PART I
I sat in a shadow and watched the emptiness of my home world. People were never out, save the few homeless who huddled beneath tattered rags and under small awnings in a vain attempt to shut out the cold or wetness. I, myself, didn't care about Drey's bleariness or the greasy smell that filled every crevice of the city. I was used to it, I had lived all my life in it, and, until recently, knew nothing else. In fact, I had even grown to like it. I relished in the heavy fog that perpetually shroud the streets and buildings. The cold suited me far better than the warmth of a starship which I had long ago grew accustomed to. And the sounds, oh the quiet melancholy of the ears delighted me.
When I had left Drey, three years ago, I had hoped never to return, yet now, sitting with my back to a cold wall, I found that I could never mean that. Drey was truly my home, despite all the days I had spent begging as a child and the hungry, sleepless nights I had spent there before Dani had found me. Before Dani found me and turned me from a little street urchin to what I am now. And what am I? I am a shadow.
"Krytha," I looked up at the voice. I had, of course heard the footsteps, confident and sharp against the metal walkway, but I had paid them little mind. There were still a few people left on Drey who had not yet degraded with poverty and hatred.
"Hello, Dani," I said as I stood and fell into step with him. "May I assume that the meeting is finished?"
Danilo Siysh nodded. "Of course."
"And our job?"
"His name is Actube Feera." Dani said as he handed me the pad in it's protective case. As usual, my partner and mentor had nothing else to say on the subject. He, I knew from experience, would not speak of it again until we were safely on the Relda. There was a pause, then Dani spoke up once again in a more cheerful voice. "Has Drey changed at all for you?"
I chuckled softly. "Of course, it no longer seems a prison."
Dani smiled and nodded, though remained quiet. I had not expected him to say even that much. Dani had found me, as I said, about three years earlier, and taken me away into space in his beautiful ship Relda. He cared for me, and trained me in his art, taking me on as a pupil and later, equal. I had once asked him why, for it was obvious that he needed no help of mine, and he answered that he was lonely.
I knew very little about Dani's past, I had never asked and was likely never to. He was quiet around other people, though around me he had grown more relaxed. I considered him my savior and worshipped the very ground he walked on. What would have happened had he not found me? Would I have died, a young teenager on a forgotten planet far from anything remotely civilized, or would I have lived to an old age in such a dismal place? It was not a thought I cared to dwell on, yet I often found myself doing so.
Sometimes, I think I should hate Dani. After all, though he took me from one life, the world he provided for me was no better, perhaps even worse than Drey. My morals had long ago been smashed by his effectiveness and I had been taught to do things that I would have found atrocious before. But despite what I want my feelings to be, the plain truth is that I could never hate Dani, and would always be in his debt.
I stared straight ahead as the somewhat disturbing thoughts passed quickly through my mind, and wrenched myself back to the present as soon as the sleek form of the Relda was in view. I rested one seemingly small hand on her silver hull as Dani punched the code into the pad by the hatch. A moment later, a ramp lowered itself before us. Still without speaking, Dani and I headed into her warm interior.
I stayed behind to raise the ramp as Dani headed to the cockpit. I entered the cockpit to find Dani already sitting and starting the Relda up. "Turn the heat up," Dani said as I slid into my seat to left. "How you can stand such a cold place I'll never know."
I grinned. "I already have," I told him. As I had thought, Dani was much more talkative now that we were off the streets. "Where are we going?"
"It's a small planet called Yishka. The coordinates are in the pad I handed you." Dani said, continuing the start-up sequence.
I sighed as I pulled the data-pad out of a case on the back of my belt. "This isn't another one of those jobs that they route you to yet another place for actual information, is it?" I asked as I scowled down at the small screen.
When I looked back up, Dani was staring at me with a mixture of disbelief and annoyance. "No! Of course not! I never take those, not after that first one, anyway. You know that. Yishka is where Feera was last seen. "
I sighed and nodded. "All right, all right," I said, finally finding the coordinates and punching them into the navigation computer.
Drey's spaceport was nonexistent, as was the incoming (and outgoing) traffic, so we didn't even ask for permission to leave, we just left. We made it through the atmosphere and I barely got a last glance at the planet, camouflaged by a thick layer of gray clouds before we started into hyperspace.
Dani leaned back in his seat and unbuckled one of the blasters from his hip, laying it on the arm of his large chair. I watched him for a moment, surprised at how relaxed and happy he looked. A lock of his dark hair, which was usually brushed neatly back, off his forehead, fell and he made no move to put it back in it's place. He closed his eyes and grinned at me.
"So," I asked, taking full advantage of my swivel chair to face my friend. "What's so special about this job?"
Dani cracked an eye open and fixed his playful gaze on me. "What do you mean, Krytha? Why should this job be any different from the others?"
I smirked with a inward laugh. "I don't know, but there must be some reason, you look so damn smug!"
Dani sat up straighter, his hazel eyes once again open, and nodded. "Can't hide anything from you. Yeah, this job ought o be fun."
"Why?" I inquired, genuinely curious and in the dark about it.
"This guy we're going after, Feera," Dani began, answering quicker than I had expected him to. "Well, he was in charge of the invasion of my planet, and so the deaths of my family."
I stared at him, shocked. As I have before said, I knew nothing of his past, and now he was volunteering it so easily? That didn't fit the Dani I knew. I coughed to hide my surprise, though Dani had already seen it, as I well knew.
"I know I've said nothing about this to you, but did you not know that I am from Circ?" I shook my head 'no'. Dani clucked his tounge, as he did when he was irritated, but he didn't truly look disappointed or angry as he normally did. "Well I had thought I was a good enough teacher for you to know to always do your homework, but apparently not."
"I try to respect your privacy," I told my benefactor evenly.
Dani nodded. "Of course you did. Anyhow, Circ was taken over by the Empire about the time I decided to go into... my chosen profession. My entire family was killed, and I owe that loss to this man." He nodded. "Oh yes, I will enjoy this one."
I sighed with a taint of disgust. Despite my training and the number of assignments I had taken with Dani, I have never grown to like my job. I pushed the tatters of my morals into the back of my mind. I had questions and I needed answers. "So this Feera works for the Empire?"
Dani nodded. "Yeah."
"And you've finally decided to choose a side." I side, turning back to look at the controls, carefully averting my eyes from the view outside. I never had much of a stomach for looking at, well, hyperspace.
Although I wasn't looking at him, I knew Dani well enough to know he was shaking his head. "Not permanently," he said. "As I told you, I have a personal vendetta against this guy."
"So," I sighed. "We are going to take this job, and risk the wrath of the Empire, hmm? of course," I answered my own question. "Vengeance doesn't think, not reasonably anyway."
To my surprise, Dani only grinned broader. "Exactly. But we won't be doing this job all alone." I looked up at him, astonished. "We're meeting a member of the rebels at Yishka."
PART II
Yishka was nothing like what I had expected. Since Dani said that Feera, and Imperial officer, had been there recently, I had expected cold gray cities and a strict security system. Imagine my surprise when we landed without a check at all and deep green forests met my eyes.
Dani landed us in a small village/town in the upper part of the smallest continent. The town was very pretty, though not terribly modern. No permecrete, save the singular landing pad, with wooden houses and streets paved in purple moss. Ever since leave the Relda Dani was muttering to himself, he was obviously uncomfortable with the surroundings. I, on the other hand, was in love.
We walked through the fragrant, squishy streets to a small building. Dani looked at it as if evaluating it. "I think this is it." he said as he pushed forward. I hung back as he knocked on the door and spoke with the elderly man who answered. A moment later he left the house and returned to my side.
"So, is this it?" I asked, glancing up at Dani's pale face.
Dani nodded. "It is, and we have to go in if we want to have anything further to do with the job."
"All right," I whispered almost inaudibly and followed Dani inside.
As soon as the elderly man had closed the door after us, Dani started speaking. "Are you the rebel we are supposed to meet?"
The old man cackled loudly. "No, no! I'm just an ol' geezer," I exchanged a look with Dani. "no, no, my dear fellows, Rosse."
Dani sighed. "And where, may I ask, is he?"
The old man stopped laughing, and gestured into a back room. "He's in there. Go on, I have stuff to do."
Dani narrowed his eyes suspiciously, and didn't move his hand from his blaster. The old man watched him a moment longer, then moved into yet another room. Dani gave me a familiar look that was the approximation of a shrug, than started into the room the old guy had gestured to.
I entered the small room cautiously but relaxed somewhat when I noticed that the chamber's only occupant was lying on his back with a data pad. He looked up when we entered, a grin on his youthful face. For a moment, just as his eyes fell on us, his smile faltered, but it was back instantaneously, and brighter than before.
"Are you the assassins?" he asked bluntly and recklessly. Dani nodded silently. "Your not what I expected."
I felt myself blush. This was a half truth. Dani was what he had expected. Dani was tall, nearly 6'9", with long dark hair pulled into a pony-tail in the back, large with a jagged scar on his chin. Clad in dark pants and matching shirt with two blasters in plain view and hints of other weapons all about him, he painted a very dangerous picture. It was me that Rosse was not expecting, no one expected me, especially when I stood beside Dani. I'm petite, 5'3", 5'4" if I push it, with long, flaming hair often hidden in the cowl of my cloak and violet eyes that often made people uncomfortable. Despite my black ship suit, black cape and double blasters, I was to small and feminine to be what our clients expected.
"Don't expect, Mr. Rosse," Dani said giving the young man an intense stare. "It'll only get you killed."
Rosse cleared his throat and swung himself into a sitting position. "I'm sorry," he said, resting his hands on his knees and leaning forward. "This started badly. Let me introduce myself. My name is Rosse Tuin."
Dani studied him for a moment longer before speaking. "I'm Danilo Siysh. This is Krytha Lai." he gestured to me his his right hand. "Are you ready to go?"
Tuin looked at him surprised. "Go? Now? Don't you want to-"
"All I want to do, Mr. Tuin is et back to my ship and go find Feera. There is no reason to stay here any longer." Dani interrupted, much to my surprise. Normally, he was more through. I guess he disliked the planet or situation more than I had first thought.
"Don't we need to find out where Feera went to?" Tuin asked, sounding confused. He was obviously somewhat new at this.
Dani stared at him, somewhat surprised. "Haven't you all ready done that?"
"Yes, but-"
Dani relaxed slightly. "Good. Let's go." he started from the room.
I followed and soon found Tuin walking beside me. "Is he always like this?" Tuin asked me.
I glanced over at him, unused to conversation with people other than Dani. "No." I said simply. Tuin continued staring at me as if expecting more. I pulled my hood up and walked a bit faster to catch up with Dani.
PART 3
"I don't see why we need Tuin," I told Dani we waited in the cockpit for our passenger's arrival. "All we have to do is go in there, shoot him and get out."
Dani gave me a slightly annoyed look. "This one's different."
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I know, I know, that entire 'personal vendetta' thing again, right? Well, you go in there, shoot him and get back out."
Dani smirked. "Again, not that easy. You forget, this guy is an Imperial commander, at least."
I raised an eyebrow at my partner. "What, don't know his exact rank?"
Dani ignored me and continued. "And he's on a ship. Tuin knows the name, I just haven't asked him yet. Ships move, Krytha, and we don't know where they move to."
I sighed. "Point." I was about to point out that we could, with a fair amount of ease (Dani was an extremely good hacker) break into the Empire's files to find that, when Tuin noisily entered the cockpit and plopped into the single passenger seat.
"Whew! Sorry I took so long," he started. "It took me forever to stow my gear, and I hadn't expected that." Dani flashed the man an annoyed stare and Tuin looked back at him in utter bafflement. "What?"
"Nothing." Dani said, turning back to the sophisticated on board computer. "What's the name of Feera's ship?"
"The Perilous." Dani and I stared at Tuin for a second. "Hey, don't give me that look," he said holding up his hands as if to ward off our looks. "I didn't name it!"
Dani gave a barely noticeable sigh and tapped the name into the computer along with a code. There was a moment's pause then the computer beeped. Dani frowned, looked at the screen closer and typed in another code. "What-?" he said to himself as the computer rejected that one. "Man, this is locked up tight." he frowned again and hit several controls.
There was a moment's silence, during which we all held our breaths, then the computer made an affirmative sound. Tuin and I leaned in closer to read over Dani's shoulder as he scrolled down the page. "Perilous, under the command of Actube Feera, yadda yadda yadda..." Dani muttered as he read. "Oh, here's what we want." He said and pointed to a paragraph.
"Mission:" Dani said in a louder voice for Tuin and my benefit. "Expand the Empire's territory using tactical methods. Destroy worlds suspected of harboring or being related to rebels or the rebellion." The silence in the room was heavy and tangible until Tuin whistled.
"Pretty strict orders." He said, his eyes still glued on the screen before him.
"Look here," I said, pointing at another paragraph. "The prototype Royal Star Destroyer was given these orders by the Emperor himself! No one, not Vader, not the Grand Moffs, not someone of a higher rank, can revoke Feera's command or change the orders!"
Dani frowned down and leaned back in his seat. "Yes." he said thoughtfully. "I believe that we have taken on a bigger job than we had at first thought."
PART 3b
"It seems that Feera rarely leaves his ship." Tuin stated again. Both Dani and I glared at him, annoyed. "What? It's not like you guys are saying anything!"
"No, we're not," Dani agreed, his voice sounding strained. "But we already know what your saying. Either say something new or get out."
Tuin stared at Dani for a moment, shocked, then slumped down in his seat, arms crossed angrily over his chest.
I sighed. We had been in hyperspace for nearly an hour, trying in vain to figure out the best way to get at Feera, and now we were all getting on each other's nerves. Especially Tuin. "Look," I started, realizing that I sounded as annoyed as Dani. "Why don't we go in there openly, and shoot the guy. I don't think this needs to be quite as hard as we're making it."
Tuin glared at me, his blues eyes icy. "What do you think we're trying to figure out?" he snapped.
Dani glanced over at our passenger then back to me. "Continue." he said, regaining his soft, dangerous composure.
"Well," I said leaning back in my chair and staring at the gray metallic ceiling. "We're rather well known, aren't we?" Dani chuckled silently and nodded. "Well, we suddenly show up in the middle of nowhere," I gestured to the nav-comp to indicate our heading. "With a rebel bounty." I gestured over at Tuin who opened his mouth to say something but shut it again at Dani's quick glare. "We could say that we were commissioned privately by the Emperor, which is why they'd find no trace of an offered bounty in the computer. Of course, we'd need to start a rumor that Tuin did something really bad..." I shrugged slightly.
"They'd check." Tuin growled, glaring at me, obviously not liking where our plan was heading.
"Yes," Dani hissed, leaning back and thinking quietly. "But by the time they'd get the reply we could have gotten you, and Feera, and be long gone."
"Gotten me?" Tuin said, looking somewhat alarmed. "Danilo, you don't mean-"
Dani chuckled. "Well, how else would this work?"
"I don't know," Tuin growled faintly. "But I'm sure there are plenty of ways that have nothing to do with me getting handed over to those, those-"
"Oh, shut up." Dani interrupted the young man for the second time in a minute. "You knew you'd be risking your life when you joined the rebellion, and you should have figured it when you took your assignment. Now, which is more important: You not getting captured, even if we do get you out before anything happens, or Feera living a long and evil life?" Tuin continued to glare at Dani, then me, but stayed silent. Dani turned to me. "You know, that plan's pretty stupid."
I felt myself blush furiously, and looked down somewhat. "That's why it might work." I said softly.
Dani chuckled. "Yes, that's why it just might work."
DISCLAIMER: And, as you all know, the universe and settings in this story belong to George Lucas, though the characters and planets in this instalation alone belong to me. Other people may use them if they wish. The title "Blood Roses" is not mine but belongs to Tori Amos. It is the name and lyrics of one of her songs on the CD "Boys For Pele."