Their Lady Adyé [Star Wars]

On Meetings with Bounty Hunters

Athara was trying hard not to show how nervous she was, and so far she seemed to be succeeding. She had only received one pointed look from her Master as they were about to step off the shuttle. She had immediately checked that her mental shields were in place and that her Force-signature was sufficiently guarded. For almost as long as she could remember her Master had stressed the importance of keeping her mind protected and the breadth of her abilities a closely guarded secret; it was something her life depended on, he insisted. Both had been perfectly adequate, she found, so she then renewed her concentration on not showing how nervous she was; that was probably what the look had been about.

For she was nervous. Extremely so. She had to fight not to fiddle with the hems of her sleeves or tug at the cowl of her cloak, anxious to ensure it was still covering her face as Vader had instructed. Her Master rarely took her anywhere beyond his Fortress on Mustafar or his personal Star Destroyer. And he never took her along on missions...until now, at least. She'd been too young before and not ready, he'd always told her when she asked. But apparently eleven was old enough to accompany Vader beyond his personal Star Destroyer, where she had been actively learning what it meant to be an Imperial agent and commander by his side for nearly a year now. Before that, she had been confined to the private collection of rooms Vader had set aside for his and her personal use as well as for her training. They had nearly a whole level to themselves where Athara was tasked with learning as much as she could about the Force and stretching and honing her own abilities under her Master's hard but expert tutelage.

But now, for the first time, she was accompanying him beyond the Devastator. She was anxious not to disappoint him. Though he hadn't explicitly said so, that she was by his side suggested that he believed she was ready. She only hoped that she was up to the task.

It had taken every ounce of self-control she had not to stare curiously around the hangar bay as they stepped off the shuttle. It certainly wasn't the first time she been in the primary landing bay of a Star Destroyer; she'd spent a great deal of her life on the Devastator and Vader's previous flagship before that, but that didn't stop her from wanting to marvel at the scale, order and, perhaps most interestingly, the differences within the massive space. She must have done alright in controlling her thoughts, because Vader hadn't paid her the least attention, focusing instead on the officer providing him with a status report. She imagined that she was supposed to be paying attention to the briefing as well. After all, Vader had told her that one day she would be expected to be able to command a Star Destroyer on her own.

But she was distracted by a ship she'd never seen before where it was sitting off to the side of the hangar. It was oddly shaped and looked like it was sitting on its back, resting on its engines. The faded green and red ship fascinated her, so much so that she nearly faltered in her brisk pace to keep up with her Master's long strides.

She knew better than to run up and ask him, though, no matter how tempted she was. Vader stressed discipline when in the presence of others, especially subordinates. One could not possibly expect discipline unless you demonstrated it yourself.

So instead she waited, hoping that they would perhaps be left alone soon so that she would have a chance to ask about the odd ship.

The officer entered the turbolift with them and accompanied her and Vader to the bridge, where Vader made his rounds, checking in with the Admiral and periodically quizzing Athara, turning the routine inspection into an exercise. It proved to be great fun, as he allowed Athara to remind the commanders of their own incompetence when, in answering Vader's questions, she proved herself more adept than some of them were on the particulars of how to run a Star Destroyer. Finally Vader decided he had sufficiently humbled and even humiliated the commanders and intimidated the command personnel enough—many of the lieutenants and captains were nearly trembling they were so uneasy—that he simply turned and made for the turbolift. Athara had to try very hard not to giggle at that. The stunned looks on the Admiral and Rear Admiral's faces when Vader simply turned and left were rather funny. Similarly turning on her heel, Athara followed her Master, forcing her smile away and clamping down on her mental shields. She could sense that her Master was annoyed by the Admiral's ineptitude...although, nothing had been bad enough that he needed to make any examples today, Athara couldn't help but consider, so it couldn't have been all that bad either.