☃ OC acquires a temperamental Astromech, Mina; ♞ Down time with Theron, Vharmir
I was struggling to come up with a good story for the first prompt so I’ll focus on the second.
The Lovely Lekku Cantina, Nar Shaddaa
“Sorry for ruining your vacation like this, Shan, but not all of us can run off from the SIS every time we want to have an adventure.”
Theron winced, rubbing his temple several times. “I thought we’d moved past those kinds of comments.”
”I never let a good opportunity slide.” I took a sip of lomin ale from my mug before pushing the container away. “Not everyone at the SIS is as forgiving as I am. And not just the men, but the women and children too.”
”The what? Children don’t work for the SIS.”
”Not the way you and I do, Shan.” I smirked. “We offer unpaid internships.”
He frowned. ”That sounds like something Saresh would have liked.”
I nodded. “Another of her crazy ideas, though not as bad as deciding to try to kill the leadership of the Eternal Alliance in coordination with disaffected Imperials before making a play for control of an alliance made up of Imperials who always hated her and Republic personnel that left her service because of her.”
”Not the best plan,” Theron agreed, “Almost felt like something out of a crappy B-holovid.” He took a long swig from his glass of the strange brown drink he was having before continuing. “Speaking of plans, I’ve come up with one for your problem.”
”You think the Commander will help us investigate this ‘Order of Zildrog and figure out what the hell they’re up to?
Theron leaned forward, a large grin across his face. “Even better. I’ll infiltrate it for you.”
”Ah.” I recalled several instances of Theron’s infiltrations not going as planned in his record. “And the Commander’s okay with this?”
”No, she doesn’t know about it.” He cut me off before I could interject. “Not like it matters - she’s got nothing for me to do. You’d think a skilled SIS agent might at least earn the position of Alliance spymaster but no, that’s Lana’s job.” Theron mimicked a Sith force-choking someone before turning back to his drink.
”Uh, is that a good idea?” I suddenly regretted bringing the matter to his attention. “If the Commander is unaware of the plan, how is the Order going to believe you are anything but a spy.”
Theron grinned, “Simple, I’m going to pretend to betray her first. I’ve even set up an elaborate assassination attempt that will fail, but in a way that leaves some ambiguity as to whether I was genuinely trying to kill her or not. It makes for good drama”
”Weren’t you just criticizing Saresh for relying on poorly conceived plans?”
“Yeah, so?” Theron’s voice was nearly unintelligible, as he was now scarfing down a large piece of bread that had conveniently appeared. “I need to introduce the element of surprise into things.”
I frowned. “What if people are a little too surprised? The Commander is an exemplary Jedi, but others in the Alliance may not be as interested in offering a traitor a second chance.”
”I’ll just reveal the whole thing when it’s all over,” Theron replied breezily. “I’ll be like one of those social experiment things on the HoloNet. Treason against the Alliance Commander Prank, or whatever.”
”This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Do you have a brain injury of some kind?” He shrugged and kept eating. “What if someone else catches you before you can tell the Commander the truth?”
Theron shrugged again as he ordered another round of drinks.
”What if it’s Beniko? I’m not stupid enough to believe all the stories about her but…”
”Lana won’t be a problem,” Theron replied. “She’ll tell the Commander to do all sorts of horrible things to me, the Commander will ignore her and do the right thing and then we’ll go back to running our Alliance like we always do and it’ll be like nothing ever happened in the first place.”
I could feel a headache coming on, so I motioned at the waitress. “We’re going to need more than one round of drinks.”
Theron tapped my shoulder and handed me a holo. “Hey, tell me what you think of this hair cut I’m planning for my op…”
