Kelly had gotten to go on a mission with Blue and Yellow Squadrons. It was a simple acquisition of a convoy of supply ships. They succeeded and Kelly was ordered to return with Yellow Squadron to the station and keep an eye on Captain Aric Cherin, XO of Blue Squadron, and Lieutenant Karyn Donne, Kelly’s roommate since she had been with the Squad. They had both lost their ships in the raid.

Upon returning, she had a nice conversation with Lieutenant Pash Cracken. Two and a half hours later, she received word that Karyn was out of the bacta tank. It was then that she realized that Blue squadron had not returned yet. She went to check in on Captain Cherin.

"You’ve looked better, Captain."

He lowered the datapad and looked up at her. "This isn’t funny, Kel. It seems we’ve lost contact with the squad."

"What?!" She moved quickly to his side. "You’ve got to be kidding."

"Nope," he said showing her the datapad. "We lost their beacon about an hour ago. They just disappeared."

She took the pad and read over the reports. There was stable contact until they reached the edge of the Goldaan system. Then it stopped. "What do we know about Goldaan?"

"Not much." He took the pad and punched a few buttons. "That’s everything that WE know. It’s not a lot. We were actually supposed to map the quadrant on our way back."

"Gee, nice of you guys to let us know."

"Actually, it was my ship that had the mapping device. That mission got scrapped when my ship blew up."

"Have you talked to Commander Smyth yet?"

"Not really. He just sent this to me and told me to call him when I finished looking it over. He thought I might have some ideas. That’s why I sent for you, actually. I thought you might have some ideas."

She looked over all the information. He was right, there wasn’t much there. A thought did come to her. "I’ll be right back," she said as she left with the datapad still in her hand.

"Where are you going," Aric yelled after her.

"To try and get more information."

She wasn’t quite sure where to find him. She checked the landing bay first. There were a few droids milling about, but not Winger. Next, she tried the Revenge. "Hey Winger, are you in here," she yelled as she came up the boarding ramp. She could hear a distant beeping from the cockpit.

Moving into the cockpit, she found the droid plugged into the computer. "What are you doing?"

DOWNLOADING THE INFORMATION I GATHERED FROM THE MISSION.

Kelly smiled. "You didn’t happen to get a detail of the area, did you?"

WHAT IS IT I DO EVERY TIME WE GO INTO A NEW SYSTEM? I MAP THE SYSTEM TO BE ABLE TO CALCULATE ALL AVAILABLE ESCAPES.

Bingo! "You are wonderful. I need everything you have on the Goldaan system. We’ve lost contact with Blue Squadron."

I KNOW. THAT IS WHY I AM DOWNLOADING IT ONTO THE COMPUTER. IT WILL BE EASIER TO ACCESS FROM A TERMINAL.

"You can be such a smart ass sometimes. Ok, show me what you’ve got."

Winger transferred the information to the main terminal on the bridge. Kelly sat down and began going over it. The droid had gathered detailed information about the system. All she needed now was the escape route of the Blues.

As if on cue, her comlink beeped. "Antilles."

"Where are you," asked Pash. "You were supposed to meet me in Captain Cherin’s room, remember?"

She had completely forgotten about that after Aric had told her what had happened. "Uh, well, I had an idea."

"What kind of idea did you have that would make you leave Cherin’s room with the datapad?"

"Well, I was looking it over while I came to see if Winger did what he always does when we fly into a new system."

"And that is?" Pash was getting impatient with her. She suspected Aric was acting the same.

"He always makes a detailed map of a system so he can plot an escape route if we need it."

"Yes, now all I need are the coordinates Roth and the team were going to use to leave the system."

There was a moment of silence and a new voice filled the air. "Ms. Antilles, you will bring all information your droid acquired on the Goldaan system to my office immediately." Commander Smyth’s voice was filled with anger and frustration. "Do you understand?"

Kelly gulped, "Y-yes sir. Right away, sir." She immediately switched the comlink off and looked at Winger. "Now look at what you’ve done."

I DID NOTHING BUT WHAT I ALWAYS DO. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO WENT OVER A SUPERIOR’S HEAD TO FIGURE THIS OUT BY YOURSELF.

She glared at the green and silver droid. He was right, but it was her brother missing. She wasn’t about to loose him after just finding him again. "Ok, ok. You still have everything in your main core?"

YES.

"Good. Let’s go."

The girl and the droid walked quickly to Commander Smyth’s office. The door was open and she saw several high-ranking officers sitting in the room. Pash and Aric stood before the Commander’s desk. Smyth was just sitting down as she stopped in the doorway. He waved her over to his desk.

She and Winger quickly moved over to plug the droid into the Commander’s terminal. They began downloading all the information he had gotten on the Goldaan system. Looking up from the droid, she noticed that Aric looked very tired. He shouldn’t be here, she thought. He’s only been out of the bacta for about three hours.

As if sensing her thoughts he glared at her. "I’m alright. Let’s just hope we didn’t get this information too late."

"But I..." she stopped as Pash laid a hand on her arm. She turned to look at him.

"I know you’re worried about Wedge," he whispered to her. "But think about him. His entire squad, minus Karyn and you, is out there."

Shamed she lowered her head and looked back at the process of the download. Winger was nearly finished. Within moments, he took his information and overlapped the information Commander Smyth had given him and projected it above the table.

Kelly, Smyth and Cherin each moved closer to the table and looked at the map. Kelly reached out and touched an area to magnify it. She immediately recognized the area where they had fought the TIEs. "That’s where we approached the convoy, sir," she said pointing at the area.

Smyth nodded in agreement. He then marked the exit route and moved the image out a step from the magnification. He scanned over every inch of the area and saw nothing.

Kelly enhanced her senses through the Force, focusing on her eyesight. What she saw made her gasp. She touched the area to enlarge it. "Winger can you clean up zero-five-two by seven-six-nine?"

The droid did as it was told. Several specks which had looked like stars to the naked eye were something else entirely. As they focused, the prominent shape of ships became evident. They were nothing like anyone had ever seen before.  "What the hell are those," asked one of the higher-ups.

"It looks like some kind of alien vessel," said Cherin.

"I know that," the man spoke again. "I’ve never seen anything like it before."

"Neither have I. Has anyone else?" Cherin looked around the room and saw many heads move from side to side, until he came to Kelly. She was staring at the ships intently.

There were about a dozen small, bright yellow starfighters. The tail of the ship was elongated and pointed and had two short engines out to the side. Two larger ships flew in the midst of the smaller ships. Both were silver and shaped like an arrowhead. Kelly wondered why they would want Blue Squadron. "I have," she whispered.

Those closest who heard looked to her expectantly. She continued to scan the area until Aric nudged her. She looked up startled. "You said you’ve seen those before," he said. "Where?"

"A planet out near the outer rim," she finally responded. "I’ve been there before. I don’t know why they would want the convoy."

"What’s the name of the planet," asked Commander Smyth.

"Naboo," she said absently while still mulling over the situation.

The Commander pulled up the information he had on Naboo on his terminal. Winger beeped and added the information he had. Smyth raised an eyebrow at the droid, but was immediately thankful that the independent little guy had given him the information. "Naboo, a member of the Republic until after the clone wars.  There is a small Rebel presence there."

"Was," Kelly corrected. "We helped clear out the scientists before the Imperials came in and destroyed the place."

Smyth nodded as he read confirmation of what she had just said. "It says that the population is neutral. However, they may lean towards the Rebellion because of a Neimoidian droid invasion from about twenty or so years ago."

"The Gungan population nearly waited too long to support the Naboo against the Neimoidians. I don’t think they would make that mistake twice."

"What the hell is a Gungan," asked one of the officers.

"Who cares, what the hell is a Neimoidian," asked another.

Kelly turned to face the two gentlemen. "Gungans are a native race to Naboo. They are aquatic, much like the Mon Calamari and Quarren. They seem to be primitive, but their technology is very advanced. The Neimoidian is a race that was the main supporters of the Trade Federation back before Palpatine became the head of the Senate. They are a ruthless race whose only interest is in money, much like Hutts. They blockaded Naboo in response to a tax the Senate wanted to place on exported goods. They sent their droid armies down to enforce martial law against the Naboo people. Luckily the Jedi Council sent in a diplomatic envoy to diffuse the situation."

The men looked at her in awe. Smyth was impressed. He had read almost exactly what she had said in the information about Naboo. The droid had outlined her company’s trip along with his information.

COMMANDER, THIS IS SECOND HAND INFORMATION ABOUT THE MISSION TO NABOO, AS I WAS STUCK ON THE SHIP THE ENTIRE TIME.

Smyth chuckled as he read the words the droid had just scrolled on his screen. He patted it on the head, "I appreciate the information you have." He then turned his attention back to the Jedi-in-training.

"You say you don’t know why the Naboo would want the convoy. Could it have been Imperials using the Naboo ships in order to confuse anyone who might be watching?"

Kelly pondered that idea. It was plausible, but not likely. "No sir, I don’t think so. It just doesn’t ‘feel’ like there are Imps in those ships."

One of the men who had spoken earlier snorted. "How does an Imperial ‘feel’," he asked in a condescending tone.

Kelly glared at the man. "Look, I am the first to admit that all this Force stuff is pretty overwhelming to me. My Jedi Master has told me, however, that if I get ‘feelings’ about something that I shouldn’t ignore it. Those ships give me a feeling, but not of evil or cruel intent. It’s more like," she paused to choose the right word, "desperation."

"What was the condition of the people of Naboo when you left," asked one of the quieter high-ranking officials.

She noted that this was not a human, but a Mon Calamari. From the insignia on his shoulder, she determined he must be rather high ranking, General or Admiral at least. "Well sir," she began carefully. "We didn’t really deal with the natives, human or Gungan. There were several who were working with the scientists, but the scientists were our major objective. We were to get them out before the Imps got too close. We cut that one pretty close."

"Perhaps the Imperials have overtaken the planet," the Mon Calamari added. "Maybe they have been cut off and could only get out those ships." He waved an arm to the map. "Perhaps they knew that convoy was coming and it was intended for the Imperials on Naboo."

Kelly rolled his words over in her head. That was very possible. From the time they had spent with everyone at the base, she could tell that the natives weren’t above standing up for themselves. Unfortunately, they are severely under gunned compared to the Imps. "That could be true, but why ambush us right after we ambushed the Imps?" She answered her own question before it was completely out of her mouth. "Because, they don’t have the firepower to defeat an Imperial squad."

She frowned. "Is there any way we can find out who the contacts were on Naboo for the Rebel scientists? Perhaps if they are still in contact with the Rebellion, we can find out if they indeed hijacked the convoy."

The Mon Calamari motioned to an ensign who was standing against the wall. This was the first time Kelly had registered that there were several other people, mostly ensigns, in a dark corner. She guessed they were the personnel of the high-ranking officials. The ensign came over with a datapad and handed it to the Mon Calamari, who tapped a few buttons then handed it back to the ensign. He in turn took the datapad to Commander Smyth. "There are the names of the contacts on Naboo. There are still several Rebel operatives on the planet who have been helping the citizens rebuild."

Kelly looked at the Mon Calamari in awe. "Thank you Admiral," Smyth said as he took the datapad from the ensign.

Pash leaned forward slightly to whisper in her ear. "Admiral Ackbar works very closely with the Rebels who are helping planets that are still unwillingly under Imperial rule."

Her head tilted slightly trying to place the name. She thought she had heard something about a Mon Calamari Admiral, but couldn’t remember what it was.

Cherin moved to stand directly in front of her. "He was once a slave to Grand Admiral Tarkin until he escaped," he whispered.

Her eyes widened at the revelation of who exactly had been on her side. She realized her jaw had fallen open and consciously closed it. She made a mental note to thank the Admiral when this meeting finished.

Commander Smyth coded a message and sent it off to the Rebels on Naboo. "Well, now all we can do is wait."

The underlings took that as a dismissal and began filing out. Kelly unplugged Winger and quietly praised him for a job well done. He chirped happily as they began to leave the office. Kelly stopped in front of Admiral Ackbar. "Thank you sir," she said. "What you said made me think more about what I knew about the Naboo."

The Admiral’s whiskers wiggled as he grinned. "I am aware of how the people of Naboo feel about the Imperials. I thought you might also having been to the beautiful planet."

She smiled, "Yes, it is quite beautiful."

He held out a finned hand to her. "I know you will do all that you can to rectify the situation and get Blue Squadron back safely."

"Yes sir," she said as she took his hand in hers. "With my brother out there, I will do everything I can and more."

Kelly was frustrated and bored. She had nothing to do while waiting on the call from the Rebels on Naboo. It had already been three days. Karyn was groggy and Aric was finally resting.  That was a good thing. She was restless and needed to do something other than walk in circles around the station.

"Would you stop that," yelled an older tech. "You’re putting a hole in my deck!"

"Sorry sir," she said as she stopped in front of him. "I just need something to do. Put me to work, please. I’ve got experience with snubfighter repairs."

"We’re as bored as you, kid. There’s nothing for us to do either. Why don’t you go to the lounge and get a drink. That’ll occupy you for a while."

"Ha, ha," she grinned. "I’ve already been there three times today. It’s empty!"

"I have a better idea," said a voice from behind her.

"What are you doing here," she asked as she turned to face her enemy, Taryn.

"I’m just confined to the station, not the brig," he said with a wide grin. "I hear you nearly got my ship vaped."

"You would have, if you had been there," she retorted. "What’s your idea?"

"A chance to extract my revenge."

"Another challenge? You planning on cheating again?"

"No. This will be pilot to pilot. A one on one challenge."

"With a mediator."

He glowered at her. "Ok, agreed."

"Your choice, of course," she said evenly, looking him in the eye.

That took him by surprise. He grinned fiendishly, "If you insist."

She matched his grin, "Oh I do. I do insist. I trust you will make the logical choice."

"I’ll meet you in the training room in an hour."

"An hour it is." She watched him leave and smiled. This was going to be fun.

Exactly one hour later, Kelly and Winger entered the training room. The room was full of pilots, just as she had expected. "I thought this was one on one," she called out to Taryn.

"It is," he said mischievously. "You against me with a crowd to watch."

She looked over the assemblage and saw everyone she had expected. All the pilots of Yellow Squadron were there, including Pash. She allowed one corner of her mouth to curl upwards at the irony of the whole thing. She knew Taryn wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to brag that he would kick her butt. Word got around quick.

She jumped slightly as the door behind her opened. Captain Cherin slipped in and tried to blend in with the crowd. She intercepted him. "What are you doing here? Are you planning to stop this?"

He never looked at her directly. His eyes kept scanning the room to see if anyone had noticed his presence but her. "I’m here to observe and no, I’m not planning on stopping this. My money is on you."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence," she said scowling. "You really shouldn’t be here. It’s not going to be pretty."

"Yeah, and you don’t have but about three people in here who will defend you when Taryn claims you cheated."

"Oh, so that’s it. He’s planning to frame me, huh?"

"That’s the plan."

She pondered her options and shook her head. "It’ll never work."

"Why do you say that," he asked looking at her now.

A devilish smile crossed her face. "Because I know things he doesn’t." Without another word, she crossed to one of the two simulators that had been situated head to head for the challenge. Nobody noticed the green and silver droid beside her open a panel on the side of the sim and sear a few wires.

She leaned in to turn the simulator on and noted with a grin that the video didn’t come up. "Hey, this thing’s broken," she said to nobody in particular.

Someone standing near her looked in. "She’s right. The vid’s down."

Taryn stormed over. "Impossible. We just checked that." He stepped into the pod and flipped the switch several times. The power came on, but there was no video.

"Well it’s not working now," she said with her hands on her hips.

Taryn grumbled as he pulled himself out. One of his cohorts opened the side panel. "Here’s the problem. The lines are fried."

Taryn looked at the burned cables and swore. "Damnit, those were fine five minutes ago."

"I’m not surprised, though," Kelly suggested. "These things are ancient. Why don’t I just use another sim unit?"

He turned and bored his eyes into hers. She stayed steady and was ready for his onslaught of oppositions. "Ok," he said slowly. "Choose." He waved his arm at the other units in the room.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise that he conceded. Looking around, she spotted Winger already getting into a sim. "Looks like my droid has already made my choice." She smiled at Taryn and moved towards Winger.

He watched her leave with narrowed eyes then turned and entered his own sim. Putting on his helmet and switching the video on, he settled in and got ready to kick a little ass.

"Where will we be fighting," asked Kelly over the pod comm.

"The asteroid belt in the Hoth system."

"That’s a little dangerous, don’t you think?"

"Can’t handle it, little girl?"

Kelly let out a deep sigh. "Grow up, flyboy." She adjusted the acceleration couch and wiggled the stick. "How are we going to go about this?"

"You start on one side of the field and I’ll be on the other. First one to the middle wins the first part. Then it’s a dogfight to determine the best pilot." His voice dripped with smugness.

"I would think that whoever got to the middle first would be the best pilot."

Any response he had was cut off as the sim lit up. Kelly saw the large rocks grow in her viewport. She lightly placed her hand on the flight stick and drew in a deep breath. Focusing on the Force, she calmed herself and enhanced her sight. She found a path through the asteroids and began her journey.

Several times, she had to turn quickly or stop suddenly as another asteroid entered her chosen path. Somewhere in her conscious, she could hear everyone outside the sim cheering. She didn’t know if they were rooting for her or her competitor. She continued until she came upon the marker that signaled the center of the maze.

"See him anywhere, Winger?"

The obedient droid scanned the area and beeped negatively.  He did sense some life forms on the asteroids themselves.

Kelly decided to check them out. "Let me know if you get contact with Taryn. I’m curious as to what the sim has put in here." She gently nudged the stick forward and closed with a larger asteroid.

There was a nagging at the back of her mind, but she ignored it. She closed on the giant rock and began to skim the surface. She didn’t immediately notice anything different until the nagging in her mind became an alarm.

All hell broke loose.

She jerked the stick back hard as the alarm in her head went off. Then she became conscious of Winger warning her of the torpedo that was heading for them. That was why her internal alarm went off. He was also yelling something about also getting a contact with Taryn’s ship at the same time.

"Wonderful," she mumbled as she tried to break the lock on the torpedo. Jinking back and forth, she tried confusing the seeking mechanism. She finally saw what she needed and flew right towards a smaller asteroid. As she got almost to the asteroid, she flipped the rudders and pulled hard to port. She felt one of her foils scrape the rock as she passed. The torpedo couldn’t execute the same maneuver and slammed into the rock, spewing debris everywhere.

She could hear Taryn’s mocking laughter over the comm. "You want to explain what the hell that was," she asked agitatedly.

"I took the liberty of programming some secret bases with automatic defenses to make this more interesting."

"Oh, this is interesting to say the least," she replied gritting her teeth. Pulling the ship into another climb, she began to pursue of her opponent.

The two T-65B fighters flitted in and out around the asteroids like bees around flowers. Laser blasts splashed across shields, torpedoes shattered rock, but still the two combatants came at each other ferociously. Just when one thought they had the upper hand, the other would perform an amazing stunt and even the playing field yet again.

Kelly was impressed by the way Taryn flew nimbly through the maze of asteroids. There were several times where she had to make crazy moves to get him off her tail. She knew there was only one way to get rid of this insect. She moved in closer to the largest asteroid.

As expected, Taryn followed her, peppering her shields with laser blasts. She switched all the power from her weapon systems into her shields. His lasers would be empty before he got through. She swerved left and right so that Taryn wouldn’t realize she was leading him into a trap. Skimming the surface, she studied the terrain. There! She found what she was looking for and headed right towards it.

Taryn grinned. "Oh come on, you’re dead and you know it. Why not just give up?"

"I don’t ever give up," she replied. She passed by one of the hidden bunkers and, as expected, a torpedo flew directly towards her. Chuckling to herself, she allowed it to gain a lock on her aft.

"Awww, look, you went and got a torp on your tail. What a shame."

Kelly flipped off the comm and settled into the Force. Gritting her teeth, she punched the throttle to get further ahead of Taryn. The obedient little torpedo followed her every move. She made a languid turn back into Taryn’s path. "Come and get it, flyboy."

Taryn watched her turn. "Ah, so it’s chicken, huh? I can play that game." He nudged the stick forward and flew right at Kelly.

"You are so predictable, Taryn," she thought. "Winger, let me know when I’m one klick away from him."

The droid beeped affirmatively and began showing her a distance countdown on her viewscreen.

She watched the numbers roll downward. The torpedo was still behind her and starting to catch up. "Come on, this had better work."

Taryn laughed at her pitiful attempt to outfly him. Once she pulled out of the way, he would turn and lock a torp on her tail. That would be the end of that.

Winger produced a solid wail that announced the distance Kelly desired. Grinning broadly, she cut her engines and let her ship drop below Taryn’s trajectory. She wished she could see the look on his face when he realized there was a torpedo coming right at his nose.

Taryn was confused when she dropped below him. He started to turn his ship downward when his droid wailed that there was a target lock on the ship. He looked up just in time to see the torpedo strike the nose of the ship.

A hush fell across the crowd in the sim room. Nobody could believe what he or she had just seen. Both had proven themselves great pilots, but Kelly finally got the upper hand.

Both pods opened and the respective pilots climbed out. Taryn looked at Kelly in disbelief. She walked over and held out a hand to him. "That truly was some excellent flying."

He looked down at her hand, then back up at her. After a few moments, he finally took her hand in his. "Quite excellent," he replied. "I’m glad you took my place in Blue Squad for the mission. You really are a great pilot."

Several gasps rumbled through the crowd. Taryn turned and glared at them. "Hey, she is a damn good pilot! Be glad she was with you. I’m sure she saved quite a few lives by being there."

The crowd wasn’t the only ones taken aback by Taryn’s words. Kelly stared at the man openmouthed. "Are you serious," she asked.

"Very. I’m glad we got this over. Now, let’s get out of here before we get caught by Commander Smyth."

"Good idea. Can I buy you a drink?"

"No," he replied. "I’m buying you one. I’ll meet you in the pilots lounge in about twenty."

Kelly smiled. "Sure thing."

She started as a hand touched her elbow. Turning, she came face to face with Captain Cherin. "That was incredible," he said with a smile. "You sure you don’t want to join Blue Squadron?"

Kelly smiled. "Yes, I’m sure. My Jedi skills are just being developed. That training keeps me very busy."

"Well, if you change your mind," he began. With a smile, he turned and left.

As she watched him leave, something caught her eye. Admiral Ackbar was walking right towards her. Nervously, she stood at attention. "Can I help you, Admiral?"

"I’ve been looking for you, Ms. Antilles. I wanted to let you know that we have received word from our contacts on Naboo. I think you will find their response rather interesting."

So, where is Blue Squadron?
Have they disappeared completely?