Chapter Five

Liberty, sick-bay

Standing at the big window in sick bay again, Coreena mused about the last two days. She had sat at the bedside of her second-in-command for the majority, had quietly talked to him, even slept at his side when exhaustion finally took over but he had remained unconscious. She had regained a small amount of her memories through dreams and sudden flash-backs. At the moment she could remember calling him after the emergency conference and giving him instructions for the squadron but she absolutely could not remember what instructions and why she wanted to give them to him. Frustrated she slammed her fist against the transpari-steel window. "I would rather like it if you chose not to destroy vital military material, Captain."

Irritated she spun around, only to find herself confronted with Captain Reed and Lieutenant Mitchum again. In a cool voice she answered: "And I would rather like it if you chose not to intimidate me again, Captain." He showed her a half-smile and then became all business. "We have the formal permission to interview you from your squadron medic. Therefore we have to ask you some questions." She nodded tentatively but stayed at the window. "At first... do you remember anything that happened after the conference?" She answered as good as she could. "Are you sure you don't know why or when you shot your XO?"

"Yes."

"Would you swear an oath to that?"

"Yes."

"And would you swear an oath to the statement that you didn't do this on purpose?"

"Yes."

Reed nodded to his partner and the man took some notes. "Well, that was all for now. A good day to you." And out they went.

Coreena just rushed towards her bed and slumped down. What was this all about? She knew she probably had to face a hearing but she could make absolutely nothing of this incident. Sighing she laid down and looked at the ceiling. She just wished she could remember. After some more minutes of starring she dosed off and almost jumped out of her bed when someone knocked on her door. "Come in."

The door opened and Saron Kenzy entered. "Hi.", the woman just said and sat down beside Coreena. "Lieutenant?" Kenzy looked up and seemed to have snapped out of a daze of some sort. "Yeah?" Coreena raised her eyebrows. "Is there something that irritates you?" Giving her a half-smile Kenzy answered: " Well… I… I just don't think it very wise to make Blenwell my XO. We just don't get along very well." Another cocked eyebrow. "I… We…" There was something else, Coreena could somehow sense it. "Lieutenant…", she began vigilantly, "you want to tell me what happened?"

"Nothing happened, Captain…" Kenzy looked at her Captain again and for the first time met eyes that were so painfully inquiring. "I…" Another look from those eyes and Kenzy told her Captain everything from the incident that had happened two hours ago. Coreena shook her head. She knew of these tricks, had to experience them herself, had let herself being caught by this… and had herself being thrown out of two squadrons because she had trusted the men pulling these tricks too much. "Well… I'm sorry to say this but I can't help you with this in anything. I just can advise you to be careful and be at watch… but… maybe that's just Blenwell's style to offer you a ceasefire or something…" She was interrupted by the beeping of her com-link. "Mallan here. What is it?" A voice unknown to Kenzy said: "Aurora here. Lieutenant Lochlin just woke up. Thought that might interest you." She looked at Kenzy. "Thank you very much for telling me, Ensign. Mallan out." At the door she looked back and winked at Kenzy. "C'mon, Lieutenant."

Together they made their way to intensive care. Almost hesitatingly they entered. The male Lieutenant had his eyes open but he still had the breathing mask on his face. At the sight of the two women a weak smile crept over his face. "Hi.", he breathed and earned a hesitant smile from Mallan and an unreadable expression from Kenzy. Then Mallan coughed and took a seat beside him. "Lieutenant… I'm happy to see you up again but there are some questions I need you to answer me. You think you are capable of this?" After considering her request he nodded. "You may find this strange but I can't remember anything after returning to my quarters, calling you and giving you some instructions. There is going to be a hearing most probably so I need to know pretty fast what happened afterwards. Can you tell me this?" He was a bit confused. What hearing? What was she talking about… and then it hit him. Almost in a whisper he answered her: "You… you were giving me instructions… and told me… to tell them to the squadron some hours later … Then I left… left your room… and was about to go… but I could see you draw a blaster… obviously to commit suicide… so I didn't think and tried to prevent you… and then you shot at me…" Mallan and Kenzy shared a look and then Kenzy left. He had no clue what this was all about. "I… I'm sorry about this, Lieutenant. I swear, I didn't do this on purpose. It was…"

"I know, Captain. You told me before, remember?" This seemed to genuinely shock her. "You… you heard that? Did you hear anything else?" He had, but he couldn't make any sense of the sparse incoherent memory he had so he just told her no. This woman clearly had too much to worry about already. "So… how's the squadron?"

"You really want to make some conversation, Lieutenant?" He managed to raise his eyebrows a little. "Well, you don't, Captain?" She smiled. "Well, to be honest, I don't know very much about the squadron. Kenzy assumed command, with Blenwell as her XO. She rearranged the schedules and wing-pairings and requested some replacement pilots. As far as I know she won't get any but it's worth the try, I think. She analyzed the data I asked Intelligence for but so far she hasn't told me anything on her results. I think, that's all I know for now." Lochlin grinned, if this was possible for an injured man in intensive care that is. "Kenzy and Blenwell as the new squadron command team. That's a hell of a explosives store, don't you think?" Coreena thought of the incident Kenzy told her about but didn't say anything about it. Kenzy had too much to worry about already. "Yeah… you bet they are. Have the medics said anything about when you're fit to fly again?"

"No… but why are you still hanging out in sick bay? You seem perfectly healthy…" She knew this had to come some time. "I already told you… there'll be a hearing and additionally to that Flight Officer D'Ar "strongly doubts my mental ability to fly", as he put it. I wish he just would listen when I'm telling him that flying sometimes is the only thing that keeps me sane."

"I know what you mean, believe me." After this their eyes met and they shared an odd silence. Suddenly Mallan got up and said good bye to him in a rather hasty fashion. Marcus just wondered what he had done wrong this time.

Predator, brig

When the door opened this time Kesra had a very bad feeling about it. All of them were in the prison so the opening meant that one or even more of them were taken out to either torture or execute them. And right, the bald admiral who was responsible for her being on this ship, strode into the room and surveyed it with his hawk-like yellow eyes. Then the thing she feared most happened. His gaze stopped on her and he pointed in her direction. "Today I want this one. Get it ready in the chamber." From the corner of her eyes she registered the looks of the other women. Cayr was her usual cold and bored self, Ryana shot imaginary lasers towards the Imperials and H'sishi had her head lowered as usual but with her ears Kesra could hear the Ishi Tip whisper: "They cannot brake you. Remember the fire in you that brought you to our cause."

As the storm troopers hauled her up Kesra clung to that two sentences.