AN: Hello again, hope everyone's doing alright out there. Just a bit of an update: the last chapter should be going up next Friday (April 3). My current plan is to start posting the sequel on April 13 (maybe sooner if I get a chance to write ahead). I'll put up a definite date when I post Ch.30.
Anyhow, thanks for reading (and reviewing), stay safe out there.
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Lori's walk to hanger bay two was long, be it went quickly. She didn't want to be heavy handed, but she didn't have the time to be clever. A clerk should be on duty, their station was in the same place in ever bay and on every ship.
Knowing where to go before she even got there, Lori finally started to appreciate the uniformity that the First Order was obsessed with.
"Lieutenant," she called out to the man sitting at the desk, not taking time to slow in her walk towards him.
The younger man looked up, not recognizing the new comer, and not expecting anyone to be talking to him at all.
Lori stopped just short of the table, "I'm general Hux's aid. I need the shipping manifestoes for this hanger from two days ago."
The lieutenant immediately started mentally cursing his luck. He knew that it was the Absolutions turn to host some sort of meeting for High Command, but he had been hoping that none of them would find an excuse to come crawling through his hangar bay.
He knew better than to be difficult when any of the higher ups asked for information, and Hux in particular wasn't someone he wanted to upset.
"Yes ma'am," the lieutenant didn't bother questioning the woman.
While he scrolled through whatever system they were using, Lori glanced around the hangar. Mostly empty, save for the technicians refueling a squadron of TIEs, she worried that she might have a hard time finding the conspiracy. The door to the operations deck was open, but she couldn't see anyone inside from where she stood. Before she had long to wonder about it, the lieutenant was sliding a data chip across the table.
She didn't say thank you. It would have been odd for a rushed aid to take the time for small formalities. Wordlessly, she slipped the chip into her data pad and quickly scrolled through its files. She found the transfer that Hank would have been a part of. It was supposed to land in the middle of third shift. She checked the time.
Third shift would be over in an hour.
If she were going to find Hank's contact while they were still working, she didn't have long. Thinking quickly, she turned back to the lieutenant and asked him another question.
"I'm looking for a recent transfer, a sergeant named Hank Vaylor. His name isn't in any of the passenger lists, any idea why?"
The lieutenant's blank face only told Lori that he didn't want any more paperwork before his shift was over, "no ma'am."
"Is there any way I can find out where he might be posted?" she made an effort to appear just as annoyed as any aid to a notoriously harsh boss would be.
"I can help you with that," A new voice came from the side.
Quickly looking up, Lori found a woman with a squadron leaders ranks standing in the door frame to the operations deck.
More than relieved to let someone else handle the aid and any additional work she might make, the lieutenant wasn't about to stop captain Gallus as she began walking away from the table.
Lori stopped just short of the stairs and looked up to the new woman. Blonde hair and gray eyes, she held an intense air to her. Planning her next words carefully Lori started up the stairs.
"Great, I'm in a rush and I really need to talk to sergeant Vaylor."
The woman looked Lori up and down before stepping to the side to let her into the private room. No one else was in the operator's deck. Lori was working out her next move when the door slid shut behind her. If she weren't mistaken, the squad leader had to be related to the conspiracy somehow, there was no way she'd know who Hank was otherwise.
Turing around, Lori found the woman standing between her and the door. More importantly, she had picked up a blaster from a table and was now aiming it at Lori. She held the thing at the side of her waste, so that it wouldn't be seen by anyone in the bay below if they were to glance at the windows.
"Hank didn't make it, and you know it."
Lori wasn't entirely surprised. She was working out her next move when the woman kept in talking.
"What are you doing here?"
"Put the blaster down first, then we can talk." There wasn't much that threw Lori off balance, but a clear line of sight down the barrel of a blaster got pretty close.
The squad leader gestured to a chair, "How about you sit down and we try that again."
Begrudgingly, Lori took the seat. The movement gave her a moment to look away from the gun and come up with an idea. Landing heavily in the chair she looked back to the woman.
"Mina sent me. The whole operations in danger, I'm here to help."
Lori saw a hint of recognition flash over the woman's features, but she didn't say anything for it. Taking her chances Lori went on.
"I know Hank didn't make it, but his message did. That's why I'm here."
The squad leader leaned against a counter, still keeping that blaster trained on Lori, "Bold words coming from general Hux's aid."
"Look, I don't have time to explain every little thing. You're in danger and we didn't have the time to work out a clever way to warn you, so I volunteered to take one for the team."
Lori was trying to play a delicate game, but she thought she saw the woman's thoughts turning in just the way she wanted them to.
She went on talking, "The general knows we got the report to Cardinal and he's got agents crawling all over the place looking for it."
With that, Lori could see the woman coming around to her point of view.
Though she was still guarded, "How do I know you're not one of them?"
"Really?" Lori did her best to fake indignation and then seemingly struggle to put it away, "The general's aid might be the shitty-est possible cover story for someone trying to find us. Also, there's no way I'm going to make it out alive on this one. The general is going to figure out I'm with the Resistance. I came with a warning, the least you can do is take it."
Lori saw the squad leader debating herself. After too long a moment, she finally turned the blaster away from Lori.
"Fine. I'm listening."
Disguising her relieved sigh as one of mild annoyance, Lori went on.
"I hope you do more than just that. They got Hank, and Hux knows about the backup copies too. Please tell me you got them stashed away somewhere safe."
"Don't worry about what we do with the spare copy." She was still guarded.
Lori took a gamble, "the spare copy. As in just one?"
She watched the woman try to hide a quick flash of worry. Lori might have missed it if she hadn't been dealing with the overly guarded general for the last month and a half.
"We got two copies. One stayed with us, the other went straight to Cardinal."
"And you didn't immediately make backups? What kind of show are you people running?" the gamble was paying off.
The squad leader was predictably offended, "Hey, we do the best job we can with what we get. It's not our fault it took your crew an extra week to get us the disk."
With that move successfully made, Lori went on to the next step of her plan, "Hank is dead, squad leader… you haven't even told me your name."
"It's Orin. I haven't caught yours either, captain."
"The name's Zoe Formi," Lori went with a fake, she doubted she would be on the ship long enough for them to look it up but she wanted to be able to make a clean get away besides, "Look Orin, I don't mean to come out here and start telling you how to run your people. But I just lost a friend and we can't afford to let this operation fail. I owe it to Hank."
Lori had done a few things in her response. Giving a full name did something to close the distance between the two of them, it was always easier to trust someone when you think you know them. The apology was another calculated step. Orin had put her guard up, and having a reason to drop it so soon after was destabilizing no matter the situation. Calling the conspiracy on the Absolution 'her people' was an appeal to any ego Orin might have, while immediately mentioning a friend who died for this job appealed to her soft side.
Putting all those elements so close together found and widened a hole in Orin's guard.
She moved her head to the side, looking away from Lori for the first time since the conversation began, "we've lost good people too. I get that you're worried, hopping a ship and making sure the job gets done sounds like something I'd do."
"Then help me help you. We don't know how long ago Hux learned about the other copies, but it couldn't have been more than a day or two. Has anyone joined up in that time?"
Orin thought about it, completely discounting the fact that Lori was the only new comer, "No, it's been quite on our side."
"That's a relief," Lori dropped some tension from her shoulders, "How did Cardinal take the report?"
The squad leader smirked, "We made it an anonymous drop off. He forgets to lock his office door."
"Too bad, I would have paid a lot of money to see the look on his face when he read it."
"Have you?" the little bit of self-satisfaction on Orin's face gave way to a question, "read the report, I mean."
With that, Lori saw an opportunity to press on, "Of course I have, you haven't?"
Asking outright where Orin and her section of the conspiracy put their copy would be suspicious, but if Lori's plan worked, than she might be able to get Orin to mention it first.
"No. You didn't think that would be risky?"
"Of course it, but so is everything else," Lori pushed her luck once again, "wait. If you haven't read it… You have no idea how much danger Cardinal is in right now."
"What?"
"You dropped the report off anonymously, you have no idea… Long story, but Hux murdered his father. He's probably planning the same thing for Cardinal right now!"
Lori put just enough stress on the last of her words to work Orin into a slight panic. She didn't want to walk around telling anyone who would listen about the generals past deeds, but if her plan ended the way she expected it too, than Orin wouldn't be alive to tell anyone for much longer.
"Hold on, what?" Orin bought the act.
"Little Hux murdered older Hux. What else would make Cardinal flip on the First Order?"
"Anything? He's basically a good person." Lori watched a few different thoughts pass just behind the squad leader's eyes, "Shit, I have to tell Mako."
"Wait, wait, wait. Who's Mako? What's your plan?"
Thoroughly distracted by the sudden revelation, Orin didn't notice for a second that Lori had started fishing for information.
"Mako's the ring leader on the Absolution. We were going to just sit back and let Cardinal walk into tomorrow's meeting."
"If he lives that long," Lori cut her off, "Actually, no. Cardinal knows what he's doing. You weren't going to-"
After cutting the squad leader off, Lori was interrupted by the chiming of her data pad. Both women looked at the thing, it blinked green as a signal that a message was waiting. Lori knew the message could only be from Hux. Orin made a similar assumption, though she only thought it would be a routine order from a general to his aid.
Lori huffed in mock annoyance before making to check the data pad, "give me a second."
She tried not to make it obvious that she was angling it away from Orin. Hux had always been good about keeping his messages short and general to the point that no one besides the two of them could guess at their meaning, but Lori didn't want to risk making Orin suspicious. Especially not after she had only just got the squad leader to start talking to her.
As it was, she was only checking the message now because Hux had a reputation as a difficult boss on a good day and as an unholy terror on a bad one.
Lori read the words on the screen. Realizing that she could use them to her advantage she dropped the angle at which she held the pad.
Orin could just make out the words on the captains data pad: "Captain Cardinal payed a visit. Meet at my quarters. Now."
Taking an opportunity where she saw one, Lori spoke first.
"Shit," she looked up at Orin.
The squad leader saw what she assumed to be worry and poorly hidden panic on the captain's features. In reality, it was all a careful act.
Continuing on with more fake worry, Lori spoke again, "I was just about to ask if you were planning to leave Cardinal all alone tomorrow. After this message, I'd say that Hux knows and he knows that Cardinal knows too."
Orin considered her options. Part of her would have known better than to just give information to someone who might be about to walk into a trap, but the rest of her saw a friend in need of good news.
"Actually, Mako and I were going to run back up for Cardinal. His notes said that he would have friends to call on during the meeting. If worse comes to worse, we'll be ready and waiting to send him a copy of the file."
"The firewall will catch that in a second. The rest of High Command will have troopers on you before you're even out the door," Lori didn't have to hide the realization that doing what Orin described would be a suicide mission.
"Sure, we'll get shot to space dust. But everyone else will see proof of what Cardinal tells them. Besides, he may not even need us. Not as long as he kept his copy on him," Orin tried to keep a brave face in spite of her next words, "You're risking it all being here, and so are we."
As far as Orin knew, that was absolutely true.
Lori played on that belief.
"Let me be there," she spoke quickly, "please. Whether Cardinal flips and takes half of high command with him or not, I'm probably not going to make it to next week. It'll be nice to go out knowing that I was there when it mattered."
Orin didn't like talking as if they were already dead. She didn't like confronting the end, no matter how close it looked.
"Hey. We're going to be fine. You said the general murdered his own father, there's no way High Command stays in one piece after that news gets dropped on them."
Lori didn't worry that she was losing the squad leader, but she let some emotion that looked like it coat her features.
"I hope not, but if Cardinal drops the ball, and they need to see that report, I want to be the one to send it in."
Orin considered it for a moment. Lori made a final comment to push her into agreeing.
"Hank couldn't deliver the message, let me do this for him."
With that, the squad leader couldn't say no. She though back to the friends and contacts they had lost. What it would mean to her to pick up the struggle where a fallen friend had left off was beyond words.
"Fine. Ten minutes before the meeting. Communications office 285-C."
Lori gave a small smile. Purposely fragile with a little bit of strength behind it that looked forced.
"Thank you. If I don't show up, don't wait for me. I'm probably dead and it was probably Hux's doing."
"You'll be there," Once again, the squad leader tried to stave off thoughts of death.
Lori noticed. If she were more sympathetic to Orin or her cause, she might have felt bad. Unfortunately for the Resistance, the bounty hunter already had her mind made up as to where her loyalty laid.
Standing from the chair, Lori clutched the data pad tightly enough to turn her knuckles white, "Looks like I've got a meeting with the general. I'll see you on the other side."
Orin nodded, trying and failing not to have a grim look about her.
Without another word, Lori left the operators deck and quickly made for the hall. No one passing her had a clue that anything was amiss. They didn't see the self-satisfaction in a job well done on the captain's features. They didn't see the hint of worry over the general's sudden request for company. They didn't see that captain Gallus was thinking of the little blaster she had stored in her quarters.
She hadn't the chance to bring her old gear along when she transferred to the Finalizer. When Lori first returned to her old quarters, she found that no one had been into the old bedroom. Her old cloths and old tools were still wrapped into a tight bundle and push against the wall under the bed.
The blaster was small enough to slip under her tunic without leaving a telltale bulge. After a nights practice, Lori was sure that she would be able to quickly slip it out from under her tunic.
