Chromium

14.6

"I'll call Willis and Rodriguez."

Omen's blue eye turned cold at the mention of the mercs. "Rodriguez is fine. Willis, however..."

Dia gave him a sharp look. "He apologized, Omen." 

He still didn't look convinced. "Did he?"

Dia put her hands on her hips. "Do you realize that Rodriguez will tell him everything anyway? Besides, Willis has a valid reason to be mad at you. You almost got them killed."

"Fine." Omen conceded,"It might help having a couple more people, assuming that we can trust them."

Dia shrugged. "I wouldn't worry too much about that. If there is one thing I've learned in the last few weeks, it's that trust is overrated."

----

"So that's what we know." Omen concluded his explanation, giving them a moment to assimilate what he'd said.

All four of them looked at one another.

"It's not much." Sarah muttered aloud.

Rodriguez nodded. "Our employer is crazier than a Dacuman crackpot but we knew that from the start."

Sarah glared at her. "Dacumans are not crazy."

Rodriguez met her glare with a disarming smile. "My bad. I didn't know you were born on Dacuma."

Sarah lifted her chin up. "Why? Don't I look like a crackpot?"

Rodriguez grinned at her. "Far from it. You are way too pretty to be born in that hellhole."

Omen cleared his throat. "Ladies, let's stay on topic."

Sarah glared at Rodriguez one last time and tamping down her temper, said, "Fine. What were we saying?"

The friendly, teasing expression on Rodriguez' face faded into neutrality. "We were talking about our crazy employer."

"The Umbra is not crazy." Omen corrected her. "He is a high functioning psychopath. His plans, albeit morally reprehensible, make perfect sense. Which is why what he planned to do with the slums seems odd."

"Are you talking about the..." Willis made a vague gesture with his hand. "...torpedoes stuff?" 

Omen stared at him for a moment and then nodded. "Right. You all know that Spice lords' fleets consist of old imperial escort ships or modified freighters. They didn't need heavy torpedoes."

"True, but you also said that the Umbra is secretly helping the people of the Fringe worlds to rebel against the Empire." Rodriguez observed. "Maybe he intended to sell the torpedoes to them."

"That sounds...disturbing." Dia commented.

They were silent for a few seconds then Omen said, "Let's hope Mrs. Rodriguez is wrong." His face was grim and a scowl seemed etched into his skin. "Right now, the Empire can't afford a civil war." 

"Who cares if the Umbra wanted to fund the rebellion?" Willis interjected. "It's the Empire's problem. Besides, the Collective ruined that plan already."

"He is right, Omen." Sarah said. "Whatever plan the Umbra had, it went to hell when the Collective invaded Daxum."

"We don't know if the Collective is still on Daxum." Omen countered. "Maybe they already left. Maybe the construction is already in progress."

Willis shrugged. "Maybe, but so what? It'll take months, maybe even years to build those factories. We have more pressing concerns at the moment." 

"True." Omen admitted grudgingly. 

"What about the rest of the information on the datapad?" Dia asked into the growing silence. "Did you find out anything?"

Omen shook his head. "Not yet. I'm still analyzing the data. Maybe we'll get lucky and find some clue about the Umbra's identity."