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The engines hummed steadily as the Marauder glided through hyperspace. Course was set for J-19, at least that’s what Tech had done at first. Right now, he was calculating for a spot to drop out. He needed to do something, needed to sort something out.
Everyone yelped when he finally deactivated the hyperdrive, making the Marauder unceremoniously drop out of hyperspace.
“What are you doing?” Hunter snapped, coming up to him.
Tech ignored him, fiddling with the comm.
“Yeah, I want to know that too,” Echo agreed. The rest crowded around him too. Tech kept typing away.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No?” Hunter asked, trying to make out what was on his datapad. Tech sighed, keyed in a comm code and let the beeping fill the cockpit instead of an answer.
Then the beeping stopped.
“What?” Crosshair snapped. His voice was sharp with barely concealed anger.
“Crosshair, what’s going on?” Tech matter off factly asked, before Hunter could manage to say anything. Because he saw Hunter try to say something and it would not be nice, or productive.
“Are you okay?” Wrecker asked. At least one of them was worried too, then.
“I don’t know, take a kriffing guess.” So, Crosshair ignored his question. Tech wasn’t surprised.
“Uhmm.” Wrecker gave him a pleading look, and he barely managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Of course that was not a question Crosshair would answer right now.
“Where and when do we pick you up?” Tech took over the conversation again. Hunter opened his mouth to protest, but Echo tugging on his arm made him stay silent in the end.
The silence stretched for a long second. “What?”
“I said: where and when do we pick you up?” Crosshair was not usually that dense. Something was not right.
This time, the silence lingered for so long that Tech checked the comm connection, even though he knew that it wasn’t disconnected.
“Cross, can you hear me?” Wrecker asked. “Tech, are there, uhm, interferences? Or something?”
“No.” Tech held out his datapad for the others to see. “Connection is stable.” “Oh. Cross?”
“I can hear you,” Crosshair growled. “I just don’t understand what you want from me.”
“Obviously, to pick you up. As previously stated.” Tech was getting irritated. What was so hard to understand for that sentence?
“Why?”
Why?
“Why not?” Tech asked, voice clipped. This whole situation was grating on his nerves, and there was something he couldn’t place yet. Something about Crosshair’s behaviour that was strange, that he couldn’t explain.
“You left me?” Now Crosshair sounded agitated, like they had done something wrong.
“Hey, hey, wait a kriffing second, you were shooting at us!” Hunter finally interrupted.
“Because you were trying to leave!”
“We were gearing up to get you?!” Hunter made an exasperated gesture and exchanged a look with Echo. “And what would kriffing shooting at us do anyway?!”
The cockpit fell silent again, and Wrecker glanced at the datapad. “Did he hang up?” he mock-whispered.
Tech shook his head. “No, the connection is still standing. And no interference. Maybe he muted himself?”
“I did not, you are just stupid!”
Now Tech was at the end of his patience. “We are merely trying to pick you up!”
“And why would you suddenly do that?!”
“Crosshair, you can’t complain about being left behind, and then complain about us trying to get you back, too!” Hunter snapped. “Make up your mind!”
The rapid beeping of an interrupted comm connection filled the cockpit.
“Good job, Hunter,” Tech snapped, returning to punch in the coordinates to J-19 again. This had not gone to plan.
“Why is that my fault now?” Hunter bristled.
Echo was the voice of reason this time. “Guys,” he chided, one hand on Omega’s shoulder to ground her. “It’s none of our fault. We all know how Cross can be.”
Tech forced himself to take a deep breath. Echo was right. Crosshair needed time. Didn’t mean Tech would have to like it.
Three days and 16 hours later, Tech found a message on his datapad. It contained coordinates and a timeframe. Both things, he could manage. And he didn’t need anyone to worry, so he didn’t tell them. It would be better to have a one on one talk anyway.
It was an open area, with only few vantage points for enemies to hide. A display of trust? Not much to provide cover, either, though.
Crosshair was waiting, arms crossed and a scowl on his face. He was chewing on a toothpick, and it looked like it wasn’t his first.
Tech approached, without hurry. He was here, Cross was here. There was no need to.
Crosshair seemed to think otherwise.
“So you came” he growled, when Tech still was quite some distance away.
“Why wouldn’t I?” And why wouldn’t he? He had been the one to press Crosshair to meet, why should he drop it. He didn’t get an answer, only a glare. Nothing that worried him. He knew Crosshair well, and even if he was on edge, there was no danger going out from him. Yet.
Tech stopped close.
“I assume you won’t come with me without asking questions?”
Crosshair sputtered. “Of course not!”
Tech held his gaze, until Crosshair broke. “You left me, after all!”
“You were shooting at us,” Tech pointed out. Didn’t Crosshair remember? If he didn’t, the situation was more dire than Tech had thought.
“You were leaving!”
“Because you were shooting at us.” Was that so hard to understand? “We were coming for you.”
“Sure.” And there it was. Why was Crosshair not believing him? Tech huffed, a little frustrated.
“I would not deceive you. I do not understand why you are so adamant about us being in the wrong here.”
Crosshair snapped his toothpick in half. “Because you are! You could have simply come with me!”
“And then?”
“We would still be together!”
“As soldiers of the Empire?”
“What else?”
Tech was quiet for a moment, a slow realization drawing. He thought back to the past few days, how Crosshair had acted and it all fell together. Why hadn’t he seen it before?”
“Your chip activated.”
“Huh?” Crosshair was taken aback. Obviously he had been looking for a fight, not expecting Tech to respond with a realization.
“What?”
“Your chip.”
“My chip?”
“Yes. We talked about it.” “When?!”
“When I told Wrecker about the regs being programmed.” Didn’t he remember? Had he not listened? Or was the chip tampering with his memory, too?
“Pfft I didn't listen, I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“You always listen to me, I’m not Hunter after all. Well, we have them too and yours must have activated.”
“Right and you expect me to believe that.“
“I have prepared a presentation in case you don't.” That was a lie, he hadn’t prepared a presentation on the chips. He could throw in a few slides in the one he prepared about what had been going down in that hanger, though.
“Of course you did.” Crosshair sighed, but it sounded more fond than anything else. “Well, I don't care, I'm not coming.”
That was the answer Tech expected. Didn’t mean he liked it. “Why?” he pressed.
“Because that's bullshit. I’m not controlled or anything. I want to stay with the Empire. They are giving me a purpose.” Crosshair was avoiding looking at him though. He was not being completely honest either.
“I mean … if you believe that …” Tech tried to shrug nonchalantly. “You do have the opportunity to prove me wrong, though.”
“Huh?” Good. It had taken Crosshair by surprise and drawn his attention.
“I mean, I say you are controlled, so you would go back to the Empire. It’s only logical. So if you are not controlled …” He trailed off, letting Crosshair fill in on the blanks himself.
“Kriff. I hate you. Alright let's go. What do I get if I’m right?”
“You can have a week of Echo’s desserts.”
“A month.”
“Deal.”