.
There was nothing on Hoth but ice and snow. Some people said that it was peaceful. From far away the big snowflakes and the majestic mountains looked almost serene. Captain Ledonia Quinn strongly disagreed: There was nothing peaceful about freezing slowly to death beneath a dead tauntaun. The animal hadn't been dead for long, but the carcass laying on her lower part of her body was already cold. Her legs began to go numb. The snowflakes fell so heavily on her face that it felt like they were trying to suffocate her under their prickly cold. Ledonia briefly wondered where her helmet was – she had worn it when she had set out for her recon mission but after the wampa had attacked her, or rather her tauntaun. It was probably covered under a thick blanket of snow.
Ledonia turned her head to the left and stared at the dead wampa. She'd had to shot several blaster bolts into the predators head before it finally died. The small pool of blood that had oozed out of its head had been frozen within minutes. Why had that stupid beast had to attack her? Damn, that was no way for the acting commander of Havoc Squad to go out – killed by a dump critter! Or even worse – dying from hypothermia! That was no soldier's death. Ledonia growled as she pried her gloves from her hands and began to claw the tauntaun's cadaver. It was disgraceful for a cathar to use their claws in the first place, but Ledonia didn't care about old traditions and taboos anyway. She gritted her teeth as she ripped through the dead flesh, her hands begun to hurt from the cold wind as well as form the exertion.
ooOOoo
After what felt like an eternity Ledonia finally managed to pull herself free from the cadaver. She could barely feel her legs. She began to rub them, then she looked around and tried to get her bearings. The heavy snowfall made it almost impossible to tell from which direction she had come from. She searched the surroundings for a few moments, but she couldn't find her gear.
Ledonia realised that she had to move on and hope that she would stumble over some sort of shelter or she would freeze to death within hours. She recalled that there had to be an abandoned ortolan trading post somewhere near her – she had seen it on the map she had used to plan her recon mission. The wind blew from north-east, if it hadn't changed its direction since she had left base there was a pretty good chance that she simply had to walk against the wind to get to the shelter.
After several minutes she finally saw the round outline of an ortolan hut. Despite the almost unbearably cold weather Ledonia didn't rush to the entrance, instead she scanned the vicinity with her eyes, her hand on her blaster pistol. Her caution paid off: next to the door were two snow-covered speeders or rather two piles of snow whose shapes led her to believe that under them were two speeders. Ledonia was aware that it wasn't the smartest move to try to storm an unknown building with two possibly armed individuals – pirates possibly – but she had to in order to survive. Ledonia shortly rubbed her almost numb hands together to get a feeling in her trigger finger, grabbed her blaster and pushed the door open.
There were indeed two people – a blue twi'lek female and a human male – inside. She saw how the man was about to draw his blaster, without hesitation she shot in his shoulder and he let his blaster fall. Then she trained her blaster against the twi'lek who had reached inside her jacket.
"Don't move!" Ledonia yelled and shut the door behind her. Although it wasn't exactly warm in the shelter it was bliss compared to the cutting wind outside. "I'm with republic Special Forces and I'm ordering you to stand down!"
Ledonia approached the twi'lek and pulled two blasters from her shoulder holsters. Finally she picked up the human's blaster without averting her sights from them. The man pressed his left hand on the blaster wound on his shoulder and eyed her with a pained and yet focused look on his face. Both of them wore white winter gear and had apparently tried to get the small heater in the middle of the room to work – the door was open and several cables were already put together.
"On your knees and hands behind your head!" commanded Ledonia.
The man obeyed while the twi'lek hesitated. She looked a Ledonia and said quietly: "It that really necessary? You took our weapons."
"I didn't frisk you – you could have concealed weapons! And now get down on your knees!"
The twi'lek followed her order and knelt beside the human. Ledonia glanced once more at the heater and cursed under her breath – she couldn't get it started while guarding them. Ledonia analysed the situation and came to the conclusion that the injured man wouldn't be able to draw a weapon or assault her.
She pointed at him with her blaster. "You! Fix the heater."
"Hey you! How about you let me fix him up first!" snapped the twi'lek.
"He will survive," retorted Ledonia dryly. "We all will if you behave."
She watched the human closely as he stood up, he seemed pale and his face was screwed up in pain as he reached out to the heater. Ledonia registered that he hadn't said a word, she grew suspicious. She waited until the fixed heater started to hum; the human turned to face her. Ledonia got the feeling that he knew what would happen next.
"Pull down the zipper of your coat… slowly," she ordered.
He obeyed and after pulling down the zipper a few inches an imperial uniform surfaced. Ledonia had expected this and was still surprised by the amount of hate that boiled up in her chest.
"Fucking Imps!" she hissed and raised her blaster. Then she saw how the twi'lek jumped on her feet and she trained her blaster on her.
"Don't shoot him!" yelled the twi'lek.
"Move and I will shoot both of you! I have killed my share of Imps – two more wouldn't matter!"
"I'm not an Imp," said the twi'lek in a harsh voice and opened her parka. Ledonia saw that she didn't wear a uniform.
"Indeed, I'm the only … Imp here," said the human with a thick imperial accent.
Ledonia looked from the twi'lek to the human. "You don't have to wear a uniform to be an Imp! The fact that you are travelling with him tells me that you are at least a collaborator."
"You know what? I can't disprove you – but what are you going to do about it?" asked the twi'lek. "Are you really going to shoot us? Isn't a republic soldier supposed to be better than this?"
"We are at war," replied Ledonia. "And I didn't survive this long because I played by the rules."
"Is that really what you want?" inquired the human. "Then shoot us with a clear conscience – but be quick about it. Either that or you lower you weapon and we isolate this shelter as well as we can against the nightly temperatures."
Ledonia snorted. A typical Imp! Arrogant son of a hutt! But she slowly began to lower her blaster. She hated Imps but she simply couldn't kill them in cold blood.
"Finally!" exclaimed the twi'lek. She stepped next to the human and begun to pull at his coat.
"Vette! What are you doing?" The human didn't seem too pleased.
"I'm trying to treat your blaster wound, you dork!" replied Vette.
"I'm able to get out of my coat without your help," replied the Imperial arrogantly.
Ledonia followed the conversation with a frown. They didn't seem like cold-blooded enemies at all, more like an old married couple…
The Imperial struggled free of Vette's grip and put the coat as well as his uniform jacket on the heater. His white shirt was soaked in blood on the right side; the Imperial carefully slid out of his shirt and palmed the injury. Ledonia watched closely as he pulled a kolto injector from his belt and started to treat himself. After a while he wordlessly handed the device to Vette who treated the through and through blaster wound on his back. Finally she put a large plaster on his back.
"See? You needed my help after all," she beamed at him while he shot her a nasty look.
"Thank you," he said in an even voice.
The Imperial quickly dressed himself again. Ledonia put her blaster in her holster and started to look for materials to isolate the shelter even further – but to her dismay there wasn't much to work with: only a few wooden blanks and a couple of metals scraps. It seemed that scavengers had already taken everything valuable – and most items that could help improve the isolation.
"Do you have any supplies with you, Captain?" asked the human.
Ledonia got instantly angry again – she couldn't stand his accent nor his arrogant inflexion. She forced herself to answer in an even voice: "No, my tauntaun got attacked and I lost everything."
"How unfortunate," he replied calmly.
Ledonia had now violently to suppress the urge to shoot this prick. It seemed that her anger was visible on her face; Vette cleared her throat.
"Hey, he doesn't mean it."
The human jerked his head in Vette's direction. "Beg your pardon?"
"He isn't sarcastic; he always sounds like this. So there is no need to get worked up over it."
"Of course I'm not sarcastic! I merely stated…" begun the Imperial, but Ledonia cut him off.
"Shut up, both of you. You," she stared at the Imperial, "your name, now."
"Captain Quinn," he said.
Ledonia froze. "What did you say?" How the hell did he know her name?
"Quinn," he repeated.
"How do you know my name?" growled Ledonia.
The puzzled look on his face only added to her confusion. "I do not know what you are talking about, Captain – my name is Malavai Quinn, Captain of the Imperial Navy."
"Gee, what are the odds? Two Captain Quinns…" sighted Vette.
"Pull yourself together, Vette," scolded Quinn. "There are other important matters that we must attend to: the shelter still needs additional isolation if we want to survive the night."
Vette rolled her eyes and begun to rummage through one of the backpacks that lay on the floor.
ooOOoo
Half an hour later it became clear that they had done what was possible; without speaking to each other they gathered around the small heater which radiated only a little warmth. Ledonia was still cold, she tried to rub her hands together in order to feel less numb.
"Sooo, since we got nothing else to do besides waiting for the snow storm to end – you don't happen to be related to this stick-in-the-mud?" Vette gestured towards Quinn who frowned at her.
Ledonia quickly glanced at Vette and then at Quinn. "Of course not! I have not blood ties to Imps!" she forcefully replied.
"But it's not a typical cathar name, right?" continued Vette.
"By the stars, you are relentless… no, it's not a typical cathar name – but your name isn't a twi'lek one either, isn't it?"
Ledonia saw by the hurt expression on Vette's face that she had hip a sensitive topic.
"It's just a nickname," she answered crestfallen. "My real name is Ce'na."
Quinn lifted his eyebrow; it seemed that he hadn't known her real name. Ledonia begun to wonder what their relationship exactly was. They seemed to know each other well enough… and at the same time they were somehow very distant.
"Ah, I assume that you don't have a last name? You were born a slave, weren't you?" inquired Ledonia.
"Yeah, got a problem with that?" asked Vette defiantly.
Ledonia smiled at her. "No, of course not. My mother was a slave too; I'm just interested to hear how you ended up with an Imp."
"Why don't you tell us first how you ended up here?" interjected Quinn.
"That's classified," Ledonia retorted curtly.
"Let's agree that we are all here because of some mission," sighed Vette. "We won't tell each other about our real objectives anyway, no sense wasting our precious time on interrogating each other."
Ledonia put her hands on the heater in an attempt to warm them up. "I know that you won't disclose your mission on Hoth, but why in the galaxy would you, a former slave, be loyal to him."
"The name is Captain Quinn!" said Quinn in a very stuck up way.
Vette ignored him and crossed her arms. "Okay, fair enough. I'm not loyal to Quinn – I'm loyal to our boss. And that's all I'm gonna say about it."
Ledonia expected that the Imp would bank a dismissive comment about not needing the loyalty of an alien and was surprised to see that he looked as if he wanted to say something. But in the end he remained silent and pulled his backpack towards him and pulled a couple of ration bars from it. Silently he handed one to Vette and threw one to Ledonia who managed to catch it in mid-air.
She was surprised that Quinn would share his supplies with her, and tried to think of a reason. Nothing came to mind. "Thanks," she said and unwrapped the bar. It looked disgusting but she took a bite anyway. It was incredibly bland and sticky.
Vette also ate her food bar but her screwed up face told Ledonia that she wasn't enjoying the meal either. Quinn took small bites and had a contemplative look on his face. Ledonia watched him closely, she seldom had the chance to study the enemy this close – usually she simply fought them. Quinn certainly seemed like a stereotypical stiff imperial officer… Ledonia almost scoffed at herself – what else could she expect from an Imp?
They were silent for a few minutes before Vette spoke up. Ledonia got the impression that she was the kind of person who couldn't stand silence; it seemed to make her nervous.
"Did anyone see the last huttball match? The Rotworms sure got beat up!" She gestured with her hands; it added to the impression that she was nervous.
Ledonia shook her head. "No, I don't watch huttball."
An awkward silence stretched out before Quinn cleared his throat. "I don't enjoy huttball either, but … I once read a book about its origins. It was invented on Shilii, the togruta used it as a test for their warriors."
Another moment of silence occurred.
"We had similar competitions on Cathar, albeit less violent. I guess it's true that most games are substitutes acts for war – at least in warrior societies," added Ledonia after a few moments.
"Hm, interesting – now that I think about it it's rather fascinating that we don't have these kind of games in the Empire." Quinn rubbed his chin. Then he turned to Vette. "What about Ryloth? Do twi'lek have such games?"
Vette knitted her hands together. She seemed oddly contrite. "No."
Ledonia registered that her answer was too monosyllabic for an extrovert person like Vette. Strange, she had been so hell-bent to get a conversation going and now she was shutting down. Just as Ledonia was about to dig deeper she caught sight of Quinn and how he looked at Vette: before he had been irritated but now he seemed worried. Hadn't she known better Ledonia would have guessed that he actually cared about Vette – but she quickly pushed that thought away. Imperials were merciless bastards, nothing more.
Quinn turned his attention away from Vette and set his sights on Ledonia.
"It there a reason why you stare at me, Captain?" Quinn dryly asked.
Vette jerked her head up and began to beam at him. "Do you even need to ask, Quinn? She likes your rugged good looks!"
Quinn frowned at her and before Ledonia could protest he said: "I highly doubt it, please refrain from such childish remarks."
"By the stars! Are you blushing?" exclaimed Vette loudly. "What do you think, Captain? Is he handsome?"
Ledonia was completely taken aback by this development and could only answer after a few seconds. "N… No! Of course not!"
"Why, I didn't know that cathar could turn pink too," teased Vette.
"I DIDN'T TURN PINK!" yelled Ledonia. "Don't you get it, you stupid cow? He's nothing but an imperial pig who deserves to be killed! The thought that you could even consider…" she broke off, angry at herself for losing her restraint.
Vette just stared at her, for a moment she almost seemed hurt, while Quinn had an infuriatingly condescending expression on his face.
"Whoa… You really are in love, aren't you?" Vette clapped excited. It seemed that Ledonia had been mistaken about her distraught expression from before.
Ledonia sighed; it seemed that her outburst had no effect on Vette at all. "Nothing I say will silence you, will it?"
"Nope!" replied Vette proudly. "You are even more fun than Quinn – all I could get out of him were haughty stares and a frown." She leaned forward and said in a mock whisper: "He is made of ice or something – that's why I call him Capt'n Carbonite."
"All Imperials are made out of carbonite, Vette. He is nothing special – they all are but effective machines without heart or soul." Ledonia said the last bit as spitefully as possible. She knew that it was pointless to try to insult some empty uniform, but she couldn't help herself.
Quinn ignored her and pulled a sleeping-bag from his backpack. "I'm going to sleep, Vette. Please take the first shift and wake me after two hours."
"Aye, aye Capt'n Carbonite!"
He began to undress himself, Ledonia watched him from the corner of her eye while rubbing her hands together – she could have sworn that she had gotten even colder in the last minutes. Finally Quinn wore nothing but his long-sleeved thermos-clothing and slid into the sleeping-bag.
"I think I will call you Capt'n Cat," said Vette with a contemplative expression on her face. "I'm a sucker for alliterations."
Against her will Ledonia was actually amused. "How old are you, Vette?"
"I'm 19 years old, and you?"
"31, hmm, I thought you would be younger."
Vette smiled at her, at the same time she begun to scratch something on the floor. Ledonia craned her neck, there was a little stain on the floor. Possibly oil.
"Yep, I get that a lot. It's because of my bubbly personality, I think."
"I guess being the funny twi'lek is sometimes trying, right?" asked Ledonia and put her hands again on the heater. "Is the heater working? I'm still freezing."
"It is, but I guess you have Vasoconstriction because you were so long out in the cold," replied Vette in a serious voice.
"What?"
"It's a sign of hypothermia: your blood vessels narrowed down to preserve the warmth in the torso."
Ledonia stared at her hands. "Yes… my medical officer warned me about it."
"Yeah, mine did too – otherwise I wouldn't know this stuff," replied Vette and nodded in the direction of Quinn. Ledonia was taken aback to see that the Imperial had seemingly already fallen asleep.
"Huh, he really is a soldier and not some pencil-pusher…" she murmured.
"What makes you say that?" Vette seemed calmer than before, and less… cheerful.
"I know a lot of soldiers who can sleep even in the most dire situations, it's something you eventually learn or you go insane on the battlefield. But I'm a little bit surprised that he trusts you enough to keep watch and not to murder him in his sleep."
Vette sighed. "That again? I get that you hate Imperials and truth be told I can't stand them either – but do you really need to remind me that I'm stuck with the Empire?"
Ledonia tilted her head and smiled coldly at Vette. "Stop it. You are not stuck with the Empire. You could just shoot the Imp and be done with it. There wouldn't be any imperial search parties for a missing twi'lek."
Vette had a hurt look about her. "It's not what I meant – I'm not here on gunpoint. I owe the boss, and he happens to be an imperial."
Ledonia felt uncomfortable to see Vette's mood so dimmed down. She was only a kid after all. "That must be quite a debt…"
Vette was still scratching the spot on the floor. "Yeah, well… That's what I tell myself and everybody else that asks, but the truth is…" she broke off.
"Yes?" Ledonia was quite sure that Vette wanted to tell her story, there was no need to rush her.
"Uh… they kind of grew on me. The crew I mean. At first it was just convenient and I waited to make my move to get the fuck out of there. But after a few months it felt like home." Vette stopped scratching the floor and knotted her hands together. "This was the first time in my life that the term 'home' got any meaning. I don't know if you can understand, I was born a slave and was pushed around all the time; nothing was certain. I was sold a couple of times and can hardly remember the faces of my mother and sister. Even when I was freed a few years back… everything was always in flux."
Seeing Vette struggling to find the right words moved Ledonia, at the same time she was puzzled about the very idea that the Empire could be a home to an alien.
"I was in imperial custody after a botched job and I really thought that would be the end of me, but the boss got me out. Somehow we ended up travelling the galaxy together and one day, after a tiring mission on a nameless planet I said to him 'Let's go home' and after I had said it it sunk in… I really meant that. Some imperial starship had become my home. Fucked up, huh?"
"I can't say that I approve of your choice…" replied Ledonia cautiously.
"Didn't you listen? It wasn't by choice, it just happened!" There was a trace of anger in Vette's voice.
"You told me all this so that I can confirm that you did good?" asked Ledonia mildly.
To her surprise Vette laughed, but it sounded forced. "Yeah, you're right – I'm sorry. Let's talk about you, Capt'n Cat! Where are you from?"
"I'm from Cathar… I wanted to fight for freedom and signed up for the republic navy," Ledonia answered as curtly as possible. She was more interested in hearing Vette's story – perhaps she could even get useful information about her 'boss'. "Is he… Is Captain Quinn also part of the crew you mentioned?"
"Yep," Vette answered. "He joined the crew about a year ago. Quinn hates my alien guts, but he is always polite towards me, a considerable feat because I try my best to grind his gears."
Ledonia shot the sleeping man a furious look. "You shouldn't just annoy him – you should…"
"Yeah yeah, I get it – you hate everything imperial. Is it something personal?" interjected Vette.
"Of course it is." Ledonia crossed her arms. "But I won't bore you with some sob story – you know exactly what they are capable of."
"Funny, I have met a lot of assholes in my life, and believe me – being imperial isn't a precondition. It certainly helps a lot, but it isn't a precondition…" Vette grinned.
Ledonia snorted. "Perhaps you're right."
Vette stood up and went to her backpack, she dragged it to the heater and sat down again. After rummaging through its contents she finally pulled a sleeping bag out of it and threw it to Ledonia.
"Catch – you look as if you would freeze to death any minute now."
"Are you sure? You must be cold too," replied Ledonia insecure. She stared at the white bundle in her hands. The small imperial emblem on it didn't escape her notice.
"You've got hypothermia – you should try to warm yourself up as well as you can. I admit that I'm freezing my butt off, but you need it more than I do. Besides: Quinn and I are taking shifts anyway; I will just use his sleeping bag." She laughed and twinkled at the woman opposite of her. "Imagine how that would upset him – sharing something with an alien! Aw, now that I think about it, I would give you my bag even if you weren't freezing to death!"
Ledonia chuckled. "I start to see the appeal… if he refuses to share I'll shoot him, deal?"
"Deal!"
She quickly opened the bundle and spread the sleeping bag on the floor next to the heater. Without shedding even her parka she slid into it. As soon as she had pulled the zipper up, she began to rub her hands again.
"Uh, shouldn't you undress yourself first? I was told that that is the first rule for sleeping bags," asked Vette with furrowed brows.
"Of course, but I just need to… get a little warm first," retorted Ledonia.
After a couple of minutes she finally felt some warmth in her hands and in her legs. With considerable reluctance she zipped the bag open and stripped her clothes away until she wore but a shirt and her long-sleeved underwear. As a precaution she took her blaster in her sleeping bag.
"Gee, do you really need that?" Vette pouted. "Next thing you tell me is that you intend to stay up until … well until this is all over."
Ledonia wrapped the bag tighter around her. "I will."
ooOOoo
About an hour later Vette glanced at her chronometer. She got up and shuffled to Quinn who was still sleeping. Ledonia watched how she nudged Quinn with her right foot while saying loudly: "Wakey wakey, Captn' Carbonite!"
Quinn groaned and rubbed his eyes while struggling to sit up. As soon as he set his sights on Ledonia or rather her sleeping bag his left eyebrow rose. "Do I assume correctly that you had mercy on the woman who wanted to shoot us just a couple of hours ago, Vette?"
Ledonia did her best to stare at him as hatefully as possible. But her act lost all credibility when she suddenly had to yawn so forcefully that she had to blink away tears.
"Sure, we are taking turns anyway, right?" replied Vette blithely, while putting her hand on her hips.
Quinn hesitated shortly, but finally he nodded. "Of course."
Ledonia saw the disappointment on Vette's face, she had obviously hoped that he would object.
He peeled himself out of the sleeping bag and put quickly his winter gear back on while Vette shred her clothes and slid into the bag. Quinn sat down next to the heater and took a gulp out of his water bottle before handing it to Vette.
"Even if it's cold you should try to stay hydrated," he remarked.
Vette drank a few sips and threw it back to him. "Right – try not to kill each other while I enjoy my beauty sleep." With that she snuggled in the sleeping bag and turned her back to them.
Silence spread out in the small shelter, a couple of minutes later Vette's deep breaths became the only sound source. Ledonia did her best to stay awake and tried to think about her mission. Quinn looked equally tired and suppressed a yawn. Then he picked up Vette's clothes which were piled on a heap and begun to fold them and put them in an orderly fashion next to the heater.
Ledonia glanced at her clothes; they were folded in an equally orderly bundle. "Strange, isn't it? How military people have the same habits despite being on different sides…" she quietly said.
Quinn craned his neck and took a look at her clothes. "Indeed." He cleared his throat. "But it's not that surprising if you think about the purpose of an army. A war can't be won without discipline…"
"Yeah, I know" interjected Ledonia irritated, "but you don't have to lecture me about it – I'm a soldier myself!" Something about him was angering her – was it just his stuck-up attitude?
"That wasn't my intention," he replied smoothly. "But as Vette has already pointed out – it seems that people tend to get the impression that I'm condescending. In fact… she never stops talking about it." Quinn pulled another food bar from his backpack and slowly opened the wrapping.
Seeing him just shrugging her attitude off infuriated Ledonia even further. "That is only because she is too friendly to tell you right in your face that you are an arrogant prick," she hissed.
"There is no need to be vulgar," snapped Quinn sharply. "I get your meaning. But since we are trapped here I would ask that we keep at least a civilised appearance. Even a republic brute as yourself should manage that much."
"Don't make me laugh – you pretend to be some sort of supreme being; you are so full of shit that you don't even realise it yourself! Your so-called politeness is barely hiding how much you hate being in the presence of two aliens!" Ledonia jeered.
"You make unfounded assumptions, Captain! You don't know me, otherwise you would know that I don't hate aliens – the only thing that I hate…" Quinn made a visible effort to calm down and continued with a quieter voice: "Your prejudices blind you."
Ledonia was about to jump up and slap the arrogant imperial across his smug face, but then she pulled herself together and said in a pressed voice: "You dare talk about prejudice, Imperial?"
"Well, then back your claims up – what have I done since we met? Did I insult you? Did I make derogative comments about Vette?" asked Quinn hotly.
To her own surprise she couldn't answer his question in the affirmative; it was true that he hadn't said anything – but surely his actions… but again she couldn't come up with anything. Vette had claimed that Quinn would be upset about them sharing a sleeping bag, but he hadn't even batted an eye. "You are right, you didn't do anything … vulgar. But Vette told me herself that you 'hate her alien guts'."
Quinn's eyes widened and for a very short moment he almost seemed shocked. "She … said that?" Then his usual indifferent expression returned on his features. "I see."
Ledonia had fully prepared for another bout and was taken aback when Quinn simply averted his gaze and took a small bit from his food bar. It was clear that he wasn't interested anymore in talking to her. But she couldn't simply let the topic go. "Well? Do you admit that you hate aliens?" Her questions sounded a little insecure and Ledonia was annoyed at herself.
"Yes, of course – I hate aliens," he replied in an even voice.
Ledonia registered how he glanced quickly at Vette. The way he simply buckled as soon as she mentioned Vette was suspicious enough, together with this gaze she concluded that Quinn had actually told the truth: He didn't hate Vette, quite the opposite, he seemed… to like her. The thought confused Ledonia – no it couldn't be! An Imperial couldn't like an alien like that… perhaps he simply wanted to have sex with her? No, that wasn't it; Quinn didn't flirt with Vette and he had been so reluctant around her that she had thought that he hated her. By the stars! Simply thinking about this stuff gave Ledonia headaches. The cold had probably damaged her brain – how else could she even come up with this weird shit? But the awkward way Quinn pinched his nose while repeatedly glancing at Vette told her that she was right.
Strangely enough Ledonia felt bad. Perhaps she shouldn't have blurted out what Vette had told her? The whole situation confused her. "Uh, good … I mean finally you admitted it," she began, "aliens aren't treated well in the Empire. Anybody who voluntary joins the Imperial Navy knows what they are getting themselves into."
Quinn didn't reply, he just took another bite from his bar.
"Don't you want to contradict me?" she asked while sliding closer to the heater.
"No, our discussion lost all purpose – if even someone close to me considers me a xenophobe, what hopes could I have to convince you?"
Ledonia leaned against the heater and pulled her sleeping bag tighter around her. "Aren't you exaggerating a little bit? Or do you really claim that Vette and you are close?"
He stared at the bar in his right hand. "Of course, we fight, we bleed, we eat, sleep and live together – I convinced myself that her jokes were friendly banter, but apparently I was mistaken. No matter, a slight miscalculation on my behalf."
Quinn's words sounded cool, but a slight tremble in his voice betrayed how upset he really was. Ledonia tried to work up her previous disdain for him, but it didn't work. She thought about telling him that Vette hadn't said anything about her hating him, but she just couldn't say it. She couldn't say something nice to an Imperial, the very though disturbed her.