FORSAKEN II - Eternal Dawn

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Haibak held a glass of brandy as he smoked his pipe. The collar of his uniform was undone. A necklace with a clear kyber crystal—a symbol of his faith—hung form his neck. He studied the hologram pieces on his dejarik table to the sound of the opera, The Masterwork of Illure Beelthrak. He followed every play in his head at least six steps ahead, while glimpsing the fault in every move. The Captain had been at a stalemate for a month. It occurred to him that victory may not be possible, but perhaps he could weaken his opponent by exacting a heavy price for winning. Someone came to his door.

"Yes?" Haibak puffed on his pipe. He had given orders to be left alone while he wrote his report. The only person who was authorized to bother him, was the one who walked through the door.

When Eisvolk entered, she noticed the nearly empty bottle of brandy by the desk—it was almost two thirds full the first time she saw it. The Captain had taken a gamble by chasing after the Jedi, disregarding the Inquisitor's orders, and it didn't pay off. Had it worked, he and Eisvolk would be heading back to Coruscant with their careers back on track. Instead, the failure at Ryloth meant their futures were in dire straits. As the ship's executive officer, she had agreed to the ambush because she was tired of being at the mercy of the scheming Inquisitors who clearly only cared about themselves.

"Captain?"

"Commander, come in."

"Sir, did you file your report?"

"Just about to." He pointed at his desk. "Pour yourself a drink." His maladroit gesture showed his inebriation.

Eisvolk complied, knowing that to argue would be futile. "With whom are you playing?"

"Myself."

"I never understood people who could that."

"You have to be completely honest with yourself." Haibak took a drink, making the ice cubes ring against the empty glass. He moved over to the living room. "It's a self-study of your strengths and flaws, your shortcomings, your lack of vision." The Captain placed the glass on the table and put out his pipe.

"Have you ever won?" Eisvolk took a seat across from him.

"As many times as I've lost."

She sipped her drink, letting his words linger for a moment. "I'm glad I caught you before you sent in your report."

"Anything you would like to add?"

"I received the surface report from Military Intelligence in Ryloth. Although no supernatural phenomena were observed, it appears the Jedi were involved in breaking out a prisoner from a ryll mine and stealing fifty tons of the mineral from a convoy."

"Who was the prisoner?"

"A Weequay pirate called Hondo Ohnaka. He was arrested by MI when he was conducting trade of kyber crystals for spice with the local chapter of Black Sun, with the help of a new syndicate, the Zann Consortium."

Haibak scoffed. "Is that what the legendary Jedi have been reduced to, vulgar spice runners? How disgraceful. 'Be kind to Sadness, for it us humble. It reminds of us of what we once were, and it shows us what is no longer possible.' What would the Jedi want with this pirate?"

"Originally, my guess—considering the facts—was it had something to do with the spice. But when I reviewed the arresting reports, I found something interesting, a member of the Order Inquisitorius was on-site during the MI's operation."

Haibak squinted and took a drink. "Sounds like a strange place for one of them to be."

"That's what I thought. I did some digging in the Order's DataCore and found out my security clearance wasn't high enough to access the file."