Vette stared at Theron incredulously. "Seriously? You want us to save the galaxy?" Never in a million years she would have thought she would hear that someone even muttered these words into the direction of Badesh.
"I never thought that the SIS was prone to exaggeration," remarked Quinn dryly. Vette had to hold back a smile.
"Just wait until you see my intel…" Theron said and rose to his feet. "My ship is docked nearby, my associate won't be happy, but we are seriously outnumbered and need every help we can get – even if it is from f… from Imps."
Vette glanced at Badesh, he stood up after a moment and stepped right in front of Theron. The Agent was about a head smaller than Badesh and Vette wasn't surprised that Badesh chose to intimidate Theron.
"Very well, but know this… I will kill you in a most satisfying fashion should you attempt to deceive us."
Theron held up pretty well in face of a very, very scary Sith and simply nodded. Vette wondered who this associate Theron was talking about was – another SIS-Agent? She briefly exchanged glances with Quinn who subtly gestured her to walk in Theron's blind spot as they moved through the masses in the cantina. He led them quickly away from the main promenade to a small hangar on the north-western corner of the orbital station. Vette kept Theron under close observation. Her gut told her to trust him, his strange reasoning made sense to her – Badesh would indeed do everything in his power to kill the Revanites.
Finally they walked into the hanger and approached a XS stock light freighter. Theron opened the hatch and stepped into the starship, followed by Badesh, Quinn and Vette.
"Kalda?" called Theron, Vette registered that he had tensed up and moved her right hand slowly to her blaster.
"What is…" responded a female voice and a second later a Togruta woman stepped into the hallway. Within a fraction of a second her face screwed up in anger and she drew her blaster and fired a series of shots at Badesh who deflected the bolts with ease before force-choking the woman.
"Stop it!" yelled Theron and drew his own blaster. But Quinn was quicker and held the muzzle of his blaster to Theron's head.
Vette knew that she had to stop Badesh before he got into a frenzy. She approached him and touched his right upper arm softly. He jerked his head towards her and let the Togruta go. She fell on the floor and Vette picked up her blaster.
"A Sith… Theron… are you insane?" Kalda asked with a coarse voice, a large dark bruise was forming on her purple neck.
Quinn lowered his blaster and Theron rushed to Kalda, but she pushed him away.
"Filthy traitor! Don't touch me!"
Theron lifted his hands in the air and said with a low voice: "I'm sorry, but I believe that we need their help – I know that you don't agree, but it is out of our hands now." He turned around to Badesh. "I will give you access to our files, follow me."
"Vette, Quinn – guard her," commanded Badesh and left with Theron.
Vette looked at Kalda who was still lying on the ground, holding her throat. She knew that Kalda would have killed the lot of them if she had the chance, but she felt nevertheless sorry for her. Before she could decide whether she should make awkward conversation with her or not, Theron returned.
"Your boss is asking for both of you," he said and kneeled next to Kalda who stared at him with utter distain. They left Theron and Kalda and joined Badesh in the middle of the ship; he was standing in front of a computer station and was loading data on data pads. Wordlessly he handed each of them a pad and they started reading.
ooOOoo
"It seems that the Republic is even more undermined than the Empire," stated Quinn after an hour.
"Yeah, at least according to Theron's files – but it could also mean that he's got just more intel than we," said Vette and yawned.
"We still have more reading to do." Badesh's voice indicated that he was also weary.
"What about a cup of coffee?" asked Vette and started to look around. "I will ask Theron about a replicator…"
Without waiting for a response she walked to the exit of the ship. Vette was a little surprised to see Theron as well as Kalda sitting right where they had left them. Both of them looked miserable. Kalda shot Vette a nasty look.
"Are you finished?" she spat.
Vette decided that she didn't want to be apologetic and ignored Kalda's question. "Is there a replicator somewhere? We still have a lot of reading to do and a cup of coffee would be nice."
Theron nodded. "Sure, I will show you…"
"Will you now? I hope you offer them also some cookies!" sneered Kalda.
Vette walked straight in front of Kalda and put her hands on her hips. "Listen, I know it sucks, but we are here now. Let's make the best of it, okay? I'm Vette, evil minion of an even eviler Sith Lord – who are you?"
Kalda was taken aback by Vette's joke, but finally she hesitantly answered: "I'm Kalda."
Theron scratched the back of his head and smiled a little. "Nice to meet you, evil minion, I'm Theron."
"So, since we are all acquainted now – where is the coffee?" inquired Vette and made an effort to smile at Theron and Kalda even though she wasn't entirely sure that Badesh wouldn't kill them at the end of the day.
Vette was about to replicate the third and last cup of coffee, when she caught a look at Kalda's neck, the bruise had turned even darker, it had to be painful.
Kalda registered Vette's glance and turned to Theron. "Could you get me some kolto?"
"Uh, sure…," he replied and left the small mess hall.
"So, we are alone," began Vette, "do you want to ask or should I just answer?"
"I guess you had to explain more than once, huh?" Kalda leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. "Are you going to give me a straight answer?"
Vette put the last cup on a salver. "Sure, why not? Long story short – slave meets decent guys and decided to stay with them. Questions?"
"Do you expect me to believe that a Sith could actually be decent?"
"You really do hate Imperials, don't you?"
"Of course, they killed and tortured countless innocent victims."
Vette smiled. "And here I thought that victims are always innocent."
"I don't care for semantics! How can you serve the Empire?" Kalda was visibly agitated and started pacing back and forth.
"Surely you know that the galaxy isn't black and white… it sure is fucked-up for people like us, but it is grey. I learned a long time ago that I can't rely on anybody but myself, I learned that nobody cares about a lowly Twi'lek. And guess what? I was disabused: There were actually people who came looking for me when I was in trouble." Vette got riled up as she thought about the Goldstar on Nar Shadaa. She continued with a firm voice. "In a perfect galaxy a dashing and sympathetic republican officer and a saint-like Jedi would have come to the rescue of the damsel in distress. But in the real world there were only a stuck-up, xenophobic imperial officer and a bloodthirsty, crazy Sith who stood up for a loud-mouthed thief. They came for me. And that's more than I can say for all the republican soldiers and Jedi I have ever met."
Kalda had stopped her pacing and stared at her. Vette felt that she had gotten too emotional and cleared her throat. "Well, I don't presume to know what you have been through – but I hope you understand my point."
"I think the coffee has gotten cold," Kalda retorted in a mild voice.
Vette looked down on the three cups on the salver, they were indeed no longer steaming.
"Crap, here we go again," she said and pushed a few buttons on the replimat.
Theron returned with kolto gel but before he could apply the content of the tube on Kalda's neck Quinn stepped into the mess hall. Vette smiled as she saw him, prim and proper as always he snapped almost into parade rest as soon as he stopped walking.
"Vette, is everything alright?" he asked with his usual slightly arrogant intonation.
"Yeah, I just chatted with Kalda and the coffee got cold," she replied and poured the cold beverages in the sink.
Quinn eyed Theron and Kalda. "I don't recommend the use of kolto gel on this particular injury."
"Really?" asked Kalda, her voice oozed with sarcasm. "Don't you mean that you don't recommend wasting perfectly good kolto on an alien?"
Quinn looked at her coldly. "Suit yourself."
"You should let Quinn take a look at your neck, Kalda, he is a medic." This comment caused both Kalda and Quinn to look at Vette with alarmed expressions on their face.
"Great idea! I have no idea what I'm doing anyway!" exclaimed Theron and simply shoved the kolto gel in Quinn's hands.
"… as you wish," sighted Quinn and stepped closer to Kalda while putting the gel on the table and pulling his own kolto injector from his utility belt. "Kolto gel isn't the optimal treatment for subcutaneous injuries. It would only heal superficially and could lead to a hematoma. An injection is far more effective."
Kalda had a tense expression written on her face as Quinn touched her skin and applied kolto with the injector. Soon she relaxed a bit and when Quinn finally had ended his treatment she cautiously touched her neck and said quietly: "Thanks."
"You're welcome," replied Quinn stiffly.
Vette had finally replicated the last cup of coffee and took the salver up. "Let's go – we still have a lot of reading to do."
"Indeed", Quinn curtly replied and followed her to the conference room.
Another few hours later Theron and Kalda joined them. Theron walked in and sat down on one of the chairs across from Badesh while Kalda lingered at the doorway.
"So, did you ascertain what I have told you?"
Vette was a little bit surprised that Quinn hadn't interrupted Theron and hadn't told him to call Badesh by his title. It seemed that he was uncertain whether he should disclose Badesh's identity.
Badesh put his data pad slowly down. "It seems that you were correct, the magnitude of the conspiracy suggests that the leader of the Revanites is indeed planning to change the course of galactic history. Nobody gathers that kind of power and doesn't use it. But it still seems a little peculiar for a former SIS-Agent to turn to the Empire for… hm, help."
Theron leaned forward and put both his hand on the table. "There is some knowledge that is too precious to be lost – I would rather share it with the enemy than to let it go to waste. At the start we were a whole team trying to stop the Revanites. But we had casualties, a very skilled assassin is on our tail and has already killed four of us. It's only a question of time before Kalda or I are next."
"You are still maintaining that you didn't shadow us but rather Colonel Darok?" asked Quinn.
"Yes, I am," replied Theron. "I don't have any idea who you are – so perhaps introductions are in order."
"What?" shouted Kalda. "You just picked up some random Imperials and told them everything? Are you crazy?"
Vette observed how Theron flinched a little bit, either they were the best actors she had ever seen or they were genuine…
Theron stayed calm. "Yeah, random Imperials who followed Arkous into an underwater laboratory and scared him enough that he didn't even put up a fight before he tried to kill them by blowing everything – himself included – up. We are talking about a veteran Sith Lord who decided that he couldn't go up against this guy." He nodded towards Badesh.
Kalda looked at Badesh with a certain amount of respect, but remained silent.
"So, as already stated – introductions are in order. I'm Theron Heian, my partner here is Kalda Biss. We were both working for the SIS before the Revanites fabricated fake evidence that we were double-agents… which is quite ironic considering our current course of action."
Kalda snorted and shot Theron a nasty look.
Badesh stood up and clasped his hands behind his back. Vette secretly called this stance Badesh's Sith-posture, he usually never stood like that unless he wanted to impress somebody with his presence and height.
"You may call me Lord Badesh, I'm an apprentice to Darth Baras, the head of Sith Intelligence. These are my associates, Major Malavai Quinn and Sergeant Ce'na."
"I thought you said that your name was Vette," said Kalda and eyed Vette.
"It is, Ce'na is my given name but I'm called Vette." She smiled at the other woman in an effort to show that she was sincere.
"Alright, now that is taken care of… What is your next step?" asked Theron.
To Vette's surprise Badesh answered, she had anticipated that he wouldn't share his plans with the former SIS-agents.
"We will try to find out where Arkous was headed after his meeting and what the selkath scientist was working on."
"My Lord, if I may," Quinn activated the holo display on the middle of the conference table and the picture of the scientist appeared. "His name is Dr. Ahto Hyoki, an expert on biological warfare. Although he is known for his work on developing a particular resistant strain of the jiridian plague I suspect that he was working on poison gas in his laboratory."
Theron looked at him in awe. "When did you find out about him? And how do you know that he was working on poison gas?"
Quinn looked at him in a haughty fashion. "I wrote a program to cross-reference our information and inserted new information while reading your files. It turned out that the company that owns the laboratory belongs to Hyoki's family. And I registered back in the laboratory that Hyoki wasn't equipped for research for viruses. Instead of amtomiscopes he had actuators usually used when working on gaseous elements."
Vette smiled at Quinn, he was as rigid as ever, but once he had admitted to her that he actually enjoyed himself when being able to 'establish the superiority of the imperial mind'. Of course she had made fun of him because of his pompous talk, but she now discovered that she actually loved it when he was his usual smooth self. It was so very Quinn that she wanted to kiss him.
"I assume that you arrived at the same conclusion when you sliced into the system, Agent," continued Quinn and frowned at Theron.
"I did," answered Theron shortly. He stared at Quinn before speaking on. "I was merely surprised how quickly you gathered the information, Major. It wasn't my intention to keep this intel from you. Kalda, what have you found out?"
Kalda was obviously reluctant to share the information and she kept glancing at Badesh. "The data Theron relayed to me suggests that Hyoki planned to ship cargo to two locations: Korriban and Tython. There is a high possibility that the plan was to use the gas to kill as much force-sensitives as possible. It is unclear however when this should've happened. The trouble is that we can't know whether the Revanites have a back-up plan for their little genocide."