Wrehn sat at the conference table alone with her estranged uncle, Kepler. Her facade was stony, as she waited to hear the starship's captain's rejection. The XO, Lothar, was on the bridge conning the starship, and none of Wrehn's other subcontractors chose to attend the reconvened meeting, believing that the whole enterprise was a wash.
"The patriarch of House Omai has given me discretion," Kepler told Wrehn, speaking Cheunh and adding his terms, "I will do it on the condition that you double our pay. If you refuse, I shall give your other subcontractors transportation to their destinations of choice, leave you on Mandalore, and return to Chiss Ascendancy Space. I'll keep the deposit and request no other compensation."
Wrehn felt as though she were bleeding profits despite how much she'd been paid in advance and how much more was to be paid to her upon a successful completion of the mission – if she could survive to collect.
"Fine," was all she could say without going into a storm of expletives to add to her answer.
Wrehn's displeasure was plain to see. She looked at the captain as though he were a smelly pile of trash.
"Very good," Kepler replied, smiling, despite the dirty looks he was getting from his client, from his estranged niece, "Then I shall order Commander Nol'otha'romai to proceed to the next waypoint as was described in our planned movement to shake off our pursuers."
"Good," was all she trusted herself to say without becoming uncivil.
Wrehn stood from her seat and wordlessly made her way to the door behind the captain. Just before she touched the door contact, Captain Kepler called to her.
"Yehw'reh'nomai."
"What is it?" she asked, brusquely, turning to face him.
The captain remained seated, facing the far end of the small conference table.
"House Omai is watching you. The patriarch has taken an interest in you, and shall see how you carry yourself."
Wrehn didn't know what to say to that. She was exiled from her family because of the shame that she visited her father when she ran instead of taking up arms in his stead. She had no idea why the patriarch of House Omai, her great grandfather, would be interested in her at all.
She wordlessly turned, touched the door contact and walked out of the conference room. She had to meet with her other subcontractors and tell them that the mission was still on.
The first week, after the mission began in earnest, was spent making random stops at various star systems within Chiss Ascendancy space, while carefully scanning the space around them. They searched for the possibility that another Republic stealth droid was following them.
As described in Lothar's briefing, they spent four days in the Vrisla star system conducting gunnery drills as well as seek and destroy drills. The drills served as excellent training, but its real purpose was to conduct searches using both passive and active sensors to search for stealthed scout droids that might be on their tail and then destroy it.
When Kepler was certain they were not being followed, he ordered the Nova Star activate its stealth field generators.
The second week was spent testing and adjusting their stealth field on Mandalorian patrol craft, frigates and destroyers in Mandalorian space. The week had gone by without the Nova Star being discovered. At the end of week two, the Nova Star exited Mandalorian space, and entered the unconsolidated territories of the Outer Rim. The heavy cruiser was on a heading that took it towards Wild Space.
Wild Space was the uncharted and the unknown regions of the galaxy. Navigation in Wild Space was very tricky, and was generally not attempted by most starship operators. This was because there were no hyperspace lane charts for the region. Very few stars could be reached using light speed travel, but then the journey would be measured in months – one way – for the nearest stars, and measured in years and decades and even longer for the rest.
However, a few houses within the Chiss Ascendancy had been charting this region. House Omai was one of these houses. However, none of the few houses sending scouting missions into Wild Space had shared their findings with anyone outside of the Chiss Ascendancy. In fact, these houses hadn't even shared their findings with any of the other houses within the Chiss Ascendancy, either.
Therefore, when Wrehn entered the bridge to get an update from the XO as to their progress, she was shocked to see that the holographic astrogation chart showed their position deep within Wild Space.
"We're not lost, are we, Commander Nol'otha'romai?" she asked the executive officer, who was seated in the command chair at the center of the bridge.
"No. We're exactly where we should be," he replied with a grin, "We're about to conduct our first hyperspace jump towards the Core Worlds."
Wrehn stepped over to the navigation department, at the left rear corner of the bridge, and took a closer look at the astrogation chart. That's when she realized they weren't in the galaxy at all. The Nova Star was below the galaxy under Wild Space. She stepped back to the command chair.
"How are you able to navigate outside of the galaxy? Did the Ascendancy set up navigation beacons out here?
"Oops!" Lothar said, with a chuckle, "You're not supposed to see that."
"Oh," Wrehn said, "Don't worry about it. I'll forget what I saw and won't talk about it with anyone.
"Thank you," the XO replied, kicking himself mentally for the security slip up.
Wrehn looked outside of the canopy and realized she was seeing something she'd never seen before. The stars were all above, and down below was completely empty of stars. She could just make out a few, very dim fuzzy wisps, which she quickly realized were actually other galaxies far, far away.
The chandelier of stars became extended streaks that stretched over head, with nothing but empty black below. Accompanying the expected queasy feeling in her stomach, was the familiar mottled blotches that formed the tunnel of varying shades of blue which whipped back past the starship.
"We'll be in hyperspace for the next two weeks, Lothar, informed Wrehn, "When we drop out of hyperspace, we'll be in the galactic core, but still outside of Galactic Republic Space. That's when your troops should prepare themselves for embarkation aboard the dropships.
"As soon as we drop out of hyperspace in a distant orbit from Coruscant, the dropships will deploy out of the Nova Star. It will be a twelve hour flight, so your troops should probably consider holding off eating and drinking before hand."
"When the time comes, I'll see they take a hunger suppressant," Wrehn replied, "I'll fill Ymmiir Sharratt in on our current situation and get him up to speed."
Lothar nodded his acknowledgment as Wrehn turned to leave the bridge.
Two weeks later, in the hanger bay, Skadge set down his Xen-Tantriks PK-2700-B twenty seven millimeter nyodyne crystal recoilless three barrel rotary blaster cannon beside his supply crate. His weapon was a modified version normally found equipped on heavy war droids, manufactured on Balmora by Xen-Tantriks, a wholly owned subsidiary of Promak Droid Systems, a war droid manufacturing conglomerate with several related companies geared towards the manufacture of all types and grades of security and war droids and their associated weapons.
His PK-2700-B blaster cannon was modified with shortened barrels, added hand grips, an adjustable trigger housing group, and an intuitively customizable fire control system designed for the use of humanoids as large and as strong as Houks, Gamorreans, Gen'Dai, and other large and powerfully built humanoid species. Wrehn had purchased the massive weapon because – why not? That cannon packed a lot of firepower!
Skadge's crate contained two fully charged spare batteries for his blaster cannon, which – depending on its fire control settings – supplied power for eight hundred to nineteen hundred blaster bolts. His crate also contained six spare batteries for his personal shield generators, as well as six days worth of rations, four quarts of water and a portable water filtration system to process water obtained in the field. His supply crate also contained a standard medi-aid kit, a trauma medi-aid kit, one stim injector with five doses, one adrenal injector with three doses, and various snacks.
The others in Wrehn's crew also had their own supply crates which were similarly packed. Currently, the supply crates were doubling as stools and a card table. Mako dealt the next hand, placing the cards onto the makeshift table. As usual Skadge didn't play, but he watched the others play their game.
Wrehn wasn't playing this time. She was a hundred meters away, having a meeting with her subcontractors. At the far end of the hanger bay, Clan Sharratt's warriors sat on their crates, waiting for orders to move. As usual, they were boisterously loud. The racket they were making echoed throughout the hanger bay, mixed in with the other sounds of work being done by Chiss technicians making repairs or conducting routine maintenance on various pieces of equipment.
Torian noticed several Chiss walk to where his employer was holding the meeting with her subcontractors.
The bets had been placed and now the players were showing their cards.
"I won! I won!" Mako shouted out from excitement, "I can't believe it! I beat Gault!"
"It's a momentous occasion," Gault teased, "Be sure you get plenty of images so that you can show it to Wrehn when she gets back from her meeting."
"Ha! Gault is sore he lost!" Skadge interjected, laughing at the Devaronian.
"I'm not sore that I lost," Gault mildly objected, "I am amused by Mako's victory dance, however."
"I earned that victory dance!" Mako exulted, hopping up and down while waving her arms over her head in a repeat performance.
Torian enjoyed a small chuckle from her display. Wrehn had heard Mako's high pitch squeal and stopped speaking to see what was going on with her crew. All she could see was Mako jumping up and down waving her arms in the air like she just didn't care. She quickly returned her attention to her meeting, resuming where she'd left off issuing her orders.
"Clan Sharratt will arrange their people into sticks. Move them well back so that the shuttles will have room to park in front of each stick. Then your people will load their supplies into each shuttle. After that's done, your people will eat evening chow, and rest for the remainder of the day. Reveille is at zero six, ship time.
"No morning chow, no noon chow, no evening chow, and no water until we reach the lower city levels and set up camp. That's about twelve hours. At zero seven all personnel shall be issued a hunger suppressant, to get us over our hunger and thirst during the long flight to the planet. At zero seven forty five we'll board the shuttles and depart the Nova Star at zero eight.
"We'll approach from the night time side in Coruscant's shadow. This'll help keep the transports' hulls out of direct sunlight, keeping them cool to avoid detection via heat signatures. By the time we get to the planet's atmosphere, our landing site will be on the night time side of the world. If all goes well, estimated time of touch down will be at twenty hundred, ship time, twenty one hundred local time. Are there any questions?"
"There are no forests or mountains to hide in," Ymmiir noted, before asking, "How do we hide from local authorities?"
Ymmiir's question was asked from a lack of knowledge of just how similar some aspects of Coruscant was to Nar Shaddaa.
In both cases, law enforcement and security forces had limited control of the lower, poorer levels of the mega buildings. In the lower cities, the rebel and criminal element held sway. That wasn't to say that the government couldn't use overwhelming force to get down to those levels when needed, but otherwise, the lower levels were a crime lord's paradise.
Ymmiir believed Coruscant was homogeneously law abiding, and crime free. So, he became mildly surprised with Wrehn's answer.
"We'll be hiding in a high crime, high violence area of the lower city. The authorities down there are the gangs. We'll work something out with them, or we'll kill them and get them out of our way," Wrehn replied to Ymmiir's satisfaction.
One of Ymmiir's subordinate officers raised a hand to be heard.
"Go ahead," Wrehn said to the Mandalorian officer.
"I know there will no resupply. We will strike three small targets and one big target. We will not use many blaster rifle batteries. Yet, there is chance things go bad. Perhaps we should take more batteries."
"I expect us to be able to take out our secondary targets, fairly easily. We'll hardly use any battery power. The main objective is a different matter," Wrehn said, "The Supreme Chancellor will have heavy security, but our raid is hit and run. We're not hanging around, and we'll be gone before too many reinforcements show up. We have enough battery power."
The Chiss shuttle crews, hearing this, became shocked. The eyes of a few of them bugged open, while a few of the others uncrossed their arms, letting them fall to their sides, with mouths agape. One of them raised a hand to be heard.
"Yes," Wrehn said, pointing at the Chiss pilot who rose his hand.
"Vill zis not start a var?"
"It probably will," Wrehn said, without any hesitation, "If it does, it will be with the Mandalorian Empire. We're taking credit for the hit."
"But aren't zeh Mandalorians already at var vith zeh Republic?" the Chiss pilot asked as a follow up.
"We're providing mercenary services to the Sith Empire," Wrehn said, explaining, "Only a few Clans are actually involved in the fighting, and Mandalore has not declared war on the Republic. If the Republic wants to bring war to the Mandalorian Empire, then Mandalore will call on all of the clans to go forward into battle."
"Any more questions?" Wrehn asked the attendees.
She looked around at everyone waiting to see if any of them raised their hands. None did.
"If you don't got any more questions for me, then move out and carry out your tasks," the bounty hunter ordered, "Dropship pilots, stick around."
Wrehn waited for Ymmiir and his subordinate officers and the Sith lords to clear the scene before continuing.
"How goes the simulation training?" she asked, "Do you think you'll be able to pull it off when you hit the real traffic lanes?"
"Yes, Commander," the dropship squadron commander replied, "Vee vill have no difficulty in merging vith zeh local traffic. I vorry about zeh transponders, however. Are zose up to date? Und vill zose fakes be able to fool zeh traffic control system?"
"On Coruscant, speeder traffic transponders do not expire," Wrehn told the squadron commander, "I've got a contact that got those for me. These are the real deal, stolen from speeder lories." Wrehn answered, and then asked, "How goes the paint work on your dropships?"
"Zeh paint und logo verk ist completed," the squadron commander answered, "Vee have made our dropships look as much like real commercial heavy duty lorries as possible. Vee should be able to blend in vith zeh local traffic."
Torian watched the Clan Sharratt warriors pick up their gear and move it all, where they arranged themselves into five sticks, perpendicular against the back wall, away from the center of the hanger bay.
"Looks like we've got to move," he said to the others.
Torian and Mako set their cards down, and Gault collected them. He put them in a small box before securing the card box in a niche on his utility belt. The crew moved their weapons, gear and crates towards the back of the hanger, and set them down in stick formation. The crates however, were set up to continue their card game. However, Torian noticed that there were two small crates left where they'd been sitting. The Sith lords were nowhere to be seen.
"Gault, lets go get their trash," he said, nodding towards the Sith lords' crates.
"Those blasted Sith are a real handful," Gault groused, "We have to hold their hands and lead them around, it seems like."
"Are you trying to pick a fight with them?" Torian asked, laughing.
"And they're so temperamental," Gault added to his list of complaints and criticisms.
The two had just begun to squat to pick up the crates when they froze, unable to move.
"You'll not put your filthy hands on our things," an imperious Vindis declared.
The crates levitated and swept around the frozen bounty hunters. Then the two men were freed.
"That woman needs a good spanking," Gault fumed in a low voice.
"You two might end up liking it," Torian answered, laughing, also in a low tone so that he would not be heard.
"Now see here!" Gault began to object, but paused a moment to think, "Well, you may have a point there, but in her case I'd want to be the spanker, not the spankee."
"Who knows what she'd do if she were doing the spanking," Torian agreed, laughing, "Would she use lightning, a lightsaber?
"Yes, a very good point," Gault agreed, with a nod, "Having a fling with a feisty Sith lord could literally mean being flung across a rocky field, or flung out the window of a very tall building when she's had enough."
"At least she put their crap in the right place on our stick, Torian observed," barely above a whisper, as they neared where Vindis sat on her crate, reading the contents of a datapad.
When Torian and Gault sat on their crates, where Mako waited, sitting on her crate, Gault broke out the cards and set them on the 'card table,' Wrehn's crate.
"Why don't we invite Vindis to play sabacc with us?" Mako suggested, naively, "More players will mean more fun. Who knows? She might even warm up to us."
"Why don't we invite a rancor to take a bite off of our backsides?" Gault replied, deadpan, "Who knows? The rancor might get to like eating us alive."
Torian heard a metallic clanking come from behind, so he turned to look and was deeply surprised to see that a dropship had landed, not more than twenty meters behind where he sat.
"I didn't even hear it moving around in the hanger bay," he said, deeply astonished.
"Maybe we ought to look into Chiss made weapons and armor," Gault suggested, "We may find something worth spending a few credits on."
"Weapons, maybe," Torian half agreed, "It's hard to beat Mandalorian armor."
"You think?" Gault said, readying the barb which he was going to deliver with glee.
"What about them all-environment-powered-armored-suits Wrehn got us that we used on Ilum? Those are pretty good. I had a lot of fun in those," Skadge said, stealing Gault's thunder, to his chagrin.
"Yeah," I really felt safe in that armor," Mako chimed in, drawing cards from the deck, "Especially, with that threat avoidance system that it had."
Torian felt burned. That was an example of Chiss made armor able to out perform Mandalorian armor. And he'd forgotten that he'd actually put it through its paces on Ilum against Mandalorians who wore comparable armored systems similar to what he'd worn.
"Yeah, we really beat them scrubs good that day," Skadge waxed nostalgic.
"It's too bad the boss didn't want to bring 'em," Mako said, disappointed.
"Yeah," Skadge agreed, sounding a bit sad, himself.
"There you have it," Gault said, gleefully salvaging his barb and delivering it, "An example of Chiss made armor systems superior to what the Mandalorians make."
Torian couldn't help but give Gault a sour look. He knew the Devaronian was trying to get under his skin.
Wrehn took the last few steps as she approached her crew.
"Must be nice to sit on your asses with nothing to do but play cards all day," she joked.
"I could be at a casino winning tons of credits, or entertaining a lovely Twi'lek socialite on Nar Shaddaa," Gault said, "but sitting on my ass, here in this hanger deck beats all of that!"
Vindis found that retort quite humorous and let out an involuntary chuckle. This surprised Wrehn's crew into a moment of shocked silence.
"Sith can laugh!" Mako thought, amazed.
"Sith can laugh!" Gault quipped, instantly regretting it.
"We know how to have a good time," Vindis said, some of her humor gone, and most of her grumpy nature returned.
"We can tell a joke just as well, as the rest of them," Calaverous said, having returned from his quarters.
"Let's hear one," Skadge challenged.
Calaverous' affable exterior suffered upon hearing the brute, dare ask him to tell a joke.
Wrehn could read the atmosphere, and could tell the Sith were getting gloomier by the minute.
"We don't have time for that, now," she said, "I gotta tell you what's going on."
With everyone's attention on her, she began.
"Vindis, Calaverous, you guys already heard all of this. So, you don't have to stick around to hear it again, if you don't want to."
Calaverous sat on his crate a couple of meters from where Vindis sat on hers.
Wrehn began her brief.
"When I dismiss you, you'll load your gear aboard the dropship, here," she said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the dropship parked behind her, "Then you'll be dismissed. Go take it easy for the rest of the day. Reveille is at zero six. No morning chow and no liquids. You'll get a hunger suppressant to help with the hunger and thirst. We'll meet here at zero seven.
"Make sure you empty your bowls before we board the dropship at zero seven forty five. Dropships launch at zero eight. Then it's a twelve hour flight to our touch down in the lower city levels of Coruscant."
"Who's our contact down there?" Gault asked, curious of Wrehn's networking abilities.
"Whoever takes my bribes," Wrehn said, then adding to answer the next obvious follow up question, "and if they won't take my bribes, they'll take my blaster bolts."
"That sounds like a plan I can get behind!" Calaverous quipped, in a cheerful tone.
"Works for me," Gault seconded.
"Last thing," Wrehn said, finishing up her brief, "You'll eat chow and rest after we land. The next day, team leaders will recon their target locations to plan for their strikes on our secondary targets."
"If you don't have anymore questions, then you're dismissed," Wrehn ordered.
"Yes, Sir! Commander, Sir!" Gault shouted, jumping to his feet and giving an exaggerated salute, while stomping his foot a few times, "As you say, Commander Sir!"
Wrehn knew better than to respond to the Devaronian's antics. He had a way of getting under her skin if she gave him any ammunition to use against her. So, she merely stomped past him on her way to her guest stateroom.
"Yes, Your Highness, Sir! Yes! Yes! Yes! Sir! Yes, Great Hunt Champion, Sir!" Gault went on and on.
"You're such an idiot, Gault," Mako said, chastising her colleague.
"Gault will be Gault," Torian said as though resigned to some great injustice.
"Make Gault mop the hanger deck, Wrehn! That'll shut 'im up!" Skadge suggested.
Wrehn hesitated her steps for a thousandth of a second, upon hearing Skadge's idea, but she knew that if she turned around, that she would lose what was left of her self control. So, she kept going without looking back.
By the time Wrehn finally passed through the hatchway and the hanger airlock slid shut behind her, she was steaming mad, and bursting at the seams.
"Grrrrr! Gault, you bantha poo eating moron!" she finally exploded, satisfied that with the hatch shut behind her, the devilish trouble maker couldn't see her outburst.
In the hanger bay, Gault had finally put an end to his heckling.
"Skadge that was great thinking!" Gault said, sounding like a used speeder salesman, "Me and you, swabbing this massive deck! It would take all night! We'd never get it done before morning, and we wouldn't get any sleep!"
"Ha! You're funny, Gault," Skadge countered, "You, not we! Ha! Ha!"
"They're like children!" Vindis complained, astonished that it wasn't an exaggeration, "I'm so glad that Devaronian finally shut up."
"I'm certain they're masking the jitters they're feeling the night before leaping into the enemy's den," Calaverous theorized, "Yet, honestly I was nearing my own limit of patience."
It was like the last time, Wrehn noted. They were in the same dropship from before. The Sith sat way at the front of the troop compartment facing each other and quietly conversing. Wrehn and her crew sat towards the back, well away from the two Sith lords, and beside her sat the load master, the same young Chiss woman from before.
Again, she wore her helm and respirator, which covered most of her face, only her eyes and part of her brow were visible. And as before, she kept sneaking glances at Wrehn.
"Vhat vas your fahzer like?" the load master finally got the courage to ask Wrehn.
Wrehn was mildly shocked at the question being asked. It was a highly personal question for a Chiss to ask of a stranger, especially of another Chiss.
"You're a strange one," Wrehn said to the load master, smiling, "That's quite a curiosity you have, there."
"I… I am sorry," the load master said, becoming flustered, "I did not mean to be rude."
"It's fine," Wrehn said, "I don't mind. It's just unusual for Chiss."
"I am sorry," the load master apologized again, "I vas just curious about a Chiss living outside of zeh Ascendancy. I vondered vhat zat vas like."
"I guess I spent most of my teen age years and my adult life living among humans and other aliens," Wrehn said, reflecting, "I guess I forgot how to be Chiss."
Wrehn glanced through the open access way into the flight deck and saw the blackness of space through the canopy. She also noticed, when the pilot turned his head to look towards the copilot, that he wasn't wearing his respirator.
It made her wonder why the load master continued to wear her respirator. However, another fact popped into the fore of her thoughts. She recognized the pilot as one of her cousins.
"That's Edrik!" Wrehn realized, shocked, "Erok'eple'romai is keeping a close eye on me."
Some'dri'komai, whose core name was Edrik, was Erok'eple'romai's eldest son. She thought back to what Kepler had told her about the patriarch taking an interest in how she carried herself during this mission. That the pilot hadn't greeted his cousin told her that he had no interest in speaking to her.
"If he doesn't want to talk to me, I won't go say hello, either," she told herself, and reminding herself, "They all think I'm the dirtiest scum of the galaxy, anyway."
The Chiss bounty hunter returned her attention to the young Chiss load master, who kept taking not-so-surreptitious glances at her.
"It's gonna be a long flight," Wrehn observed, "Don't you want to get out of that respirator?"
The load master became flustered, and stammered a bit as she obviously lied.
"I, I prefer vearing it. In case zere ist an air leak. I'll still have it on to breath."
Wrehn knew it was a lie, but decided not to remark on it. Instead, she asked the young woman about herself.
"You seem pretty young. How old are you?"
"I just turned sixteen a month ago."
"What a coincidence," Wrehn said, her smile brightening, "My little sister's birthday was last month. In fact, she'd be your age. Now that I think about it."
This revelation seemed to startle the young woman, Wrehn noticed.
"Vhat ist life like, outside of zeh Ascendancy?" she asked, hoping to steer Wrehn away from asking anything else about herself.
This did not escape Wrehn's notice, but she decided not to play along.
"What's your name?" Wrehn asked, smiling warmly at the young woman.
"Uh, my name?" the load master became distressed, before delivering another lie, "It ist, uh, Betin'anc'yomai."
"What a strange name," Yehw'reh'nomai thought, wondering why she would want to lie about her name, "She could have thought up a better one. Her core name is Nancy?"
Nancy was a Human Imperial name.
"There's no way, I can stay strapped to a bench for twelve hours," Gault complained, unfastening his seat restraints.
"I agree," Torian said, following suit.
"Let's play cards," Mako suggested.
"Ha! Mako thinks she's gonna win again!" Skadge teased.
"You never know," Mako shot back, "I might get good enough to play professionally."
"You really reach for the heavens when you dream big. Eh, Mako?" Gault said, straight faced.
"Well, maybe not professionally," Mako back tracked, "But at least good enough to win every now and then."
"Besides," Gault pointed out, "With your implants, you wouldn't be permitted to play competitively. It'd be too easy for you to cheat. You'd never lose."
"She hasn't won too many games, Gault," Torian observed, "I don't think her implants have given her any advantage."
"Mako hasn't won many games, because she doesn't cheat, Torian," Gault replied, "Her losing, game after game after game, is how I know she's not cheating."
"Really, Torian," Mako chimed in, "all I'd need to do is keep track of what cards are left in the deck, based on what cards get thrown in the pile, and if I keep track of what cards each player tosses out, I can sort of figure out what hands they've got."
"She could even hack in to the security monitors and look at what hand each player has," Gault added, cheerfully.
"You ever play sabacc?" Wrehn asked Nancy, "Would you like to play?"
"No, I have never played, and no, I vould rather not, but may I vatch instead?"
"Suit yourself," Wrehn replied, "Deal me in," she said to her crew as she undid her seat restraints.
"I vote that we use Torian's rule three," Gault said, obviously mocking the Mandalorian traditionalist, "I don't want to be accused of cheating again, when I start winning hand, after, hand, after hand."
"What's Torian's rule three?" Mako asked.
"Gault does not shuffle, nor deal the cards," Wrehn said, grinning at Torian's discomfort, then adding, with a laugh, "I second Gault's idea! Let's do Torian's rule three!"
"Then let's play with Torian's deck, not Gault's," Mako added, cheerfully, which further discomfited the Mandalorian traditionalist.
"Well, at least we'll make it that much harder for him to ch…, win so easily," Torian proffered.
His cheeks tinted red when the others laughed at his eagerness to cut all possible avenues of cheating from the Devaronian professional card player. He also began to feel a bit foolish. In the years he'd known Gault, he'd never once caught the Devaronian cheat at cards, though he often accused him of it.
"Seconded!" Wrehn declared, we use Torian's deck!
The Devaronian realized that he'd tied his own hands for this round of sabacc with his joking barb at Torian.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure," Gault said, sourly.
A short while later, Torian was dealing their third hand on one of the center isle benches, which Wrehn's crew sat around, when Wrehn noticed that the Sith were watching the game.
"It's pretty boring just sitting around, and we've got ten hours left in this flight," she said to them, boldly adding, "You wanna join in?"
Vindis turned her nose up at the invitation.
"Thank you for your kind invitation," Calaverous said, giving such a friendly smile, "but I must decline and instead turn to meditation. I must ready myself for possible trouble at our destination."
"Suit yourself," Wrehn replied, "The invitation stands if you change your minds."
Vindis said nothing, and Calaverous nodded his head in acknowledgment.
A few hours had gone past, as Gault raked the stack of flimsiplast slips with numbers and initials written on them. These slips represented chips. The numbers and initials represented which player put a value, in credits, on each slip.
"I don't know how I do it," Gault said, with a smirk on his face, "I guess I was born playing sabacc! I'm genetically predisposed to win!"
Turning his eyes towards Torian's sour expression, Gault found an opportunity for mischief.
"Go on, Torian. I won't mind. Go ahead. Get it off your chest," the Devaronian said, as though consoling a grieving friend, "Call me a cheat. I know you want to say it."
Torian shook his head in disgust. He sighed heavily, resigned to accept the fact that the Devaronian was simply a sabacc playing genius.
"I'll admit it," Torian said, looking even more sour as he said it, "I'm not catching you cheat, because you're not cheating. You're just a real good player."
"Wow!" Mako said breathlessly, "Did you hear that, Wrehn?"
"Make a recording of it," Wrehn said as though ordering Mako to record a crime scene, "Put it in a projection display. We'll make it into a trophy for Gault to play over and over again when he wants to hear Torian admit that he didn't cheat."
Mako giggled while Gault snickered at Wrehn's suggestion. Torian simply gave Wrehn a sour look and shook his head morosely.
"Seems to me that you were at one time convinced that he was cheating, too, Wrehn," the traditionalist Mandalorian said to the non traditionalist.
"I've come to accept that Gault wasn't cheating a while ago, Torian," Wrehn countered, "I've grown, and moved on, unlike you."
"Ha! Torian hasn't grown up!" Skadge teased.
Torian dipped his head, slowly shaking it side to side, thinking to himself, "And now Skadge has room to poke fun at me. How low I have fallen."