Star Wars: Return to Trigalis Ch. 02

The first thing Stormie did once she settled into the pilot's chair was make sure the engines were at full power, and activated the shields. After that she put the holocameras' feed from the cell onto a screen so she could keep an eye on her prisoner. Then she checked the sensors for incoming ships. There were a few nearby, but none on an intercept course. There were also several indignant messages from the spaceport demanding her to land immediately.

The next thing Stormie did was send self-destruct messages to her teams' two datapads and their comlinks. They would physically destroy their circuits and memory automatically if they weren't accessed with a correct code every three hours, but she didn't want to take any chances of the Zoloz being able to slice them.

As Stormie made it into the ionosphere, she detected a system patrol craft on an intercept course. Not only was it too far away to catch her before she entered hyperspace, she was confident her ship was faster, so she didn't worry about it. Before she went into hyperspace though, she needed to contact Imperial Security.

Stormie reported that the mission was a failure. She told them Whytte had been killed, and she and Broxn had been captured. She explained that she had escaped, without mentioning having help from a Jedi, but Broxn was still being held. He had revealed the teams' true identities, and probably their mission, and that she wasn't in a position to extract him. All classified Imperial property—meaning their datapads and comlinks in this case—had been secured.

She was pretty sure what would happen to Broxn at this point. They had been on a black-op in enemy territory. If he somehow wound up in Galactic Alliance custody and they didn't know who he was, the Empire could just file an extradition request on him, and maybe get him back. Since he was being held by an outlaw swoop-bike gang though, they'd just send a team in, and mostly likely kill him, along with anyone else they had to. Considering who her grandfather was, they probably would have put more of an effort into rescuing her. Then again, she knew of a few Moffs that would probably put more of an effort into killing her if they had the chance.

In a few seconds Stormie got a reply from Imperial Security. They acknowledged the mission failure, Whytte's death, and that the classified items had been destroyed. Then they asked her if she would be able to deal with Broxn, or if they needed to send a clean-up team in. She paused in thought a few long moments, then told them to stand by.

Stormie reached for the comm, then remembered she was still only wearing Ta'tan'ia's cloak that wouldn't stay closed, and the cuffs and shackles the Zoloz had locked on her wrists and ankles. She checked her scanners for hostile ships nearby, and the holofeed from the cell. Since there weren't any external threats, and Ta'tan'ia looked to still be unconscious, she felt safe enough to leave the cockpit for a few moments. Before she left though, she programmed her ship's computer to slice into the New Coronet Security Force's database.

Then she ran to her cabin, threw off the cloak, and grabbed one of her jumpsuits. The jumpsuit was black, but looser fitting than the one Ta'tan'ia was wearing. More importantly, it didn't show most of her tits like the cloak did. Lastly she grabbed the shock collar remote and Ta'tan'ia's blaster from the cloak's pockets.

One the way back, Stormie grabbed the medic pack from the Medical Station. She had to do something for her wrist. Back in the cockpit, Stormie checked her sensors and the cell holofeed again. Then she gave her left wrist a bacta shot. She wanted a painkiller as well, but she didn't want to take it until she was safely in hyperspace. After the healing bacta shot, she pushed the durasteel cuff up her forearm as far as she could, and put the plasticast around her wrist and hand.

By the time she had pulled the jumpsuit on, the computer had finished slicing into the New Coronet Security Force's computer. She quickly confirmed that a Tam Lenzo, the alias Whytte had been using, had been killed the day before. They had listed his cause of death as murder. That was no surprise considering the Zoloz had shot him at least four times in their ambush. That was one potential security leak she didn't have to worry about. Now she had to take care of the other one.

Next Stormie programmed her ship's computer to find the Zoloz' clubhouse's comm frequency. Once she had that, she commed them, requesting a visual transmission. A few seconds later a Zoloz appeared on her holoscreen.

"Who the frakk is this!?" he demanded.

Stormie didn't recognize him. She just knew he wasn't Cyllir, who she needed to talk to. With the gang's president in jail, Cyllir should be running things at the moment. He certainly seemed to be in charge during her interrogation.

"This is Valliry Plaxx," she informed them, giving her own alias. "I need to speak to Cyllir. I think I left something at your clubhouse." As she spoke, she had the navicomputer start plotting a hyperspace jump of a few dozen light years. She wanted a quick escape ready in case she needed it.

"Frakk you!" the Zoloz shouted back. Then he smirked. "Just come on back and pick it up, then. I'll be waitin' on ya, baby."

Stormie ignored the last part of his comment, and glanced at her scanners and the cell holofeed. She was still clear of any nearby threats, and Ta'tan'ia was still gamorrean-taped where she'd left her.

Before she could respond, the Zoloz continued. "Or send that sexy Twi'lek back here. I'd love another blowjob."

Stormie frowned a moment, then realized he thought she was working with Ta'tan'ia. Maybe she'd be able to use that to her advantage. "If I come back, I'm going to blast your clubhouse into a crater," she told the Zoloz. "Now please let me talk to Cyllir, so I won't have to do that."

The Zoloz stared at her for a few heartbeats, then began tapping on the controls of the holoprojector. A couple of seconds later she saw him talking again, but didn't hear him. Then she heard another voice over the link.

"This is Cyllir, what the frakk do you want?" the voice demanded.

Stormie wished she could see him face-to-face, but he must have been away from the clubhouse. He had probably been out chasing her and Ta'tan'ia.

"Hello," she began politely. "Sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye. I know this man you found at a cafe claims he knows me, and that I'm something I'm not."

"You mean your partner," Cyllir interrupted.

"If you say so," Stormie answered. "Now I've talked to my superiors, and they seem to think this man from the cafe is some sort of potential security leak. Normally they would send a team to clean up this sort of problem. In that past that's gotten a bit. . . messy. If I could tell my bosses that this problem is taken care of though, then things won't have to get so . . . messy."

While she spoke, she watched the Zoloz on her screen, to gauge his reactions to what both she and Cyllir said. If the Zoloz vice-president didn't do what she needed him to do, maybe she could convince him to.

"Send whoever the frakk you want. We ain't afraid of shavit," Cyllir assured her.

"Look, I know about the shootout your friends had with the local security officers, and the warehouse full of blasters. How is whatever passes for law enforcement in New Coronet going to react to another stack of dead bodies linked your swoop-bike gang?"

She didn't say that the dead bodies would be Zoloz. She didn't want him to react with foolish bravado. She wanted him to think of what was best for him and his little outlaw swoop-bike gang.

"Frakk the cops," Cyllir told her. "And frakk you."

"How would they react if someone told them who really killed those Blood Riders at the spaceport the other day?" she answered smoothly, playing a hunch.

"Tawnia and her kriffing bounty hunting partner killed them," Cyllir proclaimed. "And maybe you helped them," he added after a moment's hesitation.

"If you say so," Stormie replied with a shrug. "But will the police believe that, or will they believe the same people that just killed some Security Officers killed them?"

The silence she heard told her she had scored a hit. The Zoloz on the screen seemed shocked at her question, although he quickly regained his composure. Maybe all the Zoloz didn't know what really happened? That information might be useful at some point. Stormie almost mentioned tipping off the Blood Riders, but as far as she knew they weren't a big enough player for the Zoloz to seriously worry about.

Cyllir muttered a curse over the comlink. "Like I said. Send in whoever you want to." He paused a moment, then added, "Or we'll take fifty thousand credits for him."

Stormie figured one of the reasons they had stopped questioning her was that they were planning on selling her and Broxn to the highest bidder. A swoop-bike gang—even one as large as the Zoloz—wouldn't have much use for an Imperial Security Operative. A lot of other beings out there would pay quite a bit for one though.

"Well, my superiors don't pay in situations like this either," she told him. "They feel like it would only encourage people to do stuff like this in the future. And just so you know, they have already started taking steps to minimize the value he would have to people who would be interested in having him. You won't get nearly as much for him as you thought you would."

Stormie knew that while the Empire would occasionally make a deal for an Operative with a legitimate government, they practically never paid for one's release, especially to outlaw types. Personally she didn't think Broxn was worth fifty credits, much less fifty-thousand. Then it occurred to her that she might pay them to take care of Broxn. She considered it a moment, and decided that she would only bring it up as a last resort, and only maybe five-thousand or so. Colonel Drasi was already pissed enough at her.

"Look, I know who the Zoloz are," she continued when Cyllir didn't respond. "Big, bad, tough-ass, swoop-bikers. But you know who we are too. This isn't a fight you want."

Ta'tan'ia seemed to be wiggling around on the deck a bit now.

Cyllir muttered another curse. "What do you want?" he finally asked.

"I just need you to take care of the security leak," Stormie told him. "On holocamera, so I can confirm to my superiors that it's done."

There was a few moments of silence. "I'm gonna need about ten minutes to set that up."

Stormie checked at her sensor screen again. The system patrol craft had given up, but was still shadowing her at a distance. Suddenly there was an alert from the comm detection system. Someone was attempting to send an unauthorized signal off the ship.

What the frakk!?

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

When Ta'tan'ia woke up, the first thing she felt was a throbbing headache—and a duller aching in her right side. She instinctively tried to use the Force to clear the pain, and was stunned to feel nothing. Then she remembered that traitorous schutta, and the ysalamiri. Besides the pain she was in, Ta'tan'ia realized she was gamorean-tied on the floor of what looked like a cell of some sort.

That schutta, she thought vehemently.

Ta'tan'ia quickly took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. Anger was of the dark side. Without the Force though, she felt almost powerless. It was like she was still half-asleep. That schutta, she thought again, pulling against her bonds.

No mere spacer would carry something as exotic as ysalamiri, and no mere smuggler would have a full blown prison cell on their ship, especially one with an energy barrier instead of a regular cell door. That meant the schutta was probably a bounty hunter. Ta'tan'ia didn't know any bounty hunters that went after Force-sensitives, which would be the only reason to have ysalamiri, but she also knew that some did, and the only ones that lasted very long didn't advertise it very much.

Ta'tan'ia twisted back to get a look at her restraints, and found out that her wrists and ankles were spacer-taped together above her ass. She also felt tape or something around her biceps, pulling her arms together. She wasn't sure if it was on purpose or by chance, but the schutta had taped over her comlink's touchscreen. Since the comlink was voice activated as well though, she didn't have to be able to touch it to use it.

Who should she comm though? The Temple was pretty far away, not that she knew exactly where she was at the moment. Still, there was always someone on duty to receive emergency messages. With her luck Wyric would probably be asleep or something if she tried to comm him.

The first thing Ta'tan'ia did was find out from her comlink what time it was. She wasn't sure exactly when everything had started, but she didn't think she had been out very long. As a matter of fact, the subtle vibrations from the ship felt more like sublight engines than a hyperspace drive. Ta'tan'ia frowned in thought a moment, she felt sure she had been out long enough for them to escape the planetary gravity well, and enter hyperspace. Just as she'd suspected, she had only been out maybe fifteen or twenty minutes or so.

Ta'tan'ia quickly composed a message. She explained that she had been captured by a human female, probably a bounty hunter, going by the name Valliry Plaxx on Trigalis less than an hour ago. They were currently en-route to an unknown destination on the bounty hunter's ship. She also told them that the bounty hunter had ysalamiri, and probably hunted Force-sensitives.

Ta'tan'ia instructed her comlink to send the message to the Jedi Temple, marked as urgent. She could tell by the subtle vibrations the comlink was making that it was sending it. Instead of the longer confirmation vibration though, after several seconds she felt the shorter vibration indicating it was attempting to resend the message.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia felt an intense shock from her collar. The memory of the schutta putting something around her neck in the cargo hold flashed through her mind as she screamed in pain and thrashed against her bonds. The electricity kept hitting her, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally she fell back into unconsciousness from the pain.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie immediately activated the audio in the cell. Ta'tan'ia was still gamorrean-taped on the deck all alone, but her head was turned back and she was talking. Stormie frowned in confusion a heartbeat, then realized the Jedi's wrist comlink must be responding to her voice, and she was trying to use it to call for help.

The ship—and especially the cell—was specially shielded to block unauthorized comm signals, but that didn't mean she was going to risk letting her test it. Stormie yanked the remote out of her pocket, pushed the power setting to maximum, and pressed the shock button.

The little Twi'lek screamed in pain as she thrashed against her bonds from the electricity. Stormie held the button down to keep shocking her. Then she remembered that Cyllir and the other Zoloz were still listening in. She quickly looked back at the Zoloz who was waiting on screen.

"Ten minutes," Stormie confirmed absently as she turned the remote's power down to about halfway. "Comm me as soon as you're ready." She was still shocking Ta'tan'ia. She didn't want her able to mutter a single coherent word.

The Zoloz on the screen was looking at her with a puzzled expression.

"Yeah," Cyllir replied, obviously annoyed.

"I'll be waiting," she told him.

Stormie shut down the link, then glanced at her sensor screen. The system patrol craft was still shadowing her. Ta'tan'ia seemed to be knocked out again, so she stopped shocking her. Then Stormie double checked that her hyperspace jump was still ready to go, and rushed to the cell.

Ta'tan'ia was out of it, but still conscious. Before Stormie went into the foyer, she grabbed a hypospray from a drawer, held it with her teeth, and grabbed a set of binders. Then she deactivated the energy barrier, and stepped into the cell.

The hypospray was loaded with a sedative that should keep her out a couple of hours or so. Stormie set the binders down, and went to administer it into the meaty part of her hip, but worried it might not penetrate her bodysuit. Instead she pulled down her bodysuit's collar, which was awkward while holding the hypospray in her one good hand. Ta'tan'ia tried weakly to twist away, so she straddled her upper body to hold her still. Then she injected her at the base of her neck, just below her beskar collar, and the shock collar. In a matter of seconds the cuffed Jedi was unconscious.

Next Stormie unwrapped the spacer's tape around her wrists, and snapped the binders on, below her chrono and comlink. Without the tape around her wrists holding her ankles up in the gamorrean tie, her bent legs straightened out and her still taped feet dropped to the deck. Then Stormie began examining Ta'tan'ia's beskar comlink. She wanted to find out for sure what had happened, and make sure it didn't happen again.

The comlink seemed to be waiting for input. Just as Stormie had suspected, the Jedi had been trying to comm for help. The comlink was displaying a message that it had been unable to deliver a message due to interference. Stormie tapped the screen and what looked like her contact list appeared. She had just been been trying to comm the Jedi Temple. Stormie took a few seconds to scroll through her contacts. There was all sorts of useful intel here. It even displayed the dates and times she had spoken with them. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to investigate it right now. She had to deal with Broxn first.

Stormie gave the comlink a few verbal commands, but it didn't respond to her voice. She figured it was coded to Ta'tan'ia's voice, but thought it was worth a try. She definitely didn't want the Jedi to wake up and try to comm her friends again, or activate the comlink's security. After trying to figure out how to disable the voice response a couple of minutes, Stormie gave up on that too. She'd just have to get back before the sedative wore off.

Once she got back to the cockpit, Stormie checked her sensors again, and the comlink. Then she turned the audio in the cell up to to maximum. She wanted to hear Ta'tan'ia if she made so much as a peep. Cyllir had about four minutes to comm her back. While she was waiting on him, Stormie commed Imperial Security, and reported that she anticipated having the security leak taken care of momentarily. They acknowledged, and told her to keep them appraised.

At ten minutes Cyllir still hadn't commed her back. She waited patiently, figuring it was a power play. She'd probably give him twenty minutes before she tried to comm him. It was possible he was having some sort of trouble. Outlaw biker types weren't known for their reliability. She frowned in thought a moment. They had seemed to be on top of things when they had captured her. Either way, she wasn't too worried yet.

Nearly five minutes after the agree-upon deadline, Stormie finally got the comm. She activated the link, and saw a masked man in a long sleeved black shirt in front of a nondescript brown wall.

"No names," he said without preamble.

"Sure," Stormie agreed with a shrug, recognizing his voice as Cyllir. "You ready to take care of this?"

"Oh yeah," Cyllir responded. "But me and my friends had a talk, and we decided we can't do this for free. We got to have something."

Stormie sighed in annoyance. She'd half expected something like this. "I can give you two thousand," she told him.

"Five," he replied without hesitation. "You guys have plenty of credits." He shrugged, then added, "Besides, you'll spend more than that sending your clean-up team in from. . . where ever."