Story - 1 DUTY

Malavai Quinn moved quickly and silently through the corridor. His plan was good, but it depended on precise timing. He looked down at the plas display - two more turns and then straight down the corridor.

His eye caught a glimpse of the floor and he adjusted his step to avoid an unidentifiable substance. It appeared that even hygiene was beyond possible in this Republic hell. The discipline he'd learned in the academy and through being a dutiful soldier for some of the worst commanders in Imperial history had taught him that anything could be endured. He just had to keep his eye on the end goal. It helped to look straight forward and not peek at the horror around and nearby you.

This was what he was best at - making plans, recognizing obstacles and overcoming them. Or learning to make do with what he was given - like a small Republic communique listing Pierce as captured while trying to exit a Hutt compound. He'd killed twenty while providing a diversion for others to escape. The communique had mentioned he was awaiting public execution for his crimes.

After a few moments more, Quinn reached his destination. The last cell on the right had little movement inside, but he found what he was expecting. The irritation when he realized the shape his quarry was in made his voice sharper than intended. "Pierce!"

The large man didnt appear to move, didn't even appear to breathe, but apparently nothing could quell his mouth. " Come to gloat?" The words, while defiant, were slow and slurred. Nothing like his usual bravado.

Quinn stifled a sigh. He could not consciously discern why this man irritated him so very much. Objectively, he could acknowledge Pierce's bravery and cunning intelligence in battle. They were just from two different worlds. But then, so were all of the companions in their strange little crew. His answer came out stiff and cold. "I am here to rescue you."

"Is she here?"

"Of course not!" Quinn snapped. "If we are caught, she may just survive this. If I had told her you were here, she would have torn this place down to get you out. Assuming you both survived that, everyone would know she was still alive despite reports to the contrary. The fallout for everything she has been trying to do would be disastrous."

"So why did you come? Why not leave me here?"

Really, the man asked the most ridiculous questions and at all the wrong times. Quinn ignored him and proceeded to slice the lock, relying on every trick he'd learned and a few he'd invented to open it without triggering the alarms. He moved quickly inside and ran his plas reader over Pierce to determine his injuries. It was worse than he'd feared. He could patch him up, but Pierce would be very weak and unable to help fight their way out of here. Quinn's plan for that contingency was a bit thinner than he would like.

"Lie still while I perform a bit of repair work and give you a stim."

Pierce grinned his usual annoying grin, although as weak as he was, it didn't have the same sting as usual. "You just can't stop giving me orders, can you?"

Again, Quinn did not bother to reply. His long fingers slid quickly over the plas screen to enter the appropriate commands. The small device could repair enough of Pierce's internal injuries to keep him mobile during their escape. After a moment, he pressed the side of the unit to an open spot on Pierce's shoulder and saw, even in the dim light, some color return to the man's face.

"Can you move?" he asked the soldier and waited until he saw Pierce's grim nod. Quinn slid his arm under the bigger man's shoulders and helped him to a sitting position. Then he braced himself to help Pierce to his feet. In the back of his head a voice laughed at the image of his 170 lb frame having to carry Pierce's 230 lbs of straight muscle in a fireman's hold through the complex. Fortunately, when Pierce was righted, the field medicine appeared to have done the trick.

"We have a short window in which to get out of here. We have to go now." Quinn watched Pierce's face to make sure he understood.

Pierce nodded, his face pale. Quinn moved to the door, looked out, and ran some quick calculations in his head. They had almost 10 minutes to get to the next secure point. He reached in his pocket for a small device, scanned Pierce with it and hit a button. It whirred for a moment and a light on the tiny device turned green. Setting the device on Pierce's vacated sleeping slab, he studied the effect. A lifelike holo of Pierce lay there, complete with recent injuries. A quick glance in the door would fool anyone into thinking the prisoner remained.

Behind him, Pierce chuckled painfully. "Wish I'd had one of those at ground school for bed checks."

Quinn grimaced. "With luck, no one will disturb it before we are clear."

He turned and headed out the door, checking the hallway before gesturing for Pierce to follow.

They made it out of that wing before oncoming footsteps had them hiding in a small utility room. Once inside, Pierce sank back against a shelving unit - pain evident in his face. Quinn spared him an assessing look and checked the calculations on his data pad. At Pierce's current rate of movement, it would be difficult to make it out undetected. He began to rerun the possible routes - so focused on the tactical problem he nearly missed Pierce's quietly voiced question.

"Why did you come for me?"

It was the difference in tone that made Quinn answer what seemed self evident to him. "You are part of our crew. It's my duty to take care of the crew so she can focus on the larger issues."

"You know that if you hadn't come, I would have died here and no one would have known."

"Then I would have failed in my duty." Quinn replied firmly.

Pierce's riposte was aptly aimed, "But then you'd be rid of me and would have her all to yourself."

Quinn's face felt stiff, but he responded in the same calm way that had kept him alive for all these years, "As her captain, it's my job to make her work easier. This entire situation puts everything she worked for at risk." He paused as an all too familiar pain hit him yet again. When he was sure he could continue in his normal tone, he added "You matter to her. She chose you and there is nothing more to discuss."

The growl that came out of Pierce's throat was so feral that Quinn almost looked for a beast. This explained why the lunge that slammed him into the wall surprised him. He looked up into Pierce's raging face and remembered to keep focused on his words while the back of his brain whirred into life calculating all possibilities.

"Chose ME!" Pierce's bellow was whispered and yet still seemed to fill the room, "You great bloody PONCE. She chose you, but you were so busy giving her what she needs, you never gave her what she wanted!"

"She knows how I feel." Quinn responded quietly. A moment from back on Taris flashed into his mind. With seconds ticking by until a bomb exploded, the Sith Lord flashed him an odd look as she asked teasingly if there was any last thing he would like to say to her. She had been teasing him since the day they met, and yet he had wondered if it was his imagination that that moment had more meaning to it.

Pierce let him go suddenly and began to laugh incredulously. "I bet that's exactly what you told her too." He shook his head back and forth marveling at it. "Makes sense now."

Quinn's puzzlement warred with his irritation. He wasn't sure which won. "What makes sense?"

"Why she's in my bed and not yours." Pierce replied bluntly.

Quinn had served for years under a tyrannical madman and was good at hiding his feelings. That hard won control served him well here despite the pain of hearing aloud what he had suspected. "That is also her choice."

Pierce closed his eyes and leaned back into a corner of the small utility closet. "You really believe that, don't you?"

"This discussion is pointless and inappropriate." Quinn stated quietly. "I see no reason why what I think or feel matters here. The matter is decided and my duty is to support my lord in what she chooses. I am still your superior and I have given you all the explanation you need."

"You have no idea what she is thinking or what she wants." Pierce laughed - his voice insolent and mocking despite his pain. "All your education, training, and tactical know-how haven't given you insight into the woman."

"You think your times fighting with her have?" Quinn's eyes were sharp with something that Pierce had never seen from him before. "What do you know of the strength it takes to be a Sith lord and what she has to sacrifice to keep us all safe?"

Pierce changed tactics. He owed this man and he was damned if he liked it. He owed their lord too and while he was more comfortable with that, his opportunity to pay both back and still get some digs in at Quinn was here. "Have you ever watched her fight?"

"I have been in several battles with her." Quinn could feel defensiveness slipping into his tone and he fought to keep perfect indifference in his delivery. It had never been wise in his life to care much for anything. Caring was always turned against you.

"But have you ever really watched her fight?" Pierce's eyes were bright with appreciation. "When our lord gets fighting, she's like a force of nature. Blur of motion moving through the fight and leaving bodies in her wake. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. She loves it too. Has to - to be that good, really. She lives in the moment like all the best warriors."

"She does not love to kill. That is ridiculous. She is very controlled." Quinn protested. He was strangely unsettled by the Lieutenant's description of her.

Pierce's look was almost pitying, "Do you understand why she doesn't take you with her on missions any longer? Why you are no longer her companion of choice?"

Quinn did not reply. He held Pierce's gaze and waited.

"She thinks if you see her for who she really is - all of it - that you will think less of her. Killing is what she's good at - an elemental power. I've never seen anyone so able to instinctively know where to be in a battle. She moves from foe to foe like a whirlwind vanquishing everything in her path. But for all her power, for all that force, she's a woman who is trying to build a team - a family if you will. She's pulled together a bunch of people that shouldn't work and we stay because of her. I'd follow her anywhere."

"That is a decision I already made before you came along. Whether she knows or wants it, I am hers to the last." Quinn responded quietly. In his brain, he could see what Pierce was driving at. He wondered where he had gone wrong to ever make her doubt. It was not in his nature to be effusive - he stayed apart and analyzed to ensure maximum tactical advantage. Could it be his best skill had failed him in the situation that mattered most?

"It matters little now," he told Pierce. "She is not fickle by nature. If she decided to go to your bed, she will not change lightly now." He looked down at his watch. "It is time to take advantage of our window to leave."

Pierce straightened with difficulty. "Hopefully she is the only blindspot you have in your tactical ability."

Quinn knew he sounded like a prig now, but couldn't seem to help himself. "Excuse me?"

"Or you would have known she could no more come to my bed than she could sprout wings and fly." Pierce had reached the door by now and he took great delight in the astounded look on Quinn's face. If you asked him, the man could do to come down a peg. "Let's go."

As comprehension lit up Quinn's face, Pierce headed out the door, satisfied that his debt had been paid.

It had been two weeks, Quinn reflected, and Pierce had done him a very good turn with those words. Perhaps he should recommend him for a promotion. With his free hand he stroked the side of the face lying peacefully asleep on his chest. It was a face he had memorized every detail of since the day he had met her on Balmorra. Often fierce and commanding, her face at rest looked sweet and almost innocent. His Sith Lord's face was also the face of his future.

He gently kissed her forehead and smiled. There would be plenty of time to worry about duty ... tomorrow.