Chapter 2
I woke up the next morning to someone pounding on my cabin door.
"'Ryll! Get up! Do you have any idea what time it is? We have a live-fire exercise today, remember?"
I pulled on my dark green robe and opened the door. "What about a live-fire exercise? When did the Commander call
a live-fire exercise for today?" I looked up into the face of Wraith Squadron's XO, Wes Janson. "Tell me you're
kidding. Please. I thought we were still on leave."
He grinned, making his baby face look even younger. "No exercise, but Wedge does want to talk to you. He's been all
over the base looking for you."
"Why?"
"Because you're usually up and going by now." His tone made it sound as if the answer should be obvious.
"I meant, and you know this, why does he want to talk to me?"
"Something about that 'fight' between you and Face yesterday.” He even did the little finger quotes around the word
fight, which amused me to no end. “You're lucky no one told him anything. Though it's not like we really could, we
were laughing so hard."
"Or maybe not so lucky. I-"
"'Ryll! Watch out for Antilles! He's been looking all over for you." Darian called as he approached my door.
"So I gathered. Is he mad?"
"About not being able to find you. Other than that, you're on your own," Darian Starsearcher said with an apologetic
look.
"Great," I groaned. "Thanks, Darian." I waved as he turned and continued down the corridor. "I'll get dressed, then
I'm heading down to get some food. You can tell him that." With that, I disappeared back into my room.
After throwing on an emerald green jumpsuit with silver accent stripes down the arms and legs, I found my way to the
galley. I'd just sat down with my food when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped involuntarily, but only slightly.
Wedge Antilles swung around to the opposite side of the table and sat down, grinning.
"How are you this morning, Miss Asynri?" he asked, totally blowing me away. I'd expected him to come directly to the
point and drop me from the squad.
"F-Fine, Commander. And you?"
"As well as can be expected. Face tells me you are quite the navigational genius. Seems you helped him solve that
puzzle he got yesterday, correct?"
"Yes, though I wouldn't exactly say I'm a navigational genius. Piggy's got that honor. I have a gift for that sort of thing.
And I helped Darian Starsearcher on it as well."
"I appreciate your honesty. Now be honest on another point. What happened yesterday?"
Here it was. The moment I incriminate myself and admit that I hit a fellow officer. "Face cracked a joke about me that I
really didn't appreciate. I guess I lost my temper for a bit. But we've made up now; everything's fine."
"What was so funny when I walked in?" he wanted to know next.
"You looked around the room. Didn't you see Face lying in a tangled heap with a chair?" He nodded. "Well, he was
backing away from me and tripped over it. When he went down, I did too, right to the ground, laughing my head off.
But I swear right now that I'll not lose my temper like that again."
"I'm glad. You're on kitchen duty for two weeks for that little outburst, however." I stared at him, stunned. "You want
to say something?"
"I was almost certain you would drop me from the squadron for that little escapade yesterday. I guess I'll find some
way to live with kitchen duty for a couple weeks." I paused, looked at him, and with heartfelt gratitude, said, "Thank
you, sir. For letting me stay, that is."
"Think nothing of it. You're a good pilot; we can hardly afford to lose you."
"Yes sir!" I barked, jumping to attention and saluting. I swear everyone in the room turned to stare. I sat down,
feeling rather proud of myself for turning every head in the room and glanced at Wedge. I'm not sure what was
funnier: how red his face got or the expression on it. He obviously did not expect me to do that. Of course, I'm
normally quiet and somewhat reserved around higher-ranking officers, so almost no one would expect anything like
that from me. "Sorry, sir."
"Finish your breakfast, Asynri. Meet me in the hangar at 1300, and you'd better pack for a few days. We've got a
scouting mission to Kylari." With that, he got up and left.
"Where in all the hells of the Sith is Kylari?" I asked the room at large.
***
"'Ryll! You're in on this, too?" Darian Starsearcher waved me over to the small group.
"I guess. Commander Antilles told me to be here at 1300, so here I am."
"Anybody know what this is all about?" Gavin Darklighter asked.
After a rapid succession of "no's", I spoke up. "Commander said something about a scouting mission to some place
called Kylari. And no, I don't know where it is or anything about it, so don't ask." Spotting Commander Antilles, I said,
"There's the commander, go ask him."
Loran walked over to where Wedge stood talking to Cubber Daine, our (Wraith Squadron's) mechanic. Face smiled
and probably cracked some joke, or at least made an amusing comment, judging from the way Cubber started
laughing. Face asked Wedge something, pointing in our group's direction. Wedge excused himself and walked over
to us, Loran in tow.
"I see you all made it. Face said that you all wanted to know what this is all about. We're going on an in-depth
scouting mission to an Imperial planet called Kylari." He paused as Kell Tainer, standing at the top of the boarding
ramp of a Lambda-class shuttle, waved to get his attention. "Looks like our ride's ready. Let's go. I'll brief you on the
way."
