Asset Elimination
The more Virulous thought about it, the more she realized she didn't know how to plot a betrayal. Every day that passed brought her closer to her own doom. Her master was going to sacrifice her in one of his experiments. She wanted to turn the tables on him instead.
If she could do this without getting caught, she could ascend to the Dark Council. She knew, however, that she might face a challenge from Darth Eviscerous, Lord Calaverous, or even from Darth Komo.
"As Dark Lord, I could simply order their deaths and it would be carried out by the Empire," she naively believed.
Her conversations with Andronikos revealed that he respected Darth Nox. So, despite his criminal nature, he would not turn on the Boss, as Andronikos liked to refer to the dark lord. Khem Val was an extreme danger to her. Even though he seemed to have dropped his deep distrust of her, he never failed to remind her that he kept his eyes on her. It was his way of keeping her honest.
It finally dawned on her, that if Andronikos knew where she lived, then it was possible that Khem Val had also always known where she lived. When he came to scan for the spytech, that might not have been his first time in her flat. It was even possible that he might have been to her flat on numerous occasions without her knowledge. In fact, when the Dashade scanned for the spytech, he might have been planting his own devices, while removing the devices of Nox's enemies.
Sitting at her tiny desk in her bedroom and looking out the window of her condominium, Virulous shook her head morosely.
"I'm so naive," she thought aloud, barely over a whisper.
She briefly thought about ending her direct service to Nox, but immediately dismissed that idea. Abandoning her service to the dark lord would result in forfeiture of her right to ascend the Dark Council as Nox's apprentice and heir.
"If I left his service empty handed," she reasoned to herself, "others would start to think that I ran because I was too weak to overcome him." Virulous had to ruefully confess to herself, "I AM too weak to overcome him!"
The Sith lord looked at her desktop chronometer and decided there remained enough time in the business day to call a security specialist. She powered on her small computer and searched the holo-net for a reputable security specialist. After going through the details of several businesses and customer satisfaction reviews, she finally settled on one to call.
The miniature holographic image of a protocol droid appeared over her holo-transceiver which she had set on her tiny desk next to her computer.
"Esteemed potential client, Protus Security Consultants Group is pleased to receive your call. I am protocol droid, HT34-YH21, but please call me HT-Y. How may I serve you?"
"I want to talk to someone about scanning my residence for spytech, and also to upgrade my security systems," Virulous said, getting to the point.
"We can send a security consultant to discuss the details with you. Our specialist will appraise the size and layout of your property and determine the appropriate price for our various levels of security scans. Our specialist will also appraise your current security system and make recommendations for a fix for the existing system, or make recommendations for a new system altogether, depending on your needs. There is an upfront fee that must be paid for these initial appraisals and consultations. Shall I schedule an appointment?"
"How much is the upfront fee?"
"At the minimum, nine hundred and fifty credits. However, depending on the size of your residence or business, it can be more, Esteemed Potential Client."
Virulous nearly balked. However, she remembered that she'd just been paid her back wages, a very large sum of credits, and in a few days, she expected to receive her first regularly scheduled payday, which was quite substantial.
"Very well. How soon can I expect this specialist?"
"We have one available who can meet with you tomorrow, if you wish, Esteemed Client. What time would you like him to arrive?" HT-Y asked.
"No earlier than ten in the morning," Virulous said.
"Then if you will give me a few details, I will schedule our consultant to meet with you at half past ten in the morning," the droid said, than asked, "What is your name?"
"Darth Virulous," the Sith lord said, unthinkingly.
Realizing her mistake, she corrected herself.
"Wait! Don't use my real name. Use my alias, Shan Lunn."
"As you wish, my lord," the droid replied.
"Return to addressing me as a commoner, I wish to maintain my anonymity," Virulous told the droid.
Virulous was furious at herself for making such a stupid mistake and her mood only began to worsen from there.
"As you desire, Mistress Shan Lunn," the droid replied before asking for her address.
Virulous gave her address, still fuming at her slipup.
"We shall send our top specialist. You will find that he will be especially adept at handling any security requirements unique to your needs." Then it asked, "Have you any questions, Esteemed Client?"
In a dire tone, Virulous told the droid, "Be sure that no one knows that I called for your services."
"Be assured, esteemed client Shan Lunn, that we exercise the utmost discretion in all of our business transactions," HT34-YH21 said.
"Good," Virulous said, before cutting the connection.
As soon as the connection was cut, she bolted to her feet and began to rage at her stupid mistake, balling and shaking her fists, waving her arms furiously, and stomping her bare feet on the rug covered metal plate floor which was coated in a creamy white baked on enamel, all while shouting vile epithets at herself.
After a while, she had exorcised most of the rage from her system and decided that she needed to go out for a drink. However, a thought came to her that changed her mind about drinking.
Virulous, instead, decided to go to The Citadel. She decided to go to the library archives and research historical accounts of Sith Lords who'd betrayed or had been betrayed. She wanted to get some ideas.
Five hours later, Virulous was back in her apartment, sitting on her couch, which faced towards a wall to wall, floor to ceiling window in her living room. The lights in her living room were dimmed low.
In the day time, this window gave her a view of one of the city's parks, which was five city blocks long, from east to west, and three city blocks wide from north to south. If she stood at her window and looked down far below, she'd see the rooftops of the smaller, thirty story high residential towers across the alley of her block.
The southern edge of the park started on the other side of the residential towers across the alley from her building. At the northern end of the park, three and a half city blocks away, was the city's perimeter wall. The five story high wall kept the jungle and the wild beasts out of Kaas City. The wild jungle went on as far as she could see, to the horizon.
However, it was dark outside; the city park was mostly pitch black, with only the walking paths illuminated by meter high lamp posts set one every five meters. Beyond the park was the northern perimeter wall, which was illuminated by powerful ground lights pointing up at the five story high barrier. The jungle beyond the brightly illuminated wall was engulfed in utter darkness.
Near her window, her ceiling pulsed with the dim red glow of the flashing anti-collision marker lights, gently fading on and off, from the rooftops of the smaller buildings across the alley. The pulsing red light dimly reflected off the ceiling to her creamy white baked on enamel metal plate floor.
Virulous brought the bell shaped glass to her lips and took another long sip of her wine, staring absently through the permaglass window, not really seeing the nearly pitch black view outside. Her mind was focused on other matters.
"Nearly every plot ended in failure, because the plotters were themselves betrayed by those they trusted to help them carry out their betrayals," she thought to herself, concluding, "The plots that succeeded were carried out with large loyal military forces and Sith followers who lost faith in their lord and threw their support behind the betrayer. I have neither large military forces, nor Sith who would follow me against the dark lord.
"If anyone could garner the support of Dart Nox's followers to overthrow the dark lord that would be Darth Eviscerous. Even Lord Calaverous would support Eviscerous against Darth Nox if he'd lost faith in the dark lord," Virulous was forced to acknowledge, even conceding, "Darth Komo, with his armies and his resources on Taris stands a chance to succeed Darth Nox."
It was the lesson she took away from her research to look for ways to betray her master without getting caught. She startled herself, worried that she might have been overheard, but became greatly relieved that she didn't say those thoughts out loud. She'd nearly forgotten that Khem Val likely bugged her residence.
Virulous began to feel bitter rage at the very idea that she could not so much as think aloud within her own home! On impulse, she hurled her wine glass at the window, where it shattered. The half-filled glass spilled its dark red liquid contents on its way to the window, leaving a trail of spilt wine leading to a small field of glass shards on the baked on enamel of her metal plate floor at the bottom of her permaglass window.
The Sith lord looked up at her ceiling, greatly frustrated at herself. She felt caged in her own home. Then it dawned on her.
"What if Darth Nox is anticipating my betrayal?"
She thought about how she'd called him out on his lie, which he unthinkingly used on her a second time!
"I should have kept my mouth shut," she thought to herself, "It would have been easier to surprise him."
Virulous was too upset to think clearly, and the wine she'd been drinking didn't help with her thinking, either. She left the shattered glass and the wine stained rug where they were and went to her bedroom to sleep, deciding that she would clean up the mess the next day.
Virulous rose at the seventh hour. Her waking thoughts were of the mission on Makeb and of her time there with Darth Nox. She thought of his extraordinary fitness level, realizing that she had to improve her own fitness level if she hoped to be able to defeat him.
She entered her living room, dressed in her sports brief and bra, ready for a vigorous workout, but the Sith lord froze in her tracks when she saw the wine stains on her rug and the shattered wine glass scattered near her window on her creamy white baked on enamel floor.
The petite Sith lord let out a long sigh of deep frustration before redirecting her efforts towards cleaning up the glass shards. She threw out the rug and entered notes on her calendar in her datapad, as a reminder to herself, to buy a new rug. Virulous returned the furnishings to their respective places, having completed her not so rigorous exercise program for the morning. She then hit the fresher for an efficient shower.
Shortly thereafter, dressed in loose fitting house clothes, she walked to her kitchen to prepare her breakfast. She made a sparse meal consisting of durasteel cut oats and a cup of caf, in the ordinary Dromund Kaas style.
"That Ziost blend, at Grago's Eats, was way too strong!" she thought, "Andronikos was right. I really was zinging off the walls, and I hadn't even finished my first cup!"
Virulous had been reading the news and watching prerecorded holographic news reports as she ate her breakfast when she came across a seemingly innocuous report from the Imperial Army/Navy Times, a news service which catered to Imperial military officers stationed throughout the Empire.
The report talked about the need to reduce redeployments of all army groups operating in non-wartime zones within the Sith Empire because of rising fuel costs.
"But didn't we secure the fuel for the navy?!" she asked herself, deeply surprised, "It's already been six months!"
Basically what this meant was that Imperial army groups, deployed on navy ships, operating in regions not involved in the war against the Galactic Republic, would be deposited, with all of their equipment and supplies, onto various Imperial held planets. These army groups would then garrison on said planets – somewhat permanently.
These army groups would not be redeployed to any other zone for the foreseeable future. In other words, a big chunk of the Imperial Army reserve forces were no longer available for the Imperial war effort. Virulous resolved to discuss this with her master when she would next see him.
Even if she was planning a betrayal against her master, the Empire came first. This issue had to be addressed, Virulous strongly believed.
Her intercom chime sounded.
"What do you want?" She demanded, imperiously.
The artificially cheerful voice of a kiosk droid, from the lobby on the ground floor of her residential tower, emanated from hidden speakers in her kitchen.
"Good morning Mistress Shan. You have a visitor, Master Fridder Badded of the Protus Security Consultants Group, to see you."
Virulous looked at the wall chronometer on her kitchen wall, it was ten minutes before the tenth hour of the day. He was early.
"Send him up," she ordered.
Virulous walked her dishes and eating utensils to the sink, and then walked to her bedroom. There, she picked up her smooth, chromium plated lightsaber from her night stand and stuffed it in the pocket of her sweat top. She then walked to her living room and sat, curled up on her overstuffed chair, letting her fuzzy slippers fall off her feet and onto the bare white baked on enamel coated metal plate floor. This overstuffed chair, incredibly comfortable, faced the short hallway to her apartment door. Thus she waited for the consultant to ring her door chime at the backend of her living room.
After a time, the door chime finally sounded.
"Door… Open," she commanded.
Her condominium door unlocked and slid open.
"Enter!" she shouted, so that the consultant could hear her.
The consultant entered as ordered and walked through the vestibule and down the short hallway as the door slid shut and locked behind him. He faced to the left just inside the backend of her living room at the end of the short hallway.
Virulous was shocked at what she saw. It was an alien, a Duros to be precise. The Duros male saw the surprise on her face. He'd been living on Dromund Kaas for several years now, and had become adept at reading human physical reactions.
Humans were one of the few intelligent species capable of non-verbal communications using visual cues. They had so many different ways to express inferences, everything from how they stood, sat, used or didn't use their arms and hands, but especially from how they flexed their facial features.
Fridder Badded could tell that this human female was terribly displeased, in fact, perhaps even furious. She had been sitting in comfortable repose on her overstuffed chair, but in a flash she suddenly became rigid, leaning forward while throwing her legs out from underneath her, as though in preparation to quickly stand and charge at him. Her brow had also furrowed and the corners of her mouth were curved downward.
Fridder, at the end of the hallway, stood at the edge of the living room. He quickly set his two large equipment carrying cases down onto the floor, and after straightening again, bowed deeply at the waist.
"I am deeply honored to be call upon to serve the needs of one so esteemed as you, most noble lord. You honor me greatly," straitening up, he added, in his heavily Duros accented Basic, "Please, tell me of your security needs."
"You're an alien," Virulous said, not even trying to hide her disgust.
The Duros' leathery grey green skin with its unique folds, thick brow ridge, and bulbous skull was not particularly hideous, but it was still unsettling to behold, especially the solid red bulging eyes.
"It is exactly as you say, my lord. I am an alien. However, I take pride in my Imperial citizenship. I aspire to one day be recognized as a most useful asset of the Empire," Fridder said, then adding, as a show of patriotism, "For the Empire!"
The Duros took no offense at the Sith lord's attitude towards him, however. He was used to this treatment from the upper crust of Dromund Kaas society. The regular folk had already gotten used to working and living among aliens, and had taken to treating him in accordance to his expertise in his field.
"My lord will find that despite my lowly status among Imperial citizens, that I am more than equal to the needs of the clients of Protus Security Consultant Group. When the utmost in discretion and the absolute best in security is required, I can be relied upon. I will not fail you, my lord."
"You keep calling me lord. I thought I told that blasted droid to use my alias," the Sith lord said, on the verge of fury.
She was also becoming annoyed by his alien Duros accented Basic. The Duros had three vocal chords which were set to three pitches. In their language, the various pitches, and combinations of pitches, had separate meaning, but when they spoke Imperial or Republic Basic, they tended to use all three vocal chords, resulting in a strange harmonic when they spoke their words.
"I wanted to maintain my anonymity," she told the alien, realizing she couldn't do anything about its inability to speak properly.
"It's precisely why all of our documents shall reflect that my client at this address is Mistress Shan Lunn. However my lord, in the privacy of your home, I think I should not forget my place, and refer to you in the proper manner. I hope this will not be a problem for you. Lord?"
It couldn't be helped any longer, so Virulous dropped the matter.
"I hope you have come prepared to work," she said, rather brusquely.
The implications of what she meant was not lost on the Duros security specialist. She wanted him done with his work and out of her domicile as soon as possible. With a flourish of his hands, he indicated his oversized carrying cases set on the floor on either side of where he stood. Although she leaned back into her overstuffed chair and folded her legs underneath again, she was obviously not relaxed.
"Everything I need to complete my tasks are contained in these two cases," he assured his potential client, "I will get to work immediately to determine what work must be done and to calculate the estimates of what the charges shall be."
He expected her to say something along the lines of I don't care about costs, just do it," but this Sith lord nodded her consent.
"She wants to know the charges?! She must be pinching her credits!" Fridder thought, amazed. Then cautioning himself, "I cannot add spurious charges to her bill. She will likely scrutinize every item."
"My lord," Fridder began, "I want to be certain I am providing the services you requested. My understanding…"
"Sweep my entire flat for spying devices of every kind," Virulous commanded, interrupting the Duros consultant, adding, "Then I want you to analyze and rate my security systems. I want to know if a simple upgrade is needed, or if I must replace the entire system."
"As you wish, my lord. Then may I assume, you have granted me access to every part of your home, Lord?"
"Yes," Virulous said, tersely.
"Then I shall begin, Lord."
With that, Fridder bent down and opened both cases and began to unpack the equipment contained in them. He then began to assemble his instruments, mounting them on tripods. When his gear was assembled, he began to deploy them around the condominium, beginning with the living room, short hallway and vestibule.
When he was done there, he moved on to the kitchen and pantry, followed by her fresher, and her utility room, finishing up in her bedroom and wardrobe. The Duros security specialist completed the set up in twenty minutes. The alien then returned to the edge of the living room where he sat on the floor at his portable computer, which he'd set on one of his oversized equipment carry cases, and entered a series of commands to the software which controlled the sensors.
Ten minutes later, he had completed his report and copied it to a single use disposable datapad. The Duros stood from his computer and bowed towards his potential customer, before speaking to the Sith lord who still sat, this time in a relaxed posture, on her couch.
"I have the invoice and the report of my findings with an itemized estimate of costs, my lord," the consultant said.
"Why should I pay for your initial consultation AND for the cost of performing those services? It's as though I were paying twice?" Virulous protested.
"Indeed, my lord. The cost of the consultation is only paid if you decide you do not need my services. If you contract me for my services, the initial consult fee is waived," the Duros security specialist said, to the Sith lord and, in amazement, thought to himself, "She really is pinching her credits!"
What he didn't tell her was that the fee had already been included, broken up into smaller pieces and rolled into the other itemized costs.
"Then let me have your report," Virulous said, accepting the Duros' explanation.
Fridder walked to where his prospective client sat and extended his hand, presenting the datapad. Virulous, still upset that the technician was an alien, gave him a surly look as she accepted the datapad. The sight of this Duros, in her home, was reminding her too much of her time on Tatooine. She had her fill of aliens on that desolate, forsaken world.
Fridder had walked back to the edge of her living room and turned to face her before speaking.
"My lord, while you go over the report, I shall analyze your security system. That will not take very long," the alien said, adding, "I shall present a separate report on my findings, along with estimates of costs for each solution that I shall propose."
Virulous merely nodded her approval and immediately turned her attention to the datapad.
In the meantime, Fridder Badded got to work setting up a second portable computer, setting it on the other large briefcase. The Duros sat on the floor of her apartment, in front of his other machine. He sat at the edge of her living room near the short hallway and vestibule facing in the direction of the door and got to work. He did this so that the Sith lord would not feel that he was looking at her, and so that she could not see what was on his computer screen.
Fridder needed to connect to the security system network of her home security system to begin his analysis. How much difficulty he encountered slicing into her security network would be part of his assessment for his proposed solutions. As such, he didn't need her user name, DNA numerical identifier, nor her alphanumeric pass phrase.
He also wanted to do some research on his client. The only information he'd been given was that she was a Sith lord of some importance who wanted to keep her anonymity and gave an alias to use. He was carefully warned to watch his tone around her, but that this was his chance to score a big payday in commissions.
"A big commission they say," the Duros grumbled barely over a whisper in his native Duros tongue, "This job may be more trouble than it's worth, and she's scrutinizing the bill! Cheap credit grasper!"
Fridder made sure that the firewall and anti-malware software were up and running before making the wireless connections to his client's security system network. He ensured that the connections were secure and encrypted before finally opening a port in the firewall to her system and running his diagnostic software.
Immediately, an aggressor virus attempted to attack his system, but his anti-malware software immediately isolated the aggressor virus and neutralized it, preserving its state for analysis and categorization. The source of the virus was also identified, a malicious line of code added to his client's security system. His anti-malware software had thoroughly neutralized the malicious code so that his computer wouldn't be attacked again while he continued to probe his client's security system.
After ensuring that the captured virus was not going to 'get loose' and wreak havoc on his computer, he triggered a diagnostic subroutine on the captured virus. This, in effect, 'dissected and analyzed its parts,' as it were, to figure out what it was designed to do. Meanwhile, Fridder executed his next software, which began to slice into Virulous' security network and systems.
He didn't have to wait very long at all before his software had successfully sliced into her network and gained access to her security system. A backdoor vulnerability in this system had not been patched, allowing him to gain access without the need for her DNA numerical identifier. The username was the generic one used on new systems, UserOne, and the pass phrase was 123abc. Fridder shook his head in disapproval at these lapses of good sense.
His diagnostic software had already moved on to the next phases of the analysis, which would show all of the possible vectors of attack besides the one his slicing software had already exploited.
While his various software ran, he searched the holo-net for high society news stories, hoping to find information about his anonymous Sith client. He looked at article after article, full of images of Sith lords at glitzy events. From Virulous' point of view, the Duros was busy at work, typing code, or entering commands and reading diagnostic reports.
Finding nothing, he turned to the political news section. Again, he found nothing.
"Who is this Sith lord?" he asked himself, "Why would anyone feel a need to deploy fifty spying devices throughout her flat?"
He glanced over an Image of Darth Nox with his Sith attendants, a huge monstrous alien, which species he did not recognize, and a very short figure, robed and hooded in black, with a black mask covering the face. Fridder kept, searching but found nothing on his client.
He decided to look in the business news section.
"Perhaps she is an executive of some corporation. She must be quite wealthy, living in this tower," he thought.
Fridder took a quick peek at his diagnostic software. It was still running. He returned to his research, searching the news on the war. He found a report about a blood feud that transpired between two dark councilors. There was another image of Darth Nox, in a split screen image with the other Sith involved in the dispute, Darth Acina.
He scrolled down the page until he finally found an image of two other Sith lords. One was tall, smiling for the holo-imagers, named Zash; obviously the article was written quite a long while ago, Zash was now on the Dark Council. The other was a short and brooding woman, her eyes were narrow slits shifted towards Zash, showing her disdain for the flamboyant, smiling woman.
"It is her!"
Fridder read the caption beneath the holographic image of the two Sith lords.
"Shan, Lord of the Sith and Lord Zash, apprentices of Darth Nox, Dark Lord of the Sith. Responsible for the crushing defeat of their master's enemies, both within The Citadel and around various localities around Dromund Kaas."
A block of ice seemed to materialize in the pit of his stomach as he re-read a part of that caption.
"Shan, Lord of the Sith and Lord Zash, apprentices of Darth Nox, Dark Lord of the Sith…"
He scrolled further down in the article and read, "Shan, Lord of the Sith, in recognition of her power, has been elevated to Darth, and shall from this day be known as Darth Virulous."
Alarm bells seemed to ring in his head as he recalled that it was Darth Virulous who had also single handedly destroyed the Exchange Gang on Tatooine.
"All by herself," Fridder recalled the news event, and then stumbled onto the article.
"In furtherance of Darth Nox's program of vengeance," the article read, "Darth Virulous decapitated the Exchange Gang when she went on a bloody rampage, killing all of the organization's leadership, thus throwing the rest of the criminal enterprise into a bloody free-for-all as the surviving members vied for supremacy and control of the now leaderless criminal enterprise."
That part of the report was true, but the report went on to say that she hadn't got a single scratch on her. There was no way for him to know that it was a great exaggeration. The physicians on Manaan had done an outstanding job restoring her charred and broken body.
Fridder decided he was not going to attempt to swindle his client out of any extra credits. He decided to play it straight.
As he looked at the results of his diagnostic scan of her security system, he felt as though he'd been thrust into a den of vicious and poisonous serpents. The people behind her compromised system, and all of those spying devices, were powerful enough to employ the highest level of intrusion techniques.
The aggressor virus was a top tier attack worm used to compromise unsophisticated systems without leaving a trace. Its job was to create a back door to networks, so that other, more powerful worms and aggressor viruses could penetrate deeply into well defended systems. Fridder was a security systems specialist, so they weren't going to get him, but most systems were not adequately protected, which was why he had a job that paid great credits.
This particular worm, however, was used, almost exclusively by Sith Intelligence. This means that someone with a great deal of power, able to exert pressure on an intelligence service has acted in a hostile manner towards his potential client. In other words, he was getting mixed up in some very high level Sith politics between his potential client, her lord, Darth Nox, and whoever their enemy, spying on them was.
And now that he knew who she was, he was fearful of somehow getting blamed, accused, falsely charged and imprisoned, or eliminated as a potential witness. He uploaded the report to a fresh, blank, single-use disposable datapad.
Fridder closed his holo-net browser and uncrossed his legs as he stood up. He'd been facing towards the entrance of her condominium, so he found himself surprised when he turned to face her and found that she'd been quietly, intently watching him. The intensely cold look on her face made him feel like a small rodent, within striking range of a hungry serpent.
He finally understood what she was and where he was. He was in the presence of a powerful assassin and enforcer for Darth Nox. She was the dark lord's apprentice and as such, next in line for his seat on the Dark Council. From Fridder's viewpoint, Virulous was one of the rulers of the Empire and someone, possibly equally as powerful was after her and her master, and he was caught in the middle of it.
"She knows! She knows that I've discovered her identity!" he imagined, in a panic, "Why couldn't I respect her desire for anonymity?!"
Fridder got down on both knees and placing both hands on the floor at the far edge of her living room, lowered his head until his forehead touched her baked on enamel floor.
"I am such an ignorant and lowly worm. I beg your forgiveness, my lord. Out of ignorance, I have shown you such terrible disrespect. I did not know who you were. Spare my life. I beg of you, Dark Lord."
Virulous was puzzled. She had no idea what had gotten into him to change his slyly smug attitude so completely that he was now in a state of terrible fear.
"What's gotten into you?" Virulous demanded, "What are you blathering about?"
"Forgive me, my lord, for I have violated your anonymity by discovering that you are Darth Virulous," the alien confessed, sounding utterly miserable.
"You didn't know who I was?" she asked, somewhat surprised.
"I was not given specific information, Dark Lord," the nervous Duros replied.
"Dark lord is a title reserved for dark councilors, like my master," she corrected, which also reminded her again why she was so weak. "You may refer to me as lord, or as Darth Virulous."
"Why do I still call him 'my master' if I'm seeking to free myself from him?" Virulous thought derisively to herself.
The Duros wanted to change the subject. He could tell that her displeasure was not abating.
"Has my lord had a chance to look over the…"
"Stand up and look at me when you speak!" Virulous snapped at the groveling alien, "I don't want to look at the top of your head, it looks ugly and it disturbs me!"
The Duros obeyed without delay. He knew that the higher up in power Sith lords were, the more easily agitated and abusive they could become, especially towards Aliens.
"Has my lord decided what she wishes to do about…" he began to say again, but was cut off again.
"Remove them all, immediately," Virulous said, cutting the consultant off.
"Yes, my lord, immediately."
With that, the Duros security consultant turned to face his portable computer, set on one of the briefcases, and squatting down in front of it, entered a command. The sensors, he'd set up throughout Virulous' condominium to detect and locate each spying device, had another function.
The devices activated multi-phasic energy emitters that emitted a sequenced pattern of directed energy beams. Starting with a tightly controlled electrostatic energy beam, immediately followed by a high energy, tightly focused microwave beam, and then three pulses of tightly focused electron beams, concluding with a final directed burst of electrostatic energy.
He ran another scan with his sensors. Three spying devices survived the directed, focused, high energy beam attacks. So he repeated the scrubbing operation on those three. Following confirmation that the devices had all been destroyed, he set about to collect the ruined pieces of tech. Whereas they were nearly invisible to the vision of most species, when they were in operating condition, they had now been charred to ruins by the directed energy attacks and were now easy to spot.
"Is it safe to talk, now?" Virulous asked.
"You may tell me your deepest secrets and no one will ever lean of them, my lord," Fridder said, almost flip.
He mentally kicked himself for his poorly chosen words and waited for the Sith lord's wrath to descend on him. However, he relaxed a bit, when she kept her focus on his work.
"Tell me, who could have planted those devices?"
"My lord, I inspected them as I collected them. These are used by the Imperial Army and Navy investigative services. Sith Intelligence also use these."
"Is it possible for anyone not in those departments to have access to those devices?"
"It is, my lord. If someone with enough influence applies enough pressure, they could acquire some from the manufacturers of these devices," the Duros consultant said.
"A servant of a dark councilor, for example?" Virulous suggested.
"Yes, my lord," Fridder replied, adding, "May I also suggest that Sith Intelligence, the Imperial Army or Navy investigative services might be running their own investigations."
"I am no longer in the military, and I serve Darth Nox. Why would they feel a need to investigate me?" Virulous asked.
"A rival of Darth Nox may wish to find some weakness that they could exploit to harm him," the Duros said, reminding Virulous of what Andronikos had said. He added, "It would not surprise me if others, in Darth Nox's domain, have also been similarly compromised."
Virulous became introspective, thinking carefully about whether it may have been an enemy of Darth Nox and not Khem Val who had planted the devices.
"If it wasn't Khem, then he is incompetent to perform his duties as the dark lord's security officer," she thought, reasoning. "If this is so, then I can embarrass him in front of Darth Nox."
In her heart of hearts, however, she knew that the Dashade was not incompetent.
"He knows what he is doing," Virulous concluded, deciding to confront him.
The Sith lord's eyes became focused, sharpened with determination as she returned her attention to the Duros.
"What about my security system?"
"It has been thoroughly compromised," the Duros began, "This system is designed to keep ordinary thieves from breaking in to ransack one's home. However, my lord, the people who compromised your system are no ordinary thieves. It was done using specialized slicing tools used to compromise systems without leaving evidence that a system has been compromised.
"For example, my lord, you have been using your intrusion security system normally, and it has been operating normally. However, additional functions have been added through alteration of the underlying code that permits the slicer to know when you are home and when you've left home. The new lines of code has also given them remote administrative control of your security system.
"These are techniques that highly skilled and highly placed intelligence operatives would employ to conduct surveillance of important bureaucratic or political individuals, or during the investigation of a foreign adversary," the Duros said, emphasizing, "This is not something one would use for simple burglaries."
Virulous' brow furrowed as she shook her heard in a bit of confusion.
"I gave Khem Val access. Why would he….," the Sith lord began asking herself before answering her own question, "Unless he compromised my systems so that he could come back later… Or perhaps he's compromised my systems a long time ago?"
While she was in her thoughts, the Duros told her what he thought was the worst news.
"Someone with enough political power has mobilized the Imperial intelligence services against you and, by extension, against Darth Nox, my lord."
Virulous thought this over. She remembered this was exactly what Andronikos had told her. However, Khem Val had removed those devices. She was sure these devices belonged to the Dashade.
"Very well. I will ensure the dark lord is informed," she told the Duros security expert.
He was surprised at how calmly she took this news as she went on with another question for him.
"Then it doesn't matter what security system I use," she said to the consultant, "They will be able to compromise it again."
"Actually, my lord, I can repair this system, and then put in place a secondary system which is designed to detect and block such slicing efforts," or I can install a higher grade security system, backing it up with…"
"No, I'll go with your first suggestion," Virulous said, firmly, explaining, "It is as you say, the system is good enough to keep thieves out, but I want to know when highly skilled spies attempt to compromise my security system."
"As you desire, my lord. I shall return tomorrow with the components to perform the repairs, and the secondary security backend defense system," Fridder Badded said.
With the worst news out of the way, and with how calmly she accepted the information, he began to feel less afraid that he would be punished for the bad news he was forced to deliver. He began to feel more at ease.
"Is there anything else, I can do for my lord?" he asked his client.
"Does your firm provide assassination services?" Virulous asked, laughing and adding, "There is a very powerful Sith lord that I want dead."
Suddenly, the security consultant was plunged into fear again, and found himself wishing that he hadn't asked that question. Virulous laughed at his reaction to the inquiry. He literally hopped back. The Duros collected his wits and finally found the wherewithal to answer.
With a trembling voice and shaking hands, the consultant answered, "I will connect you to our asset elimination section, my lord."
Fridder could only imagine that she was referring to Darth Nox, and became deeply worried when Virulous suddenly stopped laughing.
"That was a joke," she half lied.
"Then you don't want to speak to our asset elimination specialist, my lord?"
"N – No! Uh, um… Yes."
16