"General," the holographic image of Count Dooku said. "Is the invasion of Dracoria complete?"

"Yes, Count," Grievous replied. He was now on the bridge of his command ship, speaking to Dooku at the forward command bridge's holocom projector. "We have seized the city of Iskra, and the droid regiments are now moving to the other cities. It is only a matter of time before the entire planet is within our grasp."

"And what of the Mortax mercenaries?"

"Dead," said Grievous. "They are all taken care of, my lord."

"Excellent," said Dooku. "And, General, may I ask...who is that young girl standing beside you?"

Grievous turned to Dymir, who simply gazed silently back at him. "This is Dymir Tirall," he told Dooku. "She is the daughter of Koorvan Tirall, one of the members of the Izvoshra."

"Your old elite back on Kalee?" asked Dooku with a slight tone of surprise.

"Yes," answered Grievous.

"How can you be sure?" asked Dooku.

"She says she is half Kaleesh," said Grievous, "and her sharp teeth are certainly not Sha'Koran like the rest of her. And she is wearing Kaleesh battle-dress. And she has Koorvan's lightsaber."

"Even if this is true," said Dooku, "of what value is the girl to us?"

"Her lightsaber skills are extraordinary," Grievous replied, to which Dymir gave a half-smile. "A bit unrefined, but extraordinary. I truly think she has great potential to join the Separatists."

Dooku looked Dymir over for a few seconds before he looked back to Grievous and said, "You wish to take her on, then."

"Yes," said Grievous. "I do."

"Your timing is impeccable then, General," said Dooku. "I have another task for you to test the girl's abilities. There is an old Republic weapons manufacturing plant on Vulpter." Here he transmitted an image of an enormous building on the holocom. It was a plain-looking building with a solitary window on the top at the front. "We have managed to track a Republic spy to this location. He is in hiding there, and we believe he plans on transmitting some sort of secret data to the Republic. The nature of this data is unknown, but any help for the Republic is a threat to the Separatists."

"Is the building well-guarded?" asked Grievous.

"Only by a few clones," said Dooku. "Fifty to a hundred at most. The manufacturing plant seems to have not been operational for some time. We think they may have transferred their weapons manufacturing operation to a more suitable location."

"If they are no longer manufacturing weapons, why would they go to all this trouble to guard the old building?" asked Grievous.

"Possibly to guard their spy," answered Dooku. "He may be using the facility as a hideout. What we need you to do is to find out what he is doing there and stop him."

"Can you give us any background information on this spy?" asked Dymir, who up to this point had not spoken.

Grievous looked at her, impressed. She's got initiative, he thought. That's good.

Dooku seemed to be thinking the same thing, for a small flicker of a smile showed on his face. "His name is Gatlen Charr," he answered, and he put on the holocom an image of a Quarren man dressed in gray armor and carrying a light assault rifle. "He's said to have numerous contacts throughout the galaxy. He is armed and extremely dangerous. And I should probably mention, General, that Charr has allegedly, on occasion, collaborated with the Yam'rii...or Huk, as your people call them."

Grievous could almost hear the savage, ear-piercing cry of the Huk as a new anger rose within him. How anyone could aid those soulless bugs was beyond him. He was now absolutely determined to find this spy and make him pay for aiding his mortal enemy. "We will find him and deal with him, my lord," he replied. "And he will pay dearly for aiding the Republic and the Huk!"

"Very good, General," said Dooku. "And child," he addressed Dymir, "Are you sure you are up to the task? It will not be an easy one, I assure you."

"That's good," Dymir answered matter-of-factly. "I like a good challenge. But seriously, it's nothing I can't handle."

She's got guts and initiative, Grievous thought. I think we're going to get on just fine.

"Very well," said Dooku. "You have your orders." And the holographic image faded away.

Grievous turned to the droid at the front of the bridge. "Set your course for the Vulpter system," he commanded.

"Yes, sir," the droid replied, and pressing a few buttons and pushing a lever, it started the flagship on course for Vulpter.

Grievous then turned to Dymir. "It will take us a long time to reach the Vulpter system," he told her. "It is halfway across the galaxy from here. In the meantime, follow me to my quarters. We will look in my database for more information on this spy." He then led Dymir off the command bridge and down a hallway to their right. At the end of the hallway was an elevator, and Grievous pressed a few buttons to activate it. They waited in silence, for neither of them knew what to say. Strange, Grievous thought. If some Jedi scum were in front of me right now, I would have the perfect comeback for him. I would know exactly what to say. But put me with a little girl-Koorvan's daughter, no less-and I'm speechless! He knew that in order to help Dymir become a more powerful ally for the Separatists, he'd have to get to know her more, both as a fighter and as a person. And to make things more difficult, if he was to eventually be her master, she would have to get to know him, too. And it wouldn't be easy with all that he'd been through in the past. All those memories...would it be too much?

And then there was this new enemy, Gatlen Charr. Why hadn't Dooku told Grievous about this spy before? Had he been waiting for the "perfect time" to tell him? And if so, what was so special about now that he could finally tell him? He had a feeling that there was more to this mission than Dooku was letting on. All the same, Grievous intended to carry out his master's orders and find out what this spy was planning.

The elevator door opened, and they stepped in. Grievous pressed some of the lit-up buttons to select the floor number, and the doors closed again. The elevator ascended. Grievous was somewhat relieved when Dymir finally broke the silence. "So," she said, "did you mean what you said back there?"

Grievous looked at her, confused. "What?"

"Did you mean what you said on the bridge?" she repeated. "About how my skills were...'extraordinary'?" She didn't look as if she were bragging; she looked simply as if she truly wanted to know what her master meant.

"Yes, I meant it," Grievous replied. "But don't let it get to your head, little one. You still need to perfect your technique."

Dymir nodded. "And you...you'll help me to do that, won't you?" she asked in a quiet, almost timid voice.

Grievous could only stare at her in disbelief. A girl with such skills as hers, who had been through war and abandonment, who had managed to survive on her own, toughened by the lessons she'd learned so young...was shy? He supposed that many children at her age were like that sometimes, but still, that could be a problem. "That depends on you," he replied.

"What do you mean?" asked Dymir.

"I mean whether or not you can complete this mission," Grievous answered. "If you succeed, I will be very impressed and, yes, I will help you with your lightsaber skills."

Dymir's eyes glimmered with what Grievous recognized as hope. "Do you mean it?" she asked.

"Yes..." Grievous couldn't quite understand the girl's enthusiasm. He could understand her wanting to help the Separatists. But what was it about him in particular that she so badly wanted to learn from him? He supposed he would find out soon enough, but he didn't know how he felt about that.

The door opened, and the general stepped into his quarters with Dymir following closely behind. Oddly enough, it was a rather empty room, save for a large table in the middle of the room and two chairs, one on each opposite side. There were some control panels and terminals lining the left wall, and at the back wall was a long row of lightsabers, lined up as if they were on display. These were the lightsabers that Grievous had collected over the years from the Jedi he'd defeated. Grievous could tell that Dymir was impressed with this collection of trophies, for her eyes were wide as she looked at them all lined up on the wall.

He walked over to one of the consoles on the left wall and pulled up a holographic image of Gatlen Charr. Beside the picture was some text describing Charr and his affiliations.

"It's true, then," said Grievous aloud to himself as he read the text. "It is just as Dooku said. Charr has collaborated with the Huk during and even after the war."

"But why would he do that?" asked Dymir. "He's a spy. Did he just do odd jobs for them, like reconnaissance missions or something, for some money?"

"I suppose," said Grievous. "But whatever aid he gave to the Huk is a detriment to the Kaleesh...my people. And he will pay dearly for that!"

Dymir nodded. "Does it say how long he's been working for the Republic?"

"This profile says five years," Grievous replied, "but it could have been longer depending on when this was last updated."

"Does he have any other known affiliations?" asked Dymir.

Grievous scrolled through the profile, which was quite detailed. He stopped at the section marked "affiliations" and began reading carefully. Charr has been known to collaborate with the Yam'rii, the marked enemy of the Kalee system and of the Separatists. Separatist spies have also recently witnessed him colluding (for reasons unknown) with a Kaleesh male of unknown identity. He stopped.

This Kaleesh male...could it be Eshaal? Was the man who had betrayed Grievous and killed Koorvan back from hiding to take revenge of him?

"What is it?" asked Dymir. "You got so quiet all of a sudden."

Grievous turned to Dymir, at a loss for words. How was he going to explain this to her? Did she even know how her father had died? "One of Charr's associates...is Kaleesh?"

"Kaleesh?" asked Dymir in surprise. "Why would a Kaleesh be aiding the Republic?"

"I don't know," Grievous replied.

Dymir paused for a moment, glancing again at the array of lightsabers on the back wall. Then she sat down at the table across from Grievous and asked, "General...could you tell me about my father?"

Grievous was unsure where to begin. "Well," he said, "I've known your father since before you were born. We trained together on Kalee, in combat mostly. But we also exchanged military tactics." He paused for a moment and looked at Dymir. Her eyes were glowing at the idea of knowing more about her father. He guessed that she wanted to learn more about him in order to emulate him. What was that she had said before? I will continue his legacy. He liked the immense amount of respect she had for Koorvan. "He was a very wise man, your father," he continued. "Very strong. And brave."

"They said-" Dymir said, but she hesitated.

"What is it?" Grievous asked her.

"They...the warriors," Dymir said. "The ones who trained me, I mean...they said my father died in a shuttle crash. Is that true?"

Grievous sat there for a moment, debating what he ought to tell her. He knew she could handle the truth, and he believed firmly that she deserved the truth. So that was what he told her. "No," answered. "It is true that most of the Izvoshra died in a shuttle crash-I myself almost did, too. But know, your father died months before that."

"What do you mean?" asked Dymir. She was beginning to look a little scared.

The sound of Eshaal's rifle firing echoed painfully through Grievous's mind. He tried to get rid of the horrible image of his friend's death, but he could not. Finally, he told Dymir the horrible truth, each word more painful than the last: "He...Koorvan...your father was murdered."

Dymir just sat there for a moment, mouth gaping and eyes wide. "Who..." she said in a quiet, distant voice, "who could have done such a thing?"

Grievous hesitated before telling her, "His name was Eshaal. Laigan Eshaal."

"So you're telling me," said Dymir, "that my father was shot and killed by one of his own allies?"

"Sadly, yes," said Grievous.

Dymir just sat there with a pained expression on her face, trying to take it all in. Then her eyes widened as she said, "You-you don't think this Eshaal is the one aiding the spy we're looking for, do you?"

"It's possible, but very unlikely," said Grievous. "Eshaal has been in hiding for five years. I can think of no possible reason why he would come back now. All the same, we must be cautious and keep our eyes open."

Dymir nodded. "What could they possibly be up to?" she asked. "What could they be planning?"

"That's what we're going to find out," Grievous replied, "when we land on Vulpter."

At that moment the doors opened and a droid walked in. "Sir," it said. "We have reached the Vulpter system."

"Excellent," said Grievous. "Prepare my shuttle for our landing."

"Yes, sir," said the droid, and it walked out of the room.

"Are you ready?" Grievous asked Dymir.

"Of course," said Dymir.

"I'm serious, Dymir," said Grievous. "You must be prepared and ready for anything."

"I'm sure I can handle it," she said. "Especially since you'll be there to help me. You're pretty much unstoppable."

I like this girl, Grievous thought. "Very well, then," he said. "Let's go."