What the Eye Doesn’t See…7

A’mia Tekari,

It was good to read that you were not harmed during the attack on the Orinackra Detention Center but I had to question Lord Vader’s reasoning for bringing you to such a dangerous place. Even with your gifts there was no real reason for that, the Empire has more than enough means at its disposal to obtain information from prisoners. I hope that the experience was not too overwhelming for you.

Your colourful description of your life on board the Executor delighted me. It is a rare thing to be able to bring to life in such a manner what is normally considered dull and tedious work. It speaks volumes about your character that you can find wonder in the most mundane things, such as watching Imperial mechanics fix TIEs. I hope that you never lose this because it is such a lovely part of who you are.

Do not worry about Jarack. I found his over reaction to your sparing partner and friend, CJ, more amusing than anything else. It is, I think, flattering that he feels protective about me but I have no concerns about you in this manner. I would like to think that I know you better than Mr. Behl and am reasonably certain that if your feelings for me changed I would be the first to know. Subterfuge of that kind is not your style. I had to work hard to hide my smile as he described how angry you were at his accusation and that now he fears that you will no longer trust him or worse no longer gift him with your special blend of Tatooine spiced coffee. I told him that holding a grudge in this manner was not your style and that you understood he was simply being a friend. I also told him that if you had really been angry with him you would have thrown something at him.

You asked about my work in the Unknown Regions and we are indeed making headway. In the past three weeks we have gone a long way to continuing the set up at Nirauan. Eventually, I hope that Voss will take over a far more active role in the day to day running of the base as he is more capable of this than anyone else I know at the moment, plus there is no one I trust more with this responsibility.

I also wish to populate the base with Chiss loyal not only to Csilla and some of the more noble ideals of my people but who are also open to new ideas and not outdated dogma. This will take time as many of those willing to work with me speak only Cheunh and will need to learn basic fluently if they hope to integrate and become a bridge between the Chiss and the Galactic Empire. The same must be said of the Imperials who will eventually populate the base; they should be at least fluent in a basic under standing of Cheunh. As you can well imagine this will take some time, not everyone has your astonishing skill and talent with languages. However, that issue aside, I am hopeful that this project will be a success. Not all my people feel that the Ascendancy is right in how it conducts its affairs and rules but as I have explained before, the Chiss are a slow moving and cautious people who do not like change and who do not welcome strangers easily. It will be a project that will require patience and time, both of which I have. Meanwhile, we continue our surveillance of this region of space.

It was interesting to read your snippets of gossip and news from the Core worlds. The perception of my downfall pleases me greatly as it was exactly the desired effect I had hoped to achieve. It is, as you correctly surmised, most difficult to work in an environment where one’s race or species calls into question one’s abilities and talents. It would be almost impossible for me to accomplish any of my long term goals were I to have stayed on Coruscant and both you and I know this. Even Palpatine, despite his dislike of non humans understood this better than most and with his manipulations and orchestrations of my disgrace the work which I had previously discussed with him as theory can now be made a reality. Oddly enough in the coming year I will probably be working far more close at hand to you than you would think. There are several projects on the go in which I am quietly involved that require my physical presence and I am quite certain that I shall be called to converse with lord Vader in matters of state too secret to allow for holonet transmissions. So, while I read between the lines of your last letter and understand that you miss me; do not fret too much about distance. It is not as wide as one might think.

Do not take this to mean that I do not miss your presence. On the contrary, my dear, I had not thought for a single moment before I met you that there would be someone so dear to me in my life. While I do my utmost to maintain my professional manner, there are moments when the distance between us seems as edgy and painful as a dull vibro blade ripping into flesh. I have a lovely holo-capture of you on my desk in my private quarters. It was captured at the last Grand ball we attended together and you were unaware of the image being taken. The only other person who has seen this capture is Voss, who asked about it. He has known me for longer than anyone else in the Empire and is a dear friend. What could I tell him? How could I put into words what you are to me? How I feel when Jarack delivers one of your delightful letters to me and I catch the scent of your perfume in the paper? What it is like to feel incomplete without you by my side? There are no words to describe these things but Voss seemed to understand when I told him that you are the one person who reminds me of that which is bright and good in the universe.

I know you will sit there reading this shaking your head. It is unusual for either of us to express so openly these feelings which I know we both have and try our best to hide. But I wanted you to know that despite the distance and the time apart, you are close to my heart. I do not wish you to think this is not the case, merely because I lack the ability to produce lengthy letters full of flowery prose. Chiss are not known for their ability to express affection openly and I am afraid in this I am no exception.

I understand your loneliness and your frustration in terms of being in a long distance relationship because I, too, feel these things. There are reasons why such relationships as ours are forbidden, they complicate things and steal away from the utter devotion to one’s duty and work. You and I both know this. We are both creatures who desire to complete our appointed tasks to the best of our abilities. Still I believe there can be room for more than just duty and work, a difficult balance to be sure. However, you and I are more than capable of this balancing act. Do not be sad, sj’iu tekari. We are not so far apart as you might think or feel and time passes quickly for those who keep busy.

Now, I am afraid, I must end this letter and return to duty. Be well, my dear. Enjoy your time on the Empire’s flag ship. There are many who envy your place there greatly and your unique position at Lord Vader’s side. Do not waste it by being maudlin and moody over things you cannot change. Instead take the opportunities being given you and learn all you can about how the Empire and the Imperial Navy works. You never know when you will need such information and right now the resources available to you are almost limitless, use them. And for goodness sake do try to stay out of trouble.

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


It was rare for Thrawn to write so openly about his feelings and I held his letter close to my heart as I absorbed what he had written, biting back the sting of emotion he had provoked. Until I had become so utterly involved with him I had not realised what it was to miss another being so completely. I hated the sensation. He had described it so aptly, a wound, edgy and dull that echoed through my core as though some invisible being had reached in and wrenched out a part of my spirit with ragged claws. He had become a part of me and I was missing that part now so greatly I would have given almost anything to have it back.

What was there to do? Duty came first, no matter what. I allowed for one last moment of feeling sorry for myself then along with his letter, I tucked it away. After all, perhaps it had been fate that had placed us in a situation where we had come together but in the end we had chosen to follow it through. With his words and these thoughts in my head, I went to bed but sleep was a long time in coming. In the bed, which was large enough for two, my arm lay across the space where his warm body would have been had he been with me. Time and distance, honour and duty, I sighed at these words and thoughts. It would have been so much easier to have stayed on Tatooine, fallen in love with a simple mechanic, married and had a parcel of annoying children. As soon as this thought rattled through my brain I shuddered. Perhaps such a life would have been easier but I was certain I would not have been happier. Despite the crazy things that had happened to me, despite the pain and the difficulties I rather liked what I was doing, I enjoyed the challenges of it and I would not swap my relationship with Thrawn for all the simple mechanics in the entire galaxy. It was with that thought on my mind, and his face in my memory that I finally drifted off to sleep.

Of course, the next morning when I got up and started my day my feelings on how exciting my life was were re-evaluated.

I stared at the computer screen and sighed. At Lord Vader’s insistence I was doing more research on bounty hunters. He had reasoned that because of my previous experience working at Jabba’s I was the perfect person to find the best and weed out the worst of the list he had given me. I found it sort of laughable that I was supposed to be the expert on the subject of the galaxy’s bounty hunters because I was fairly certain he knew way more on this topic than I ever could but given his present mood I wasn’t going to argue. Sometimes he just liked to give me make work projects to keep me busy.

Many of the names I knew, some of the hunters I had actually seen and met but many were a mystery to me, which meant a lot of reading. I was skimming through the list when one name jumped out at me, Jodo Kast. He wasn’t a bounty hunter I was familiar with but I remembered the brief conversation with Thrawn one night at the Emperor’s Retreat. He had asked me what I knew about Boba Fett and then had brought up Kast’s name. Some years prior I had done some preliminary research and had given my research to Thrawn but now I had access to greater resources and a much better clearance.

I stared at the screen and then began the process of searching. The image of Kast that popped up on the little holo-imager puzzled me because on first glance he looked just like Boba Fett. I found it a little odd that there would be two bounty hunters running around the galaxy in Mandalorian Armour. It wasn’t easy or cheap to come by a complete set and what surprised me even more was the fact that his set looked more or less exactly as Boba Fett wore his. Only the braids of Wookiee hair were missing, and some of the minor detail work on the armour was different.

Details, I thought, it all comes down to details. If Kast wanted to be a Fett look-alike he had sure put a lot of work into getting the image mostly right. Even the tiny things most people would never notice were correct.

My security clearance allowed me a lot of access to classified information, no questions asked, so I decided, just out of personal curiosity to do some digging of my own. Boba Fett had once had a special place in my life so the thought of some impostor running around in the galaxy annoyed me, though I could never have said why. I was so engrossed in my work that when my comm beeped it scared the life out of me making me jump and then cross.

“What!?” I asked not bothering to conceal my annoyance.

“Lord Vader wishes you to meet with him on the docking bay, landing slot twelve immediately.” A gruff voice barked the abrupt order.

“Thank you.” I said and shut the comm off.

I sighed and took one last glance at the holo image and then saved my work and shut the system off. I briefly thought about stopping by my quarters to make myself more presentable, which is to say, put on some shoes but thought the better of it, when Lord Vader said immediately he usually meant yesterday.

The main docking bay on the Executor was an enormous space with several ways to access it, depending on what part of the ship one came from. I liked to enter from the upper levels which meant walking along a gantry and down the side steps on the starboard bulkhead. From this entrance one was afforded a view of the entire place and it was always breath taking to see the ships and crews working there.

Everything gleamed. The floor was a beautiful black material, so highly polished that it reflected everything to a mirror image. I suppose it made the hanger seem twice as large but from a practical point of view it was a pain to land on. As I made my way along the gantry I paused for a moment to take in all the hustle and bustle. There was always something going on, the hanger was never a dull place. I was about to continue along when something caught my eye. Standing at the ramp of the shuttle on landing slot twelve was a figure that looked awfully familiar to me. From where I stood it was difficult to get details but when he turned around to address Lord Vader who was already there I had to draw a deep breath to quell my surprise and sudden anger. My father had mentioned that Uncle Vahlek was ‘in the neighbourhood’ but I hadn’t thought much about it. Then I remembered what my Uncle Vahlek had said to me in the little note he had left the last time I had seen him. ‘We will see one another soon enough, don’t be surprised and don’t give everything away either.’

I drew a deep breath as I hurried down the steps to meet Lord Vader as requested. It required work not to show recognition on my face when uncle Vahlek turned around to look at me. I had learned well the lessons given to me over the last three years and not only masked my feelings from my face but from Lord Vader as well. Vahlek gave me a curt nod. When our eyes met I understood he was playing the same I don’t know you game. What I didn’t understand was why.

“My Lord, you requested my presence? What can I do for you?” I asked politely. It was good to be polite to him in front of guests.

“There you are!” he snapped ignoring my question. “I see our versions of what immediately means are remarkably different!”

I just nodded because that statement didn’t really require an answer. He was just pulling rank and being grouchy.

“Akosh, this is my assistant Merlyn Gabriel. She will in charge of seeing you safely to your destination.” He explained and I frowned. Destination, what was that supposed to mean??? I began to get a slow sinking sensation in my gut.

When Lord Vader turned to look at me I gave him my full attention. “You will be piloting Tze’yusha’Jin Akosh to a rendezvous point which will be given to you at time of departure. You will leave in an hour from now so I suggest you pack and prepare.” He said.

“Pack and prepare for what?” I asked him telepathically while I nodded dutifully.

“Prepare to be a guest on board another ISD!”

I sighed. “Yes, my lord.”

“The data will be ready for you shortly and delivered as soon as it is compiled. You will be flying the Sigiri.” Lord Vader continued. “I suggest you make all the necessary preparations. Tze’yusha’Jin Akosh is on a tight schedule, see that you do not disrupt it.” And with a wave of his hand he dismissed me and turned back to uncle Vahlek to continue discussing what ever it was they had been talking about before I had arrived. I nodded and with a polite bob of my head I left the hanger wondering just what the heck was going on.