The Last Venator: A Star Wars Story

Part 10

Captain Farrow sat on the crest of the hill and looked down at the ocean. Starlight reflected off the waves, and the sparkle fish could be seen even kilometers from the shore, their red light glinting in large schools. He took a sip from the bottle he had brought with him and shut his eyes. He heard her steps a few moments later: she was making no attempt to be subtle, and sat down next to him without a word.

"Drink?" he asked, holding up the bottle. Anubha took it and sipped, then handed it back. "You know, with this view you could almost pretend there wasn't a great battle here yesterday. If you don't turn your head that way." He pointed to his left where the remains of the two warships lay.

"I don't know if 'great battle' is how it will be remembered," she said. "It might make a footnote somewhere in Alderaan's history."

"Somehow I doubt it will get even that," he said.

They sat in companionable silence for several minutes.

"Three years. Three years you were on my ship, and I never even suspected." Farrow shook his head.

"It's part of the job. Keeping our cover, I mean."

"Hmm. You weren't on board the Ultimor because of this," he said, motioning at the view before them. "That's just not possible. Nirette was too crafty for Imperial Intelligence to have known about her plans that long ago. You were with us for another reason."

"Yes," she admitted.

"I wouldn't have figured out why if not for Hetti. But something he said brought it to mind." Farrow tapped his temple. "Hetti was never a subtle man, so I doubt he was the brain behind it; he wasn't even a moff at the time. But once he knew, he couldn't keep it to himself. It was that party, wasn't it?" He turned his head to look at Anubha. She was staring out at the ocean, not meeting his gaze. "That's when they suspected I was disloyal, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"Why not just have me removed?" he asked. "Disloyal officers have been executed for less."

"There's a process to these things: not just finding disloyal people and possible leaks, but before plugging them we try to see if they can be traced back to a cell or other insurgents. Intelligence wanted to see if you were feeding anyone anything. I never knew all the details as to why, but they seemed to think you might be connected to others. I never saw any evidence of that myself."

Farrow chuckled bitterly. "It took you three years to do that? Always knew a department called Intelligence was an oxymoron." He took another swig of the whisky.

"Operations take time," said Anubha without any hint that she was offended by his analysis. "And inquisitors have some discretion to conduct their own operations. I had a feeling I should stay. And I was right: there was a rogue Force-user on this planet. If I had left before now, you would not have been able to destroy the dreadnought, or Nirette might have escaped. And who knows what trouble she might have made if she had. The Force guided me to where I needed to be."

"Bully for you," said Farrow. "But Command is still going to look at this mess and see it as a failure. And it will be my failure. It seems pretty clear Hetti wanted me to take the fall for something. Losing a ship to a rebellion on an Outer Rim world seems like it would qualify. Heads have to roll, and mine is the right one."

"I'm afraid you are correct," she said softly, almost apologetic. "Failure is often seen as a sign of disloyalty."

They again sat in silence for several long minutes. "So what happens now?"

"Now comes the end of my investigation," said the inquisitor. She stood up and took a cylinder off her belt.

He looked up at her. "I was always loyal to the Empire," he told her with sincerity.