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Chapter Twenty-Five
It had been almost a full week since Nikita had come to Taris and so far all she had to show for it was a persistent crick in her neck. The Jedi groaned and tipped her head to the side in a vain attempt to get her neck to pop. She was beginning to think her hotel bed was the same one that had been there from before the bombardment.
A ping caused her to pause in her massaging of her neck and glance at her datapad to see that another file had been recovered. She opened the file and skimmed over its contents before sending it over to the datapad the Imperials had issued her. So far the only thing of interest she had come across was the fact that someone had attempted to delete the file database from the reception terminals memory bank, but she had no idea why. She had spent the past five days recovering and decrypting what files she could and none of them contained anything of extraordinary value. Calendar schedules, payroll statements, and memos, but nothing she would think warranted a memory wipe. It was unusual and the knight was certain it had something to do with why the two people she had discovered under the desk had been killed.
The amount of information she was sending in was enough to keep the Imperials satisfied and out of her business, but she hadn't failed to notice that they had increased their patrol numbers as the days passed. The official story was that it was added security for the slicers in response to some recent ferrazid hound attacks but Nikita knew that wasn't true.
After some careful snooping and well placed questions she learned that several of the Imperial patrols and even some of the slicers had gone missing within the past two days. The location of the attacks appeared to be random, which was her main indicator in ruling out the hounds. The beasts were very territorial but they didn't usually go out of their way to attack people and they tended to be blaster shy. Whatever preyed on these people was extremely intelligent and wasn't afraid of blasters.
There was only one creature on Taris like that.
The suspected rakghoul attacks had put her on edge and she became more cautious when she was out in the field, going so far as to set up several proximity sensors around the building. It didn't help any that the force had begun humming with an almost anxious anticipation as of yesterday. It had given her no warnings, but its incessant buzz told her that something had changed; she just had no clue what that something was.
Out of curiosity she relaxed her mental blocks and turned her focus inward to the bond, the last time she had paid attention to it being the first night she'd arrived on Taris. Being on a different planet had helped dull the link but she remembered still being able to feel the hunter's presence in the back of her mind if she focused on it. Now she couldn't feel anything. The bond was still there, strong as ever, but Fett had tightened his mental blocks to the point where she wasn't able to sense anything from his side of the link. He had completely closed his mind off from her. She supposed she should have expected it. Neither of them wanted this connection. It had only been a matter of time before Boba figured out how to block his side of the bond off to the point where he wouldn't be able to notice it anymore.
Nikita knew the moment they were close to one another again their proximity would melt these barriers as easily as it had all the others in the past, but for now the distance from Tatooine to Taris and the strength of the bounty hunter's barriers was enough to grant her sole occupancy of her mind for the first time in months. That had been why she came here in the first place, to get far enough away from Boba that she could forget about the fact that she was mentally bonded to a man who thought it was okay to torture and kill people for information. A man whom she knew wouldn't stop chasing her until he had succeeded in turning her over to the Empire. A man whom she was quickly finding out she couldn't quench her feelings for no matter how much she scolded herself. She wasn't naïve enough to believe her feelings might be reciprocated, no matter how strange Fett had acted in some of their more recent run-ins. He was only concerned with the price on her head.
Still, she hadn't realized how… quiet it would be without his familiar presence in the back of her mind.
Another ping from her datapad drew her from her thoughts and she glanced over at it from her seat on a large chunk of rubble.
[WARNING: PARTIAL DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED. ATTEMPTING TO RECOVER FILE COULD RESULT IN FULL DATA LOSS.
PROCEED: Y/N]
The knight leaned over and told the program to proceed before standing and stretching, letting out a small squeak as several vertebrae in her back popped. She never thought she would actually miss the cot in her apartment.
She checked her chrono and was surprised to find it was already after noon. She had been so caught up on recovering the last few files from the reception terminal that she had lost track of time. Her datapad was still attempting to retrieve the last file from the terminal and it would need to be decrypted afterwards, which, depending on its size and how the information it contained was encoded could take the rest of the day.
She stood and made her way over to the security door at the back of the room, being careful not to trip on any of the chunks of debris that littered the floor. She had given the door a brief examination earlier in the week but her main priority had been the reception terminal. Now she would have to find a way past the door and further into the complex if she was going to keep gathering files to send in. The door was the same style as the one leading into the building, only allowing entry with a keycard. She had searched the room earlier, hoping one of the deceased personnel still had their access card on them, but her search had turned nothing up. That left only one option for getting the door open, one that she really didn't want to do for fear of the Imperials getting suspicious.
The Jedi closed her eyes, focusing on the door just as she had the other one and passed her hand in front of it. A horrible groan filled the air as the gears struggled to comply with her manipulation, but all the centuries worth of rust and neglect won out in the end and the door remained firmly shut.
Nikita looked back up, moving her hand to rub her chin with a thoughtful frown. She could get past the door with some heavy force manipulation, her first attempt being just a light nudge to test how damaged it was, but she wasn't sure she could come up with a good excuse to the Imperials as to how a 120-pound woman ripped a multi-ton door out of a wall. She would have to request a team to come out and cut through the door. That was going to lengthen her amount of time spent in close proximity to the Imperials, increasing her chances of being recognized, but she didn't have many other options at her disposal.
Her datapad pinged for a third time, the sound echoing throughout the dilapidated space, and she walked back to the reception desk to see a notification saying the last file had been partially decrypted but much of it was too damaged to recover. She opened it to find an email, broken up and badly corrupted, but the message was still somewhat legible.
[CORRUPTION DETECTED. MAJORITY DATA RECOVERY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[CRITICAL ERROR {DATA NOT FOUND}],
A lot has hAP5gP7N since … last spoke. Administrator MbuROzS Gy* has moved forward with his &$zY project and now {ERROR} entire 3Rp0h working on it. And don't 8v$N get me 9 rK5r on that damn yUr^# in charge of all the {DATA NOT FOUND}.
{ERROR} I'm scared. They've Uj1r4Ed bringing in {ERROR} $%^0M the Undercity for live #BniMens. … don't feel safe here anymore. All … will take is one of those things … and we're all dead, or worse. I'm Bk&!s5ing everything by writing Eu7)e but can't stay silent any longer…. know I'm only a secretary but … see and hear a lot more than 6T$*t(P think I do. Don't worry, I'll be sure to delete this from the mem^yH2b#Eank so no one can trace it. J*9g$V will be with me so I'll be safe. See you F9*%.
Arien
Nikita arched a brow as she looked from the message to the two skeletons still under the desk. They apparently hadn't been as safe as they thought considering they never made it out of the building. She skimmed over the e-mail a second time. The secretary had mentioned bringing something up from the Undercity for live… specimens, maybe? The corruption was making it difficult to decipher. The secretary could have been referencing rakghouls. They were the only creatures that had thrived down in the Undercity, but why would anyone risk bringing live ones into the facility? Were they working on creating a cure for the plague?
The Jedi briefly considered whether she should send the file to the Imperials or not before going ahead and transferring it over. Maybe this information would be enough to get the Empire to show its hand and reveal if her suspicions about their motives on Taris were accurate.
The information hadn't been sent off for more than a minute before the Imperial datapad let out a loud chime she wasn't familiar with. She reached over and grabbed it, seeing a message now displayed across the screen.
[All slicers report to Ruon Command Post immediately.]
She frowned. That had to be a coincidence. There was no way they could have processed the file that fast, not with dozens of other slicers submitting information at the same time. It was unusual for the Imperials to call them back from the field and she wondered if there had been another attack. If so then maybe the Empire was getting cold feet about this crusade into Taris' quarantine sectors. She let out a snort at the thought as she grabbed her datapad, disconnecting it from the reception terminal, and grabbed her coat that she had draped over the side of the desk. That was wishful thinking. The Empire wasn't known for running away from projects. They usually just kept throwing workers and credits at problems until they got what they wanted. She just wished she could figure out what that want was.
Author's Note: I apologize for how short this chapter turned out. It was a lot longer in my notebook!