[ neutral system, unknown ]
The Pulsar Skate reverted to realspace smoothly. The contact ship, Hellamar, was waiting as planned. The com beeped once and I tapped the button. "Good morning."
There was a notable pause on the end, then the captain of the Hellamar returned my greeting. "Who are you?"
I winced because his voice was high and screechy, what I knew to be the tone of the extremely jumpy. If this man was like this all the time, he was in the wrong line of work.
"Fine way to say hello," I chastised him. "As for who I am, Corran Horn, at your service."
"Who?"
I was mildly hurt. I thought he'd at least know me from my Corsec days. Must be new, I decided. "I'm filling in for Mirax."
"No. No, no ,no. I won't accept this. Booster never said anything about replacement pilot."
I shrugged even though he couldn't see me; actions influenced attitude. "Fine. You tell him that." Inwardly I smiled. I knew this space worm wouldn't say a word of complaint to elder Terrik. In fact, I was probably the only man in the galaxy with the balls to challenge my father-in-law. Pissing off Booster Terrik just wasn't healthy. Even the rebellious Han Solo afforded him great courtesy.
"No, no." I could hear him sucking nervously on his lip. "Come about and prepare for docking."
Now I really did smile as I brought the nose of my wife's ship around. In less than one standard hour I'd be finished here and headed back to Errant Venture and Mirax.
Booster doted on his daughter. He hadn't been thrilled to see her marry me, his rival's son, but he grudgingly admitted that she was old enough to run her own life. Only in the last month had he butted in again. Mirax was pregnant with our first child. She was still running her business at seven months, but after she went into premature labor in hyperspace, Booster had put his foot down (literally. He nearly stomped through the Venture's deck plating.) My wife was now residing aboard her father's Star Destroyer while I handled her business affairs. I never realized how hard she worked and now had the greatest respect for my wife. Granted, her reputation had already been established when she took over, but the sheer volume of import/export she managed was mind boggling.
Booster was standing alone in the Venture's docking bay when I landed. This in itself was odd because Mirax was normally there to meet me, but the fact that he actually moved to the end of the landing ramp alerted me. I kept my expression carefully neutral (encounters with Booster were not my favorite) and nodded cordially. "Hello sir."
Booster barely acknowledged my polite greeting. "Horn."
I suppressed a sigh. I knew when I first married Mirax that her father would take awhile to get used to me, but after seven years he didn't like me any better. Just tolerated me some. "Where's Mirax. And what do you need me for?" I asked. Might as well just jump into the rancor's mouth rather than dance around the pen.
"She's resting. And you have a priority communiqué from Wedge. But first you and I need to talk."
Booster office was probably one of the largest I'd been in, and he still managed to keep it cluttered. Yet I knew that he could find any document, manifest or invoice at any time with no trouble. I moved a pile of hardcopy from a chair and set it on the floor before taking a seat. I looked around. There were a few pictures of friends, one of wedge and Mirax together when they were younger and even one of Mirax and I at our wedding reception on Coruscant. This one surprised me. Booster caught me looking at it and for once felt compelled to explain something to me, or perhaps just wanted to head of my question. He lifted the photo from the shelf and stared at his Daughter's likeness. "This was a big day for her." He looked straight at me. "For reasons I can't fathom, you're important to her."
"She's important to me."
"To me too. Look Horn. It was never any secret that I didn't like you, but Wedge vouched for you and my own daughter fell in love with you. That was hard enough. But now there's a child on the way, and I'm concerned for my daughter."
I held up my hand to cut off any further comments. "I think I understand the course you're plotting. You never though my marriage to your daughter would last this long, but it did. You figured I'd bug out before now and I didn't, but now that Mirax is pregnant you're afraid I'll decide to cut and run now that my responsibilities are compounding. Am I right?"
Booster frowned at me. "I'd forgotten how quick you can be."
My eyes narrowed. "You disregard a lot of things about me." I leaned forward and pinned my father-in-law with a gaze that my former CorSec partner used to jokingly call the acid stare and I did my best to add all the sting to it I could. "I know you don't think much of me Booster, but this is an insult." I saw him open his mouth to snap back at me, but I cut him off again, intent on cutting his twisted notions of me to ribbons. "I love Mirax, more than I know how to express. She will always be the most important thing to me, my number one priority in this life. It's going take a lot more than some added responsibility and even your bulk interposed between us to drive me off." I sat back and stared unflinchingly at him.
"Nice words, Corsec." Booster glared back at me for a moment, the stunned me with a broad smile. "And it was what I was looking for. I didn't believe you desert Mirax now, but I wanted to hear you say it. Though I wasn't expecting to be tongue lashed." His scowled. "Don't try that again Horn."
"Can't promise you that."
Booster nodded slightly. "Didn't expect much else. Tenacious. Like your father. And dumb. He didn't know when to quit either."
I was sorely tempted to make a remark about him quitting after Booster was snug on Kessel, but I knew his limits and didn't especially want to suck vacuum. I rose. "If that's all?"
He waved me out. "Go. Mirax has the message from Wedge."
The door was almost shut behind me when I called back a smart remark about giving Mirax a kiss for him. I could almost feel the durasteel wall between us melting as I walked toward the turbo lifts.
Mirax was lying on her side with her arm crooked under her head. The thin sheet draped over outlined her swollen belly. I smiled. Sitting carefully on the edge of the bed so not to wake her, I reached out to touch our son. Her hand covered mine and looked back to her face. Her beautiful brown eyes were open and she looked at me tenderly. I got up and leaned over to plant a kiss on her cheek. She accepted it with a smile, then sat up with my help. She propped a pillow under her back as I sat down again to unlace my boots.
"How'd it go?"
"Not bad. He wasn't happy about the change, but after a told him to take it up with Booster he decided to be helpful."
Mirax laughed. "I'll bet. Tob Piift likes my father even less than he likes unexpected changes."
I flopped on my side and propped myself up. "How'd he get to be a pirate anyway? He's jumpier than Krell in daylight."
"He prefers the term entrepreneur."
"Pirate," I said.
Mirax pushed me in the chest with her foot. "You're insufferable."
I caught her foot under my arm and gently massaged the back of her calf. Mirax closed her eyes. " eep that up and I'll make free supply runs for Rogue Squadron for a year."
Her words sparked my memory. "Speaking of Rogue Squadron, Booster said you had a message for me from Wedge."
"Mmm-hmm. On the dresser."
I rolled off the bed and crossed to the dresser to retrieve it. When I sat back down at her feet, she told me, "He wants you to come back and fly a missions he's putting together with Cracken."
I stared at her. "You listened to it already?"
"Sure. What's yours is mine." She opened one eye and smiled at me mischievously.
"And you couldn't tell me this before I got up?"
Mirax giggled and whacked me with a pillow. I pinched the nerve just above her kneecap. She squealed and kicked at me. It was then I realized that Whistler wasn't in the room. He always hooted at me if he thought I was playing to rough with her.
"Where's the tin can?" I asked.
"He was driving me crazy, so I sent him down to putter around with your X-wing.
"Great. He's probably polarized some circuits by now."
"Sorry Corran, but he hovers like a den mother."
"He does," I agreed. Whistler was always watchful of us, doubly so now that Mirax was in her last month. She shifted uncomfortably and asked me to get her a hair clip. While she was winding her long dark hair up I slipped Wedge's recording into the playback unit. I listened. The mission sounded intriguing, right up my alley, and I hadn't flown my X-wing in a week, but my sense of duty to Mirax overrode my itch for action.
"You want to go."
I glanced over my shoulder at Mirax. I wasn't surprised she knew. She had an ability to read me like a large text data file.
"I'm not going," I reassured her.
"Yes, love you are."
This I hadn't expected. "Did I miss something?"
Mirax leaned forward and placed her hands on her large stomach.
"You need to go, Corran." She stared at me intently. "You've been on this ship for almost two weeks, jumping at my father's every command and cubguarding me. You need a break as badly as I wish for one. Go and fly, my love. Do what you're best at."
"But you're in your ninth month..."
"...and if I go into labor, you'll get a call."
A small tender smile spread across my face slowly. I used my rudimentary force skills to brush her mind. Mirax had no force talent of her own, but her consciousness welcomed me, lovingly stroking against mine. She held out her hand and I laced my fingers through hers. Her wedding band pressed against my fingers. "I'll probably know before that, lover."
Mirax returned my secret smile and pulled me forward for a kiss. When we broke apart and pulled myself up next to her so she could lean her head on my shoulder. I could tell my wife was out of strength. I would be glad when she finally delivered our child. Being pregnant was taking its toll on her. My fingers rhythmically stroked her shining dark hair. I could feel her falling asleep.
"Corran?"
"Yes?"
"Did father talk to you?"
I glanced down at her head. "You knew about that?"
"For a couple of days."
I grimaced. "I wish you would have warned me."
She lifted her head to look me in the eyes. " That bad?"
"Bad enough."
She frowned, almost identical to the one Booster gave me earlier. "What did he say?"
I chose my words carefully because I knew that Mirax would butt heads with her father over me, no matter that she was ready to give birth. "He wanted to make certain I had my priorities straight."
"And do you?"
I impulsively kissed her forehead. "As always."
"Really? Are you certain of that, Captain Horn?"
"Positive." I wrapped my arms around her. "You are my first concern, your safety and comfort my main goal, and there will be no mercy for anyone who gets in my way."
"Our way," she corrected with a smile.
I hugged to her to me. There was nothing for me to say. I loved Mirax. After seven years our bond was beyond being severed. I knew some people never enjoyed the kind of marriage Mirax and I took for granted.
Mirax touched my cheek then. "Do you think we could last forever like this?"
And rested my chin on her head. "Anything you want, love."
Mirax was there to see me off. I kissed her once before I climbed into the cockpit of my X-wing, promising that no matter what, I would be there for the birth of our child. She smiled at me, that wonderful smile that I destroy myself to see. Years ago, my father had told me that a woman would take you, test you, and break you, but that every time she looked at you like that it would all be worth it. I had taken his word for it. He was right about everything else, why not women?
She waved as I kicked in my repulsor lifts and nosed the X-wing toward the bay doors. When I had cleared the ship I barrel rolled and dropped my starboard s-foils in farewell. I knew Booster was sitting in the command chair in the Destroyer's bridge, no doubt glowering at me, so I flashed my after burners and laughing, told whistler to lay in a course to the coordinated Wedge had supplied. I laughed louder and whooped. It felt unbelievably good to be in an X-wing again. I flew a straight course away from the Venture, jinxing slightly and enjoying the pull of the craft in my flightstick. When Whistler beeped and scrolled the coordinated across my screen a few seconds later I had gotten the worst out of my system and quickly straightened up to make the jump like a professional.
"Ok," I told Whistler. "Grab your dome, Tin Can. We're out of here."
Whistler hooted back something smart about his dome being firmly affixed when I flung the fighter into hyperspace.
I arrived the evening before the mission launch. Wedge had landed less than half an hour before I had and with the all main prep out of the way, there was some time to kill. Wedge and Tycho treated me to an evening at the local Tapcaf.
They asked me typical stuff; how was Mirax, what were we going to name the child, etc. we lapsed into silence for a few minutes after our drinks arrived. The quiet didn't last long however.
Tycho was methodically spinning his tumbler on the scarred table. You say you're pretty certain he's force sensitive. Are you going to send your son into care like the Princess did?"
I shook my head. "I don't see the need."
Wedge frowned. "I understood that was to protect them from outside influences of the darkside."
I nodded an affirmative. "It was. But I have it figured like this. If someone wants a young Jedi to corrupt, there are other better candidates out there. When the Solo twins were born there were barely twenty Jedi. Now there's easily fifty or more."
Tycho frowned at me. "What if someone wants to get to you through your child?"
I felt a grin tugging on the flesh of my face. "Good luck. I wouldn't mess with Mirax if she were barehanded and alone, much less armed and a mother."
Wedge's brown eyes sparkled. "But we know better. Some nerf herder might decide to take a crack at it."
"And a crack they'll get. I can't tell you which bone it will be though."
Tycho burst out laughing. "How do you manage when Mirax gets mad at you, Corran?"
"Very, very carefully." I winked and tossed back the last of my liquor.
Tycho leaned forward on his elbows and looked me squarely in the eye. "Are you ready to be a father?"
There it was. The question I'd been asking myself for nine months. I shook my head. "I'll let you know."
Tycho nodded. "So this will be your last mission for a while, I assume." "Correct, friend." I shifted in my chair. "Mirax and I will be staying on Coruscant after the child is born, and she'd like me to stick around for a few weeks. After that I'm back on active duty.
My companions nodded. Tycho held up his newly refilled tumbler. "To you and Mirax. Good luck my friend."
I clinked glasses with him. I figured with a force powerful son and means to train him, I was going to need all the luck - and patience - I could get.
"This is two-flight. We are green for launch."
"Copy that Captain. Lead them out."
I watched as two flight lead rose smoothly off the tarmac. The point X-wing rotated seventy degrees, then pointed its nose to the clouds and started to climb. The remaining three X-wings oriented themselves on the leader. Their gentle accent seemed to stall and almost as one, the flight throttled up and shot skyward.
I whistled slightly under breath in admiration. Then I resolved to do it better. I tapped my com. "Three-flight is good to go."
I could almost hear the smile in Wedge's voice. "You're cleared, Corran. I expect to see something fancy."
"As requested, general. Can't let Gavin do all the impressing tricks." I switched my com back to my flight's frequency. "Ok, boys and girls. Time to show Darklighter's group how it's done."
I heard Inyri chuckle confidently to herself. Ooryl clicked his com in response. The remaining pilot was new and not at all certain he could match the performance of Gavin's people but I reassured him that he wouldn't be here if he couldn't do this. I knew it was true, but I reassured myself that that three seasoned Rogues could balance out one greenie.
We lifted off in tandem and at fifty meters I called out, "Rising diamond."
The formation was exactly what it sounded like. One X-wing flew high while two X-wings stayed low and starboard, with the last X-wing even lower and starboard to them. The result was a wide flat diamond that looked as if it had been tilted forty-five degrees. It was impressive, and made even more so because my flight slipped into the formation in just a few seconds. We left the new guy on the low point while Ooryl and I lined up off and above his left s-foil and Inyri side slipped to port and rose above us. We climbed for klick like this, and then I called a re-formation and struck out for space where Gavin and his team were waiting. The Young man's cockpit glowed in the darkness and I could see his wide grin. "Very fancy," he told me. "You never could just let anybody else just win, could you?"
I laughed, partly because he was right, and mostly because I was overjoyed to be flying free again. It was like a like a tractor beam had been shut off and I was free to play. Despite the cramped cockpit, I had nothing but unlimited space around me. I curbed my impulse to execute a barrel roll and brought my group into formation with Gavin's just as General Antilles and Colonel Celchu arrived with the last of the squadron. A flight of Y-wings and a squadron of A-wings already in space swung into line with us and we trailed after a heavily modified cruiser. Whistler beeped, signaling that he had the fleet's jump coordinates.
Wedge opened a com channel to address the squadron. "Heads up, Rogues. Jump to light speed in a minute- five."
Mirax rolled over carefully, sighing as the other side her immense belly settled against the bed. Her hand went unconsciously to the medallion around her neck. Her fingers tightened around the warming metal as the baby twisted and kicked her, the hardest yet. This child was either going to take after he father, or be exactly like Corran. Either way Mirax knew it meant a hard head. The baby writhed again and Mirax groaned. Sithspit, this kid was strong.
"Dammit."
The read out on my screen told him he had less than fifty- percent shields. I evened them out and pushed his craft into a hard dive, my HUD locking onto the power generator. Whistler beeped at him frantically. "I know," I answered. "Might as well make them count." Whistler squealed and blatted something at me. "Shut up," I snapped. "We are not going to die."
Whistler hooted a reply as my sensors flashed red. A proton torp was locked on and closing fast. I steadied myself with a long deep breath. I had a sudden impression through the force of my action being mimicked.
A throb of pain came from far away.
I love you Mirax.
[ Coruscant medical towers]
"I'm going to kill him! If Corran doesn't die up there, I'm personally going to throttle his neck."
A cry rose from Mirax, but she bit if off. She rested her hands on her stomach and clenched her eyes shut. She concentrated on breathing. Another contraction. She couldn't control her moan of pain this time.
"He's dead!" Booster stomped around the private room in the Coruscant Med tower, then moved back to his daughter's side and smoothed her sweat-slicked forehead.
"Take it... easy," Mirax panted. "He'll be here."
"How do you plot that? Starfighter Command wouldn't even tell us where he was. How do we even know he's gotten the message?"
Mirax ground her teeth so hard she thought she heard her enamel cracking. She was ready to quit when a comfort settled over her. Only Corran's touch was so familiar. She almost smiled. "He knows," she whispered.
Booster narrowed his eyes, tempted to bash his son-in-law again, but Mirax seemed almost calm. Not comfortable by any means, but more relaxed. It didn't seem natural. He glanced at the human nurse who was monitoring Mirax's pulse. She shrugged, looking as lost as he was. Booster decided not to question it for the time being. He had a hunch that this was Corran's doing. His son-in-law had finally found a use for his spooky Jedi talents that Booster could get behind.
A fierce contraction strained Mirax's body.
"Corran better get here fast," Booster rumbled. He gazed down at his daughter's eyes. His grandson wasn't going to wait for his father.
I set my battered X-wing down on the newly captured base's hanger floor. The damage sustained by my ship was extensive. I wouldn't be able to fly it to Coruscant. The message that Starfighter command shot to my X-wing was followed quickly by Tycho's offer to take his fighter. It took me all of an eighteenth of a second to accept. Now my main goal was to get myself from my fighter to Tycho's and on to Coruscant as fast as humanly possibly.
I leapt from my cockpit. From the other side of the hanger, Tycho was doing the same and shouting orders for his fighter to be refueled. Wedge's x-wing was swarmed with tech connecting fuel lines and regulating flow.
The sound of my boots smacking against the durasteel decking matched the thumping of my heart. In my mind, the impersonal message transformed into a vivid image of Mirax's slender body straining. That image superimposed itself over y current surroundings. There was a tear in the sleeve of my suit and a gash in the flesh underneath, but I was in too much of a rush to care.
I reached Tycho's X-wing and bounded into the cockpit, using my time to fasten my harness and run preflight. I heard a magna crane whirring and Whistler hooted wildly as he was dropped into his socket behind me. He beeped indignantly but quickly plugged in and made contact. Tycho had his memory banks wiped regularly so the droid had no problem replacing the Colonel's astromech. My own ship wouldn't accept anyone but Whistler.
The droid beeped to signal an established systems link, but the fighter was still being refueled. I agitatedly drummed my fingers on my thigh. I finally could take no more of watching the fuel readout tick upward and ordered the lines to be detached. The supervising deck officer obviously did not like my choice.
"Sir, I don't know if you have enough fuel! The jump to lightspeed won't use much but your reversion and the sub-space travel to Coruscant will drain the tanks."
"I'll manage! Detach them now!"
The DO couldn't afford to ignore a captain, especially not with Rogue squadron. There was a loud clanging and the deck officer gave me the thumbs up. I signaled Wedge and he nodded from his own cockpit. He would escort me and use his higher clearance to get me planetside faster. I waited for the deck clear signal and engaged my repulsor lifts. Tycho's X-wing rose smoothly under my guidance. It moved much differently from my fighter but I got it out of the hanger and space bound without incident. Wedge settled just off my starboard S-foil. The com clicked and his voice filtered through my helmet speaker. "Jump to lightspeed in seven seconds."
I felt a rush of gratitude. I hadn't even thought to ask whistler for coordinates and oddly enough, the droid hadn't thought of it.
I dropped into the course Wedge had laid and prepared for the jump. When Whistler beeped and I threw the fighter into hyperspace. The starlines elongated into white streamers that lined a tunnel taking me straight to Mirax.
I added a few klicks to Wedge's jump and popped into realspace so close to the planet that Whistler squealed upon reversion. I recovered quickly, and put in a request to land. I failed to remember the flight Command barred hyperjumps that brought craft in so close to the planet and had a hell of a time convincing them I was legit. Even Wedge could get any slack from them.
"Negative Coruscant Control, we have to land, now."
"We copy General, but the pilot in the second X-wing isn't Colonel Celchu."
"I'm Corran Horn, Rogue Squadron."
"Where's your X-wing, Captain?"
"I told you, it's damaged."
"We have no report of damage, pilot."
It was a good thing I was lacking TK, because I would have shaken the flight controller until he passed out.
I was ready to say the hell with it and take my chances with the planetary shield when the voice spoke again.
"Rogue flight, you are cleared to land on the southern pad of the medical tower."
"Finally." I drove my fighter through the gap in the shield with Wedge close behind me. I executed a wide, high-speed loop that brought my nose around to a straight vector with the medical tower. With my throttle at ninety three percent, the tower loomed into view in less than a minute. I snap rolled starboard and drifted back left to line myself up with the landing pad. Just before I would have shot past it, I reversed thrust and worked my left etheric rudder. My aft swung around. I used minimal repulsorlift assistance and dropped the X-wing squarely on the pad. I was already yanking off my helmet when Wedge set down beside me. I slid over the edge of the fighter's body until I dangled by my fingers and dropped.
Winter was waiting for me. She quickly led me down a series of halls to a corridor deep in the heart of the building. A sharp gasp from one of the rooms squeezed my heart when I recognized it as Mirax's. Winter stopped into front of the door and waved. "She's in here."
I thanked the crystalline haired woman briefly and ducked into the room. Nurses and human doctors surrounded my wife's feet and her father stayed by her shoulder. He moved his bulk aside when I arrived so I could be close to Mirax. There were tears in her eyes. Her fingers rested over my medallion which was lying on her heavy chest. She sobbed when she saw me and reached out her hand. I quickly twined my fingers with hers and slipped my other arm beneath her shoulders. Her dark head fell against my chest. She let go of my fingers with her left hand and grabbed my bicep in a cruelly tight grip. I brushed sweaty strands of hair from her face and murmured some encouragement. Then I tried to comfort her through the force, going directly into her mind and doing my best to smooth frayed nerves. I felt a horrible twisting in my mind and clamped down to keep from crying out with her. From behind me one of the doctors announced that the baby was crowning. That was the awful twisting I had felt. I raked my hand though Mirax's hair again as I held her up with my right arm. She grunted and half-curled on herself with strain.
The next minutes were hell for the both of us because I refused to break my link with her. I stayed in her mind relating encouragement and doing my best to alleviate her pain by taking into me. I was concentrating so hard that I didn't realize it was over. The sudden cry of a newborn startled us both, as did the recession of the pain. I hesitantly pulled away from Mirax's mind, though I still held her tight.
Soon, the doctor offered me my son. I glanced at Mirax. She was smiling triumphantly and nodded. I eased her down and turned to accept my child. The little bundle in my arms was wrapped in an enviro blanket that adjusted temperatures accordingly. I pushed back the folds to peer into the child's face. I was shocked to see my own green eyes staring back at me. I stood there for long minutes, marveling at my son. When I regained a working order of mind, I crouched down to show him to Mirax. She was pleased to see that he looked like me. She glanced up and smiled tiredly and gave me a look I understood well. I said, "We made it."
My father in law dropped his hand on my shoulder and kept his eyes foxed on his grandson. He was smiling broadly and his single biological eye was bright. He would never admit to crying though. "Congratulations, Corran."
I nodded.
"I would have preferred he looked a bit more like me."
Mirax apparently had enough strength to whack he father's arm. "Be quiet. He's handsome."
I never did figure out if she was talking about our son or me.
Wedge watched through the observation glass from outside the room. His face was split by a broad smile as he watched Corran staring raptly at the child in his wife's arms. Wedge couldn't be happier for he and Mirax.
The Former Rogue glanced sideways at the slender woman beside him. "Thank you, princess. They wouldn't have let us onto Coruscant without your intervention."
Leia Organa Solo shook her head. "Don't thank me Wedge. I have a lot of power, but I rarely get to use it that directly." The petite woman's eyes crinkled at the corners. "I did it to save a few lives. I've met Mirax. She would have had heads rolling if Corran hadn't been allowed to land."
Wedge laughed out loud. "That she would have."
Leia glanced at the chrono on Wedge's wrist. "Sith," she muttered. "I have to get back before the council has fits." She stood on tiptoe to give Wedge a small kiss on the cheek. "Give them my best," She said, jerking her chin in Corran and Mirax's direction. Wedge followed her gaze and nodded.
Leia spent her days reading people, and Wedge did not have the training a diplomat had. She had no trouble deciphering his thoughts. "Don't worry, Wedge. You'll be in Corran's place someday."
"I know."
She patted his arm and then turned to leave. She stopped to whispered to Winter for a moment and the white haired woman nodded.
Wedge caught Booster's eye and lifted a hand in farewell. There would be time for personal congratulations later. He had to arrange to have Corran/Tycho's X-wing hauled off the platform.
Epilogue:
We named him Valin, after my father. Mirax suggested it. It seemed right, under the circumstances. Because of the empire, my father had never been able to use that name. Giving it to my son now, when he could carry the name without fear seemed like the last link in a circle. Some of the emperor's damage had been healed with the naming of my son, much like Anakin Skywalker's name had been redeemed through his youngest grandchild.
There was a large congratulatory party a week later. Our friends were there to toast us and wish us well in out new life as parents. Tycho rode me mercilessly about my treatment of his X-wing, but it was in good humor.
It wasn't until then that I learned exactly how we were allowed through the planetary shield. I felt extremely grateful to Leia Organa Solo. She and Han Solo attended the party as a casual couple. Luke Skywalker was also on hand. He shook off the air of brooding Jedi in a rare moment of lightness. Up until that night I couldn't picture him as a fast living starfighter pilot, but he laughed and traded stories with the rest of us fighter jocks like a normal human who didn't have the burden of an entire legacy on his shoulders. He looked incredibly comfortable among his friends.
The entire room erupted in applause when Mirax displayed the week-old Valin. I was slapped on the back numerous times by my friends while the women gathered around Mirax and our son. I caught my wife's gaze form across the room and raised my glass. She raised her eyebrow in return and smirked.
We were lying in bed after getting Valin fed and put down for the night. My back was stinging and bruised from all the hearty congratulations. I wrapped my arms around Mirax from behind and kissed her neck. "Hey love," I whispered. She turned her head until she could look at me out of the corner of her eye. "Hey yourself." She grinned. "You not bad looking. No wonder our son is so cute."
I puffed up. "I always did do good work."
Mirax cocked an eyebrow. "You? Excuse me, but I was there too."
"Yeah, I think I remember that."
She elbowed my in the ribs, hard.
I took the blow and mock-growled, leaning in for a kiss.
Valin started to cry form the other room. The glow from the nursery flickered as whistler rolled to the doorway and beeped softly at us. he insisted on staying in the nursery to monitor Valin.
I sighed. "You think he does that on purpose?"
Mirax heaved herself to her feet. "He's your son."
"Hey! Don't forget that Booster is his grandfather."
"Corran, darling, stop arguing genetics and help me with Valin."
I linked arms with her and sauntered into the next room.
"Anything you want, love." I replied.
DISCLAIMER: All hail George Lucas. He created a perfect playpen for this child. They don't belong to me, but I was nice to them this time- next time I'll be mean. I am making no money of this little doodad. This story however is (c) RI 2000-2002