The trip back to Hoth was fairly uneventful. Dianna fretted about not being able to find a load to take back in the direction of Hoth to at least cover some of the expenses even though the single run they had just done had been quite lucrative. Not many were willing to take a load of weapons into Alderaan. The risk of getting caught was hardly worth the payoff, and normally not even Dianna would have attempted it, but not everyone had access to a slicer of Trychon's abilities. It had been a simple matter to alter their transponder signal to mimic one of the cargo ships which was actually still docked back at the spaceport. By the time the Alderaanian officials sorted out the mess of why the ship was requesting to leave a second time, they'd most likely chalk it up to a computer malfunction or an operator error, leaving Dianna free of any questions... until the next time she wanted to land on Alderaan.
But that was a problem for another time.
In the meantime, Raezyr was able to successfully keep his broken hand wrapped in bacta patches long enough for it to heal without his lover noticing. He was actually rather surprised that Rhox Vegha didn't go run and tattle on him. He decided that she might not have to die by his hand one day.
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The four crew members of the Ice Spectre sat in the cockpit of the freighter as the mottled blue swirls of hyperspace turned into star-streaks stretching into infinity, then coalesced into pinpoints. Dianna banked the ship to port and the white orb of Hoth swung into the center of the transparisteel screen, slowly growing as they approached.
After the ship's captain had been cleared for landing and received the local weather report, Dianna turned to Trychon. "As soon as we get back, I'd like it if you'd find out how Mannix is doing," she said. "I'm worried about the kid. I'd like to bring him to Hoth to convalesce as soon as the doctors will allow him to leave the hospital."
Trychon leaned back in his seat, putting his hands behind his head. "That shouldn't be a problem. The last time we checked in with the, uh, doctors... they estimated that he should be nearly ready to begin his rehab by now." He had almost slipped and said "med program." Thankfully, it didn't look like she noticed.
"Wait," she said. "The original estimates said he'd be nearly finished with rehab by now and ready to leave. What's the hold up?"
"Oh, I don't know," Trychon said, blowing off the question. "Things are just taking longer than expected, I guess."
Dianna half turned in her seat. They were about to re-enter the atmosphere, one of the most dangerous parts of landing from space, but she wanted to look at Trychon who was sitting diagonally behind her. "What kinds of 'things?'"
"C'mon, Di," Raez interjected. "We're not doctors. We can't interpret all those charts and data by ourselves." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he was sorry he had said them.
"What do you mean?" Dianna said as she turned back around to watch her instrument panel during re-entry. The ship was beginning to buck and the climate controls in the cabin were beginning to have a hard time compensating for the heat from the friction on the hull. "Didn't you speak with a doctor? Can't they tell you what's on the chart?" the captain asked as they passed the dangerous point and the cockpit began to cool to a normal temperature again.
Trychon spoke. "Di, I'm sorry. We just set it up so we receive his medical data. We check to make sure everything is within normal ranges and if it's not, we look to make sure the trend of the data is drifting towards normal. It's just the last couple times we've checked, the final estimates for each stage of his recovery have been pushed back each time. We haven't been able to see a reason for it at all, but he's getting better."
"Gorramit, guys," Dianna said as she dropped the ship below the last of the clouds. In the distance, up a long valley in the side of a mountain, a black rectangle was opening, growing bigger as they approached, and more square as the doors to the main hangar opened. "You have to contact them, and talk to a doctor as soon as we get back, alright?"
They promised to contact the facility.
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