"I have some business I need to attend to first."
Cipher Nine knew shutting down the Eagle was her top priority, but there was a pressing matter she wanted to pursue first. Keeper pursed his lips and frowned.
"Attend to it quickly – we still need you here."
Kieyla nodded. Looking closely at the holographics, she noticed the corners of her superior's lips twitch up.
"Good work once again, Cipher Nine," he said with amused sincerity. "Keeper out."
The holocom fizzed and went silent. A smile crossed her face - such simple words that held high praise, especially coming from Keeper himself. Kieyla erased the emotion as she turned towards Renald. He wore a clouded expression on his face.
"That man hides it well, but the strain's getting to him - probably worried the Dark Council will skin him alive" the station chief stated, his eyebrows furrowing with worry.
Kieyla wasn't one-hundred percent certain what the standings of Renald and Keeper's friendship were, as strange as it was, but she knew that the two men had known each other long enough for one to tell when something was bugging the other.
Why mention the Dark Council? What does it have to do with Keeper?
"I'm not sure what you're talking about" Kieyla said slowly.
"Make no mistake, I don't hold him responsible for what happened," Renald said, his hands held in front of his round belly in a rather defensive position. "But Darth Jadus was assassinated on his watch."
His voice trembled as he mentioned the event, which didn't surprise the Cipher. The tragedy was the entirety of her mission, but surely the Dark Council couldn't blame Keeper for what happened.
We didn't even know about the terrorists until the attack. If anything, they helped us by revealing another enemy of the Empire to be shut down.
Still, it was all too likely that reverberations within the hierarchy of the Sith and Imperial Intelligence would fall on Keeper's shoulders.
Renald took a few steps back towards his chair, suddenly looking very relaxed.
"Ah, but now's no time to discuss politics. You deserve a moment of celebration, and I have work to do" he said heartily, sitting down heavily.
"It's been a pleasure doing business," Kieyla responded warmly with a small wave of thanks.
It was almost unnerving how quickly the two of them changed moods.
Guess it just develops after being involved in this kind of work.
"Indeed, my friend, indeed," Renald agreed, reaching for the bottle atop his desk.
Cipher stole a glance towards her companion as she turned to leave, and stopped at the unusually satisfied expression.
"Not bad, agent. Not bad at all," Kaliyo purred slyly. "You and me – we're going places."
Kieyla rolled her eyes and started towards the door, but paused as she caught sight of a figure leaning against the wall by the doorway. Her heart rate increased by a fraction, sending a thrill of excitement through her veins. She had hoped to see Sanju again, especially after the incident at the toxic outpost.
Kaliyo hadn't been too keen about walking into a cave covered in poisonous slime, so Kieyla had gone alone and met Sanju atop the hill nearby afterwards. Unknown to anyone else, Kieyla had retracted some of the toxins into her system while inside and Sanju had been the only one there to help her. She had thought him cute from the start, but after he saved her life, their flirty relationship had evolved into more. It was dangerous, but they had agreed to take the risk and hide it from the rest of the galaxy.
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SWTOR: The Davire Legacy
Science FictionA collection of short-stories about the Davire sisters, written at varying times from 2014 to 2021. I tried to post them in a somewhat chronological order, but they were not written in that way. I had always thought I would write a full fledged sto...
