Knight Squadron - The Saboteur

"What?!" Kerri shouted, twisting her wrists in a desperate attempt to free her hands from Jac's hold. "You're crazy! Why would I try to kill the man I love?"

"An accident," Johann said, his voice cold. "That was why you were so concerned and didn't want me to fly. I might have gotten... did get one of your sabotaged Valkyries."

"Of course I was concerned!" Kerri shouted. "With a madman loose, you were a natural target! You are the Hero of Syria. And I was right, they did go for you. But you didn't listen to me! If I would have checked the Valkyrie you were to have used, you might not have crashed!"

"Of course not," Aiden growled. "You would have removed the explosives from the hydraulic compressor and disabled the timer."

"You have no evidence to prove that I planted explosives there," Kerri spat. "Jo, how can you let this happen to me? I thought you loved me!"

"Because all of the evidence, what little there is, points to you," Johann said. "Several of the mechanics saw you working on the hydraulic systems of the crashed fighters. And that is where the traces of explosives were found."

"You have nothing to back that up," Kerri said, wrenching at Han's hands. "It's all circumstantial. Why would I do this?"

"Your hatred of all pilots except for Jo is a well-known fact," Gisela spoke now, cool and calm. "You had motive, materials, no alibi, and were seen in the right place."

"We find you guilty," Ryker said. "We cannot afford the loss of pilots and equipment that you have caused in your private war. You are sentenced to death for the murder of Rob Kerman."

"How am I to be executed then?" Kerri asked.

"You'll be shot. We cannot afford to leave anything for the Jaheem to find and make use of," Ryker said.

"Wait! May I speak?" Kerri shouted.

"Speak your peace," Gisela said.

"My father was a pilot. He knew the lives of Jaheem pilots are short, so he did as he pleased. He never was faithful to my mother. He often forgot we existed. All he ever did was hurt us. Until I met Jo, I had never met a pilot who was any different. They deserved to die before they could hurt anyone they way my father hurt me and my mother," Kerri said.

Johann turned toward her, tears welling in his blue eyes and hurt in his gentle voice. "Why didn't you tell me? I thought you loved me, trusted me."

"I just couldn't..." Kerri said.

"Very well," Johann said icily, and turned away.

Jac stepped before Kerri and leveled his pistol.

"Can I at least kiss Jo goodbye?" Kerri asked.

"That is up to Jo," Ryker said.

Johann turned back toward his one-time lover, his love dead in his heart. He swallowed hard at the stricken look in her eyes. "I will kiss the girl I once loved goodbye. I will kiss the woman who waited by my bed while I was ill, the one who believed in me. But this monster, I will not. In memory of what you were to me, I will kiss you, Kerri," he said.

Johann stepped into Kerri's arms, the twin trails of two tears marking his face. Kerri pressed herself close, offering her lips for a kiss. Johann pressed his warm lips to hers. His caramel-colored hair tickled her face.

"Goodbye," Johann whispered. Kerri cried into the curve of his neck.

"Commander, I suggest you move," Ryker said. "Unless you wish to join this traitor in death."

Johann shook his head almost imperceptibly and walked away from her.

***

Part 6...

Johann watched sadly as Jac squeezed the trigger. Kerri's slight body flew backwards as time seemed to distort and slow for Johann. She crumpled into a slight heap on the floor. Johann gazed at the body, unable to comprehend how all his hopes had seemed to crumble in the space of a few hours.

"I can't believe how much she managed to hide from me," Johann whispered. "I thought I knew her..."

"We all did, kid," Jac said. "We all thought we knew her, that she'd finally be happy with you."

"How could I have been so wrong about her?" Johann asked. "Why didn't I see all that hatred in her, right under the surface?"

"No one did, Commander," Ryker spoke now. "She was not suspect until no others appeared. She was an expert at hiding."

"I just wish that there was something I could do," Johann said. "Some way to remember the good she did and not the evil."

"There will be a marker placed at her grave here," Gisela said. "Would you like to write the inscription?"

Johann nodded. He picked up a stylus and a pad and began to write. Gisela instantly recognized the flowing curves and tendrils of traditional Remus script rather than the Standard she had always seen Johann use before. However, it did not surprise her that Johann could write it.

Gisela looked over Johann's shoulder. She had never learned to read Remus script, so she was relieved when Johann began writing in Standard instead.

'Here lies Kerri Malina. The first woman I truly loved.' the basic script said.

"Would you get them to engrave this on the marker?" Johann asked, handing the pad to Gisela.

"Yes, I will," she whispered. "Go back to The Ghost and rest, Johann."

Johann nodded and started walking slowly to the surface. He looked up at the stars that sprinkled the night sky. Constellations familiar to him from his childhood beamed down upon Johann. At any moment, Johann almost expected to hear his uncle calling to him.

But deep inside, he was no longer the boy who had found adventure risking his life in Ryder's Canyon. He had seen pain, seen worlds destroyed. He had had his heart broken in the last few minutes. His whole universe had changed.

Slowly, Johann turned toward The Ghost. It seemed safe and homelike to him, and Johann realized that the Reich was all he had left. He had lost everything else.

Johann's hand closed about his father's Sunsword on his wrist. He had not lost everything. When he sat still and thought quietly, he could feel the Mystica as Ben had taught him.

He walked aboard the battered Korscian freighter. The Ghost was all the home he had now, and Jac and Gisela were all the family he had.

Slowly, Johann headed for a small cabin where he had bunked when working with Jac before. He fell asleep in his flight suit after managing to remove his boots.

In dreams, Johann was on Syria again, standing atop one of the Masai temples. A woman, beautiful with fiery red hair and vibrant green eyes, was in his arms. She kissed his lips gently, then backed away from him.

"I will wait for you," she said. "You will know me when the time comes."

A tear coursed down Johann's cheek as he awoke. It was more than a dream, he knew. And when it was time, there would be a true love waiting for him.

***

The next day, Kerri was quietly buried, with only Johann, Gisela and Jac watching. A small stone marker was placed at the head of the grave. The inscription that Johann had written in Remus and Standard showed clearly in the early morning light.

After Gisela and Jac had left, Johann knelt at the marker. "Goodbye, Kerri," he whispered. "I have to go, but I will remember what we had, even though I may love again."

With those words echoing in the still Remus afternoon, Johann walked away, back toward The Ghost and the Reich.

He never looked back...

***

The End...