"Arkan, what do the scanners say?" I asked. My voice sounded stern and sharp like back when the things were better, but in the truth I feel like a wreck.
I have not slept well, no more than two hours – three at the best – in one night without strong sleeping pills for over two years by now. Not ever since that day... Not ever since that one incident.
At the very rare good nights I see her in my dreams before that moment. I see her being happy, even if the moment is difficult. Everything is as all right as I knew it. Seeing the happiness used to make me feel great, but nowadays it only hurt me deeply, like a blade struck between my ribs. I knew what I had lost.
Most of the time, whether it's while sleeping or waking up, I only see her face as I saw it the very last time: shocked. I remember vividly how the cheerful light disappeared from her eyes, replaced by greatest horror she had ever faced. Her scream, the single word she said in Basic – NO! – haunts me. It doesn't leave me alone.
"It's cold, nothing more than just rock, and utterly inhabited. Not even vegetation. But the atmosphere seems to be good enough for our equipment to make oxygen out of it," Arkan answered to my question. I almost unnoticeably startled, returning back to the present from my thoughts.
"So we'd have to live with whatever we have left, right?" asked Dorec.
"If the machinery we managed to snatch cannot make food nor water from the rocks and atmosphere down there, then yes," Arkan answered.
"What about hiding the ship?" Echo asked.
"There's a mountain. It should be good enough for hiding this tin can AND us," Arkan told.
"Good. Mark, land the ship there. Moris, Tusk, Lart, you come with me to inspect the place. The rest of you, stay here," I command.
"Yes sir," is the answer from the men under my command.
I stand as the ship lands to the cold rock. We were in the deepest parts of the Outer Rim. If we would not find a place to hide here, we would proceed to Wild Space and Unknown Regions.
"Let's go," I say and walk out. I've been standing for long. Walking felt even worse than that.
All I wanted to do was just slump to the ground, let it be rock, soil or whatever, and die. But someone had to keep the men together. Someone had to lead them.
That someone was me. So I kept my posture straight the way she had once kept, back in those days, hid any signs of fatigue – the worn down face, the dark circles under my eyes, all the sleep deprivation which had accumulated – behind my helmet, and stayed strong for the sake of the small crew I had managed to get together.
We had to stay together.
Our equipment kept us alive on the cold terrain and the atmosphere consisting mostly of oxides and different oxygen compounds. This had once been a living planet, I supposed. Or maybe someone else had been here before us. The local red sun was cold and provided only light and little warmth to this rock.
"Let's go in," I told through the comm. link.
"Be careful," Echo told us.
I swallowed the retort. Echo had miraculously avoided death against the thoughts of his now dead fellows. The Force had been with him, a Jedi would say. I understood that he did not want to lose anyone else.
The cave was dark. The tunnel we found was narrow, but not too narrow for us and our machinery. It led to a big chamber with a couple of smaller tunnels which would do as emergency exits if they led out of the mountain. As we searched for other tunnels, we found a place for our ship to be hidden; it even had a tunnel to the chamber.
"Hey, can someone come to look at this scanner. I'm not believing my eyes right now," I heard Moris say. He knocked gently the scanner he had brought with him to see about the environment.
"What is it?" I asked and walked alongside Tusk to look at the scanner. Now I was surprised too; the scanner showed that the rocks were consisted of something the machinery we had could make into the nutrients we needed to stay alive.
"What do you think?" Tusk asked.
I knew that I did not need to think about it, but I gave small moment for thinking it through. This place was perfect for our group to stay hidden from the galaxy, the Empire and everyone else alike, until the end of our lives. Then I said to all of the crew through the comm. channel,
"Men of Crevice Squad, we have found the perfect place for our hideout for the rest of our lives."
/Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/