Deep Amongst the Stars Divided 4

I thought I would be bored and lonely on board the Executor, but that was not the case. Lord Vader kept me very busy and much to my delight Jorae was now stationed on the ship. He had come to find me the second day after I had arrived. He had kept in touch over the past few years via infrequent letters and the occasional hologram but I had not heard of his transfer to the Executor so it was a complete surprise to me that he was there. I was glad to see a familiar face. So when I wasn’t working or practicing my Bunduki or lightsaber arts or sleeping, and our schedules actually coincided we would get together for food and hang out, often in the main hanger bay watching the ships come and go.

He had been working on a project that had got him noticed enough to be transferred and for the last two months he had been happily learning under the senior comm officer the fine art of listening. It did not take us long before we got caught up on each other’s lives.

Lord Vader had insisted that I continue with my lightsaber training and had brought on board a substantial supply of the nastiest little training remotes I had ever come across. He had sent the droid engineers a new design and I was the one suffering because of it. The mean little remotes were built with a module that allowed them to learn. It amused him to no end when I got zapped repeatedly but I learned quickly.

When I wasn’t being demoralized by a training remote, I was working on my Bunduki skills. It was harder without my master or sparring partners but it kept me limber to go through the exercises and kata forms. It was during one of my midnight sessions, about a week or so after coming on board, I discovered I wasn’t alone. In the entrance, leaning against the door frame with his arms folded across his chest was a man some years older than me. He was dressed ready to work out.

“You must be Merlyn Gabriel?”

I nodded.

“Lord Vader said that you were a Teräs Käsi artist, level seven?”

I nodded. “Yes.” Wondering how he knew this.

“You were the one who survived the Right of Tet’ recently, weren’t you?”

I nodded, making a face. That was a memory I didn’t wish to relive.

“I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sparring with me.”

I looked at him. Physically he was in perfect shape and there was an aura of power around him that only came from people in touch with the Force. I was going to ask what level he was but then decided it didn’t matter. I missed having someone to practice with and I was pretty certain killing me wasn’t on his mind.

“Sure. I was just warming up.” I said.

He grinned. “Great.” And he joined in my warm up, mirroring my actions as though he had spent his whole life practicing with me. It was a little eerie.

“You have me at a disadvantage. You know who I am but I don’t know your name.” I said as we moved through the kata forms.

He grinned. “Sorry, everyone calls me CJ.” He stuck out his hand and I shook it, his grip damned near crushed my fingers.

“You an officer?”

He shook his head. “Nope, a Royal guard on trooper rotation.”

I nodded. That explained a lot. The royal guards were a breed apart. They went through incredible training regimes and tests of endurance. They were ruthless, unquestioning in their loyalty and, more often than not, force sensitive though how much so remained a mystery. Only the absolute cream of the crop was ever accepted into this elite group of warriors. Part of their ongoing training was to be reinserted into regular Storm trooper battalions, it kept them fresh apparently. All Royal Guardsmen no matter what had an air of incredible self confidence about them that bordered on arrogance.

Once we had warmed up we started to spar. He was very, very good. After two ours of one of the most gruelling work outs I had had in a while we called it quits.

“You’re pretty good.” He said as we started a series of cool down stretching. “Lord Vader wasn’t kidding when he said I would get a decent work out.”

I gave CJ a look. “Lord Vader rarely kids about anything.”

He grinned. It was hard not to like him. “Would you mind if we could train together when possible? It is hard to find someone who knows more than basic hand to hand combat and someone trained in TK is rare these days.”

“Sure, if you promise to teach me some of those moves you pulled. They aren’t Bunduki.”

His grin widened. “No, they are Echani.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, nice.”

“You’ve heard of this form?”

I nodded. “My master spoke of it briefly.”

CJ gave me a steady look. “I can teach you if you teach me how you do those fancy leg moves. I don’t recognise that fight form.”

I laughed. “That’s probably because they stem from classical dance moves but I can teach you, sure.”

CJ smiled. “You are not exactly what you seem, Merlyn Gabriel.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I get that a lot. Send me a comm when you are free, if I can get away I’ll be here.”

He nodded and we called it a night. I was grateful for the fact that my quarters had a bath tub because that had been a tough work out and I would be sore from it but I wasn’t complaining. It was great to have someone to spar with again, especially someone who was well above my own level and was constantly challenging me.

Working on board the Executor meant an irregular schedule, because while the ship ran on a watch system based, as all Imperial ships were, on Coruscant standard time, Lord Vader did not. With no day and night it was impossible for me to keep any sort of schedule what so ever, still I tried but Lord Vader seemed to take great delight at waking me up in the middle of my night. It didn’t do much for my disposition.

I suppose that working on board the flag ship for the Death Squadron should have been exciting but the truth of the matter is, it wasn’t. The Executor was like a huge floating city in space. It was approximately 19,000 meters long so it took a while to get around the ship even with turbo lifts. Aside from the naval crew and TIE fighter pilots there were a substantial number of ground assault troops, add to the mix the support staff of doctors, cooks, cleaners and so on it meant a lot of people. I was surprised to learn that there were many civilians amongst the support staff. One could live onboard this ship for months and still not see it all. The first time I had been on board I had not really been in any fit shape to do any serious exploring, but now was quite a different story and I was determined to see as much of this technical wonder as possible.

I wasn’t the only female on board but we were rare even on a ship this size. Men dominated the Imperial navy and army. Mostly I didn’t mind, I had grown up in a predominantly male environment so I was used to it. It was more noticeable when I would head into the small officer’s mess hall, where heads would turn and conversations stopped only to begin again in hushed whispers. At first this was unnerving but as people got used to seeing me this behaviour slowly subsided.

I had been given fairly high clearance and since there had been no actually verbal restrictions placed on me by Lord Vader I could go almost anywhere I liked. I loved the ship from top to bottom but my favourite places to be were the docking bays, the cartography room and very, very occasionally the bridge.

The docking bays held all the ships, fighters and shuttles and I loved hanging out to watch the combat drills and the mechanics at work. The smell of hyperdrive fuel, burnt metal from the repairs and the scent that permeated docking bay the galaxy over was like home to me. I also loved seeing the new ATATs. I don’t think in my life I had ever seen anything, in terms of ground transport, that was so large or so foreboding. The all terrain armoured transports stood ready to be transported to ground in rows like a stable of very fine Rontos. At twenty six meters long and twenty two and half meters height they were very impressive to look at. They had one pilot, one gunner and one commander. They were armed with two heavy laser cannons and two medium blasters and also held forty troopers. Their sheer size made them difficult to attack and a fearsome thing to see upon the battlefield. I would often come down to the holding area where they all stood, sit on the gantry and just stare at them. I was never alone in that.

Making friends had never come easily for me and being Lord Vader’s assistant wasn’t helping me along in this area very much. Most of the officers who were even remotely close to my age avoided me like the plague and the older men knew better than to be seen chatting up ‘Vader’s girl.’ The only people who seemed immune to this were the junior officers who would sometimes ask me to deliver unpleasant news and messages to Lord Vader, Jorae, CJ and Captain Piett.

The captain and I had met once some years previously at a small function and we had been pleasantly surprised to discover in each other a sort of quiet connection that I suspected came from us both growing up on fairly rough Outer Rim planets. He had dropped by the office the third day after I had come on board to welcome me and apologise for not doing that sooner and what was, I suspect, supposed to be a short visit after his duty shift turned into an hour long conversation over my very good spiced coffee. I was glad to discover that he had not changed very much and I got the distinct impression he was grateful to have a non military person to talk with. When we were able to we would meet for meals or coffee breaks. If we had privacy he would speak freely and I had been surprised at his concerns.

He had come to me after a particularly frustrating day and after much prompting on my part had told me some of the things that had been going on under Admiral Ozzel’s command. Ozzel was not a popular Admiral and he was known amongst the lower officers as the ‘badmiral’ because of his refusal to listen to any advice from anyone other than the few yes men that followed him around.

“It can be quite frustrating.” Firmus Piett told me one day as we sat in the quiet sitting area of my office, drinking spiced coffee.

“Lord Vader mentioned to me that he was surprised at the lack of communication between the bridge officers and himself.” I said. That was putting it mildly. Lord Vader was more than annoyed at the seeming lack of coherent communications going on.

“Ozzel filters the information before it ever gets to Vader. What he deems unimportant is never delivered.” Firmus said. “I personally disagree with this but one does not go against the wishes of the Admiral.”

“Why not go to Lord Vader directly?” I asked.

Firmus laughed. “That would be a very bad thing to do. One does not go over one’s superior officer’s head and expect to have a career.”

I nodded. Imperial hierarchy was at its best annoying and at its worst, deadly. “Well, you know… if you think there is something important that Lord Vader should know you could always tell me, in passing conversation as it were.”

He looked at me quizzically.

“Look, I’m not your superior; I am not even in the navy. I know how to pass along information without betraying the source. Lord Vader knows I hear things, he sort of expects me to keep him up to date on the less formal side of things.” I said.

He grinned at me then and shook his head. “So the rumours are true then…” he said.

“What rumours?”

“That you are very dangerous and far more than just an office girl.”

I shook my head and smiled. “Really, I am just his office girl, but adaptability is what keeps me alive. Lord Vader, for all his armour and trappings is still just a man, and after three years I know how to approach him.” I said then added, “Most of the time.”

“A valuable trait.” He said quietly.

I laughed. “Perhaps.” I said. “But I can tell you this, occasionally he listens to me so if you feel there is something that is vital that he needs to know and the Admiral dismisses, you might want to mention it in passing . I’ll make sure the information gets shared. If there is one thing Lord Vader hates it is when he doesn’t know stuff he thinks he should.”

He looked at me for a moment and then gave me a slow nod that he got the message. We were bordering very close on things that could get us both in a great deal of trouble so I was glad when the subject was dropped and the conversation drifted to other things.

I was not allowed on the bridge. Admiral Ozzel had made that perfectly clear the very first time I had tried to step into this area with a vital message for Lord Vader. His rule was no civilians on the bridge, especially me but as with all things when it came to working for Lord Vader there were exceptions to every rule. I had cited this no Merlyn on the bridge rule smugly when he had thrown a complete temper tantrum about not being notified about a shipment of probe droids that would be late. Lord Vader’s comm had been turned off and for reasons I still could not fathom none of the bridge crew were accepting my messages or passing them on. So after that delightful incident I was permitted onto the bridge to deliver messages. I took advantage of this because the bridge of the super star destroyer was an astonishing place to be.

To say it was large was an understatement. It was set up so that most of the bridge crew operated their systems and stations from the pit, and the officers of the watch would walk the deck above taking care that everything was running smoothly.

It was a long room with a central walkway that over looked the pits on either side. It was a wide and open area with view windows forward, port and starboard side. These windows were large giving the sensation of really being out in space and not just on a ship. More often than not Lord Vader could be found at the very front of the bridge walk, his hands clasped behind his back, staring out in to the inky void of space. When he walked the bridge every officer no matter how low or high in rank tended to give him a wide berth or stare, terrified, until he had passed by. There was always an audible sigh of relief when he left. Everyone was so terrified of him that the air was rank with the scent of their fear. It rippled about the entire bridge like a dancer’s skirts when she moved. When I had pointed this out in a conversation with Lord Vader one time he had merely nodded and replied.

“Yes, fear keeps them in line.”

I wasn’t about to disagree with him but I thought it made for a terrible work environment. Sometimes the younger, junior officers were so scared they couldn’t even think straight. How could that be productive I wondered, but I never voiced these thoughts out loud.

For the most part the day to day workings on board the ship were dull. They consisted of battle drills, TIE drills, the sending out of probe droids and then the assimilation of the information they sent back, the system and surveillance sweeps and of course the information and code slicing that went on. Most of the people on board the Executor never saw Lord Vader, never got near the bridge or knew a tenth of what was going on. They had their assigned jobs and that was that. There was a certain air of obliviousness, almost as if they knew that ignorance was a sort of safe bliss. There was a saying about the Executor, ‘Quick promotions lead to short lives’. The flagship of the Death Squadron was a fast track to promotion but those promoted generally didn’t live long enough to enjoy the health benefit package. The rumours flew fast and furious around that when ever someone, especially on the bridge crew jumped in rank, they immediately saw the ship’s legal advisor and updated a copy of their will.

Still the advantages of quick advancement seemed to out weight the costs and the dangers and the waiting list of those who wished to sign up on board the Executor was extensive! I wasn’t sure I understood the attraction but I also never understood why moths flew into flames either.

All in all I enjoyed being onboard her. She was a floating, mobile, armed to the teeth city and, unlike the Imperial Court and all that went with it, most people on board Executor could care less about mindless gossip or who I was. For the most part, I was known as Vader’s girl, which amused me greatly because at court I was snidely known as Lord Vader’s Little Hand Maiden. I didn’t much mind the derogatory insinuations that came with these names, but sometimes it was annoying. I did my job and I did it well. I once told Lord Vader about the unofficial titles. It had been a good mood day and we were having a decent conversation about the Imperial court. He had actually laughed and said he could think of worse things to be called. I supposed he would know about that so I let the subject drop.

For three weeks I knew a sort of peace. There was a rhythm even in the lack of routine. I did my work, I trained and I made some friends. When I had quiet moments I read and answered my mail and explored the ship. It was only when Thrawn’s latest letter, accompanied with a small package from Shiv that the nagging tick of things about to change began to wriggle in my gut.

The messenger dropped off the regular mail just as I was almost done for the day and Jarack showed up shortly afterwards. I slipped back to my quarters delighting in a letter from Thrawn, his second since I had left Coruscant and surprised at the small package which had come from Shiv. I opened Thrawn’s letter first and my delight quickly turned to concern. It was short and perplexing, unlike his previous letter which had been chatty and almost like having him whisper in my ear. I was grateful we only ever communicated in his native language because I wouldn’t have known what to say should anyone else have been able to read it.


A’mia Tekari,

The political climate on Coruscant is changing and not necessarily for the better. I am quite certain that soon disturbing news and gossip will reach you, but do not be alarmed and do not worry. As I have said before, I know exactly what I am doing and I need for you to trust me in this, no matter what.

Politics is a delicate dance, my dear, and sometimes to play it out correctly there must be certain side steps made. You must know that no matter what you hear, I do what is necessary to protect those under my care; this includes you far more than I suspect you believe. My relationship with you has nothing to do with political gain or anything else that might be implied. All you need to know for now is that there is a long term plan in place and the wheels have now been set in motion for me to attain this goal. You are a part of the future. Do not lose your faith.

Ilath’mera’talashti’Ia
Mitth’raw’nuruodo

I sat with trembling hands and re read his letter twice. He spoke in riddles and I had no answers. With a sigh I opened Shiv’s mail and what I found there didn’t improve my mood any.

Hey Rim-Girl!!!

Thanks for the brilliant letter, it really made my day. I had no idea being on board a star destroyer could actually be interesting, but you make it sound like fun. It is just as well you are not here at the moment because all hell is starting to break loose. Tigellinus has finally had enough of playing nice it seems and both he and Thrawn have begun some sort of grand political bickering, the likes of which I have never seen at court before. Some of the worst bits have even made the holonet and other news nets. I am sending you a disk with some of the reports on copy. I don’t think you’re going to like what you see. Your boss’s timing for hauling you off planet could not have been better.

We miss you but you should stay put. I think things are only going to get worse. Thrawn and Tigellinus have really stirred the ugly pot. And you know how the Emperor doesn’t like ugly when it comes to his court…

Love and hugs,
Shiv

I sat and watched the news net clips and when I was finished I commed CJ to see if he felt like sparring because I had this burning need to kill someone and sparring with him was the next best thing. Shiv had been right; all political hell was starting to break loose with Thrawn and Tigellinus at the center of it. What gave me that cold knot in my stomach was watching how well the news casters were able to insinuate things were happening when in fact they were not. When my face showed up on a couple of very brief and very nasty stories I knew anger. While, nothing untrue had been stated the allusion to me along with a couple of other young women, having several affairs with several men in high places, being used to traffic information and accused of taking sides in what amounted to a political war was all too obvious. The tabloid news nets, it seemed, could never get enough stories of palace dalliances, rampant promiscuity and dirty politics. I was astounded at how cut together footage from various big palace functions could appear and things looked very bad. While, I was not the only female to be showcased, I was the one whose face they showed the most. As Vader’s office girl, it seemed, I was a prime target. I wasn’t certain what was hoped to be gained from the innuendos but my reputation was seemingly shot to hell. It was a good job I was so far away because if I were close at hand not only would I be called out for going against palace regulations concerning relationships with members of the Imperial navy but I would probably also be up on murder charges.