Chapter Two
Liberty, fighter hangar
After they had rendezvoused with Liberty the fighters set down in the hangar. Almost immediately Coreena climbed out of her cockpit and jumped to the ground. After spotting Lieutenant Lochlin she gestured him to come over. While pulling off her helmet and gloves she walked beside him and gave him her orders in a curt voice. She was in no mood to be friendly or diplomatic. "I want your report in one hour from now. And not a minute later. Is this understood?"
"Captain…"
"Why does everyone think that I issue orders so they can be discussed? When I say "one hour", I mean "one hour". I want every casualty, every wounded, every lost screw. Is that clear?" She could see the grudge coming up on his face but he hissed a "Yes, ma'am." through his teeth. She nodded. "Dismissed." Without any other word she pointed her index finger at Lieutenant Kenzy who was climbing off her X-Wing rather slowly. "In my office. Now." Kenzy opened her mouth to protest Coreena was sure of, but shut it after a quick side glance. Mallan was sure the Lieutenant had seen Lochlin shaking his head no. She chose to ignore it and instead began to jog to her office.
A few moments later she could hear another pair of boots clattering behind her. Without looking back she arrived at the little windowless clerk room they had given to her as an "office". She let her keycard slide through and the door slid open. After entering Mallan finally turned around and said to Kenzy: "I'd offer you to take a seat if there was one. " Kenzy, not knowing whether this was a joke or not chose to keep her face indifferent and somewhat defying. "Well…" Coreena leaned against a crate more or less at the height of her hip. "Lieutenant Kenzy… what in the force where you thinking back in the battle?" Her voice had a slight annoyed sound to it.
"Captain Mallan, I… I… she punched out for the force's sake! She was alive!" Kenzy blurted out. Coreena only shook her head.
"Lieutenant… I ordered you out and you still stayed… that could have cost both you and me our lives. And it could cost you your brevet promotion. So why in all heavens shouldn't I just file a report, hand it to General Dodonna and get you demoted or even punished worse?" The Lieutenant grew annoyed herself. She had done nothing wrong, only had tried to save a fellow pilot.
"Captain, with all due respect… I think your order was wrong." That was mined terrain and she knew it. She could be out of Starfighter Command in the blink of an eye.
"No, it wasn't. It was as right as your order to Flight Officer Devlin to abort her attack on that TIE-Fighter. I'd be very happy if you could explain to me what made your order better than mine." Kenzy didn't like the calmness and almost arrogance with which Mallan addressed her.
"Ma'am… I… Flight Officer Devlin was the only person that came close to being a friend for me in this squadron. I didn't want to lose her." Mallan shook her head, This was getting her nowhere. Luckily for the other woman Kenzy obviously didn't know how close she was to being rejected at any moment.
"So you are telling me that not wanting to lose someone you know and like makes an order more important than just wanting not to lose a subordinate? Well… you may be surprised but I even understand this due to your personal record… I know how it feels to lose someone…"
"No, Captain, I think you don'tknow what it means to lose someone!" Coreena got off her crate and took a step towards Kenzy. The woman suddenly felt several inches smaller.
"Be careful of what you throw into your opposite's face, Lieutenant, be very, very careful. I will let this little incident be unreported because of the very few time we know each other but another one of these slips of tongue will get you out of this squadron. Understood?" Kenzy choked.
"Yes, ma'am." The Captain nodded.
"Good. So… what are we going to do about the other incident?"
Kenzy shook her head and mumbled something like: "I really don't know, ma'am…"
"Well, I do. I will not report this, but I will add my share if an investigation is wanted by someone else. If nothing of this happens, you are lucky. And nothing of this will ever happen again or you have to look for a new job. Is this understood?"
Kenzy snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, ma'am." She got something of her spirit back. Good. It would have been bad to lose that.
"Good. Dismissed." The Lieutenant spun on her heal and left the little room. Sighing Coreena covered her face with her hands. If I wasn't only 25 I would say I'm getting too old for this…
Lt. Kenzy's quarters
Muttering under her breath, Kenzy stopped by her quarters, got something clean to dress and her shower things and headed straight for the women's refreshers. Unfortunately she kept her head down and soon bumped into some broad human male body. Which started to shout immediately: "Can't you just look where you're walking, stupid?"
She threw Blenwell her patented rancor-look and hissed: "Shut up, idiot and leave me alone." He flashed her a nasty smile.
"Oh, a little short-tempered, are we? Did the Captain give you such a bad time?" She really didn't have the time for this nor was she in the mood for some banter game.
"I don't know about you but my temper's all in the green, now let me just pass." He threw his hands in the air and took an almost gallant step to the side.
"Now, who's keeping you here, m'lady? Pass and be happy ever after." Oh, how she hated that stupid, arrogant, obnoxious… ex-Imperial bastard.
"Leave me alone. Don't let me see you for another standard day at least." And off she swapped to the 'freshers.
Lt. Lochlin's and FlO. Banon's quarters
Marcus Lochlin hated that new Captain. Really, he hated her. And in this moment he hated all of these emancipated, pig-headed, just plain dump women all over the Alliance military giving men like him tasks like filing reports over some damn insignificant little battle somewhere in the Outer Rim. Well, to be fair, he hated all commanding officers giving their subordinates tasks like this. And to be a little more fairer he didn't hate Coreena Mallan. He didn't even dislike her. He just… didn't know what he felt about her. "I mean it's not as if we even know each other, right?" he mumbled and got a "What'dyasay?" from a sleepy Jason Banon. "Nothin'." Marcus replied and continued starring at the data pad before him. So far he had filled in his name, rang and squadron in the mission report form. You have done better, pal. he scolded himself the hundredths time in nearly an hour. Nearly an hour… "Damn!" The hour Mallan had given him for his report was almost up and he had absolutely nothing. "Will you just shut up an' lemme sleep?", Banon let out but Marcus didn't hear anything as he jumped up and got out of the room.
Running at nearly full speed he almost missed Mallan's quarters and skidded to a halt in front of her door. Hesitating he knocked and got a "Come in." just a second later. "Ma'am?" She looked up from some paper work.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" She looked so… expecting.
"I… I'm sorry to tell you that I didn't… erm…" What was coming over him? He never had been squirming like this when speaking to Dreis.
"You didn't what?"
"I… I… didn't… um… didn't get the report done, ma'am." This was ridiculous. He felt like a nine-year-old trying to tell his most feared teacher he hadn't done his homework the fifth time in a row.
"You didn't…? Well, I was expecting more of you after reading your performance reports. Would you be so nice to tell me what you did finish?", she asked smiling sweetly but he could feel that this was just the calm before the storm.
"Well, I…"
"Maybe if I could have a look?" He held the data pad reluctantly in her direction but just as she was about to take it she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hands to her temples as if some bad headache shook her.
"Captain? Captain, is everything okay with you?" She seemed to be unable to hear him and put her hands over her eyes.
"Something… big just died." Now her eyes were wide open again, looking like the ones of a wounded animal.
"How could you…?" She shook her head.
"Just don't ask. And don't tell anybody…" At this moment her comm beeped and she taped her terminal. General Dodonna's face appeared.
"This is General Dodonna to all fighter commanders and leading ship personnel. Meet up in the briefing room immediately. This is an emergency. Dodonna out." She got up.
"If you'll excuse me, Lieutenant?" Confused he nodded. "Of course, Captain…" She took her data pad and left the room. The last thing Marcus saw of her was her almost hip-long braided tell of red-golden hair swinging from side to side as she ran off to the briefing room.
Lt. Kenzy's quarters
When Saron came back to her quarters and her mood had finally changed from angered to calmed down she realized for this first time how empty the tiny room was without Devlin who hadn't only been her wing-man – well, so to speak – but also her room-mate. Closing her eyes and leaning back on her bunk she thought back to the first time she had met the Rodian. They were flying a sim on the Spirit of Chandrila, the first ship she had been assigned to after joining Starfighter Command and the highly risky flying of Devlin had impressed her from the first time.
After being shot down because of Devlin's want to be the very best in the squadron and being let down because of it Saron's respect changed to dislike, though. And the antipathy even grew worse when she realized that she would have to share a quarter with the Rodian because the two of them were the only females on board the troop carrier. But after discovering the fact that despite the Rebels' ambitions to be the opposite of the Empire in their views on discrimination the Alliance fighter pilots were even worse than the commando soldiers when it came to females in their natural domain they had to form a grudging truce. In the two months they were trained on the Spirit Saron and Devlin had eventually become something very close to friends.
She dared not to say the word "friends" even in her head because Saron had had to learn very early and the hard way that such thing didn't exist in the universe she knew. Having been let alone by her parents at the age of two, maybe three, on Corellia and then being raised to be a slave she had experienced no love in her childhood. At the age of 14 she escaped the slave trader and tried to make a life of her own in the lower boroughs of Coronet City. That time ended when she had a rather… unpleasant encounter with a storm trooper. Now not only the slave trader was chasing her but also the Empire. It was time to finally get off Corellia.
Sighing Saron opened her eyes again and starred at the ceiling hanging low above her. Once Kesra had asked her what her reason was to join the Alliance. "Because I finally feel at home.", she had answered. But did she really?
Pilots lounge
"I tell you, something big just happened." The pilots around him were either snorting, chuckling under their breath or throwing ironic remarks at him. One of the Kar'Esta sisters – Deraani, the older one he supposed – grinned at him showing her impressive teeth.
"Yeah, 'course. Like the Empire just blew up a planet or something." Marcus shook his head and put his hand over his eyes.
"No, listen, I'm serious. I was just giving her the report and then General Dodonna called. He wanted all the squadrons' commanders and the stations' officers to come to the briefing room. This is something bigger, you have to believe me!" This had been going on now half an hour. He had summoned them all to the cantina. Everyone was there apart from Kara who was still at the infirmary and Kesra Devlin of whom no one knew if she was dead or not. He hadn't told them the whole story, just the parts they had to know. And still they didn't believe him. If he only could… And then his comm beeped.
"Lochlin here. What is it?"
"Mallan here. Meet me in my quarters. Bring a data pad. Now. Mallan out." Her voice sounded somehow strange… strained he thought. He stood up. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, you heard the lady. This meeting is closed until further news from me, 'kay? See you at the next briefing… or whenever you like to see me."
Banon chuckled. "As if anyone wanted to." He got just a side glance.
"Just in case. Now excuse me, please." And with that he headed off the cantina.
When he entered her quarters this time she wasn't sitting at her desk, just sitting on the lower bunk and starring off into space. He cleared his throat.
"You wanted to see me, Captain…" She looked up at him and the pain he saw in her watery shining eyes made him ache physically.
"Captain…?" She said nothing, just handed him a data pad. He began to read aloud. "Mere minutes ago we lost contact to our dependence on Alderaan…" He didn't like the least of this. He scrolled down the article. Obviously it was from some HoloNet-broadcasting station somewhere around Coruscant. At the end of it was another article, dated half an hour later. "A moment ago the officials of the Imperial Navy have confirmed that Alderaan has ceased… to… exist…" A little sob came from below him. What had she said at her little self-introduction? I am 25 standard years old, my home world is Alderaan… "Oh force…" He seated himself beside her. "Captain, if there is anything we can do for you…" She shook her head. "No, there is nothing. I have to solve this on my own." He put a hand on her shoulder but took it away as soon as she looked at him with evident anger in her eyes. "You know, your squadron comrades aren't only your subordinates but your comrades."
"Nevertheless you can't help me. No one of you can. Now take that data pad, leave me alone and present everything that's on it in half an hour to the squadron. I don't think I will be ready to do this by then." There was something in the air, something which he quite couldn't detect. But he surely didn't like it.
"Ma'am…"
"Do I have to issue every order twice, Lieutenant?" There was so much force in her words he instantly obeyed them.
He didn't know why but in the same moment the door began to close he turned around a last time. And everything seemed to happen at once.
Through the closing door he could see her taking something from her thigh. Something lengthy, small and shining… just like her officer's blaster. Realization dawning on him amazingly fast he put his foot between door and frame reflexively and pushed the door open with a surprising amount of strength and agility and held his palm towards her, shouting "No!". Then everything went into slow motion. She spun around, pulling the trigger oh so slowly. The last thing he saw before fading into oblivion was the look of shock mixed with surprise on her face and the blue laser beam zooming in to him.