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virtualvoyagesTitle: The Enemy of My Enemy Is...? (Part Two of Four)
Genre: Gen (adventure)
Rating: PG (some violence and profanity)
Summary: An Imperial Agent's and a Smuggler's missions intersect, for better or worse.
As soon as they were safely in hyperspace, Jezari called a crew meeting in their main room. Risha looked bored and vaguely disapproving, as usual, but Corso looked angry, and Bowdaar was being unreadable, even for a wookiee.
"Why'd you rescue an Imperial?" Corso demanded.
"I couldn't leave him." Jezari knew that wasn't much of an answer. "He might be valuable. I don't think he's just a citizen, he was after the same thing we were hired to get. He might be Imperial Intelligence."
"All the more reason to shoot him," Corso said. "You know what they're like. The go around disappearing their own people! They want to destroy the Republic and make everybody slaves! Or worse!"
"Then why was Dralick torturing him? Something doesn't add up."
"I'll see what I can find out," Risha said, excusing herself. "He better be valuable."
"It's gotta be a trap," Corso said. "No way a few scratches make somebody that weak. He's gotta be faking."
"He was drugged." Jezari rested her chin on her fists. And I'm a soft hearted sap.
"How do you know?"
"There was a syringe..." On the desk, proving nothing. The scene could've been staged. Even his injuries didn't prove anything. She wouldn't put it past the Empire to use that as icing on the cake. He'd probably been trained to stand a lot worse. "All right, I don't know, but it doesn't make sense as a trap. The whole thing would have to be a set up. For what? Us? Why? What's the trap? Why even have a fake prisoner?"
"Who knows with Imps. But if he's actually hurt, I'll eat my hat."
"You don't wear a hat."
Corso looked petulant. "Why didn't you just leave him?"
She gave up. "Because he's still a person. If it's a trap, it's the stupidest trap ever. And... And he was polite."
Corso stared at her.
It made more sense to Bowdaar. Imperials weren't polite to non-humans. They weren't even that polite to other humans, unless they were important Imperial humans. That definitely wasn't normal.
"At least somebody understands," Jezari said.
"He's faking!"
"He's Imperial Intelligence," Risha said, rejoining them. "I couldn't get a name, but he's been involved in some stuff on neutral worlds, and there was something else, but it was classified too tightly. I might be able to get it with more time."
"See!"
"So you were right," Risha continued. "He's going to be worth something to Republic Command."
Jezari drummed her fingers on the table. "Why did he want the coordinates? He told me about Dralick's place. It's weird."
"That's probably the trap," Corso said. "He'd give you the wrong coordinates. It all makes sense."
She stared at him. "How does that make any sense? They'd just have to put the wrong coordinates in the computer."
"Yeah, but this way, we bring him along and he springs the trap."
"Because that's easier than putting the wrong coordinates in the computer and waiting for us, or catching us at the estate?"
"It's sneakier."
Jezari groaned. "Corso, leave the thinking to me."
"I think you should both leave the thinking to me," Risha said.
The room had finally stopped spinning. Kyrian paced it slowly from end to end and back. It remained steady. If they didn't want to talk to him, he had a workable backup plan. Granted, that brilliant plan might have amounted to "wait until they take me off the ship and take the first opportunity to run away," but at least with the drug wearing off he had a good chance of succeeding. Especially if they wanted him alive, and so far they seemed to.
The door hissed open and a bored looking young woman sauntered in. "So you're the weird Imperial." She lounged against the wall, looking him up and down. "We know what you are already, so don't bother lying."
"What I am?"
"Imperial Intelligence."
"Ah," he said. "I did rather give that away when I told your captain about the facility."
"You can drop the act with me," the woman said. "We're both humans. And I've got a proposition for you."
He raised an eyebrow. "What are you after?"
"This ship should be mine," she said. "But my ex-boyfriend got mixed up with that alien. I want this ship and a real crew, not a furbag, a greenie, and a dolt. You want your freedom." She unholstered her holdout blaster and held it out to him. "Kill them, and I'll drop you wherever you like."
He looked from the weapon to her face. "Why do you need me for that?"
She rolled her eyes. "They're hardened criminals. I can't take them all out myself, I'm nowhere near that good. You're trained, you can drop them before they know what's happening. It's a limited time offer. Do you want your freedom, or do you want to be sold to the Republic?"
"When you put it that way, I suppose I have no choice." He took the blaster.
"Good, I'll-"
He crossed the distance between them, spun her around, and pinned her to him, an arm around her neck and the blaster pressed to her temple. "Let's have a talk with your captain," he said, forcing her out into the corridor.
She didn't struggle, but he had to push her forward, fighting for each step. She was clearly smart enough to realize he'd be reluctant to shoot his hostage. If the rest of the crew was as smart, he had a problem.
Another problem.
The drug hadn't actually worn off. They'd only gone a few meters before the walls began to spin, and it soon felt like he'd pinned jagged pieces of metal between them. He gritted his teeth and forced her onward, hoping that he'd still be able to see - or at least fake it - when he found the rest of the crew.
They were in the central common room of the ship, using the game table as a conference table. The wookiee gave a surprised sounding growl and the man jumped to his feet. The captain just stared in apparent disbelief.
"I'm sorry, Captain." He fought to keep his voice steady. The deck had started washing up and down and he was losing his peripheral vision. "If you could drop me on the nearest neutral world with a space port..."
"Let her go!" The man ordered. "Figures scum like you would hurt a woman!"
"I haven't hurt her, I just want-"
The woman in his arms went limp. He stumbled backwards, trying to support her weight in a world that seemed to be moving in several different directions at once. Before he could regain his balance, she shoved off the deck, hard, smashing them backwards into the wall.
He saw stars.
Jezari hadn't thought much of Risha's plan, but when Risha returned at the end of a blaster barrel, she'd been seriously tempted to just bang her forehead on the table until it all went away. That's it. I'm the only one who gets to think.
"I'm sorry, Captain," their prisoner said. He was an unhealthy shade of gray. "If you could drop me on the nearest neutral world with a space port..."
Jezari rested her chin on one fist. This was going to be the easiest hostage situation to resolve, ever. Wait five minutes and the hostage taker would pass out. If it took that long. It wasn't like he could do anything to Risha in the meantime.
"Let her go!" Corso shouted in predictable outrage. "Figures scum like you would hurt a woman!"
Jezari groaned. So much for easiest hostage situation ever.
"I haven't hurt her," their prisoner said. "I just want-"
Risha went limp. He staggered backwards, just barely keeping them both upright and the blaster to her head. With a grin of triumph, she launched herself backwards, smashing him into the wall. Hard.
He gave a strangled cry. Jezari was amazed he managed to hang onto Risha and the blaster at all. Risha raised an elbow to jab into his ribs. Corso, never one to assess situations, tackled them.
The blaster went spinning one way, and Corso shoved Risha the other. He drove their prisoner to the deck, pinning him down with his body weight.
"Okay, Corso, you got him." Jezari stood over them, hands on hips. "You can let him go now."
"He might try something else," Corso warned. But he sat back on his heels, glaring at their prisoner.
"Wow, that was totally unnecessary," Risha said, smoothing her silk shirt.
"He was hurting you!"
She snorted.
Their prisoner warily pushed himself into a sitting position, breathing hard. He looked sick, and some of his wounds were bleeding again.
"What was that supposed to prove?" Jezari asked.
"That wasn't my plan," Risha said. "I told him I'd let him go if he shot all of you."
Corso stared at her open mouthed.
"It was a trick, laserbrains." She rolled her eyes. "It's not even a real blaster. It just looks like one. It would even fool you, until you tried to use it."
"Wait, back up," Jezari said. "You handed him freedom on a silver platter and he decided to hold you hostage?" How the hell did that make sense?
Risha shook her head. "You got me. I figured he'd jump at the chance, and maybe I'd find out what he's really up to."
"It's a trick," Corso insisted. "He's planning something."
"Yes," their prisoner said between pained breaths. "This was... clearly... very clever of me."
They all stared at him.
"Captain, you find the weirdest people," Risha said.
Jezari squatted down next to their prisoner. "You want to explain what you were thinking?"
"I thought... I thought the drug had worn off," he managed. "I was wrong."
"And that made this look like a good idea?"
He spread his hands in a kind of implied shrug. "Playing along would have been wiser."
"You knew it was a trick?" Risha frowned at him. "Why did you take the blaster then?"
"It might not have been."
Jezari rubbed her forehead. That made even less sense. "You're not going to tell me you didn't want to shoot us."
He didn't respond.
She blinked. "You didn't want to shoot us? What kind of Imperial Intelligence agent are you!?"
"Usually, a very good one," he said.
Risha snorted.
Jezari threw up her hands. "I give up. Corso, stop making fish faces and get a medpac. If this is a trick, it's the best trick ever. Nobody would believe it."
Corso looked for a moment like he might argue, glanced at their prisoner in utter confusion, and did as ordered. She had to agree with the utter confusion part. He didn't act like a normal Imperial, he didn't act like a normal agent - of any kind, and he wasn't even acting like a normal prisoner.
In his position, she sure wouldn't have chatted with her captors. The only normal thing he'd done was try to escape.
She stood up. "Come on, I'm not sitting on the floor to patch you up." She held a hand out to him, then thought better of it. "Bowdaar, help him to the acceleration couch."
"I'm flattered." He winced as the wookiee helped him up. "I think. Why do you still think I'm dangerous?"
Bowdaar pointed out that he was an Imperial Intelligence agent.
"I'm sorry," their prisoner looked up at the wookiee. "I don't speak...wookiee?"
Jezari had never seen a wookiee look so surprised. Of course an Imperial wouldn't understand him; a wookiee was one thing in the Empire - a slave. And not the kind you needed to have a conversation with. Or the kind you apologized to for not speaking wookiee.
"Would you just act like a normal Imperial for once!" She demanded.
"Curse you, alien scum?" He said doubtfully.
Bowdaar laughed.
Jezari buried her face in her hands. "Damn it. I know you're trying to get us on your side, but..." The problem was it was working. It had been working from the moment he opened his mouth and asked her to rescue him.
"What'd I miss?" Corso asked.
Risha shrugged. "The prisoner's still being weird."
Jezari took the medpac and sat in front of their weird prisoner. "Take your shirt off," she said, ignoring Corso's scowl.
Their prisoner tried to suppress a smile. "There are a number of very unwise things I could say to that."
"Did you just...?" Jezari spluttered in disbelief. "Was that...?"
He held up his hands. "I'm sorry. That was unwise enough."
That was the problem, she realized. Their Imperial prisoner kept acting like he saw them as people. That wasn't how it was supposed to go, especially when she was trying so hard to keep in mind that he was a monster. Or at least the enemy.
He winced a bit as he peeled off his tattered shirt. The wounds that marked his chest and back were disturbingly regular, as if Dralick had been working on some sort of design.
"Maybe it's not a trick," Corso said.
Their prisoner glanced at him.
Kyrian was nearly giddy with hope. Contrary to all logic, his reckless escape attempt had actually improved his situation. Instead of throwing him back in his makeshift cell, they'd decided to talk to him. The longer he could keep them talking, the greater his chances of actually talking his way to freedom. That was one advantage to having enemies who were, on the whole, more reasonable than your own side.
He gingerly eased off his ruined shirt. Half-dried blood had stuck the fabric to some of the lacerations, and the drug was still doing a fine job of enhancing pain. The expression on the captain's face as she got a good look at Dralick's handwork did almost as much for Kyrian's opinion of her as the fact that she'd decided to patch him up in the first place. He wished he did feel well enough to flirt with her.
"Maybe it's not a trick," the man, Corso, said.
Kyrian glanced at him. He actually wouldn't put it past Imperial Intelligence to order an agent tortured to add realism to an undercover assignment, but he didn't think it wise to admit that. Though it would further confuse his captors.
He focused on a point above the captain's head and concentrated on breathing evenly while she worked. The room was still spinning a bit, but it had calmed down now that he wasn't trying to do anything. Dralick was clearly a brilliant chemist, as well as a sadist; the drug made escape almost impossible.
"Maybe I should thank you for distracting Dralick for us," the captain said as she started on his back.
"I'm afraid I'm the wrong one to thank," he said. "If everything had gone according to plan, I'd have been gone by the time you arrived."
"What happened?"
"According to Dralick, I was set up." Kyrian hoped her question was a good sign - too much curiosity about your prisoner, and you might stop seeing them as a prisoner. "I think it's more likely that someone sold the information and then sold Dralick a warning. You clearly had a more reliable informant."
"Or the informant doesn't like the Empire," the captain pointed out.
"That's entirely possible."
She stopped to look at him funny.
"I work for Imperial Intelligence," he said. "If I'd had any illusions about the Empire, I wouldn't by now."
"Why do you do it?" Corso demanded.
"There are good people in the Empire. They deserve protection against the Sith and other power-hungry factions, and most of the time that's what we do. Granted," he hesitated, trying to decide just how honest to be, "I might interpret my assignments a little more generously than most agents. Intelligence wants Lord Dralick shut down because of his business dealings - he's selling to crime lords and dissidents. I'd planned to free his prisoners, as well, if they can be freed." Being test subjects for a sadistic chemist couldn't be good.
"What about his notes and formulas?" The captain asked suspiciously.
"Imperial Intelligence asked me to retrieve them," Kyrian admitted. "But accidents happen. And Dralick gave me ample incentive to see that no one has his formulae."
"I'll bet."
"I was considering destroying them anyway," he said. "But now I'm certain it's worth the risk." He didn't know what else Dralick had concocted, and he didn't particularly want to find out. Or for anyone else to find out.
"Hey, wait," Corso said. "We're turning you over to the Republic."
"I'd like to offer an alternative to that," Kyrian said. "The Republic hired you to get the coordinates. I'm sure they would pay you even more if you managed to shut the facility down. You would take the credit on your side, I would take credit on mine."
"They did offer a pretty sweet deal just for the coordinates," Risha admitted.
"Oh, no, you don't," Corso said. "Don't listen to him!"
"What do you think, Captain?" Kyrian tried not to sound too hopeful.
"I think you'd say almost anything to get us to let you go," she said. "And I think you're a damn weird Imperial. But I'd have to be stupid to give you a blaster and walk into some kind of prison-lab with you."
"Even to save the prisoners?"
Her eyes narrowed. "You say you were set up, how do we know you're not setting us up?"
Kyrian considered that. "Wouldn't it be simpler to capture you the way I was captured or plant coordinates to an ambush?"
Corso scowled.
"All right," the captain said. "But you were still set up. Maybe Imperial Intelligence is trying to get rid of you."
"If Imperial Intelligence wanted me dead, I would..." He broke off. There was a notable flaw in that line of reasoning. "Ah, I'm fairly certain Keeper would simply have me arrested. Or call me in for a meeting I wouldn't walk away from."
She was looking at him funny again. "What was wrong with what you started to say?"
"I doubt you'll believe me, but there are a few people that Imperial Intelligence believes are dead who are very much alive."
"Are you nuts!?" Corso blurted.
She shook her head. "That's some dangerous game you're playing, Imp. What do you think's going to happen when they find one of those 'dead' people?"
"I very much hope that they don't," Kyrian said. He was in no hurry to be tortured and executed for treason. And that was the most pleasant outcome he could imagine, should Imperial Intelligence or, worse, the Dark Council discover some of his more creative interpretations of orders.
"You're impossible," she said at last. "I can't believe you. And I can't believe any Imperial would come up with half of what you said, no matter how much they wanted to con me."
"He just wants us to finish his job and let him go," Corso said. "He's an Imperial! Let Republic Command sort him out."
"Republic Command can barely find its ass with both hands and a map," Jezari said. "We'd probably do a better job of rescuing anybody Dralick's got."
"We don't need him for that!"
Kyrian sighed. "He's right." There was no point in denying something so obvious. "I have nothing to offer you, except my help. I could promise you money, but I know none of you trust me."
"Help doing your job." Corso glared at him. "She shouldn't have wasted our supplies on you."
"Corso." The captain sounded irritated.
"The Empire's evil! Why didn't you just leave him!?"
"We're not evil."
That seemed to stop him in his tracks. "I just..." He looked at Kyrian, and then the floor. "I didn't mean that."
"You're not far off about the Empire," Kyrian said quietly. "There are rather a lot of things wrong with it, beginning with the Sith religion. And there's only so much I can do."
The captain shook her head. "Damn it. I believe him. I don't believe I believe him, but I do." She looked at her crew. "Tell me I'm wrong."
They stared at him, as if hoping for some sign. He risked a hopeful smile.
"It's the Sith Empire!" Corso exclaimed at last. "How can the Sith be wrong with it!?"
"Have you met a Sith?"
Corso gabbled.
"I'm with you, Captain," Risha said. "Besides, he's kind of cute. For an Imperial."
Bowdaar shrugged and growled something.
"Corso?"
"But he... But... The Empire..." Corso's shoulders sagged. "I... I don't know. It's all wrong."
"You win, Imp," the captain said. "We'll destroy Dralick's place and rescue anybody we can. But the formulas get destroyed. Deal?"
"It's a deal, Captain." Kyrian held out his hand.
She hesitated a moment, then shook it. "Jezari."
He smiled. "Kyrian."
Corso scowled.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 06:28 am (UTC)Now for the complicated part. Step one: pure blood Sith (it's a race as well as religion) interbred with slave species, including humans. Step Two: ??? Step Three:
profitEr, humans came out on top somehow. There are less human looking species with jobs (even in Imperial Intelligence), but it's clear that they will never rise as high as human looking species, who will, presumably never rise as high as humans. None of who will ever rise as high as Sith practitioners.Imperials are generally pretty damn rude to non-humans (even player characters) and really do make a habit of saying "curse you, alien scum" to enemy non-humans. I think it amounts to them being human-supremacist, but, since humans are outnumbered galactically, they have to include non-humans in their ranks. They simply wouldn't have the personnel any other way. (And didn't that kind of thing happen for real in, say, the British Empire and the like?)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-06 07:33 am (UTC)I do wonder now just how useful Sith really are to the Empire. Ground troops are certainly necessary when you're trying to take a planet or spaceship intact, but when you're trying to blow up enemy ships all the fancy lightsaber tricks in the galaxy won't be much good. Come to think of it, that would actually be a great way to assassinate a super-powerful Sith Lord, if one ever needed to do such a thing - just wait for him to get on a spaceship and then blow it up somewhere in deep space. I can totally see an anti-Sith faction in the Empire carrying out a coup this way.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 01:23 am (UTC)As for assassinating Sith Lords by exploding their spaceships... Let me just say that the game is aware of this.