Chapter Twenty Three

Liberty, work-out room

Slightly out of breath Marcus and Saron arrived at the work-out room. "Hangar bay 2D4" was only a term they had adopted to try to mislead anyone tapping them. Saron knocked the sequence they had agreed on and was met by a somewhat anxious Lieutenant Rua by the open door. Now that's something new., Saron thought. Rua normally was the epitome of calm and composure. Something big must've happened.

Once her and Marcus were inside the room and the door was shut, Rannan gestured them to sit down and handed them each a data pad. Both of them turned to read the message on it, and when they looked up, Saron saw a smug smirk plastered all over Rannan's face which practically screamed "See, I told you." Marcus was the first to speak again, glancing up after only shortly scanning the message. "All right. So Morgan got your message. And even agreed to meet the Liberty in two standard days. But what we are gonna do then? We can't be sure that the comm channels are safe, so it would be a bad idea for her to call us. And we…" Rannan held up a hand and shot Marcus a look that said: "Read the fucking manual, fly boy.", and told him: "Look, it's all in there. I told you Morgan was a clever captain, and that proves it. She and her XO had exactly the same ideas. And they found a surprisingly elegant way to bypass these problems."

Saron glanced at her own data pad and tapped through the part where Morgan described what she intended to do. And was astonished. She cleared her throat. "Actually, Rannan is right. That's one hell of a plan. Let's just hope it works."

Predator, Adm. Chesfer's private office

Captain Tellik rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, all the time trying to do it as inconspicuously as possible while Admiral Chesfer went on and on in his prattling about those Rebel prisoners. He could just manage to stifle a yawn when Chesfer was finally done and looking at him again. "So, do you now understand why we have to go to Windermere III as fast as possible?" Tellik nodded automatically and responded with a "Yes, of course, sir.", hoping Chesfer was finally done.

The Admiral, however, was far from dismissing Tellik. "Captain, it is absolutely necessary that prisoner 2301 is kept alive until we arrive. Please instruct Lieutenant Kardian adequately. Failure on her side will count as failure on your side." The Predator's captain looked up, suddenly showing some real interest in the whole ordeal. "Sir?" Chesfer threw him a look that could only described as dirty and said in a kind of smug tone: "Well, I know you've taken quite a liking to our dear doctor. You were the one getting her on this ship, so you count as a kind of her mentor for me. Thus: Her failure is your failure. You understand my meaning?" For a moment Tellik didn't know what to say. Then he swallowed lightly and replied: "Sir… Lieutenant Kardian is by no means my protégé. And I'm most certainly not… involved with her in any way. We share a completely professional relationship. I did bring her to the ship, yes, but that was because of her outstanding results at the Academy. Since then I have done nothing to fund her career in any way." The Admiral looked at the slightly exasperated Captain in front of him and for a second Tellik could see a smug grin flitting over Chesfer's features. Inwardly he gave a huff. Great. Letting himself be embarrassed by Chesfer The Overly Stupid. Way to go, Tellik.

After another second of silence Chesfer finally said: "Very well, Captain. Whatever your relationship is, I want you to convince your doctor of the utmost importance of keeping prisoner 2301 alive but in a shape where she will be absolutely innocuous, even awake. Make clear to Kardian that when she fails you fail, too. And that will severely endanger her career. Did I make myself clear?" Vexed at Chesfer's demeanor Tellik just said: "Very, sir." Chesfer just nodded and then said: "Very well. Dismissed, Captain." Tellik stood up, saluted and went out of the office.

Sick bay

She woke up, feeling like hell in an instant. Every bone in her body was aching, the meanwhile constant soreness in her lower abdomen and between her legs had changed to a fiery pain, making her wince and whimper even at the slightest move and her head felt like it would explode at any moment. But all this was nothing compared to the images in her head that were coming to her, one by one at first and then faster and faster until she thought she would die at the sheer intensity of them.

Storm troopers coming up to her, howling her up, the bald admiral – Chesfer, she reminded herself – sneering at her, hitting her, making her squirm every time he so much as poked her with a finger in the arm. Coming nearer and nearer, nestling at his belt, grabbing her, tearing off her clothes… And the worst was the feeling of utter helplessness as she was strapped to a table, not able to get away from the groping hands, the hot mouth, the husky and heavy breathing…

Suddenly she heard herself screaming at the top of her lung and her body arching upwards against the ties that were wound around her wrists. Only seconds after that she heard a female voice saying something in a quiet and soothing sound. It was only after some time she could identify the words as "Shht, everything's okay. He can't hurt you here. I'll give you something to lessen the pain. You just have to hold still for a moment. Won't hurt a lot, I promise.", and she found her body complying with the order. She was about to squirm and scream again when suddenly a numbing sensation spread to her body and made her feel as if lying in a cloud of cotton. Slowly she opened her eyes and found herself gazing again at the perfectly white ceiling of the Predator's sick bay. A hoarse whisper escaped her mouth.

"Kill me." Kardian did a double take, as the voice of the woman before her was to low and to husky to understand anything. "Huh?" The woman heaved a breath and said a little louder. "Kill me. I beg you. Just do it." It seemed as if this had taken almost all her strength since after that her breathing was more labored than before. Not answering immediately, Kardian took a look at her patient. Before her was lying not a human but a shell, battered and bruised beyond anything she had seen so far. And she had seen a lot since becoming Predator's CMO. The bundle before her was malnourished, bruised, bleeding from several wounds and had obviously been abused and raped several times. And it – she, Kardian reminded herself sharply – was begging her to kill her.

It was one of the hardest decisions she ever had to make. Killing the woman would end her torments. It would free her from her captor, from the agonizing pain – both physically and mentally – she must be in. And it would finally mean that Kardian had to betray her medic oath. She had sworn to never kill a patient deliberately, and she would stick to that. Ilara Kardian was beyond the point of worrying about her career. Tellik coming to her and telling her to keep the woman alive just so that she could transferred without any danger to another prison and from there to Lord Vader had just been the final step in her long road away from the Empire. No, she finally had made her decision. She would find a way to defect. And to return all the prisoners that had been her patients and were still alive up to now.

Kardian cleared her throat. "No. I once told it to one of the others, and I'll tell the same to you: I've sworn an oath to protect my patients, not to kill them, and I'll stick to that. You want to get away from him, you'll have to trust me to find a way. But you're not taking the easy way out." The patient's eyes opened and looked at her, disturbingly clear under the mass of bruises forming over them. "You're not fulfilling your oath, doctor. Letting me live means letting to torture go on." The woman took another deep breath. "You'd serve your patient more by killing her. I will carry this whole ordeal with me where ever I go, whatever I do. Killing me would be more merciful than anything else."

Kardian's grip on the syringe in her hand fastened involuntarily. "I… will not kill you. Letting me kill you would mean letting Chesfer win. You really want that? You want him to triumph over you? That's not what he deserves, and you know that. No, you are going to live and see him being repaid what he did to all of you." Was that a smile forming on the deformed lips of her patient? "That's what you want, doctor. I only want peace. Give it to me, I beg you again."

The doctor unconsciously broke the syringe in her hand. Her brain was working overtime. Was the woman right? Did she only want to keep her alive because of what she wanted, paying no regard to what her patient needed? Kardian looked at her hands, one of them bloody because of all the fissures coming form the shards of the broken syringe. Yes, she thought, blood on your hands. You've got blood on your hands, all over them. Because you sewed together Chesfer's prisoners time after time so he could tear them up again and again. You will not safe them, none of them. She looked at the woman again. And suddenly she had an idea. Oh yes, I can. And I will. Even this one.

"I'm sorry. You can't imagine how sorry I am. But I won't kill you. I will be betray just one more oath. And that's the one I swore to the Emperor. I got a plan. Just you trust me on this."

A/N: Dear me, this one's been done at half past three in the morning. Really should be going to bed now. But before that just some things: This chapter was really difficult to write, most of all the last part. I just hope I did that correctly since Kardian's decision was a real tough one to describe and develop.

Apart from this I again thank Bjrn for keeping up with this story. Thanks for reviewing, that gets me going :) And there are some people who have me on their author alerts list. Would be nice if they could review this story as well, if that's the one why they put me up on their lists in the first place.

Anyway, am now really going to bed. The sick-bay part took away all my remaining energies.