Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 2)

Chapter 04: "Captain! We've got a problem."

Neerada opened her eyes as the sharp-faced man entered her recovery room. She tried hard not to give away the weakness she felt, for the effort of concentrating so hard under such pressure had left her feeling peculiarly strained.

But the Force had granted her the answer before any of the computers or trained navigators could have done so, and as a result the Syreal station was saved.

The answer had come to her with a far greater potency than any she had quested for before. Was her strength in the Force growing? If Vader and the Emperor really were dead, had that left a vacuum that she, and those like her, could fill?

She let her gaze settle on the officer who stood nervously before her.

"Have you brought it, Captain Vieka?" she asked.

The Reaver's ISD officer gave a quick bow, near subliminal in his haste, and held a package up in his right hand.

"I have, Assayer," he said. "A uniform of the ISB, ranked as senior captain, measured to the size you requested."

"Very good. Then you shall introduce me to the crew of the Reaver as Captain Nys, transferred to the Reaver from the Syreal station to remind the crew not to listen to these rumours of Endor. With Pina being such a junior captain, it is an appropriate deceit to ensure that discipline doesn't start to break down." She swung her legs over the edge of the medical capsule.

Pain shot through her limbs, chilling every cell in her body. She grasped its edge and took a sharp breath.

Vieka was about to speak.

"Do you understand that Captain?" she interrupted him, eager to destroy any image of weakness that her current health might portray.

"Yes sir. Of course."

"Understand Captain, I am on a highly sensitive mission, ordered directly by Lord Vader himself. Even if the rumours of Endor do turn out to be true, I have no orders contrary to these. I must carry them out. And to do that, I need the Reaver, fully operational."

"Indeed, Assayer. But . . . what of Commodore Sarn and this Titus Perdition? Captain Pina had the data logs of the Scythe retrieved. He has informed me that he is under your orders, but Sarn seems intent on hunting you down . . ."

Neerada slipped forward and lowered her feet to the floor. Without glancing at Vieka she stripped off and reached for the uniform he had brought her. As he turned away, she felt his surprise at her display, and wondered if that was how all men behaved and felt. Certainly, it was a feeling she had never felt anyone display to her before, but then she had almost always been behind the mask.

"Sarn has turned rogue. It is that simple," she told him. "With Titus Perdition he no doubt intends to make his own domain, with him as its emperor. They will fail."

Doubt passed over Vieka's face as he gazed at her in surprise.

"A whole flotilla?" he asked. "Three Star Destroyers? It's . . . unheard of."

"It is not as uncommon as you might imagine, Captain," she replied. "Senior officers jostle for the Emperor's favour and in the need to make themselves shine the more, they sometimes do sing their victories perhaps louder than they should, and equally magnify the failings of their rivals. Only most treasons are more subtle. Diverting supplies to be sold for personal profit, ransoming rebel prisoners back to the terrorists, skimming taxes off a planet . . . there are many ways for corruption and treason to take seed."

She reached for the cap that completed the uniform and put it on her head.

"That should suffice," she said. "Now, where is Pina?"