Cloak and Shadows 4

Lord Vader strode down the shuttle’s ramp, his cloak flowing behind him. I could tell by the way he walked that he was not overly happy. The stormtroopers and officers that were there to greet him all snapped to attention and saluted as he passed. He ignored them. Captain Niriz began to speak but Lord Vader cut him off with a brusque flap of his hand and turned to look at me.

“Good evening Lord Vader.” I said handing him the data pad I had been holding. “I trust your flight was a pleasant one?”

He looked at the datapad and growled something unintelligible about bad pilots as he walked to the turbo lift. I had to trot to keep up, as did captain Niriz.

“Have you more to add to this, girl?” he snapped, sensing my thoughts.

“Prince Xizor was really annoyed with your last request for rescheduling the meeting over the possible new ship designs he wishes to discuss with you. He has demanded to speak with you personally. His office refuses to communicate with me any more until you comply.”

“You may inform the Prince that if he wishes to speak to me he must make an appointment through you. If he doesn’t like that then he will not get to speak with me. What else?”

I sighed. The battle of wills between Lord Vader and Prince Xizor was getting beyond the pointless and stupid stage. “The latest batch of Probe droids will be ready in two days. I asked them to deliver, as per your request, to the Executor but they will need to know where to deliver them to.”

He nodded as we stepped out of the turbo lift and headed towards the bridge. “Next?”

“Admiral Thrawn will be delayed in meeting with you. He has encountered an unexpected difficulty. There is no ETA as of yet.” I said.

He paused and turned to look at me then at Captain Niriz who paled visibly, but before he could do or say anything else I added. “And the Emperor wishes to speak with you, at your earliest convenience.”

“Why did you not say that right away!” he snarled and turned on Captain Niriz. “I require privacy!”

The Captain nodded and showed Lord Vader to Thrawn’s ready room with a secure HoloNet transmitter. Only after the door closed did the captain turn to me and raise his eyebrows.

“That was a clever trick.” He said.

I gave him a small smile. “Distraction works best when delivering news that might annoy him. He’ll be more cross that I didn’t tell him about the Emperor wishing to speak with him than about anything else but by the time he’s finished speaking with his master he will have mostly forgotten about being cross over the bad news.”

“What happens when that doesn’t work?”

I gave him a slight smile. “You don’t really want to know.”

He nodded.

“What do you suppose the Admiral is doing down there?” I asked as I walked over to the side view port and looked at the planet of Corellia. It seemed small and fragile from the high orbit the Admonitor had taken. I wondered where the Executor was. I couldn’t see her, but I was sure she was not far away.

Niriz shrugged. “Confusing the devil out of who ever he ends up working with I suspect.”

That made me laugh because it was most likely true. Niriz smiled but then stiffened as Lord Vader returned to the bridge. He made a come here gesture with his hand and with a little glance at the Captain I did as he asked.

“You have a secure work station?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Show me.” He said grabbing for my arm, I dodged him and we left the bridge together. The walk to the quarters I had been assigned was silent and when we entered the room, it seemed suddenly smaller with Lord Vader in it.

“It would appear that Prince Xizor is unimpressed by your secretarial skills and has complained to the Emperor about my lack of co operation in the matter of meetings.” Lord Vader said as he began to punch a code into the HoloNet transmitter. “Go stand out of the transmission range.” He ordered and flapped his hand at me in a get out of my sight manner.

I did as he asked and sat down in the chair in the corner of the room away from the HoloNet transmitter to watch.

The small holoprojecter flickered to life and the familiar image of Price Xizor’s blond female assistant flickered into place.

“Lord Vader, what an unexpected surprise….”

He cut her off. “Dispense with the false pleasantries Guri, where is he?” he snapped.

“If you are referring to Prince Xizor then I am afraid he is unavailable.” She replied coolly.

“He complained to my Master that I was unreachable and now he refuses to speak with me? Is this how he intends to curry my favour?”

Guri drew a deep breath and folded her arms in that all too familiar stance of defiance. “Your female assistant is difficult to deal with.” Guri told him after a few moments. “She is insolent, defiant and …”

Again Lord Vader cut her off. “Miss Gabriel does as she is instructed. If you are displeased with her performance then you should direct your complaints to me. The Emperor has better things to do than to listen to the whining of the spoiled, wealthy, social elite over misunderstandings with a mere office girl. Get Xizor on line immediately or there will be repercussions!”

She paused just a moment to let Lord Vader know she was not happy at how she was being spoken to and then she nodded. “He is indisposed at this very moment. He will be available in ten minutes.”

“Use this holonet address!” Lord Vader said and terminated the connection.

I watched as he sat back in the too small chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Indisposed!” he snorted. “Lounging in his bathtub more like!”

“I am not going to ask how you know that.” I said.

“Probably for the best that you do not.” He nodded and then as the transmitter peeped for the incoming signal. Lord Vader waved his hand at me to sit still and he accepted the transmission.

“Prince Xizor, how good of you to take time out of your busy schedule to meet with me.” Lord Vader said, the sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable.

“Think nothing of it Lord Vader, how may I assist you?” the prince oozed charm and I shuddered involuntarily.

“It was my understanding that you wished to speak with me, in fact you were so adamant about it you even went to the Emperor to express dismay at my not being available.”

There was a momentary silence and I had to cover my mouth with my hand to keep from giggling. The holo image of the Prince shivered and then realigned.

Prince Xizor inclined his head, his topknot pony tail swinging with his movement. “I merely mentioned to his Excellency how busy you must be, because you were nearly impossible to reach and I had valuable information to impart. The young lady who arranges your calendar is most unhelpful in these matters. I prefer to deal with you directly, after all we are supposed to be working closely on this proposed project….”

I could feel Lord Vader working very hard to maintain his cool. “Get to the point.” He snapped.

Xizor smiled and began to give Lord Vader detailed information on the latest project they were, in theory, working on. It was interesting and long winded but much to my surprise Lord Vader did not interrupt and when Xizor had finished he was quiet for a moment.

“This is a worthy endevour. I trust your people are capable of producing these prototypes?”

Xizor nodded. “I guarantee their work.” He said.

Lord Vader leaned in close to the holo projector. “For your sake, Xizor, I hope so.” He growled. “Go behind my back again to complain to the Emperor and you will feel my wrath, do we have an understanding?”

“I believe we do, Lord Vader.” The prince said smoothly.

Vader nodded and terminated the connection, sat back in the chair and tilted his head to one side, looking at me. “What did you sense from him?”

“You mean was he lying?” I asked surprised at his question.

Lord Vader nodded.

“It’s difficult for me to tell especially with holograms and the Prince is always hiding something but I didn’t get the impression that anything he said to you in this message was a direct lie.”

“What do you mean, always hiding something?”

I shrugged. “It is hard to define. You are always angry. When I perceive you using my gifts you come across to me like white noise. The emperor is like smoke. I receive almost nothing from him. With the Prince it is like he is wrapped in mirrors. What you see on the surface is not what is happening underneath. It isn’t that he is lying but he hides behind a facade. Does that make sense?”

He stared at me for a moment then nodded. “Yes, it makes perfect sense.” He got up and started to pace around the room. “He is up to something, I sense it but so far nothing he has done warrants my suspicion. In the last few years he has curried great favour with the Emperor and garnered a place in the high court. I do not understand why my master allows this. ”

“Maybe because he heads Black Sun?” I said tartly. “I am quite sure he is always up to something, perhaps this way the Emperor feels he can keep a closer eye on him.”

“He hides his Black Sun activities behind legitimate businesses. He is clever and difficult to catch, how ever eventually he will slip up and I will have the evidence I need to prove that I am right about his motives for wishing to work so closely within the Royal Court.”

I drew a deep breath. “You spy on each other.”

“Of course we do, you stupid girl. How else would I know what he is doing?” Lord Vader said.

“So, if he knows what you are doing and vice versa then why did he run to the Emperor and complain about me behind your back like a spoiled little school boy?” I said crossly.

I could sense the smile behind Lord Vader’s mask, it was slow and nasty. “That was a power play. In doing so he is telling me that he exerts some small influence over the Emperor and I must bend to his wishes.” He said thoughtfully.

“Well that’s just a waste of time!”

“Yes, it is but Xizor does not see it this way, he sees these small power plays as little victories, undermining my place at the Emperor’s side. He is obsequious and he manages to twists words to his advantage. He wheedles his way around the Emperor in a most displeasing manner.” Lord Vader said. “And my Master sees fit to allow it, although to what end I don’t know.” He stopped pacing and looked at me. “However, I am sure that together we can find this out.”

“Together?” I asked carefully not liking the sound of that at all.

“You are the daughter of a Jedi with an unusual talent for disseminating truth from lie. I believe you will be present more often than you have been during some of my meetings with the Prince. I take it he does not know of your talents.”

I shrugged. “I don’t think he knows anything about me, except that I am your annoying office girl. I don’t even think he recalls the incident at the Grand Ball from three years ago.”

“Incident? Explain.”

I sighed, got up and made my self a cup of tea while I told him about the Prince’s little trick using pheromones and how Shiv had saved me at the Grand Ball where I had first been presented to the Emperor. I described the sensation of being enthralled and how addled it had made my head feel.

“You should have spoken of this at the time it happened.” He said. He was annoyed but there was no real anger in his words.

“I was a bit overwhelmed at the time!” I retorted. “And you were not in the best of moods! Besides since when were you ever interested in my personal life, or the mating rituals of the Falleen?” I asked.

“Your private life does not interest me at all but threats to Imperial security do. You have access to a great deal of personal information about me and my life, as well as sensitive information about Imperial business. I can only imagine what sort of information you would let slip while mating with a creature who possesses the power to addle your brain.”

I almost choked on my tea. “Mate!!??” I shuddered involuntarily. “I would never mate with that man!”

“It is my understanding from what you told me that you would have had no choice, he would have beguiled you into doing so.”

He was making me cross but he was also right. “Well lucky for me Shiv knew what was going on and saved me from being …how did you put it, beguiled.” I said snarkily.

“I shall remember to thank him the next time I see him.” He retorted. “You do seem to attract the scyks and Xizor is one of the worst.”

I sighed. “And you want me to be in the same room with this particular scyk?”

“Do you feel you are likely to wish to couple with him?” he inquired.

I gave him my best version of a hard stare. “No, he is repulsive and besides I already have my hands full, and contrary to popular belief I am not promiscuous, one man in my life is enough!”

Lord Vader laughed. Something which always made my skin crawl. It was a truly disturbing sound because the vocal augmentation and his breathing regulator made his laugher something that sounded like a cross between a huurton howler and a baby Krayt dragon. I just made a face.

He stopped pacing and stood at the window with his back to me, then he glanced over his shoulder and looked at me. “I was unaware that he used chemical means to attract females. It would explain why he cannot seem to keep them around.”

It was my turn to laugh. “He gets bored of them and then he dumps them often unceremoniously.” I said.

Lord Vader nodded. “Of course he does. Where is the challenge in pursuing then maintaining a relationship when it is handed to you on a chemically induced platter?” he asked. “I am quite certain Admiral Thrawn did not pursue you because you were easy prey. It took him three years to finally bed you, did it not?”

I just blinked at him and for a few moments I was utterly speechless. That was Lord Vader, blunt and to the point as always. Tact was not high on his list of things he cared about. While I had been fairly certain that my relationship with Thrawn had never been a big secret from Lord Vader, hearing him discuss it so offhandedly in that manner was disturbing. I sighed.

“Seeing as how he is on your mind, what exactly is the nature of the Admiral’s delay?” Lord Vader asked. He was picking up my thoughts.

“He is on my mind because you brought him up.” I said crossly. “Stay out of my head!”

“Learn not to broadcast your feelings so openly then.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder!” he growled. “The last thing I need is a love sick assistant, who cannot keep her mind on the job at hand.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to snap back, asking him what he knew about it but I managed to bite back my words in time. He knew exactly what I was feeling because he had gone through that with Padmé. During the Clone wars they had been separated more than they had been together. They had also had to sneak around, hiding their relationship, their love, their marriage. I couldn’t really argue with him because he was sort of right. I hadn’t thought I was that obvious but Lord Vader wasn’t stupid and he had been through the same thing. Instead I answered his original question.

“Admiral Thrawn did not state what the delay was caused by, only that he expected the job he was doing to take a few hours more than previously expected.” I said, finishing my drink. “The Emperor will not like you having me spy on the prince.” I added shifting the topic of conversation away from Thrawn.

“Then it would be best if he were not to find out, wouldn’t it.” He asked looking at me.

“I guess you need to teach me to mask my thoughts better, then.” I said with a little shrug.

He continued to stare at me and then gave me a small nod. “That can be arranged now as it appears we have some spare time until Thrawn returns.” He said tartly. “Sit down and I shall try to get some instructions through that stubborn skull of yours! These techniques will require discipline, something you lack a great deal of.”

I nodded and did as he bid, grateful for the time alone to train with him. I knew he had learned to mask his feelings from the Emperor and now I hoped he would teach me this technique. As he paced around the room around me I sat and slowly slipped into the stillness that I found when I meditated. With his words in my ears I began to follow his instructions. I had learned to listen and do as he said. It would be a long session and he was going to work me hard but I expected nothing less and smiled.

As I sat, desert style listening to the cadence of his voice I wondered if he knew how much he had come to mean to me. I was reasonably sure that my birth mother would be turning over in her grave at the thought of her daughter being taught by and admiring one of the most hated men in the galaxy, the man who had once been Anakin Skywalker the betrayer of the Jedi Order. I wondered what the irony in all of this was supposed to teach me. If there was a lesson I couldn’t see it.

“Pay attention!” Lord Vader snapped, cuffing my head with his hand as he sensed my drifting thoughts.

I nodded and did as he asked. Avoiding the Emperor and his probing had become my primary goal, no one was better at this than lord Vader, despite what the Emperor thought.