CHAPTER NINE:

KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY

THIRTEEN DAYS AFTER THE BOMBING OF THE ELITE HOTEL

The words were still ringing in Talisa's ears. Clearly spoken at first the Bith doctor's voice slowly became a persistent droning tone that wouldn't go away. Was some cruel and twisted force playing an ill tempered joke on her? Or was it more likely a cabal of all-powerful monstrosities that were taking turns to see who could ruin her life the best? Having to swear the Chu'tira oath was just one move in the sick game of dejarik she was playing with an unseen foe. Her opponent's last move had all but sealed her destruction.

There was no way Talisa could now continue her mission of hunting down Neada Tash, she couldn't fulfill her oath to the Battle Mistress and therefore could never return to her homeworld without being sentenced to death for her failures. It didn't matter anymore though her priorities had changed in an instant. Now her current objective was to escape the medcenter without being seen by Neldri, who was still sitting in the waiting room. After that it would be getting of Kuat before the Hapans managed to locate her.

That would be easier said than done though, Battle Mistress Thel Sahn had built up a network of agents on the planet to keep a close on eye on Tash. Any move that Talisa made she had to assumed that it was going to be noticed by someone.

Her mind began to race with a series of safehouses and weapons caches she could drop by to get supplies She would have to do it fast though, once she abandoned Neldri she would maybe have a few hours before the Hapans started to hunt her instead f Tash. Talisa had stopped paying attention to the Bith doctor and it hadn't gone unnoticed. The Bith gently reached out and pt his hand on her shoulder.

"Ms. Rova, can you hear me? Are you alright?" He asked using her cover identity,

Talisa glared at him. No I am not alright! My life was just thrown off course by an event I had planned on happening for a very long time!

"Yes Doctor I am fine, just a little shaken. This was unexpected." She sighed instead of stating her real thoughts.

The Bith nodded. "Well we re-ran the tests just like you did, twice to be sure. The results were the same however." He continued as he glanced down at a piece of flimsi. "You're pregnant."

Talisa nodded her head, less than enthusiastic about the news. "How far along am I?"

"Well for a human female I'd say you're a few standard weeks along, two maybe three."

Talisa reached back into her memory to try and recall how this had happened. She had been on Kuat for a standard week and was certain she hadn't had any sexual experiences in that time. Two standard weeks earlier though she had been on Gyndine, and she had certainly had a sexual encounter there. With a Mandalorian no less. She recalled feeling apprehensive about swearing the death oath to her superior and decided that she was going to have at least one more good night with a random partner, just in case she failed. His name was Dain, though his last name escaped her at the moment, she had no trouble recalling the night they had shared together, fueled by expensive Corellian booze.

She had to contact him. He could help her get off the planet without the Hapan's finding out, Mandalorians could do that kind of thing in their sleep. Plus she had other things to tell him. Sudden thoughts about him not wanting to help her and disputing that the baby was his filled her mind and it scared her on a level she had never encountered before. She pushed away the thoughts as quickly as she could and focused on the task at hand: ditching Neldri.

"We'll give you something for the nausea." The doctor was saying. "Go home and try to relax and don't strain yourself too hard."

Talisa nodded but sadly couldn't follow the doctor's orders. There was a lot to do in the next few hours, and she wasn't even sure she had a few hours to do it all to begin with. A human nurse came into the room with two capsules and a flimsi cup filled with water. Talisa downed the the pills in one gulp and five minutes later she was walking down the pedwalk with Neldri, her mind churning with quick and easy plans to lose her teammate. But ever plan she came up with seemed worse than the previous one and soon Talisa was left with only the absolute last resort.

"So what did the doc say?" Neldri asked as hey approached their speeder.

Talisa shrugged as if it was nothing. "You guessed it. I contracted a stomach bug the doctor said I'll be fine in a few days."

"See I told you coming here was a waste of time." Neldri said. "You need to listen to me more."

Neldri began walking to the driver's side of the speeder but Talisa waved her off. "I'd like to drive if you don't mind."

"Are you sure?"

Talisa nodded. "They gave me meds to settle my stomach. I'm not going to get drowsy and fall asleep on you."

Neldri gave her a cautious look but circled around to the passenger side anyway. Talisa climbed into the driver's seat and started up the speeder and took off into the late night Kuat sky. Neldri lowered the viewscreen on the passenger side door and rested her elbow on the frame as a slight breeze rolled into the speeder. The young medic ha no idea that her life was winding down and Talisa felt a very real sense of regret. She rather liked Neldri, but Neldri was a soldier to her core and would follow her orders and report Talisa if she ever found out she was pregnant. Talisa couldn't risk that.

"Neldri let me see your knife." Talisa said looking at the flimsi plat bracelet on her wrist. "I want to get this blasted thing off."

Neldri reached into her boot and provided a small durasteel survival knife. Keeping one hand on the controls Talisa cut the tag off her arm with a single slice.

"Thank you." Talisa said softly. "And I'm sorry."

Neldri turned and looked at Talisa. Her mouthed opened to say something but in a single deft movement Talisa reversed her grip on the knife and slammed it down hard into the young medic's chest, piercing her heart. Neldri let out a sharp yelp and tried to pull her commander's away from her chest but Talisa forced as much of her weight down onto the knife as she could. Soon Neldri's pleas turned into wet gurgles that faded into silence. Blood was flowing out from around the knife in a steady stream and had coated Talisa's right hand in a matter of seconds. She gently closed Neldri's eyes, unable to deal with the fearful, pained, accusing look on her former friend's face.

Talisa began to sob quietly as she turned the speeder in the direction of the nearest safe house. Even though Neldri had been her friend, she was loyal to the Battle Mistress and as a result had to be eliminated. At least that was what she kept telling herself.

Neldri's body had been hard to dispose of, though the task had actually been the last thing on a long list of things Talisa had to do in order to make sure the safehouse alarms weren't tripped.

The safehouse was actually located in the in Kuat's middle-class zone. It was home to the average working class citizens of the planet, not exactly rich but far from being poor. After dealing with the alarm situation Talisa had only to find a suitable place to dispose of the body. Apparently in the basement of her building there was an incineration pit where all the garbage was disposed of. It wasn't what Neldri deserved but it was what Talisa could accomplish.

Talisa had placed the body on the repulsor belt and watched her comrade enter the machine and disappear in an orange-yellow burst of light. Neldri's commlink and all the contents of her pockets were were now safely tucked away in Talisa's jacket pocket. She returned to the speeder and pulled a set of bantha hide seat covers over the bloodstained seats. Talisa kept her hands in her pockets as she entered the building, a couple of Gran were standing in the hallway as she walked to the door of the safehouse. She stared the down until they looked away.

She used her clean hand to use the swipecard to gain access into the room, keeping her right hand shoved deep in her pocket. The apartment was modest but small, the illumination panels were inactive and cool to the touch but that didn't meant that the room was empty. She gripped Neldri's knife in her hand as she located the light controls and glanced around her immediate surroundings. The safehouse wasn't meant for more than two people at any given time and it's size reflected as much. It was one large room flanked by two small bedrooms and a single refresher.

It took her five minutes to thoroughly clear the rooms and locate the weapons stash that had been hidden away in the apartment, the duraplast case had been wedged behind the frame of the sanisteam in the refresher. It contained nothing more than a Hapan holdout blaster, six powerpacks, stuncuffs, two deactivated commlinks, a medkit and two more survival knifes. The charge on the blaster was at full capacity so Talisa made sure that the safety was engaged and tucked it away in her waistband under her jacket and collected one of the commlinks and moved to the sofa.

Talisa began the process of dismantling the commlink and locating the tracking bug that would activate the moment the device was powered up. She reassembled the commlink, took a deep breath and turned the device over in her hands a few times as she tried to relax before calling Dain. She took a final calming breath and entered his comm code and waited. Dain answered almost immediately.

"Dolvo."

His voice alone seemed to inspire confidence in her. "Dain it's Talisa. I'm in kind of a situation here."

"Situation? What kind of situation?"

"I can't trust my team anymore and it won't be long before they start hunting me down." Talisa said grimly.

"So get off the planet."

"I can't. There is a Hapan network embedded in almost every agency on the planet. They would be all over my transport before it ever left it's berth."

"I'm in the Outer Rim." Dain said. "I can't help you right now."

"Dain I'm pregnant." The other end of the line fell silent and a spike of alarm rolled through her. "Dain?"

"I'll be on Kuat in a day." Dain said. "I'll make a call to an old associate of mine, he will keep you safe until I can find a way to get you off the planet."

The first wave of relief Talisa had felt in days washed over her. "Where do I go? I'm in a Hapan safehouse and won't be able to stay here for very long."

"In the Off-Worlder sector go t a place named Kaldor's. There is a Whiphid named T'Krul and he will set you up until my associate comes to collect you."

"Okay, find a Whiphid named T'Krul at a place called Kaldor's in the Off-Worlder sector. "What do I tell him?"

"I'll call him once we are done here so he'll be expecting you." Dain said. "My associate will be along shortly, maybe tomorrow afternoon by the latest."

"Thank you Dain." Talisa couldn't keep the gratitude out of her voice.

"You just hang in there, I'll be seeing you soon."

The call ended and Talisa snapped into action. She grabbed the weapons cache, deactivated the illumination panels and exited the apartment. Talisa returned to the speeder she had parked a block up from the safehouse and accessed the holonet to begin searching for Kaldor's. Talisa just hoped that Dain's associate was as good as he was. Her life and the life of her unborn child depended on it.

ODS HEADQUARTERS, KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY

TWO WEEKS AFTER THE BOMBING OF THE ELITE HOTEL

Tyran rolled to his feet, came up in a combative stance and feinted a lunge at his attacker. His opponent tried to duck under the feint only to realize too late that it was a bluff and promptly received a solid knee to the midsection. Tyran's powerful blow caused his attacker to double over and Tyran quickly followed through with a snap jab with his right hand, connecting cleanly with his foe's face. Dyir hit the ground in a writhing mass of pain and the bell tone sounded to signal Tyran's victory.

"Technical knockout." Dyir said as he rubbed his jaw and climbed up to his feet.

"No way, that was a knockout!" Vyndra yelled as she climbed down from the bleachers where she, Ijaat, Aru had been watching the sparring match. The young girl had taken to watching Hapan kickboxing matches being broadcast over the holonet. It had been during a rare occasion where everyone had been together at the Numeck apartment watching one such match when the sparring match between himself and Dyir had been conceived. Dyir and Neada had come to watch the holonet event at Vyndra's request and about an hour or so into the event Dyir had stated that he saw nothing special in Hapan kickboxing and that Corellian strike-fighting was far superior.

Neada, an accomplished Hapan kickboxer in her own right, had taken offense to that statement and had challenged Dyir to put his money where his mouth was. He had to take on Tyran, who was well versed in both Corellian strike-fighting and Hapan kickboxing, in a sparring match. The only stipulation was that each man had to stick to one of the two fighting techniques that were being compared in the discussion. Tyran had enthusiastically accepted the challenge and goaded Dyir into accepting it as well.

Now it appeared that the bet was settled and Tyran was more than happy to let the official, Vyndra and Dyir sort out how Tyran had won amongst the three of them. Tyran walked over to he bleachers and Aru began to remove his safety gear. Her grin was as wide as ever as she pulled off his gloves and threw them into the duffel bag and handed him a bottle of water.

"Did you really have to hit him that hard?"

"Dyir's a big boy, he can take it." Tyran laughed. "Besides he wasn't exactly pulling any punches either."

"That was amazing dad!" Ijaat said as he scrambled down off the bleachers and ran over to his parents. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

It was Tyran's turn to grin as he sat down on one of the bleachers and drank from the water bottle. He was happy that his son was impressed with him but he still couldn't tell Ijaat how he'd learned to fight.

"You know I was in the military before you were born." Tyran said. "That's where I learned how to fight."

"The Mandalorian army?" Ijaat asked.

Tyran spewed water in the direction of the sparring ring and looked at Aru with an accusing glare but Aru also had an equal look of bewilderment on her own face as she stared at Ijaat.

"Why would you say that?" Aru asked as she tried to recover from the shock she was feeling.

"Uncle Rixa's X-Wing had some kind of faded symbol on the nose." Ijaat said. "I remembered seeing that symbol in class when we were learning about Gyndine, it was the symbol of the Mandalorians who liberated the planet."

Tyran cursed.

"Rixa's X-Wing?" Aru said looking at Tyran. "Does he mean Jaya's X-Wing."

Tyran nodded his head slowly. "Jaya was flying the Aggressor and Rixa was stuck with the X-Wing."

"I did a search on the two of you and the Mandalorians and I found out some things." Ijaat continued on, proud of the lengths he'd gone to in order to gather the information. "You were both fought on Ord Mantell, Gyndine, Tholatin and who knows how many more places against the Yuuzhan Vong. We're Mandalorians aren't we?" His voice held no small degree of excitement.

"No." Tyran said sharply. "Me and your mother used to be Mandalorians. You were born on Kuat and are a Kuati citizen. How did he find all this out?!"

Aru shrugged helplessly. "We have restrictions on all of the holonet terminals, he shouldn't have been able to access anything about the Mandalorians."

Tyran turned towards Ijaat slowly and fixed him with his best intimidating stare, it worked on full grown assassins so it shouldn't have taken long for an eleven year old to fold under the gaze. "Ijaat how did you get that information?"

"I sliced into the terminals using your passwords and access codes." Ijaat said. A defiant look worked itself onto his face and it worried Tyran in no small measure. "It wasn't really all that difficult."

Tyran looked at Aru and sighed in frustration.

"I'm impressed by you slicing skills but you realize you're in a freighter load of trouble right?"

Ijaat scowled. "Why?"

"Why?" Tyran repeated incredulously. "You sliced into the holonet terminals and looked at something you weren't ever supposed to see."

Dyir and Vyndra came to a stop just short of the bleachers. "Are we interrupting something?" He asked.

"No we're all done here for now." Tyran said giving his son a look that suggested quite the opposite. Tyran's commlink began to buzz in the duffel bag and he dropped down onto the bench and grabbed it. "Aru take the kids home will you, I'll be along in a few minutes."

Aru grabbed her son gently by the shoulders and steered him towards the exit after motioning to Vyndra to follow.

Dyir watched them carefully as they disappeared out of the training room and then looked down at Tyran.

"What did I miss?"

Tyran growled. "Ijaat knows we're Mandalorians."

Dyir raised his eyebrows. "How did that happen?"

"The kid is too damn smart for his own good." Tyran sighed.

"Not a trait I think he inherited from you." Dyir said. "It was bound to happen eventually."

Tyran scowled at Dyir and answered his still vibrating commlink. "What?"

"I know you don't exactly care for me, but you know you could take some of the hostility out of your voice." Dain Dolvo said.

Tyran sighed heavily. "Every time I answer this damn thing there is someone on the other end who I really don't want to talk to. Let me guess, you want something from me right?"

"I know you don't owe me any favors or anything but yes there is something I need your help with." Dain said. "I need you to go to Kaldor's in the Off-Worlder sector and collect a woman for me. Can you keep her safe until I can get to Kuat and get her out of there?"

"Is she some kind of bounty?" Tyran said.

"No, she's some woman I met at the rest station over Gyndine. To make a long story short she's pregnant with my child and just found out about it. Apparently she's got a group of Hapans after her now."

"Hapans?" Tyran perked up at the word. "Why would Hapans be after her?"

"Because she was one of them until she went rogue when she found out she was pregnant." Dain said. "That's all that I know."

"Do you know what she was doing on Kuat in the fist place?" Tyran inquired even though he suspected he knew the answer.

"I just know that she was there to take out someone, don't know who." Dain said. "Does it matter?"

"Yes, me an Dyir are protecting a former Hapan commando who was betrayed by her commanding officer a while back. Your girlfriend might very well be the member of an assassination team sent to kill her."

Dain was silent for a second. "Look can you just hold on to her until I can come and get her."

"Oh yeah you'd better believe I'm going to go get her and we're going to have a long chat about her Hapan friends." Tyran said. "If she answers my questions then I'll provide her with protection."

"And if she won't?"

"If she's truly pregnant and being hunted by her friends she should have no problem talking." Tyran said. "You said Kaldor's right?"

"Yes I did." Dain said. "I'll be in-system either tomorrow or the day after. If anything happens to her Tyran I'm going to hold you responsible for it."

"What if she's dead when we go get her?"

"She won't be. I have T'Krul standing guard over her room." Dain said. "Just go get her and make sure she's safe until I arrive."

"Why can't she just catch a ride on a freighter heading out of the system?"

"She says there's a whole Hapan network ingrained into Kuat at some of it's high levels. Supposedly the Hapans would be all over her before any ship she got on could complete it's preflight checklist."

"Well me and her are going to have quite a list of things to discuss then. Her name?"

"Talisa Raldi." Dain said. "Give me your word that she'll be safe."

"Yeah I'm good at protecting people from Hapans, she'll be in one piece when you get here." Tyran said and ended the call. He looked up at Dyir and laughed incredulously. "You aren't going to believe this."

OFF-WORLDER SECTOR, KUAT, 40 ABY

TWO WEEKS AFTER THE BOMBING OF THE ELITE HOTEL

Talisa had sat just up the block from the less the reputable looking establishment and had spent an hour or so scoping it out to make sure she hadn't been tailed. She had stopped and bought some new clothes that were more fashionable in the Off-Worlder sector, a pair of form fitting dark-gray utility pants and a purple durafab sweatshirt. She'd even taken the precaution of cutting her hair to a much shorter length. Her hands were shoved deep in the pocket on the front of the sweatshirt, gripping the holdout blaster she had taken from the safehouse. The hood was pulled up to hide her face as well as to shield her from the light mist that had started to fall in the last few minutes.

She didn't see anything suspicious, or at least not anything abnormally suspicious. There were plenty of the seedy types who were regularly found in places like this one loitering around the building's exterior. Everyone was careful to not observe everyone else and made sure to keep their to their own business and that suited her just fine. She contemplated waiting a few more minutes but as the weather deteriorated she decided to enter the cantina and find the Whiphid that Dain had told her to contact.

The interior of Kaldor's was dark and grimy but Talisa could make out a group of Givin, Chevs, Duros and Klatooinians sitting around talking in low tones. None of them so much as gave her a second glance as she crossed the room and walked to the bar. An old Gotal was serving drinks to an Aqualish and two Twi'leks. Talisa wrapped her knuckles on the bar top to get his attention.

"I'm looking for T'Krul." She said.

The Gotal stared at her for a long second and then produced a swipecard and slid it over to her. "Third floor, room forty-four. Take the turbolifts on your left. You're late."

Talisa scowled at the Gotal and grabbed the card. She hadn't been told that she had needed to arrive at a certain time and she wasn't about to just walk into a building filled with lowlife without scoping it out first. She headed out in the direction the Gotal had indicated and entered the turbolifts. Thankfully the turbolift she had entered was empty and she could take a few moments to calm herself. Her stomach was acting up again and she was fighting the urge to vomit with every ounce of her willpower. The turbolift came to a stop and she stepped out of it into a dank hallway that smelled of mildew and rotted out vegetables. It didn't help the situation with her stomach.

She found a flower pot and kneeled over it and dispensed the contents of her stomach into the soil. She repeated the process twice more, sweating and swearing as she wiped her forehead on the sleeve of her sweater.

"I'm sure that plant appreciated that." A deep voice echoed from behind her.

Talisa glanced over her shoulder and felt a pang of fear, the kind that was a natural reflex. Behind her was a tall, well muscled mass of fur and tusks. A pair of beady black eyes peered down at her from behind an elongated snout. The harnesses on his hips were holding two large, high-powered Imperial-era blasters, but Talisa was more weary of the claws that protruded from the tips of the Whiphid's three fingered hands.

"Are you T'Krul?" She said as she wondered if her blaster would be able to penetrate the Whiphid's thick muscles if she had to shoot him.

"Yes, I expected a little more from you somehow." T'Krul said as he crossed his arms and gave her an appraising glance. "Dain said you were pretty sharp, but I found you vomiting into a flower pot."

"Better than the hallway." She said as she rose to her feet.

"It might have improved the smell though." T'Krul countered.

"Dain said you'd set me up somewhere safe."

The Whiphid huffed and turned towards the opposite end of the hallway and walked off. Talisa followed him wearily still not sure whether she could trust the Whiphid. He was Dain's contact, not hers, and the Hapans had quite a budget to spend to bribe anyone they needed to in order to get their target. Neldri's commlink had been buzzing on and off for the last few hours. Talisa had removed the tracking device from the commlink, as well as the one in her own commlink, so she wasn't worried about being traced to Kaldor's that way at least. Her time window was shrinking rapidly now though, Aenica and Dalrial would be wondering where she and Neldri had gone to.

It wouldn't be long before they went to the medcenter and it wouldn't be much longer before they picked up whatever strands of her trail she hadn't tied up, and she'd covered her tracks well. T'Krul opened up room forty-four with his own swipecard and stepped aside to let her in.

"It isn't the Skyview but you'll be safe here. Dain has paid me to stand guard outside for as long as you are here. There are clothes and supplies in the room, even a few weapons and a set of body armor I managed to scrounge up for you. If you need anything else you can use this commlink to contact me and I'll have someone get it for you."

Talisa walked into the room and walked in an exploratory circle. It was dark and smelled just minutely better than the hallway outside.

"Do you know when Dain's other contact is supposed to be here?" She asked. "Will it be in a day like Dain said?"

T'Krul shook his head. "I don't know, but I will be alerted when the contact arrives to take you somewhere else."

"Where are the weapons?" Talisa asked.

"Under the bed in a bag."

Talisa glanced into the bedroom and then back at T'Krul. "Thank you."

T'Krul gave a nod of his shaggy haired head and then stepped outside and closed the door to the room. Talisa walked into the bedroom and grabbed the bag that contained the weapons her temporary bodyguard had procured for her. Inside there was an E-11 blaster rifle, two WESTAR heavy blasters, enough power packs to reload each weapon a hundred times over and a set of standard issue Galactic Alliance Void Jumper armor. The Whiphid had outdone himself, he had provided far better supplies than the Hapans did.

Now all that she could do was sit and wait for the contact to come and get her and hope that T'Krul was as good at being a bodyguard as he was at procuring weapons. She didn't think that Dain would hire a substandard mercenary to protect her and must have had some working relationship with T'Krul if he had enough confidence in the Whiphid to ask him to protect the woman carrying his child. Just thinking about Dain seemed to settle her stomach as she sat on the bed and fell backwards into the lone and rather flat pillow.

So far he had taken care of her and she had no doubts at all about him being able to get her off the planet in one piece. Dain didn't seem like a man who was prone to failure.