War Child--Rogue One

XXIX

The liberated prisoners that Captain Antilles was assessing have their own meeting, like we did. Only one of the names is mentioned.

Bail Organa stands at the front. "There was one prisoner who risked his life to get out the information. Perl--"

I don't even hear his last name. Voices swirl around.

"How goes the home?" "Fine, Father!" "Camellia?" "Everything went well, Perl."

"Perl! Where's Perl!"

"Cassian." Linami jabs me in the side. "Come on."

I rub my face and look around. Everyone else has left. I stand slowly. "I'm sorry."

"You were staring off into space. Are you alright?"

I nod hesitantly. "He has the same name as my Father."

"Who does."

I don't want to say his name, for fear that it may trigger another flashback. "The one Senator Organa was talking about, who got the information out."

"Perl Tinred?"

I squeeze my eyes shut. Nothing happens. I nod painfully.

"Sorry. Tinred is apparently getting a medal of some sort. All he did was send a message. He worked in communications there anyway."

"He defected?" We walk towards the door.

"No, he was just a prisoner that they trusted." She chuckles. "A bit too much, if you ask me. Makes a girl wonder though, is he to be trusted in the Rebellion?"

"He came here," I point out. "And he's credited with rescuing all of those people."

She shrugs. "We missed most of dinner, but there may be some food there we can snag."

"Alright. I'm hungry."

"Not starving?" she teases, bringing up last night's exchange.

"No. Not starving. I've felt that." I didn't mean to tell her that.

"I'm sorry," she says.

I shrug. "I'm not anymore. That's why I said I was hungry."

"Well I'm glad you aren't starving," Linami says, with a hint of a smile. "And I'm sorry for being so insensitive."

I lift and drop one shoulder. "Can we go eat now?"

She laughs and we head on towards the mess hall. There's a bit of food left, some bread and vegetables. No meat, unfortunately, but at least there's food.

We take the food outside, and I'm thankful for my warm jacket in the mist. There's a reason this planet is so good for agriculture: the concentration of water to air is higher here than most other planets in this galaxy. Makes for great farming, but gets kind of cold at night when the clouds come down and the visibility can be pretty low some days.

Right now, though, the double sunset lights up the fog around us, and the nips of the water on my face are alright. But my bread is getting wet, so I eat that quickly, then the quickly cooling vegetables. I look over and see that Linami is doing the same.

I put my tray to the side and lean on my hand to watch the suns set.

Something touches my hand and I almost shy away. It's Linami. I tense, but she doesn't seem to notice as she traces her fingers along my knuckles. I don't like it, but I don't want to be rude and tell her to stop.

So I sit there, uncomfortably watching the suns sink below the horizon. I stand and reach for my tray. Linami grabs her own and puts up a hand. I pull her up, then let go quickly, before she can hold my hand as we walk back in.

I think she's offended. I don't look at her face.

But experience warns me against this. Tenielle held my hand first. Tenielle kissed me first. Tenielle betrayed me.

I don't want to risk anything like that again.

We return the trays to the KP crew, and walk, with at least a foot between us, to the barrack halls.

"Goodnight," I tell her.

"Goodnight. Don't let the rathtars bite," she says with a laugh.

"Rathtars?"

"Viscous creatures. You don't want to meet one. Ever. Eat you up in a bite. Nasty."

"Nasty," I agree.

She smiles and heads down one hall, I go left into the other and to my barrack.

The blue blanket is still in the cupboard from where I left it. It's cold tonight, so I think I'll pull it out, for necessity's sake. I lay it on my bed and climb in, pulling the blankets up to my chin.

I have to close my eyes or else I'll think of Mother and Father. So much has happened today. I hate it.

Tinred showed up, and I remembered Father. Linami is being uncomfortably forward. And this blanket is the capstone.

Why, oh, why, must life be so bloody complicated?