Aboard the Nexu's Nest
'Bescane,' suggested Ka'iulani.
'No,' said Face.
'Muunilinst?' she said.
Face shook his head.
'Bastion. Come on.'
'No,' said Face, more forcefully than he intended. He looked at Ka'iulani through the salon's holomap. 'It can't be on a major hyperspace lane. Even if the First Order isn't there, they can be quicker than we can exfiltrate.'
'But lane systems have the best equipment,' Ka'iulani insisted. 'Fenn deserves the best.'
'They do,' Face nodded, irritated by the play on his sympathy. 'Of course they do. But it'll be no good if we're locked up.'
'So we just need to be smart about it.'
Vix stepped into the room and said, 'You're forgetting it's just the three of us going planetside. Tarrik needs to stay here and we can't exactly trust anyone else to come with us right now.'
'So?' replied Ka'iulani, crossing her arms and staring hard at Vix. 'Smaller team, more likely to go undetected.'
'Smaller team,' said Face evenly, 'fewer skills to pull from. Fewer options. Fewer ways to adapt if things go wrong.'
'Then what do you suggest?' Ka'iulani said heatedly.
Face let out a long, slow breath. 'Varvona?' he said. 'It's on Myto's Arrow, just off from Jaemus. Smaller lane. Maybe not equipped with the latest medical equipment, but it's further out of the way.'
'It's still pretty close,' said Vix doubtfully. 'Besides, I think I heard reports of some fighting around Dantooine, back when we were receiving reports at the listening outpost. That's on the other end of the Arrow lane; if there's any First Order forces hanging around, they can get there pretty quick.'
'Good point,' Face rubbed his moustache, looking at the floating projection. He picked a datapad up from the table and scanned through the contents - Tarrik's post-surgery report. It made for disheartening reading. His main takeaway from it, though, was the amount of time that Fenn could reasonably remain in their current condition. Tarrik could give no solid answer - there were just too many variables, too many things that could go wrong, and Tarrik had his hands full keeping what was left of Fenn working. They could live weeks - a wild hope, he could confess to himself - or their nervous system could collapse from the stress of it all in an hour. It was that latter number that made Ka'iulani's suggestions all the more appealing, and as much as he hated to put everyone else at risk, his eyes kept on drifting towards all those big, juicy targets on the major lanes. He shook his head. 'Even if we did hit, say, Bescane, the Nest is in no position to go unnoticed,' he mused out loud. 'Flight control gets one look at us, they're going to order us to a repair bay. That's us locked down until we're all patched up. So much for a quick in and out.'
'So have the inmates fix the ship,' Ka'iulani said cavalierly.
Face frowned. She was being so reckless. 'Ka'iulani,' he said delicately, 'I understand that you must be feeling-'
'Feeling what?' she interrupted.
Face pursed his lips. 'I know Fenn is your highest priority, but we have to be careful about this. Take a long, hard look at our situation. Do you honestly think we can pull off a mission like what you're asking?'
Ka'iulani turned away from him, staring off at the bulkhead. 'We can't just do nothing but talk. Talk talk talk. That's all we're doing. Meanwhile Fenn could die at any moment,' the words stopped her short.
Face stood and sidled around the table to sit by her. He leaned close, speaking softly. 'I know, old friend. But as long as there's a spy unidentified on the ship we're operating with not even a third of our skillforce. We need to keep that in mind, always.'
Ka'iulani shrugged. 'So find the spy.'
'I'm sorry?'
'You heard me,' she turned to look at Face. 'Find the spy, then that frees up the rest of us to actually do something useful.'
Face considered it, not for the first time. He had thought of little else ever since the shooting, torn between wanting to find the spy and wanting to help Fenn. In the end, doing all he could to make sure Fenn survived always won out, but after staring at the same map for hours, now, maybe she had a point. But still, could Fenn afford to wait any longer? And in pausing in their search for a medical facility to target, would they skip seeing the perfect target that was in front of them all along? It was those thoughts that gnawed at him, every minute.
'Find the spy,' Ka'iulani said again, 'I'll kill them, and then we can save Fenn,' she said it so simply, so matter of factly, like it was a done deal.
'No killing,' Face warned her. 'There's no telling how much the First Order have learned about our plans. If, and I can't stress that enough, if we find them quickly, I need them alive. Do you understand me?'
Ka'iulani grimaced and looked away.
'I'll take that as a yes,' said Face. He frowned, questioning his decision to trust her. He put the thought out of his mind. 'Okay. Time to go find a spy.' Face made to stand, but Vix stopped him.
'You're forgetting one thing,' Vix spoke up. Both turned to look at him. 'Luna.'
Face shook his head. 'I haven't forgotten. I never could,' he looked down, shaking his head. 'But even if she's alive, she's probably being kept in a maximum security facility. And the state we're in - I just. I don't know. There's no possible way we can go after her now, even if we knew where she was. Not with Fenn the way they are, not with the spy in our midst. We need to focus on the immediate issues right now, and just hope that she can hold on until we're in a better position to rescue her,' he shuddered, then said, 'I hope they're not hurting her too badly.'
Aboard the Jade Arrow:
'Yes,' sighed Luna, grasping Cora's hair, her head between Luna's legs, her whole body tingling deliciously. 'Yes, yes, yesss.'
