What the Eye Doesn’t See…1

I had thought that the fall out from the mess stirred up on Coruscant would have been greater but instead the buzz and gossip surrounding Thrawn’s public disgrace and consequent punishment died down relatively quickly, replaced by newer gossip as was always the case, infamous today, forgotten tomorrow. I was grateful for the fickle nature of those who cared anything for the steamier nature of news. Only Shiv and my father had anything more to say about the entire thing.

Shiv’s holo-mail had arrived three days after I was back on board Executor and had that wonderful touch of cheer that Shiv always did so well.

Hey Rim-Girl,

I saw you in the Grand Hall for Thrawn’s spectacular going away party but I didn’t get a chance to talk to you after the show, your boss dragged you out of there so fast I thought he had reached light-speed. That was some even, though. Who would have thought that Thrawn would actually end up in the Emperor’s bad books?

I hope that you are okay and nothing bad happened because of the Emperor’s innuendos. I guess you’d be happy to know that most people here don’t really know exactly who he was talking about and the speculation is over three girls, including you. I keep my mouth shut and when pressed I just ask people if they really think that Lord Vader would allow you to get involved with the Emperor’s pet alien in such a way that it would dirty his own reputation. That usually shuts people up. I hope you are not too sad though, I guess you won’t see each other for a while now and I hope that Lord Vader wasn’t too mad at you.

Mostly people have forgotten already and moved onto the next big thing, namely Prince Xizor and his big bust up with the reporter girl he was seeing. Apparently she wasn’t too happy at being told to get lost and did some huge splashy story about him, which really ticked him off. She claims that her story about him actually being not only involved with the Black Sun Corporation but that he is also the leader for it all is the truth. He, of course is suing her for defamation of character and denying everything. It’s all the news nets can talk about. The latest is that she has been receiving death threats in Black Sun’s name. It’s very messy, makes your little tryst with the Admiral seem pale in comparison. No one even cares that Thrawn and a bunch of loyal officers got shipped out to the arse end of the galaxy, except Tygs who sort of flipped out, but wouldn’t explain why. He’s very bitter at the moment but he never seems to want to really talk about it. His uncle, Admiral Harkov doesn’t help much.

Anyway, kiddo, just wanted to let you know that you are no longer hot topic of the moment so when you come back you won’t need to hide your face!

Miss you, love you too
Hugs,
Shiv


I smiled as I watched his expressions and listened to his voice. Shiv’s holograms were always full of warmth and I missed him greatly, he was the big brother I never had. I answered his mail right away and sent it as soon as I was done. Unlike Thrawn, Shiv did not mind using holo technology to correspond with, it was faster and easier. I had had lengthy discussions about this with him, because I was rather fond of real letters written on paper and I wasn’t all that fond of making holo-letters much.

My father’s mail arrived a few days later and was less cheerful. Unlike Shiv, my father sent his letters via data chip. He was old fashioned enough to dislike holograms and he never used them.

Dearest Merly,

I hope this reaches you as we are not at all sure where you are at the moment. We had an unexpected visitor yesterday to the dock, namely Boba Fett, some minor ship repairs which needed parts he didn’t have on hand. I was a bit surprised when he asked if I had seen the latest holonet news to come out of Coruscant because your name had been mentioned.

I told him we didn’t subscribe to Core feeds and rarely had time to watch the news let alone the gossip nonsense. So you can image my surprise when he filled me in on what had happened. I was a bit shocked to learn that my little girl is part of such a scandal and I hope it is not true at all. I do recall the man at the center of it all, then Captain Thrawn. I did wonder if there was something going on between you too when you were both here, but he is considerably older than you are so I dismissed it. I see now I should have sat down and had a long chat with you about the dangers of older men. I hope that you know what you are doing; I would hate to see you get hurt, again.

Fett said he had been surprised to see your face on the news and asked how long you’d been on Coruscant for. I filled him in about your job and how that all came about and he’d laughed. He asked me to tell you that when he had said to get out of the job at Jabba’s had not meant to swap one palace of iniquity for another. I assume this some sort of joke between you two. I told him about your work as Lord Vader’s PA and he seemed impressed that you had lasted so long in the job. He told me he does quite a bit of work for the Empire; particularly for Vader. I was a bit surprised he hasn’t bumped into you yet, but he said you work in different circles and despite the gossip, the Empire is quite large. I had no idea that you and Fett knew each other so well.

Not much else going here, in other news, Bel started seeing a Rodian named Kall, works at the Cantina but it didn’t last very long so of course she has been impossible to live with the last few weeks. Bedi has been great with her, but I am sure you know how it is, right now all men are scum of the desert when it comes to Bel. She had some very uncomplimentary things to say about your Captain when she heard the news from Coruscant. I think that is the very first time I have ever heard Boba Fett laugh.

Business is good and Tatooine hasn’t changed. The Hutts still rule and Mos Eisley is still the biggest magnet for the worst the galaxy has to offer. I was out at Tosche’s the other day and both he and his mechanic, Fixer, said to pass along their hellos. Fixer got married to that nice girl he was seeing, Camie, I think her name is. It isn’t easy for a young couple starting out on this sarlacc forsaken rock, so I wished them luck.

Anyway pet, I need to get back to work. Send news when you can, we are all on pins and needles to hear the truth behind that terrible holonet gossip. Take care of yourself and for goodness sakes stay out of trouble.

Love,
Dad

Ps. Your uncle Vahlek might be in your neck of the desert some time soon. He said he was doing a couple of jobs for your boss so don’t be too surprised if he shows up unannounced.

I sighed and answered his letter as truthfully as I could without giving everything away. I didn’t see the point in lying about my relationship with Thrawn to my father but I down played it, as well as the scandal that had been making its way slowly to the Outer Rim news nets. I hoped that would placate him enough. I was pretty certain, that while he did not dislike Thrawn he would not have a high opinion of him sleeping with his daughter. Fathers were funny that way.

I had not expected to hear from Thrawn for some time and I tried not to think about him because those thoughts made me melancholy and achy from the inside out, so I was very surprised when Jarack showed up at my office with a courier package for me just less than two weeks after my last night with Thrawn.

He had made me jump when he had knocked on the doorframe to signal his presence. I often programmed the door to stay open because I hated the closed in sensation I got when it was shut.

I looked up and saw him grin. “Nice office.” He said as he sauntered in. He handed me the surprisingly bulky envelope and waited while I signed for it.

“It does the job.” I told him. “You have time for spiced coffee?”

“You get to make that here?” he seemed surprised.

I grinned as I poured him a cup and told him about how Lord Vader liked to make sure I was efficient at my job and my ability to make spiced coffee was a part of that.

He shook his head as he sat and sipped the sweet, spiced drink. “You lead a charmed life, you know.”

“So I keep hearing.” I replied. “So, how have you been?”

He shrugged. “Good, keeping busy. Here and there, you know.” He was being vague and I didn’t press, we all had our secrets to keep. “How are you doing?” he asked in such a way that I knew what it was he really wanted to know.

“I’m good. Keeping busy, keeping a low profile, if you know what I mean.” I told him. “I don’t enjoy the spot light despite what the Admiral might think.”

Jarack grinned knowingly. “He said to send you his best regards. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about the latest adventures from the Admonitor in his letter there so I won’t spoil the story for you. I guess you have nothing to go back with me yet?”

“I do actually. Just because I wasn’t expecting him to write doesn’t mean I didn’t. Hang on a sec I’ll fetch it.” And before he could say anything I slipped quickly to my quarters to get the letter I had finished writing the night before. I stuck it in an envelope and sealed it then handed it to Jarack when I got back to the office.

“He’ll be surprised, you know, he isn’t expecting me to bring back anything.” Jarack said as he readied a secure courier envelope and I signed for it.

“He thinks he knows me as well as he knows himself.” I said tartly. “You can tell him I am not just a pretty piece of over studied art for his collection and I still have a few surprises left in me yet.”

Jarack laughed. “I’ll be sure to pass that along!” He said, handing me the empty coffee glass. “See you next time I’m in the neighbourhood.”

“Take care of yourself it’s a rough galaxy out there!” I said.

“Always, Miss Gabriel, always!” he said with a wink as he slipped out of the office to go back to where ever it was he had come from.

I looked at the bulky package and smiled, something to look forward to after I had finished my work. The to-do list from Lord Vader was fairly extensive and I needed to get that done first of all.

Things had not been quiet on board. Lord Vader had recently taken the Executor earlier on to Corulag to rendezvous with the Devastator and as he had so eloquently put it, “Deal with another idiot who thinks he is smarter than I am.”

When I pressed for an explanation, Vader told me that Imperial Security Bureau officer Sollaine had tried to wrangle a way to take over command of the Executor. I had nearly choked on the sip of spiced coffee I was drinking when he told me this.

“Is he completely stupid?” I asked when I got my coughing fit under control.

Lord Vader’s reply was terse and to the point. “Yes!”

“So what happened to him?” I asked.

“He met his maker.” Lord Vader replied with a definite air of satisfaction.

“And Rivoche Tarkin?” I asked wondering what had become of Grand Moff Tarkin’s niece who had turned out to be a rebel sympathiser and a spy.

I knew her peripherally, as I did many of the Imperial Palace courtesans. She had not so long ago become engaged to Vastin Caglio, the son of Moff James Caglio who was in charge of the Bormea Sector. Then all hell broke lose when the Emperor realised that there was a deep undercover agent amongst his courtesans. He had wanted Lord Vader to deal with it but Vader had his hands full with other problems and had given the job to Sollaine. I was never sure when Lord Vader became aware that Sollaine wanted to usurp him as commander of the Executor but when that happened Sollaine was already a dead man, he just didn’t know it at the time. When the Executor had jumped into the same sector as the Devastator to rendezvous with Sollaine for reasons I still wasn’t clear on, this had inadvertently allowed Rivoche to escape. That was all the excuse Lord Vader needed to remove Sollaine. The lesson to be learned was that one could never fool the Dark Lord and trying it was deadly.

Lord Vader shrugged. “She is of little concern.” He said letting me know that he had been more annoyed with Sollaine’s ambitiousness than with chasing a single informant.

Now we were currently underway to Talay, where Lord Vader was to meet General Rom Mohc and be given a demonstration of the Dark Trooper Droids.

The Dark Trooper Project was interesting. The Dark Troopers were not flesh and blood like the storm troopers were but rather very advanced battle droids. They had armour made from a dark grey metal called phrik which was practically indestructible. They were equipped with better weapons and jet packs and were usually deployed alongside regular stormtroopers. They had the advantage of adding chaos to the fights and usually scared the sandjiggers out of the enemy. The whole project was the brainchild of General Mohc and Lord Vader was quite impressed with the whole thing thus far.

I had gotten to see the project as it progressed because Lord Vader liked to talk about the droids and I enjoyed it when he talked to me about anything that didn’t involve force choke or shouting.

When I had completed my to-do list for the day I went back to the quiet of my quarters and after I had showered and eaten, I settled down to open Thrawn’s mail. I wondered, as I opened the envelope, if he missed me as much as I missed him.