Chapter Eleven

The search ultimately took until the first day of the sixth month of the year, before her navigations officer at last informed her that they had picked up a remote imperial starship signal, located in sector I-12 near the corner where it met H-11. A nameless world with a Type I breathable atmosphere, it was nowhere near the coldest planet that was to be found in the Inner Rim, but as they scanned the planet, N'Lola would have put it in the top thirty percentile area.

"Ma'am, we have located Admiral Tavares' patrol fleet," her navigations officer said, "The planet is unnamed and previously uncharted; present surface temperature is twenty-seven degrees Fahrenheit."

"What is the condition of the admiral's fleet?"

"All fifty-two ships are accounted-for, Ma'am," replied the navigations officer.

"On-screen," she instructed, and a moment later, she could see the ships had landed in a neat arrangement of ships, as if the entire fleet had landed in formation. The fleet's flagship, a Venator-class star destroyer, was positioned in the centre of the rest: ten Raider-class corvettes, ten Vigil-class corvettes, eight Lancer-class frigates, eight Imperial II-class frigates, five Broadside-class cruisers, five Gladiator-class star destroyers, three Pelta-class hospital frigates, and two Victory II-class star destroyers. It accounted for just under three hundred seventy-five thousand imperial naval personnel, though admittedly the reason for the manhunt was perhaps, more truthfully, a result of the fact the admiral's family was important to the Empire. Aristocratic loyalists possessed of both wealth and power, having a considerable influence on the society on their planet's population of approximately two billion people, their requests were hard for Imperial Naval Command to refuse. So when they had requested a position of admiralty for their young son, primarily for the prestige of having an imperial admiral in the family and for their son's prestige of being able to claim he had been an imperial admiral? It proved almost inconceivable for Imperial Naval Command to do anything except to nod their collective heads and grant what had been requested; since nobody had insisted his flagship be a star dreadnought, Admiral Tavares' fleet included no such investment.

"I didn't know the Victory II had landing gear," she observed, tilting her head slightly, as she examined the landed fleet on-screen, "I guess the good admiral received preferential treatment commensurate with the family coffers with regards to the personalization of his fleet."

"Speaking of, Admiral," said Aerla, "Admiral Tavares has noticed our arrival. We are being hailed."

"Right on cue," she observed quietly, "On-screen." Aerla nodded her head in answer, and a moment later the image of the young admiral standing in his ready-room became visible. He was about the same age as her, at twenty-two years old, and he possessed a certain comeliness in his aesthetic form; indeed, she found him pleasant to look at, regardless of where his allegiances might have been. He had shiny hair of true-black colour and shoulder-length, with a braid on each side of his head and a third in the back, narrow and precise, though most of his hair was free flowing, the braids notwithstanding. His eyes were of a lovely shade of medium teal blue, with a somewhat sparkly aspect that furthered the pleasantness of his overall appearance, set against skin of a pale apricot colouration. He looked entirely out-of-place in his admiral's uniform: not that he was unattractive in it, indeed quite the contrary, but it still looked as if he should have been wearing raiment brighter and perhaps a little bit more colourful. Dellus Tavares was what she would have estimated at five feet and seven inches in height and one hundred thirty pounds; not an especially tall man, indeed more than slightly noticeably shorter than most men, she thought he looked somewhat slightly underfed, too.

"Hello, my name is… oh, my! You're Admiral Vurkoth," he began before his mind registered enough about her to realize who he was addressing, "I am Dellus Tavares, Admiral of Patrol Fleet 113."

"As I had surmised," she nodded, "How do you come to be landed on such a snowy world?"

"Admiral, scans indicate that while the ships are largely intact, sensors reveal evidence of internal explosive detonations," interjected one member of her bridge crew as the scans completed.

"Ah, yes," the admiral on the ground replied to that officer's report, "The fleet was infiltrated by a fair number of rebel saboteurs. I cannot be certain of how many saboteurs, but their coordination and numbers were sufficient that we were unaware of their presence until they struck. Precisely positioned ordinance rendered each ship's long-range communications centre inoperable, along with both of each vessel's hyperdrives, stranding us in deep space. The rebel infiltrators also assassinated every member of the engineering crew on each ship, both actively on-deck and those who were off-duty, rendering the damage inflicted to our engines and communications irreparable. I ordered combat and transport pilots to take the shuttles and starfighters to attempt to tow our ships to imperial space, and I… greatly regret that choice. Their hyperdrives burnt out rapidly from the strain, pulling us only far enough to come within a hundred thousand kilometres of this planet, and they exploded, killing each one's pilot in the process. The rebel operation was responsible for the deaths of a few thousand men, and they have not returned. Thankfully, this icy planet is rich in life even in winter, and the speeders remained operational, allowing us to supplement our food stores with both freshwater and fish from a nearby lake of rather remarkable size," Admiral Tavares said at length.

"Fortunately, our entry into the atmosphere was smooth and so was the landing, so our bacta supplies are still fairly high. There were several injuries when the fleet fell out of hyperspace when they destroyed our hyperdrives and a few of the men contracted pneumonia in the cold of this planet's winter, but everyone is healthy again now. I'm glad I demanded landing gear on all ships, including the Victory II's," Dellus continued, "It would have been exceedingly difficult to keep them supplied with food while in orbit or supplied with power to remain floating in the atmosphere."

"How did you come to be passing through this part of the Inner Rim, Admiral? This section doesn't have any occupied worlds that are recorded on any maps and none that are the concern of the imperial admiralty," N'Lola went on, and Dellus shifted as if with a faint hint of unease.

"Ah, yes, that I would like to discuss in a more private venue. Can you send a shuttle to bring me up to your flagship, Admiral?"

"I will do that immediately. Aerla, transmit instructions to Caradoc Murrow and Luan Corr to escort Admiral Tavares safely aboard-ship," N'Lola replied, and Aerla immediately began running her fingers across the touchscreen.

"I shall wait the arrival of your men, Admiral," replied the young admiral, before terminating the channel. In less than an hour, Admiral Tavares stood in N'Lola's ready-room, looking out the window of transparisteel, gazing at the planet below.

"Thank you for your… discretion, Admiral," said Dellus, as he considered how to broach the answer to what she had asked prior, "My fleet was assigned to the simple but worthy task of patrolling the Inner Rim, much like yours. However, admittedly, this was… well, slightly boring to me, and I decided to take a brief detour to a planet in the Mid Rim, though… that planet is quite a bit distant from the Inner Rim."

"Do you have a contact on this world?"

"Ah, contact is… not so much the word I would use to describe him so much as the word I would choose to describe what we'd be doing," he replied, and she sensed a flush of embarrassment that suggested he was most likely blushing, the embarrassment mingled with a touch of fear. She could sense that the embarrassment and fear both had the same point of origin: for whatever reason, he was embarrassed by this admission, and he was frightened that her reaction might have included an expression of disapproval or worse yet, disgust. Her eyebrows furrowed while Dellus spoke, until the last part, which caused her to blink with the sudden realization of why his ships had set such a course.

"… oh, my," she replied simply, taking a moment to recover her bearings from the surprising revelation he'd just offered her, "I see. I take it your family would… politely disapprove of such a connection with another man?"

"Far more than disapprove, and with nothing courteous about it," he replied, "As much because of my lover's gender as because of his species."

"Your lover, he is…"

"From Iridonia," supplied Dellus.

"A Zabrak," she said, and his nod confirmed her understanding as correct.

"We had arranged to meet on the planet Korbin, a fairly neutral world of only a million residents, so no one local would know about our meeting. My crew would believe I was only meeting with a cultivated intelligence asset," he continued, "May I confide something in you, off the record?" N'Lola nodded in answer.

"You may speak freely, Admiral. This room is not monitored. I ordered all such devices purged from every ship in my fleet; Imperial Naval Command will hear nothing of our conversations."

"I… do not share my family's convictions or philosophies, as you have no doubt guessed, nor do I share their lack of sympathies. I do not hold the rebel saboteurs responsible for their actions nor accountable for the war at large; the Empire is a thing of evil and malice," Dellus said quietly, "And I would not have my lover know that I was delayed because of rebel actions, for I would not wish him to think unkindly of their Alliance, either. However, I receive from my family an annual stipend of one and three-quarter million credits, and I have a minor task I would like to ask you to perform for me. If you could locate my lover and tell him my fleet has had an unfortunate engineering complication, due to the ongoing civil war raging across most of the galaxy, and that I am therefore considerably delayed, I would happily transfer my annual stipend this year to your personal coffers."

"I would be happy to deliver such a message for you, though perhaps better yet we can see to it that you can explain it to him yourself, through your own words and methods. My fleet has an abundance of engineering supplies, and an abundance of engineers: it might be quicker to repair your fleet, so that you could then proceed to Iridonia and contact him directly," she replied.

"That would… that would be wonderful, my Lady," said Dellus in answer, finally turning to her with a bright smile and cheeks coloured with the warmth of a blush, "Please, allow me to reward your kindness, I will transfer the funds to your account at once."

"Actually, Admiral," she interjected, "There is something else I might better benefit from."

"Name it, and if it is in my power, I will see to it that you have it."

"As you may have noticed, there are no hospital ships in my fleet, and the Pelta-class medical frigate is quite a lovely vessel," N'Lola began, moving to stand beside him, looking out the window herself, though his back was to it at the moment, "I wonder, how much would they cost for a wealthy imperial admiral?"

"I paid for all three of the ones in my fleet, personally, with less than two years' stipend; Kuat provides them at-cost, exclusively for use in the Empire's naval fleets. I can purchase them personally, as an Imperial Admiral, and I can have them delivered into the possession of someone other than myself, if that person should be either captain or admiral in rank; each ship costs eight hundred thousand credits, nine hundred thousand if modified with any particular specifications. I would like to provide you with two such vessels, just tell me what special requirements you have for them and where you want them to be waiting for you."

"Each one must have a Class 1.0 primary hyperdrive, Class 2.0 secondary hyperdrive. It should also be scaled up in size to allow for the accommodation of two thousand additional patients at any given time as well as one thousand additional permanent passengers," N'Lola said in response, and Dellus nodded promptly as he took a seat at her desk and tapped a few keys, bringing up a vertical display monitor.

"That will be simple enough; the Pelta-class hospital ship can already take care of five thousand patients at one time, increasing that number to seven thousand will not be terribly difficult. The additional permanent quarters, I suspect, will also not be troublesome for Kuat Drive Yards in terms of fabrication difficulties; I can sense that you are not done, though."

"You are correct in that regard. I would like to replace each ship's light laser and turbolaser batteries replaced with a suitable distribution of quad turbolaser cannons: four port, four starboard, twelve dorsal, and twelve ventral, as well as two at the stem and two at the stern," she continued with a nod.

"All right, done," replied Dellus, "Where do you want them to be delivered to wait for you?"

"Have the ships carried to a high orbit over the planet Walalla," she replied, and Dellus nodded in response.

"They will arrive in the Walalla system in the first week of the eighth month. This should give you time to collect the personnel you need to crew your new core vessels," he replied, then stood and touched a few more buttons on the touchscreen, causing the monitor to slide back down into the desk and vanish, "Thank you, again. This whole situation could have been far more humiliating. If I might impress up on you for one additional favour, my Lady, there is one more small concern I would like your assistance with."

"I would say it depends on how small a favour you are asking, but I am absolutely in a listening mood."

"Well, you see, it would be quite embarrassing for not only myself but my captains, and all of the men under my command, should Imperial Naval Command hear that we were disabled by rebel saboteurs without even achieving anything. In the last few weeks," said Dellus, "I have spoken with my captains, who in turn have all spoken with their commanders and their lieutenants, and the men throughout my fleet are in unanimous agreement that it would be nice to save face, a little."

"I can certainly agree with that. Have you and your men considered what kind of story you would want given to Imperial Naval Command?"

"As you were sent to locate us, when you report that you found us, you will doubtless be asked to give details as to the reason for our unexplained absence. The men and I would be greatly appreciative," answered Dellus, "if you could include in your report that in the course of your search for us, you discovered a few battlefields with debris from pirate vessels bearing our weapons signatures."

"So the fleet's cover is that you delved deep into the uncharted sector of the Inner Rim hunting pirate havens, while en route to a meeting with an intelligence asset on a planet in the galactic south of the rim," N'Lola confirmed, and he nodded firmly.

"Yes, that. It will be nothing that anyone will refute; if we claim that we encountered and destroyed Alliance bases, the rebels would obviously refute that and call the entire story into question, either now or after the war if rebel forces should win the war," replied Dellus.

"Whereas nobody'll miss pirates," N'Lola followed, and Dellus nodded enthusiastically once more.

"I can do that," she replied, before moving to her desk and touching a few buttons on the touchscreen, "Aerla, please order the immediate mobilization of the fleet's off-duty engineers and instruct them to take engineering supplies down to Admiral Tavares' fleet. They are to repair each ship's main and secondary hyperdrives, and communications arrays."

"Understood, Admiral; transmitting deployment orders now."

"We will remain in orbit overhead while my engineers restore your fleet to proper working order, it wouldn't do for your fleet to be attacked while on the ground by pirates. Might prove problematic for your cover story, Admiral," she said, and Dellus offered a faintly sheepish grin in answer. Once Dellus departed to return to his ship, she took her seat and brought the monitor up once more, sending a long-range communications hail to Imperial Naval Command. It took a few minutes before the channel was opened, and resulting in a direct communication with the Admiral Llon Banjeer, a square-haired man with whom she hadn't spoken before. She recognized him by his appearance, however, having perused imperial naval databanks extensively: it was best to know one's enemies, after all.

A man with light, reddish-blond hair cropped flat at the top and trimmed across the back and sides, it produced a squarish look to the top of his head. He had eyes of a sort of yellow-green set against a light, untanned complexion, standing at what his naval personnel file defined as less than one half of one tenth of a centimetre below one hundred eighty-eight centimetres and just slightly above ninety-seven and a half kilograms. Dressed in a typical naval uniform, he regarded her with one pencil-thin eyebrow raised disdainfully in her direction from the moment he saw the woman of an apparent eighteen years old, though she was in truth nearer to twenty-three.

"Ah, yes. Admiral Vurkoth," he said in a contemptuous voice, his articulation of her rank dripping with icy, venomous derision, "What do you want?" Even across the vastness of space, now electronically face-to-face with him, she could sense the intensity of his human chauvinism and the abhorrence he felt at having a nonhuman commanding an imperial fleet. He did not attempt to hide his sentiments, either, though given the humanocentrism and xenophobia of Sheev Palpatine's Empire, she could hardly describe that as anything other than wholly expected.

"I received orders from Imperial Naval Command to participate in the search for the missing Admiral Dellus Tavares. The Admiral has been found. His Fleet was assaulted by rebel scum whose saboteurs disabled them in the uncharted zone as the admiral was undertaking the noble and virtuous task of hunting and eliminating pirate havens. The Admiral was able to rally his fleet to a nearby world with a 'Type I' breathable atmosphere and await rescue. The trail of pirate debris he left produced an easy trail to follow, once we were able to locate part of it. The Admiral may bring you up to speed once his ship's long-range communications centre has been properly repaired." As she spoke, she noted a blinking blue light on the wall opposite her desk, visible over the top of the upraised monitor screen, and casually moved one hand to touch the button on the touchscreen that granted entry. This was followed by a faint whir as the doors opened and the young Admiral Tavares returned, for some reason outside of her knowledge. However, it was obvious that she was speaking with someone, and he remained out of sight of that individual, listening closely.

"Hnn," replied Admiral Banjeer disdainfully, "Well, it certainly took you long enough to locate the admiral's fleet, but I suppose this is what we must tolerate when allowing a fleet to be in the command of a juvenile female of… whatever it is you are. Still, you have managed against all odds to successfully locate and assist a human admiral… although I am quite certain had we a human admiral in the Inner Rim performing the search, he would have found the Admiral far sooner than you did." N'Lola breathed deeply as he berated and demeaned her, air passing into her lungs and back out again in a smooth cycle, and her facial features remained unmoved and tranquil. This seemed to aggravate the xenophobic, middle-aged admiral, insofar as that he was unsuccessful in his attempt to provoke a rise out of her, his best attempts notwithstanding.

"Your assessment may or may not be accurate, Admiral, but we shall never know for certain. We must simply be thankful that Admiral Tavares has been located alive and unharmed, with a fleet that remains largely operational, aside from damaged engines and communications arrays." Llon Banjeer's slim left eyebrow twitched in irritation, as the young Bpfassh took his disrespectful comments in stride without so much as a twitch of her eyebrows at the words, and his jaw set as the agitation ground against him.

"Indeed," he replied, "Perhaps next time an Admiral turns up missing I will be able to convince the command to send a real admiral, and not some inept alien child."

"I shall pray that you are successful in that, Admiral, the next time an imperial fleet inexplicably disappears," she replied coolly, her tone tranquil and courteous. She could sense his anger bubbling inside of him, infuriated as his attempts to provoke her into an inappropriate verbal confrontation. However, she also knew the entire conversation in progress was being recorded, and the serenity she expressed would serve her well – and would damage Banjeer, at the same time. As Llon's eyebrow twitched anew, her facial features continued to demonstrate only a placid mood.

"Good," said Admiral Banjeer, his tone of voice remaining snide, "if there is nothing further for you to report, however, my time is extremely important and I have none remaining available to speak with an inexperienced child." He did not delay long enough to allow her a response, immediately terminating the channel as soon as he was finished speaking, and N'Lola touched the button on the touchscreen that triggered the monitor to disappearing into the desktop.

"Would you like me to have him eliminated? My family is quite wealthy enough to have him removed from the admiralty," Dellus offered, "Or assassinated."

"No, thank you, that's all right. Foolish, conceited discriminators like him are regularly the architects of their own downfall, the victims of their own pride," she replied, "although, I appreciate your offer and the sentiments behind it. However, you are not psychic, so I must conclude the reason for your return was not that you sensed the conceit of Llon Banjeer." Dellus chuckled and shook his head a little in answer.

"No, I realized that you have been more than forthcoming, and as I was walking toward the lift, I realized… I should like to invite you to join me for dinner aboard my ship, the Dominus," he said.

"The Dominus?" asked N'Lola inquisitively, to which Dellus offered a somewhat sheepish smile.

"Yeah, Taylen found the irony hilarious, too."

"I would be delighted to join you," she said, sensing nothing but warmth and friendliness from him.

"Fantastic," he replied enthusiastically, and returned to the hangar to wait for her arrival. Once she returned, accompanied by Nuav and Xuax, the four of them reentered the atmosphere of the nameless, glacial planet, to board the Dominus for a few hours.

The repairs, themselves, proved to take until the seventh day of the seventh month of the year, before Dellus bade a warm farewell to N'Lola and her ships. They proceeded to enter hyperspace headed in the direction regarded as galactic north, so that Dellus could meet up with his Iridonian Zabrak lover, Taylen. Meanwhile, they proceeded to the Walalla system immediately, and her fleet was present when the specialized Pelta-class frigates arrived. N'Lola was amused, when she saw that their names had been marked as the Saviour, and the Deliverance, but she was prompt in putting Nuav and Xuax in temporary command of the two ships. She likewise temporarily reassigned one thousand people to each ship to provide it operating capacity, and then the two Lieutenant Commanders left on their assignment to fill in the new ships according to her specifications. Meanwhile, N'Lola continued a slow, casual patrol around the portion of the Inner Rim regarded as the galactic southern curve of the region.

When the Saviour and the Deliverance returned to the fleet at the beginning of the second full year after the Battle of Yavin, her mentors confirmed a full crew aboard each. Each ship now housed seven hundred Iktotchi Force Healers, thirty-six Twi'lek communications officers and thirty-six Twi'lek gunners, and one hundred and twenty-eight humans, protected by one thousand three hundred security personnel. The security personnel aboard each ship, as per N'Lola's instructions, consisted of six hundred and fifty Barabel, and six hundred and fifty Annoo-dat Primes, of high combat expertise. Her fleet now expanded to twenty-five ships, N'Lola continued her patrol of the Inner Rim, moving from Vaklin to Affa, then from Affa to Denon, then from Denon to Manaan, maintaining the peace as best she could.