Chapter 2 - An Analysis of the Plans
The bridge of the Vigilant Warden was an orderly and quiet place. The crew knew better than to speak above a whisper for fear of their commanding officer bringing his wrath down upon them. High Admiral Maltus Ayro was not a man to be trifled with, they knew only too well. He was a man who existed in a vacuum at the present, the Minos Cluster being his domain only by the fact that his immediate superior had perished in a Rebel attack, or so the story went. Either way, his inferiors were not wont to question it, and those superior to him did not care enough to. Hence, in all but name, he was the Moff of the Minos Cluster.
Sheev Palpatine was Emperor, they all knew, and they had sworn to live and die at his command. But the Emperor was far away on Coruscant and the High Admiral was an extension of his power...mercy and wrath, both. Mostly his wrath. Maltus Ayro had plenty of wrath. It was primarily because of that wrath that Lieutenant Corrin Daxan feared coming up to him, even with the usual reports as was expected of his bridge officers.
“S-Sir.” Daxan swallowed as he approached, his body as rigid as durasteel, doing his best to keep his voice and his face clear of any sign of weakness.
“What is it, Lieutenant?” Ayro, for once, seemed not to notice him. The Admiral was a man in his fifties, his silver-gray hair was coiffed, not a strand out of place, his hands behind his back as he stared out through a large viewport into the void that surrounded the Star Destroyer. His black eyes focused upon a single, gray-green marble that was Karideph, the Crown Jewel of the Minos Cluster.
“The morning reports, sir.” Dax said, holding out the datapad to him.
“All quiet, I expect?” Ayro took it in his gloved hand, flicking through the details as they appeared on his interface.
“I...did not go over the reports, sir. It’s above my paygrade.”
“Smart. Maintain that level of subservience and you’re likely to end up with a lovely posting on a science vessel somewhere in the Outer Rim.” The Admiral didn’t look up as his eyes scanned through the pad. Daxan stood there silently as Maltus signed off on measure after measure, eventually raising the pad and slapping it against his chest. “You may leave.”
“Yes, sir.” Dax said, taking the pad and quickly leaving. Left to himself, Maltus did not spare a second thought to the spineless young man as he once more gazed out at Karideph. The centerpiece of his Cluster. The locals called it “Little Coruscant” due to its place as the center of the Cluster, the heart as it were. Eighty-eight billion souls walked around on its surface, all of them under the watchful eye of the Empire, and all within the grasp of Maltus Ayro.
“Sir…” Another spineless cretin come to placate their Admiral.
“What is it?!” Maltus snapped.
“Tin Daheel has made contact, sir.” The officer found himself suddenly faced with the Admiral’s face inches from his own.
“Is discretion a concept they fail to teach at the Academy anymore?” Ayro snapped at him. “I shall take it in my ready room. When I return, you would do well to not be here. Is that understood?” He did not wait for the young man’s stammered reply as he turned and left to the adjoining room, passing the pit of officers at various duty stations, all of whom quickly began to look as busy as possible as their Admiral passed by. He gave them no notice.
Instead, Maltus stepped into his ready room, the doors hissing as they opened for him, and then sealing shut again once he had entered. Reaching over to a control panel, he pressed the accept key and watched as the blue lights converged into a single being - a Twi’lek with a toothy grin and his palms spread out in supplication.
“A thousand pardons for the delay, Admira-”
“Spare me your pardons, Twi’lek, I’m not interested in them.” Maltus sneered at the image. “Give me your report on the situation. You have acquired both Montgomery’s datacard and the parts we require?” Tin’s image tensed up, a rather...displeased look coming across his face.
“Not...exactly, I’m afrai-”
“Explain. Immediately.” Maltus demanded, his hand balling into a fist.
“The cargo was secured. Forty tons of mining equipment to be distributed on your command. The datacard...was not possible to retrieve.”
“Not possible?!”
“A firefight broke out. We were unable to retrieve Montgomery’s datacard.”
“You. Are. An. Imbecile!”
“I could do nothing! After Montgomery was shot, I-”
“Wait...you shot him?!” Maltus’ eyes narrowed on the image. “You shot him...and you were not able to retrieve the card?”
“Montgomery had men. Several of them. My men killed them, but…”
“But what?!”
“There...was a human. Barely a man. He kept me off of him before the fighting got too intense. And then they were turning the tide. I had to flee.”
“So realize, out of all the excuses you could have used, that is probably the most absolutely pathetic, correct?” Ayro stared down the image. The Twi’lek looked increasingly nervous. “If the Gauntlet is intimidated by children, then perhaps I should be looking for allies elsewhere.”
“We still have the mining equipment, Admiral.” Tin said, clearly trying his damnedest to salvage the situation. “We still have the advantage.”
“If that datacard gets into the hands of our enemies, I’ll hang your head on my bridge when I’m done with you. Is that understood?” Ayro sneered down.
“Y-You can’t give me orders!” Tin protested. Ayro almost had to admire the scum’s nerve. Little good it would do him.
“Now is hardly the time to be growing a spine, Twi’lek.” Ayro smirked down upon them. “Have the equipment delivered to the Warden within the next six hours. Ayro out.” He closed the channel before Tin could respond. This alliance with the Gauntlet was getting more and more tenuous. The Admiral knew well when things had outlived their usefulness, they were to be removed. Once those cards were his, then the Gauntlet could be swept away. Easily.
***
Calen sat listening to the sound of a rhythmic beeping. The Dawn didn’t have a top-notch infirmary by any stretch, and it rarely saw any use, but it was still a welcome sight after the firefight he had just been through. The medical droid, a beaten down and broken old thing, chirped as it went about its work.
Calen, meanwhile, had just had his gut wounded patched up and the monitors were tracking his heart rate, breathing cycles, and other vitals. The electrical damage had, thankfully, been minimal. From the look of it, the Gamorrean was looking to play with his food rather than eat it up.
“This is intolerable…” Calen muttered, feeling the urge to move.
“Patience, sir. You will be mended shortly.” The droid said, its limbs stitching in the last little bit required to seal the Duros’ wound. The doors at the far end of the room slid open and Ordos entered. Unlike him, Ordos didn’t have a wound on him. Indeed, even his armor seemed no worse for wear, though Calen didn’t know if any of those carbon scoring marks were new.
“You alright?” Ordos asked.
“Probably look worse than I feel.” Calen muttered.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I was gored by a crazed pig-man with a really, really sharp stick.”
“Accurate appraisal, all things considered.” Ordos said, gesturing to the bandages wrapped around Calen’s stomach.
“During the fighting...the Captain said something. Before...y’know.” Calen told him. Ordos gestured for him to continue. “He said…’the Grand’. Over and over again, like it was something important. Something really important. Tin said it too. Right after he shot him. Told him to remember it.”
“The Grand, huh?” Ordos cupped his chin, thinking it over.
“Do you know what he’s talking about?” Calen asked.
“Unfortunately, no.” The older man drummed his fingers of his other hand against the near wall as he pondered the meaning of it. “Did he say anything else?” That triggered something else in Calen, a memory. He reached down for his belt...which he wasn’t wearing. Instead, it had been placed on a table nearby, pouches and all.
“The right-most pouch. There’s a datacard in there. The Captain gave it to me.” Calen said. “And he said to tell...Maddox? Yes, it was Maddox. To tell Maddox that he was sorry.” Ordos looked...surprised, so far as Calen could tell. The young man couldn’t tell where the look had come from, just that it was never an expression he saw on the older man’s normally stoic face. Before this point, if Ordos’ face had ever changed expression, he had never seen it. “Did anyone else make it?”
“Just you. Me. Beedee.” Ordos said. Calen felt his heart sink even lower at that. A crew of twelve had just been massacred, now only four. “We’re off Skorr..” By this point, Ordos had retrieved the datacard on Caius’s necklace from Calen’s pouch and was looking it over. “Caius wore this for years. Never said what it was about, just that it was from some old job. A keepsake.”
“What are we going to do now?” Calen asked. Ordos looked up from the datacard at him again. “I mean...we have to find Daheel. The Gauntlet. We can’t let this stand.”
“Going up against a crime syndicate is a pretty reckless move.” Ordos said. “It’s Tin we’re after, not them. We’d do best to make that clear when we’re poking around. If you’re still onboard with us.”
“What do you mean?” Calen asked.
“Caius’s dead. So’s most of the crew.” Ordos said. “If you wanted to bail out, head off for greener pastures, we can drop you off somewhere.” Calen considered that, that thing he’d been essentially lacking since leaving his home, since before he’d left his home in all honesty. A path was laid before him, and he could choose rather than being forced down it.
“Captain Caius gave me a job and a bunk when I had nothing.” Calen said. “Until he can rest knowing that his killer paid for what he’d done, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
“Good answer.” Ordos smiled, genuinely smiled, a small look of approval. “Then we have some shaking of some branches to do.”
“Shaking of some branches?” Calen asked, a brow quirked inquisitively.
“Figure of speech, we need to find out where Tin went. And why he decided to ice Caius.” Ordos told him. “I’m doubting it was to get a five-finger discount on mining parts.”
“Then we just have to look for this Maddox guy.”
“We won’t have to look far for him.”
“Oh, you know him?”
“Of course I know him!” Ordos said. “He’s me.” Calen’s eyes shot wide as he said that. “What? Did you think my name was just Ordos? I do have a first name.”
“Everyone...called you Ordos. Even the Captain.” Calen stammered. “I-I just assumed…”
“Easy mistake to make. Soldiering habits die hard.” Ordos said. His face seemed to darken again, his mind going to somewhere else. “So...what do you remember of the fight?” He asked. Calen found the question to be more than a little odd, but he answered nonetheless.
“The droids took up the shipment into Tin’s ship. Captain asked him about payment-”
“I mean,” Ordos cut him off, “I mean when you went up against the Pighead.” Calen blinked, thinking back to that quick encounter. They had only been a few brief seconds of time, but they still resonated pretty strongly within him.
“He came at me with the pike.” Calen said. “I dodged, but he ended up stabbing me...I screamed...then…” His voice trailed off.
“Then…?” Ordos pressured gently.
“Then...my blaster was back in my hand. Or I’d managed to keep a hold of it, I don’t remember.” Calen said. “I shot him...then I guess you were the one who got the last shot on him. And...that’s it, really. I carried the Captain up into the ship and I met you.” Calen watched as Ordos got another odd look on his face, this one he couldn’t even ascribe to any sort of emotion. The older man watched the younger for a long moment, once opening his mouth to speak, but then closing it again. Several moments passed as Calen had to admit he felt the least bit rather uncomfortable.
“Get some rest. I’ll check with Beedee, we’re on-course to Karideph.” Ordos said, turning to leave the room.
“Thank you.” Calen said, moving to stand.
“For what?”
“Saving my life.” He elaborated. “Since you took out the Gamorrean.”
“You’d have done fine, kid.” Ordos said. “Besides, I’m sure you’ll even the score at some point.” He started over to the door, pressing the button on the keypad to open it again.
“Ordos?”
“Yeah?”
“Why did the Captain want to apologize to you?” Calen’s question was met with silence. Ordos wasn’t looking at him anymore, but he stood in the doorway as rigid and unmoving as durasteel. A tense, lengthy silence was broken only by the beeping of the monitors that tracked Calen’s vitals, and the nearly inaudible humming of the ship’s engines that radiated through the entire vessel.
“Get some rest, Calen.” Ordos’ answer was even softer than the engines, Calen could hear some sorrow twinging the words as they came out. It was also all that was said before Ordos stepped out, the door sealing shut behind him, leaving Calen with only the beeping of the monitors and the hum of the Dawn’s engines.
***
Calen came up to the cockpit when called a few days later, more than happy to be back near the ship controls after being taken off duty by Ordos to rest. Apparently, the old man knew that he’d be restless, so he’d called him up to look at a most interesting discovery he had made. In the cockpit, the holoprojector was displaying an intricate web of planets and other anomalies, a single system among the myriad of others in the galaxy.
“A starmap?” Calen asked.
“Part of one, yes.” Ordos said, gesturing to the computer console where he had placed the datacard within. “Hence why we’re going to Karideph. Right here.” He pointed to one of the transparent blue globes that floated around them.
“Karideph?” Calen asked.
“Little Coruscant itself.” Ordos said. “It’s the last bit of civilization in a system that puts the ‘Outer’ in ‘Outer Rim’. Any further, and we’ll be out from under even the tips of the Empire’s fingers.”
“Let’s keep flying ,then.” Calen rolled his eyes, and Ordos actually cracked a smile.
“Would that I could.” Ordos said. “But this is definitely out next stop because of this here.” He tapped the chip in its slot. “The cipher on it was pretty advanced.”
“Indeed, even my systems had a very difficult time decoding it.” Beedee offered from its spot at the controls. “Even with the additional processing power of the Triumphant Dawn, I was only able to decode thirty-three point three percent of its contents. Admittedly, rather disappointing results.”
“But this was it?” Calen asked. “So we’re only seeing part of a star map?”
“Part of a star map or this map has supplementary data that we can’t access.” Ordos said. “Luckily, on Karideph, I know someone who can.”
“This still doesn’t explain why the Captain would bother with it.” Ips said. “It seems strange.”
“Perhaps Glin can answer that, too.” Ordos replied.
“Who?” Calen asked.
“An old friend of Caius’s and mine.” Ordos said. “He lives on Karideph, and he happens to be the most skilled slicer I know of. He can outpace most droids I know of. No offense, Beedee.”
“Your lack of offense is noted.” Beedee replied dryly. Ordos shared a look with the two other organics in the room.
“So. We get to Karideph, we talk to Glin, and we see if he can get anything off of this.” Ordos said, pulling the card from its slot and watching as the images all around them winked out, the cockpit’s normal lighting coming back on.
“Sounds like a plan.” Calen said. “Mind if I drive?”
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