Second chapter that has never been published before.

The continuation will of course also be new since... it hasn't been written at all yet!


« How much further is it? »

We had left the area of the reception. Now, we needed to get to the place where Carth was supposed to be awaiting me, or should I say awaiting us. The hardest part was over. I thought that we were no longer running any risk. But my fellow party-goer's resolutely impatient and annoyed tone drew me back down into the heaviness of it all. Sivir was right on my heels, arms crossed against her chest; allowing her to cover her lacerated top and conceal her wrist marked with the symbol of the Hidden Beks.

« No. » I replied with no elaboration.

I made my way through narrow alleys to escape potential Sith patrols. The woman was following me at a brisk pace, although she did struggle. With my rather large stature, I outstripped many of my more standard-sized peers. Sivir's breathing ability was quite remarkable in this respect. We moved through a few passageways before finally spotting the tower where Carth and I had taken refuge. One last set of hasty steps and we were now inside. We entered one of the building's lifts and ascended to the floor of our abandoned apartment. As we walked down the circular patio that connected all the units on that floor, I noticed that my companion's rhythm was slowing. I turned to her and found her quietly heading for one of the huge windows overlooking the city.

Oh, well of course. This woman spent most of her time in the lower city and certainly didn't hang around up here for ages. What she was seeing at that moment was a rare sight for someone like her.

« Astonishing. » I spoke calmly as I stepped towards Sivir, who slightly turned her head to me.

« Yeah. » She said smiling bitterly, her heart certainly overflowing with heavy feelings, then she looked back at the city with concerned eyes.

« I don't know whether I'm fascinated or disgusted by it. » She added sorrowfully.

A breath came from my nostrils. I kept staring at the troubled young woman. What could I possibly say to her? I had no idea of the life she was living, and I knew nothing of the problems that existed on Taris. I felt like a perfectly healthy man facing a dying friend knowing his fate. There was nothing to say.

« I hope you will not let this revulsion get the better of you, because you will have to bear it until tomorrow. » I merely replied in what was intended to be a desire to lighten the moment.

She smiled. I couldn't tell if it was due to the relative frivolity of my words or if it was a sign of gratitude. Sivir then moved away from the window and, glancing at me, she asked rather sarcastically:

« So where is your penthouse? »

« Just two apartments away. »


« Hey, I'm here! »

I had just walked through the doorway of the apartment. Carth made no reaction at all. I scanned the large living room, the kitchen area and the sleeping space, but the officer was nowhere to be found. On the other hand, the sanitary cabin door was left open and nobody seemed to be in there. The man must have gone out for some reason. This was not to make me feel any better. However, Carth Onasi was a reliable man. I mostly feared that something had happened to him…

« Your friend isn't here? » Sivir asked, seemingly afraid to leave the flat's threshold.

I held out my hand, inviting her in, and replied:

« Apparently not. » She hesitantly accepted my hand. In a measured gesture I suggested that she clear the entrance. She complied, and as she moved in front of me, I released her hand and pulled a chair by its back.

« He will surely come back soon. He's a reasonable man. » I added before gesturing to the chair. « Please make yourself comfortable. After all, you're only sharing accommodation that neither my colleague nor I are entitled to occupy. So feel free to move around as you please. »

The woman gave no answer and maintained her uncertain look at me.

« You are as much home as we are. » I clarified.

Then I watched her turn away and walk in the direction of one of the beds. She stopped at the one on which lay a semblance of a pile of the few clothes we had collected. Most of them were of no use to us. Sivir crouched down and started searching the pile thoroughly. After a few seconds she drew out a dark, plain top, then stood up and gave me a hopeful look:

« Can I have it? » She asked somewhat shyly.

« Sure. » I replied. « You can change in the cabin right behind the sleeping area. The door is open. »

I said, pointing to the room. Sivir nodded. She walked over to the living room table, removed her jacket and placed it on the back of one of the chairs before stepping into the sanitary room holding the top she had just found.

A few moments later, Carth emerged and shot me a highly surprised glance.

« Already here? » He began.

« Well, yes. » I replied somewhat embarrassingly. « This evening has been more... fruitful than expected. »

The Lieutenant was now watching me with renewed interest, supplanting his initial bewilderment. The man removed his orange jacket, took a few steps towards the living room table, and as he too was about to place the garment on a chair, he stopped and suddenly froze where he stood. I glanced at my superior worriedly. He faced me and, with eyebrows as furrowed as they could be, displayed an expression combining both anger and dismay.

« Is there anyone else here? » Carth questioned sharply, who had obviously spotted the female jacket hanging nearby.

« Let me explain... » I tried to reply before I was interrupted by Sivir, just emerging from the sanitary room, dressed in that dark top, and holding in her hands her late, ragged blouse.

Carth immediately shifted his attention to the woman and fixed her wordlessly. She did the same, while glancing at me a few times - surely waiting for me to say something. However, before she could even speak again, Carth turned to me, shot me a furious glare and said:

« Goddamit, I have never sent you to this reception to... » The Lieutenant suddenly paused, evidently embarrassed. He swallowed hard and resumed in an accusatory tone:

« ... To get some! »

My blood ran cold.

« Do you honestly believe that, under the present circumstances, I would have invited a woman here, betting that you wouldn't be here? Do you think I'm that reckless and that superficial? I can't tell you how, but she knows who I am. I mean, she knows that I'm one of the survivors of the Endar Spire. Please calm down and let me explain. » I retorted curtly.

Carth immediately fell silent. I could distinguish thin wrinkles at the junction of his jaws. Then he took a deep breath, leaned back against the table and, gazing at Sivir and I alternately, he finally said:

« My apologies to you, Corem, and to you too, madam. I guess you're here for more than just some lewd party. »

Sivir observed Carth for a couple of seconds longer, during which time she was nervously fiddling with the blouse between her hands. Then she cast an unfathomable look at me, before moving closer to us.

« Aren't you called Amon? » She questioned me before she even began to relate the explanations that the officer was expecting. « Nor am I a lecturer, as you have very cleverly guessed. » I said with a smile. Sensing that Carth was growing increasingly impatient, I proceeded to outline this rather surreal night.

« Lieutenant, this is Sivir. We met before... Wait a minute... »

I paused.

« What about you? » I suddenly asked, addressing the woman. « Is your name Sivir? »

The Hidden Bek burst out laughing and replied with amusement:

« That's one of my missteps tonight. Yeah, that's my name. »

« So, Sivir and you have met before... » Carth interrupted, urging us to resume with our evening's adventures.

« You have been spotted from the moment you arrived. » The woman interjected, leaving us both speechless. Silently, she walked around the table and sat down in one of the chairs facing Carth and myself. Then, with a wave of her hand, she invited us to do the same, somehow taking control of this strange moment. We complied without delay.

« Not by the Sith, don't worry. » The woman continued, now staring at Carth. « I followed you today. »

Carth glanced at me and focused back on Sivir, who went on with her tale.

« When that lunatic Sarna gave you the invitation, you got much more interesting. I needed to attend that reception. »

« Why did you need to go there? » Carth questioned.

« I am a member of the Hidden Beks. Since the Republican cruiser flew over Taris, the city has been turned upside down. The Sith have come down and started setting up their own rules. And when we heard about the attack on the cruiser, we knew that they were sealing off the entire planet to get whoever or whatever it was that got away. And I guess they haven't found what they're looking for - yet. »

Carth and I carefully kept our mouths shut about this part of the story, the ins and outs of which we both knew perfectly well.

« In any case, the Sith presence on Taris is causing us many problems. We need frequent access to the upper city for business, and the Sith are particularly concerned about the traffic back and forth between the lower and upper cities. We always manage to find alternate routes, but they are risky, and not all of our men are able to use them. »

« You need security passes to fool the Sith. » Carth said lucidly.

« Precisely. » The woman replied. « But most security passes are individual and occasionally nominative. »

« You'll never be able to steal enough of them. » I commented.

« That's why we have to work with engineers who can tamper with the few models we manage to steal. »

« Why are you revealing all this so freely? » I asked.

« I understand that we have at least one common interest: getting to the lower city. You are survivors of the cruiser, you have no reason to cause me any trouble, quite the contrary. You're looking for information about the pods, obviously. You won't get anything conclusive here. Only the lower city can help you find out more. »

« What benefit do you have in helping us? »

Carth questioned warily. It was highly unlikely that the young woman would share so much information without expecting some kind of pay-back.

« We are looking for guys like you. You could be very useful to us. But I won't say any more. I need to take you to our leader. »

« What is so interesting about us? » I interfered. There was a short silence. The young woman gave me a dark look.

« You are nothing to us. And you need us. That is why you are so interesting to us. » Sivir retorted curtly, her eyes seemingly piercing my flesh. I let out a flinch that I hoped had been sufficiently masked. This woman was definitely atypical, to say the least. She was capable of behaving like a vulnerable creature, buried deep in her den, but also like a true hound ready to attack, showing off her sharp fangs.

« What if we choose not to help you once we're down there? What if we decide to do our own business and then leave the area without visiting you? » I continued boldly, careful not to follow up on her last rather chilling words.

« What, you think you can escape our vigilance so easily? You think you can walk around the lower city without us keeping an eye on you? » Sivir retorted proudly.

I fixed her with a smile. I expected such an answer. We couldn't work in the lower city without a strong partnership with these people. And of course, there was no way we could take advantage of their help without giving them the courtesy. It would mean a considerable loss of time in our research, but there was no better option.

« We could just be looking to get off the planet and save our own butts. » Carth said, eager to extend the verbal sparring. An action that felt extremely pointless, but quite legitimate.

« Not you, Onasi. » The young woman retorted. Those few words again shut us up.

« I told you I was very well informed. » Sivir added to me before regaining Carth's eyes. « We may belong to a gang, but we are not all uneducated, illiterate scum - leave those observations for the Vulkars. We do know who the Republic's leading figures are. You're not the greatest celebrity of our age, but some of us can certainly put a name to your face, Lieutenant. »

Carth simply stared at the woman. From where I was I could make out slight bumps rising on either side of his face again. The man was restraining his irritation.

« Besides, how unwise is it for a military man of your standing to be roaming around a cantina full of Sith in search of pod survivors? Good thing most of them were drunk. And good thing you sent Corem to the reception instead. »

« Were you listening through our door, or what? » Carth interrogated aggressively.

« I told you, you've been spotted. A group of Hidden Beks had caught you escaping from one of the pods. We agreed to mobilise our resources to keep an eye on you and make it easier for you to get to the upper city. Without our help, you would have been very quickly captured. Can you believe it? A guy in pretty rough shape with another big guy on his shoulder, looking even worse, exactly when we hear about the Republic cruiser pods crashing into the city. How could you have gone unnoticed without our intervention? »

I paid attention to Carth. The officer didn't even glance at me, he looked as if he was boiling inside. This revealed a reality that might have gone completely out of control, which caused me to smile, although I wanted to keep it as discreet as possible. Because, beyond the fact that we could have ended up in a very unpleasant position when we got out of the pods, it was obvious that Sivir's revelations had delivered a heavy blow to Carth's pride – since he had been convinced so far that he had succeeded in extracting us from the pods and from the lower city by his own efforts. To me it hardly mattered. It was on the shoulder of this honourable man that I had landed at the time. Not on that of a Hidden Bek. Nothing could ever erode my gratitude and consideration for this man.

« No, we weren't behind your door. » Sivir resumed. « But we were watching you. When we noticed Corem leaving in a relatively smart outfit, we knew that he was the one going to the reception. A chance for me to join him and try to get into the event. »

« To obtain a security pass. » I concluded.

« That's right. » The Hidden Bek replied. « So? » She continued briskly. « Are you interested in getting to the lower city or not? »

Carth and I exchanged a defeated look.

« A necessity. » The Lieutenant admitted dejectedly. « But you tell us that the Sith have sealed off the entire sector, and that one pass won't be enough. Do you have any more? »

« I only have this one. » Sivir conceded as she placed the data pad she'd stolen earlier down on the table. « And it must be handled by a very competent associate from the upper city. A chap who helps us from time to time. He's capable of making them unnamed. The Sith sometimes provide anonymous passes. Often to people who don't need to go down to the lower city on a regular basis. »

« It won't help us any further. Nominative or not, there will always be three of us needing a pass. » Carth added.

« And what's unfortunate for you is that our own technicians can produce replicas! » Sivir commented playfully.

Carth let out a deep sigh. We'd been talking for long minutes with a woman who promised us unsuspected chances to carry out our research more effectively, only to see all our hopes crushed in a blink of an eye.

« Now, I believe that our associate here is capable of producing counterfeits. But we're talking about a much more complex and expensive job. Manipulating computer data from a single device is easy. But replicating it is a different story. »

« You told us he was very competent. » I retorted with annoyance.

« He is. I'm sure he'd know how to replicate, but the question is when? Certainly not fast enough for you. Besides, we don't have the habit of asking him to do this. And I'm not even talking about the prices he would charge us for such manipulations! We have our own experts down there. » Sivir paused briefly, then, straightening up in her chair, she continued:

« There are several solutions: I leave the pass to the uptown guy, until he makes it nameless. Then I'll entrust it to one of you while I go back to the lower city as I usually do. Second alternative: I can let the technician here work on the potential replicas, you pay him yourself, and you wait for I dunno how long before you can both come down. It's up to you. I, in any case, will be able to leave the upper city by other ways. And don't even think about coming with me! There are things that must not slip out of the control of the Hidden Beks. Anyway, supple as you look, you wouldn't even be capable of following me. »

Carth and I exchanged another look.

« That' s not really my idea of an alternative. » The officer grumbled, his arms firmly crossed against his chest.

« But it is. » The woman persisted with a touch of playfulness. It was more than obvious that she was enjoying herself in this most awkward moment. This only served to fuel Carth's barely concealed frustration a little more. For my part, I oscillated between puerile delight and utter dismay.

« Lieutenant, you have to make a decision. » I announced solemnly. « You and I both know that there is no time to waste. As for money... Well, it's pretty simple, we don't have any. » I finished, my eyes locked on my superior.

Carth exhaled deeply. He knew my words were right. He knew it perfectly well. He knew all along that this was not the best option, but it was the only option we had. The officer uncrossed his arms, until then still heavily pressed against his chest, and then came to place them back on the tabletop, hands clasped. He tilted his head, somewhat disillusioned by a reality he had no control over. At last he spoke again, but in a defeated whisper:

« Corem. » He started. I turned my head more sharply to my superior, to express complete attention. « I'm sorry, but you're the one who will have to get down. »

« I wouldn't think of it any differently, Carth. »

« Good! » A rather pleased Sivir suddenly broke in. I then directed my gaze in her direction, while Carth raised his head in a similar way.

« In that case, gentlemen, it would be wise to take a little rest. » She went on almost cheerfully, as she rose from her chair and headed for the kitchen area. Then, at the very last second, she gave us a lively look, as if to let us know something she had forgotten to mention.

« Well, that goes especially for you, Corem. Since you are the one who will be thrown into the lion's den »

Carth sighed again, seemingly ready to express his irritation at the young woman's ironic tone. I merely stared at her sternly and just replied:

« Yes. Thank you Sivir. »

There was no need to play along with her.

The woman flashed a slight smile before heading back to the kitchen. I shifted my attention to Carth, who was staring at me, his arms again crossed and pressed against himself. I could see in his eyes that he was not pleased at all with the whole affair, and with the behaviour of this unexpected guest. I got up from my chair and placed a supportive hand on my superior's shoulder before going to the sanitary cell where I would quickly clean myself up so that I could get to my bed and spend what I hoped would be a restful night.


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