The New Adventures of Nomi Darklighter

Chapter 99 - Setting a Trap

Biggs and his younger brother took their prisoner to the command center and placed him in front of a comm unit. Corran stood at the man's side, pointing the blaster at his temple while his brother untied Draco's restraints. The pirate rubbed his wrist to stimulate blood circulation.
Biggs stepped back and watched him closely, keeping his blaster at the ready. He didn't want to take any chances. Their mother's life was at stake.
"One wrong word and you're dead, sleemo," Corran said with a menacing undertone. He wanted to make sure the pirate played along.
"And now you're going to contact that First Order guy and tell him you have more rebels for him. Ask him for the coordinates so you can deliver them."
Draco glared at the youngest of the triplets, but then he took a deep breath, modulated the frequency and called Canady's dreadnought. It didn't take long before he was patched through to the commodore.
"I hope it's important, Dracon," the commodore's voice could be heard. "I'm busy."
The pirate glanced at Biggs, who nodded his head and made a sign with his hand, indicating that he should continue.
"We've managed to capture the commander's husband," Draco finally said with a hint of triumph in his voice.
The two Rendar offspring looked at him in amazement. He had done far more than he had been ordered to do.
"The commander's husband?" The commodore couldn't hide the fact that he was very excited about this news. "How did you manage to catch him?"
Draco answered the question with a detailed description of how he and his crew had captured Dash Rendar, until he finally asked the question that was so important to the two young Jedi.
"I need the coordinates of your ship so I can deliver the rebel scum, commodore."
It took a while, but then the answer came.
"We are in the Kashyyyk system, near the planet itself," the commodore finally said, and Biggs raised an eyebrow when he heard this.
"I'll be there in..." Draco looked to Corran, who held up two fingers. "I'll be there in two standard days, commodore."
"Excellent," Canady remarked before cutting the connection.

Draco looked at Corran and Biggs with a broad grin.
"He took the bait. Canady couldn't resist the opportunity to have two leaders of the Resistance in his grasp."
Corran stared at the pirate.
"That was more than we told you to do, Draco. Why did you do it?"
"Why?" The pirate shrugged, still grinning. "To you, I'm the bad guy who sold your mother to the enemy. You never asked me why I did it."
"There was no reason to," Biggs remarked before falling silent again.
"No reason," Draco said darkly, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he leaned back in his chair. "No reason... Do you kids actually know how a pirate crew works? It's not like the military, where everyone stands at attention in front of an officer. Everyone has a say when it comes to decisions. It was my crew and my second-in-command, Rool, who made the decision to betray the commander."
Corran snorted.
"It's easy to blame the dead, Draco. What you're saying doesn't convince me in the slightest."
The man sitting in front of him rolled his eyes.
"What do you want me to do to make you believe me, Rendar?"
Corran pointed at his older brother with a lopsided grin.
"Let my brother take another look."
Draco raised his hands in a dismissive gesture and glared at the younger man and his brother.
"Over my dead body," he said, causing the two Rendar brothers to burst out laughing.
Corran stopped laughing and wiped away a tear before speaking again.
"We can't read a dead man's mind."
Biggs nodded his head, still chuckling a little.
"This isn't funny," the pirate grumbled, but he was glad that the situation wasn't as menacing as before. The fact that the two men were laughing seemed to him to be a good sign.
"Don't forget that I helped Dash Jr. and Tash when they came to Takodana. It was I who raised the money for your older brother's prosthesis. Rest assured that I had no intention of jeopardizing our good relationship." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Wait, I have footage of the meeting where they forced me to betray our agreement. I'll show you."
He rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a data chip and handed it to Biggs, who inserted it into a reader.
His brother came over and they both watched the footage while Draco waited for their reaction, knowing full well what the two of them were now seeing.
The footage ended and Corran looked at his brother, who nodded his head, then turned to Draco.
"You've told us the truth. Let's go to our father and tell him where our mother is."

Aboard Canady's dreadnought, Nomi was busy healing her wounds during another 5-minute window when the ysalamiri were asleep and she could use the Force. The Jedi was glad that the individual animals did not sleep at different times.
So far she had managed to resist the torture and not reveal the location of the base.
The cell door opened with a hiss and the commodore entered, followed by two troopers, as usual. He sneered at Nomi and stood in front of her, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"I have good news for you, Darklighter, you will see your husband again soon. Dracon has managed to capture him too. Rendar, the fool, thought you were still on the pirate ship." He laughed out loud. "Now he'll soon be in my hands and suffer the same fate as you."
If he was trying to intimidate the commander, he had failed completely.
This information was all she needed to regain hope. Dash wasn't stupid, and she was pretty sure he and her children had a rescue plan. Somehow they must have managed to get the pirate captain to play along.
She pretended to be shocked and desperate, but she was already planning how to escape with the help of her husband.
The commodore watched his prisoner closely and was pleased to see the reaction he wanted to achieve.
He had no idea how wrong he was.