As the two rebels put the transmitter away Kallus was bothered by the silence that had fallen over his friend since he'd asked about her force abilities. He was about to prod once more when she finally spoke.

"It's a good thing that you were given your own code tonight. You'll need it." Kiara stared out at the grasslands that stretched out for nearly as far as she could see. Standing up on the platform of the tower she could see why anyone would choose this place to live away from the city. Especially a boy trying to survive after losing his parents.

She could only imagine what the view had been like before the Empire came to Lothal and built the complex in the other direction of the view. She could remember a time from before the Empire both here on Lothal as well as the galaxy at large. The cityscape still made quite the sight if one could ignore the complex that could just be seen from her vantage point.

"I've been told that I'll be reassigned along with most of the others that you ran the clearances for when I first came to Lothal. I'm not sure what this new assignment will all be about but apparently it won't be a military mission."

That took Kallus by surprise on a couple of different levels. One, he'd begun to get used to having a friend nearby, even if they could only interact on occasion. But for Kiara to be transferred to a non-military mission, it seemed suspicious. He concentrated on the later issue for now.

"Do you know where this mission will be?"

"No. Just that it would be somewhere in this sector. So, I'll be close, just not at the complex any longer. I'm supposed to attend yet more lectures before being shipped off." Kiara headed down the stairs toward the speeder with Kallus. "I'm not sure how a non-military operation could be of much interest to the Empire, but we'll see what happens."

Kallus got behind the controls of the speeder but paused before putting it into motion toward the Imperial complex. "If this new assignment is so secretive, the likelihood that you'll be able to get out a transmission if you need to will be compromised."

"I know." Kiara glanced over at Alexsandr and decided to break the awkwardness that had fallen over them. "Careful. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were worried about me. Remember, I'm not the newbie when it comes to all of this. If anyone should be worried, it's me. What if you get overconfident in your own abilities and get caught? Going under the radar hasn't exactly been your area of expertise. Maybe I should have Tac standing by just in case."

"Tac? Who the hell is Tac?"

Kiara laughed. "My droid that I leave to care for my ship when I'm not around. Remember I had to contact him the last time to let him know where I am? He arrived three days ago and is hidden out in one of the mountain ranges near here."

"How did you get a ship while working as a lieutenant in the Empire? Where did you get the credits?"

"I didn't need many. Just enough to get into a few really interesting games of sabacc. From there, it was simple."

Kallus gave Valour a side-glance and saw the smirk on her face. "Should I take it that you used your special talent to, what did you call it? Read the other players at the table?"

"Maybe. Some people practically scream in their own heads when they get a good hand. It's no different, really, than how any number of people use their own talents to read people."

Chuckling, Kallus shook his head. "So that's how you justify it? All right, never play a card game against you; duly noted. Though it might be interesting to go to Canto Bight with you."

"Oh! It isn't right when I do it for myself, but you wouldn't mind for me to help you get a leg up on the other players at a table if it benefited you." Valour allowed herself to laugh aloud before she motioned toward the mountains. "Head that way. While we are out you might as well as meet Tac. Just in case. It couldn't hurt for him to be ready in case you need an extraction while I'm gone and unable to let him know where I am in the time-being."

"So sure that I'm going to screw up, are you?" Kallus scowled at the implication but sent the speeder in the direction that she had indicated.

"No. I just like to make sure I have a backup plan for my backup plan. It's why I've lasted this long in the Empire." Kiara propped her feet up on the dash of the speeder and stared up at the stars as they raced toward the mountains. It was so quiet this far out from the city that it felt as if the Empire was a million lightyears away.

Kallus shook his head as he fought the urge to tell Valour to put her feet down. Instead, he just muttered, "Comfortable?"

"I'm getting there." Kiara leaned back into her seat in an exaggerated fashion and shifted as if to prove that she was indeed comfortable and laughed.

As they neared the mountains and headed to where Kiara indicated Kallus saw that it was already getting late. By the time that they get back to the base it may even be nearing sunrise. He mentioned that as the two got out of the speeder in front of an older freighter that looked like it had been in use before the Clone Wars.

"So those troopers will think that you had either a really good night or a really bad one," Kiara said with a wink as she went to the ship and pressed some buttons then had her bio-signature run before the loading ramp lowered.

"I think you are enjoying this just a bit too much," he said with a smirk. "Aren't you worried about your reputation?"

"I don't have to. At my rank, I'm not worth the trouble for most people to gossip about. But you are." Kiara snickered as her techno-service droid came into view.

"Mistress Kiara! I'm so pleased to see that you are well. As you can see, I brought the ship here safe and sound as you requested."

"I never had any doubt that you'd do just that." Kiara motioned toward Kallus and introduced him, "And this is Agent Alexsandr Kallus. He is a friend and will be given access to the ship, as well. I'll be unavailable soon so while I'm gone, I want you to make yourself available to him if needed."

Kallus raised a brow at Valour's declaration. He'd not really expected to be given free reign over her ship.

"Of course, Mistress Kiara. Now, Master Alexsandr, if you ev-"

"Call me Kallus, please. Most everyone else does." Kallus followed Kiara through the ship and was pleasantly surprised that the inside it the ship didn't look as decrepit as the outside did. If he had to guess, the ship had recently been gutted and given some major upgrades. Not the least of which included the fact that one needed to run a bio-signature just to board the blasted thing. No doubt the cost was footed by even more sabacc games.

"As you wish, Master Kallus," the droid said cheerfully as it floated alongside the two humans. Kallus rolled his eyes at being called Master Kallus but let it go. "Mistress Kiara, I was able to install the latest upgrades that you've requested, though it wasn't easy retrofitting the parts for this ship."

"The only thing that is important is that you were able to do it. Thank you, Tac." Kiara spent the next half hour giving a generalized rundown of the ship should Alexsandr need to make a hasty retreat from Lothal. The last bit of business was to install Kallus's own bio-signature to the ship's system so that he could access the ship in her absence.

"What will happen if you get into trouble while away from Lothal?" Kallus said as the two headed back toward the speeder for the long ride back to the Imperial Complex. It was clear that neither of them was going to get any sleep tonight.

"I have a bio-chip implanted. If my readings get to a certain level, that indicates that I'm in trouble, Tac is programed to come to try to assist me automatically as soon as the beacon is activated. If I concentrate on it, I can trigger the alarm without detection, as well. It doesn't operate on the same frequency as most jamming devices."

"Hum... Is that common practice for those in the Rebellion?"

"No. It is just one of the many system upgrades that I've added and tinkered with on my ship and droid. I installed it long before I officially started working with the Rebellion. When I was still on my own. I wanted a safety net, so I made one. Fortunately, I've not had to use it, yet."

"How long have you been working with them?"

"Well, it's complicated. The Rebellion as we know it now hasn't really been all that organized for long. More of a patchwork of individual cells. Most are barely even loosely connected to the rest. I've been helping various cells, though, for about five years. Even was one of the initial Fulcrums. But I've done what I could to throw a wrench in whatever way I could ever since we graduated from the academy." Kiara stifled a yawn as her exhaustion from not just the nightly escapade began to catch up on her, but she'd also had worked extra hard in the gym before Kallus had found her to leave the Complex hours ago.

Kallus spotted the yawn, anyway, and started to feel bad for dragging the woman beside him out without any warning. He held the rest of his questions to himself and saw her begin to drift off as they left the mountain range behind. After a moment of silence, it didn't take long for Kallus to hear the sound of steady breathing to tell him that she'd finally fallen into a light slumber as she leaned against him in her sleep. He figured that he'd allow the brief nap that she could get on the way back to Capital City. He may be able to sneak a power nap in his office, but she'd have no such ability since she had no private workspace.

As the Imperial Complex came into view Kallus casually moved to wake Valour up. When he did, she did so with a jolt; nearly with a panicked look on her face before she realized where she was. As the speeder passed under a light that lined the road it burned out putting the two into darkness. Kallus pulled the speeder to a halt to give his friend time to regroup a bit before they made the last leg of their journey back to the base.

"Easy, I just wanted to wake you up before we got back to base." Kallus turned in his seat as he watched Kiara nod and glanced around at the road before looking up toward the darkened streetlight before cursing. Kallus followed her line of thought and asked, "Was that you?"

"Chances are much higher than the odds that it burned out at the precise moment that we rode by." Kiara closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing until she felt the slight panic that she'd woken up with subside. "At least it was the light and not the speeder."

"I hope you are joking. You were, right?" Kallus eyed the direction of the Imperial Complex. It wasn't that far away by speeder, but he wouldn't want to try to walk it before sunrise.

"Do you really want me to answer that question?"

"By the look on your face, I'm going to say no." Kallus waited until Valour motioned for them to get going. He could only assume that they were now safe from her force abilities, causing an unexpected crisis with the speeder. Perhaps if he ever got the chance, he should ask Kanan how he and the boy avoided such issues. Or was this type of thing due to the fact that Kiara's force abilities were considered unstable?

When the two got back to the base, it was only an hour or so before the night shift was to be relieved. Kallus noticed as the troopers at the motor pool took in Kiara's mussed auburn hair from her short nap in the speeder on the way back to the base. It didn't take a genius to see that it only added to the troopers' belief that the two of them had left the complex for a clandestine rendezvous. Kallus did his best to instill a bit of fear of what he would do if he heard that they decided to be less than discreet regarding his nightly activities with a growl.

"You do realize that just cemented the fact that they will share what they saw with their relief the moment they arrive for their shift change." Kiara shook her head as she fought a laugh as Kallus steered her toward the lift to head back to the barracks.

"Not if they value their-"

"The lower ranks may act all penitent to your face, but we all take great pleasure in sharing the kind of gossip that was just handed to those troopers tonight. It's one of the few bits of entertainment that there is around here."

"We?" Kallus snickered. "So, you gossip along with the rabble, do you?"

"Hey, I've gotten some of the most interesting information that I could possibly get from the rabble."

Kallus was going to retort back only to be cut short when the lift opened to reveal Lieutenant Lyste inside. He was working as the Supply Master, which meant that he worked his share of the night shift. Great. Kallus and Valour had no choice but to board the lift and try to ignore the looks that Lyste gave the two of them. Likely the same ones that the troopers down at the motor pool had given them behind their helmets. To his credit, the lieutenant held his tongue and did his best to hide his curiosity.

When the lift reached the level that Valour's quarters were on, she left the two men without looking back. That was the last time that Kallus saw her before she was transferred to the mysterious and secretive project. In the meantime, Kallus devoted his time to trying to do his best to keep an ear to the ground for any information that would benefit Phoenix Squadron. Though he did keep Valour's advice in mind and worked to separate the information that was vital versus that which would just be nice to have.