He found her sitting in a booth far away from the other pilots and ship personnel, reading something. "Letters from home, Lieutenant?" Kenzy jumped a little but caught herself amazingly fast. She looked up and once she found out who had said the previous words her gaze somewhat hardened. "Even if they were, it would be none of your business, Flight Officer."
Against her hopes he sat down, opposite of her and faced her. "So they aren't?" Why in all the galaxy was he suddenly interested in what she read? She gave him another hard glance, huffed and told him to back off. Blenwell, however did nothing and stayed. "You obviously missed my point in my previous remark so I will tell you what it meant in a fashion even you should understand it." The next sentence she said very slowly and put emphasize on every word. "This is none of your business." He just grinned and continued to bug her about the data-pad in her hand which she finally threw away in exasperation. "Alright, this isn't about some stupid newsletter, right? This is about something else. So… spill it. What's your problem?" Blenwell grinned one of his ever so unnerving lop-sided grins. "Well… for a Lieutenant, you certainly are a bit slow… Lieutenant." The last word he added with just the right amount of hesitating. She swore inwardly. This man drove her nuts. "Okay, Flight Officer, what the hell is this about?" The man cleared his throat and became suddenly a lot more serious. "Lieutenant… did the Captain speak to you about… certain… assumptions she made on… No… our target?" Saron knew what he was talking about. Captain Mallan had spoken to her even while she had been in sick-bay about her speculations about a spy on the Liberty. She cleared her throat and said: "Yes… but I don't think that discussing it here would be a good idea. We… should leave here if you really want to talk about that." To her surprise he just nodded. "And I happen to know just the right place. If you'd be so kind a to follow me, Lieutenant?" Inwardly she shook her head. Obviously this was really important. When they were out of the canteen he quickly whispered: "Get your work-out clothes, Lieutenant. You know where to meet me." She made a face and sneered: "Oh, I could have decided for that place, too." He just grinned a humorless grin and hurried to get his clothes.
They were on patrol and growing pretty bored. Seven and Eight – Reslin and Steva – were playing "Space Battle" via comm and Rannan did nothing to prevent it. He just wished he could have been able to convince Marlin to install it in her computer, too, but his XO had been just as sensible and dutiful as ever. He sighed. Marlin Rua was one of the most sensible and dutiful people he knew and she still could put up with every crap life threw at her. Her X-Wing didn't have any modification or "altering" that was against the handbook at all. She flew by the book and she was punctual and she practically made up for every failure he had. But she still was one of his best pilots.
He looked around in his canopy and saw Flight Officer Reslin's X-Wing fly by. The female Mon Cal's craft on the other hand was the most modified in the whole squadron and probably the most suited for the kind of missions they normally performed. It had the normal shape of an X-Wing but when you took a closer look at it you saw that it's outlines were slightly softer and more elegant than a normal X-Wing's outlining. Rannan knew that Reslin had a highly sensitive long range sensor pack, just like a recon X-Wing but without the disadvantages in flight maneuvering. He also knew that her shoot precision was about 50% higher than that of the rest of the squadron mostly because of her skills as a weapon technician. She shot him a short look with her artificial eye and then was gone for another round along the hull of the Liberty. Rannan sighed again.
Just as he was about to lean back, close his eyes for a while and let his R2 do the flying the light that signaled that his XO was hailing him on their wing-pair frequency blinked. He switched the comm to their frequency and Rua's voice flooded his cockpit. "I was bored, Ran, and figured that if I was bored you'd be sleeping by now." He could practically hear her grin through the comm and he grinned, too, as he answered: "Well, you certainly do know me well." Her laughter sounded over the comm. He liked it. It reminded him that there were other things out there than war and tyranny and suffering. He smiled, and she retorted: "Anyway… care to tell me what it is with you and Captain Mallan? You don't seem very fond of her…" Rannan let out a sigh that sounded a tad more too dramatic to be real and said: "Well… let's just say that we served together and it was not the best of time of either our lives."
"Oh, now you have my full attention." He could very well imagine the intrigued smile that by now was certainly illuminating her face. If Marlin Rua had one failure it was curiosity and the overwhelming fondness of gossip but even that Rannan didn't count as a full-fledged personality flare, was more inclined to find it an endearing trait of hers that cut in the same notch as her laughter.
The sound of her clearing her throat came over the comm and he finally said: "Well… we served together one year with the Tierfon Yellow Aces, and we had a kind of best enemies relationship. I always had the feeling that she was a kind of a protégée for our commander because she was the only woman and she… let's just say she didn't like my way of solving problems. But on the other hand… there were some really nasty guys among the marines on the ship we were on who pulled some nasty things and I didn't like to see that so I kind of began to… act protective once we were around those people. I mean… she was my damn object of dislike." Up to this point Marlin had been silently listening but now she barged in: "So you are saying it was okay if you bullied her but other men weren't allowed to do that? Man, Ran, you are a very strange man."
"Not any more stranger than other people I know. Anyway, our commander – a certain Captain Kre'Fey – obviously mistook my actions for something I never implied." He could imagine the frown on her face as Marlin answered: "Are you saying that he thought you had "romantic interests" in Captain Mallan?" He nodded and said: "Well… he didn't use the exact words, but alright, yeah, that's what he thought. But you know, I wouldn't have minded if Kre'Fey had just let it lye there. But no, that stupid son of a Bothan bitch assumed that I was making "unwanted advances" toward Mallan and gave me quite the lecture about how to treat fellow female pilots and a serious threat to ruin my career if he would ever hear something about it again. And stupid man that I was I didn't even ask what had led him to such assumptions. I just presumed that it had been Mallan. The whole affair ended in a real big serious battle of the words between Mallan and me in which I accused her of using the fact that she was female to ruin other pilots' careers and her telling me what an insensible and emotional idiot I was. At the end both of us handed in a request to leave the squadron as fast as possible." There was a bit of silence but then Marlin finally spoke up in a thoughtful voice. "Did you ever find out if it was really her who had led Kre'Fey to his assumptions?" Another minutes of silence, then: "Yes."
"Uh-huh… and?" He squirmed in his seat as if she was sitting right in front of him and giving him one of her patented "I want to know, and I won't leave until I know it"-looks. Finally he gave in, as always. "She didn't tell him anything like this. Kre'Fey had just heard the rumors going around the squadron and had formed his own opinion about it all. He never even asked her." Rannan could hear a faint knocking sound over the comm. Marlin had tried to slap her forehead but had been stopped by her helmet. She just said: "D'uh, Rannan. And am I right that you never apologized?"
"Well, yeah, it's a matter of pride." He could hear a grunt and something that sounded suspiciously close to "Men!", then heard her say: "No, it's a matter of stupidity." In a bout of feeling of duty she added a half-amused sounding: "With all due respect… sir." Rannan grinned. "So what do you suggest, Lieutenant?" It was rare that they called each other by their ranks rather than their names. Rannan normally called Marlin by her rank when he either wanted to mock her or when he was seriously angered by something she had done. Now it seemed more like the first, even if it lacked some of the usual mocking and irony. She sighed and finally said: "Well… at first you really should somehow get around and apologize to Mallan, even if it is in your very own, very special way." Although I doubt that she would understand it., Marlin added mentally. Rannan's way of apologizing was so confusing that she had needed two weeks to understand what he had wanted to say when he had first apologized for dressing her down unjustified.
"What did I do wrong this time, that you want to me to be embarrassed so badly, huh?" This was so typical of him. Normally it was not her who received the reprimanding remarks from him but the other way around. She mentally shook her head. So much was strange in their superior-inferior relationship. Probably because he is strange., she thought and smiled. No, it wasn't quite right, he was not strange, just different from her. While she was the calm, reasoning and sensible one he was the chaotic, impulsive and emotional one. And even if he liked to mock her, try to outwit her and then and there test her tolerance he still accepted the advice he asked her for and gave her the feeling that she was more of an equal than a Lieutenant. She smiled as she answered: "Nothing. But you have certainly seen yourself that we need to work together with Mallan and her squadron and that certain animosities between the commanders do nothing to help the cooperation, haven't you?" For a moment it sounded like he was seriously sulking but then he agreed just as earnest as her.
"So… what was it you wanted to talk to me about?", Kenzy said and stretched her arms and rolled her head to loosen her neck. If she had to be here she could as well have a real workout. Blenwell seemed to be thinking the same, since he did some warming up on the treat mill, too. He gave a slight huff and said: "How much did the Captain tell you about her presumptions?"
She gave a tentative air kick and winced as she felt her sinews, muscles and bands protest. She settled in for another round of leg stretching and replied: "As much as you, I think. That she has the strong suspicion of a spy among us, that she can't rule out us, not even herself, that she tries to find out more and wants us to have an eye open for everything suspicious." He nodded and his running became slower until he stopped and began some stretching himself. Then he said: "Well… I think I found something…" She raised an eyebrow. "And…?" Blenwell did a series of air kicks and punches while speaking to her in short staccato sentences, following the rhythm of his movements. "One of my mechanics… she did an awful lot of navcomp… analysis. She had done it… before all of our… escort runs. Said there seemed… something wrong… with it." He ended his warming-up and took a stance before her. "Ready for some real workout?" She grinned. "You mean like the last one?" A kind of painful grin darted across his face but then his features became even again. "Well… yeah." She took her hand-to-hand combat gear – or, more precisely, just the strips she had worn the last times, out of her small bag and fastened them around her hands.
They took their stances on the mats, but never stopped talking while they exchanged kicks, punches and blows. "So… you think she is the one? Then what about the encounters with those imperial forces while we were not on the Liberty?" With a quick movement she dodged a kick from him, while he answered: "Well… you have a point there. But maybe it's not only one spy but a whole group of them?" She aimed a quick series of punch-kick-punch at him and hit him two times. Grinning she replied: "You may be right. Did your mechanic do something else than just analyze your nav data?" He answered her hits with some kicks aimed at her side. One of them scored. "Not that I noticed. But all of those mechanics have access to our fighters the whole time."
He aimed another blow at her but she grabbed his hand and used his speed to twist him around and throw him to the ground. Quickly she sunk heavy onto his chest and made it quite hard for him to get up. She grinned at him and said: "Well… maybe. How long do you know this mechanic? Have you trusted her before? Would you suspect something if you wouldn't have been told of the possibility of a spy among us?" The questions shot out like laser shots out of an E-Web Blaster. Her knee on his chest made it a bit harder to answer but he managed it nevertheless: "Two years and some months, yes, no. And now…" Suddenly his legs came up from behind her and came around her neck. They hold on to her like a clamp and suddenly he was on top of her. It just earned him a slight grin and an answer: "So… it was a good idea but not good enough." His hands came down beside her head and out of the blue his nose was just millimeters away from hers. "So… who won this time, Lieutenant?" Her answer was a grin, a hard punch in the side of his face and a satisfied "Me."
Satisfied, Saron stood up and wiped her hands on her short leggings. Groaning and rubbing his jaw, Blenwell tried to get up. "You wouldn't lend me a hand, would you?" Grinning she shook her head and retorted: "After what you did last time I tried to help you? No, Flight Officer. And I'm not even sorry about it." He stared at her for a heartbeat and was puzzled. Only after several seconds it dawned on him what had irritated him so much. The words she used had been the same like always – full of scorn and even malice – but the tone she had used was only a little scolding, even playful. Briefly he thought about teasing her a little but decided against it when the throbbing pain in his jaw reminded him of how hard she could punch when she felt intimidated.
He finally got up and threw her a look. She stood with her back to him, taking a long sip from her bottle. Once again he noticed her well-shaped legs and backside and almost at once kicked himself mentally for having strange thoughts about her. Just as he was about to finally draw his eyes back from her, she turned around and threw him one of her famous disapproving looks, stating in a matter-of-factly voice: "You're doing it again." He tried to feign innocence and ignorance, saying: "I'm doing what?" She heaved a sigh. "Seizing me up. Oh, we both know you've been doing it. And we both know that I don't like it." Blenwell just merely nodded, for the moment obviously at a loss for words. Kenzy seemed to have sensed it since she only grinned, and at that moment she looked like her old rancor-self.
After some more silent moments she cleared her throat and asked: "So… did you speak to the Captain about your observations?" Drying his face with his towel he shook his head and said: "I would have, if I could have found her." Kenzy grinned with the hint of arrogance. "Well, she's been in her quarters after she came back from sick-bay." He dried his neck and eyed her suspiciously. "Since when do you know where the Captain is when you have only escaped sick-bay 5 hours ago?" Kenzy shrugged and packed her bag. "Since I'm her new room-mate." Packing his own stuff, he said: "Well… I wouldn't want the Captain for a room-mate. At least not when she has her blaster at hand." The look she threw him made clear that he had done something she considered very near to treason. He expected her to yell at him and threatening have him discharged or even wore, but her look just turned into a cold, calm one and she said: "I don't think that was very funny, Flight Officer." With that she took her bag and swept out of the room.
Well, he thought, that was certainly not a very bright thing to say.
"Admiral on the bridge!", the crewman shouted and Chesfer strode in, as confidently as one could manage when he was coming back from a meeting with the Dark Lord of the Sith. Vader had given him another ultimatum, and the Dark Lord's impatience and anger over Chesfer's obvious incompetence and the uselessness of the spy aboard the Liberty had been almost tangible in the room. Never had Chesfer been so happy to leave a meeting room. He cleared his throat and took the command chair in front of the huge main window.
The Admiral closed his eyes, for a brief moment, then called out: "Ardin, to me. ASAP!" Someone in the crew pit jumped up immediately and ran towards the command chair. He saluted, bopping his head and his breathing was just a little bit too erratic to conceal his excitement. The Admiral merely nodded and said: "I want every possible bit of information we got form the Liberty from the last two days. And then I want you to give them to Navigation, together with the orders to plot a course to the most probable point where they will be vulnerable, such as rendezvous points with supply freighters, enforcements, everything like that." The crewman nodded, saluted and left when the Admiral gave him the dismissed-signal.
Slowly Chesfer brought his fingertips together and set his head against his clasped hands, giving Navigation 2 Minutes time to plot the course, then calling out: "Navigations! How long until the first rendezvous point with Liberty?" A timid voice answered almost unintelligible over the normal bridge sounds: "One day, sir." He growled. Why was it always his ship they sent the incompetent and foolish ensigns to? Filling his voice with as much scorn and authority that was necessary he called out: "I did not understand one word, Navigation! Tell me again. And this time so I can understand it properly or you'll face kitchen duty as the least of your punishment." The voice that shouted back this time obviously belonged to someone either more experienced or simply more daring. "One day, sir!"
Chesfer nodded only slightly and finally sat back in his chair. Maybe he finally managed to get away some from Vader's iron grip.
"'Morning, Cap.", Marcus said and tried to stifle a yawn. Smiling she noticed it but let it slip. They were all still a little tired after their last secret meeting. After Kenzy had told her about Blenwell's assumptions, she had summoned her pilots to the deserted pilots' rec-room to an emergency meeting. It had turned out that not only Blenwell had noticed something fishy but also at least 3 more of her people had had various strange encounters with other crew-members. In the end they had easily overdone the estimated two hours.
Groaning she sat down and put her head on the table. "You alright?" Her head shot up again and a somewhat groggy smile greeted him. "Yep. Never felt any better." Moving around his fork in his food a little he gave her a half-smile and said: "I can see that very clearly, Cap." They ate in silence a little when he finally broke it and said: "Cap?" She looked up. "Yes?"
"Didn't I recall you saying that you would explain to me what this mess with Rannan is all about?" One moment she looked like she would just ignore the comment and go on eating but then obviously decided otherwise, put down her fork, took a short look around the mess hall and then said: "Alright. As your CO I owe you as much, I guess." He merely nodded and she went on, telling him about her little private war with Rannan while they both served the Yellow Aces and about the quarrel that had ended their working relationship. He smirked. "So you're saying it was all a huge misunderstanding?" She grimaced back. "Yeah. And he was so concerned about his career and all he wouldn't even let me tell him the truth. I guess it was a good thing we parted ways in the end. He just infuriates me and I'm too much by the book for his liking. We would have made an awful wing-pair." Marcus shrugged. "I don't know. I talked to his 2IC and to me it seemed that she was a lot more "by the book" then you…"
In the moment the alarm claxons sounded throughout the ship and they all scrambled to their feet immediately. By the second "All personnel to their stations. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill" both Mallan and Lochlin had almost reached the hangar and almost bumped into various other squad members. When the first incoming torpedoes shook the Liberty the squadron was completely out in the open. In a back corner of her mind, Coreena was proud of her people. And of herself since it was her that had insisted on drills after drills after drills after the first surprise attack she had had to experience aboard Liberty.
Outside the hangar it was such a turmoil none of them could recall to have seen, not even the veteran pilots. Six capital Imperial ships were hanging in space and exchanging blows with the Liberty. When she scanned the names of the ships on her HUD, Coreena's heart did a little jump when a red dot named Predator blinked at her. She had been right, Chesfer knew where they were and when they would be most vulnerable. In the moment she starred at the ship she knew something was wrong. She couldn't explain it, she just knew it. But she also knew that the prisoners they had been looking for all the time most likely were on he ship. In this instance she made a decision. "This is Gray Leader to all personnel: Target the Predator but don't destroy it. I repeat…"
"What the hell do you think you are doing?", suddenly Zifra's voice over her comm. This was just what she needed now. She chose to ignore it. "It is most likely that there is Alliance personnel aboard this ship. We want them back alive. All squadron and station leaders acknowledge." Nobody answered. She should have known. Then, suddenly: "Krayt Leader to Gray Leader. Acknowledged."
"Silver Cat Leader acknowledged."
"Control Leader acknowledged."
"Weapons Leader acknowledged."
"This is mutiny! I will…"
And in this moment it happened. Just for one second she had too much to overview, too much… "Damn! Gray Leader to Two. My stabilizer's hit and…" Another hit. Her R2 warbled something and she had the feeling that it sounded just a little tad frantic. This was not a problem, not in the least, this was not… Suddenly her ship rocked and she knew this had nothing to with the laser bolts that were flying around. This was a tractor beam. "Gray Leader to Two. I really got a problem here…"
"Leader, this is Two, don't tell me they got you on the hook." She looked around her and tried not to panic. She had never panicked and she would not do it know. "I'm afraid I have to tell you otherwise. My HUD is malfunctioning. Assign two of the fighters that are nearest to me to find out the tractor beam source and let them surgically destroy it. Hurry up! Oh and… you are my eyes and ears now, you know." She saw the Predator coming towards her and after a few seconds it filled her view port completely. In this moment she felt totally helpless and strangely enough it vexed her to no end instead of making her panic. She saw two fighters sweep by and recognized them as Gray Seven and Twelve. Coreena heaved a deep sigh. Saron was good with surgical strikes and even if she didn't admit it, she worked perfectly together with Blenwell. The two fighters were swooping frantically before her but nothing changed. She still was being drawn towards the ship and she felt like the seconds were stretching. And then she something inside her snapped and she knew she wasn't going to make it. She would be drawn into the ship's hangar and there was nothing she or anyone else could do about it. Something inside her told her that this maybe was the last chance to tell Marcus how she felt about him but she tried to ignore it. He had too much on his mind already and she didn't want to… "Leader, Two. Hold on. We still got some tricks up our sleeves…" But it was too late. Before her the Predator's hangar bay opened and cold white light greeted her. She squeezed her eyes shut tight. This was the end. Ultimately. Strangely she didn't feel much fear, she just felt regret that she hadn't ceased the opportunity when she had had it and told Marcus everything or that she didn't congratulate Randy and hadn't joined his birthday party… Something behind her exploded and through the haze she was in she heard someone say "Two, this is Three. Four is gone. Repeat, Four is gone…" Randy., she thought and she just couldn't bring herself to understand that. He had been so young, had such a promising future… And then all of a sudden she was blind, deaf and mute. The hangar bay had completely swallowed her. This is the end., she thought and after some moments of complete numbness a huge wave of fear swallowed all her remaining thoughts and feelings.
A/N: Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the cookies. And I hope my writer's block losens up a little since now it's really going to be tough for all of them ;)