WE KNOW
Swain and Cogon get started in the network, and Dalla gets a comm from an old enemy.
Swain didn't have many good dreams, but sometimes she got lucky and they started out well. In one she went back to her and Cogon's wedding in a gauzy haze and remembered the perfect weather, how handsome he looked in his suit, the joy shining out of them as they professed their love to each other and shared their first kiss as husband and wife.
They ran down the cliff hand-in-hand to their surprise reception at the pub, but this time it was a little different. Her mother greeted her at the door for one, even though she'd been dead for years, and she looked like she did the few times she hadn't been high.
"Brent can get started on dinner," She said once they'd come inside. "Hannah, he's waiting for you."
"Waiting for me?" Swain repeated. "For what?"
Her mother smiled. "The dance of course."
She turned around and there stood Kallus, holding out a hand.
She raised an eyebrow questioningly. "You're here?"
"Didn't you read your book? Of course I'm here." He grinned. "I wouldn't miss my daughter's wedding for the galaxy."
He really had meant it. Swain took his hand and let him spin her around the dance floor.
"How did you find us?" she asked.
"You know you can't hide from me." He led her into another turn.
"Really? I thought you'd never want to come back to this planet."
"Hannah." Kallus stopped the dance and placed his hands on both her shoulders. "You should know better than to think you can hide from the Empire."
His loving smile turned to a wicked smirk and he yanked when Swain stumbled away, leaving him with something in his hands. It looked like a seal coat. Her seal coat.
She clutched her throat and tried to scream but no sound came. She could only stand in silence as the wedding hall faded around her to the alternate pitch darkness and blinding light of the interrogation room and her mother's left eye turned from brown to infernal, glowing red.
Beck snarled. "Did you really think I'd let you get away?"
Keywords: Started out well.
...
Blackhold was like living in a sitcom. Swain had spent her childhood in a spice den in Coronet City and afterward lived in dorms at a series of academies and the Lothal garrison, and she couldn't remember anywhere being home like Blackhold was.
She and Cogon had a little apartment in the port town. It was cozy and warmly furnished, and when she opened the windows she could hear the sea and smell the salty breeze. They would eat dinner together every evening and kiss each other goodnight. And every morning, the first thing they saw was the other's face.
It still didn't feel real when they'd returned from their honeymoon.
"Can you believe we actually live here?" Swain asked while they walked to work. "It's like a fairytale."
"We work in a castle, so I'm pretty sure our lives are actually a fairytale," Cogon replied and whispered in her ear. "And everything that happened on our honeymoon proves it."
"It doesn't have to stop. What about we pick up where we left off tonight?"
"I'm looking forward to it already."
"Morning lovebirds," Sloan said, walking up behind them. "Are you coming to work or am I just going to watch you canoodle all day?"
Swain stuck her tongue out at him. "What do you think?"
"I think I shouldn't have introduced you two to Genna." He stepped around them and entered the access code to the back door. "Come on in, Dalla's probably in her office already."
…
"Swain and Cogon!" Dalla warmly greeted the new arrivals when they walked through the door. "How was your honeymoon?"
"Wonderful," Swain said. "But we're ready to get to work."
"And I'm ready to have you." Dalla handed them each a comm device in a black case. "Here are your network comms. The security protocols and contacts are already installed, and this is what you'll use to contact clients and other employees. They're well secured, so you can speak freely when it's just us, but code names only whenever clients are involved."
They nodded and Dalla continued. "Our main holotable, at the Blackhold location at least. Up here we also have the dryer comm at Genna's salon, but that's only for contacting our part-time operatives."
"Our part-time operatives? Is that what you're calling them now?" Sloan chuckled.
Dalla rolled her eyes. "Clone Force 99," she explained to the newcomers. "They sort of hate me, but that's not important."
"Clone Force 99?" Swain repeated. "The Bad Batch? They were on ISB's – that's who Genna is married to?"
"Luckily she's not married to the one who hates me," Dalla shrugged.
"I thought Genna's husband was called Goggles," Cogon said.
Swain took the opportunity to explore her new comlink's search functions. "ISB's been looking for them from the start. They're a group of rogue clones with genetic mutations." She pulled up the wanted holos and showed Cogon.
"Oh, Goggles!"
"Or as his friends call him, Tech." Dalla continued with the tour. "And finally…" She opened a storage cupboard and lifted the canvas covering off a painting. "We have goods stored around the planet. Here, in Iziz, on the other islands. The key is keeping them spread out and moving as much as possible."
Dalla's black comm rang and she picked it up. "Looks like work starts now. This is Mollymauk."
"This is Fulcrum," a distorted voice reported. "Confirming receipt of most recent reports."
"Confirmed, Fulcrum." Dalla said after a quick glance at a datapad. "Thank you."
"Fulcrum out." He killed the comm.
She put the datapad away. "That's one of the rebellion's many Fulcrum agents. They usually don't deal with us, but this one sometimes makes transmissions."
Swain nodded, but before Dalla could continue the introduction the holotable alerted an incoming transmission. She examined the caller ID and took a step back.
"Who is it?" Sloan asked.
"The last person I was expecting." She stepped aside so he could see.
Sloan coughed when he read the ID. "Seriously? Are you going to answer her?"
"If I don't she'll just call back and I'd rather she get me than Swain." Dalla looked to Swain and Cogon. "You two, stay out of the holofield and don't say anything."
The newlyweds obeyed and Dalla pressed the activation button. "Talia, to what do I owe this complete and utter shock?"
Talia Vogt looked much older than she was, grizzled by a lifetime of war. And kriffing terrorist acts, and murdering people on the same side, Dalla thought darkly. Standing beside her was a young man, perhaps a few years older than Swain and Cogon.
"We need credits," Talia said without preamble.
Dalla rolled her eyes. "That's how you're going to open? No 'hi Dalla, how have you been Dalla, sorry for murdering your lieutenant Dalla,' just 'we need credits?'"
Talia glared at her. "I know you made the con men pull our funding."
"As much as I would like to take credit for that, I can't control what Sierra Bonteri finds snooping through an Imperial file cabinet." Talia didn't need to know that Dalla and Sloan had popped a bottle when they heard the Partisans' credit line was cut off. "Maybe if you don't want Lux to cut you off, you don't go around slaughtering civilians and wounded."
She actually felt the temperature drop and wisely decided not to look at Swain.
Talia's companion spoke up. "We do what needs to be done against the Empire."
"Staven." Talia cut him off and went back to Dalla. "Say what you want, it's your fault we're in this mess and you're going to fix it."
"Really," Dalla said, deadpan. "So please, tell me why I would even consider taking you off my do-not-sell list after you murdered my lieutenant, got another one of my operatives' daughters killed during a terrorist act, and constantly broadcasted your intense hatred of me."
"You've been sending Imps to the rebellion for years now."
"Is that your way of saying I work with defections?"
"I wonder if the senators know how much you really love them." Talia scowled.
The hologram flickered as Talia queued up a visual display. It was a security holo, grainy with age but still telling in its contents. It showed a much younger, tearful Dalla in the passenger seat of a speeder with Yularen behind the wheel. She knew when it was taken. She would never forget that night.
"Where did you get this?" She demanded.
"I have people too," Talia crowed. "They told me exactly which hotel this holo was taken at. What will Organa and Mothma say when they realize you're literally in bed with the enemy? Sure you send them crates of credits, but I think that pales in comparison to you playing both sides. And frankly Dalla, really? You went from Bonteri to your forger to Wullf Yularen?"
"You think I'm kriffing Yularen?"
"They won't care if you're kriffing him, they'll care that you're talking to him. Your husband, on the other hand…" Talia smirked. "I can make this go away, but it's going to cost you."
"So basically, I pay you or you ruin my life." Dalla looked at the floor.
The partisans nodded and against the wall, Swain and Cogon exchanged nervous looks. Talia went to continue her demands but was cut off by the sound of snickering.
Dalla, face tilted down to hide her smirk, gave up the gig.
"Ha! You don't even know what you have!" She cackled. "Go ahead and tell my husband. Tell Organa and Mothma. Actually –" her eyes sparkled dangerously and Sloan muttered oh kriff – "Let's comm them right now."
Dalla punched in her rebel contacts' frequencies while Talia tried to salvage her blackmail: "So they can shut down your spy enterprise?"
"Talia, sometimes I think you've kriffed up, and then you go and do things like this."
Organa picked up his comm a split second before Mothma. "Has something happened?" he asked.
"Good morning Senators," Dalla said, sickly sweet. "Talia just contacted me with a holo she was concerned about, and I thought I should explain it directly to you."
"Very well." He and Mothma looked at each other. Rarely did Talia and Dalla share a comm line, and when they did there was always an ulterior motive.
Talia and Staven hadn't collapsed the holo yet and predictably she jumped to control the narrative. "Did you know she was whispering to the ISB?" She demanded, blowing up the image even further.
That got the senators' attention. "Lady Blackwell, is this true?" Mothma asked.
"The holo's real," she said. "It's proof of the greatest alliance the network has. Wullf Yularen has been assisting us for many years now and he's never sent us in the wrong direction."
Organa and Mothma remained silent so Dalla continued. "When this holo was taken I was pregnant and about to get a divorce. I thought an abortion was the only way to preserve the network for the rebellion, so I booked an appointment even though the thought made me sick." She swallowed hard "I dropped some items off with Yularen and he learned of my intentions. He helped me realize this wasn't the only way and drove me back to my hotel after. And ever since that day, he's contributed valuable intelligence to us and to our cause. That's what you see here."
"I see," Organa said. "Thank you for clearing the air."
"No thank you Senators, for listening to how a terrified, pregnant teenager did more for the rebellion than terrorist acts ever accomplished. I wonder how much intelligence that's brought in."
Talia glared daggers at her and Dalla just smiled.
Mothma and Organa shared another telling look. Over the years both had gotten used to the rivalry between the Partisans and the Mollymauks, and had long since decided that it was best not to pick a side when one packed massive firepower and the other paid the bills. Whatever it was this time, they were staying out of it.
"Is that all?" Mothma asked cautiously.
"I think it is. Looks like you'll have to get your credits somewhere else, Talia." Dalla's grin could have shot beams of light. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have money to spend. Crates of it."
And then she killed the comm.
"Did you just trash Talia Vogt to rebel high command?" Swain asked as soon as she was sure the connection was cut.
"Aye, I did."
Swain was nearly vibrating in place. "That. Was. Awesome! Please teach me how to do that!"
"I will," Dalla promised. "First I'm going to have you and Brent go with Sloan for a couple of milk runs, and then one on your own. Easy missions, so you can get your sea legs before we move on to things like trashing Talia Vogt in front of rebel high command."
The younger woman's eyes lit up. "I can't wait."