Leon Hardicort very nearly got what he wanted in the last two chapters. Now we shall see if he gets what he deserves.

Mhaegen left the captain's cabin and shut the door behind her only to utter a rather unmanly gasp when confronted by Mr. Leon Hardicort.

"Is she alright?" he growled.

Mhaegen cleared her throat and kept her voice low. "It's just women's issues. She's got the cramps."

"Oh."

That got the quartermaster to back off, but it was a lie. Since the day two months ago when the medic had given the captain that hypo injection, Sanya had ceased to have her monthly cycle. It was Mhaegen who's innermost female parts were twisting in agony at the moment, making her deception all the more difficult to maintain.

Earlier when they had spoken about it the captain had shrugged and smiled. "Well it worked. That's what it's supposed to do, aye? I'm certainly not going to wish for all that back."

It almost made Mhaegen consider giving herself a dose of the medication. It would make it easier, keeping her identity from becoming public.

She had a secret desire, however, one she could never tell another soul, that she might some day have a husband and children. Maybe it was a futile hope after her past and her current disguise but she just couldn't risk shutting down that dream altogether. If she could ever find a man that she might want to have a family with…

Her thoughts were interrupted by yet another crew member coming to inquire after the captain. Bosun's Mate Jak Frasier drew her first to a spot where they couldn't be overheard before he whispered, "She's not pregnant, is she?" He seemed honestly concerned for someone so recently added to their number.

"No," Mhaegen barked in her Marlon voice. She was fairly certain that Jak had yet to discover her secret but the captain had let her in on his. He didn't know that however. "Why would you think..."

The color rose in his perfectly groomed cheeks and he frowned expressively. "A-after what happened at the brothel…"

Oh, that's right. It had been the first time that Sanya had played her little scheme since he had joined the crew. She hadn't been planning on taking a decoy partner to one of the rooms on that particular visit.

For her more recent deceptions the captain had seen to it that she arrived at the establishment before any of the rest of her crew. She would employ one of the girls to sit in wait in the room and then when she chose her unsuspecting paramor she would let the two of them go at it while pretending that she had spent the evening in debauchery.

It was a clever ruse. Of course she had to stay there in the room with them which wasn't exactly comfortable. But it worked, and they were both well paid.

Sanya hadn't gotten to this particular brothel soon enough to set the stage. She was planning on just eating and drinking to enjoy the evening, until she saw a familiar face…

"Johnny!" She jumped up from the table where she sat with Leon and a few of her other officers and ran to him. In her exuberation she almost knocked him off his feet. Well, foot, she realized. "What happened to you?"

"What didn't happen to me?" He laughed.

"I want you to tell me all about it." But she didn't lead him back to the table with her quartermaster and the others. Instead she cocked an eyebrow toward one of the bedroom doors. "Maybe after…"

With a devious grin he assented. "Aye, captain."

She filled Mhaegen in later on about all he had told her about a treasure ship and a storm at sea and a mutiny in which he had lost his leg. She wasn't sure how much of it was true. He was a very good story teller.

"So you really are Johnny Beskar now." She had teased him.

"Well," he knocked on the prosthetic, "it's really synth-steel, not quite Mandalorian iron."

She showed off to him a few of her new scars as well, not to mention her tattoo, that he surely would have seen if they had really been together. She assured Mhaegen after the fact that they had not. She also informed her friend that Johnny had said he wished he'd had the pretty medic there to treat him after the amputation. It still gave him pains.

Ah well, that ship had sailed. What had come from the incident with Johnny Beskar at the brothel that night were the differing reactions of the quartermaster and the bosun's mate. Both men watched Sanya Harkon ascend the stairs with equal trepidation. One of them expressed his jealousy with blind rage, the other confused concern.

Jak Frasier paced. "If she was pregnant you know what that would mean?"

"No?" Mhaegen wasn't sure exactly what it would mean to him in particular.

"Her older brother has a daughter and no sons. Her sister is… not yet married." His brow creased in consternation and he looked to the medic as if expecting the pieces to fall into place without his having to explain. He sighed. "If she had a son he could be contested as an heir to House Harkon!"

Mhaegen knew nothing about the laws of noble succession. "A bastard heir?"

Jak rolled his eyes and lowered his voice. "My name's… not really Frasier. It's Blackwell." She gave a grunt of mock surprize and he hurried on. "My brother's son was conceived out of wedlock and has still been confirmed as the heir of our house. I-if a gentleman of noble birth was to come alongside her and claim the child as his own…"

"You would do that for her? I thought the two of you didn't even like each other."

"Well, I never said that." Jak, or Jamos rather, shook his head. "I do respect her for taking control of her own life and getting away from the lords and their games."

"And yet you would return to all that if it meant guarding her reputation?" Mhaegen inquired. This is just the sort of man I need to find , she thought to herself, one who would overlook my past and respect me that much .

"But as you say, there is no child. So that's beside the point." He gave a quick nod. "I assume that's what you were in there…" he waved his hand toward the door of the captain's cabin, "examining?"

"Well, yes and no."

"Aye?" Jamos's eyebrows rose a fraction.

Part of her just wanted to be totally honest with him. To tell him the whole story and not just part of it but she held back. "I… brought up to her what we spoke about before."

They had spoken about plenty in their previous conversation after that night at the brothel when he'd seen Quartermaster Hardicort speaking to his fellow crew member so harshly.

Mhaegen had had a smile on her face when she saw who the captain had chosen to spend the evening with. She would have liked to say hello to the sailor who had held Sanya's hands while she saw to the blaster wound as well, if she hadn't been sure it would give her own secret away.

But someone else was not so pleased with the turn of events. Leon Hardicort had seemed so pleased with himself since the night of the captain's birthday celebration, staying closer to her, doing things for her, sneering at anyone who came to close to her.

"What are you smiling at?" Hardicort growled.

"Nothing." Mhaegen hoped that would be the end to it.

"You think she's better off with him."

"Sh-she looked happy enough."

"Happier than she is with me you mean?" He crossed his arms over his chest and impeded the medic's progress.

She threw caution to the wind. Someone had to tell him. "You're obsessed with her. I know about the red-heads, how you call them by her name, the one you cut pretending to be sparing with the captain."

"How do you…" He backed her up against a wall and she knew she had gone too far. Maybe it was the proximity that made him finally realize her true nature or maybe the mention of the red-headed whore finally made it click where he had seen her face before. "Marlon, eh? You were the healer in Madam Korina's place!"

"So what if I was." Mhaegen tried to bluster but her voice rose in pitch. "I saved the captain's life and I've done nothing but try to help her since."

"Trying to help her by warning her away from me?" He shoved her harder against the wall, pressing the iron breastplate she always wore so tightly against her chest that she could hardly breathe.

"Please, I…"

"Do you know what this crew would do to you if they found out their medic was a whore?" he whispered low and dangerous.

She couldn't answer.

"I think you're going to donate a portion of your share of the prizes to me from now on for helping to keep your little secret?"

She nodded as best she could.

"You can always go back to your old profession if you're short on credits, Aye?" He gave a wicked laugh and then released her suddenly enough that she almost fell.

It had been Jak who hurried over to see if she was hurt. "Marlon, m'lad. Are you quite alright?"

"Aye," she caught her breath and dropped back in to her deeper tone of voice. "Aye, I'm fine."

"You know you're not the only poor sailor our fine Quartermaster has it in for?" He gave her a humorless half grin.

"Is that so?"

"I thought perhaps at first it was just because I was the lowest in the food chain so to speak, that I was getting special treatment." He puffed up sarcastically. "I've heard a few of the others grumbling on payday however, and I have a feeling it's not the captain who's shorting them on their due share. She's far too bent on equality to let something like that go on, unless of course, she doesn't know."

"Someone should tell her," Mhaegen voiced the idea she knew he was getting at.

"Aye." He nodded with a more encouraging smile. "And it should be someone she trusts."

"I…" She shook her head. "I've tried before to warn her to be careful of him and if he found out… If he even knew we were having this conversation…" She started to walk away from him but he caught up to her.

"Marlon," he put away the joking manor and spoke with all seriousness. "I know you… care for the captain. You know this is really in her best interest. If his theft, blackmail, is discovered, she'll go down with him as well." He sighed. "She won't listen to me. I can't even get close to her, but you can."

"What did she say?" He asked her now, expectantly.

"She said she would look into it. We'll just have to wait and see."

…

She had thought he was her biggest ally. Mister Hardicort was the first of her father's men to ever take her up in the rigging of a ship when she was six years old. He had always believed in her, sparred with her, protected her. She had thought he would always be on her side. That's why she had chosen him as her quartermaster when she took the Bloody Galia and left Harkon Hall. Well he'd been voted into the position but they had been together all this time.

She had no idea that he'd been secretly planning for her possible failure and nearly caused it as a result. Of course she had noticed the discrepancy. She didn't need Jak Frasier to point it out to her. Her accounting was fine. She thought there must be some reason for it. But then Mhaegen said something as well…

She had gone to her cabin and had a bath. That always relaxed her and maybe, she thought, it would calm her enough to give her the focus to go over the books and figure it all out.

Dressed in just her shift she padded around the cabin in her bare feet and pounded out the numbers once, twice. Kriff it! It didn't add up. Her crew members weren't getting their correct percentages from the prizes they had taken in the last month and her ship's surgeon was getting next to nothing and her bosun's mate even less. She looked at the prize totals for the month before that and found the same.

Her crew were loyal to her and they worked hard. They deserved those credits. She knew who they would blame when all this came out. It was her ship, her responsibility to make sure things were run democratically. If the shortage could be pointed back to her, even if there was a shadow of a doubt that she was involved or that it had happened under her nose, they would vote in a new captain and have her off at the next deserted island, if they didn't just kill her for cheating them all this time.

Kriff it! Why did it have to be Frasier who caught it? At least he had come to her quietly and not allerted any of the other hands. He could have. He could have ruined her. And Mhaegen? But Sanya had a feeling she knew why this was happening to the former prostitute. Someone had found out her true identity.

There was only one man aboard who could have done this. She hated the thought of confronting him.

She opened the door just a crack and called out, "Tell Mister Hardicort I need to speak with him."

She was just pulling on her trousers when he arrived. That shouldn't have mattered. He knew all about her birthmark. She had… allowed him to see it over a year ago, after Beskar had suggested it.

"You wanted to… see me, Captain," the quartermaster announced himself as he entered and closed the door behind him.

"Aye." she turned to face him, cinching her waistband and tying the cords fast. "It's the accounting books for the last several prizes. You know my figures aren't as good as yours but there seems to be some mistake with the amounts paid out to the crew."

She wasn't paying attention to the hungry look he gave her. "How much off the mark are we talkin' here?" he asked.

She walked over to her desk pulling her long wet hair back and tying it in a ribbon. She read off to him the number she had come up with and then looked up to see him nod.

"That sounds about right."

"You knew about this?"

"I did." He stepped closer to point out something in the books, closer than he need have stood. "I did it for us."

"For us?" she had been worried of accusing him of making a mistake in the accounting or trying to line his own pockets but this was far worse.

"See, I know you're enjoying this life now but it's bound to wear off eventually, the violence, the danger. I know that some day my little Nya's gonna have her fill of it and want to settle down."

"Your little…?"

"Your family, they might not be in a hurry to welcome back a daughter who's… not so pure as she used to be. I don't mind, though. I've been by your side all this time, watched you grow up from that gangly thing, all elbows and angles, into a woman."

He was looking down the front of her shift and she put her hand over the neckline and stepped back.

"The crew, Mister Hardicort, they have been loyal to me and expect me to give them their proper cut of everything we take in. And Mhaegen," she rushed to correct herself, "Marlon works as hard as anyone."

He didn't even flinch at her mistake. He knew. "Nya," he crooned in a low voice. "It's me, Leon. I think we've been together long enough to be beyond such formalities. And you're right, they're loyal to you, now. They love, you."

"Is that really what you think? If they found out about this, they'd string me up for kriffing them and vote in a new Captain! That's the way things are done, Mister Hardicort!"

She had to take another step backward as he advanced. Her hand went to her waist where she usually kept her short sword and a knife or two, but she wasn't wearing her belt.

"I'd never let 'em hurt you, Nya." He said softly as he reached out to touch her cheek. "I've seen the way they look at you, 'specially that Frasier." He had backed her up to the bulkhead and his fingers traced down her neck to her chest with only the thin layer of cloth between his groping hand and her breast.

She felt behind her for something, anything and finally touched cold steel just as he bent to kiss her. She drew the knife out of its sheath and across his throat in one smooth motion.

Quartermaster Leon Hardicort grasped at the cut with both his hands and then fell at her feet as his life bled out of him.

She wanted to scream but she didn't dare. She couldn't let anyone know what had happened here. She had to be strong. Right now she was anything but strong. Tears sprang to her eyes and she turned and threw up into the wash basin. Her clothes were sticky with his blood and she peeled them off in horror.

She had killed men on the hunt for prizes and protecting the weak, but this man had been a friend, someone she thought she could trust.

There was still blood on her hands and even though her bath water had gone cold she stepped back into the tub and soaked and soaked until her trembling was a result of the chill rather than her fear.

She determined what must be done. She had to tell her crew the truth and pray to the salt gods that they would see she had no part in this. She had saved them from the man who meant to take their livelihood for his own gain. She would not tell them how he had touched her and meant for her to go away with him. She could never tell anyone that. It was too horrible.

Sanya stepped out of her now icy bath, dried off and put on fresh clothes. She strapped on her belt full of every weapon she carried with her into battle whenever they boarded an enemy vessel. She wondered how many enemies she was going out to face right now. But she would bluff them. They wouldn't know she was afraid.

She burst out of the door with her usual swagger and called out, "All hands on deck. I've got some disturbing news for the lot of you."

She laid out the accounting books on the deck and waited to speak until every one of her men (and one woman in disguise) had been roused and faced her. She explained the issue in no uncertain terms. Their Quartermaster had them all fooled. He'd been holding back profits that belonged to them all. He had challenged their captain on the notion and given her no choice but to take his life in exchange.

Someone ran into the cabin and saw the truth of it, the dead man on the floor. A couple of them dragged him out where everyone could see.

"I have done something I never thought I would be forced to do. I have killed a member of my own crew, but in my defense," she pointed at the books. "You can see for yourself in those volumes the truth of what he was about. Now I require your judgement, my friends. You must… proceed as you think best and I will await your decision." She tried to look them in the eye, as many as she could, to show them that she would respect whatever consensus they came to. Then she turned on her heel, walked back into her cabin, and shut the door.

Her stomach rebelled again but there wasn't much more to bring up. She could have drowned her fear in alcohol but those stores truly belonged to the crew as well and she didn't want to be accused of stealing anything else from them. In the end she curled up on her bunk and stared at the blood stain on the floor. She didn't think it was possible but after a long time she cried herself to sleep.

At some point in the long evening there was a knock at the cabin door and a soft voice, "Captain?"

It was Mhaegen come to check on her but she pretended she couldn't hear and rolled over in her berth.

She woke again when it was dark but there was no noise but the regular creaking of the ship and the slapping of the waves. She couldn't bring herself to eat any of the stores she kept on hand so after pacing a bit she laid down and went back, to an uneasy sleep.

Her dreams were full of her feet kicking free while her poor neck stretched. She wouldn't be heavy enough to snap it in one drop. She'd probably hang there a while gasping and choking until some merciful bloke added their weight to hers pulling on her legs or jumping on her shoulders.

Or maybe half the crew would decide to take what they were owed out of her first, before they marooned her on some desolate shore. Hanging would be better than that. Then maybe she'd be off quicker to the salt gods' halls, that is if she even deserved to go there after all the pirating she had done…

When morning came again there was another knock at her door. This time it was another spokesman for her men, they allowed her time to freshen herself up before she joined the full complement of the crew out on deck.

The boson stepped forward and spoke for them all, "Since there was a vacancy for Quartermaster, the crew had a vote."

"Quartermaster?" she asked amazed. "you weren't voting for a new captain?"

There were a few who expressed their deference from the crowd and the boson waited for them to quiet before he continued, "Of course not, you take care of us and you told us the truth. We'd like to thank you and present you with your new Quartermaster, Jak Frasier."

He had spoken up for her, told them his side of the story, how he had found the issue and brought it to her attention. She could have ignored it, let it go on, but she didn't. She made it right.

Sanya thanked the salt gods. The next place they stopped that had a salt formation she was going to fall down on her face before it and praise their sweet names for sparing her life, such that it was.