Tycho caught on to the X-Wing fairly quickly. Basic flight principles were the same in any craft, but the controls did take a bit of time to get used to. The Alliance only had a handful of simulators, so he could only be in one for a short time most days. Otherwise, he spent his time in the common areas of the base, mostly keeping to himself and listening to other people talk. He learned quickly that it was probably better to keep his background to himself.

"Where are you from?" someone asked him one day at a mess table.

"Alderaan," Tycho answered before thinking.

"Oh!" A woman Tycho had not spoken to before leaned his way. "I wondered how many Alderaanians were here," she said. "Where were you when, you know, you found out?"

"Sheva! You cannot ask those questions! It is rude," a Duros on the other side of the table yelled at her.

"Oh." Sheva sat back in her seat. "Sorry," she said.

"I am sure he was just trying to go about his life without being bothered," the Duros finished.

"Right. Sure," Tycho mumbled. He quietly excused himself and took a walk around the compound.

On another day, he was waiting to use some simulators with a group of pilots who had come in from other squadrons. They were trading stories about what squadrons and Rebel cells they had come from, before Alliance Command started consolidating everyone. Someone asked him what cell he had been a part of.

"I wasn't," Tycho said. "I'm just...here."

"Oh, you trying to switch over from ground ops to flight ops?" someone asked.

"I - no," Tycho said. "I've always been a pilot."

"Part of another cell?"

"No."

"Cargo pilot?"

"No."

"Freighter pilot?"

Tycho sighed. "No."

"So...what did you fly?"

Tycho squirmed a bit and felt stuck. "TIE fighters," he said.

Everyone stared at him. "Like, Imperial TIE fighters?"

Tycho resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. "Yes, Imperial TIE fighters," he said.

"Oh, you're a defector!"

Tycho perked up. "Right," he said. "That's right. About a month and a half ago."

"Hang on." Someone who looked vaguely familiar jumped into the conversation. "Didn't I hear you say once you were from Alderaan?"

"I - yes," Tycho said.

"How does that work?"

"How does what work?" Tycho asked.

"Being from Alderaan and being, you know, an Imp."

Tycho wished someone would come interrupt them to say their simulators were ready. "The same way it does for anyone else, I imagine," he said. "You go to the Academy, graduate, get assigned somewhere…"

"Did you defect before or after they blew up Alderaan?"

Tycho hesitated. "After," he said. He saw some people exchange skeptical looks. He remembered being called a "naive little twit." "Does it matter?" he asked. "I'm here now." Would he have to defend himself on this the rest of his life?

"Just saying, sounds odd."

But they dropped it, to Tycho's relief.

Tycho also discovered a healthy rumor mill among the pilots and mechanics. At dinner one evening, as he sat at the end of a long table by himself, he overheard the latest from a group on the other side of the table.

"I know where I'm going to be assigned next."

"Yeah, where?"

"Rogue Squadron, Command's new elite X-Wing unit. That's what all the extra training is for. They're trying to fix a roster. I'm going to be on it."

"You got blown up twice yesterday."

"I heard about that too. There's already a commander and XO."

"I heard the Commander is Luke Skywalker himself!"

"Hero of the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker? Oh wow."

Tycho started listening more closely.

"And the XO is Wedge Antilles, the other X-Wing survivor."

"I heard Skywalker is a Jedi!"

"That's why he was able to blow up the Death Star! Without a targeting computer!"

"Can you imagine, Jedi back in the galaxy again?"

"Yeah, it's like this isn't a lost cause after all. We can actually win."

Tycho thought back to Salta's rumors about a Jedi. What a contrast it was. She had seemed merely amused at the idea. Cal was angry, but Adan had actually seemed afraid. But here...it gave people hope. It gave them purpose and confidence. And if a Jedi could really do what they said? Maybe the Empire was right to be afraid.

Tycho was on his way to the simulators when someone stopped him. "Celchu!"

Tycho turned. It was one of the captains in charge of the simulator schedule. "Yes?"

"Here," he said handing him a couple of datapads. "Orders for you."

"Orders?" Tycho turned the pads around to open up the documents.

"Yeah, one is promotion orders - congratulations Lieutenant - and the other one is assignment orders." He started to walk away.

Tycho shook his head. He would have needed at least another year in the Imperial Navy to make lieutenant. He opened up the assignment orders and his jaw dropped. "Hey wait!" he called out. "Where am I supposed to go?"

The captain turned back around. "I don't know. What does it say?"

"Rogue Squadron."

The captain frowned. "Rogue Squadron? Oh yeah, Rogue Squadron. They're new, not sure where that office is. If they even have one. Might try…" he turned around a couple of times, "that way?" he suggested pointing behind Tycho's left shoulder. "Don't really know. You'll have to ask someone else." He waved and started to walk away again. "Good luck!"

Tycho watched him leave, then slowly headed off in the direction the captain had pointed. He walked out of the training area and into a courtyard. He hadn't really been this way before. People were walking in all directions, obviously knowing their way around. Tycho turned to look around. Who could he ask? What could he ask? Hey, do you know where Luke Skywalker's office is? Sure. Tycho looked at the orders again. There was no office number or location to report to.

Tycho took a couple of steps backward as he tried to pick a direction and nearly fell. "Whoa! Oh, hey." He looked down to see that he had stumbled over a blue and white astromech droid that was whistling heartily at him. "Oh, um, I'm, sorry…" Tycho wasn't used to talking to droids. And he still couldn't understand astromechs without a translator. This one kept twittering at him. "I'll um, just watch where I'm going next time," he said. He took a few steps away from the droid and it followed him.

The next couple of twitters almost sounded like a question. Tycho took a wild guess. "Are you asking where I'm going?" Two short whistles Tycho took to be a yes. "I'm looking for the Rogue Squadron office," he said. The droid started rocking back and forth, making excited noises. "Oh, I guess you know where it is." The droid started to roll off in the opposite direction, then looked back at Tycho and whistled. "Oh, you want me to follow you," Tycho said. "Okay." What a quirky little droid, Tycho thought.

Tycho followed the droid through the courtyard, behind several other buildings. Tycho wondered what a Jedi was actually like. He imagined someone slightly older, confident, wise-looking. He'd have to be a heck of a pilot, if nothing else. The droid stopped at a smaller building on the outer edge of the cluster. It seemed like an odd spot for an elite squadron. Until Tycho noticed nearby pathway around the back of the buildings that seemed to go back toward the command area.

The droid twittered at him again. Tycho knocked lightly on the door. "Come in!" someone called. Tycho opened the door and stepped inside. "Hi," he said, and stared for a moment. There were two men in the room, one with sandy blonde hair, sitting behind a desk, and the other with dark hair, leaning against a wall. They looked young. At least as young as Tycho, if not more so. Was he in the right spot? The droid pushed past him into the room.

"Oh, hi R2," the one behind the desk said. "You found him?" The droid twittered. He stood up and extended a hand to Tycho. He had a boyish, but warm smile. "Tycho Celchu?"

Tycho took his hand and shook it. "Yeah, I, think I got a bit lost…"

"No problem," he said. "I know this room is hard to find. That's why I sent R2 looking for you. We just got your packet in. I'm Luke Skywalker."

The other one walked over and offered his hand. "Wedge Antilles," he said. "You're the first pilot we've had assigned to the roster so far, so we're glad to see you. Have a seat."

"Thanks," Tycho said. He sat down, bracing himself for the inevitable questions on his background.

"You've already met R2," Luke said. "He's my astromech droid. I've been using him to runs ops while we get things up and running. So if he tells you something, it's probably because one of us told him to."

"Probably," Wedge added, with a small smirk.

Luke laughed a bit. "Yeah, sometimes R2 likes to do his own thing." He waved it off. "He usually has a good reason though."

"I'll remember that," Tycho said. They seemed to have a good sense of humor at least. Tycho took a quick glance around the room. It was pretty sparse, with just one other chair, a small comms console in the corner, and a few datapads spread out on the desk. He also spotted a silver cylindrical item that he didn't recognize.

"Your flight scores are really good," Wedge continued. "Especially being brand new to an X-Wing."

Was that the opening? "It turned out to be more intuitive than I thought," Tycho said. "It's a good airframe."

"I was looking over your packet earlier," Luke said, "and I have a question for you."

Tycho's stomach tightened a bit. Here it comes. "Sure," he said.

"Do you know how to construct simulator packages?"

Tycho blinked. That was not the question he was expecting. "Simulator packages?"

"Yeah, for training. Have you done that before?"

"Oh," Tycho said. "We covered it briefly at...at, the academy… That was a couple of years ago now, but I could probably re-figure it out."

"Great!" Luke said. "I've got a project you can work on. You probably noticed there aren't a lot of simulators here. Once we get a full roster in a couple of weeks, we'll get about a week of priority to finalize the fight order. We got a whole bunch of information in about TIE fighter tactics - it just occurred to me you might have given them some of this stuff - and I want something ready to go for everyone they might not have seen before. You'll have R2 to help you. Is that something you think you can do?"

"Yeah, I definitely answered a lot of questions about that," Tycho said. Maybe all those hours of questioning weren't such a waste after all. "I think I can do that."

"Great," Luke said, as he reached for another datapad. "Let me - whoops." His hand knocked the cylindrical object to the floor.

"Is that a lightsaber?" Tycho blurted out. That's what Jedi had, lightsabers, right?

"Oh, this?" he said, as he picked it up. "I - yeah, it is." Luke suddenly seemed embarrassed. "It, yeah, sorry about that. I'm not used to other people being in here." He put it in a drawer of the desk. "Let's see, what was I - oh yeah." He reached for a datapad again.

Just then, the door whooshed open and a golden protocol droid came rushing in. "Oh, Master Luke, sir, I'm so glad I found you, I have an urgent -"

"Threepio," Wedge said.

"- message from Princess Leia. She has returned -"

"Threepio!" Wedge said.

"Oh, yes, Captain Antilles, yes?"

"Aren't you a protocol droid?"

"Oh yes sir!" the droid exclaimed. "As you know I am programmed for etiquette and -"

"Doesn't protocol include knocking?" Wedge said.

"Oh," he said. "Well, yes." The droid looked around as if not sure what to do next. Tycho caught Luke not trying to hide a grin.

"What do you need Threepio?" Luke asked.

"Oh." The droid collected himself. "Princess Leia has returned from her mission sir, and she says she would urgently like to speak with you."

"Oh good, Leia's back," Luke said as he stood up. "Let's go see what she wants. Oh, Threepio, this is Lieutenant Tycho Celchu, our new Rogue Squadron pilot. R2 is going to help him with a project, so why don't you and R2 pull some data so they can get started when we get back?"

"Oh, yes, Master Luke, certainly." He turned to Tycho. "Greetings sir! I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations!"

"Um, hi," Tycho said.

"We'll be back later," Luke said, and he pulled Tycho out the door along with Wedge.

"He wears me out," Wedge said after the door had shut.

"They're both a bit quirky," Luke said to Tycho. "You'll get used to them."

They turned down the back path toward the command area. Tycho wondered how Leia might react to him. Should he say anything? Apologize? Maybe she'd decide not to say anything to him at all.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked.

"Hmm?"

"Have you...met Leia before?" Wedge asked.

Tycho blinked. Of course, they'd read his file. "No," he said. "I mean, I know who she is. Obviously. But no, I've never met her."

"Oh, okay," Luke said as they entered the command area. He stopped and looked around. "Oh there she is. Leia!" He waved.

A short, young woman with a round face and long, braided hair, jumped up from where she was sitting and ran over to them. Cal hadn't been wrong. She did have a pretty face. "Luke!" she said as she gave him a big hug, "I'm glad you're here! Hi Wedge," she said.

"Hi Leia. How was your trip?" Wedge asked.

"Great," she said. She looked at Luke. "I met with the Pantoran ambassador and he was very interested in giving us his support. I told him all about you," she added. "He was very excited to know you were here."

"I - Leia, that's great," Luke said. Tycho glanced at Wedge. He was frowning a bit.

"I have another meeting with him next week," Leia continued. "I need you to come along and -"

"But Leia -"

"- meet him -"

"No, Leia, I can't," Luke said. "We're starting to get our pilots in, we just got our first one today."

"Oh, you did!" Leia said.

"Yeah." Luke pushed Tycho forward a bit. "Leia, this is Tycho Celchu, our first pilot assigned to Rogue Squadron."

Leia started to extend her hand, then dropped it slightly as the name registered. She frowned a bit. "Celchu as in Novacomm?" she asked.

"Yes, that's right," Tycho said. He wasn't sure what else to say.

Leia narrowed her eyes slightly and stared at him for a moment. "That's right, I remember being told you came in," she said. She looked at him a moment longer, then let her face soften. She pulled herself up to her full senatorial height and gave him a small, professional smile. "Well, you're here now, so that's what matters," she said. "I'm sure Rogue Squadron will be good for you. Luke and Wedge are the best." She turned back to Luke. "I need to go check in with General Dodonna. I'll catch up with you later, okay?" She waved to them and walked off.

Tycho looked at the floor. That certainly could have been worse, he thought. He looked up to see Luke and Wedge looking at him with concern.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked.

"What was that all about?" Wedge asked.

Tycho took a deep breath. "So, I've never met her," he said. "But, my father owned the company Novacomm, which was the largest holonet provider on Alderaan. Most of my family were Imperial supporters. That's why I went to the academy in the first place. My father was a vocal critic of the royal family and of Leia in particular as a senator. So, she knows my name."

"Ohh," Wedge said.

Tycho looked at the floor again. "But, like she said, I'm here, so, there's that." The phrase sounded better when he was defending himself with it, rather than having it thrown at him.

Luke stood in front of him and put his hands on Tycho's shoulders. Tycho looked up. Luke still looked really young, but there was a sudden wisdom in his expression.

"Let me tell you something," Luke said. "I've only been here a couple of months myself. Wedge has been here a couple of years. You'll see a lot of people walking around. They're all here for their own reasons. Sometimes it's personal, sometimes it's philosophical, sometimes it's a bit more material. A lot of people are defectors, just like you. Some have been doing this for a decade or more. Some people were just trying to live their lives and ended up here. Most of us...most of us don't have any meaningful homes or families to go back to. This is it. This is home. People don't always agree around here. But one thing we do all agree on is that the Empire cannot stay. The galaxy deserves better than this and we can make that happen." Luke paused. "I guess the only bad reason to be here is if you're a spy."

Tycho shook his head. "I'm not a spy," he said.

Luke gave his shoulders a squeeze. "I know you're not," he said.

Tycho felt himself smile. The first real one in months.

Wedge draped an arm around Tycho's shoulders. "I think you'd make a terrible spy anyway," he said.

Tycho threw him a bemused look. "Thanks?" he said.

Luke and Wedge laughed. "Come on," Luke said. "Let's go back to the squad room, and we can get you started on your project."

Tycho walked with them back along the path, still smiling. This is it, he thought. This is home.

End