The soft humming noise of the ship's generators were the only sound that Badesh heard as he was meditating in the conference room. Slowly he opened his eyes, it was almost too quiet. He reached out with the force and found the signatures of Theron and Kalda in the engine room. Since they were not flying anywhere they had no business there, strange. Badesh stood up and walked towards the two energy signatures.

"… creeps me out," Kalda was whispering, but nevertheless Badesh could easily hear her even before he had reached the doorway that led to the engine room.

"It won't take much longer, I'm sure that the assassin will soon strike." Theron sounded calm, but Badesh could feel his anxiety. It lingered just under the surface. He walked quietly to the entrance and positioned himself as quietly as possible in the doorway. It was a cheap, but he hoped that his sudden appearance would startle the SIS-agents, their sour fear was the best he had at the moment.

"We have to…" started Kalda, but she stopped in mid-sentence as he saw Badesh. She didn't flinch, but Badesh thought that she bleached. She stood in front of the power converter while Theron was lying under it, apparently fixing something since he had a hydro-spanner in his hand.

Theron jerked his head into Badesh's direction and rose to his feet. Badesh registered that he was bare-chested and sweating. It was indeed quite hot in the engine room. With interest Badesh let his gaze wander over Theron's ripped abs and he felt a burning desire to beat up… no… not that, he wanted to touch Theron. Without another word Badesh left and returned to the conference room.

ooOOoo

It took him almost half an hour to calm down, Badesh wasn't used to such strange emotions. Of course he had felt them at some other time, but to feel like this when looking at a republican dog was unacceptable. He decided to tall Quinn to ask about any progress, but just as we pulled his personal holocommunicator from his pocket Theron and Kalda stepped into the conference room.

"We need fresh supplies, Theron and I will purchase some items," said Kalda and looked at Badesh with a frown. "We won't be gone long… my Lord."

Badesh smiled behind his mask when he heard the honorific title. "Very well, I will accompany you."

It was obvious that Kalda – and neither Theron for that matter – were thrilled to have him along but of course it was a very good opportunity for an assassin to strike and they knew it.

ooOOoo

When Theron and Kalda walked down the freighters ramp Badesh waited a few seconds before he followed them. Suddenly something shifted in the force, Badesh registered a heightened tension that seemed to come from the hangar door. Before he could shout a warning Theron had already opened it, and was greeted by a half a dozen blaster-rifle muzzles. Both SIS-Agents drew their blasters immediately, but it was obvious that they would be too late to shoot down their opponents. Badesh grinned and ran towards the hangar bay door. With a mighty force jump he landed right in front of Theron and Kalda, right in time to deflect the first salve of blaster bolts. Like a black whirlwind he lunged at the men and women in front of him, their open position and amateurish attempt told him that they were mere cannon-fodder. Within seconds he had dispatched of the mercenaries and went on a rampage on their bodies. After being caged in for almost two days Badesh felt euphoric as he cut off a mercenary's head and crushed it in his hand before letting the staved-in head fall on the ground.

It seemed as if Theron and Kalda had realised as well that the attack wasn't over yet, they were standing back to back and scanned the room with their eyes, their blasters still drawn. Badesh reached out with the force and quickly determined that one force signature was hiding behind a crate in the eastern part of the hangar. He grinned and leaped to the crate and pushed it away with the force, a small and incredibly agile furry creature scurried away while shooting with a crossbow at Badesh. He deflected the bolts easily and grabbed the Ewok by its cowl and ripped the weapon from its hands.

"I will kill you, you brute!" squealed the Ewok and drew a vibro-knife and plunged it into Badesh's arm. Badesh moaned, he had let it happen… nothing was so exiting as feeling and causing pain. Finally he hit the Ewok with his lightsaberhilt on the head, it went still and Badesh let it fall on the floor.

"Threat: Put your weapon down, meatbag," said a metallic voice behind him and Badesh was astounded to see that a rusty droid was standing next to Theron and Kalda, both had been overpowered and disarmed. The droid was pointing it's blaster at Kalda's head.

"Addition: I will kill the woman if you don't yield, Jedi."

Theron's and Kalda's fear reached a new peak, they surely expected to die. If not by the droid's hand then probably by his own. Badesh waited a few moments before he responded, just to bask in the emotions of the SIS-Agents: Anger, fear and hate.

"Your optical processors are faulty, droid – I'm a Sith and no Jedi," he said coolly.

"Observation: Oh yes, there aren't many Jedi who would be trenched in blood."

Badesh focussed on the remaining enemy. It would be easy to kill the droid, but if he wanted to keep Theron and Kalda alive he had to think of a way to outflank an assassination droid with an in-build homing device. In one fluent gesture Badesh pulled Theron and Kalda toward him with the force and pushed the droid at the same time away. He threw his red-bladed lightsaber at the droid who had managed to shoot twice before the lightsaber decapitated him. The blaster bolts were directed at Kalda, but Badesh darted in front of her and managed to deflect one shot with the force, the other hit him in the lower region on his ribcase. Although Badesh wore his usual armour the high velocity blaster bolt penetrated his gear, Badesh gritted his teeth and pressed his hand on the bleeding wound. He looked around, mutilated mercenaries and slain foes everywhere, delicious pain searing through him – it was a good day.

"That was quite impressive," said Kalda from behind him.

Badesh turned on his heel and was satisfied to see that Kalda was visibly shaken despite her firm voice. He clasped his hand behind his back and said in a low voice: "Of course, I'm Sith, Agent Biss."

Kalda shot him an angry look which he chose to ignore. He turned his attention to Theron who had cuffed the Ewok and was picking up the head of the droid.

"I think I can slice into the droid's memory database, although it is ancient…" he said and looked at the dead bodies lying around. "We should get moving, security could be on its way and I'm in no mood to explain all this."

Badesh's personal holocommunicator started beeping and he pulled it out of his pocket while walking towards the XS freighter and put it on. He saw how Kalda carried the Ewok into the ship and stayed a little black.

Quinn little bluish figure appeared. "My Lord, may I inquire what happened?"

Badesh was surprised, yet content to see Quinn. "The assassins made their move, but we captured them – how did you know that something had happened? Did someone suspicious access our fake intel?"

"No, my Lord. We wanted to report our recent progress, but as I can see you have been in a fight."

"You can update me later, Quinn. We will interrogate the assassins soon," Badesh replied and closed the hatch of the freighter behind him. Theron and Kalda were already in the cockpit and were starting up the engines. He could hear them faintly talk to each other.

"Of course, my Lord," Quinn bowed.

"Quinn… why did you choose to update me now?" asked Badesh. There were no coincidences with the force.

"My Lord? I am sorry if the time was poorly chosen…"

Badesh smiled, Quinn was always quick to blame himself. A warm feeling spread through his chest. "Let me rephrase the question: Did something prompt you to call me?"

"Yes, Vette and I both felt like something was amiss… it was a strange almost aggravating sensation. For no explicable reason we both thought of you." Quinn shifted from one foot to the other, he really was uncomfortable. "I didn't want to bring up the matter because it is of course presumptions of us to even think that you wanted to contact us through the force."

Badesh was amazed, he hadn't tried to contact Vette and Quinn and yet they had felt a resonance of his pain. Was it possible? Had they formed a bond through the force? Badesh had heard about Jedi who had accomplished that with other Jedi but he had never assumed that a Sith could do the same with non-force-sensitives.

"We will talk about this later, Quinn," said Badesh quietly and added "thank you."

Quinn bowed and his image vanished from the holocommunicator. Badesh put it back in his pocket and went to the cockpit.

ooOOoo

Just as Badesh entered Kalda activated the hyper-jump and the freighter's engines kicked with considerable noise in the highest gear.

"Where are we headed?" asked Badesh and crossed his arms.

"Rishi, a lawless planet not far from here," replied Theron and rose from the pilot's seat. "The ship is on auto-pilot. Let's have a little chat with the assassins."

Badesh followed Kalda and Theron into the cargo bay, the Ewok was bound and still unconscious. The droid's head lay on a worktable, it was turned off.

"We should try to interrogate the droid before you take him apart Theron," suggested Kalda. "He wanted to save his little partner, perhaps he would talk if we threaten to kill her."

"Alright, let's give it a try," Theron put the head on an electrical device. After he flipped a switch the droid's eyes began to glow in a yellowish light.

"Statement: I will exterminate you all," the droid slurred.

"A rather bold statement from someone without a body," retorted Theron. "We have some questions we want to ask – and I suggest that you cooperate or we will kill your partner."

"Statement: I don't care."

"You lie," said Badesh with a low voice and walked over to the Ewok. "Say again that you don't care and I will cut off her right hand." He ignited his lightsaber.

"Final statement: My Master will terminate you." With that the droid's eyes went dark and the smell of burned cables begun to fill the cargo bay.

"He fried himself!" exclaimed Theron. "I sure hope that the memory chip isn't destroyed!"

"In this case we have to interrogate the Ewok," growled Badesh. "We should wake her up with adrenals."

"How?" asked Kalda frowning.

And Theron added: "We don't know anything about her physiology – an overdose might kill her."

Badesh stared at them. Incompetent! They were both incompetent! Quinn and Vette would have known what to do! He calmed himself. There was no need for rush. He would clean himself up and then hear what news Quinn had for him.

"Call me when she's awake," he sneered and left.

ooOOoo

The shower was almost too small for him, he had to duck lest his head wouldn't hit the ceiling. Badesh missed the Fury. And most of all he missed his companions, Theron and Kalda weren't nearly as good as them! Instead of questioning him they should have looked for a solution!

Badesh stepped out of the sonic shower and took his clothes out of the refresher and began to dress. His thought wandered back to his conversation with Quinn. How strange to think that he was able to bond with anyone. The thought of being closer to Vette and Quinn worried him, he had become unbalanced when he just pictured them harmed – how would he react when they would be in real peril? At the same time it gave him a great deal of solace, Badesh mused about it and wondered why it pleased him so much to be connected.

He applied kolto to his wounds and slipped his chest armour over his torso. Finally he put his mask on, then he stepped out of the small bathroom. When he made his way to the conference room he peeked into the cargo bay; Theron was working on the droid while Kalda was watching the Ewok.

As soon as he was in the conference room he locked the door and called the Fury with his personal holocommunicator. After a few seconds Vette's small figure appeared.

"Hey Boss… uh, I mean my Lord… are you alright? Quinn told me that you apprehended the assassins?"

"Yes, one of them was a droid. Heian is currently trying to retrieve its memory chip while Biss is waiting for the other assassin, a Ewok, to wake up."

Quinn appeared next to Vette and he bowed. "My Lord."

They gave Badesh a report on their meeting with Grand Moff Kilran. Badesh was disquieted to hear that there was a connection to Darth Malgus. Malgus had helped him to challenge Baras, he was a very powerful Sith and a cunning tactician.

"Do we have your permission to question Darth Malgus about this favour he asked of Grand Moff Kilran?" Quinn asked. He stood at parade rest while Vette was standing in a rather relaxed way next to him.

"Yes, but proceed with caution. I doubt that Malgus would harm you, but should he threaten you… tell him that I will strangle him with his innards should he dare to lay a finger on you," Badesh calmly retorted.

"Of course my Lord, I will convey your sentiments on that matter should the need arise," responded Quinn equally calm.

"Wait… you're joking, right?" asked Vette incredulously.

Badesh was confused. "Joking? What are you talking about?"