"The man who can keep a secret may be wise, but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep."

-Edgar Watson Howe

Another boring day onboard the Malevolence, well, boring to the crew. The General seemed to be the only one who didn't seem to be too bored. In fact, for nearly two weeks since the recapturing of the dangerous prisoner, the General had been spending a lot of time with the prisoner. Some of the technicians had overheard the General and the prisoner walking through the halls of the ship just talking. Their conversations were mostly on the same subject; the prisoner's home planet or something like that, the technicians feared to have the General catch them overhearing and tear their heads off so they would always pretend to be focusing on their work but they would secretly overhear.

The two walked through the hall. It was kinda questionable to see the prisoner without a prison uniform on and not being restrained in chains; did the General have that much faith in the prisoner? Especially since this prisoner had escaped from them not a month and a half ago, why was the General putting so much trust in her now? Questioning this to him would only ignite his anger; a personality trait he was well-known for. He was a feared and ruthless General before she ever came around; don't take it wrong, he still was ruthless on the battlefield and he was a good military commander but lately his disposition had been making some changes. He was still cruel and harsh towards the crew but he was never this way to the prisoner; this was rather aggravating for them since how was it fair that they got his cruelty and yet she received none? Perhaps it was cause she was a woman, but that contradicted all the times he tortured her himself, why was he treating her better now? Rumors began to circulate that there was some kind of affair going on between the prisoner and the captain. They couldn't exactly talk about this out loud; they didn't want the General to overhear…

Rumors were the only form of news they could get these days. There had been some rumors circulating that the Republic was ready to throw in the towel despite all the talk of their refusal to back down and defend more star systems from leaving their republic and joining the confederation. Other rumors around the ship circulated that there would be a major assault on a planet with practically the entire fleet but when and where was still under wraps.

That's the thing about rumors; you never can tell whether they're true or false.

But they never seemed to bother the General and his lovely prisoner. Occasionally he would have to leave on transport ships to assist other military commanders in battle, leaving her to just hang around the ship. What she did with her spare time was not exactly something they wanted to know. She occasionally came around to check on their progress and see how they did their jobs on the ship. They usually tried not to look at her as she walked down the walkways, but they would be lying if they didn't admit she was rather pretty. Her walking alone were the only times the technicians would call out compliments to her; doing so while she was with the General would mean a laser sword going down on them. They couldn't imagine how painful that could be…

Today, the General had a video conference to attend, the prisoner walked to the engine room. She spent a lot of time there, so they noticed, she hung out there so much, she practically had created a little designated seating area for her to sit near the engines as they turned and gave a musical sound. They had worked near it all the time; they never really found the sound as interesting as she did. In fact, they never really knew her name; they always referred to her as "Ma'am" or "miss prisoner" sure, they saw her walking around every day but did they bother to ask her name? Of course not! They weren't paid to talk to people; to be more precise, they weren't exactly paid at all…

Two technicians were working suspended above where the prisoner's usual sitting era was, they had strong cable that held on while they would lower themselves down to grab garter after garter for the construction workers above to take and to repair the battle damages from every space battle the Malevolence encountered. They had no names, just numbers. The need for names on the ship was irrelevant. As crewmates, it didn't matter who they were; even if they had names, names would occasionally be the same as someone else which would leave to a big confusion. The one who was usually on the left who had a missing middle finger on his right hand was OH 1275; the other who was usually on the right carrying garters along with the other had a damaged left 'eye' and a faded red line that went down its left arm, this was RLY 2470. They worked hard, despite their poor working conditions; they figured it was better than fighting on the front; since nobody programmed them with how to fight anyway…

Well, today was like the others before it since they came off the factory floor and were put on the ship, the two would clip themselves to suspended lines so they would hoist heavy garters up so technicians would be able to take them and bolt them to the ship to fix the inside of the ship after battle. But today was something different, as they were taking up a heavy garter, OH, looked over and saw the General but with the female prisoner. From where they were walking, they appeared to be walking into a dead end below them but not directly above them.

"Hey, 2470; look over there." He indicated to his work partner. RLY turned and saw what he was hinting at. They stared at the two moved away from the main corridor and quietly go into the dead end close to where they were below them. It was dark but from the light behind them, they could see their silhouettes. They couldn't really hear what they were saying but whatever it was; they could see some small pink illuminate from the female prisoner's face.

"What are they doing?" RLY whispered quizzically.

"I don't know; I can't hear them." OH replied quietly. Then they saw something that really surprised them; they saw the General lean his head forward to the prisoner as their heads seemed to be connected in the shadows. The two stared until it finally hit them.

"A-are they….kissing?" RLY asked almost panicky if they should be up here.

"I- I think they are…but…but why? I thought she was a prisoner?" OH replied just as confused.

Suddenly, the garter they had in their hands slipped as it fell and landed with a loud clang close to where the General and the prisoner were standing. Smartly, RLY and OH quickly slid down their suspension wires to the ground, out of sight from the General as they quickly hid behind a control panel. The General's voice could be heard and they could tell; he was pissed.

"You two!" He yelled; they felt like their wires froze. "this is the SECOND time worthless robots attempted to drop a garter on my head!" the two hidden duo looked up from where they were hiding and they saw two concerned technician droids on the catwalk above them that were supposed to take the garter from them. The General must have mistaken them for dropping the garter. Then the sounds of laser fire echoed all throughout the engine and beyond the corridors. A fellow droid's head landed near them as they resisted the urge to scream out in surprise.

"All of you! Get back to work!" Grievous yelled; nobody needed telling twice as the sound of shuffling feet and tinkering continued. OH carefully looked out and saw Grievous and the prisoner walking back the way they came; OH moved his head back once he saw they had turned and went down the corridor.

"They're gone…" OH said. RLY gave out a cybernetic sigh of relief.

"That could've been us if we didn't move away in time…"RLY said. They duo remained sitting there contemplating what they saw. Even they couldn't understand it: General Grievous, the most feared military commander in the galaxy, was kissing the prisoner. They didn't even think that was possible. They knew one thing; if they told anyone what they saw, it would obviously reach Grievous and he would no doubt destroy them until there were no pieces left. They made a compromise to keep it between themselves; they took a wielding tool that had abandoned and they carved an X on both sides of their left hands to remind them to keep their silence.

"We keep this promise or else we die on the spot." OH said.

"And we curse ourselves for even learning this secret so we must honor our creations by keeping it." RLY finished. With the pledge, they shook hands with their marked hands to seal the oath of silence. OH and RLY stood up and returned to their worked, plagued with now witnessing something they should not have seen…

That's the things about rumours; you can never be sure whether they're true or not..