A/N: Thank you to my Beta Readers HMWeasley, CaptainNinapants, and Deejaymil. Please let me know what you think and thanks for reading. :)
Chapter 9
35 ABY
A sensor chirped from the Ghost letting Galibran know it was reaching its destination and about to come out of Hyperdrive. He braced the ship for a rapid deceleration and gracefully pulled out of the hyperspace lane to arrive at nothing. Alarmed, he double checked that his calculations in the nav computer were correct, which they were. It had been a week to get to this point, jumping through uncharted space and all he could see was emptiness before him.
"Er...we have a problem," Galibran's squeaky voice said over the comm.
Kylo Ren trudged into the cockpit, in his under robe and no mask. "What is it?"
"I think," Galibran said nervously. "The coordinates you gave me were wrong,"
Kylo pushed the Kubaz aside and even though he saw the nav computer was correct, he still chastised the pilot. "You must have done something wrong."
"I only went where you told me to," Galibran tutted, crossing his arms.
By this point the rest of the crew had entered the cockpit. Gruss looked out to the nothingness.
"Why'd we stop?" he hissed, having been pulled from a meal.
"That's what I am trying to find out," Galibran grumbled. "It's not there."
"How can a planet not be there?" Nox asked then her eyes grew wide and whipped her head at Kylo. "What else did you blow up?"
"Nothing," Kylo said in a rare moment of his own snark. "Considering the weapon was destroyed."
Nox avoided his eyes. "I knew that."
Kylo looked around for moment, then sat down and began to aggressively enter the encryption sequence to establish communications with The Finalizer. "Supreme Leader," he began once they were connected. " The coordinates we were given are not accurate."
Snoke was quiet and calm. He listened thoughtfully, his pale sallow face looking back at them. The long delay between messages added to the tension already in the Ghost. He finally responded slow and deliberate. " When the empire fell, only fragments of the Jedi secrets were saved from the library. Most of the information from Coruscant was squandered away by the Black Sun. Seek them out."
Nox shook her head at the obscurity of it. The Black Sun Syndicate was lead by a powerful man who hated all Force users. There was no difference between light or dark, he hated them all. Since the First Order was being run by two publicly known Force users, she was certain The Black Sun would not be easily swayed to assist them.
Without hesitation Kylo had a deal manufactured for the Black Sun and transmitted it to his spies in the underworld. Now they had to wait. Kylo began to pace. He walked back and forth through the small ship, up the ladder to the shuttle called the Phantom and back down.
After his third lap around, Nox couldn't take it anymore. "Will you just sit down?" she asked seated in the common room, legs kicked up on the table. " Soon they will let you know it didn't work and we can move on."
Her comment did nothing to calm him. "How are you so sure!"
Realizing she needed a new tactic she spoke civilly. "They will only deal with people like us. Not the First Order. When we have dealt with them, I always have to send Bazine or Gruss, since their leader hates anyone Force sensitive."
Perhaps it was her calm tone or the fact that what she said was based on fact not drama, but he calmed slightly. With a smug expression he sat down next to her. "Enough credits and you can get anyone to do whatever you want."
"Oh really?" she said her body leaning towards him. As soon as, she had done so, she sat back quickly, realizing she was almost flirting with him. The pit of her stomach felt sour.
"You are here aren't you," he said with a smirk back.
It had only been a few days that they had been on the Ghost together and he had yet to dawn that obnoxious mask. Before, when they were Knights and they would go out to do Snoke's missions, he wore it, but in private among the Knights he showed his face. She was glad that he at least was carrying on that tradition.
"Nice try," she tutted getting up to reach for a bottle of Merenzane Gold from the cabinet in the common room and some glasses. "You tricked me."
"I learned from the best," Kylo replied simply and with a hint of a smile that she knew, that lived in the corner of his lips.
Nox placed the glasses down in front of them and spoke low and controlled. "Don't."
Kylo flinched slightly almost as if he was disappointed.
Vinuk and Gruss had wandered in by this point to join, Bazine and Galibran were still in the cockpit. At the sight of the very expensive and potent liquor Gruss slid in on the other side of Nox and began to pour for everyone. Kylo ignored his drink, but the rest clinked their cups together and slung it back.
"What are you celebrating?" Kylo asked in annoyance. "We have failed."
"No," Nox laughed "We are going to save the day and come up with a plan. The Black Sun is hard to track down and even when your people do find them, your offer will be rejected. This is our planning time."
"With liquor?" he asked holding up the cup but still not drinking.
"Yes," she chortled. "Now remove that stick that's up your rear!"
Gruss snickered and chugged down some more while elbowing Vinuk. "Drink up old man!"
Vinuk finished his drink and poured himself another. He was already glassy eyed, his tentacles around his mouth stroking the cup. "The Black Sun disgusts me. Why must we work with the likes them? Since the fall of the Empire there has been such a hatred for Force users."
They all looked at him with a combination of amusement and irritability. If he wasn't talking about his superiority to them in regards to Snoke, it was about his time with the Emperor. They had grown used to it, but at that moment when Nox was trying to make light of the situation, she wished Vinuk would instead stay quiet.
"To the Emperor!" Vinuk exclaimed holding up his cup.
Nox and Gruss, both out of tolerance, raised their cups and mumbled some sort of similar cheer.
"Why to him? He's gone, " Kylo scoffed. " I think you would have aligned your allegiance elsewhere."
Nox and Gruss met each other's eyes, knowing that Kylo was treading on thin ice.
"I still believe in the Empire," Vinuk sneered drunkenly. " The First Order is just a sad imitation of it. From the troopers to its followers."
Kylo leaned forward aggressively. "Is the Supreme Leader a sad imitation of the Emperor?"
Vinuk hesitated, then nodded saddly. "In a way."
Nox shook her head at Kylo to let it go.
"He is grander than the Emperor ever hoped to be," Kylo plowed through ignoring Nox. "He can teach you-us-more than the Emperor could."
"You know nothing," Vinuk huffed, slamming down his cup. He observed the room. Nox and Gruss were grimacing at the row and Kylo looked like he was preparing something harmful to do to Vinuk. With a silent glare Vinuk took the path of the bigger man and walked out of the common room.
Once she was sure he was gone, she breathed in relief. Then shook her head at Kylo again. "Vinuk may talk big in his adoration for The Supreme Leader, but he will always be loyal to the Empire. He was raised by the Emperor afterall."
Kylo squinted his eyes as he met hers, trying to understand what she was saying.
"You are so self absorbed," Nox sighed and took another drink. "You really don't know anything about them, do you? Do you even know why he became a Knight of Ren? Any of us?"
Kylo pursed his lips. "What does it matter?"
Nox savored the taste of the burning liquor in her mouth and swallowed. Her shoulders relaxed and she leaned back with authority. "Little boy," she sighed. "Vinuk was taken as a baby when the Inquisitors did raids for the Emperor. Any force sensitive child was either killed to prevent them from becoming a threat or the lucky ones were spared and taken to the Emperor himself."
Her hand flitted open and flashes of Vinuk's memories began to dance in green light on her hand. In the past she had snuck into his mind while he slept, to see what made the Quarren so difficult to work with. Thankfully, he never found out.
"They would be raised under the Emperor," she continued as a young Quarren twirling a force pike appeared in a green flicker before them. " Taught just enough in the dark side to fit his needs. The very gifted became his apprentice and others Inquisitors. Vinuk was going to be honored as the first non human Royal Guard, since he was so proficient with his force pike. But, the Empire crumbled and he was left with nothing, alone, barely an adult, and the knowledge that all he had aspired to was brought down by Skywalker's rebels."
"Why are you showing me this?" Kylo asked, with no expression.
Gruss was enchanted by the images and disappointed when it quickly vanished back into Nox's hand.
"How can you lead what you don't know or understand?" Nox scoffed at Kylo and continued, her tipsy mind urging her to press on flashing Bazine's memories for all to see. Hers however had been given willingly to Nox. "Bazine's father died on the first Death Star. Her sister and brother in the battle of Jakku. All three tie fighter pilots. She was barely a year old and all of her family was wiped out by the Rebels, leaving her with her mother who rapidly lost her mind."
Kylo was breathing in deep from his nose. It was obvious that he wanted her to stop.
"Galibran's father was a well known informant for the Empire, who was struck down by Luke Skywalker himself, when he was trying to send information about the battle of Endor," Nox spoke, showing Luke slicing through a Kubaz in a black robe. "Galibran was ten and learned to live on the streets, eventually stealing ships to get anywhere else than where he was left at."
Nox was gripping her cup and threw back her last shot. "All damaged by the Rebels. All hating the idea that the icon of the Jedi, a dead religion had brought upon them the worse moments of their lives. But, then along came Prime Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke." Snoke's deformed face hovered before them next to a handsome man with dark features, a ponytail and goatee. "They granted us all knowledge and power, in return all we had to do was stop the Jedi from returning at all costs."
"And Me?" Gruss asked drunkenly.
"What about you?" Nox smirked, swishing away the green memories from her sight.
"I was promised I could rip off heads," he said to Kylo, with a menacing grin.
"That's it?" Kylo said with a huff. "No pathetic childhood?"
Gruss laughed. "I had a great childhood. After I was hatched I ate my clutch brotherss. Then grew to be the best warrior and got to kill my father when he was too weak to lead uss. I sstill have his sskull to remember those times."
"Beautiful Gruss," Nox smirked, which pleased the drunken Trandoshan.
"'Bout you, boss lady?" Gruss asked still enjoying this spectre like show.
Nox leaned back and with a soft smile opened up her hand again. An image jumped up on the table in the green light. Little Esmin smiled at a young Ben, both play fighting with sticks for lightsabers. Kylo froze in place trying to avoid the image and the woman next to him. With an odd calm Nox spoke as if she was talking about an obvious truth they should all know. "Esmin Nox was an impressionable little girl, so dramatic. She played the victim very well. Then, she fell for a boy who was so powerful and passionate. He showed her many things. Probably not the most educational type. Eventually, he used her to try to gain power through her abilities."
"You can't keep blaming me for everything," Kylo replied irritably.
"No," she said with a drunken nod, then smiled broadly. "But, it is fun to be consistent."
oOoOoOo
Several sounds of a blunt object hitting metal rang from Kylo's bunk. Nox slid the door open with a smile. "They rejected the deal?"
Kylo was holding a metal chair that he had pulled from its bolts in the floor, and slammed it once again into the wall. "Yes," he breathed hard.
"Now will you let us handle this?" Nox sighed, her arms crossed. "We have figured out a plan to get your coordinates. Okay?"
Kylo threw the chair to the ground loudly. "Fine."
Nox began to walk out of his view in triumph, her voice calling behind her. "Follow me."
Grudgingly Kylo did so, back into the confined common room. The Knights sat around anxiously looking at a hologram being projected from Bazine's portable computer. It showed the inner workings of a large compound.
"Okay," Nox sighed taking a seat in front of the hologram. "First off, we will have to plot a course to Dathomir. That is where the main cell is. Once we get there we will have to get into the fortress."
"How did you get this information?" Kylo asked, standing stubbornly.
"Bazine," Nox answered annoyed at his selective memory. "She can slice into most any mainframe and if that doesn't work her pretty face can make any man or woman give up their own mother, if asked. Who do think told you the missing droid was at Maz Kanata's?"
Bazine' beautiful face smiled in mock flirtation at Kylo. "We still haven't been paid the finders fee, by the way."
Nox eyed Kylo.
"We didn't need the droid in the end," he muttered which confused them all. Visually flustered, he quickly moved the conversation back to the situation at hand. "The plan?"
Galibran jumped in, "She will be raised up to a ventilation shaft, where she can bypass the surrounding wall. She will have enough time, once in,from her dress, to block any sensor from picking up any life forms for a ten meter radius near her."
"Her dress?" Kylo sighed, this plan clearly sounding more ridiculous to him as they spoke.
"It has signal jamming technology built into it," Bazine said proudly, flaring out her white and black geometrically patterned dress.
"Gruss and her will enter. He will be the muscle to get her safely to the main database, here," Nox said pointing to a deep bunker in the back. "She can dismantle any automatic turrets or droids once she is inside. After that, she will download the information, if they have any and slide back out before they even know we are there."
"Only two of you?" Kylo asked observing the hologram closely.
"Anymore will create too much attention," Bazine insisted, jumping in. "The Black Sun has far too many grunts and Vigos for us to take on, even all six of us."
"Plus, their Leader will most likely have a way of sensing us," Vinuk added pointing his webbed talon to himself and Nox. "We enter only as a last resort."
"Let's say this plan doesn't work," Kylo stated, involved but still not completely accepting. "What is the last resort?"
"We head in, cloaked by me and get them out by any means," Nox replied quickly.
Kylo scoffed. "You can cloak now? You could barely read my thoughts without hurting yourself and now you have the ability that most Masters can only dream to achieve?"
Nox ignored his disbelief and replied with a shrug. "It's a last resort."
The Knights stared at Kylo, expectantly, wanting affirmation for their hard work.
"This is a terrible plan," Kylo stated. "If Prime Ren was alive he would be embarrassed."
With venom Nox replied. "Well, good thing he isn't then."
A/N: TY for reading and and loving you wish to see any art from the story, character designs and scenes...etc, go to:
Galya4 dot deviantart dot com
