Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams Page A
Authors: Sean Williams
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losing
party.
Yeama
took them out of the antechamber and back into the circular security
air lock, where the heavy doors cycled again. From there, Yeama led
them along a new set of luscious corridors in the direction of the no
doubt equally luscious waiting room.
Ax
made it her business to be elsewhere. Confusing her Houk escort with
a well-placed mind trick, she slipped away from the group and
vanished into the shadows.
CHAPTER
9
Ula
endured Tassaa Bareesh's welcoming spiel with ill-disguised contempt.
Cordiality and profitability made untrustworthy bed partners,
particularly when honesty and ethics weren't invited, too. When his
host promised him an array of amenities including chemical
enhancements and even more dubious forms of entertainment, it was all
he could do not to spit to get the bad taste out of his mouth.
"I
think we can dispense with all that, " he said. "Why don't
we just get down to business?"
Tassaa
Bareesh's slit-like grin widened even farther, if that were possible.
Her
pointy-headed protocol droid assured Ula that Tassaa Bareesh
understood completely.
She
waved forward an underling, a salacious-looking Twi'lek, who took
over negotiations from that point The Twi'lek promised that they
would soon see the legacy of the Cinzia. As Ula was led from the
throne room, he glimpsed a scruffy-looking man leaning up against the
rear wall with a blank look on his face and a battered orange droid
close at his shoulder. The man's ennui had a manufactured air, and it
was this that caught Ula's eye.
"Who
was that fellow back there?" he asked his guide.
"Which
fellow?" Yeama didn't even glance over his shoulder.
Ula
described him, not yet willing to give the matter up. Being a good
informer meant taking nothing for granted and noticing all the
details.
"Grayish
hair, prominent nose, brown eyes-with an old droid. "
"Oh,
no one in particular, " the Twi'lek assured him. "A pilot
whose ship is currently berthed here. He has the favor of my
mistress, and therefore the run of the palace. "
"What's
his name?"
"Jet
Nebula, Envoy Vii. You won't have heard of him. "
That
was true. It didn't even sound like a real name. But he wasn't fool
enough to take Yeama at his word. The Hutts and their servants were
natural liars. Like him.
He
filed the name away in his memory.
*
* *
Yeama
took him through several ridiculous security measures in order to
introduce him to the cause of all this fuss. A navicomp and a
battered bit of space junk-it all seemed an utter beat-up as far as
he could tell, although that in itself was something of a relief. If
the charade amounted to nothing, it would soon therefore be over.
Nonetheless, he attended carefully to the details and asked the
questions expected of him.
"No
survivors, you say?" he asked after hearing the last
transmissions from the Cinzia. "How can I be sure your affiliate
didn't murder them and concoct this mad story to cover the deed?"
"The
fate of the passengers is irrelevant to us, " Yeama answered.
"We would not lie to spare your sensibilities. "
That
Ula believed completely, and it revived the moral outrage he had felt
at being in the court of a Hutt. Tassaa Bareesh's venal tactics only
confirmed his low opinion of her kind and his hopes that they would
be undone, somehow. The Hutts were walking a very fine line. The more
valuable the items they were auctioning, the more they could
obviously charge-but how long until one or another party simply
walked in and took them?
He
wondered if either side had just such contingencies in place.
Supreme
Commander Stantorrs obviously suspected so, with respect to the Jedi,
and there had been no chance to ask Watcher Three if the Emperor had
sent someone other than an official envoy. A Cipher Agent, perhaps,
capable of far greater feats than a mere informer such as himself.
Ula had glimpsed an Imperial shuttle in the dock at the rear of the
palace, so he knew he wasn't the only envoy Bareesh had
party.
Yeama
took them out of the antechamber and back into the circular security
air lock, where the heavy doors cycled again. From there, Yeama led
them along a new set of luscious corridors in the direction of the no
doubt equally luscious waiting room.
Ax
made it her business to be elsewhere. Confusing her Houk escort with
a well-placed mind trick, she slipped away from the group and
vanished into the shadows.
CHAPTER
9
Ula
endured Tassaa Bareesh's welcoming spiel with ill-disguised contempt.
Cordiality and profitability made untrustworthy bed partners,
particularly when honesty and ethics weren't invited, too. When his
host promised him an array of amenities including chemical
enhancements and even more dubious forms of entertainment, it was all
he could do not to spit to get the bad taste out of his mouth.
"I
think we can dispense with all that, " he said. "Why don't
we just get down to business?"
Tassaa
Bareesh's slit-like grin widened even farther, if that were possible.
Her
pointy-headed protocol droid assured Ula that Tassaa Bareesh
understood completely.
She
waved forward an underling, a salacious-looking Twi'lek, who took
over negotiations from that point The Twi'lek promised that they
would soon see the legacy of the Cinzia. As Ula was led from the
throne room, he glimpsed a scruffy-looking man leaning up against the
rear wall with a blank look on his face and a battered orange droid
close at his shoulder. The man's ennui had a manufactured air, and it
was this that caught Ula's eye.
"Who
was that fellow back there?" he asked his guide.
"Which
fellow?" Yeama didn't even glance over his shoulder.
Ula
described him, not yet willing to give the matter up. Being a good
informer meant taking nothing for granted and noticing all the
details.
"Grayish
hair, prominent nose, brown eyes-with an old droid. "
"Oh,
no one in particular, " the Twi'lek assured him. "A pilot
whose ship is currently berthed here. He has the favor of my
mistress, and therefore the run of the palace. "
"What's
his name?"
"Jet
Nebula, Envoy Vii. You won't have heard of him. "
That
was true. It didn't even sound like a real name. But he wasn't fool
enough to take Yeama at his word. The Hutts and their servants were
natural liars. Like him.
He
filed the name away in his memory.
*
* *
Yeama
took him through several ridiculous security measures in order to
introduce him to the cause of all this fuss. A navicomp and a
battered bit of space junk-it all seemed an utter beat-up as far as
he could tell, although that in itself was something of a relief. If
the charade amounted to nothing, it would soon therefore be over.
Nonetheless, he attended carefully to the details and asked the
questions expected of him.
"No
survivors, you say?" he asked after hearing the last
transmissions from the Cinzia. "How can I be sure your affiliate
didn't murder them and concoct this mad story to cover the deed?"
"The
fate of the passengers is irrelevant to us, " Yeama answered.
"We would not lie to spare your sensibilities. "
That
Ula believed completely, and it revived the moral outrage he had felt
at being in the court of a Hutt. Tassaa Bareesh's venal tactics only
confirmed his low opinion of her kind and his hopes that they would
be undone, somehow. The Hutts were walking a very fine line. The more
valuable the items they were auctioning, the more they could
obviously charge-but how long until one or another party simply
walked in and took them?
He
wondered if either side had just such contingencies in place.
Supreme
Commander Stantorrs obviously suspected so, with respect to the Jedi,
and there had been no chance to ask Watcher Three if the Emperor had
sent someone other than an official envoy. A Cipher Agent, perhaps,
capable of far greater feats than a mere informer such as himself.
Ula had glimpsed an Imperial shuttle in the dock at the rear of the
palace, so he knew he wasn't the only envoy Bareesh had
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