Tale 5: The Sloman Massacre's Warrior
Four-and-a-half years before the Battle of Corpagia
10:32 P.M. Crystal Star Syndicate Freighter Dooliir
"We're calling the thing the 'Oh, shut up!' treaty," Danielle Bonard told her husband with a laugh. "Because they talked so much."
Kenny raised his eyebrows. "The 'Oh, shut up!' treaty. That's a nice name. I hope you didn't actually tell them to "Oh, shut up!,' did you?"
She made a face at him. "No. That's mean and I'm not mean. Do you think I'm mean Kenny?"
Kenny pretended to think for a moment, causing her to gape in shock and awe at him. "I wouldn't put it past you," he commented.
"Bastard," she said quietly, looking away for a moment. The light reflecting off her face gave Kenny another chance to admire his wife's beautiful Italian features, something he liked to revel in often. One of the things he'd always liked about her beauty was her long black hair; which was why he was somewhat disappointed that it was still pulled up and back, in the style that all Alliance Ambassadors wore.
"Well you can't always be nice during negotiations," Kenny commented. "Otherwise you'd suck as an ambassador, and you don't."
Danielle smiled sleepily. "Thank you." She sighed. "So how are things in the Crystal Star nowadays, hon?"
Kenny shrugged. "Nothing interesting to tell. It's actually been pretty boring over the last few days." He smiled crookedly. "That's all I can really tell you. Sorry."
"It's all right," Danielle smiled brightly, her sudden cheerfulness causing Kenny to smile. "What?"
Kenny shrugged innocently. "Nothing."
"Oh come on, it's never 'nothing' with you. What is it?"
Kenny was about to respond when her terminal suddenly beeped.
"Excuse me Ambassador."
"Hold on, Kenny," Danielle said, pressing a button on her terminal. "Yes Captain?"
"Sorry to interrupt, ma'am, but we've arrived at Sloman."
Danielle nodded. "Okay, I'll be up in a minute." Cutting the transmission, her eyes turned back to Kenny, sending a slight tingle through his system. "I have to go now. Duty calls," she said with sad contempt. "I love you. Bye."
"Love you too. Bye." With a loving smile, he cut the signal, and the video screen went blank, as did his mood for the moment. I wish I could be there with you, Kenny thought. That was what he had wanted to say; and then she got called by the Captain. Be there in your arms, he thought again, reaching up high and stretching his tired arms and tightened back. Boring is hardly the word he would use to describe the last few days; or at least today. He had been helping the tech crews transfer a shipment of supply crates carrying heavy duranium alloy to another delivery freighter all day. Since the tugs were all damaged, the work had to be done by hand. In what would have taken the tugs thirty minutes to do, Kenny and three-fourths of the Dootiir Crew took six hours to move one hundred crates of duranium. His muscles hurt; he knew they'd be sore in the morning. And the environmental controls were down,—this ship seemed to always have glitches— so the temperature in all the rooms was in the forties; very cold. Could use those arms right about now. He felt kind of bad, lying to his wife like that, but he'd nearly been thrown out from the Crystal Star twice for telling her so much as where he was. Having an Alliance Ambassador for a spouse and being a Commander in the Crystal Star Syndicate didn't make for detailed conversation that often. Kenny had decided a while ago that he didn't want to join the Alliance, even when Danielle had enlisted in the Alliance's diplomatic Corps., and he supported her decision as a loving husband should, even though it meant that they wouldn't be together often. It was a hard marriage to maintain, but he loved her very much and she loved him very much; so they managed the hardships and time apart over the years.
It was that sense of loving security that made him able to lie to her like that, making sure that those were the only types of lies he ever told her.
Kenny shut down the terminal, and then tightened his coat even more around his body. Watching his breath come out as fog, he stepped over to his bureau to start getting changed and then go to bed. A few minutes later, his head hit the pillow, mind still back on Danielle. Also running through his thoughts were his decisions regarding his marriage: supporting Danielle's diplomatic career, not being able to see her very often, joining the Crystal star...
He shrugged the thoughts off . "So is the life we live. So is the life of a bandit." That was his Captain's philosophy, and it was a good one.
Thoughts at peace, Kenny rested his worn out body.
--
The next time he opened his eyes, he was screaming at the to of his lungs, adrenaline flowing through his veins. His ears were more open to sound now then they had ever been, hearing everything from the soft hum of the engines to the tiny sound of the energy flowing through the power conduits. He even thought he heard the late night music session going on in the ship's bar, which was a deck below him and far away down that corridor. The nightmare had come and gone, and for some reason he couldn't remember it at all. All he knew was that it had scared the shit out of him. Kenny suddenly felt very vulnerable, and he swore someone was in the room with him, hiding in the closet or as one of the many shadows that were cascading throughout the room. He checked his forehead; no sweat, and he certainly didn't feel hot. He felt cold, colder than he had when he had gone to bed. It was either the temperature of the room or...or something else. The next moment, however, he saw a green light on the heater controls, which meant that the heater was now working again, and then he heard the heat being blown into the room. So it couldn't have been the temperature. Then again, it could have started a minute ago...
"Kenny?! Are you awake yet?!" came the shrill voice of Rax Hollafer, the ship's Captain. Shaking his head in attempt to get rid of the blackness slowly taking over his eyes, Kenny listened again for the Captain's voice, wanting to make sure that he had heard right.
A few moments later: "Kenny?!"
Kenny threw back the covers and hopped out of bed, dashing for the comlink, still feeling confused, and slapped the button on the control box. "I'm awake!" he said, now realizing that he was panting as well.
"Fala it takes you a long time to wake up. You on sedatives or something?"
Kenny rolled his tired eyes. "No," he said groggily, struggling to find something else to add. "B-bad dream." He glanced over at the clock on his bedside.
1:01 A.M.
Rax snickered. "That's ironic, 'cause you'll never guess what's happened."
"What?"
"Get up here. You'll wanna see the news reports."
"What happened Rax?"
"I'll tell you when you get up here with us. Rax out."
"Wait—" Kenny tried to interject, but didn't get time, as Rax cut the transmission. Sighing in exhaustion, he stepped over to his bureau to change out of his pajamas.
--
The doors to the Dooliir's bridge parted, and Kenny saw that whatever was going on was big, as the bridge was full of different Crew members, barely any of them doing any work; all staring at the video screen on the bridge's front-center wall.
"—iance has yet to make a statement. We've been told that President Gillia himself will give a statement explaining the Alliance's position at the bottom of the hour."
Kenny stopped two steps onto the bridge, turning his eyes to the vid-screen. A Bingin female, her long ruby-red hair cascading down her shoulders, was sitting up on the right side of the screen, looking into the camera, eyes alive with sadness and concern. In the upper left hand corner of the screen was a graphic box that had the words "Breaking News" in plain red letters. On the bottom of the screen was a news ticker streaming across the screen. "President Gillia will make a statement in regard to the Sloman occupation at 1:45 A.M. Sloman time."
Kenny eyes widened, and suddenly the whole situation became ironic, exactly as Rax had said. It was too ironic. Kenny was wide awake now. "Sloman occupation?!" he exclaimed, his gaze darting over at Rax.
The Captain started at the shout and turned to him, along with everybody else on the bridge. "Yeah," Rax answered. "They took it over during the night."
"Is Danielle all right?" Kenny asked in utter fear.
"I don't know," Rax responded. "I dunno know if she's dead, I don't know if she's alive; I don't anything right now. All I know is that Vader was behind it."
"Vader?!"
"Yes. The Gatekeeper was the ship that lead the strike force. Along with a carrier and a Interdictor Cruiser."
"Wha-Wha—?" Kenny stammered. "Why? It's a civilian station. Why'd they take it over?"
"We don't know yet," Rax answered. "The Empire hasn't given a reason, though it'll probably be horse shit anyway."
"What's the news say? What's their opinion?"
"They think what we think," Fark Vinher, the Dooniir's Karferran driver, replied. He looked Kenny dead in the eye. "Your wife."
"Danielle?"
"It makes sense," Rax added. "She's pretty famous now for what she did with the Knasians. Ya gotta expect her to be higher up on the Empire's hit list."
Kenny nodded slowly. "The 'Oh, shut up!' treaty," he said softly.
Rax raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Nothing. A name D gave the Knasian treaty."
"Ah," Rax said.
"Did someone tell the Empire where she was going?"
Rax shrugged. "We don't know," he said slowly. "We won't know until more information starts coming in."
Kenny had a thousand more questions buzzing through his mind, but he knew that asking them would be useless; Rax wouldn't know the answers. No one would.
"Come on Kenny," Rax said, stepping up to the Captain's chair and sitting down. He gestured to the chair beside him. "Sit down. Try to relax if you can."
"She's been captured by Darth Vader," Kenny responded seriously. "Would you be relaxing?"
Rax considered this. "Probably not, but until we know more...we have to sit down and wait."