A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

[Imperial Galactic Holonet]

23 Days after the Battle of Endor

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[Jekaan Oludh]

4 years, 3 months, 21 days before the Battle of Endor

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"... and you will not countermand my orders again, Agent Oludh! Your continued existence at my side is hanging by a mere thread, and you would be well advised to lose that independent spirit of yours."

My continued existence at your side, dear Ysanne? Don't think I am that easily fooled - I know well enough that I would not survive leaving your side even for a day. I signed my execution papers the day you made me an accomplice in your schemes, and doom has been my bedfellow since the day we buried your predecessor. All that's left now is a prolonged wait, until you decide you've got no use for me. No, don't think I am fooled!

Bitterness welled up in Jekaan Oludh, and it turned his defiant stare into a broken thing. She knew the truth just as well as he did. And they both knew that this was a cat and mouse game in which the mouse could not win, but still a game they would continue playing, The mouse would continue to test its boundaries, and duly receive its punishment - until one day it would be eaten up by the more powerful beast.

It hadn't been so long since the days when everything was still different - when he had been her most trusted enforcer; they had been equals as far as anyone could ever have been equals with Ysanne, daughter of Armand Isard, head of Imperial Intelligence. They had been partners in the field, and comrades off it. But she had always had that Isard ambition in her, and he'd always known that some day it would put her above him. Ruthlessly she'd pulled ahead, manipulating events so she would come out triumphant - using every means available to her, including him. On good days, Jekaan would defend her to himself, telling himself that she had only done so in defense - that it would have been her death instead of Armand's; but every other day he knew that didn't excuse anything, and didn't bother defending her to anyone least of all his conscience.

One day my usefulness will have run its course, and you'll do what you did to your father. Without even the remotest regret or feeling. You truly have a heart of ice, Ysanne.

And it had him frozen to his core. His head and his heart were at battle, weighing what had been against what was, and not knowing what to trust anymore.

Ysanne Isard took a step forward, and pulled up his chin with her right hand in a gesture that somehow only betrayed a familiarity they no longer had - a gesture that made him die a little more inside at this coldly calculated attempt at sharing a past that he no longer could believe in.

"I do not want to have to hurt you, Jekaan. You are my only ally still, in this position just as well as in the last. You I can still trust. But I cannot allow insubordination in my agents. Not even in you," she said to him, her voice unctuously sweet now.

You can still trust me? No, now you truly think me foolish, Ysanne. You have no capacity for trust, and I can see that now. Fool I might have been, that you think it still of me now, but fool I will no longer be - you betrayed my trust, and now it's no longer yours.

But Jekaan showed nothing of this, only looked back into her mismatched eyes until it hurt, and still continued. He was hoping something in them would break, but they stared back as resolutely as his. Finally he broke the contact, removed her hand from his chin, and stepped back.

"I await your orders, Madame Director," he said, with a voice as cold as hers had been before. His internal battle was over. He would not let her win this game.



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[Sorsha Kasajian]

23 Days after the Battle of Endor

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:: Sorsha lay on the bed, watching the announcement in malicious glee. Rolling over on her back, her hair spilled onto the floor as she looked at Miranda upside down and laughed ::

"Tonight she sleeps in Hell!!!" :lol

[Miranda Tarkin]

Miranda couldn't help but quirk a brow at Sorsha. She knew how much hate brewed between those two.

"Are you merely mirthfully happy or did you have something to do with this?" she insinuated with a grand smile.

[Sorsha Kasajian]

:: Folding her hands across her flat belly, she did her best to look inscrutable in her ridiculous position ::

"Do you suspect foul play???"

[Miranda Tarkin]

She just gave Sorsha a dubious look and rolled her eyes. "Well, needless to say, I've heard that there have been about 17 attempts on her life since her court martial and the odd thing is ... "

Miranda poked Sorsha's nose with a grin. "... She wasn't even executed. Isard was found dead."

[Sorsha Kasajian]

:: Sorsha smiled ::

"You see? She had more than a dozen people waiting to stick a knife in her back. What makes you suppose it was me?" ;)

:: The sparkle in her eyes was obvious ::