The blue holographic image of Tausret hovered slowly above the holopad in the hand of a Duros. Her red eyes, now colored in blue, penetrated the Duros, which shivered. The alien owned a droid store somewhere in the middle levels of Nar Shaddaa, also known as the smugglers moon by the commons.
"Is the droid ready?" she asked. Her voice, cold, echoed softly through the little shop the Duros was in. She raised her voice, giving it an edge, making sure there was no argument. "I want it in my ship in two standard hours!"
The Duros muttered, but again, her words made clear there was absolutely no room for argument. "I need it in two hours."
She leaned forward in the holographic image. "I need those modifications. Make it so and deliver it in time, and you get double the payment."
The insectoid eyes of the Duros seemed to brighten up, and his hands moved together. He could feel already the wealth and rich of the Empire in his pockets. The Duros always wanted to expand his store, or move it to the upper regions of Nar Shaddaa. If he would pull off this job, he wouldn't have to worry about the loan sharks, cyclone cartels or random thugs trying to mug him.
"... but," she continued in the same voice, "If it's not in my ship in two hours, I will come down to your store and will make sure you cannot repair and adjust droids to specifications ever again!"
The Duros took a step backwards, afraid of her threat. "I will start right away with it, ma'..."
"Yes you will!" was her simple plain answer. "Make sure your droids deliver also my other supplies..."
"They are already being delivered as we speak," The Duros said, while picking up a datapad, that was on the workbench in front of him. He scrolled on the datapad to a list and repeated the contents loud enough so Tausret could hear it.
"Five cases of fragment grenades, two cases of explosive probes, one case of shield probe, one case of adrenaline probes, one case of plasma probes, two cases of flash bang grenades and 4 unmodified interrogation probes "
"The corrosive darts?" Tausret asked. She raised her eyebrow.
"On a different transport," the Duros added, "Also delivered within the next standard hour.."
"Excellent..."
Tausret cut off the transmission, sighed, and walked to the ramp of her ship. She was annoyed by the Duros. She was not fond of the insectoid she hired. Come to think of it, she actually hated him. He had a nasty habit of playing with deadlines. Next to that, not every item she ordered from him was top quality. She had the feeling he might have been screwing her over.
She was not yet sure if she would reward the bug, or simply end their business contract.
Tausret pressed the controls of the door of her ship. The door opened with a soft 'woosh' and the Chiss girl stepped outside. She scanned the hangar bay and observed how dozens of droids in the docking bay were doing their job. Her face unmoved she noticed a lone figure in front of her ramp. Dressed in a casual outfit, he started walking up the ramp.
"Do you always scare Duros like that?"
She shrugged, "Only if I have the feeling the bug is trying to play me." she turned around and walked back into her ship. "And I think that small fry was..."
"I don't even understand you do business with that Duros." the lone figue asked, while he followed her into the ship, "I rather stick with Imperial supplies!"
"You know, just like me, our equipment is coming from the same manufacturers" Tausret said, while walking to a table and offered the man who had followed her.
"True. It just gives me satisfaction to see I get it from an Imperial representative, rather than a shady Duros on Nar Shaddaa." he admitted while sitting down.
"Let's discuss the mission," Tausret said, changing the subject, and opened the map of the galaxy through the terminal on her desk. A holo-projector came to life and made a three dimensional image of the known galaxy. Tausret highlighted Hoth on it.
"According to our sources he is last seen on Hoth. His exact whereabouts are a mystery though. The signals are getting a lot of static and interference because of Republic ships in orbit. They are trying to scramble our signals."
The man across Tausret simply stared to the image of the galaxy, but his thoughts were somewhere else. It was not confirmed the target was on Hoth. That meant they could monitor Hoth and hopefully pick up his trail, or they could land and try the more direct approach by sending out droids. Both could take days in order to detect the target. Next to that, the man might be gone as well. A lot of variables were at play here.
"So what do you think, agent Dorvalla?"
The young agent rubbed his chin, looking at the image of Hoth and then stood up.
"Time to get our snow gear on, I guess..."