It needed three Noquivzor days – or approximately one and a half standard days – to get all Gray pilots out of critical condition and two more to get all the X-Wings at least operational enough to leave the orbit and travel a sufficient length of hyperspace to get the Liberty.
At the end of the fifth local day Coreena had finally managed to repair Kal and was done with all tests. She leaned back in her cockpit and closed her eyes. In her mind she checked her to-do-list for the next day just a last time before she would go to sleep. The freighters had gone three local days ago and so she had to worry only about her people. She had re-arranged wing-pairings with now flying together her, Marcus and Flann as well as Krennel and Deraani altogether as One Flight and Kara and Nunb and Kenzy and Blenwell as Two Flight. If there was any trouble they would not be fighting, just trying to make a clean escape and hoping that the Liberty found them before the Empire found them. When they were on Liberty she would start looking for evidence at who the traitor was, whom he or she worked for, who were his or her accomplices…
"Care for a round of story-telling?" She flinched at the sudden voice and looked down. Marcus… just like always…Coreena forced a grin and answered: "I'm sorry I have to disappoint you once again… but I've been working all day and I need some sleep…" Against better judgment and knowledge she hoped he'd gotten her hint and would let alone. But he wouldn't be Marcus if he did… He climbed up her ladder and peered into her cockpit. "C'mon… you told me you'd socialize with the squad at the next best opportunity and what would be a better opportunity than a campfire, roasted game and some pilots with the burning wish to boast their minds out of their heads?" Smiling an honest smile this time she shook her head and answered: "Really, Marcus… I am tired out of my wits. And besides… I'm a lousy story teller." Grinning he climbed on the ship's "nose" and crouched down before her.
Pretending to be indignant she folded her arms and looked away from him, stating with false offence in her voice: "If you don't leave my ship in one second I will personally force you to tell the whole squadron how you lost a very stupid bet to a certain Lieutenant Gattmann." The shock in his face was genuine and he held up his hands in defense, exclaiming: "Oh no, you'd never do this!" She grinned a malicious grin, replying: "Wanna test me?" One second he was tempted to jump off the ship and leave immediately but then his resolution to win her over just once won, and so he lay down on his stomach, leaning on her HUD chassis with his forearms. He tried to look absolutely confident when he returned: "Whatever you are throwing at me, I'm not leaving until you consented to accompany me to the fire."
Coreena was amused at his persistence and decided to let him dangle a few more minutes, continuing like this. But finally she heard him and said: "Okay… let's try it this way: I'm coming with you if you let me tell the bet story." Before he had actually understood what this meant he had consented, just taking the opportunity she was offering him. When he had understood it, it didn't matter anyway because she was already climbing down the ladder. At seeing how she still had difficulties he offered her his help but was declined with: "The last time you helped me climb down this ladder you got me a sprained ankle. Don't want to take this risk a second time." And so he jumped down from the nose and waited at the bottom. But before they finally went to the fire he had to settle something. He had promised himself to talk about this "strong leader thing", and he would do it now.
When she was finally down, he cleared his throat and said: "Cap… there's something we need to talk about." She frowned and for just one second he was afraid that she thought of another matter between the two of them, but she said: "If you mean this spy-thing…" Relieved he shook his head and continued: "No… no, it's about this "strong leader thing", you're always pulling. Don't look at me like this… I mean your "Nothing can stop me, not even a sprained ankle that makes it impossible to walk for me" attitude. I know it's an usual thing among leaders – Dreis and most of the other officers I served under were the same – but you got it down to an art. You didn't even let your ankle and wrist being treated with bacta when there were no other patients to care for at the infirmary, always mumbling something about having a lot of work to do and the like. Cap… Coreena… are you punishing yourself with this?"
Not seeming to understand him in the least she shook her head with a disbelieving expression in her face and the same tone in her voice when she answered: "Punishing myself? I… have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Where did you get this…" He ragged his hair, desperately trying to make her understand what he meant. "What I'm aiming at is that it seems that you want everyone else being relieved from pain as fast as possible but that you seem to relish in it. Or is there any other sensible explanation why you torture yourself with walking with a sprained ankle and working with a broken wrist?" She turned away from him, hobbling a little farther into the shadows the X-Wings were casting and away from possible prying eyes. With a little sigh she sat down on one of the crates standing beside her X-Wing.
After shortly checking for his squad mates he came after her and sat down on a crate beside her. For a long while neither of them said anything, just to begin together all of a sudden.
"I'm sorry…"
"You were right…"
He grinned and gestured towards her to say her sentence first. "You… you were right, Marcus. At least… somehow. It's just that… the pain makes me realize, that… I'm alive… It makes me… feel." He looked at her hands. She may have looked calm and composed but her hands were betraying her nervousness. They never held still, the whole time. For some minutes he observed them, then stood up and finally put his own left hand onto her hands. She looked at him. What had been meant as a brief act just to calm her extended longer and longer and just as he was about to let her hands go she took his hand in hers and held on to them like she was drowning. When she spoke again, her voice sounded raspy and chocked. "I thought I was over it. I thought I could live on. I thought I could accept that they were gone forever. But you know what? They keep coming back, all of them. My mother, my friends, my teachers… They ask why I wasn't there. They ask why I ran away. They… scream at me… "Coward!", they say. "Traitor!", they say. But that's not even the worst thing." She let out a short humorless laugh, bordering dangerously close to hysterical. And all the time she was speaking she clung to his hand and he let her.
After a short pause she went on. "When Alderaan was destroyed… when I heard it for the first time in the briefing by General Dodonna, everything inside of me denied it, although deep in my heart I maybe was the first of all the people in the room who knew it. And then… the numbness set in. I don't know of anything the General talked about and what the others said and… I just… sat there, feeling nothing. After this… I… I just knew I wouldn't be able to live any longer. I wanted to be with my mother, with my people. And so… oh, Marcus, I'm so sorry about this whole mess with the shooting…"
Careful and almost tenderly he pried his left hand lose and put one of the usual lose strands of red hair behind her ear, smiling and whispering: "I already told you, I don't blame you. I came out of this alive so there's nothing more to talk about, really." She looked at him again, studying him, pursing her lips and he could almost feel the kiss that should have come but she only took his hand again and curled her fingers around his. He wanted to say something but she beat him to it, saying: "I'm still sorry to have inflicted pain on you. And I'm thankful that you came to me in this night in sick bay and that you stayed loyal. Your being such a good XO and friend made it easier and it gave me back some of my sanity." This time her face was plastered with a tentative, yet still a little bit sad smile, and nothing could have made him happier. The only thing circling in his mind was the thought that she had called him a friend. He savored in it, he thanked her in his mind for just having made his year. But on the outside he just gave her a brief hug with his arm around her shoulders and said: "When I take someone's wing I'm in it, no matter what." Then he stood up, patted her shoulder shortly and invited her another time to the campfire. To his delight and surprised she took the invitation.
"You are joking, right?"
R'siikhi's face was plastered with disbelief as she looked at Kesra who finally had worked up the courage to share her knowledge with the others who were all staring at her. She shook her head and said in the low voice she had adapted since her imprisonment on the Predator: "No. I heard him. It can be only him."
Cayr snorted. "I don't believe this. Where did you get the guts to kid us with the very bad joke that Darth Vader is on board this ship?" Kesra resignedly shook her head and said: "I would never joke about this. I heard him through an airshaft. He is here." Whares who had been following the dispute now for one hour without saying anything, now added her share: "You know… I personally think that Vader is just a COMPNOR invention to oppress the galaxy with fear. They just stuffed someone in that armor and then spun some story about "Dark Knights" and "the force" and such. He ain't nothing but a fraud if you ask me."
Kesra counted down in her head how much time R'siikhi needed for a reply and stopped at four, when she heard the Lieutenant from Control say: "First: Nobody asks you. And second: Everything's a COMPNOR lie to you, honey." Everyone in the room waited for the little Private to explode like she always did when she had some argument with Control as she had chosen to call R'siikhi but nothing happened. Whares just smirked and snorted, then said: "If you knew COMPNOR you wouldn't talk like this about them. But until you get to know them fancy yourself lucky."
The eyes turned towards R'siikhi but she chose to just grin and shake her head. And so everyone's attention turned back to Kesra who still tried to proof somehow that she had heard Vader. She told them that Rodian ears were considered one of the finest in the whole galaxy, that she had the delicate and enhanced senses of a hunter, that there was no doubt… but her fellow prisoners preferred to ignore her efforts and stick to their joke-theory. And so she settled for her usual granite slug shell tactic and retreated into her own thoughts, hoping that Vader would stay a long amount of time since he seemed to distract Chesfer from his prisoners.
It was in the middle of the ship's night when suddenly Chesfer's comm ringing snatched him out of sleep. Grumbling he rolled over in his fairly large bed and grabbed the comm. Just before answering it, the remembrance that Vader was on board kicked in and he tried to sound composed and radiate a natural authority combined with just the right amount of obedience when he switched the comm on and said: "Chesfer here. What is it?" For one dreadful moment, he feared to hear Vader's voice penetrate the room but relaxed when he heard the normal human voice of Desra Tellik saying: "Tellik here, Admiral. Lord Vader wants to speak to you immediately, sir. I recommend to get to his quarters ASAP, sir. Tellik out." Chesfer laid back, his breathing becoming slightly more erratic and sweat forming on his forehead. What in the Emperor's name had he done to deserve this?
Groaning he got up and tried to make himself look at least a little more dignified. Wasting as less time as possible he dressed and walked out of his quarters, desperately trying to keep himself from panicking at the sheer thought of having Lord Vader let waiting to long. Chesfer had seen what had happened to people who had made lesser mistakes in front of the Dark Lord and the sudden memory of it did absolutely nothing to calm the up-coming storm inside his mind.
Taking a last reassuring breath he rounded the last corner before the open commanders briefing room and put on what he thought to be his most confident, yet serious and professional face. When he reached the door and stepped into the room, the big black-cloaked figure that was Darth Vader was already waiting, his steady, slightly asthmatic breathing filling the room and his masked face as unreadable as ever. Chesfer snapped to attention and bopped his head in a short and still obedient salute and waited for Vader to say anything.
Finally, after several painful seconds of waiting Vader finally spoke. "Do you know why I summoned you here, Admiral Chesfer?"
The Admiral shook his head slightly and retorted: "No, my Lord. Would please be so kind as to…?"
Vader didn't wait for him to finish his sentence but went on straightforward: "You know that the week I have given you is half-over and there is still no change in the situation. What do you expect me to do about this?" Chesfer could barely keep himself from gasping in shock and surprise at Vader and said: "My Lord? Excuse me, I don't quite understand…" Vader shook his head in a curt movement and Chesfer could have sworn to hear a trace of impatience in the normally even engineered voice of the Dark Lord when he answered: "Oh yes, Chesfer, you do understand full well what I am talking about. Where is that pilot you promised me? Why is your "contact" not sending any reports? I want answers, Chesfer, not excuses." Think, Chesfer, think. The Admiral cleared his throat and tightened the grip around the data-pad he had been carrying around with him. Finally he said: "I… I think that there are some difficulties since the last ambush we pulled on Gray Squadron. The last transmissions from the Fearless and the reports from surviving crew-members and fighter pilots alike confirmed one dead among the squadron and several injured. They might have sought a secret hiding place where they are licking their wounds. I… I suggest we wait until they are supposed to rendezvous with the Liberty. If they don't show up there it is very likely that they will never show up again anywhere." He let out a slight huff and chastised himself inside of his mind immediately after it.
For some painful seconds Vader didn't say anything, only starred at him with his transparisteel lenses and filled the room with his breathing. Chesfer could swear to feel a strange choke already to begin but was relieved when Vader finally spoke. "Your fear for failure is almost tangible in this room, and I loath fear. But your fear has saved you for once since it brought you one idea that did not sound completely out of question. I will wait the amount of time you requested. But if this Gray Squadron does not show up at the rendezvous point and there are still attacks on our ships by this squadron afterwards someone on his ship will have to pay for that." Chesfer gulped. That was a close one. As Vader said nothing more, the Admiral quickly replied: "As you wish, my Lord." Vader only nodded and swept out of the room.
A/N: After who knows how much time I finally found time to up-date. However, I really sincerely apologize to my beta-reader but I couldn't wait longer with my up-dates. I hope, you understand.