When Ishtaa entered the cockpit, she was surprised to find it uncharacteristically messy, with charts and readouts piled on every available surface. Quinn was immersed in navigation. He looked up at her when she entered, but the nod he gave her was brief, almost curt, before he resumed his work, looking back and forth between three different datapads.

"You've been very secretive about this whole thing," she commented, staring out the window at the stars flying past.

"A necessary precaution, my lord. The fewer people who know where you're going, the better."

She sank into the seat beside him. "Where exactly are we going?"

He sighed heavily. "Without the support of the Council, we have to assume you're not safe in Imperial space. I'm setting a course for Hersilia. It's a small moon located between Velmor and the Roche system." He spoke without looking up, his deep blue eyes darting distractedly from one panel to the next, glancing at readouts and performing rapid-fire operations on a datapad.

Ishtaa craned her neck at an awkward angle to read one of the datapads. She couldn't make heads nor tails of it. She wasn't even sure it was a language. "Hersilia? I've never heard of it."

"That's the idea—or part of it, anyway." He gently tugged the spare datapad away from Ishtaa and began entering some of its contents into his personal datapad. "You haven't heard of it because it was removed from all official maps of the galaxy when it was colonized."

She turned to look at him, surprised. "Removed? How'd you come to know about it?"

The steady stream of typing paused for an instant. "It's…complicated."

If she'd been curious before, now it seemed important. She crossed her arms and turned her chair so she could face the captain. "I have time," she said.

Quinn must have realized he'd backed himself into a corner. An inscrutable expression flickered in his eyes as he sighed and set down his calculations. He sat up in his chair across from Ishtaa, swiveling to face her. "Have you ever heard the story of Cipher 9?"

She narrowed her eyes, unsure where he was going with this. "Cipher. That's a Sith Intelligence designation, isn't it?"

"Imperial Intelligence at the time, but yes."

"Which Cipher 9 are you talking about? The numbers are reused."

Quinn shook his head. "Not Cipher 9. Nobody in their right mind would take on that title. Nobody even talks about it. Not after what she did. According to official records, she never even existed."

There was something dark running under Quinn's voice like a live wire; Ishtaa thought she caught a glimmer of the fury he'd turned against Moff Broysc in the air. She managed to keep the shivers running up her spine to herself, turning the shuddering motion into a stretch as she eased herself further back into her chair. "What did she do?" she asked.

Quinn lowered his eyes, his intensity dimming as he averted his eyes from Ishtaa's face. The story took on a more mechanical tone. "I never learned the full story, but among other things, she stood up against a member of the Dark Council…and won."

"A Cipher? They're not usually Force-sensitive."

He glanced up from the floor. "She's not," he said simply.

Ishtaa frowned, baffled. "Then how did she—?"

He shrugged and made a face. "I don't know. The Sith punished her horribly for it, of course." His eyes softened for a moment. "I never learned the full extent of that either. But she won, and she survived. Eventually she managed to get hold of something big, something that allowed her to escape further punishment and effectively erase her identity. She's still alive today."

She shook her head. "That's all very interesting, but what does that have to do with where we're going?"

Quinn smiled. The sudden brilliance of it made Ishtaa's stomach flutter. She forced herself not to look away even as the start of a blush warmed her cheeks threateningly. "I promised I'd find the safest place in the galaxy and take you there. That's what I'm doing. Hersilia is where Cipher 9 lives. When she colonized it, she used her leverage to erase it from every official map in the galaxy. Even if it were on the maps, it's incredibly secure."

How so?"

"First, the moon is located in a treacherous region near the Roche asteroid field and an unstable star. There are very narrow windows—both in time and space—where one can safely arrive in the moon's atmosphere. Outside of those windows, the ship will either be smashed by asteroids or hit by a pulse of intense radiation. A single hit will knock out the ship's systems. Two will kill everybody inside."

"And second?"

"There's a computerized defense system. Every ship that enters the atmosphere must have a unique authorization code or it will be obliterated. The cryptography involved is extraordinary. The codes are impossible to generate unless you know the algorithms involved." He gestured to the heaps of clutter lying all over the navigation console. "Hence the, uh, mess."

She stared at him, then at his calculations in dumfounded silence for several seconds before she gathered her wits. Part of her wanted to ask how on earth he could manage all that information without letting on what he was up to and while still performing his regular duties. But she already knew the answer to that: he was Quinn. She settled for a different question. "How do you know about all this?"

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "She's my mother," he said.

She jerked up. "Your what?"

Just then, the console started pinging and Quinn gestured for silence. Ishtaa realized after a few seconds that she wasn't going to get any more explanation out of him until they had safely landed, so she stayed quiet and let him work.

Quinn was silent throughout the jump from hyperspace and remained so as he navigated into the upper atmosphere. Ishtaa could see him clenching his shoulders up towards his neck in a way that she'd rarely seen him do before. She could feel the tension radiating off of him, growing more and more each second until she felt her own neck beginning to tense.

Then they broke through the atmosphere, and Ishtaa was offered a clear, up-close view of the moon. She almost gasped at the sight.

The surface was an explosion of color and texture: green hills dappled with pink, a line of low, snow-capped mountains, a bright lake that went from midnight blue to turquoise, so clear she could almost see the bottom...even the sky was stunning, the brilliant blue offset by wispy golden clouds and the fiery orange-and-gray planet that cast everything in a warm glow.

The sight seemed to dissolve some of Quinn's tension; she glimpsed a faint smile as they grew nearer to the surface. But when they grew close enough to see the buildings-elegant domed structures made of pinkish marble and blue tiles-she felt some of his stress return.

She turned to look at him. "What's the matter?"

He shook his head, looking flustered. "Nothing. Just...thinking about something." He paused. "My lord...When we land, it might be best to let me get out first."

She crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair. "Why?"

"An overabundance of caution, my lord." He paused again. "Hopefully."

She had to bite her lip to keep from saying something abrasive, but she didn't argue. Whatever it was, she trusted his judgment...even if she wished he'd tell her about it.

The rest of their journey was unremarkable, and they eventually came to land on a small landing platform. Quinn navigated it as if he'd done it a thousand times before.

Ishtaa hung back as he lowered the ramp, watching him and peering outside curiously. A woman was waiting for them, though she could only see an elegantly embroidered skirt from her current angle. She noticed that Quinn took a deep breath before exiting their craft, a pulse of trepidation exploding outwards like electricity straight to the heart. But mixed in with the fear there was a joyful sense of comfort and reunion.

The woman called out as Quinn stepped down the ramp, her tone as refined as her clothing. "Malavai!"

"Mother!" Ishtaa dared to peek out a little farther, just enough to see Quinn embrace the woman and hold her for a few seconds. She still couldn't see the woman's face, but she could see her hair just sticking up over Quinn's shoulder: sleek gray and silver that had probably been black once, pulled up into a bun without a single strand out of place.

Ishtaa stepped forward, far enough that she could see Quinn's mother clearly. She was taken aback. She had assumed the former Cipher would have been pretty once, but she had no idea that the woman would still be stunning even in old age. The lines and the hollowing cheeks only served to emphasize her graceful bone structure, and lent an air of dignity to an expression that twinkled with unspoken mischief. She must have been jaw-droppingly beautiful 30 years prior.

Part of her wondered why that should surprise her, her thoughts turning to the handsome captain standing next to the elder woman. She pushed the idea away and cleared her throat, stepping all the way down into the light.

The light-hearted gleam in the former Cipher's eyes vanished in an instant as she took in Ishtaa's appearance, eyes lingering over the lightsabers. Ishtaa cringed as the woman's deep blue eyes honed in on her green ones, giving her a look that would make most people wither into a heap of sobbing apologies. She was thrown back to Quinn's office on Balmorra, the first time they'd met, and the way identical blue eyes had burned into her memory.

"If that's your best you're useless to me. I can shoot you dead with a clear conscience. Is that what you want?"

"Malavai, I didn't realize you were bringing a guest," the woman said coolly. She made the word guest sound like it was covered in slime.

Quinn blanched. "Apologies, mother. I would have given you some warning, but under the circumstances I had little choice. This is-"

"I know who she is," the woman said in clipped tones. "Darth Ishtaa, the Emperor's Wrath. I've heard of you."

"And this is my mother," Quinn interjected hurriedly, "Lady Melia Quinn."

Ishtaa bowed slightly. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, my lady."

Lady Quinn pressed her lips together primly. "Yes, well…" She turned to smile-if such an expression could be called smiling-at Quinn. "I hadn't prepared for another visitor." She clapped. "2D, please show Darth Ishtaa to the guest quarters and prepare a room." She glanced at Quinn. "You will be needing two rooms, won't you?"

"Yes, that will do nicely, thank you," Quinn ground out, sounding sick. "2V can carry our things." He gestured curtly and it set about scuttling up and down the ramp, fetching trunks.

The 2D unit whirred up next to Ishtaa. "My lord, please follow me. I'll show you to your quarters."

Ishtaa glanced at Quinn. She could almost taste the tension, palpable in the air between mother and son. She asked him a silent question with her eyes.

He nodded.

She wasn't satisfied, but she trusted Quinn to handle the situation better than she could. He'd always been more diplomatic than her...and after all, this was his mother.

Quinn watched Ishtaa leave. No sooner had he turned back around than his mother slapped him with a resounding 'thwack.'

"Ow!" he said instinctively, putting a hand to his reddened cheek.

A second slap followed. This time he expected it and took the blow without protest. He still winced in pain when his mother put her arm down.

"I suppose I deserved that," he mumbled.

"Have you lost your mind?!"

"Mother…"

"What the hell were you thinking?!" she hissed. "She is a Sith."

"She's my commanding officer, and a better one than most."

His mother shook her head vehemently, her face going white with fury. "No. No, no," she said. "This is not like one of your academy friends or Ovech. She's not part of normal command. She is Sith, and as long as I am living in this galaxy, she is not welcome beneath my roof. I only sent her inside so I could speak to you. Get her out of here. Tell her the plan has changed and you need to go somewhere else. Not here." She turned on her heel and stalked down the landing pad.

He followed and caught her arm. "She saved my life."

"I gave you life," she snapped, yanking free from his light hold with much more force than was necessary. "The fact that she hasn't taken it yet doesn't impress me." She continued walking.

Malavai took several long strides until he was in front of her, then he turned around to block her path. "You know that she has always gone out of her way to help me whenever she can. She allowed me to eliminate agent Voloren and Moff Broysc. She let me go rescue Ovech."

"Allowed. Let," she said, trying to sidestep him. "How generous of her, allowing my son to throw himself into danger when she could no doubt take care of it herself with those lightsabers of hers."

"I couldn't think of anywhere else to bring her. Mother, please, listen-"

"No, you listen!" Malavai stepped back in surprise, taken aback by his mother's tone. The ice in her voice was beyond fury. He felt it in the pit of his stomach. He let her pass, too stunned to speak. The only time he'd ever felt such cold anger radiating off of someone was in the presence of a Sith. To feel it from a non-Force-sensitive-from his mother-was unnerving. "You have no idea what the Sith did to me," she snapped. "They tore me apart and broke me even more when they put me back together. They damaged me and virtually everyone I ever dared to call a friend. And you bring one of them into my home?! I planned this world as a haven! A refuge for my family and loved ones, so the Sith could never touch them." Her lip curled in disgust. "I never dreamed my own son would decide to go touch one of them."

Quinn's cheeks blazed red.

His mother's eyes flashed furiously. "Do you deny it?"

"What Lord Ishtaa and I may have once had is no longer relevant," he said tersely.

"Once?" She sounded surprised. "So it's been broken off? How did you survive that one?"

He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Mother, please. You know that I wouldn't have brought her here if I had any other choice. But I couldn't think of anywhere, of anyone else who could be trusted completely. I have to do everything I can to keep her safe. I can't let…" He felt heat pricking at the corners of his eyes. "I can't even think of doing anything less. Not again."

His mother went quiet, her dark blue eyes studying him with an uncomfortable intensity.

He took a deep, bracing breath and closed his eyes. "Mother, I am begging you," he said. "I swear to you that Ishtaa is not like any Sith you've ever met." He opened his eyes. "I...the Empire cannot afford to lose someone like her."

She thought about it for a moment. Then she sighed heavily. "I can't deny my own son safety. And knowing how Sith politics work, whoever has it out for her isn't likely to worry about collateral damage." She paused again. "Very well. The two of you can stay for the time being."

Quinn let out a breath of relief. "Thank you." He hugged her.

She remained stiff and unresponsive. "Just promise me one thing," she said, in a surprisingly soft voice. "Don't let her use her lightsabers or the Force around me. I see enough of that in my nightmares. Don't let them haunt my waking hours as well."

He nodded. "I'll tell her to put her lightsabers away. And I promise she won't use the Force to hurt you or anyone else."

"Thank you."

AN: Reviews are always appreciated!