Chapter Twenty Nine
Shuttle Iridium, passenger compartment, in the space between Predator and Windermere III
It took all Ilara Kardian's force of will not to fiddle as the shuttle left the Predator's shuttle bay. She was sitting directly behind the two pilots – young men fresh from the Academy, never having seen any battle action, as she could gain from their conversation, and she didn't want to raise any suspicions. Behind her the door to the prisoners' compartment was shut, and she wondered if the two prisoners she had given a scalpel and a medical stunner to had already discovered them. On the small monitor to her side it looked as if none of them were moving, but there was one small part of the room that wasn't covered by surveillance, and she hoped Cayr had figured out her hint back in the brig.
Kardian looked up again and concentrated on the view out of the front windows. Windermere III was lying before them, in Space, looking like any other planet of its class, with a few green spots, a few blue spots and a gray spot, which was the Imperial garrison they were heading to. The plant was becoming bigger and filling out more and more of the view ports as they were approaching it. The doctor felt her hands clenching her thighs and forced herself to let them loose again and try to look totally inconspicuous. A little exited at the prospect of doing scientific research but not with the extensive tension she was feeling all inside.
The two pilots were chatting idly and in between giving their arrival data to the control personnel down on the planet as they were passing through the belt of clouds that had passed over the garrison when suddenly all hell broke lose. Screaming and swearing filled the comm channels, and the pilots' easiness had suddenly changed to confusion and hectic action. Kardian herself didn't feel any better, but when she heard the shouted fragment: "Rebel attack! We are being attacked by Rebels!", she acted out of pure instinct.
With her blaster switched to stun she fired at the first pilot, and before the second had fully grasped what was happening, she had him stunned, too. For a second she just starred at them, bewildered, but then she caught herself, and heaved one of the pilots out of his seat, then seizing his head-set. This was the first time ever that she thanked whoever had the idea to have medics be trained in flying at the Academy, as the first thing she did was aborting the landing maneuver. In the general confusion no one seemed to notice it, and she was grateful for that. As she was flying back into space, she released the hold of the door to the back compartment and turned around, saying: "Any of you a pilot? I need someone to help me to fly this thing through a battle."
The women only starred at her. Then, suddenly, the Rodian pointed towards the view port and said: "That's the Liberty. I swear it, that's the Liberty!", but before anyone could reply, the ship rocked violently. One of the S-foils had taken a serious hit. Another woman – Cayr, Kardian reminded herself – swore and staggered out of the compartment. "We're going to be space dust if we don't start communicating with them soon.", and with that she shoved the Rodian forward and started dragging the pilots out of the cockpit, telling the other women to help her. The Rodian staggered forward and let herself fall into the newly vacated copilot's seat, starring at the controls for a moment and then typing in some commands, while Kardian tried to steer the vessel through the chaos that had ensued in space.
The ship rocked another time, and Kardian swore under her breath. "Someone man the guns, fast!", she shouted, and from the corner of her eyes she could see how the petite woman with the almond-shaped eyes jumped into the seat behind the Rodian and started operating the guns. In that moment she could hear a very agitated Desra Tellik shouting over her head-set. "What the hell is going on with that shuttle? You stupid idiots, you are firing on our own people. Stop that immediately!", but she chose not to reply, and switched the head-set to another frequence.
Meanwhile Cayr, the Cath and the two remaining human women had managed to drag the unconscious pilots into the prisoners' compartment and were hovering in its entrance. The only ones she hadn't seen anything of yet were the Ishi Tip and the human prisoner that had been Chesfer's last victim. Without turning she shouted to Cayr: "Get the Ishi Tip and the human that is missing out of the prisoners' compartment. I'm locking that one so we won't have any unpleasant surprises." The commotion behind her told her that the women were executing her orders, and again she was surprised that they did so. She just hoped they would continue at least until they were aboard one of the Rebel ships.
When Cayr shouted a "Done, doc!" over the battle noise, Kardian punched the button beside her and the door closed. In the moment, the Rodian obviously finally had found a frequency to hail the ship she had identified as Liberty and spoke to them: "Liberty control, this is Flight Officer Devlin. Do you read me? Repeat: do you read me?", but she was answered with nothing but static hissing. Letting out a stream of her own language – most probably swearing – she tried another one. "Gray Leader, this is Devlin. Gray Leader, do you copy?", and at first there was only static again, but suddenly the comm crackled to life. "Devlin? Gray Eleven? Where in the Jedi's name are you?"
"Lambda-class shuttle with Imperial insignia, sir. Name is… what's its name, doctor?" She turned to face Kardian, who absentmindedly replied with: "Iridium.", which Devlin gave to Gray Leader, whoever that was. The reply came promptly. "All right, I got you, Eleven. Marked you with a green dot, so no-one will attack you."
"Thank you, sir. We… uh… we're in a kinda hot zone here. We really could need some company. And we need someone to contact Liberty for us." The male pilot on the other side agreed: "Will send Twelve and Seven your way, Eleven. But who in all Stars is "we"?" Devlin looked towards Kardian, and she needed a second or two to realize that the Rodian was waiting for her permission. She just nodded and said: "Go ahead, tell him." Devlin turned back to the view port, saying: "Me, an Imperial medical officer and eight other prisoners, all female. And sir… we got Leader among us." The last one she added just out of instinct because she was pretty sure that Marcus needed to know that bit of information. But she was surprised about the reaction, as for several seconds the other side was completely silent. Just before she could ask if everything was okay, his reply finally came, if sounding a bit strained: "Happy to hear that, Eleven. Will tell Liberty control to hail you. Twelve and Seven are on their way to you, keep a frequency open for them. Gray Leader out." With that two X-Wings swung in on either side of the shuttle, and for the first time Kesra allowed herself to smile and said to Kardian: "The cavalry finally arrived."
Sky above Windermere III
"Biniir Eight, break hard to port, you got one on your tail!"
"Negative, Leader, I needa take out that cannon!"
"Damnit Eight, that's the last time I save your sorry ass!"
Rannan grumbled and dodged a missile and broke to port himself. He hated flying in atmosphere, and he was sure that if Steva – Biniier Eight – did make it out of this alive, the boy would get the most serious dressing down ever. They had to protect the transport, not to take on the garrison's defense.
Marlin was coming back from saving Steva and hailing him: "We gotta go back in space, but we're trapped down here. Those TIEs they deployed from the base are taking up all our efforts. We need reinforcements, Leader." Rannan prepared himself for a run on the second FLAK while answering: "Negative. We won't get any, so we won't ask for them. Two, Five, Four, form up behind me, we're gone have a look at that FLAK at nine o'clock. Five, you're helping me with the FLAK, Two and Four, you are our back-up. Now, go!"
A blinking light on the outer perimeters of his vision caught his attention, but he decided to ignore it. They were in the crucial phase of approaching the FLAK, no one of them could spare the concentration to listen to anyone at the moment. All right, so no one expect Marlin. "Leader, Star Field control wants us to abort. They say, the package is on board the Liberty already." Rannan flew towards the FLAK, trying to dodge the shots aimed at him. "Did you tell them that we are trapped down here?" Marlin confirmed it. "Yes. They told us they'd send down someone from Gray Squadron. They said… Damnit!" Marlin was swearing. Marlin never swore. He looked at his HUD. Her fighter was doing strange movements. "Two, what the…"
"Lost my starboard engine. No, correction, lost both engines."
"Biniir Leader, this is Gray Eight. We're here to escort you back to the Liberty. Follow our lead." At first Rannan didn't register one word from the Gray pilot. He didn't register that Harvey and Mayn had disabled the FLAK, either. He didn't register anything because his gaze seemed to transfixed on Marlin's fighter that was spiraling down towards the planet's surface. "Going out with a bang, Leader.", came over the radio, and he saw her canopy being blown off and a small figure on an ejection seat going out and sinking towards the planet, and he felt his own ship rocking under an impact, but all he could do was stare at the point were Marlin had protruded the forest.
"Biniir Leader, do you copy? We need your confirmation for aborting the mission.", another voice came over comm. "Biniir Leader, we – are – aborting – the – mission. Do. You. Copy?" His fighter shook another time, more violently now. It somehow broke up his reverie, and he answered the Gray pilot: "No, we are not leaving. We have a pilot down, we…"
"Sir… Two is… I… I don't get any life signs from her, sir.", Reslin's voice cut in. A TIE was zooming towards him, and he was finishing it off, almost mechanically. "There must be a system failure in your sensors." Logically he knew that he was talking nonsense. Reslin's sensor packs were the most modified and the best maintained in the whole fleet. But something inside him absolutely refused to believe that Marlin could be anything else than living. "Make a second sweep, Seven. She has to be alive." For a second there was only static hissing, then: "I… I'm sorry, sir, but I… there's no way that she's still… Sir, we… we need to go…"
"Biniir Leader, you are aborting the mission. Now. Anything else will get you kicked out Starfighter Command ASAP. Did I make myself clear?" There was something in Nomo Morgan's voice that you just couldn't ignore. Even when your XO and best friend had crash landed on a planet and was most presumably dead and you couldn't even retrieve her body. And so he finally obeyed. "Yes, Ma'am. Biniir Squadron, we are aborting the attack. Everybody return to Liberty.", he said, and suddenly he felt older and more tired than any man could ever be.
Liberty, sick bay
He knew he shouldn't be here. He knew he should be sitting around on one of the cots and have the burns on his hands bandaged. But he didn't even feel the burns. The only thing Marcus could think about what that Coreena was on board the Liberty, even in the operations room right before his eyes, but she was so far away that she could still be in Imperial captivity, as far as he knew. He was standing outside of the OP, looking through the view port, not registering anything of what was going on around him.
"Lieutenant?" He didn't react, his gaze still transfixed on the scene in the room before him. "Lieutenant, you are the next one." No reaction, still looking through the view port. Then, suddenly, he felt someone tuck on his flight suit and he whirled around to face one of the medics. "What?", he asked more gruff the appropriate, but only got a "Lieutenant, you are the next one to be fixed up again. If you'd come over here…" The medic, a young male Twi'Lek, led him over to one of the cots and started bandaging the burns Marcus had received when one of the shots aimed at his ship had fried his electronics, but all he could do was continuing to stare at the OP. "She'll be in there for at least another two hours. And then she'll have at least another hour of bacta time. But we can call you when they are done if you want to.", the medic said quietly. Marcus blinked, and then answered: "What? No, no, thanks, I'll… stay here." The medic shrugged. And then, as if on cue, his comm beeped. He tore it out of his jacket and said a bit too agitated: "Yes?"
"Watch your tone, Lieutenant. And come to the briefing room ASAP. Bring your XO with you. Morgan out." She didn't sound as if there was any sense in arguing. "Sir… I'm done here. You can go now. And we can still…"
"Call me, I know. All right, I don't think the Captain would tolerate any delay. When… when they are done in there, please give me a ring. I want to be there when she wakes up." The Twi'Lek just nodded, and Marcus dragged himself up for his way to the briefing room.
Fighter hangar
As Saron was exiting her fighter, she sighed a little. She should have known he'd be there, but somehow she had hoped he would give her a little more time. But he was there, and so obviously they had to do the big talk now. When she was on the ground, she opened her mouth and said: "Blenwell, I…", but she didn't get to finish it as he was engulfing her in a bear hug. He said nothing, just nuzzled the tender spot in the crook of her neck. At first she felt awkward but then she understood that Blenwell often didn't know how to express things with words, and that this obviously meant he was relieved to have her back. And if she was honest to herself then she knew she was as relieved as him, and so she finally hugged him back with all her force.
When he let go of her she detangled herself from him, and he put his forehead against hers, but before he could say something she beat him to it: "I know you want to talk But I'm tired, Marten, so tired. I just… I want nothing more than sleep." Instead of throwing a fit or answering something sarcastic or anything like that he smiled and just said: "You said it." She took a small step back and asked with a frown: "What?" He grinned. "Marten. You called me by my first name. You've gotten soft, Lieutenant." She snorted, secretly happy that the for the first time there was no negative tension between them. "Only in your dreams, Flight Officer.", and she started walking towards her quarters. "Oh, you have no idea what I'm dreaming about." Just some days ago she would have given him a cold stare and maybe a slap for the grin that accompanied the remark and what he was suggesting with it, but now she just said: "Not now, Blenwell. I am tired."
He stopped, in the middle of the corridor. "I know, Saron. And I wasn't hinting at what you thought, I just…"
"It's okay, really. I wasn't accusing you or anything. I…" A yawn escaped her mouth, and she ran a hand over her face. And then her comm beeped. "Damnit.", she murmured, but tried to keep her voice level as she answered: "Yes?"
"Morgan wants us at the briefing room. Now. So I suggest you get your ass there." It was obvious that Marcus was in no mood to be contradicted, but before she could say anything, Blenwell had snatched the comm from her hands. "She's going nowhere but her bed, Lochlin. Morgan has to be satisfied with me in her place. Blenwell out." And with that he turned the comm off and handed it back to Saron. For a second she was speechless, but then she was back with a vengeance. "How could you? I won't be patronized by anyone, least by my wing-man. Whom I outrank. This was insubordination, I'll…"
"Go to bed now. Quite frankly, Lieutenant, I don't care about the regs right now. But I… I… care about you." She looked at him with suddenly very big eyes, and he looked like all he wanted to do now was swallowing his tongue. All right, so obviously no one of them had expected this. He opened his mouth, but just ended up shrugging and looking at her with a face that said: "All right, so now you know. It's up to you, now.", and all she could do was say: "Right… I'll… I'll got to bed now. Try… try not to annoy too much people at the debriefing.", and with that she walked off towards her quarters. He just groaned and kicked at the corridors walls before stalking off to the briefing room.
A/N: Sorry I took my time with this chapter but there was a lot to do this time, and more importantly I had to go to bed pretty early (early for me, that is) which meant I didn't have enough time to write. But hey, I still managed it. I'm so good :D
Anyway, thanks to Bjrn for still reviewing and staying with the story :)