Note: A/N this time at the bottom because I felt like it was giving away too much of the chapter and too much about the following one to belong before the actual chapter. Oh, and please note that I also up-dated the dramatis personae for all of you who have been reading this story since it had been posted originally.

Chapter Eleven

After the incident at the party Marten left the canteen soon, too, trying to find a spot where he could do a bit of thinking. Finally he landed in the quarters he now shared with Randy since Tyan D'Ar's death a week or so ago. But since the kid would be spending most of his downtime in the canteen it seemed to be the best choice. He laid down on his back on the lower bunk, his hands folded behind his head and began to let his thoughts wander.

From the first rumble-in he and Kenzy had never been on actually good terms. Marten remembered the tough woman being introduced by Dreis. She had not given them the tiniest smile, her facial expression stern and serious throughout the whole ceremony. Soon after it they had their first quarrel when Blenwell had tried to test her tolerance in a simulator run. As he had learned pretty fast that his woman didn't like to be tested in any way. Which however didn't make him stop it. Through the time he had come to enjoy their fighting as it kept his mind occupied and sometimes distracted from dull patrol duty since she was a worthy opponent. Well, and not to forget that he liked the certain spark of energy that was always between them.

And now he had ruined everything. Frustrated he kicked the bunk above him hard. He should have known how far she could be pushed without being seriously angry. Blenwell sighed. He had considered a formal written apology briefly but had put away this thought quickly. Saron was not the kind of beings who were satisfied with a bit of data or talk to settle serious affairs, and he was just too proud to admit his guilt openly to anyone. So what could make the lieutenant let him off?

He tried to imagine what she was doing right at the moment to work off her frustration and anger and immediately came to a conclusion. She most certainly was in the work out room, running her lungs out or beating the dummy to pulp. Yes, he thought, maybe this could be the way to come to terms with her. He got up and gathered his work out clothes. If he was lucky and she liked his way of apologizing he would return with some really severe bruises.

As her body hit the floor several heads in the cell turned. They seemed genuinely surprised to see her alive and quite healthy again. The first one to say something was Telsij Cayr in her usual drawl: "So they decided to let you live, huh?" Kesra scrambled to her feet and walked over to the bunk she normally occupied. She could feel not only Cayr's gaze on her but that of several other prisoners as well. She just sat down and drew her knees toward her chin. Then she finally was read to speak, but addressed no-one special in the room

"Let's just say that I was very, very lucky." She dared not to tell the others that Chesfer seemed to have developed a special interest in her and that they had a potential ally in sick bay, and just hoped that the others understood the hint not to ask any more questions. Her hopes fell as H'sishi said: "Lucky like Kat, young one?" Kesra's head jerked up. She gave the Ishi Tip a puzzled glance and the Ishi Tip shot something back that looked suspiciously like the Ishi Tip equivalent of a "You know what I mean"-look. Slowly she bent her head down and answered: "Yes… yes, I think just like her…" The woman they had been talking of now lifted her head. Fresh stains of tears could be seen all over her face, indicating it had been her turn this time. She normally didn't say anything, not even when it was "feeding time", as Cayr liked to call it in her usual condescending irony. But now, eventually she opened her mouth and said in a whisper so low and hoarse one almost didn't understand anything: "I wish she would have let me die."

Now the Cath from Engineer Corps moved into an upright sitting position and purred out: "Sometimes we all wish she would have done it." Every prisoner nodded. Kesra didn't even want to try to guess what had happened to them. The Cath, however, wasn't finished yet. "But if she had really done it she would not have been any better than the rest of this Imperial scum." A bundle from the other side of the room moved and evolved into the petite form of Ryana Whares. The private had been even quieter than Deira, not even crying she had done so far.

Her voice was low but not as broken as Deira's as she said: "I still believe she's just another trick to get us to talk, like this "good COMPNOR – bad COMPNOR" thing. Kardian's the good part while Chesfer and his clowns are the bad part. Maybe our good doctor even is COMPNOR. Never trust an Imp, that's what we commandos are trained."

R'siikhi, a woman with short dark hair who reminded Kesra a bit of her room-mate Kenzy, but older and with more rough edges, snorted and said: "Sithspawn's what they are teaching you. You commando people are so narrow-minded you can't see further than your next object to blow up."

Whares shot R'siikhi a furious glare and jumped up. She invited the older woman with her hands to a fight, hissing: "You wanna fight? I'll give you a fight…" Kesra was surprised to see R'siikhi stand up and sauntering provokingly slow towards Whares. She had expected more calmness and tolerance from a woman of her age but then again… the imprisonment surely had left its marks on all of them. Mimicking Cayr's drawl, R'siikhi said to Whares: "Don't tempt me, little girl…", and this made the private only more agitated. But before one of them landed the first blow, H'sishi's calm and quiet voice barged in, reprimanding both of them: "Stop it, the both of you. Have you forgotten yet that we have to stay together? That it is this what you are doing right now what the Imperials want us to do? If you harbor a grudge against someone of us, say so. But don't let it escalate to something that might hurt one or all participants of the debate. And if you don't feel able to settle this on your own…"

The door slid open again and Chesfer strode in, self-confident and arrogant as every time. He let his gaze wander and this time it got caught on H'sishi. Kesra felt the familiar cold in her stomach, the cold she felt every time she herself was chosen. Chesfer pointed at her with a half disgusted, half anticipating look and two stormtroopers walked over to her but instead of waiting for them to haul her up, the Ishi Tip stood up with more grace and dignity Kesra had ever expected to see in a prisoner of Chesfer. Kesra just hoped with all her might that this was not H'sishi's last walk.

This time loud music was coming out of the work-out room, something with fast beats and aggressive rhymes Blenwell hadn't heard before. Cautiously he opened the door a bit and poked his head in. And yes, there she was, hitting the dummy faster than it could repair itself. I really touched a nerve there, he thought and careful not to make a sound he sneaked in the room and prepared himself for a challenge harder than everything the Empire had thrown at him.

Although officially forbidden by Mallan there were still bets running in the squad about Kenzy's origins and what she had done before Starfighter Command. He smiled. He was one of people that had placed her somewhere around Intelligence or the commandos from the start and he saw his speculations confirmed now. The techniques she used weren't the ones of mere street fighters as they looked too accurate and drilled.

He didn't know how long he had been watching when he finally strolled into the room and said in a voice just loud enough to be heard over the pumping rhythm: "Why don't you pick on someone from your size, lieutenant?"

She froze, then turned around. He could see that she had some obvious difficulties to keep her temper in check but finally she said in a seemingly calm and self-confident voice: "They ran out of Weequays in Supply and none of the techy Wookiees wanted to spar with me again."

He grinned the grin he knew enraged her most and countered: "Yeah, because they couldn't endure the pity they felt when they had to let you win again so your precious little ego wouldn't be damaged too much, anymore." She snorted and fastened the strips around her knuckles, retorting: "You forgot that it was your ego which is too big to fit even in your quarters Anyway… what do you want?"

A lop-sided grin from him. "For starters, you shut up this trashing sound which claims to be music."

She cocked an eyebrow and said: "And who do you think you are to give me such an order?"

"Someone who likes to call music something light and slightly less annoying than this." This was getting him nowhere, he thought, but to his surprise she winked with her hand and the music stopped, being followed by a droid's warble. "You see, I'm not alone in here. If you don't want to get severely hurt keep your tongue in check this time.", she said with a glance to her droid which hooted acknowledging. He grabbed the towel which hung around is neck and for the first time she realized he had come in work-out clothes. Great… He grinned. "Careful, lieutenant, with that you threatened a fellow officer." She walked over to a bench and grabbed a bottle of water. After taking a long sip she turned to him again and said: "And with your silly and downright stupid remark you insulted every single female being who ever fought for the Alliance. Now try to wage that against my little advice." He had several opportunities now and he chose the most painful, saying: "So you tell me women actually can fight? The last time you tried it against me, you lost, remember?" Marten could see the anger building up in her again and mentally congratulated himself that he had just managed to volunteer as a living device to let some wrath out for her.

"You want to give me a revenge?" He bowed his head slightly, making it look more like an Imperial salute than a gesture of gallantry. "I grant it to you, please keep this in mind." She fastened the strips around her knuckles again and said: "You are even stupider than  thought until now. And now stop talking and let's get into action."

Six hours later the Coreena's comm snatched her from sleep. It had been a comparatively quiet night, but six hours were far from being enough to cure two weeks' without sufficient sleep.

Groggy she jumped from her bed and grabbed her comm. She tied not to sound to sleepy but nevertheless her voice slurred just a tick too much when she said: "Mallan here. What is it?" The answer made her awake in less than a second since it was Zifra shouting at her: "What in all galaxies where you thinking when you put together this lousy excuse for a report and sent it to me?" She tried to stay as calm a possible, to master this situation like her mother would have mastered it, and replied: "I am glad you received my report and the suggestion for our next squadron orders."

If it could be possible in any way Zifra seemed to explode even louder now. "How dare you even think of giving me advice how to operate with my forces?" She was in no mood whatsoever to discuss this two hours before the next escort run through Chesfer's operating territories but she knew Zifra wouldn't let her off the hook easily. So she did the only thing reasonable: She asked for a meeting in the opee-fish's den. Grudgingly he agreed and turned his comm off. A fast as she could she put on a new uniform and went off to his office. This would be the longest two hours of her life.

At the same time Zifra did a great job of dressing Coreena down in any way possible while she eventually managed to persuade him step by step to agree with her, Randy wand Marten got up and got ready for the run.

When they finally left there quarters and glaring deck light of the main corridor revealed the full scale of Marten's multi-colored face Randy couldn't stifle a laugh for long. Between suppressed laughing fits he got out: "I hope the other one looks even worse than you." With a slightly sour look on his face Marten lightly touched his sore left cheek-bone, and gave Randy a muffled reply: "I'm sorry I have to disappoint you. The lady still looks like her old rancor self."

This remark only made Randy laugh harder. "You mean, Kenzy did this to you? Either it was a very, very bad Y-Wing joke you told her or you insulted her secret Y-Wing-jock boyfriend."

Cautiously not to make too fast movements Marten shook his head. "It's even worse than this…"

"Even worse?"

"Yeah, I insulted "every female being that ever fought for the Alliance" Those were her exact words. And no, I did not tell her one of my silly "Why women can't fly a Starfighter"-jokes." If anything this comment just woke up Randy's curiosity, and he asked: "So, what did you tell her that made you look like being beaten up by a Weequay?" Marten just shrugged and said: "I rather don't want to tell you… just take my advice to never tell a woman soldier what you think she really wants…"

Randy, going a little bit further than even Marten in his mind, this time misunderstood him. "Are you saying you tried your trick on her?" A vicious grin spread over the young man's face and Marten shook his head, replying: "No… If I had done this I would be in sick bay right now, eating through a tube, believe me. Man, this woman surely knows how to use her feet…" He rubbed his jaw which felt as sore as the rest of his body, and didn't even want to think about how getting out of his Starfighter would feel after ten hours and only one stop-over escort duty.

It were only minutes to their rendezvous time when Zifra finally dismissed Coreena but she still felt better than anywhere in the last two weeks. She had come a great deal close to the last significant step to finally get Kesra back to the squadron, and she won one of the fiercest "superior argument" battles of her career.

Whistling and smiling she strode into the hangar and got into her fighter with more enthusiasm than the last two weeks altogether. When they were done with run he had good news for her squadron.

After a quick check-up she switched on her comm and said: "Gray Squadron, this is Gray Leader. Report your status."

"Gray Two, four lit and in the green."

"Gray Three, ready to go."

"Gray Four, all systems go."

"Gray Five, everything in the green."

"Gray Six, ready to go."

"Gray Seven as well."

"Gray Nine, ready to kick some Imperial butt."

"Gray Ten, all systems in the green."

"Green Twelve, ready to go."

Coreena nodded, then said when Control gave them permission to leave the hangar: "Gray Squadron, lift off and assemble in your flight groups. When I'm through with assigning you to your transporters you will do as ordered. We will jump to hyperspace in the usual way, one transport at a time, rendezvousing at the end of the jump." All squadron members acknowledged although they all knew the procedure by now, Coreena had to do this by the book. She knew Zifra was watching her and she couldn't afford to make any mistakes by now. When she finally had assigned two fighters to every transporter and made it to the jump spot she timed her jump with Marcus and the transporter and pulled the lever hat catapulted her to hyperspace.

A/N: Yeah, I know, not one of my most brilliant chapters but I was kind of uninspirated (must be the after-effects of my muse's AWOL) when I wrote tjis and I wanted to get this chapter online ASAP on the hand and on the other hand I wanted to get on with the story (meaning there will be a lot more action in the next chapter, maybe a stunning revelation or two and and least one new character will be introduced), but to be honest… I've not quite decided yet how to develop the characters' relationships and – what's even more important – whom I'm going to let die in the next chapter since there will be a nice little dogfight scene (you surely haven't thought I'm going to let them get away with yet another boring escort-run, have you? *g) and I just feel like they need something really cutting in (and no, I won't let Coreena or Kenzy die since the first one is the main character and the second one is my personal favorite character…)… anyway, just have a little patience since I want the next chapter to be a lot better than this ^_^