Chapter 2
Location: The Our Lord Mandalore's Eternal Vengeance space station
In orbit above the planet Mandalore.
Vestara had been staring out the viewport of her ship for several minutes when she noticed the light in the bay had changed. She looked, to find a group of Mandalorians approaching.
"Lady Khai!" the sinister yet warm voice reached out to her in the force. "These ones approach with anger and fear, and it is directed to you. We must attack the bay and we shall escape to a new refuge."
Vestara watched as the distinctive armour of the two leading the group came into focus: Mirta Gev, and ... Boba Fett. Her first instinct was to dissuade her semi-sentient Vessel "Ship" from any rash action. After all, the Sith training Vessel had always been just a bit over protective of its star pupil. But this time he might have a point. She wasn't afraid of much in the universe besides Luke Skywalker. But Boba Fett was not to be underestimated. He was an Abeloth hunter after all. Along with being a hunter of Yuuzhan Vong, Jedi, and Solos. And besides, when the leader of the Mandalorians paid you a visit it wasn't to blast the bantha over hot caf.
"Stay alert ship but don't do anything without my command" she said, followed by an exhale of tension and then she said: "let's get this over with."
With that she left her pilot's chair and headed to the ship's "freshly made" exit. When she had received Senator VoxHayly's proposal she saw more the potential of the deal rather than the fallout. For the first time in many years she rushed into a situation without careful thought. Not that careful thought would have changed her mind. In a multitude of lives, inside a multitude of universes, Vestara Khai would have taken the deal. It meant too much to her to rejoin her people. But in hindsight, she should have prepared herself for what was going to happen next. She shouldn't be in any kind of danger. Shouldn't? However the next few minutes would be... Awkward.
"Well now, haven't you been a busy little Tooka." Said Boba Fett in his always unimpressed cold voice.
"What can I say? It's been a busy year, thanks to all the.. uh.. "subcontracts" you've graciously thrown my way." She replied without effort but with a smile.
Her smile that was always automatically bumped up to flirtatious by that small scar at the one corner of her lips.
"I'd like to think we aren't complete "Vac Heads" and can do basic addition." Mirta replied before Boba could. "Let's see... hmmm... VoxHayly contacts me to get a hold of you for "A Job". You contact him, presumably take the Job, and take off like a branded Eopie. When you get back the "Lando Family Tragedy" is plastered over all the newsfeeds."
There was no point denying it. Even though the news feeds were still reporting it as an accident, Mandos were hunters. They could smell the kill on her.
"Yes, that was me. I hadn't realized I need permission to take on work of my own."
"No one has ever accused me of micro managing," Boba responded, never skipping a beat. "But as our guest, it would've been nice to let us know you were gonna throw a Thermal Detonator right into the lap of the Jedi and then Come runnin back here."
She had to make an attempt at defending her actions, even if her arguments were lame.
"The Jedi had nothing to do with this." Vestara unconvincingly retorted.
Mirta's very short fuse just then ran out:"IT WAS THEIR KARKING SPACE STATION! Oh and by the way, I'm guessing you botched the job. Lando was supposed to go down too wasn't he? YOU LEFT LOOSE ENDS!" Mirta ended her tirade but her voice continued to echo in the bay.
"Look, the point is simple" Boba continued in a voice markedly calmer than that of his Granddaughter's. "You, just took out Lando's family.. that.. does something to... a man". He paused, pushing down the past that threatened to float to the surface.
It was moments like this that he was thankful for his helmet that shielded others from his thousand yard stare that threatened and yet failed to devour him.
"Not Just Lando" he regained his thoughts and continued: "The Jedi, The Queen Mother, and..."
"The Solo's?" Vestara interjected.
"The Solos." he agreed. "My people didn't sign up for extra baggage. Your days as our guest are over."
With those word Fett reached into one of his utility belt's pouches. Vestara's hand drifted to her lightsaber.
"Easy kid"
and with that he produced a dagger and with the smallest of efforts he hurled it with the force of a slug thrower into the durasteel deck between Vestara's boots.
Vestara bent down and with the aid of the force she pulled it out of the deck.
"We call it Kal, made of pure Beskar. Might not look like much but she'll stop a lightsabre. In other words, Savara Raine, we are sending you away with a blade in your hand instead of your heart, which for Mandalorians... is down right friendly."
He tipped his helmeted head forward while bidding her farewell:
"Keep your head on your shoulders Raine."
And with that he turned around and headed back the way he came. Mirta stayed a fraction of a second longer and then after giving "Savara" a two finger salute, she followed her Ba'buir.
Walking back toward her ship Vestara exhaled a long breath again, but this time it came out from between a self satisfied smile. She could chalk this up to another vaped hyperlane, but the only hyperlane that mattered was the one that led her back home. It didn't matter if she had to leave the whole galaxy in shambles; She was going home. Boba's ... gift?... threat?.. did nothing to quench her homesickness. Being made of Mando Iron, the Kal was slightly heavier than she was used to, and the shape was unlike any Shikkar or Parang she had held before. Oh, but to possess such a beloved weapon again felt so natural.
The fact, that it pierced a durasteel deck like it was blue butter, and it could stop a lightsaber? Well, that just excited Vestara in a way she hadn't felt for a long time. She was eager for the opportunity to allow the blade to taste blood for the first time, which she had the distinct feeling would be soon.
"Thank you for watching my back, ship" she said, as she walked through the entry port and sat in the Captains chair.
"I will not forsake you Lady Khai... as long as you do not completely forsake the Sith."
Ship replied. This gave Vestara the slightest pause.
What did he mean: "completely forsake the Sith?"
He had never impugned her loyalty to the Sith, even during the times she was confused and had doubts about those loyalties. But now...? She had never had a stronger desire to go home. At first she had great schemes to come back as the rightful Leader of Kesh.
But the dynamic of that longing had fundamentally changed. Returning to the Sith had now almost become an obsession. Kesh was her oxygen and her aspirations of rulership had slowly faded.
"Forget it, it's just a stupid ship, he's doesn't really know what..."
... "oh but I do know what I'm talking about, Lady Khai" the ship interrupting her thoughts with his own. "Stay true to your course, do not falter, and Do Not Fail Me!"
Why had that last mental prodding sent goosebumps all the way down to her artificial toes? It was because, she realized, it was such a pure Sith thing for him to say. Failure was punishable by death. She knew the stakes better than Ship ever could. Failure to return to Kesh would suffocate her. She would Succeed. In fact it was now time to return to Coruscant to confirm everything would be in place before her people's operatives could take their secret stations. This was going to happen, she could taste It.
Pushing aside any doubts that were aroused in her by that creepy conversation with ship, she gave the command in a voice that was shaky and almost tearful: "Kesh... No... I mean Coruscant!" She corrected. "But not a direct route make us hard to backtrack, we got time." With that she was off to secure her destiny.
From the station's nerve centre Boba Fett watched as the woman known to him as "Savara Raine" entered Hyperspace inside that living ship of hers. Just as his dagger had rekindled a warm feeling of her past, that ship of hers rekindled in him warm feelings of his people's past. Just like Savara's "Ship" the Basilisk War Droids his people used for millennia until the days of the empire were living beasts that where more companion than machine. It was "Ship's" unique nature that made a traditional tracking device impossible to plant on the hull.
However, recently his Mandalorians had made a breakthrough on tracking technology thanks in no small part to Hapan Ship debris that was recovered during a battle that they also were engaged in during the Galaxy's second civil war. It had taken nearly half a decade for Mandalorian engineers to understand the significance of their find, let alone a way to adapt it. He never had a head for the technicalities of science, after all Boba Fett was a practical man.
However, he always had good people, and his people told him that the Hapans had develop a tracking device that could be absorbed on a molecular level to whatever it was attached to, like for instance: a Mandalorian dagger? The Hapan's tracker alas, was limited to a relatively small range and hyperspace tracking was out of the question. The newly developed Mandalorian version broke through these limitations.
"Activate"
was all he had to say and within a few seconds, data and map points came streaming in on data screens all around him.
"It works, my Mandalore" said the technician standing at the controls.
"Not bad... Not bad at all."
He thought to himself. "That little Aruetiise tried to swallow the whole bloody Bantha in one bite and she's gonna end up choking on it. She's going down and I'll be Fraged if I'm gonna let her drag us down with her."
Out loud he said: "No more surprises. You let me know where she ends up, and let me know if you catch her sneaking back here."
"Yes Mandalore" was the expected reply.
With that Fett was free to explore the feelings that had tried to interrupt the earlier proceedings. And underneath his helmet , unbeknownst to the crowd surrounding him, a world of hurt and regret bubbled freely to the surface, and in this safe place, he did not fight it.