Adrian rocked gently in his expensive and engraved, flamboyant desk chair. His office aboard the ship being usually reserved for private affairs, but now it housed himself, his brother, his first mate and his xeno advisor.
"Speak Savora..." he said, still frustrated over the recent events. "What have you pried from that lord you danced with?" he asked her.
"Well, Lord Adrian." She began elegantly. "He told me that a noble named Rydan, who is old and heirless, is in possession of three void ships which belonged to a rogue trader..." she proceeded to explain her findings to him.
"I see... any additional info and your take on it?" he asked her, carefully assessing the situation.
"Well... I have also learned that Lord Edward has a small forge district under his command. A chem plant to be specific... His wife has expressed interest in my makeup and so have other ladies." she said and Adrian's interest peaked. A lesser man would have said 'so what?' but he knew where she was going. "so... I was thinking, allow me half a day to synthesize a recipe with the aid of Damien and we can sell it to them. The usual royalty for the patent around this sector is 20% for the next 20 years. HOWEVER!" she declared. "I have a better idea. We can check out those ships and if we like them we can forgo our royalty in favor of a small but direct sum of money which we can use to buy those ships." she said, assuming the foolish mon'keigh had enough money to pay for the said ships. He nodded at her, grateful at her observation.
"Brother... I too have made some... assessments. The local forge world in the sector, Orellia tetrius, the old rival of the von Judenhossen dominated forge world of this system, is on a all time low of production and is in need of raw materials. To make it worse for them the Judenhossen and other imperial navy officials as well as the mechanicus itself have no transport ships to spare." he said, smirking. Adrian smirked back, assuming a cunning pose.
"And let me guess... you found some far flung mining world which desperately needs a buyer for their goods?" he asked and Bering laughed and nodded.
"Correct! Although the info itself is scarce, the contacts to which I spoke to all speak of a low population mining world desperate for other resources. If we can link the two up, perhaps set up a trade and transport the first few rounds ourselves then we could end up reaping a big profit!" Bering said and Adrian nodded, smirking with great satisfaction.
"I too, have been of use my lord." Corvina interrupted. "I have found the local star chart dealers and by the looks of it they will be greatly helpful. Besides that I have found that there is no threat in this sub sector so far, so we can risk splitting our forces up... which Im afraid will be necessary." she ended on a gloomy note and Adrian nodded. Just at that time the priest Benedict, medicae Samantha and astropath Lucian entered the chamber.
"My lord and ladies..." Benedict began with his ancient voice. "...xeno." He added. "I have blessed the bars of the cell in which the heretic is located... and miss Samantha gave him a sedative, I am sure he wont be going anywhere soon." he said, struggling to speak and breath at the same time. "To think I have lived to see xenos aid the Imperium... what would the Emperor make of up" he said and nodding Adrian sent him and Samantha away.
"And you Lucian?" he asked formally.
"I feel an incoming message my lord..." the astropath began, his blank stare not betraying his true emotions. "I feel it coming just now." he said before he gasped, being overcome by intense psychic powers. He spoke with a tone that wasnt his own. Unlike his frail-ish, old tone, this one was full of power and authority.
"Rogue Trader Adrian!" it spoke, booming across the chamber. "We have received your report and I personally offer you thanks on my and on the behalf of the Emperor. Keep the heretic captive and stay put. I will arrive in a week to personally carry out the investigation and commentate you for your efforts and contributions to the Imperium. Inquisitor Drastan out!" he said and the astropath shivered. Adrian rolled his eyes in frustration.
"Well that sullies the mood. Alright people!" he declared as he got up. "Tommorow, Corvina will buy known star charts and know warp root paths. I, Bering and Savora will go and see this ships. I personally believe the price will be too high for us at the moment, but if we get Lord Edward to support us and at least give money in advance, as our personal assurance that we will buy those ships. Then... Im afraid I will have to stay put and await the Inquisitor... but yeah... thank you Lady Savora for saving this planet." He said both genuinely and mockingly as this interfered with his plans.
"Your welcome!" Savora responded, as if she was a puppy who was rewarded for behaving properly.
"That doesnt mean that you will be idle Bering..." He said, pointing to his brother who nodded. "The warp here is stable, correct?" Adrian asked.
"Gregorik di Tempestus, brother." Bering answered.
"Gregorik di Tempestus..." Adrian nodded. Savora rose her eyebrow. Corvina saw this and explained.
"The house of Gregorik suffered a great tragedy nearly two millennia back, when a father and a son entered the warp separately and in the end, due to warp time twisting the father was younger than the son. Since then there is a rule that except when the warp is calm, as it is here and now, and there is no time loss, no Gregorik core family member will travel alone." She explained and Savora nodded, that made sense.
"Our sister is traveling through stable warp paths, thats why we let her on her own." Bering added and Savora made a 'ahh' sound.
"We can also hope that she will bring some riches as well." Adrian added. "In any case! After our planed events we will upload our data to our ships and you will take all the ships here, except the Pride of Terra and go to this forge world and negotiate the deal as well as the mining world. You will know the sum of money we will need... in either case, miss Savora will come to aid you in this endeavor BUT!" he said raising a finger. "At some point I will send sister to pick her up so she can be here for the Inquisitor... since our... heretical guest will most likely betray her existence." he concluded and everyone nodded before departing. Savora met with Annabel on her way back to her room.
"Annabel, tell me..." she began and the blond death world survivor eyed her. "Have you ever had sex with Adrian? He looks like he badly needs it." Savora said quite honestly, not ashamed at all. Annabel blushed at this.
"Well... mis' Savora..." She began. "Every bull in the galaxy would be constipated and sh'tn his pants at the same time if an inquisitor is around." she said.
"Oh please!" Savora protested. "Its not like his warrant of trade prohibits anything he did!" Savora protested and when she saw the look on the girls faces. "Iv read it!" she declared. "Its one of the most powerful and most lenient documents in human existance as far as I know. He is allowed to contact and negotiate with xenos and keep them on board. Same goes for mutants and his only real obligations are to explore, expand the imperial realm and to aid imperial bodies." she casually declared.
"Yes, but the Proditorski bastard didnt care. He illegaly confiscated one of Captain Adrian's transports simply because of the rune caster he has on this ship." Annabel explained.
"That is against the law." Savora casually explained.
"Oh silly girl!" Annabel rose her hands in frustration. "The inquisition Is the law!" she declared.
"No they are not... If Adrian was smart he could turn to the lord commander of the Arbites in that sector and the lord commander of that Sector. While I doubt they would be able to fully excommunicate the said Inquisitor they would be able to harm his reputation because they would most likely love to cement their own, and what better way to do that then to show off that you are stronger and have more weight than an Inquisitor? This Inquisitor you speak off would either have to expend a lot of his resources and influence if he didnt want his reputation to suffer." Savora tactically explained and Annabel was shocked further. "that way he would know not to poke this hornets next again."
"You underestimate him! Even if he could do that, the Inquisitor would excommunicate Adrian-" Annabel pleaded.
"He couldnt. Under what charges? Following his warrant? Adrian would simply have to find another Inquisitor who would be more than happy to take all of this Proditorski's resources and contracts and that Inquisitor would at worst, reverse the decision made by his peer and at best denounce him in front of other Inquisitors." Savora explained.
"..." Annabel's lips shivered at this. This xeno girl was either extremely smart or extremely stupid. "He would arrange for Adrian to be killed or to disappear!" She used her last card.
"If Adrian was smart he couldnt do that. He just needed to do some maneuvering and I doubt the Inquisitor would catch him before he found another Inquisitor to cover behind." she said smirking. "Besides... sending in an assassin to infiltrate a very secure and modified light cruiser which is a maze and has extra troops in it? Not to mention a pskyer and a astropath who can detect the assassins mere presence? I doubt this Inquisitor is so stupid." She said and Annabel gave up the fight."I will kill or at least remove this Proditorski fellow... that way Adrian will see it should be ME who is leading..." she said arrogantly. "But you didnt answer my question! If you two did have sex go in and give him a handjob will you? He needs some release." Savora casually concluded.
"What would you do to Adrian and his family if you did take command?" Annabel said, sternly crossing her hands.
"Well... since you love him and I see that your little band here is close knit I..." Savora bit her lip, her inner good and evil weighting this over. "I would USUALLY break you up and torture you to feed on your souls" she admitted. "BUT! Since I must admit you have been treating me more than fairly and you are at least semi competent, I would stick around... hell Id even keep all of you. These past few days have showed me a new life and I have realized that maybe I can sustain myself on extreme positive emotions as well. Not only that but it would be fun to develop my psychic powers here. I mean Im not in Commoragh and Im already at risk going into the warp with you so... why not?" she said and shrugged. Annabel smiled.
"You know... for a woman who has killed and tortured people you aint that bad xeno... if you develop this good side of yours maybe we could coexist." the naive girl said.
"Yeah..." Savora said, recalling when she mutilated her human slaves... oh to be so young again. Still like all dark Eldar she grew up and soon all such trivial tortures were... trivial... and instead of focusing on greater pain she focused her mighty mind on ruling. And while she didnt regret torturing those pesky humans Savora wondered... just what would happen if she gave these humans a chance? What if they please her? What if she doesnt need to torture them? Not that she was willing to admit that they were anything more than mere animals... for that would mean she tortured real people... and unlike most Dark Eldar Savora wanted to believe... at least to believe she was a good person... Her father thought her that no matter how cruel, each person at least needed to believe they were good... so they would rest easy when she who thirsts comes for them... Fuck it... that was either the best or the worst lesson the old man had thought her. "In either case you all would be under my foot!" Savora added, realizing she was day dreaming.
"Adrian would like that!" Annabel declared, grinning.
"Oh?" Savora rose her eyebrow as the human girl leaned in and whispered into her pointy ear. Savora's eyes went wide.
"He likes THAT!?" she asked and Annabel was quick to shush her.
"Shhh! Keep your voice down! I dont want the whole crew to hear!" The human girl protested.
"What a... kinky, kinky boy!" Savora declared and giggled.