Chapter 11: Klayer To'lya

Thellus Asteroid, Dressel System

Klayer rode the Maglev from Agkaworza 'Yobod District, where she now resided, to the Marshalcy's Thellus Field Office in New Aroo. As usual, the Askars and Thellus humans stared at her. Not only because she was much shorter than most of the locals and wearing a blue Marshal Uniform, but because she was not bland coloured.

Her dark red and white fur twitched nervously as all of the monochrome Askars stared at her. During Klayer's first deployment to Thellus, it often swirled with nervousness.

A particularly glaring cream-coloured teenager was grinning slightly as he started at her. Klayer stared back. Her bright blue eyes locked with his red eyes. He looked away quickly.

Klayer snorted. Even after going through a six-month deployment to Thellus a year ago, this was still weird. Kriffing Spacers.

o-o-o

[Ma'am, the results came in,] Sergeant Grafisk Rey'tiv said professionally, holding out a datapad. [The problem is, eight of the nine samples aren't on the Republic or Bothan database.]

Her office within the Field Office was a small room with one long wooden desk and three uncomfortable durasteel chairs. On the desk was a stack of plastisheet, held down by a paperweight laid down perfectly centred on the topmost sheet. This exemplified her neurotic sense of organisation and neatness.

Klayer took the datapad from him.

Grafisk still he stood at attention.

[At ease. Thank you Grafisk Rey, you did a very good job getting this done so fast,] Klayer said with praise, using his first and family name as was customary in the Bothawui military and police forces.

Grafisk's fur twitched once with the start of a fur dance, then stopped. [Thank you, ma'am,] he said.

Klayer smirked. He has such impressive bearing. [This is odd…] she muttered to herself as she read the datapad, fur swirling with suspicion.

The DNA results on the screen showed only Shidar Zhol'skar's smiling face. Bright white Askar teeth practically glimmering against her black fur. Why would Shidar send us a DNA sample of herself?!

[Yes ma'am, the Spynet analysed the samples got no hits on the Republic or Bothan database, except for a prostitute, Shidar Zhol'skar,] Grafisk explained. [She lives in the Gal'skar Docks.]

Klayer snorted. Of course, that goofy Shidar would send us her own DNA sample in the midst of— [WAIT!] she gasped. [This makes no sense. In the vial, there were hairs that could not possibly be hers. I saw red hair, blonde hair, brown hair… It makes no sense.]

[Well the analysts did not report finding any other DNA,] Grafisk growled.

[I need to bring this to the Colonel,] Klayer sighed.

o-o-o

Klayer stood outside Tav Mi'zya's office. It was dark inside. Where could he be? She sniffed the air and spun around.

"Zo erz zharn fefela?" [What is the problem?] Tav asked, walking down the hallway towards her.

[Sir, there is something suspicious happening with the sample your asset gave us,] she answered, getting straight to the point.

[Something suspicious…] Tav pulled out his ID card and swiped the identity reader on his office door. It unlocked. [Take a seat Lieutenant.]

[Thank you, sir,] Klayer said, stepping up to his desk and taking a seat.

Tav sat down and paused for a moment thoughtfully. [A suspicion with the sample itself, or with how it's been handled?]

[Both, sir,] she explained, passing him the datapad. [It makes no sense. There is no way all of the hair in that vial belonged to your asset.]

[Huh,] he muttered, his blonde fur swirling with suspicion. [You're right. This is strange. I didn't get much of a look at the sample, but it certainly wasn't just Shidar's fur.]

Good, Klayer thought. We're using your asset's name, acknowledging the fact your asset has a name and is a living, breathing Bothan, as opposed to a tool. [I saw red hair, blonde, and brown. It looked like she had thrown a hodgepodge of samples together. A result saying inconclusive or something would make sense sir, but given what Shidar gave us, that result makes no sense.]

Tav frowned for a moment at Klayer's sudden innuendo-laced emphasis of his asset's name.

Klayer's fur swirled nervously. She opened her snout to apologise, then stopped.

[Shidar said 'Mandalorian' right?] Tav asked, deciding to ignore it.

[Yes sir,] Klayer answered. Phew. [Shidar said she thought a man named Pul was a Mandalorian,] she growled, saying Shidar's name as neutrally as possible.

[I suspect someone high up is quashing this somehow… Suppressing the results,] Tav growled. [In the meantime, I'll message Shidar and ask her what happened.]

You have Shidar's holonumber, Klayer snorted. Your wife—she wiped the scowl from her face as Tav looked up from the datapad.

[You are thinking?] Tav growled.

[Uh yes sir,] Klayer stammered, her fur swirling nervously. [I am thinking. Mandalorians sir?] she growled uncertainly, not sure how to spin this.

[Elaborate,] Tav ordered.

[Mandalorians… they well—]

[—Oh,] Tav interrupted, deep in thought, parsing something from Klayer's nervous stammering that she had not actually meant.

Klayer sighed with relief.

[Mandalorians! What if, before quashing this, the Mandalorians were sent the sample? You're right Lieutenant! Brilliant!] Tav exclaimed with a smile.

[Thank you, sir,] Klayer said, her fur dancing.

[So, we'll have to go to Mandalore,] Tav muttered.

[What do you mean sir?!] Klayer gasped in surprise.

o-o-o

The Mandalorian Consulate on Thellus was located in New Aroo, almost directly opposite on the interior of the sphere wall from the Marshalcy Field Office. To drive along the sides of the gravplated wall in a speeder, from the Field Office to the Consulate, took ten-minutes; to walk would take forty. Of course, this was the location Tav meant.

From the perspective of the Marshalcy Field Office, the Mandalorian Consulate and buildings around it appeared upside down. Individuals standing in that area also appeared upside down against the gravplating.

The consulate was a brilliant blue and black series of cube shapes, designed as a miniature replica of one of the Mandalorian Bio-Cubes. As if to advertise the fact that Mandalore was a forsaken wasteland, even more ruined than Raxus Prime, the Mandalorians added a moat of sand around the consulate building, the centre of which was bisected by a metal sidewalk. A nice finishing touch. It was the most unique building anywhere on Thellus.

Upon parallel parking their interceptor speeder across the street from the consulate, the two Bothans stepped out, pulled their blue caps out of their pockets, and put them on. They looked both ways before crossing the street.

In every direction, overhead, across, behind, to the sides, was cityscape held to the walls of the New Aroo district by gravplating. Just like the 1/3 of Bothawui's gravity, Klayer no longer found this fact about Thellus particularly troubling. It had bothered her when she first arrived. Nowhere is really outside.

A sole human stood at the gate to the consulate grounds, on the edge of the barren sand, wearing Mandalorian Protector armour. Behind him, parked on the sand, were two Mandalorian Biurk'alor-class speeders, each with Thellus licence plates starting with Д for 'дипломаск' [diplomatic].

"Good afternoon, what can I do for you?" the Mandalorian's voice echoed politely from his helmet.

Somehow, Klayer expected him to say something else, literally anything else. Hey honey, or you're no use to me dead, would have been less surprising to her. The Bothan blinked her blue eyes in surprise, her snout falling open.

"It's a long story," Tav said in Basic in his thick Bothan accent, pronouncing story, shtory.

"Do you have an appointment Colonel…?"

"Tav Mi'zya," he growled extending a hand, awkwardly gripping the Mandalorian's armoured one. "This is Lieutenant Klayer To'lya."

"My name is Fraedrak Saxon. Clan Alya?" the Mandalorian asked.

"Yes," Klayer growled nervously.

"I have only heard good things about your Clan," Fraedrak said brightly, his unexpectedly cheerful voice echoing from his helmet. "Kothlis is quite nice. I had the pleasure of guarding that Consulate for a year before being shipped here."

Klayer's fur danced. "Actually, I am a Thoran Alya."

"Oh, nice and… uh chilly," Fraedrak noted.

Klayer's fur stopped dancing as excitedly.

o-o-o

"What do you know? You're right," Julkorth Faro, the Investigative Services attaché muttered.

The Bothans had been escorted into the consulate's basement. It was a lonely room with several chemical analyser stations, a massive library-like holoarchive, and many specialised droids.

"Well, what happened?" Klayer growled nervously.

"The Investigative Services received eight unknown Mandalorian DNA samples," Faro explained, punching buttons on a terminal. Klayer could not read any of the Mandalorian script displayed on its screen. "…And we matched them."

"To whom?" Tav asked sternly.

"Eight individuals. They did not apply for exit visas when they left Mandalore, that's for sure," Faro said with a tsk tsk tsk. "Ditmas Shar is one of the leaders of a cult with a few million members in the Kelita Bio-Cube. All of them seem to be either known members, or from the area."

"Are they dangerous?" Klayer asked.

"Ditmas and Baci Shar are the only ones with known criminal records," Faro answered, flipping through his datapad. "During the Mandalorian Civil War, at age thirteen, Ditmas participated in several bombings, some of which killed police officers. He was captured, tried as a juvenile, and released after two years. Baci Shar was arrested at age fifteen for a bank robbery in Kelita. In all honesty, I have no idea how dangerous they are. We have no records of them participating in insurgent or mercenary activity since the civil war. To our knowledge, they are simply strange cultists. I'll send their records to you."

Klayer squinted her eyes, exhaling despondently. Eight Mandalorians here, led by a terrorist.

"Thank you very much for the information," Tav said at long last.

"May I ask what your next step will be?" the Mandalorian asked.

"That is Bothan business," Tav muttered gruffly.

"Well, if you do apprehend them, we would appreciate it if you extradited them to us. They violated Mandalorian Exit Visa requirements, a serious misdemeanour," Faro muttered, continuing to flip through records. "We take our exit visas very seriously."

Klayer's ears perked up. She recognised the potential for sarcasm here but could not tell whether or not the Mandalorian actually was being sarcastic. Human humour often eluded her.

o-o-o

[Whatever is happening, it is very dangerous-smelling,] Tav growled.

The two Bothans were driving back through the streets along the interior wall of New Aroo's cityscape.

[A coverup sir?] Klayer growled.

[Indeed. Someone, who must be a Bothan, is trying to hide the fact eight Mandalorians landed here and are faking their identities.]

[What are our next steps, sir?] Klayer asked.

Tav paused for a moment. [I will try to figure out who is covering this up and, in the meantime, we will begin to observe the Mandalorians.]