A week later Vindis and her droid stepped out from her taxi, having paid the fare. She swept her eyes across the gaudily, flashy facade of the hotel. The Galactic Mogul Hotel and Suites.
It was reputed for having the most luxuriously appointed and spacious suites. It boasted the finest displays of art, attracting only the finest in entertainment. The Galactic Mogul Hotel and Suites secured the services of the finest and most famed chefs in the galaxy. The hotel is famed for its best trained, handsomest and most beautiful hotel staff, providing the most lavish customer service experience anywhere.
Only the elite of the elite were welcomed as guests. This hotel routinely turned away wealthy travelers seeking accommodations at the Galactic Mogul Hotel and Suites, not because they couldn't afford it, but because they were not wealthy enough, powerful enough, famous enough.
Ordinary trillionaires attempting to book a room at the Galactic Mogul Hotel and Suites, are cheerfully and politely told that there is no room, and would be helpfully referred to other… less famous and not as luxuriously appointed hotels on The Promenade.
The Promenade was a giant floating, very slowly rotating city which was orbited by two massive floating casino-hotels, the Club Vertica casino-hotel, and the Star Cluster Casino and Hotel. The two hotels were commonly referred to as, Club Vertica and the Star Cluster Casino.
Only the wealthiest could live and frolic in the cityscapes floating above the masses living and working in the common buildings below. It was also a tourist destination for super wealthy travelers from all over the galaxy.
Calaverous wasn't super wealthy and neither was Vindis. Yet, it was the only place she could think of to meet her rival. Vindis stepped towards the entrance of the hotel, but stopped in her tracks. She felt his presence behind her and turned quickly, alarmed that she might be under attack.
She found him sitting on a park bench in the lush garden park across the wide boulevard from the Galactic Mogul Hotel and Suites. Calaverous, smiling impishly, waved at her. Vindis scanned her surroundings carefully, looking for an ambush. Deciding that she could find no danger to herself, she crossed the wide boulevard with the speeder traffic rushing twenty stories overhead.
Her droid, Rem, trailed her, continually scanning the area within five hundred meters for signs of blasters, pistols or rifles, powering up. It scanned for igniting lightsabers, which had a distinct energy signature even though the weapon used a few components also found in blasters.
Each time the droid positively identified a weapon, it assessed whether it was a direct threat to its master. Parameters included whether the weapon was out of the range of the weapon type, whether there were walls or other obstacles that removed the threat potential of the weapon, etc.
Calaverous stood as she neared. He indicated, with a sweep of his hand, a space on the park bench beside where he'd been sitting. Vindis looked about and decided to sit on a bench across the walking path from his, her droid took its place standing beside her bench.
Calaverous' impish grin widened a bit as he resumed his seat. He was reminded of her skittishness around him at the Sith Academy, years ago.
"It's been quite some years since we last saw each other, Vindis. You're as beautiful as I remember you", he told the dark red skinned, Sith Pureblood, "More lovely, actually. You've filled out rather nicely in certain places, I see."
Vindis' dark red skin could potentially give her away as a Sith Pureblood, but she could also pass as a female Devaronian. This was because unlike most Sith Purebloods, she only had two very tiny, barely noticeable spiky protrusions, just ahead of her temples, which were mostly hidden by her tar-black hair, and one had to carefully scrutinize her chin to see the very faint furl that ran down from her lower lip.
Otherwise, she looked like a human female with an athletic full figure, but with dark red skin and striking yellow eyes. She could easily be mistaken for a female Devaronian. That is, unless one knew that only Sith Purebloods had yellow irises. Or, if one were to hear her Imperial accent when she spoke, it might cause them to take a closer look at her to discover that she was, in fact, not Devaronian.
Vindis, becoming slightly annoyed, merely nodded recognition of Calaverous' compliment, inappropriate as it was. Yet, she recalled how much weight she'd lost during her trials on Korriban. Her ribs and spinal column showed prominently on her body and neck. She was quite gaunt and was starting to lose some of her hair, all signs of chronic malnutrition.
The stress, the constant fear, the justified paranoia, the always looking over her shoulder had all taken a terrible toll on her health and, nearly, her sanity. Many times she'd missed meals, and what meals she'd eaten was barely adequate.
She never understood why Tormen chose her over Calaverous. Sure, she was strong in The Force and quite capable, but so was Calaverous. Yet, there was something about him that always screamed at her, "Don't turn your back to him!"
"Perhaps that's why Tormen chose me," she speculated to herself, "He knew that his back would eventually be exposed to Calaverous.
She noted that he was dressed quite well, if not in traditional Sith attire. He wore a very well tailored, expensive navy blue business suit with very thin faint white vertical stripes. Despite his choice in attire, she could tell that he kept his medium build quite fit.
His rosy white face was perfectly clean shaven, and his dark blonde hair precisely trimmed and neatly coiffed, slicked back and held in place with not too much styling gel. When he nodded his greetings to her, his pale blue eyes seemed to glint from the very bright lighting from the gaudily illuminated hotel across the boulevard. His large suitcase sat next to him at the side of the bench. She imagined that his armor was packed within.
Vindis heard an anti-collision alarm high overhead, as one speeder cautioned all of the other speeders around it to re-scan their immediate surroundings, to prevent a collision. She looked up past all of the traffic to the natural sky.
It was a mid morning sky. The star Y'Toub was hidden behind the tall hotel building across the wide boulevard. The smoggy sky was the best view the super wealthy could hope to enjoy while partying and frolicking in the open plazas of the Promenade.
Each night, the light pollution illuminated the smog, ensuring an even bright glow which guaranteed no star could ever be seen. At least, depending on the time of month, one could look up at the night sky and see Hutta, with its ring illuminated by Y'toub.
Now, however, what greeted Vindis' eyes was a sulfurous looking smoggy mid morning sky.
"That sky is so ugly," Vindis thought to herself, before returning her attention to Calaverous and noncommittally telling him, "You seem to be doing well for yourself."
"It's been quite a bit of a long, slow, and somewhat unpredictable journey, for me," he answered, his grin diminishing slightly, "I serve Darth Nox, now."
Vindis' eyes widened slightly on hearing this. She recovered her composure quickly, however.
"That must be quite the challenging post to have," she returned, "You're not his apprentice, though. I would have heard."
"Everyone would have heard," Calaverous replied, his eyes taking on a slight melancholy despite his easy smile, "I serve him behind the scenes. I don't think he's noticed me, yet. But one day he will, and when he does…," he trailed off.
"What will you do?" She asked.
"I'll do my best not to displease him. I'll do my best to survive," he said. Then changing the subject with his widening impish grin, added, "I'd invite you to join me for a couple of drinks in the hotel there, but I doubt our salaries could withstand the shock of the bar tab afterwards."
He gave a light chuckle at his joke, but Vindis knew she couldn't afford a drink at the hotel bar without having to sacrifice half of her monthly food bill.
"I realize you don't trust me," Calaverous said, at the edge of chortling, "but if we ride a taxi together, you'll have no choice but to sit beside me," then he sank in the punchline, a barb, "Do you think you'll be able to stand the pressure of that taxi ride without fainting?"
Vindis made a face at him. Clearly, she was not amused.
"Here," she said, rising from her bench.
She took a few steps across the walking path, stretching her arm towards him. Calaverous' smile faltered ever so slightly, the good humor in his eyes changing ever so slightly. Subtly, but quickly, he sat straighter on his bench.
However, when he saw the flimsiplast in her outstretched hand, he relaxed, realizing she wasn't attacking him. He reached for the flimsi and, upon closer inspection, realized a passenger ticket was attached to the back of the flimsi.
"That's the spaceport from where we'll catch our commuter flight," she told him, "The next flight leaves in six hours. Don't miss it. You'll be briefed when we arrive to the compound to meet with the rest of the operations team. We've been training for a week, and you'll need to catch up on your part."
"So. It's separate taxis, then," he said, with some disappointment, before asking, "Why don't we go someplace… affordable, and get something to eat, and perhaps have a drink together?" he offered, "We'll reacquaint ourselves, catch up and learn what we've been up to since the academy days."
Vindis realized that it wasn't his glib attitude that bothered her. It was that she feared him, greatly. The realization that she had admitted this to herself, startled her. Yet, she understood that her fear of him could become a serious weakness that could bring her down in the world of the Sith.
It was something that she had to overcome. She imagined Calaverous thinking her a cowardly woman for fearing to ride a taxi with him.
"Fine, let's be on our way," she said, businesslike, "We'll ride in the same taxi. There's bound to be someplace near the spaceport where we can get something to eat."
Calaverous stood from his bench, and took his first steps towards the taxi kiosk across the boulevard, in front of the hotel.
"Come, Satchel!" he commanded.
His suitcase deployed wheels from underneath and began to roll after its master. Vindis turned and took up a place beside Calaverous, and her droid followed her without needing to be told.
After hearing their Imperial accented Basic, the Kubaz taxi driver kept silent after getting the destination his fare wanted to go to. He knew wealthy Imperials hated aliens. They always told him to save his chittering, or his buzzing, for his own kind, or words to that effect. It was quite rude, but wealthy Imperials always were.
Meanwhile, his passengers hadn't told him anything except a vague description of their destination.
"Take us to a popular eatery near the Uggaahmah The Hutt Commuter Spaceport," Vindis ordered, quite brusquely.
The Kubaz's snout contracted and extended back to its normal relaxed length, the equivalent of a human rolling his eyes.
"There are dozens of such places! Couldn't they be more specific?" the taxi driver thought, derisively, "I'll just take them to a cantina full of non-human staff and patrons. They'll really like that!"
Commuter spaceports serviced local shuttle flights around Nar Shaddaa and the planets and space stations within the star system. To get a flight to another star system, you had to go to an interstellar spaceport.
The Kubaz's fare had kept silent for quite a stretch of the cab ride, after giving him their vaguely worded destination.
"It would be quite easy to get lost on this world," Calaverous said, finally breaking the silence in his attempt to break the ice.
"Quite," Vindis replied, succinctly.
"If one needed to run and hide," Calaverous elaborated, "This would be the place to do that."
"You're already thinking of your escape plan in case things don't work out between you and Darth Nox?" Vindis asked, intending it to be a dig at him.
"If this mission fails, whatever the mission is, and Darth Tormen develops an intense anger towards you," Calaverous countered, deadpan, "this may be the way to go, for you."
Vindis felt stung by his rejoinder, but hid her displeasure.
Silence enforced its dominance in the taxi ride. Vindis told herself that she was on high alert, but in actuality she refused to admit to herself that her jumble of nerves was actually fear because she was sitting right next to her old academy rival.
"Wait until you hear what the job is," Vindis finally said, after a stretch of time, trying to loosen up, "Your jaw will drop."
"Hmmph!" Calaverous replied with a nod and a look of keen interest, "You can't give me a small inkling of what the job is?"
"I won't be able to brief you until we reach the compound. You'll have to wait until then."
"I see. Very well, I'll just have to endure being in suspense until then."
Another stretch of silence followed.
"It seems as though it could be a good bit of fun," Calaverous said, after a while.
"Oh, what fun it will be," Vindis replied, dryly.
Calaverous smiled at their awkwardness, as more silence filled the cab ride the rest of the way to a cantina near the spaceport . Calaverous paid the taxi driver, leaving no tip. The Kubaz driver thanked his passenger for paying the fair.
"Cheap greebbah slug!" he thought, of Calaverous "Well, at least he paid the fare."
Calaverous left no tip, out of habit. In Kaas City, all of the taxis were droids. Exact fair was always paid, and tips were never considered. Calaverous simply didn't know the custom of tipping taxi drivers on other worlds.
The only worlds he'd ever been to, outside of Dromund Kaas, was Yavin Four, which was a moon of the gas giant Yavin, Kalakar Six, which was a moon of the gas giant Dromund Kalakar, and, of course, Korriban. On those worlds, only military transportation was available.
As a Sith lord from the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, conducting inspections of the archaeological operations on Yavin Four and on Kalakar Six, he was afforded access to military transport from the Imperial Reclamation Service.
On Korriban, he had to sign for and pay a rental fee for a speeder owned by the Sith Academy, but he usually traveled on foot if he could get to an ancient tomb or temple ruins within a day.
There were four hours remaining until their local commuter shuttle flight to the Lower Industrial Sector within the Naggarrii The Hutt district building in the Raah'hetaahn precinct on Nar Shaddaa's southern hemisphere. This was where Clan Sharratt's enclave was located.
The two, with their droids in tow, entered the cantina. It was a popular destination for travelers of all species, aliens and humans alike, and a very nice establishment it was at that. Its popularity was owed to the fact that many travelers made it their first stop, or their last stop, when beginning or ending their long journeys at the spaceport.
"We could have met here," Calaverous said, dryly, giving Vindis a sidelong glance.
"I didn't know about this place, beforehand," Vindis replied.
A human male door host greeted them.
"Droids have to wait in the droid station, to the left," he'd told them, tiredly, in Republic accented Basic.
Vindis turned towards Calaverous, instantly suspicious of the door host. Her peer merely shrugged.
"Rem," Vindis commanded her droid, "report to the droid station there," she pointed, "initiate security protocol two."
"Yes, Master," her droid said, acknowledging it's commands and making its way as ordered.
The door host's eyes widened, as he realized there were Imperials in front of him, and one of them was dressed in what looked like Sith attire. Sith always dressed in strange and flamboyant clothing, or in dread, bleak, dark robes.
The red skinned woman before him, he realized with a start, wore a long cylindrical object on her belt. He became filled with dread, but did his best to keep his cool.
Meanwhile, Vindis' droid made its way to the indicated droid station, powering up its blaster pistol, which was hidden within its chassis. It would then become alert to danger to itself or to its master.
"Satchel, park," Calaverous said, simply.
The droid's wheels withdrew into its chassis. Calaverous effortlessly picked up the large bulky suitcase droid by it's handle and looked at the door host.
"It's a suitcase," Calaverous said, simply.
"Yeah, sure. A suitcase. Follow her to your table," the doorman said, pointing at a waitress, with a silent sigh of relief that the Sith didn't cause any trouble for him.
"Dis way. Fowow me, pwease," a female Rodian said, in Huttese accented broken Basic.
The two sat at their table and opened their menus. A Human female approached their table with a tray of prepared cocktail drinks.
"May I int'ress you in a small l'bation while you p'ruse de mennu?" she asked, in Huttese influenced Basic, smiling at the dinner guests.
Calaverous and Vindis each took a drink from the tray.
"A bar waitress will come soon to take anne'more drink orders you may wan," she said, and moved on to another table with a newly seated party of dinner guests.
"She's Human," Vindis groused under her breath, "she should at least make the effort to speak like one."
Calaverous found the comment amusing and grinned in response.
The two sat quietly, looking over their menus. Until Calaverous broke the silence.
"Our first date," he said, straight faced.
"What?!" Vindis asked, aghast, "It is nothing of the sort!"
"Of course it isn't, but you should have seen the look on your face," he said, with a laugh, "It was priceless."
"Is everything a joke to you, Lord Calaverous?"
"Well, I was just trying to break the ice," he replied, mirth filling his smile, "Also, since we are on Nar Shaddaa, remember there are bounties on the heads of Sith and Jedi alike. The Republic and the Empire post bounties on each, respectively. We have to keep alert for the SIS. Let us drop the use of our titles while on this moon. Unless you want to attract trouble to yourself, that is. I won't mind."
"You aren't scared of these riff raff, are you, Lord Calaverous?" Vindis asked, imperiously.
"No. Not at all, but you did say we were on a secret mission. So, I assumed you wanted to keep anonymity. That's all."
Vindis suddenly remembered the Republic door host and felt stupid for not thinking of security. Calaverous was dressed in an unSith-like business suit, and she was dressed in casual Sith attire with slim profile body armor underneath. She realized she hadn't seen his lightsaber, but her weapon was on her hip, for all to see. She suddenly felt exposed as she turned her eyes to the door host.
Calaverous could see the realization come to her eyes as she looked down at her attire and decided he would have bit of fun with her unease.
Their waitress, a Twi'lek approached their table and took their orders. She left shortly thereafter with their orders placed and transmitted to the kitchen staff in back.
"Well, I'm sure the SIS have been on your tail since you arrived on this moon, so I'm certain we're both under surveillance anyway. It's probably difficult to hide the fact that you are a Sith Pureblood wearing casual Sith attire.
"That lightsaber on your hip is a dead giveaway, too. I suppose it doesn't matter whether we use our titles or not, Lord Vindis," he said, taking a sip from his drink, "Mmmm! This is nice!"
Vindis merely gave him a look of derision when she realized, that although what he said wasn't untrue, he was still yanking her chain.
Their meals arrived shortly, and right on time the bar waitress arrived to take their drink orders.
Calaverous took his first bite from his dish.
"Mmmm! I'm starting to really like this place!" he said, knocking back the last sip from his first cocktail.
"I must say," Vindis agreed, ever mindful of the Republic door host, "I cannot fault the service of this establishment.
"Former Republic?" Vindis asked herself, taking a sidelong glance at him.
The two ate in silence for a while, listening to the many conversations at the other tables around them. The laughter and frivolity suddenly caused Vindis to feel left out of the fun. She realized that it might have been the alcohol giving her those feelings. She turned her eyes towards Calaverous and briefly watched as he lifted his glass for a sip from his new cocktail.
Before she could return her eyes to her plate, he'd caught her looking. He smiled and raised his glass as though in toast, but said nothing. Vindis nodded acknowledgment of his gesture and returned to her meal.
"This is quite delightful," she said, of her dish.
"I'm glad to see you're enjoying your meal," he returned.
"Why do you smile?" she asked, out of the blue.
"To be sociable," he answered without missing a beat, mildly amused by the question, "To disarm strangers of their suspicions of me. To win allies. To get others to trust me, and because it amuses me to do so.
"Depending on the circumstance, it makes me feel good inside," he paused and set his cutlery down, looking thoughtfully at Vindis, "Yet it seems to have had the opposite affect with you," he said, eyeing her thoughtfully, before asking, "What about you? Have you ever smiled?"
"There have been times. When laughing at fools," she replied, believing his question was meant as a barb, "I laugh at the weak, and at those bereft of common sense. It is then that I smile."
"If you don't take a rest from anger, fury and hatred, you'll break your own spirit. You need to take a break every now and again and enjoy a bit of happiness and levity. When you descend from a happy disposition into fury and hatred, you really feel it. If you're angry all of the time, it's harder to get any angrier then you already are, and that makes it harder to draw more power from the Dark Side."
"At the Sith Academy, I've watched you smiling and having a lighthearted conversation with your friend just before you stabbed him in the chest with a vibroknife," she said, guardedly.
"Ah! I also smile to hide my hatred," he said, as though he'd been reminded.
He smiled warmly at Vindis.
"Are you going to stab me in the chest with that smile?" she asked, becoming chilled by his glib admission of his ruthlessness.
"We aren't in the academy anymore," Calaverous replied, "We aren't rivals anymore. Darth Tormen has chosen you. I created new opportunities for myself. Not only that, but you thought to call me and offer me a lot of credits for a job. When you pay me, I'll be quite happy and we'll be able to part ways on good terms."
"Aren't you furious that I was chosen and not you?" she pressed him.
"I was, in the past," he told her, leaning back in his chair and lifting his glass to his lips, but finding it empty.
Calaverous raised his hand and used The Force to subtly cause the bar waitress to feel a need to turn his way. He smiled and gestured with his emptied glass for another drink. The waitress smiled back, immediately placing his order.
"I was, in the past," he repeated himself, "but I've moved on and found new opportunities for myself. Under Thanaton, I was elevated to lord of the Sith. Now, under Darth Nox, I must look for my next chance. I make my own future. I have no reason to hate you, now. Unless you don't pay me, that would make me hate you. Remember that," he cautioned.
"I am not a dishonorable woman, Lord Calaverous," she said, a bit offended that he would think that of her, "I pay my debts and honor my contracts."
"Of course you do, Lord Vindis, or I wouldn't have taken your offer," he answered, as he picked up his cutlery and resumed his meal.
Lord Vindis assumed that she would have to search for Wrehn and the speeder in the massive park lot outside of the spaceport for their ride to the Lower Industrial Sector, but she was wrong. Torian was in the concourse, waiting.
He was in street clothes. He wore a medium brown suede leatheris jacket with fringes along the length of each sleave, across the breast and upper backside of the jacket. He wore off-white heavy fabric pants, brown leatheris boots, a brown leatheris utility belt with matching holster, with a compact blaster pistol on his hip, and a combat vibroknife strapped to his boot in a brown leatheris scabbard. To top off his outfit, he wore a wide-brimmed brown felt hat with the brim slightly curled up on both sides of his head.
Vindis found his rustic style quite stunning, but then she remembered that he was a Mandalorian miscreant.
The miscreant caught sight of her, Vindis could tell.
Torian noticed her a ways off down the length of the concourse. He spotted her droid following behind her, and took note of a well dressed Human male at the Sith Pureblood's side, with his suitcase following behind him.
When the two Sith lords came to a stop before him, he gave them a short brief.
"Keep your eyes and ears open," he told them, "This is the likeliest spot for an ambush. Follow me to the speeder. The others are waiting there for us."
With that, Torian turned about and proceeded to walk, leading the two Sith lords to the end of the long concourse, and then out of the spaceport and to the vast park lot.
"That's quite the greetings we've got," Calaverous said in a low tone to Vindis, a smile in his tone, "It couldn't be any cheerier."
"He's not much of a conversationalist," Vindis quipped, "but then why should we suffer the inane prattle of the riff raff?"
Calaverous almost laughed out loud, but an eye roll reinforced the mirth expressed on his facade.
"She is such the princess!" he thought of Vindis.
Torian led the Sith into the sea of parked speeders, taking them many, many rows in. The sea of parked speeders were illuminated by powerful lights mounted on the ceiling of the mega floor over thirty stories high. The lighting, at the moment, simulated early evening.
Vindis finally spotted Wrehn, a few more rows beyond, sitting on the hood of a speeder.
Wrehn wore a tan leatheris jacket with a black crew neck, buttonless shirt underneath, blue heavy fabric pants, and handmade, tan natural leatheris boots, which she'd gotten as a bonus for a job delivering a large shipment of the boots to Ziost.
She wore two, police duty blaster pistols, one on each hip. Her weapons were holstered in natural brown leatheris holsters on a natural brown leatheris duty belt, which she had custom made on Duros.
Meanwhile, Gault leaned against the driver's door, facing in the opposite direction from Wrehn, away from the spaceport. He wore a black leatheris Jacket, a black button down shirt with a straight point collar, black heavy fabric pants, and black leatheris boots. He wore a blaster rifle strapped over his back and a single sidearm on his hip.
Although the two looked to be casually waiting, the alertness in their eyes, and the fact that their heads were nearly constantly swiveling back and forth meant they were on high alert. Torian, too. His head never stopped swiveling, as he led the Sith lords to their rental speeder.
Despite the apparent relaxed atmosphere of the entire setting, Vindis could feel the tension as they paranoidally ever watched for attackers. She didn't know that they'd been targeted, in ambush, by the SIS at a spaceport park lot just like this one once before.
"A Chiss," Calaverous observed of her cobalt blue skin and solid red eyes, "and a Devaronian, too?"
Walking ahead of the Sith lords, Torian's ears perked up on hearing his tone when asking about Wrehn and Gault.
"The Chiss woman is my client," Vindis said, flatly.
Calaverous stopped in his tracks, shocked. Before he could say anything, Vindis forestalled him.
"Her client is Darth Tormen.
That made Calaverous realize an opportunity for Darth Tormen, and through Tormen the Dark Council, to take notice of him.
"And through the Dark Council, Darth Nox," he thought to himself.
"I am serving as his observer," Vindis had been saying, "to ensure she carries out her contract," she told him, "In the meantime, I found an opportunity to make a lot of credits and forced her to hire me. Then, after I understood exactly what I was getting into, I hired you."
"A lord of the Sith working for a Chiss alien," Calaverous teased, "Unbelievable. Then again, this Chiss is working for Darth Tormen. So, that makes it alright, I suppose."
"Damned Sith!" Torian groused to himself, "Always thinking they're better than everyone else!"
Calaverous was plainly holding back a laugh, and Vindis could see it.
"You can walk away from this job and the money," she told him, coldly, "If you decide to stay on, however, you'll find more than just an opportunity to be noticed by Darth Nox."
"I certainly hope so," he told her, smiling affably.
As usual, Vindis couldn't tell what was really going on behind that mask, and it irked her greatly.
The two resumed their steps towards Wrehn's rental speeder, a passenger van with seating for ten.
Wrehn watched as Vindis approached her parked speeder with what seemed to her to be a businessman, a wealthy banker. She realized it was the Sith Vindis had hired, but she expected to see a fully armored Sithed-up nut case. This guy, however, seemed rational, normal, friendly even, and he was handsome.
"I should take bets that he's an old boyfriend of hers" Wrehn told herself, smirking.
The temptation to tease Vindis with the joke quickly passed when she remembered how temperamental Vindis tended to be.
Vindis and the dapper gentleman walked up to the rental speeder and stopped in front of Wrehn, who'd gotten off the hood of the rental and stood to her feet to greet the two.
"I'm Yehw'reh'nomai. I'm the contractor running this job for her boss," she said, nodding towards Vindis before extending her hand to the handsome business-looking-man.
"I'm Calaverous, Lord of The Sith. It is a pleasure to meet you," he said, taking her hand and shaking once, in the Imperial fashion.
Vindis was astounded by his casual acceptance of the alien filth's familiarity with him, going as far as to shake her disgusting blue hand. She turned to glare her disapproval at him, but when she saw his warm, friendly smile aimed at the Chiss woman, she realized she could not tell whether he would suddenly stab the Chiss woman through the chest. Vindis returned her eyes towards the unsuspecting Wrehn.
"Lord Calaverous," Vindis warned, speaking in her broken rendition of the dead, ancient Sith language, "Paid fortune not yet me, she."
"Oh, really?" Calaverous asked, in Basic, smiling. Then, in that same archaic Sith language, he said, "For great fortune, keep safe she - you, me must."
"Uh, oh!" Wrehn thought, "They're already going to be trouble."
The Chiss woman didn't let on that she suspected that the two were up to no good.
"Well, they are Sith. I shouldn't have been surprised," she thought, with a mental shrug, "We'll just have to keep our eyes open. That's all."
"Let's get you two loaded aboard," Wrehn said to the Sith lords.
Wrehn opened the rear hatch, and gestured for Calaverous to set his suitcase in the luggage compartment. After shutting the rear hatch, she opened the rear gull-wing door, and gestured for the two to sit in the rearmost forward facing bench seat.
"Droid, sit at the far end of the rear facing seat," Wrehn ordered the machine, but it did not respond, nor move.
"Do it, Rem," Vindis ordered the droid.
"Yes, Master," the droid replied as it got in and sat where Wrehn had instructed.
The Chiss bounty hunter followed it in, sitting with a bit of space separating her from the droid in the rear facing seat bench. She touched a contact, and the gull-wing door lowered and clicked shut.
Gault got into the driver's seat. Meanwhile, Torian had already gotten into the front passenger's seat and removed his hat. There wasn't enough headroom to accommodate it on his head.
Gault got the speeder moving. The speeder silently glided over the top of the parked speeders until it got into the cue of speeders leaving the spaceport park lot to enter the local traffic pattern.
"We're a week ahead of you in training for this mission," Wrehn told the handsome banker-looking man, "You ready for intensive training to catch up for your part?"
"I am always ready to do my part," he answered in an upbeat tone, "but what exactly will be my part?"
"We won't talk here about the job," Wrehn told Calaverous, "You'll be fully briefed when we get to Clan Sharratt's enclave. They have a huge compound where they train for missions and stuff.
"For now, we're heading to a small spaceport. That's where my starship is parked. It's four hours away."
Calaverous made a face on hearing that.
"That's quite a long drive. I'm amazed that we didn't just take a direct flight to this small spaceport," he said, critical of their travel arrangements.
"The SIS have been trying to get close to us," Wrehn explained to the Sith lord, "I don't like the idea of getting on transportation that I'm not in control of."
"Hmmm…," Calaverous said, aloud. To himself, he thought, "Just how dangerous is this job going to be if this Chiss Mandalorian is this paranoid and actually worried about the SIS getting close?"
"Don't worry," Wrehn assured him, "We'll make hourly rest stops along the way, more stops if we need to."
Calaverous smiled and nodded as though he found her assurance satisfactory. Vindis began to realize the advantage of hiding one's true feelings.
"He could be on the verge of killing the Chiss filth, and she wouldn't even know it," Vindis thought, with a chilling reminder to herself, "The same could be true for me, too."
Wrehn, Vindis, Calaverous, Torian, and Gault all got out of the speeder van. They all stretched and walked a few steps to get the kinks out of their legs. Torian walked to the back of the speeder and attempted to pull Calaverous' large, bulky, and very heavy suitcase out from the back. It was quite a challenge for the Mandalorian warrior/bounty hunter. He ended up enlisting Gault's aid to lift the suitcase out of the back of the van.
"What is he carrying in his luggage," Gault complained in a low voice to Torian, "his entire weight training set?"
"He lifted it into the van like it was nothing," Torian whispered back, "Maybe this is only a quarter of his weight set."
Most of the weight was the droid component of the suitcase. The rest of the weight was of Calaverous' armor, his equipment, and other belongings.
Meanwhile, Vindis ordered her droid out of the van as she stretched the kinks out of her back and legs.
With everyone, and everything unloaded from the speeder, Gault and Torian got back in and drove off. They made their way to the rental business located outside the of the small spaceport. There, they would return the speeder and recover the deposit, minus a cleaning fee.
Meanwhile, Wrehn, Vindis, and Calaverous went up a small set of steps that led to the small hatch set into the center bottom of the huge ramp, which was in it's raised, sealed, and locked position. Calaverous used The Force to lift his suitcase droid up the small set of steps, carrying it through the hatchway and into the ship, but Vindis' droid climbed up behind its master without her assistance.
"Where will Lord Calaverous stay?" Vindis asked Wrehn.
The Sith lord's droid stepped through the hatch and came to a stop behind its master. Meanwhile, the small hatch rolled shut, and the small stairs outside, raised and ducked into their stowed position under the hatchway.
"We'll need to make accommodations for him," she said to Wrehn.
"You have options, Calaverous," Wrehn told the handsome banker - Sith lord.
Vindis quickly shifted her eyes towards Calaverous, and could see, immediately, that his warm smile had diminished markedly, but he didn't say anything.
"You can stay at a hotel, at your own expense," Wrehn told him, "The nearest hotel to the enclave is two hours away by taxi. Next, you can choose to stay in one of the officers' quarters in Clan Sharratt's compound. It'll be noisy, though. They'll be playing drinking games, thumping their chests, hurling insults at one another, and rough housing."
"What's my third option, Yehw'reh'nomai?" Calaverous asked to Vindis' astonishment.
"He didn't call her out for her presumptive familiarity with him!" Vindis thought to herself, with great disapproval.
This thought angered her even more as she thought of how she, herself, had been nerfed by this Chiss woman, and had to put up with her presumptive familiarity.
"This way," Wrehn said, turning to lead the two Sith Lords towards the side of the cargo bay.
Wrehn was trying her best to be polite, but all she could see was Vindis getting worked up by the minute.
Vindis became scandalized when she realized Wrehn was leading them to a storage container. Wrehn opened the hatch and turned on a light inside of the durasteel shipping container. She gestured for Calaverous to have a look inside, which he did.
Calaverous saw that the storage container had been converted into temporary quarters. A cot had been set up against the wall to his right inside the container at the far end. At the near end, against the same wall, was a small metal field desk with a folding metal chair.
Calaverous noted that the interior had been fitted with a ventilation system, and electrical outlets. The lighting was adequate and even. Against the opposite wall, were clothes racks and clothes hooks, as well as shelving for the storage of his other items.
"It's thirty minutes to the compound from this spaceport," Wrehn explained, ticking off the benefits of the converted container, " It's nice and quiet, most of the time. You'll have full access to the galley and the fresher, and best of all, I'm only charging a hundred seventy credits per day for it's use."
The two Sith lords looked at Wrehn with quite a bit of incredulity, not believing what they'd heard.
Wrehn enjoyed their reactions, letting loose with a guffaw.
"That was a joke," she said, laughing, and hoping that would break the ice a little bit, "You'd be a guest aboard my starship."
Vindis shook her head with great disapproval, while Calaverous burst into laughter.
"You got me!" he admitted, "It's a bit humble, but I think I can manage," he said, then asked, "Did you arrange this for me, or is this where you keep prisoners?"
Vindis shook her head, again scandalized that Calaverous would tolerate the Chiss woman's flagrant disregard for their station.
"We are lords of Sith!" she raged to herself, "Even if she is not an Imperial, she should show respect!"
Wrehn was greatly surprised by Calaverous' seeming humility and good manners, but hid her surprise quite well. She nodded her great respect for the Sith lord. She could also see Vindis was on the verge of exploding.
"What am I doing wrong?" the Chiss woman asked herself, perplexed. Aloud, she explained, "We use it primarily as storage for tools and supplies," she said, pointing at the contents neatly arranged at a corner of the cargo bay, "But we keep the overflow of bounty heads that don't fit in our holding cells in here, only without the furnishings and the other amenities. They just get lighting and ventilation. We open this small hatch to pass them their meals," she concluded, pointing at the hatch.
"Sorry about the poor accommodations, but I've never had any guests on my ship before. It's only been my crew and bounty heads," she told Calaverous, adding, "and cargo. Sometimes we ship cargo."
"Well, it's only temporary, and after this job's done, I think I might spend a bit of time on The Promenade," Calaverous said, congenially, "That will more than make up for my time in a durasteel shipping box."
Wrehn nodded agreement as she started to get a bad feeling about the Sith lord. Her smile did not fade as her poker face took over. She recalled, a bit over four hours ago, when the two Sith lords exchanged a few words of a very strange language with each other.
"For being a Sith lord, he sure is nice. Waaay too nice," she thought, "Better keep an eye on him."
"Before meeting my hired guns. I'll brief you, get you up to speed on the clan we'll be working with, their politics, and what the mission is."
"How much have you told him about the mission?" Wrehn asked Vindis.
"Nothing, yet. I didn't feel it was safe to talk."
"Alright," Wrehn said, nodding approval of Vindis' caution, "Follow me to the Command and Communications Section."
The three took seats around the intragalactic holo-transceiver, and Wrehn began her briefing.
We're training for the mission at Clan Sharratt's compound. When the training's done, we'll travel to Csilla where we'll link up with our transports before traveling to our destination for the mission," Wrehn said, in a businesslike manner.
"Why not have the transports come to us, here?" Calaverous asked, thinking it would be easier that way.
"I don't want SIS looking at the ships," Wrehn said, adding worriedly, "Clan Sharratt already cleaned out a few micro droids, snooping around the compound, and they killed one guy they caught in their ventilation system sneaking around. Probably SIS.
"SIS know we're up to something," Wrehn added, her disgust starting to show on her face, "I'm gonna have to talk to Mandalore about leaks."
"The leaks might have come from Clan Sharratt," Vindis pointed out.
"The only ones who know what the mission is is Ymmiir Sharratt, and his top officers on the mission. The grunts don't know what the target is, only that it's heavily defended," Wrehn replied, addressing Vindis' concern, "But yeah. I'll say something to Ymmiir.
"Alright, let me tell you about the Mandalorians we'll be working with," Wrehn said, turning her attention towards Calaverous, "Clan Sharratt is a small clan currently with about eight thousand individuals. They have approximately three thousand fighters. The rest are the retired elderly, small children, adolescents that are too young to join a fighting unit, and a few wives who are purely domestic."
"Domestic?" Calaverous asked, intrigued, "as in a domestic slave?"
"Nah," Wrehn replied, cracking a grin at the notion, "They're homebodies. They aren't combatants. They stay home raising the kids while their husbands go off to fight. Clan Sharratt came to Nar Shaddaa to hang out for a while when they found out there were Republic military installations on the Smuggler's Moon.
"They figured they could do hit and run raids on the Republic to sharpen their skills, get a bit of glory and, in general, harass Republic forces on Nar Shaddaa. They'd hit the Republic once or twice a year, and have been doing it for about the last eighteen years.
"They'd only been killing Republic soldiers, not noncombatants, at least not on purpose. They'd been taking prisoners, exchanging them for ransom. That sort of thing.
"The Republic has retaliated against the clan in past counter-raids, but a little over a month ago, the Republic went overboard," Wrehn continued her briefing, "The clan expected a counter strike like at other times, but the Republic took it a step too far, this time, slaughtering the none combatants, elderly, small children, and young adolescents who were the last line of defense in their homes.
"The Republic killed about four thousand. That took them from twelve thousand, down to eight thousand. Two hundred combatants were killed, the rest of the dead were the noncombatants. They also had a few thousand wounded. Less than a third were combatants, the rest of the wounded were the non-combatants. It was a slaughter.
Clan Sharratt has started their recovery from that slaughter, reconstituting their numbers," Wrehn cupped her hand and whispered, "Having lots of babies," then continuing in a normal tone, she added, "enlisting and training the adolescents at a younger than normal age.
"They'd been getting ready for a counter slaughter operation, as an act of vengeance. They were going to pick a Republic military base to attack and kill everyone there. Then I showed up and made my offer to hire them for this job, and that's where we are now."
"That's where Clan Sharratt's interest is in this operation," Wrehn said, "The Sith Empire have their reasons for paying for this operation, and Mandalore has shown his interest by recommending me for this job. I have my reasons for taking this job, too."
Vindis cut in, telling Calaverous, "It all comes down to one word that unites us together in this single endeavor. Vengeance."
"What is it exactly that we'll be doing? What's my part in all of this?" Calaverous asked.
"I won't go into the details of your role, now," Wrehn told him, "We'll go over that when we get to the compound and go through training simulations. Just know that the primary target is the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, and the secondary targets are members of the SIS, including two Jedi."
Calaverous' demeanor changed on hearing that. His smile evaporated as he turned to regard Vindis.
"Ten million is not enough, Lord Vindis. You must pay me more."
"Thirty million, and not a credit more, or you can walk away from this job," Vindis said, sternly.
After a pause, to think it over, Calaverous nodded his acceptance of the deal.
"Then what are the motivations of the other powers involved?" Calaverous asked.
"Mandalore and I want vengeance against the SIS and the chain of command involved in the murder of certain Mandalorians."
Wrehn turned to Vindis and waited to give her a chance to explain the Sith Empire's interest in this.
"The Dark Council hasn't heard from the Emperor, nor from The Hand, nor The Wrath," she told Calaverous, to his growing shock and rage, "We found the dead body of The Voice on the Imperial Throne, with a cauterized wound through the chest. The Jedi attacked the Emperor at his orbital palace, but we do not know if the Emperor is gone or incapacitated. Either way, the Dark Council wants vengeance."
"Well, then," Calaverous said, a bit flippant, "if those thirty million credits failed to motivate me before, I can now confirm that I am more than sufficiently motivated to take part in this mission after hearing this news."
"We should get moving," Wrehn said to the Sith lords. The three left the Communications and Command Section and went back down the metal grated steps to the lower deck of the cargo bay. Wrehn pointed towards the front of the cargo bay to an open passageway.
"That passageway leads to the crew mess, the galley, and to the crew fresher. You can prepare your meals there, and the fresher has great water pressure. Settle in, Calaverous. Let me know when you're ready to go. I'll drive us all to the compound. Have you got any questions for me?"
"I'll ask my questions when I'm fully briefed on what my part is," he replied.
"I'll get changed into my armor," Vindis said, heading towards' Mako's old room.
"As will I," Calaverous said, turning towards the durasteel shipping container.
Wrehn nodded acknowledgment and took a small device from the breast pocket of her civilian jacket.
"Heaven's Cricket, unlock, break seal, and lower ramp," she spoke into the device.
Half a second later, the cargo bay was filled with the loud banging clang of the electromagnetic locks flipping the huge locking clamps that locked the massive ramp in place. This was followed by the hum of two huge motors that turned giant screws that slowly lowered the giant ramp to the ground.
As the huge ramp lowered, she walked to the forward right corner of the huge cargo bay and began to undo the cargo restraining straps which held her speeder securely to the deck. With the speeder freed from its cargo retention straps, she returned up the stairs to her quarters to change into her armor.
Wrehn took her time. She still had to wait for Gault and Torian to return and get changed into their armor.