Last time: The family meet with Scamp, Kelce, and Nova to investigate the events on Nivon V.

Now: They stake out the restaurant that Sasha was being watched at.

Chapter 9- Captain Messan

Cien and Nova were the first to arrive, and they were a little before the after work rush. They secured a high top table that would give them a good view of the rest of the bar, and Cien ordered a sparkling cider, and Nova ordered a lite ale. Soon the rest of the party arrived, along with the steady stream of people coming off of work. They kept an eye out for anyone suspicious in the crowd, but they also took advantage of the time to visit with each other and fun conversation soon suffused the table despite the reason they had come here.

Cien, after a while, noted Captain Messan sitting over at the bar. The officer was sitting alone, doing a good job of trying to survey the scene without looking like she was. There were two other officers she had noticed in the bar as well, doing the same, not quite as well though.

She glanced at Kyr next to her, who was in conversation with the copperheads and Viran. Viran was still deeply worried about Sasha and Oppie, Cien didn't need her empathic powers with the Force to tell her that. They were all piling into a conversation filled with interesting adventures from the Copperheads storied history. Partly because of the group of friends, but also to lighten the mood.

She nudged Kyr on the arm with her elbow, "I'm going to go over to the bar for a minute." She told him, as she started getting out of the high top stool seat.

"Everything okay?" He asked quietly, while the others kept talking.

"Yeah, I just need to go apologize." She said as she grabbed her glass of sparkling cider.

Kyr just looked quizzically at her from under his helmet as she stepped away, but didn't press the issue, but he kept an eye on her. Even though they were in a bar, they were here because they were seeing if there was someone here who was a known threat to their family, and the blaster rifle slung across his back was ready to go at a moment's notice. They ended up having fun, but they were here for business. And for a Mandalorian there was only ever one type of business.

Cien made her way through the crowd, for the most part people seemed to subtly get out of her way as she neared them in her armor. She walked to the empty stool that was next to Messan and took a seat. "Hi." She said as she settled into the stool and put her glass down.

"If we're here on a stakeout we shouldn't really be seen together, let alone talking." Messan said, taking a sip of her own drink with a slightly bemused, if slightly annoyed look at Cien.

"There's no one here we need to be worried about." Cien replied simply.

"And how do you know that?" Messan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I just know." Cien replied. "I wanted to apologize for being so brusque earlier. I was dealing with a bad migraine and I'm on edge after what happened to Sasha and Op."

"It's fine." Messan said dismissively, surveying the room again.

Cien just nodded. "And thank you for the work you have done on the investigation so far."

"That's my job." Messan replied.

"My knowledge of law enforcement is limited, but my understanding is that Captains usually don't get involved in individual cases." Cien pressed. "So it's appreciated."

"Our office and resources are limited, so I get involved in cases more than most, I suppose." Messan replied. "Especially bigger cases, I like to keep close tabs on them. The medical center and the, uh," she tried to find the right words and shrugged slightly, "kidnapping, have turned into big cases, so I'm just trying to keep an eye on them."

Cien nodded.

Kyr looked at Cien a little surprised, seeing her being enough of a social butterfly to approach some stranger at a bar. He nudged Nova next to him in the elbow. "Hey, Super, who's that Cien's talking to?" He asked quietly.

"Huh?" Nova said, looking around his armor. "Oh, that's the Captain from the police office. Messan."

Kyr kept an eye on them, still surprised that Cien had gone across the pub to talk to her. Must have been a heck of a conversation to make her feel like she needed to go apologize. It was also just plain strange to see Cien sitting at a bar. Too good an opportunity to pass up.

"You said you knew Op when he was here the first time?" Cien asked, taking a sip of her cider.

Messan looked at her a little guardedly. "Sort of. He went by Drews then. I never worked with him. He quietly handled a couple of complicated cases my first year." She said, taking a sip, "everyone in the office was pretty impressed by it, they were sure he was going to get a promotion. I just ran into him around the office." She explained.

"I met him a little after that, but didn't get to properly meet him, really, until a few years ago." Cien replied. "He's been a good little brother to me in that time." She said with a smirk. "Always has good advice."

Messan just shrugged and took a sip of her own drink.

"What was it he said that helped you, if I can ask?" Cien asked, a little more directly. "I've never really asked Op what things were like during that time in his life, and I'm curious to know."

The Captain looked at her with a guarded expression. "That was years ago." She replied.

"Yeah, I was just curious to know a little bit more about 'Drews', as it were." She said, taking a sip and shifting in her seat slightly so she was facing more towards the bar than towards the captain.

"It was my first big case in my rookie year." Messan explained, "and it seemed fairly cut and dry, I got it because it seemed so easy. Everyone told me to go with the obvious evidence and move on, but something about it was nagging me. We ran into each other and he asked me what was on my mind, and I told him. He told me to 'trust my instincts' rather than to just let it go, and that usually if there's something nagging like that it's what ends up solving a case." She said, and she took a sip. "So I did, and because of it we got the actual murderer instead of the person that had been accused of it."

"Ah." Cien said in understanding.

"He disappeared a few days after that conversation, everyone in the office was surprised, and I never got a chance to thank him for believing in me. And that bit of advice stuck with me over the years, and I ended up becoming the senior investigator pretty quick after that because I did keep trusting my instincts."

"Yeah, that sounds like-" Cien was interrupted by the bartender coming over.

"A drink from the gentlemen over there at the hightop." He said, putting another glass down next to her almost empty cider.

"What?" Cien looked down at the glass, then up and over to where the bartender gestured, and rolled her eyes as Kyr gave her a wave laced with exaggerated shyness. "Please send him a glass of ice water with my compliments." Cien said to the bartender, who went off to go fill the order with a grin.

"I presume that's your husband, right?" Messan said, having followed the exchange and trying not to smirk.

"Yeah." Cien said with another roll of her eyes. "How did you guess?" She asked rhetorically, since they were the only ones in Mandalorian armor in the bar.

Messan smiled as she took a sip of her drink. "So who's Sasha?" She asked, looking at Cien. "I just know her from the report."

Cien's countenance fell slightly at that. "She's my sister and my best friend. She's very kind and can see the good in everyone. Op saved her and Viran, her husband now, from Order 66." She said, turning slightly and gesturing to him over at the table the others were at. "Not related by blood but she is like Op's little sister. And she became mine."

Messan cocked her head to the side in thought. "Wait, brown hair, a little taller than average?"

Cien nodded. "Yeah?" Since that was an approximation of her.

"I met her a few times." Messan said thoughtfully, "she worked at the Medical center, didn't she? She stopped by the office a few times to talk to Dre… Mister -"

"Just call him Op, all his friends do." Cien suggested.

"I figured she was his girlfriend or something since I couldn't figure out why else she'd stop by to see him." Messan finished. "She seemed nice."

"She is." Cien agreed, missing her.

"I'm sorry my city is such a cesspit that they were taken from you here." Messan said with a hint of bitterness, taking a drink.

Cien swallowed at that. "Well, we've faced down some pretty bad people over the years. We're thinking it's related to something like that. So it's not your fault that it happened to take place in your city." Cien said, feeling the oddity of saying something reassuring like that to a stranger.

Messan just shrugged. "Like what?" She asked, after a moment, looking over at Cien.

"What?" Cien asked.

"Who'd you have to face?" Messan asked.

"Sith Lords, who could raise the dead, the Empire, a… uh… Sith Acolyte, and then a cartel." Cien said, not sure how to answer.

"That is quite a list of enemies." Messan said. "What cartel?"

"One based on Caranas." Cien said, looking away as she thought of those dark days.

"Hmm…" Messan looking away as well, thoughtfully, filing that away out of reflex.

"But yes, it has been a lot. And those fifteen years or so before they were constantly planet hopping trying to keep away from the Empire." Cien said.

"I can imagine." Messan said, taking a sip of her drink. "I was really surprised when… Op walked into my office the other day." She said.

"Yeah, that must have been strange." Cien agreed, giving her a sly look. "Especially since he missed seven years of his life or so. He must have looked quite a bit like the last time you saw him."

"What?" Messan looked at her.

"He got trapped somewhere where time worked a little differently. Twice." She said, watching her reaction. "So he's probably about your age, now, technically speaking." Cien said as she took a drink.

Messan shot her a look. "Well that must have been a weird experience." Messan said, taking her own sip.

"Oh, it was. For all of us, really." Cien nodded. "He would have been older than me, technically, but now he's my little brother." Cien said with a slight smile.

"Well hopefully your little brother will return to your family soo- " She stopped. She had glanced back at the table where the rest of her family was, and Kyr had taken his helmet off when their drink order finally arrived.

"They're twins." Cien said, in answer.

"Oh." She said, turning back. "That must make that age difference even stranger, then."

"I don't really notice anymore." Cien said. "They're very different once you get to know them. Op is the more thoughtful and careful one of the two," she said slyly, "Kyr is a little more of a, uh, weapons enthusiast."

Messan subtly shot her an odd glance at that while Cien innocently took another sip of her drink. "Well I guess that makes sense, being a Jedi. They were supposed to be very reserved like that."

"Oh, yes the three of them, Sasha, Viran and Op, they're very," she paused, "Jedi-ey." Cien said, borrowing a term from Kyr, "but everything is so different, being a Jedi now isn't the same as what it used to be." She replied.

"What, like not being hunted?" Messan said quickly with a smirk as she took a drink.

"Yeah, and all the other things that came with their order." Cien clarified. "All the rules, all the limitations on their life." Cien replied.

Messan didn't seem to notice that subtlety. "So what's your guy's deal anyway?" She asked after a quiet moment. "That table has more firepower than my office does." She said, gesturing back to the hightop where it looked like Nova was blushing deeply and Kelce looked a little flustered as everyone else at the table had a smirk on their face. "There aren't a lot of families that when something like this happens they call in backup from the Republic and show up with this kind of gear ready to take over the investigation. And those bad guys you mentioned, that's not exactly normal."

Cien took a drink for a while. "I guess we're not a very normal family." Cien admitted with a slight smirk. "We've been faced with some very strange circumstances in all our lives, but I guess that's what forged such a deep bond between us. Kyr's very Mandalorian, and that gets him in trouble. The three of them are Jedi, so that got them in a lot of trouble." Cien said, taking a sip.

"And you?" Messan asked, taking a drink as well.

"You know what a Sith is?" Cien replied with a slight smile.

"No." Messan replied with an arched eyebrow.

"Maybe I'll have a chance to tell you about it, one of these days." She said simply, trying to suppress a smirk. "The five of us have had a very interesting journey that threw us all together. And this, unfortunately isn't the first time we've dealt with something like this."

"Hmph." Messan said, taking a drink.

"What about you?" Cien asked, "you seem a little different from the other cops on this planet." Cien gestured at the two other officers in the bar, and Messan furrowed her brow a little at the gesture, her picking them out with casual ease. "Better skills, and you seem to care more."

"You picked that up from talking to me for a total of ten minutes?" Messan asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I'm good at reading people." Cien said.

"My parents are still here, I grew up here." Messan said, feeling a little odd to be opening up to a veritable stranger. "I've thought about getting out of here, but Nivon's my home, even if it is a cesspit." She said with a slight grimace, "and I care because no one else seems to." She said with annoyance in her tone.

Cien just nodded and looked down at her empty drink. "Like I said, it is appreciated." Cien paused for a second, "what's your name?"

She hesitated for a split second before answering. "Kaitriona. But my friends call me Kait."

Cien nodded. "Your skills and level of care would serve the wider galaxy well if you ever decide to go off world, Kait. And I know a Republic Marshall who will put in a good word for you, if you want."

Kaitriona Messan considered that for a moment before turning back to her drink. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Cien said, said. "It was nice talking to you." As she stepped off of her stool.

"You as well." Kait said with a nod as she surveyed the bar again. Cien walked away and went back to the high top, settling into her seat next to Kyr.

"Hey cyar'ika." He said, "make a new friend?"

"I think so." Cien said, stealing Kyr's ice water for a sip.

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