Eyes Blue

[Pierce Tondry]

The ship Long Shot I appeared, shrank back from infinite length, and then was engulfed in the quiet of an asteroid field, heading for an abnormally large asteroid among the smaller ones.

From the mottled blue starlines of hyperspace to the dim lighting in Long Shot's cabin, everything was subdued. Calm. Very conducive to a Jedi mentality.

Given Pierce Tondry's current mission, it was almost an oxymoron.



######


The doors slid open long enough to admit Nick Weimar, Commander of Tau Team, to Pierce’s office. "Good to see you, Nick," Pierce said. A smile broke through the tired look on his face as he stood and shook hands with his long time friend.

"Good to have you back, boss monkey," Nick grinned. "I was worried about you."

"I appreciate it,"” Pierce said. He sat back down at his desk and slid a datapad across it. "But I’m not back for long. Got another mission- straight from General Cracken, too."

Nick picked up the datapad and skimmed it. "You want me to get the team ready?"

"This one’s a solo op, Nick," Pierce said. The tired look had returned, and Pierce scrubbed his eyes with his palms. "Don’t even bother ‘em. I’ll go out, blow up the Vinthas station, and be back in a week. No one’ll even noticed I was gone."

"Someone finally found Vinthas? You worried about having to take it down?"

"Nah. Aside from being a hyperspace-capable midsize space station, there’s nothing special about it. Don’t get me wrong. In the hands the criminal scum who found it, it can be dangerous. But I’ve infiltrated worse."

Nick set the datapad back on the desk. The clues were all there- the tiredness, the rumpled uniform Pierce would never wear. And was that a haunted look in his eyes?

Clearly something was wrong. "So what’s gotten to you, Boss? You look like hell warmed over."

The haunted look deepened. "Lately I keep having these dreams. Jedi dreams."

"About what?"

"About someone. I don't know. Her. I mostly just see a pair of blue eyes, but I know it's a woman."

"Who is she?"

Pierce balled up a fist and hit the surface of his desk, but without any real feeling or energy. "I don't know," he said again, staring at his desk and burying his face in his hands. "Sometimes I'm looking into her eyes and they're so calm, I could go to sleep if I wasn't already there. But then other times, I see 'em glaring at me, looking hurt. Betrayed. And it scares me."

"Scared?" Nick scoffed. "Pierce Tondry scared? You're got as much ice in your veins as a frostbitten wampa. That’s what I like about you, Boss. When it comes down to it, you’re as cool as a Hoth winter. You could fight a supernova if you had to. You can take out a woman, no problem."

"That ain’t it, Nick." Pierce looked upwards, revealing eyes that were clearly afraid. "Why would I betray someone I don’t even know?"

"Maybe she knows you from somewhere," Nick hazarded. "Or maybe she works for some dreg-sifter and you gotta put her out of her misery."

"Then why the dreams?"

"Maybe it ain't easy to do and you need time to work yourself up to it."

"That's a lotta maybes, Nick."

"You're the Jedi, bossmonkey," Nick grinned lightheartedly. "You don't like my answer then you figure it out yourself."



######


The soft clank and the creaking of his ship's weight coming to a stop brought Pierce back to the present.

The instruments didn't show any turbolasers popping out of fake asteroid skin, and there were no fighters closing on his position either. Thankfully, he'd made it this far completely undetected. He activated the ship's cloaking device to make sure it stayed that way, then made his way to the docking ring.

Black stealth gear- check. Blast vest and helmet- check. Three blasters- check. Two knives- check. Four thermite mines- check. Lightsaber-

Touching the cool metal cylinder brought to mind his recent conversation with Nick. Pierce hesitated, then stashed the weapon in a boot. Lightsaber- check.

Banishing edgy feelings and blue eyes from his mind, Pierce Tondry slid through the open hatch and into a darkened section of space station.

[imported_Eve]

Eve froze just left of a window and looked out across the stars, as if looking away hid her presence from view. The truth was, if someone had been paying any attention, she would have been discovered. She had to remind herself that not breathing didn’t help her hide anymore than looking away did. She took a deep, slow breath and turned her head back towards to window.

Fluctuations in light implied that people were present and moving beneath the window. Eve closed her eyes and used the force to feel her way into the room. Three souls were present. What they were conversing about; she did not hear.

Eve clung to the hull of the station by all fours. She had drifted to this asteroid by propelling herself from a nearby, smaller asteroid (which appeared to orbiting this one). She touched down with a loud bang nearly 10 minutes ago, but it didn’t appear that anyone had noticed. Her ship lay blacked-out on that smaller asteroid, only to be revived by a small remote hidden in Eve’s necklace.

The plan was to be short and sweet. Eve would penetrate this station and look around for clues to an old unanswered question about an old unreconciled disappearance.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Two weeks in the past, Eve and her close friends, Hera and Daiquiri, had been drinking and conversing late-night in a bar near ShadowFaene Fortress. They were all merrily drunk, laughing uncontrollably. It was when Daiquiri had fallen off her chair and Eve and Hera were unsuccessful in helping her up, that they had decided to leave the bar and venture back to the Fortress. They were hopelessly jolly and indifferent to anything that night; happy as friends can be, all worries secondary and brushed away under a drunk rug.

They had been in alley when they heard an old man barking at them.

“I know you...” The three couldn’t hear over their laughing. “YOU’RE HIS SISTER! Jees... and his would-be WIFE! LOOK AT YOU!”

Daiquiri had stopped. Eve and Hera were just coming around, worried that their third partner wasn’t bonded in merriment anymore. Daiquiri had heavy brows, looking over the mad man.

“What you sayin’ man? You talking to us? ... Or what?”

“Just look at you! How can you be so care-free? When he’s caged like a dog!”

Daiquiri had stopped smiling. The good-time was being sucked away from the three. Eve had walked up to Daiquiri, put her hand on her shoulder, and motioned her to come back to the voyage home. Daiquiri was too intrigued to turn back.

“Yes you too, his best friend. All of YOU...”

Eve looked around, making sure the man wasn’t barking at someone else. “What the hell are you talking about, man? I mean... do we know you?” At the question, the man hunched over. Eve followed his motion downward, trying to get a look, but the man backed away into a shadow.

“Tell us what the hell you’re talking about, right now, or... “ Eve started.

“I’m talking about your brother, woman!” the man spat, each word more harsh that the one before it.

“But I don’t ha... He’s...” Eve shook her head. “Wait, WHAT?”

Hera, who had stood there watching thus far, lunged forward and pointed a blaster at the man’s head. “Listen, old man, you’re messing with the wrong people. I don’t have any idea how you know us, or what you’re playing at, but you’re past getting on my nerves,” she hissed. The merriment was but a memory.

The man cowered beneath the blaster’s weight, but didn’t recoil in attitude. “You don’t want to kill me. Don’t you care about what happened to Rage? The poor man’s been pining over YOU!” The man waited. Hera didn’t move. “You kill me, you’ll never find out where he is.”

Eve’s jaw dropped. The three of them hadn’t heard that name in so long. They’d spent many years trying to forget that name, and now its mention was surreal.

Daiquiri was skeptical. “Hera, he’s a crazy man. He’s trying to get you worked up.” Daiquiri, obviously noting their proximity to the Fortress, also lunged forward and pointed her blaster at the man’s head. “What they got you doin’, eh? You the monkey-boy diversion tonight? You’re pals trying to break in up the road, eh?” She smiled painfully. “Well, you picked the wrong people to fool around with, sir.”

A sound was heard which meant Daiquiri was powering her blaster, milliseconds from putting a brilliant hole in the man’s head, when she heard, “Wait!”

Eve and Hera had said it together. A crooked smile was seen beneath the hood of the old man. Hera grabbed the man by the collar and forced him hard up against the alley wall. Eve grabbed Daiquiri by the forearm and they both stood there watching, but barley hearing Hera interrogate the man.

“What’s she saying?”

“I dunno. She’ll tell us, just wait.”

It wasn’t until later, after Hera had the old man picked up and locked away for further questioning, when the three had finally reached the Fortress, and had locked themselves in Hera’s master suite, that Hera told them anything.

“Look you two... I don’t know, WE don’t know who this guy is. He could be blowing smoke up our rears, you know.”

“But what did he SAY?” Daiquiri and Eve asked in unison.

“In fact, I think he’s a loony?” Hera looked at the girls who were getting impatient.

“How does he even know Rage? I mean, wouldn’t one of us had met him, somewhere along the way?” Daiquiri was right. There wasn’t much time when at least one of the three of them hadn’t been with him, back when Rage was around. Any acquaintance of his would be hard to miss.

“Right, I asked him that. He said he was on this asteroid station, being held for small-time theft. Said he tricked a tricker, if ya know what I mean. Said his cellmate was Rage.”

Both listeners raised their eyebrows, but didn’t say anything, afraid their voice would drown out any of this precious news.

Hera continued. “So I asked him how he got to know him, and how he knew all of us, just by seeing us. He said he was in the cell with Rage for about nine and a half months, during which time they had nothing to do but get to know one another. Said Rage told him he’d been there for several years, and that he had to get back to his family and friends. Said he had pictures of us all. Said that besides Rage, he only had us three to look at for all that time. Said they became friends and that he promised Rage he’d find us to when he was released. He also described that Rage was a clone... a Zabrakian clone.”

“Oh my god...”

“Hera, don’t tell me you believe this? I mean ‘cmon now, OUR RAGE? OUR Rage. Shacked up in a prison somewhere? Now, who do you know that could tie that man up for all that time? I sure as hell don’t know anyone that could.” Daiquiri shook her head. “This is all fishy. Something isn’t right here. Surely, he’d of had other cellmates before; other people who would have found us. Or SOMEONE would have seen him. We know lots of people m’ dear. No, this isn’t likely.”

“Maybe we should go check-up on what he says, Daiq,” Eve inserted quietly.

“Evie, you’re not serious! Why didn’t he just come to the front door? Why didn’t he present himself? And what about the fact that he says he was doing this as a favor to Rage? I mean, he was outright cursing us in the streets. That doesn’t sound like the will of a good-deed-doer. Don’t be stupid.”

“He said he was horrible to us because he knew how much Rage missed us, and it hurt him to see us all so merry without Rage,” Hera justified to Daiq.

“But how else would he know us, Daiq? How would he know anything about Rage, if he hadn’t met him? What would he have to gain by making this story up?” Eve argued.

“Yeah – Rage has been long removed from conversation, from everyone, even those who knew him. I mean, all this guy is saying is that Rage is being held somewhere, on some station, and that he saw him. He isn’t implying that we do anything over it. He’s just telling us.” Hera interjected.

“He isn’t implying anything? How do you tell a family that their long-lost love is wasting away in a cell somewhere and NOT imply that they go get him? Like we would just go ‘hey, neat, tell him we say hello!’”

Hera started with another round of arguments for Daiquiri’s skepticism, when Eve asked “What station did he say Rage was at?”

-----------------------------------------------------------
And that’s when Eve left. Two weeks and 27 hours later Eve found herself here, stuck on the outer hull of the station believed to be the home of her long-lost brother’s whereabouts. She didn’t stick around ShadowFaene to debate the validity of the man’s story. She knew she could get in and out of any station unseen, easily.

Eve didn’t know what to think. She knew she couldn’t sit around and wonder if it all were true. She knew she’d regret it all her life if she didn’t go and see for herself. She did know that if she found Rage beneath the hull of this space station her happiness would be unparalleled. She would again have back the only family she had ever known, even if he wasn’t related by blood.

Eve decided to crawl over the window, as she didn’t know when the people inside meant to leave. Her boots were laced with a controllable magnetic plating that stuck to the hull of the station. She could walk about the station’s exterior freely, as long as her oxygen lasted, and as long as no one noticed.

Finally, she came to the entrance of a docking port. She nestled herself behind a huge metal crevasse that lined the port’s opening. She had watched ships dock and leave for nearly an hour before she had learned her way in.

The port was a perfect, deep rectangle. She waited for a ship with a shallow nose, and “hopped” on as it slowly docked. Once the ship stopped moving she climbed to its top and reattached herself to the station by the port’s interior ceiling. She felt the port pressurize and her arms led her upper body, falling towards the ground. Her heart jumped a beat, but she was relieved to be attached to the ceiling by her boots. She cradled her body back towards the ceiling and crept along the walls, down to the ground. She found yet another crevasse in the wall and used it to take off and hide her space suit.

Just as Eve had finished taking off her helmet and had inhaled one breath of fresh, space-station air, a man behind her said, “Who are you? What is your authorization code?” Eve didn’t have time to think; she kneed him in the groin and he fell hard. She knelt beside him, pulled out a syringe and shot him in the neck.

“Night, night,” Eve said. She quickly undressed him, and put on his uniform. Conveniently the man was small for a male, and his clothes weren’t too big on her. The uniform was somewhat casual. If she hadn’t seen others wearing the same thing, she’d never know it was official wear of anything.

Eve gathered her hair in a bun and shoved it beneath the uniform’s matching hat which was delightfully somewhat big (the better to cover her face with).

Again, she waited until the line of passengers had exited the port. Just as the port door began to close, she ran for it. She barely made it between the slides and immediately proceeded to the nearest hiding spot she could find. ‘Ah another crevasse,’ she thought. She waited for the passengers to disappear down the corridor.

Now, she would begin her search.

[Pierce Tondry]

The markings were etched in solid Imperial black on the wall of the dimlit hallway. Vinthas KX8 class station. Unauthorized persons will be jailed for trespass.

"Long live Palpatine," Pierce murmured, and the ghost of Imperial might and power was fully evoked.

Thankfully this entire sector seemed left to those ghosts. Though that would fit with what Cracken had told him.


######


"Major Tondry, Please come in." Cracken waved a hand at the chair on the other side of the desk.

"General Cracken." Pierce saluted and sat, ignoring the spaciousness of the office and the comfortableness of his chair to focus on the reason he was here. "You wished to see me, sir?"

"Major, I'll be blunt," Cracken said, signing off on something and turning his attention to Pierce. "The time-arrangement you have between your duties with Intelligence and your learnings as a Jedi has me questioning whether or not you're truly mission capable."

Pierce blinked. "Sir, I-"

"Now I'm aware you've passed every qualification test placed before you," Cracken interrupted. "But in reviewing your performance I've noticed you seem to have lost interest in killing potential hostiles. This disturbs me- I see it as a sign that you've lost your combat edge."

When there was enough silence to prove Pierce had no intention of saying anything, Cracken continued. "Therefore, I've decided to send your division a mission that I want you to take a personal hand in. I believe you'll find it of some interest, as well."

Accepting a datapad from Cracken, Pierce skimmed it. "Vinthas station. The original Vinthas-KX8 station. I'll be damned."

"Yes. What do you know about it, Major?"

"Only that it was built back when the Emperor still considered the Jedi to be a threat to his regime," Pierce said, still marvelling. "It was supposed to be the first of a line of Jedi-proof trade stations the Emperor could direct supplies through. But then Vader killed or drove them all underground, so he stashed the original in secret storage and ordered the expensive Jedi-traps taken out of the design."

"Can you navigate one?"

The fact that Cracken was merely asking questions now was not lost on Pierce, but he decided to go the high road and not pursue it. "I've been in eight or so just like it. There's a good chance getting in it won't be a problem, especially if this thing's been dormant long enough for the traps to go rusty."

"They may or may not be rusty." Cracken stood up and began to pace, like he frequently did during briefings. "According to our source, the station was found around nine months ago in an asteroid field out Garn. The locater was a former Shadowfaene employee who went into business for himself. He brought in a crew, refurbished the place, and has been funneling his own traffic through the station. Given its mobility and firepower, we believe it could be a long-term threat best cutoff quickly."

"Garn?" Pierce frowned. "Sir, with the civil war on out there isn't it likely there's a lot of refugee traffic going through Vinthas right now?"

"It's an unfortunate possibility, yes," Cracken admitted. "But whoever is in charge out there will be using them to benefit his future criminal activity. Destroying the station supercedes all other concerns on this mission. Even the fate of a few hundred refugees."

Cracken sat back down and returned his attention to the documents in front of him. "You are dismissed, Major."


######

In a way, Cracken's logic was justified. Any civilians going through Vinthas had illegal passage. The station would become more of a threat as it was refurbished and better manned. With money from the influx of refugees, that would come sooner, not later. It was best to nip things in the bud while there were still uncrewed sectors like the one Pierce was sneaking through.

But to kill innocent people just trying to find peace...

The sudden wailing of an alarm cut into his thoughts. "Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Unauthorized personnel detected in sector Bee-Six."

B-6? That was close by- he was in B-5 and heading for the turbolift between the two sectors. Could it be that he'd been detected, only there'd been a frell-up in the computer system?

This is a mission. Can't take risks. Nothing for it but to hurry.

Pierce broke into a run. He reached the end of the hallway and rounded a corner, ran down it to another corner, rounded it-

-and came face to face with someone in uniform.

For a moment, the two stared at each other in surprise. The Pierce pulled out his blaster and fired. The shot took his enemy straight in the chest, dead before they could hit the floor. Pierce bent down and cautiously examined his kill.

The being he'd shot was a human male, late forties, dark hair, with rough tattoos around the neck. The uniform he was in seemed not to fit very well, like it had been in storage on the station and brought out after being found. Likely a criminal, then.

Pierce stood up and glanced around quickly, checking to be certain no one else was around. Then he began to run again, his footfalls in tune with the wailing of the alarm.

[imported_Eve]

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Unauthorized personnel detected in sector Bee-Six."

Eve froze and worriedly looked around to see if she had set something off. She saw nothing that explained this. Seconds later, she heard blaster fire close by. She immediately backed up and spread herself into a wall. She checked herself. She checked the corridor. She wasn’t shot; no one was there. She searched her surroundings. There was nothing but walkway and wall. ‘What the hell?’ Mouth open and brows together, she listened hard. Her eyes strained as far as they could down the corridor in the direction of the blast.

Eve soon found that listening was pointless, as the alarm was incredibly loud. And lying vertically against the wall wasn’t masking her presence in the slightest. If someone found her here, she’d surely be identified as the intruder (although she couldn’t find any evidence that she had set off the alarm in the first place).

Her only option was to move back and retrace her path. The blast came from some place ahead of her. She couldn’t go THAT way, as someone THAT way was shooting people. Just as she turned to head back, a greenish-yellow force-field materialized in front of her. She slid to a stop just before the force-field and was so close at her halt that she could feel the heat resonating from the field.

‘Okay so we’ll go THAT way’ she told herself as she again headed in her original path, towards the sounds of the blaster fire. She grabbed her blaster at take-off.

Eve galloped several meters. It wasn’t long when she came to a crossroad of passages that she saw a man blocking her path. Just as she caught site of him, the alarm ceased. He was standing in the middle of the crossroads, facing the opposite way of her. It was almost as if he was studying a piece of artwork. But there were no items of artwork on these station walls. Eve again spread back against the wall.

The man wasn’t dressed like any other she had seen since her arrival. His appearance (at least from the back) was benign and formidable, all at the same time. He was easily a foot taller than she was, and appeared to be very fit. He stood amazingly calm and upright, obviously not caring if anyone came upon him. ‘He has to be a station official’ she thought. The man wasn’t moving at all. His arms lay against his sides, one hand cradling a blaster. ‘So he’s the one...’

Just as she confirmed where the blast came from, a stabbing presence entered her mind. ‘Oh god!’ Eve instantly felt sick to her stomach. Her throat had dropped into her abdomen, numbed only by adrenaline. The man had been searching using the force. He knew she was there the entire time. And given that she found him there like this, he (she suspected) had felt her even before she came into sight’s range of him. ‘He must have been the one that set off the alarm and the force-fields. He knew I was here!’

But the man hadn’t moved nor done anything yet – he had not turned to confront her.

Eve reflexively breathed in hard, taken by surprise. Her breath may as well have been a sledgehammer breaking into the ground, as it was surely heard by the man. She covered her mouth and leapt down the nearest left corridor.

At entering the left corridor, she noticed a door ajar along the left wall, about 20 paces away. She sprinted towards the door, and leapt in. The room was dimly lit with shades of deep red. It was vacant of people, but occupied by a central metal table which was surrounded by eight matching chairs. Black wall panels, laced around the room at about five feet high, were chirping with information. Displays of red and blue light relayed visual information along the black panels. The room’s darkness and chirping were welcomed by Eve, as if it would help conceal her there.

Her lungs shrunk as she didn’t breathe. Eve frantically hit the door panel from inside the room, trying to close the doors. Her eyes bulged, watching the door. The door wouldn’t close; the panel was obviously malfunctioning (which she should have guessed when she saw the door propped open in the first place). ‘Damnit!’

She saw a shadow in the outer corridor which alerted her that the man was again close. She slithered deeper to the right behind the room’s front wall and spread her front against it, using her left hand to keep punching codes into the door panel. Luckily, the room’s chirping was not indistinguishable from the beeps of the door panel input. Her right hand took hold of her blaster and her arm became positioned beneath her navel, aiming towards the open door. She heard the swishing of his clothes, and that only meant he was right behind the entrance. She stopped punching codes and turned her body around against the wall. Her right arm was now extended and closest to the door. She aimed her blaster right at door’s entrance, so the newcomer would get it right in the face.

Eve saw the edge of his blaster, and stuck out her right foot to trip him, betting that his foot’s entrance would be closely following his blaster’s entrance. She was right, but instead of tripping him, he only stepped on her foot and lightly stumbled. Eve moaned in pain and reflexively turned her body around to knee the man in the gut. He crumbled for a short second, but rapidly returned upright to head-butt her, knocking her hat off in the process. Eve finally breathed out as she tumbled up and backward. She dropped her blaster in a painful daze. The man grabbed her by the neck and shoved her into the wall where the door panel was. Her impact with the door panel finally shut the door. The man leveled his entire body weight against her, their only separation being his hand poking his blaster in the pit of her waist. Her hair stretched and tore along the wall beneath her head. Her eyes watered from the pain and rolled in the back of her head.

It was seconds before she regained her composure, and her eyes regained focus. It was then that they finally got a look at one another.

[Pierce Tondry]

Her face turned out to be like her Force presence: exotic.

In spite of the uniform that didn't fit and the disorientation, she was very attractive. She had about her that neat perfection of appearance that smaller people sometimes do. Her uniform was too big on her (probably another poor fit like the dead thug in the hallway) but beneath the clothing Pierce could tell she was lean and fit.

A split second of surprise registered in his brain, then it turned to wonder. Whoever was running the Vinthas operation certainly had a lot of confidence in this small woman's ability to stop infiltrating Jedi. So far, she hadn't done a very good job of it, which usually meant there was a surprise somewhere waiting for him.

And then his brow furrowed. Something about her gave off a nagging feeling of familiarity.

She moved, pinning his blaster-hand against the wall with a certain and sure motion. Her other hand chopped at his, but Pierce was already reacting; his free hand pushed hers just so, and the chop missed the crucial nerve in his wrist that would have forced him to drop his weapon. Taking hold of her free hand, Pierce pulled it through circular motions in the air to build momentum and then flung it away. The woman went into a backward spin, but she managed to take it through a full revolution and disarmed him at the end with a slap to his blaster.

So she was an accomplished martial artist. Surprise.

The two of them lay into each other with everything they had, a flurry of offensive kicks and punches coming from her end and being met by defensive slaps and strikes. His opponent's shorter stature aided her ability to make openings and strike vulnerable points, but the hits she was able to land were returned with double the force behind them. As the minutes passed, it became obvious to both combatants that Pierce's superior endurance gave him a visible edge.

And then a backkick caught her in the stomach, and she was the one on the defensive. He brushed aside a punch and countered with one of his own; she attempted a kick, but Pierce caught it and flipped her, head over heels. Her feet skidded on the floor, but managed to catch her fall. Picking up a chair, she threw it at him.

It was a desperation move and Pierce knew it; he caught the chair with both hands and hurled it against the far wall where it shattered into pieces. He stepped forward again, calmly, implacably backing her into a corner. She moved to escape, but he was there; she threw a right-hand, but he caught it and shoved her backwards into the wall. His empathic senses felt worry rolling off of her in waves. He caught a glimpse of her face contorted with a mix of fear and anger-

And then a brilliant blue beam extended from her left hand and lit the space between them.

Pierce dropped her hand and backpedalled as she swung, narrowly avoiding losing his arm. She slashed again and again, forcing Pierce away and back onto the defensive with greater intensity than her small frame seemed able to contain. His options diminishing with every slash, there was only one thing left for Pierce to do.

He feigned moving to the right and she took the bait, slashing ahead of him. With a bare second of freedom, Pierce leapt backwards onto the table and rolled across it, tumbling out of view on the other side.

Not to be deterred, his opponent cut through the table, sending the middle of it crumpling to the floor in a broken V-shape. She had gone no farther than a step when another line of blue came into being.

Looking over his lightsaber as he stood, Pierce moved to engage once more.

[imported_Eve]

Eve looked at the man opposite her. His eyes were bold and focused on her. He didn’t blink, and for a moment they looked each other over. Didn’t he know - he was prolonging everything. He was stopping her from finding her goal. For a moment, she felt so tired of fighting for something that was unfair in the first place. She wished he would just give up and let her by.

But then he sprung a lightsaber. ‘Wait a minute...’

She was taken aback by the shimmering blue lighted “blade”. The man held it like a pro, but looked like a common military official nonetheless. Common people of any kind didn’t carry such a weapon. Eve, who had been slightly hunching before, stood fully upright and called her blaster to her left hand. She pointed it at him.

“You don’t work here, do you,” she said more as a matter of fact than as a question. She slightly smirked, finding the notion personally amusing that there were two people infiltrating this station. Suddenly the man’s expression changed. He was looking at her like they were old friends. She could feel his apprehension: he didn’t want to kill her, but he needed to. There was something he had to do... and... she was in the way... just like he was in HER way. There was conflict within him over her, and she felt that he didn’t understand it any more than she did. Obviously, giving up the debate in his mind, he lunged at her.

She took one shot that was absorbed into his saber. Again her blaster was swept from her hands, by a kick of his. She blocked him with her own saber, but his momentum was barely stoppable – he was very strong. They battled for weight over the situation, Eve losing as she shrunk beneath him and their blades. Again, they were staring each other over, only in closer proximity. The buzzing of their blades drowned out all the computerized chirping around them. Eve put her leg between them and kicked him away, as she grunted, “I don’t work here either!” The man fell back on his bottom, blade still in hand, never losing his gaze on her.

Ignoring her, the man rocked back, threw his legs high above his body, then rocked back over fast and landed on his feet. He ran through the break in the table towards Eve. Eve swerved to her right. She kicked a chair at him and then lunged towards the door. She hit the door panel with a force. It didn’t open. The man was on her back in milliseconds, his arm around circling her throat.

Eve frantically tried to dig her chin into her chest, as the man’s elbow closed around her throat. He pushed his weight into her so her neck would have no space from his binding arm. She kept hitting codes into the door panel, trying to gain air. The man began to groan from her chin digging into his forearm. Taking advantage of their position, Eve plunged her saber between her legs. When she heard the man yell, she knew she had got him. He fell away from her. She turned around to block anything that may be coming, coughing furiously. But nothing was coming; the man was cradling his right inner calf. She had burned him with her saber. But far from de-habilitating him, he became angrier with her.

The man held up his saber horizontal with the ground and ceiling, tip aimed at her. He lunged at her. Eve gasped and dodged to her right. His saber stabbed the door panel, and electric sparks flew from the panel. The door opened, and the lights of the entire room went black. The man collapsed to the floor, his saber detracting in the process. Eve shut down her saber as well. Again, she summoned her blaster to her hand and approached the man. She couldn’t see him. He was hidden in the shadows on the other side of the door.

[Pierce Tondry]

She had to be the woman from his dreams. Had to be.

In spite of his own good sense, Pierce found himself wanting to believe her, wanting to put his weapon up and work out what the hell they were both doing in the same place at the same time. If he hadn't been in too many fights where his opponent had lied to him as a distraction, Pierce might have done that. Might have believed her. Might have trusted her at the risk of her stabbing him in the back later.

Like Lilaena did. Damn you for being right, Nick. I do need to steel myself and finish her.

Pierce stood, slowly straightening himself against the wall to keep as within the shadows as he could. She was hesitating at the edge of the doorway. The light from the outside hallway was enough to force her eyes to adjust; when she stepped into it, he could strike and maybe take her out quickly and cleanly.

If only killing an opponent he was uncertain of didn't go against every fiber of his moral core.

She took a half-step forward but stopped, staring into his shadows warily and uncertainly. At the same moment, Pierce could feel something stirring outside the room, something that meant harm-

A familiar ignition of thrust reached his ears. The woman stepped back, to be replaced by the speeding form of a small rocket that his danger sense screamed was capable of killing them both. 'That's a Merr-Sonn X88 antipersonnel missile,' his mind thought dumbly. He stepped forward into the doorway and grabbed the woman's lightsaber hand, pulling her forward just as the rocket impacted on the back wall of the room and shattered the computer banks with explosive force.

The two of them stood together, intimately close for the few seconds the detonation took to forcibly hurl them from the room.


######

Something light brushed his left shoulder and Pierce sat up. The pain in that side of his body made him instantly regret doing so, and he hissed with a disoriented grimace.

"Sorry."

Pierce looked in the direction of the voice to find the woman he'd been fighting. "I was checking to see how bad it was," she explained.

Pierce checked. The pain he was feeling apparently had good reason to be there. His left hand and arm had been burned- badly. His entire left side had probably be at the mercy of the firey backwash from the explosion. Noticeably absent were his protective jacket, weapons and equipment.

Gingerly easing himself into a sitting position, Pierce took a look around. He and his companion were on a circular disc about two or three meters in diameter, the edge of which projected a glowing force field up to a similar disc in the ceiling. Seven similar devices in various stages of disrepair were also in the room, along with an attendant behind a control terminal by the far wall.

"Are you alright?" Pierce asked, his attention turning back to his cellmate.

"Yes," she replied. "You... took most of it. Why?"

Pierce dimly recalled trying to twist himself into harm's way at the last second so he could spare her as much of the blast as possible. "It was a little late, but I believed you," he replied, putting a hand to his head. Thinking hurt. "Were you out, too?"

"Yeah. My head hit the wall, I think."

Pierce frowned, ignoring the pain that caused. "You might have a concussion," he said, looking at her. His words caught her attention, and their gazes touched. Pierce found himself staring into her eyes and reliving the sensation of familiarity he'd felt upon meeting her. "Let me check, Eyes Blue."

Her forehead frowned, but her mouth smiled and she moved closer. "Eyes Blue?"

"Well, don't you have a name?"

[imported_Eve]

"Eve." As she moved closer to her cellmate, a wave of dizziness hit her. The room was not circling, but she felt as if gravity was pulling her down. To him, she looked like she was hunching. To her, she thought she was still sitting upright.

"What is yours?" Eve's hand drunkedly and slowly emerged upwards to cradle her head - an attempt to handle the disorientation. Before that could happen, she had rocked forward unpurposely. She caught herself by her elbow, and let out a small wimper as her elbow hurt. She had become pathetic.

Her cellmate had been quick despite his injuries. He had reached for her shoulder closest to the ground and took hold; he caught her. "Pierce," he replied, beaming light pity towards her. She found herself sitting indian style, crouching as if she were to wretch, held up by Pierce's forearm. She stopped moving, gained focus, and the dizziness went mostly away. She was holding on to him. She leaned up.

"Easy there." Pierce didn't know what else to say. It was obvious Eve's dizziness was brought on by her sudden motion. He moved his other hand, painfully, to cradle her head. She was trying to be strong. He could feel it in her weight against his good arm. But her head was easily manipulated. She was now upright, getting over another wave of dizziness, trying to focus on his eyes. This only took a few seconds. They smiled at one another.

"Whoa, sorry..."

"It's okay. Be still. Do you have a bump on your head anywhere?" Eve was going to nod, but his hand and lecturing stare told her not to move. He took in an unoticeable [to her] breath, and his arm experienced a wave of pain, just in straining to keep her from nodding her head.

"No. I don't think so." She could feel his pain. She closed her eyes and said, "Let your arm rest." Pierce smiled but ignored her, running his hand around her head lightly. He could feel no bump.

"I feel better now, really." She opened her eyes. "Your arm. Please rest it. You need medical attention."

Pierce, satisfied he had fully investigated Eve's head, complied. He wasn't going to get any medical attention anytime soon. Only time would heal him.

Eve wanted to do something to make him feel better. A burn needed care that she, less of proper medical tools, could not provide. She was no doctor neither. "Are you in alot of pain?"

The two had been involved in one another, trying to save the other for several minutes. Eve had not thought of asking Pierce what he was doing there. Even though they had just met hours ago, what had already happened between them had solidified that they were somehow on the same team. They both were going to need to escape, probably using each other to do it. Pierce had shielded her from alot of pain and injury, was captured with her, and still spent his time focusing on her pain (which was minimal compared to his). Huh.

She would ask what he was doing there, later.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Now that you mention it." Pierce grimaced. "I could use one of my bacta patches."

He rubbed his forehead, then stopped. "I feel... odd."

There was something wrong. Though Pierce couldn't put his finger on it, something felt different.

"Where does it hurt?"

But there were too many distractions to pinpoint it.

Pierce looked to Eve. "I didn't mean it that way. I can hear bees buzzing, but there are no bees."

Eve's blue eyes searched his own. "You're sure you didn't hit your head?"

"Ha, ha. Try listening yourself."

Eve's puzzlement turned into a frown of concentration. "See?" Pierce said. "I don't know what it is."

Eve shook her head. "It's not that. Visitors."

Pierce turned to look and sure enough, Eve was right. Two humans and a Kubaz had entered the detention block and were talking to the jailer, who pointed to the two of them. The lead human- a male with a too broad grin- carried a portable missile launcher. The one that cooked my arm.

"Well, well, well," Missilegun smirked as he swaggered up to the field. "Whadda we got here, eh? Looks like we caught us a coupla fish."

Pierce drew himself up to his full height, towering above everyone present. Missilegun's smirk lost some of its edge. "This fish doesn't like captivity. Why am I being held?"

"We don't like snoopy fish," Missilegun leaned in with a sneer. "Especially Jedi fish."

Pierce's face darkened. "I'm a Sith, and you're making a big mistake."

Misslegun giggled in an out of character way. "If you were a Sith, you'd have killed her by now," he said, indicating Eve. "And then I'd have killed you. Besides, Sith or Jedi, no one matters in that cage. Especially not you, cutie." Missilegun leered at his captive.

Eve's face darkened quickly- "Aw, thanks," Pierce interrupted with a touch of sarcasm. "I didn't know you'd noticed, sweetie-buns."

The Kubaz burst into loud trumpet-like laughs. Missilegun's eyes bulged, and he rounded on his compatriot. "You think that's funny? You think it's funny?"

The Kubaz took a step backward, but Missilegun held up his weapon, almost shoving it up the snout of the offending Kubaz. "Who's laughing now, buddy? WHO IS LAUGHING NOW?"

"Easy, Jom! Jom!" The second human intervened in the struggle and began pulling the two apart.

Pierce remained silent through the exchange, watching. Jom turned back to the cell, stared angrily at Pierce; then spun to look at Eve. "It's a shame. I was so hoping to get Hera herself. But she'll get hers soon enough, yes, she will." Jom giggled again, insanely.

Hera DrenKast. Pierce kept his expression neutral and looked to Eve, wondering how she'd respond.

[imported_Eve]

Eve did not know the man who apparently knew her. It was now obvious that she had been lured there (even if it was Hera who was suppossed to come), and seeing as she was caged up, it wasn't to make contact with her long lost brother. She couldn't help it though...

"Is Rage Sarin here?"

Pierce looked puzzled. What a weird designation. Eve was responded to by laughter.

"You're Hera's best friend. Yet, you are so far removed from her business affairs." Jom's laughter was over. "Next time you crash a station, do some research first, woman." His tone had turned hostile.

Eve felt shame. Her urge to see her brother had been overwhelming her. She had not read-up on this station beyond schematics. Her confidence was so sure that she did not assess the threat - at all. She really did think she could stroll in, pick up her brother, and stroll out. This was a force-user's overconfidence. What a mistake.

Despite her shame, which Pierce could sense in waves (mixed with dizziness), Eve's face remained blank. She forced a smile which tightened into a smirk.

"You know what you do when you assume? You make an --- out of yourself." Jom's face swelled. Pierce was pleasantly amused.

Jom could respond only with, "Well, you're the one in the cage." He looked Eve up and down. "In a CAGE!" His repeat was for was for effect.

Eve thought of her new purpose on this station. She was going to kill him, just for playing with her and her friends. Instead of making further talk, she decided to remain silent. She looked down. Pierce knew that feeling. That feeling when you're so angry, you're capable of killing. It was a feeling the Jedi tried to contain, to surpress, to work with positively, to channel. Eve apparently didn't have this discipline. Her only restraint was physical at this moment.

Eve looked at Pierce's shoe, and it somehow reminded her that she didn't know why he was here. What did he have to do with Rage? Did he know Hera? What did he have to do with this place?

[Pierce Tondry]

Feeling Eve hurt and confused made Pierce want to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, tell her it would be all right, and that the jerk on the other side of the force field would get his. What stopped him was basic uncertainty that everything would work out nice and neat.

Then again, the cage itself shouldn't be too much of a problem.

"I'll be out of here in half an hour," Pierce promised. "And I already know where my equipment is, too."

Jom's head jerked around. "HA! Didja here that, boys?" he said with feigned astonishment. "He says he's gonna get out of his new cage there."

This amused Pierce. "Watch me," he said.

"Oh, no. We've got bigger fish to fry." Jom turned and began walking away, suddenly disinterested in taunting the two of them. However, he stopped by the doorway to offer one last cut. "When you get out, you can make me talk, big bad Sithy boy."

Pierce's eyes narrowed. He's going after Hera.

The clues were falling into place. These thugs were clearly former Shadowfaene members, with a grudge on their old employers to boot. If they'd managed to lure her away and privately dispose of her, so much the better- they could establish authority over both bases. If they couldn't, they would still have been able to get rid of one of her agents, and they could always use Vinthas against the 'Faene fortress directly. Even as old as it was, Vinthas still had its fair share of secret weapons.

Eve turned away and sat down abruptly. "Easy," Pierce said softly, resting a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get out and go deal with that screwjob. I promise."

Eve turned to look at him. "How?"

Pierce drew in a deep breath. "It won't exactly be easy. I figured out the buzzing- we're in what's called a Universal Force Cage. It was designed by the Emperor to keep Jedi prisoner, and it works by creating a field that prevents absolutely every kind of energy from getting in or out, including empathic signals or telekinetic pressure. But if this device is as old and poorly functioning as I think it is, we should be able to overload it. You any good at telekinesis, by the way?"

"I practice every day." Eve sounded almost proud.

"Good. You push on the ceiling at the same spot I'm going to push with my hands. If we can lift the top emitters high enough, I think that will short this thing out and we can escape. Once we're free, we take out that guard and go for the cabinet on the far left."

Eve looked to the cabinet. "What's in there?"

"Our equipment, most likely. Nutjob looked straight at it when I mentioned it earlier." Pierce stretched his arms out, the burned one more gingerly than the other, and placed his palms flat against the top of the cage.

"Whenever you're ready."

[imported_Eve]

Eve blinked. Whatever it was that Pierce did for a living, she got the feeling he was very good at it. She got up and stood across from him. He watched her with his arms extended upwards.

"I'm ready. On three." Pierce nodded. She closed her eyes and turned her head up. "One. Two. Three." Pierce pushed upwards, hard. Eve opened her eyes, directed to the ceiling. Her lips pursed as if doing so increased her mental intensity. She looked angry. Pierce's face turned red, and he started breathing heavier. The ceiling creaked.

"More!" Pierce heaved. The guard heard that. Instead of calling for back-up he ran to their cage.

"Hey! What are you two doing? Stop that! Now!"

Pierce was showing teeth now, almost growling, his eyes turned towards the guard. Eve's brows came together. The movement was slow, but coming. She heard a short, then another creak. The guard was almost jumping. He held his hands up, as if to stop them. The buzzing cut in and out, then it was gone, and the field surrounding them dissapeared. Eve immediately raised her left arm, took a step left, and threw her right arm in the direction of the guard, pushing air. She had force hit him. The guard flew backwards to the ground. He struggled for a moment once he landed. He started feeling himself up for his blaster, but Eve had called to it first. She shot him in the chest.

"Idiot! If I was guarding prisoners, I'd at least..." She stopped when she realized that it was a poor time for "chit-chat".

Pierce had finally let go of the ceiling and dropped his arms slowly. Eve looked upon him in sympathy. He seemed to notice this because he immediately shook out his arms (despite the pain) and led them both to the cabinet on the far left. There, just as he had said, they found their things. Both clipped their sabers to their belts and burried their blasters in their holsters. Pierce found Eve staring at his arm again.

"So, we..." Pierce began.

"Hold on." Eve held up her hand. "I have to be sure. Wait here." She left him, and ran into the sea of cages. Beyond a few meters, it was hard to see where she went.

After a few minutes, she returned. Her adrenaline was somewhat drained, and Pierce could sense dissapointment in her. "Okay, what now?"

Pierce drew Eve to a dark corner near the cabinet. He kept his voice low. "Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like remodeling."

"Huh?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"I don't know about you," Pierce had been working on a makeshift armbandage. He tied it off with a sharp jerk before looking back to Eve. "But I came here to blow this place up. I'm not leaving until that's done. We seem to have a common enemy, so if you want in."

Pierce let the sentence hang in the air while he checked himself for other injuries. Satisified there were none, he pulled on his protective jacket. A pain spike in his arm made him hiss, and he proceded more gingerly.

Eve stepped over to help him. "I'm in," she said. "What do we do?"

"Couple things," Pierce began. "First, we sabotage their internal security grid. It'll allow us to move around easier if we don't have alerts ringing every step we take."

Eve nodded understanding, so Pierce continued. "Then, we split up. I'll hit their external weapons systems to make sure they're defenseless. While I'm doing that, you make your way towards the power core and clear the way as best you can. I'll join you when I'm finished. Then we set the power core to overload and blow this jumjahara stand."

Fishing in his equipment belt located a small commlink. Pierce clicked it on; satisfied it was working properly he turned it off and gave it to Eve. "If you run into any trouble, I've got this commlink's twin. Just holler me up and I'll come running."

Eve took the comm and put it away. "Let's go," she said.


######

The door collapsed inward and fell to the floor with a thunk. Pierce followed it into the security room and coolly shot the guard scrambling up from the control chair. The body collapsed back into the chair, forcing Pierce to pull it out with his good arm before he could examine the system.

"This terminal seems functional." Pierce pulled a disk from inside a compartment on his equipment belt. "This'll screw with the damned alarm system."

"I'm impressed," Eve said, watching the hallway. "I thought that would have been damaged in the explosion."

"The toolbelt was built to survive everything but direct fire," Pierce said absently. "Same as the jacket. Without these I doubt I'd still be up and running."

"I see."

Pierce could feel Eve's eyes on him, but he ignored it, passing the upload time in silence. When it was done, he removed the spike disk from the terminal's drive and put it back in the belt. "Alarms and security detectors are now silenced."

"Good." Eve sounded angrily satisfied. "I'm going."

The hatred in her voice was near-tangible, but what its cause was Pierce did not know. He could only guess that it had something to do with her reason for being on the station. But however justified her anger may have been, wasn't it a Jedi's duty to help her overcome it?

"Eve." She stopped in the act of leaving and looked back. "Whatever you came here to looking for, I know you didn't find it. I'm sorry. But be careful. Don't let anger get in the way of your safety."

[imported_Eve]

Eve was taken with his statement. She paused a moment and stared at him. Pierce meant to deflate her anger, and he had - somewhat. She pondered this when she noticed that his stare had intensified. She could only respond with, "I won't."

The moment had turned ackward (as they were once again staring at one another), and it was already urgent, so she turned back and resumed her path. She felt herself silently wishing Pierce would be alright.

<center>######</center>

For the umpteenth time that day, Eve found herself becoming part of the walls of this station. She slid along the vertical surfaces of the corridors, blaster in one hand, the other hand ready to block any oncoming danger. Clearing the path was proving to be not so difficult. Mostly, she crept up behind inadequately trained guards, tapped them on the shoulder, and returned their searching looks with blaster shots to the stomach. She assumed most of the guards were new, as many seemed unprepaired for her.

As Eve cleared paths, she thieved weapons from her victims. Unfortunately, they all had lesser blasters, and she needed explosives. She assumed Pierce already had some, but she hoped she'd find something to throw into the future fire for herself.

Only by having to take on larger groups of guards at once, and by hearing humming resonating from the station itself, did Eve begin to think she was getting close to the power core. She continued to creep along the wall, when she finally heard that voice that had ridiculed her earlier. She heard Jom laughing it up. She paused. Suddenly, her purpose shifted and her anger surged.

Eve bit her lip. She looked around, but found no idea or plan in the steel walls and floors before her. She could only decipher two voices ahead. She crept closer. The corridor curved around right and she could see a room entrance on the right side of the hall. The voices were coming from there. Her usual instincts would have been to get into the room unseen and unheard, and take her prey by surprise. But that's too good for this guy. She put away her blaster, and placed her hand on her lightsaber. She looked around again, before she settled on kicking the steel wall.

The merry conversation in the room ahead died. "What was that?" Silence. "Probably one of the trainees lost again...Well. Go check it out!"

"Yessir!"

Perfect.

Jom sat there unmoved as his suboridinate left the room. What he heard next was not what he expected; he heard the unmistakable hum of a lightsaber, followed a moment later by its changed pitch as it flew through the air. Then he heard the yelp of his suboridinate just before a "thump" on the ground.

Jom sprung from his seat, knocking it backwards in the process. His palms were sweaty as he grasped for his blaster.

Eve heard him stir. She kept her saber ignited, and moved it back and forth through the air, while not moving herself. She stood right outside the door, not coming into view. She wanted him to anticipate his death, and to fear its arrival. She had no intentions of making this easy for him. He had played with her, her best friend, and dishonored the death and memory of her brother. Now, she would play with him. She would let him live in there, a few minutes more, knowing his death was coming in mere moments.

"I-I know you're out there. S-Sith boy! Ha hah haaaaa-AA!"

Eve raised her eyebrows. She couldn't help a smirk.

"I have guards everywhere. I have set of the alarm! Annn-any minute, they'll be-bee here!"

This was almost funny. Pierce shut down the alarms, you idiot.

Eve waved her lightsaber over the entrance, and found that a blaster was fired through the entrance. The blast mark was a bit high on the opposite wall. Had she walked through the door, he would have missed her head by almost a foot. She heard Jom's breath quicken. "Surrender now. Annn then I promise to get you off light." Only a force user could hear his heartbeat echo through the steel walls. She waved her saber over the entrance again, this time higher (just to be safe), and lunged inside the room. Again, Jom fired, and again, he fired high.

"You!"

"Me." Again, the swooshing of the lightsaber was heard. Then the sound of Jom scream in pain as his hand and blaster were disattached from his body. He fell to his knees, grasping his incomplete arm. She kicked his good arm away, shoved his head with her hand. His body followed backwards and he ackwardly fell on his back. Eve stepped on his pouring wound and exerted pressure. Jom screamed again. Eve aimed her saber directly over Jom's chest.

"Tell me now about Rage!"

Eve lessened her pressure and Jom's cries lessened. His eyes were swelling with tears, his skin reddening from pumping blood.

"Nothing! Ahh-hah nothing! I swear it was to lure Hera here! I made it up! I made it uh-hup!" Eve's lips curled. She exterted pressure. Jom screamed. He tried to hit her with his good hand. His attempt was pitiful. He was in no condition to be throwing shots. Eve came down on her knees, each knee landing on his arms, pinning him. She stared down her chest at him.

"So, you meant to hurt Hera?! You should have never messed with us."

"I'm sorry. Let me go, and I promise --"

"You should not have lured me here, either. YOU should have done YOUR research. On me." Jom immediately recalled his remark earlier to her, and his condescending ridicule of her, just before she put him out of his misery. He died with his eyes open and his heart burned from the inside.

Eve got up and retracted her saber. Again she chose her blaster and held it in hand. She looked around the room. Her eyes burned and moistened as she walked out of the room. The private and inappropriate emotions, which seemed to be centered in her throat, were forgotten when she realized she was tracking blood with her boots. She walked back to Jom's body, and whiped her foot on his uniform. She left the room again, and headed back on her course, down the corridor towards the ever-louder beeps and hums.

[Pierce Tondry]

The whispering echo of voices reached into the ventilation shaft Pierce was crawling through and made him stop. The move was trite and cliche, but it allowed him to progress up three levels without being seen.

Pierce double-checked the vent label; certain it led to the power regulation room he sought, he peeked through it.

Three guards seemed to be idly chatting in the brightly lit room below. A fourth man in technician's overalls and a set of tools was in the middle of some of repairs to one of the terminals. He didn't seem armed, but fighting three guards was better than fighting three guards with an extra man to call for help. Perhaps it would be worth listening in to see when the tech would leave. Pierce placed his ear next to the grate.

"And then- get this Bern- Jennings over here goes up to the broad and says 'Baby, I think that cup is mine."

"If I had a credit for everytime I've heard that story." Bernie reached upward and began working with some wires.

"Then you'd have five credits."

"More like five-hundred credits and an extra keg."

"Speaking of credits," someone said. "How're you gonna spend your bonuses off this latest run?"

"Women and booze," Jennings replied. "You Mac?"

"Women and booze," Mac replied. "What about you Bern?"

"Heh, I'm saving mine," Bernie said, adjusting one of the flow control panels beneath the terminal. "Jom gave me his extra and then some to make some special mods."

"Hah. That lunatic would do anything to get back at DrenKast for spacing his brother. What'd he want you to do?"

Bern smirked. "Can't say. But if DrenKast manages to get him on our upcoming hit, she's not gonna survive it."

"No kiddin? Like, what we talkin bout? A personal bio-bomb, a cortosis cannon, what?"

"Can't say, except that it's a station mod."

"Yeah, well, it better not be one of those nut-hatch self-destruct schemes of his. Moron don't think about other people when he works."

"Tell me about it," Bern shook his head. "That's why I'm getting off this rock as soon as this last round of upgrades is done. I don't want to be anywhere near this place-"

Wham!

Pierce burst out of the vent, guns blazing. His shots dropped one guard before he could even turn around; the other two died with their fingers scrambling for their blasters.

The shootout was over in just seconds, leaving a stunned Bernie staring out from his workspace.

Pierce looked at each of the guards, shot one for good measure, then turned to his prisoner with a levelled blaster. "Don't want to be near this place when what?"

Bern gulped.

[imported_Eve]

Before Pierce would get his answer, the entrance on the opposite side of the room exploded.

Eve emerged moments later from the smoke to see Pierce aiming a blaster at her with his left arm, and pointing another blaster on a man who appeared to be a station tech.

"Hey. Hey, it's me." Eve held up her hands in surrender pose and lazily smiled.

Pierce turned back to the man, both blasters pointed at him again. "What's wrong with your knee?" He asked while keeping his eyes on Bern. Eve's expression changed to curiosity. She looked down. Indeed, her left knee was drenched in blood.

"Hmm. I guess that would be what's left of that jerk."

Pierce knew what she meant. She had killed Jom. He could feel a mixture of emotions inside her. She didn't like killing, but she also felt she was justified. He didn't quite blame her. Based on what he already knew, and what he feared he would learn, Jom was up to no good.

"Oh my god! Who did you...? What did you...?" Bern was humbled before, half-sitting and half-standing. Now, he was pushing himself off the ground, frantic.

"Shut up." Pierce and Eve demanded in unison. Eve joined Pierce in pointing a blaster at Bern.

"Answer the question or YOUR blood will be on the floor. Don't want to be near this place when what?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"W-when Jom sets off the triggers."

Ugh. Pierce holstered one of his weapons, then used the free hand to haul Bern out from the maintenance crawl and forcibly stand him on his feet. He glared at the quaking technician. "Triggers to what?"

"L-lots of stuff. Uh, coupla command override sequencers, security force field routers, navicomp permission module. I-i was working on an overload bypass to the weapons systems wh-when you-"

"Enough; I get it." Pierce let go of Bern with a little shove. "He wanted to take complete control of this thing at a moment's notice in case Hera started to get the upper hand somehow."

"Would that affect what you did to the alarms?" Eve asked.

"Depends on how thorough their system revamp was," Pierce frowned and began to think.

It was well-known that Emperor Palpatine had a passion for secret control codes hardwired into his military machinery so he could co-opt any particular system on any particular ship at a moment's notice. Intel's control spike was designed not to make use of any of the main codes that existed, but instead use certain protocols in critical subsystems that were less likely to be replaced or protected. According to the disk, everything it needed to trick the security grids had been found. Then again, it wasn't programmed to disable the rest of the station. That was Pierce's job.

Perhaps the most worrisome part of the whole business was the prickling at the back of his neck that hinted at unknown complications.

Pierce's attention returned to the situation at hand. "We'll just have to keep our guard up," he said firmly. "Since the plan doesn't rely on any computer trickery from this point, I don't think it will be a problem."

Eve nodded, then lifted her blaster for a better aim at Bern. The technician cringed- "Don't."

Eve looked curiously at Pierce. "We can't just let him go," she objected. "He'll tell his buddies the other guards-"

"But he's not a fighter like they are and his crimes aren't unforgiveable." Pierce looked back at the tech shaking inside oversized coveralls and sighed internally. "It's not justified."

Eve eyed him suspiciously, probably thinking the matter over. "What would we do with him?"

"I figure if there are any refugees on the station, he'll know where they are and be able to get them out of here. Besides, there's been too much pain here already. I don't want to add to that."

Although Pierce rubbed his bandaged arm as he spoke, he was talking about Eve herself and she knew that. He only hoped that she would accept that reasoning and move on to the final task with him.