Badesh was taken aback by this new piece of information. The Revanites were even more dangerous that he had thought. And they obviously had the means to seriously cripple the Empire. They were actually bold enough to try to attack the core of the Sith Empire. He briefly lingered on the cowardly way they intended to kill millions, if not billions; it angered him that they wouldn't even put up a real fight. At the same time he felt a tingling sensation when he pictured how corpses literally littered the streets…
Badesh stopped his train of thought instantly. He glanced at Quinn, who stood in parade rest next to him. What would Quinn think of him when he knew that he got excited about a pile of corpses? Badesh saw from the corner of his eye that Vette looked worried. And before he could stop himself he pictured again thousands of corpses lying on the red sand of Korriban, Vette and Quinn amongst them…
Hot, raw fury boiled up in him and Badesh felt the immediate urge to hurt somebody, he briefly thought about the Togruta but in the last moment he directed his focus at the conference table and it began to shake and deform. After a few seconds he heard Quinn's voice.
"My Lord?"
It had a soothing effect on Badesh, his anger diminished and he realised that Quinn was touching him slightly at his elbow. An affectionate feeling washed over Badesh as he felt the other man's touch and saw concern on Quinn's usually impassive face. Badesh's remaining fury vanished and he smiled at Quinn. Then he lifted his sight to Vette, she had also stepped to him and stood right in front of him. She was almost two heads shorter than him, but seeing her and feeling Quinn made him feel… certain.
"What the fuck was that?" whispered Theron, he was visibly pale.
Badesh realised that he had lost control over his powers and decided to hide this fact.
"Anger – to think that this scum had the gall to attack the Sith academy," he replied coldly. Quinn let go of him and Badesh regretted instantly losing his touch. Badesh glanced at Kalda, she didn't look nearly as shaken as Theron. It was strange, why would the senior SIS-Agent who certainly had seen his share of force-users be shocked about this little incident?
"Let's get back to the task at hand," said Kalda and looked at the demolished table with a hardened gaze. "Before the Sith decides to take apart our whole ship."
"You will address Lord Badesh with his proper title!" Quinn glared at her.
Before Kalda could reply, Vette intervened. "We should all calm down, there is no need to get all worked up – it is enough if one table needs replacement, if we wreck the chairs as well it's getting expensive!"
A frosty silence fell upon them before Theron cleared his throat. "Right, the question is what we will do next? All our traces have gone cold, we are in the dark again."
"Not entirely," frowned Kalda, "there is one thing we know for certain: The Revanites are still trying to kill us. Perhaps it is time to set a trap for the assassin and see whether they know anything about their client."
"It's a long shot," retorted Quinn. "There is a high probability that the assassin was hired anonymously."
"It's also dangerous, if the assassin has already killed four of your team…" Vette looked from Kalda to Theron. "I think we should focus on gathering more information. If we work from the imperial side and you guys cover the republic side we should come up with something."
"My Lord, I suggest that we explore both avenues. If we leak information about the agents' current position through the imperial intelligence network we might find another Revanite spy. We could monitor who accesses the information and search through Lord Arkous files at the same time."
"I can't believe that I'm actually concurring with an Imperial, but he is right," Kalda crossed her arms. "It's our best shot to get to the core of the business."
"That's simply reckless, Kalda, if the assassin finds us we still have to capture them. Back when we had a real team that might have worked, but the risk is too high now," objected Theron.
Badesh thought about the appropriate course of action. It was true that the SIS-agents were undermanned and if the assassin was really as good as they suggested they wouldn't survive another encounter with them. On the other hand the assassin could provide information, however little… And it might be rewarding to keep an eye on Theron and Kalda, they had gathered substantial intel with very little resources.
He briefly toyed with the thought of letting Vette and Quinn stay, but he discarded that idea. Should the SIS-agents decide to fight his companions they would have the advantage on their ship. No, there was only one way to make sure that the assassin would be apprehended.
"I have made my decision," Badesh declared. "We will follow Quinn's suggestion. It is true however that the assassin might succeed and gets away with the deed; therefore I will stay here while Vette and Quinn leak the information and trace whoever accesses the file about your whereabouts."
Badesh didn't miss the surprised looks from Quinn and Vette, but both nodded and said in unison: "Yes, my Lord."
"What?" asked Kalda, then she turned to Theron and hissed: "When this is all over I will kick your ass! If we survive that is!"
Badesh reached out through the force and took in the sweet anger from the Togruta, her force signature was also blistering with sour fear. She was scared, scared because of him and the thought gave him satisfaction. When he touched Theron's force signature he was once more fascinated how focused and… neat it was. Theron's emotions were harder to read, it seemed as if he was trained to withstand a force-user. And there was again this familiarity with his force signature, had they met?
"Vette, Quinn – with me," said Badesh curtly and accompanied them to the ship's exit.
"My Lord, may I speak freely?" asked Quinn. Badesh had already anticipated his question and felt lo… a hot feeling spreading in his chest as he gestured his second-in-command to speak.
"I advise against this course of action, Vette and I should stay behind. You are too important to remain here." Quinn had spoken quietly and looked Badesh straight in the eye.
Badesh felt how Quinn's force signature burned brightly; Quinn's concern made him content. By the force, he had indeed grown weak! He… he was smitten by Quinn, and it disquieted him that his feelings hadn't diminished since he first met him on Balmorra.
"I'm with Quinn on this," whispered Vette, "we don't know how long it will take until the assassin shows up. Are you really willing to stay for weeks on this rust-bucket?"
Her energy was as bright and inviting as always. Badesh liked reaching out to her, it reminded him of a safe haven in a storm. Strangely enough Badesh enjoyed touching her calm and blissful emotions.
"I know, but we don't know anything about the extent of the conspiracy and I trust that I can defend myself against everything the Revanites throw at me," Badesh replied. He didn't say that he wanted to keep them safe, speaking of these things always embarrassed him. It reminded him that he relied on Vette and Quinn more than a Sith should. "You know what to do – inform the Minister and Cipher Nine. And send me Theron's and Kalda's files as soon as possible."
"Yes, my Lord," they both answered and exited the ship.
ooOOoo
When Badesh returned to the conference room he found Theron and Kalda in a heated argument that died down as soon as he entered. He paid them no attention and simply grabbed a data pad and continued reading various intelligence reports.
After a few moments Theron as well as Kalda left, Badesh reached out through the force and kept track of their movements in the ship, but kept on reading.
An hour later he received a message from Quinn on his personal data pad. Of course Vette and he had already put everything in motion. Attached to the message were the files from Imperial Intelligence on the SIS-Agents.
Kalda Biss was apparently recruited on Nar Shadaa and had served the SIS at least for five years. She was obviously of little interest to Imperial Intelligence, since there were hardly any information besides that she had managed to capture an Imperial Commander named Nostan Vergost who had run several programs to exterminate aliens from imperial controlled planets. An analyst had added a comment: "Biss is a typical alien agent of the Republic, enraged by so-called imperial war atrocities she is fiercely loyal to the SIS and republic ideology. Experience suggests that such agents cannot be compromised with, since they follow their own moral rules and distrust everybody aligned with the Empire."
Badesh wasn't particularly surprised, the file only confirmed his own assessment. He began reading Theron's file. He was a senior agent of the SIS and had successfully completed several top secret missions. Interestingly enough there was no clue when or why Theron Heian had joined the republic intelligence agency. His fast-tracked career from his first notable appearance until he was promoted field commander suggested that he came with the highest recommendations. The summary showed that the imperial analysts were predicting that Theron would rise far in the SIS, due to his track record of mastering even the most difficult missions. Badesh was disappointed, he had hoped that the file would provide him with more substantial information. There was something strange about Theron, he knew it, he just couldn't put his finger on it. Perhaps he should try to read his mind in a more aggressive manner?
But before he could make up his mind he saw that Quinn had put a comment in Theron's file: "Possible cybernetic discretion implants to prevent mind-reading and setting a high pain-tolerance in case of torture; model seen on Heian's temple is not recorded in imperial data banks. If it is indeed the next generation of cybernetic defences against force persuasion or mind-reading it would be possible that Heian would register any attempt to interfere with his mind."
Diligent as ever, Badesh thought and recalled Quinn's touch from earlier. He allowed himself to reminiscence for a few minutes about past missions.
A glance at the chronometer told Badesh that it was almost 3 o'clock in the morning in imperial standard time. He was hungry and tired, but Badesh decided that he would simply meditate for a few hours instead of sleeping or eating. He knew from experience that he could last more than a week without sleep or food; provided that he could meditate in peace. This course of action would minimise the possibility of getting poisoned by either the assassin or the SIS-Agents and would give Theron and Kalda the impression that he was a tireless foe who was not to be trifled with.
ooOOoo
True enough he registered the astounded look Kalda gave him when she entered the conference room in the morning and found him still at work. She shortly hesitated before he began to speak.
"Do you have any news concerning the assassin?"
Badesh didn't care about honorifics, but since it was also a question of respect and establishing a power structure he decided to take a leaf out of Quinn's book. "You will address me with 'my Lord'," he said as threatening as possible.
"No," she answered flatly.
Badesh was amused that Kalda showed enough bravado to defy him, although he could clearly feel that she was scared. He wasn't actually in the mood to force-choke her, at the same time he couldn't back down. He stood up and slowly walked towards Kalda, she stood her ground and stared him in the eye. When he stood before her Badesh clasped his hand behind his back and said in a low voice: "Are you certain that you want to insult me?"
"You are not my lord, and I won't call you by this honorific title. Kill me if you must, but I'm done calling humans by their titles when they don't even bother to call me by mine." Her fear intensified, but nevertheless she didn't flinch. Badesh was mildly surprised that she assumed that he was human, but of course she hadn't seen him without his mask. He doubted that her response had been different had she known that he was a Sith Pureblood.
He was shortly tempted to simply gut her with his lightsaber, but he felt that maiming Kalda was rather a sign of his own weakness than strength. No, he had to show her that he was in charge without resorting to violence, as unsatisfying as it was.
"Ah, then you have me at a disadvantage – pray do tell, what is your title?" Badesh said slowly.
Kalda was taken aback by this development and stuttered. "Wha… my… I'm Agent Biss."
"Care to repeat your previous question, Agent Biss?" whispered Badesh and put his hands on the wall on the right and left side of Kalda and leaned down to her. "Since I honoured your request I do hope that you will honour mine."
"Do you have any news on the assassin… my Lord?" Kalda asked grudgingly.
Badesh rather enjoyed the close proximity, he could literally smell her bitter frustration and sour fear.
"Unfortunately… no, Agent Biss."
In this moment Theron walked in and narrowed his eyes as he saw how close Badesh stood to Kalda.
"Is there a problem?"
Badesh remained close to Kalda and turned his head toward Theron. "Of course not, Agent Biss and I simply agreed that she would call me by my title, isn't that correct, Agent Biss?"
"It is," she hissed through gritted teeth.
"Didn't you forget something?" asked Badesh growling.
"It is… my Lord," she lowered her gaze and lifted one hand to her face. The gesture reminded Badesh strongly of Vette and the memory of her turned his pleasure about Kalda's discomfort into something ashen. The sudden displeasure he felt about himself made him long for relief and the old urge to see blood on his hands resurfaced.
"I think you made your point… my Lord," said Theron with a stern voice.
"Indeed, Agent Heian," Badesh replied and backed away. Now was not the time to give in into his longings, he had to focus. Badesh returned to his seat at the conference table and continued reading.