Hello Admiral. I know it's been a bit since I've talked to you but things went from bad to worse. Fortunately, they've gotten better. How much better? I don't know. All I can do is tell you what's happened.

About six or seven days ago, I had a small dustup with William over his narrow-minded perception of honor. He told me that he was going to report to the Imperials after we got out of this mess of being under the sea on Ord Mantavi. Assuming, of course, that we survived the storm and the Relentless. I convinced him to report in to me to resign. I'm pretty sure what I did was not exactly legal but as the Republic military is defunct and a lot of lives were riding on it, I'll take what I can get.

The immediate problem with William is solved for the moment but, I have a feeling things are going to get worse with him. He's too much of a stubborn maverick who thinks he knows everything and has no need to tell anyone else what he's doing. You'll see what I mean later on in this journal entry. And I did tell Yahnna and Val about the whole thing.

Four days ago, Waithe, Rrun and Rachael woke up from their drugged sleep. Things were a little tense for a few moments but everyone acted and reacted in a surprisingly civil manner. Though, I think Rachael's going to ambush Yahnna some time in the future. She was the most visibly angry of the lot. I knew she was cranky but, man, I never want to be on her bad side.

About two days ago, the Iridium Rose was due to make it into the system. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd been really worried about them. With the Relentless in orbit, I was hoping that the Rose would scan them and take off for safety. They didn't.

Yahnna, with the help of me, Geehan, William and Dev, came up with a plan to set off a decoy to lure the Relentless and the TIE fighters away from us in hopes that we could break free. Just as we were about to set the plan in motion, a signal came over the holonet. It was the commander of the Relentless, someone named Admiral Zaraiath. He told us that he was about to capture the Iridium Rose and we were to surrender at once.

... I don't envy Yahnna at all. It took her about three minutes to decide that the fate of twenty people was more important than the fate of four. She gave the order to escape, leaving the Rose behind. Val was reluctant but even he saw the wisdom of Yahnna's thought line.

I really don't know if I could have made that kind of decision. Just thinking of it makes my tummy queasy.

*soft sigh* As it turns out, that decision was overridden when we burst out of the atmosphere and within seconds, the Relentless burst out after us. I was in the engine room. .... I've seen more of the Spanner's engine room than I ever wanted to... and I saw the Relentless come out, following us. They had been hiding in the atmosphere like us. That Admiral Zaraiath is a very smart, devious man.

We ended up captured by the tracker beam. Nothing we did worked. None of us were willing to go without a fight. Geehan and William rigged the most incredible bomb using thermo-grenades with the intention of blowing up the docking bay of the Relentless. Val sacrificed his lightsaber as the power core of the bomb. The whole time, we were wiping the computers and Yahnna hid the Jedi journal and the box of lightsaber parts and other personal affects for me.

The bomb was an incredible success. Our escape was not. I'm not sure what happened but, we suddenly tumbled and crashed into something. Then we were boarded. I was knocked unconscious during the boarding... You know, I've been unconscious more times in the last three months than I ever have been in my entire life. I'm wondering if I'm suffering brain damage or if I just have a really thick skull.

However, those 'lovely, gentle' storm troopers kindly patched me up a little. Enough for me to be taken out with the rest. You know that bomb? Wow. Have you ever seen a Star Destroyer vomit its AT-AT bay into space? *laugh* I have. That's what the bomb did. It destroyed half of the landing bay and almost all of the AT-ATs.

We were taken to Admiral Zaraiath; Captain Anris, the actual Captain of the Relentless and Major Ellis, Imperial Intelligence and the most slimy looking man I've ever seen. It was like watching a bad holovid come to life. Admiral Zaraiath asked Yahnna, as the Captain of the Spanner, to tell him who we all were. She ended up giving some of us fake names, but it was clear the Admiral didn't believe her and sent us all to detention cells to be interrogated.

This was the second time I had seen a detention cell. I still didn't like it. But, within thirty minutes of me being placed in one, a guard came to my cell. "Coranna Duvall?" He asked. I didn't know the name and it wasn't the fake name that Yahnna gave me, but I decided any name that wasn't my real one was a good one. So, I nodded and the guard took off my cuffs and asked me to follow him!

You can bet I was surprised. He was leading me. No other guards. I didn't know what was going on. When I passed by Yahnna's cell. The door was open. She got this look on her face, like I was some sort of traitor. She's another woman to not have mad at you.

In any case, my friendly guard wasn't very talkative and I really didn't know what to say to him either. He led me directly to the command bridge where Admiral Zaraiath and Captain Anris were. The guard walked me to them, announced quietly that "Coranna Duvall" was here and then peeled away, leaving me standing there... alone... on the bridge of the Relentless... facing the backs of Zaraiath and Anris as they watched the Iridium Rose dodge and fight the TIE Fighters.

Since I wasn't being treated like a prisoner, I took a breath and decided to pretend that I was back on the Senate flood, facing a particularly cunning and dangerous foe. I walked up next to the Admiral, opposite the Captain and took a semi-casual parade rest stance and waited until the Admiral or the Captain decided to notice me.

The Admiral called out some commands about the Iridium Rose. I knew she was as good as captured. I waited, heart pounding hard, trying to keep the frosty professional exterior. Finally, Admiral Zaraiath addressed me. "Your Report." He said. No preamble. No clue of any type.

I paused too long, causing him to actually look at me. "The plan, Admiral, did not go as... expected." I opened, seeing what he would say. He told me that he had not known that a -second- infiltrator had been put on board the Rose. I, of course, acted surprised. That was when the Captain and the Admiral got into a small discussion about how the Baron Torradon must be up to his old tricks.

I had almost forgotten the Baron Torradon was also known as ... the Marquis DeLorik.

I managed to swallow my heart, which had leapt to my throat, to answer the Admiral's questions about the crews of the Rose and the Spanner. I put on my haughtiest, most condescending voice and began to tell him of the worse parts of the interactions, embellishing them a bit. That was when I got my second big surprise.

"And what of my grandson?" The Admiral asked.

I couldn't hide my surprise at that. The Admiral noticed it. He asked if the Baron had informed me of this fact. Of course, I answered no. We talked about it a little bit and I finally managed to get him to tell me WHO his grandson was... is. I was very surprised to find out that it was Meric. Then, the Admiral cut me off, ordered me into uniform and to assist Major Ellis with the interrogation of the prisoners.

I tried to steer him towards laying a trap for the Baron since he was up to his 'old tricks' again. I figured since I knew the Baron couldn't have survived the explosion of the Vallinor, it was safe. There was more discussion about the Baron and the fact that he would be arriving within nine hours to assume command of the Relentless. The two of them talked skeptically about the Baron's ability to command the Star Destroyer. Fortunately, they were too engrossed in their discussion to notice my reaction.

The Marquis DeLorik is definitely alive. Oh, that's something I really don't want to think about.

The Admiral handed me his datapad with the information they had on the crews of the Spanner and the Rose, assigned an aide to me and then dismissed me to get dressed and report to the Major. You better bet I was reading that datapad as the aide lead me around the Star Destroyer. I've learned a lot about the crew and what the Empire knows of the crew.

The most interesting thing to me though, was the note appended to my file stating that 'Coranna Duvall' was my cover name, that I had been a part of Imperial Intelligence for five years, spying on the Senate for the Empire and that I was a lieutenant in the Imperial military. Since I knew the Senate, the Senators and all the inside information, I could tell this was a definite fake and wouldn't stand up to the first major check ran on. I had precious little time to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity.

The aide showed me to my quarters and had a uniform ready for me. He waited quietly and politely as I quickly changed, braided my hair and such.

Frankly, I scared me, looking in the mirror.

I think the aides are trained not to speak to Imperial Intelligence unless spoken, too. This was a good thing as I kept a scowl on my face, looking at the datapad, trying to figure out how to free the rest of the crew without getting killed or captured in the process... and without having the crew really think I WAS Imperial Intelligence. I mean, I really looked the part. And I had to do all of this before the Marquis arrived.

Fortunately, the crew had already managed to fight their way free. Apparently, Ellis made the mistake of torturing Delaney, Val's wife, first. Val managed to free himself, save his wife and free the others. Of course, this meant that when the elevator door opened, I was met with a fire fight... and me, in an Imperial Intelligence uniform.

I reacted on instinct, yanked the aide's weapon from his belt and shot him. Then, Yahnna shot me in the arm and demanded that I drop my weapon. I did, of course. The fire fight was finished very quickly and there was something about William shooting Yahnna in the back because she shot me and Val shooting William for shooting Yahnna. I'm not sure. We had won the fight but there was a lot of internal chaos. William explained that he was the one who put the appended note in my file, saying I was Imperial Intelligence. A wonderful idea. I just wish I had been warned that he was doing this.

The tension level was growing and people were looking like they wanted blood. I KNEW we had to get off the Relentless in the worse way, so I headed everyone off at the pass and said, "The Rose is about to be captured. The Marquis DeLorik will be here in eight hours!"

That pretty much stopped everything thing cold.

From then on, we worked together as a team to escape. They were using me as a hostage. Not a bad idea, but not a great one, either. We managed to get to the landing bay just as the Rose was being tracker beamed in. We started out and then I felt it... him. Just beyond the Rose, I could see a sleek ship quite a distance away... but I could still feel the Marquis... this overwhelming dark presence. I didn't know would be like this.

After much fighting and running, we made it to our ships, freeing them and breaking free of the Relentless. It was a race to get to the jump points. Just before we jumped, I was in the Spanner's engine room again, making sure nothing blew up, I felt the Marquis again. But... he was attacking me this time. The only way to describe it... is that it felt like he was squeezing my brain. I have never felt anything so painful in all my life. I fell unconscious again, bleeding from the ears.

We were on the Relentless for a few hours but it feels like years.

We've been in hyperspace for two days now and we really don't know where we're going. Dev managed to punch in some correct coordinates as we escaped. I guess we'll find out in three or so days. It's ended up that only me, Yahnna, Dev, Geehan, William, Meric and Maire are on the Broken Spanner with everyone else on the Iridium Rose. Meric ordered them 'home' - where ever that is. I know we'll try to meet up with them once we figure out where we are.

In the meantime, I've set up my own little schedule of exercise, mediation, Force exercises, trying to translate that Jedi journal and put it into electronic format and to try to build a lightsaber out of the parts we found. I want to give it to Val whenever we meet again. He made a great sacrifice for us. I want him to be proud of me, that I'm determined to keep up with what he's taught me and to excel, too.

....

There... there is one thing that keeps bothering me... that aide, back on the Relentless, that was assigned to me. I killed him. I didn't even think about it when it happened. I just took his weapon and shot him in the head. I know violence is necessary sometimes... but... I've never killed anyone before. He was so young. And surprised. He soiled himself when he saw the fire fight. I don't think he even realized that I was the one who killed him.

... I wonder about him. What he was like? Who was he? Did he have a family? Did he have dreams? I didn't even know his name.

I don't really know how to deal with this. And Val's not here to help me understand... I don't know who to turn to. Maybe Yahnna... if I can. If she doesn't brush me off.

Funny thing. So many people died in our escape. And I know the Empire was certainly going to kill all of us. Will kill us, if they catch us again. But, this one death, this one man.... Maybe because I... I was the one who killed him. Personally. I can't get him out of my mind.

Dammit! I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what's going to happen. The Relentless is still after us. The Marquis is still after us. We're split up from the Rose. I can't even tell if our mission to Ord Mantavi was a success or not. We have so little to show for it. I don't even know if I can ever go home again without endangering my family...

And all I can think is... when will I stop seeing his face when I close my eyes?

End Log: 78135.206.22:20

(c) 1999 - Eden Blackthorn