.” His voice quieted even further. “I ordered her back and she kept pursuing. I couldn’t do anything about it because I was trying to keep the Imp fighters off the Bright Wake.“
His stomach dropped. “She disobeyed orders?”
Luke shrugged, a slight motion. “Yes. She did break off and reform with me, just before the Bright Wake jumped out. But I covered Derlin for most of the extraction by myself. Barely got them out.”
Wedge rubbed his eyes wearily. “So Jade disobeyed orders during the fight.”
The Tatooine farmer offered a weary smile. “Depends. Is this going in your official report?”
“I don’t have an official report. I wasn’t there.” Wedge raised an eyebrow. “I’m trying to figure out if we need to scrub her from the roster.”
“I don’t want her off the roster,” Luke said immediately.
“You don’t?”
“No.”
Wedge waited for Luke to elaborate further, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry. “Why?”
Luke had a distant look. “I’m not sure. Call it a gut feeling.”
“That’s not good enough,” Wedge disagreed. “If you want to keep her on the roster, we can. The entirety of the Rebellion is short on pilots…” his smile was faint and ironic, “…and we just lost another one. But I want more than your gut.”
Luke’s blue eyes turned icy. “My gut was to distrust Sarkli, too,” he said stiffly.
Wedge’s brown eyes narrowed in return. “We had no reason to distrust Sarkli.”
“Two proton torpedoes, an open-air transmission, and a missing X-wing say otherwise.” Luke’s lips compressed into a thin line. “Wedge, you were wrong about Sarkli.”
“I was operating on the best information I had,” Wedge protested, heat creeping into his tone. “I had no reason to think he wasn’t on the level.”
“Paperwork doesn’t tell the whole story, Wedge. You were relying on the service history paperwork and ignoring the man. You flagged me for my call on Yavin and ignored his response to it, and you never talked to him about it afterward, did you? I did, and I knew something wasn’t right. And I sat on my own instincts because you wanted him in the squadron.” Luke grimaced and seemed to deflate. “I’m sorry. That’s not fair. We made the decision together.”
Wedge tried to settle his own anger. I’m not angry at Luke. Not really, he realized, as he examined his own emotion. I’m feeling guilty, because Luke’s right. I did push for Sarkli to be on the roster.
“So, was he an Imperial plant from the beginning?”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe he really felt that betrayed by my command decisions.” He hesitated. “I tried talking to him after Yavin, but it didn’t feel like I got through to him. And when he betrayed us on Ralltiir, he got personal. Implied I was a terrible commander. Mocked Mara on open comms. I think he was trying to get her to break off and chase him.”
“And succeeded.”
Nodding, Luke said, “With just me covering the Bright Wake, Derlin almost didn’t make it out. And Mara nearly lost her fight with Sarkli.” He offered another shrug. “We’ll see what Rieekan’s security review finds. Maybe he’ll have an answer for us.”
Wedge leaned against the wall of Luke’s quarters. “So what do we do with Jade?”
“She stays on the roster,” was Luke’s immediate response.
“Until General Syndulla shows up and drags her out of Rogue Territory,” Wedge grumbled.
“She’s a Rogue until she doesn’t want to be or until she proves herself unfit.” Luke shook his head. “Sarkli knew exactly how to manipulate her. Whatever he was at the beginning, he planned on betraying us at Ralltiir. I’m going to talk to her and make sure that she doesn’t repeat what happened there, but I’m not going to hold that engagement against her.”
Wedge blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “This is going to give Colonel S’man all kinds of new ammunition.”
“I have no doubt,” Luke said dryly. “But I called for the security lockdown. We’re working with Rieekan. This is survivable.” He hesitated. “Right?”
“I think so.” Wedge shrugged. “Rieekan seems interested in keeping us around. I don’t think we’re done yet.”
“Good.” Luke picked up the lockbox and nodded toward the door. “Let’s go patch up morale for the squadron, then.”
“Why me?” Wes complained. “Seriously, Wedge, why not Hobbie?”
“Because Hobbie is helping Skywalker make rounds,” Wedge said dryly. “And I need someone I can trust to help me pull files.”
Janson rolled his eyes. “I’m Wes Janson, ace pilot, not Wes Janson, clerk.”
“I’m seeing Wes Janson, sanitation in your future,” Wedge said dryly. “If you’d prefer, I’m sure S’man would accept your transfer.”
“Keep up this sort of flimsiplast nonsense and I might take him up on it,” Wes grumbled.
“Rieekan wanted me to pull all our roster files,” Wedge explained. “Everything Luke and I have on flimsi, to make the initial security review faster. I need help, and that means I pick someone who I’m pretty sure will pass the review. With our current roster, that means me, Skywalker, Hobbie, and unfortunately for both of us, you.”
“What about Naeco? Or Jade?”
“Jade’s a mess after Ralltiir, and I don’t know Naeco well enough to be sure there isn’t something to flag about the Denon cell.”
“Wonderful,” Wes muttered. “And why isn’t this all on the computer system already?”
Wedge dropped a stack of flimsiplast in front of Wes. “Because these were the notes Skywalker and I were using to screen for pilots. And then the evacuation happened a lot faster than we intended, and I’ve been busy trying to keep S’man from disassembling our squadron, and then recruiting pilots, and now preparing for a security review. So you get to help me key all of these into the system so we still have copies when Rieekan makes off with all my flimsiplast.”
For a few minutes, they worked in companionable silence, Wes taking half of the stack of paper while Wedge worked on the other.
“So what happens now?” Wes asked, his tone not quite casual. “We wait for Rieekan to finish the review, you recruit some more pilots, and we start flying more missions?”
Wedge paused and frowned. “Not exactly.”
“Meaning?”
The executive officer hesitated. “It’s too early to know for sure. But we need time to train. Luke flew three missions in three days. No one can manage that pace indefinitely, and if we try to do that with a whole squadron, pilots are going to die.”
“I’m not a fan of that part.”
“Me, neither. So I’m going to push hard to get a training window first. Three months would be ideal.”
Wes laughed aloud at that suggestion. “Three months? Wedge, I started with the Tierfon Yellow Aces. We were rookies and we had less than two months of training before we pulled our first mission against an actual Imperial target.”
“I never said we were going to get three months, but I’m going to push for as much as I can.”
“And how do we keep this from happening again?” Wes asked, the subject implied.
“I’m still trying to figure that out. Better security screening on new pilots would be helpful.”
“I’m sure it would.” Wes flashed one of the flimsiplast pages at Wedge. “Flight Officer Jade’s file. A whole lot of empty here. No homeworld, no next of kin, hell, not even a birthday. Hard to do proper security screening with no data, Wedge.”
Wedge frowned, lips compressed. Of course, General Syndulla vouched for Jade personally, and that carries her past the paperwork stage. But that doesn’t guarantee security. “I guess Luke and I are going to have to figure out something else,” he said at last. “Something that doesn’t just rely on Alliance Security to screen properly. I’m sure Sarkli was screened, too, and he made it through.”
Wes nodded. “Whatever you come up with, I’m sure Rogue Squadron won’t be the only unit that will want it,” he said. “And whatever it is, I’d prefer it doesn’t require more adventures from Wes Janson, clerk.”