Desperate Times/Part 13

Ducking a blaster bolt, Nevya slipped past the Human bodyguard's punch and slipped her arm over his shoulder and around his neck. She hitched him up onto her back and pitched him over her hip, cranking her arm back against his chin; his body kept twisting while his head stayed steady and a wet crack came from just below it. Nevya wrenched the corpse back around, letting it absorb two more shots as she pulled a knife from her belt with her free hand. Even her strength was not enough to go hand-to-hand with the Chistori charging her, but she could throw her knife with enough force to pierce his scaly hide, and the knife lodged between his snout and his left eye. While the Chistori roared in pain, flailing, Nevya drew the blaster the dead Human hadn't had the wherewithal to draw and shot past his corpse, downing the surviving bodyguard across the room. The Chistori had closed his eyes in pain, allowing Nevya to stick the blaster barrel right in his open mouth before she pulled the trigger.

Nevya sauntered past him as he fell and found the Gotal crime boss she had come for trying to flatten himself into a velour couch and failing spectacularly; his torso-sized legs and leg-sized arms and the belly that hung over his belt made flattening hard. Failing it, he flung himself forward; his bulk was enough that Nevya's kick did not lift him off the ground, but he went to the ground and Nevya planted a boot on his chest.

"I don't know, I don't know!" he gasped.

Nevya put some force into her boot heel, grinding it into his sternum while he squealed. "Wrong answer. Where is Darth Alecto?!"

"I don't know, she's not here!"

Nevya could feel the bone cracking. "Last chance."

The Gotal screamed. "If I knew, don't you think I'd have told somebody?! Republic, Sith…they're offering a fortune!  Somebody would've talked—if she was here they'd have caught her!"

The words peeled Nevya's lips back from her teeth, but the logic was remorselessly sound. "I believe you."

Eyes rolling in terror, the Gotal shrieked, "Don't…don't eat me! I know what you are, Anzat!"

Bloodlust had stirred Nevya's hunger and opened the pockets beside her nose to allow the tips of her proboscises to peek out, but she had rarely found a potential meal less tempting. "Don't worry, I've never been that hungry."

"Don't kill me!"

"Now that's asking too much," Nevya said, and she knee-dropped his throat, which collapsed with a satisfying crunch.

Emerging from what remained of the crime den into the sunrise over the city of Votrad, Nevya rubbed her hands together, giving that slight vent to her anxiety while she was still alone. She and a half-dozen of the brethren whom Ikkyn had considered reliable had torn Brentaal's underworld apart, but everywhere the story had been the same—there had been no sign of their master, and if anyone had known anything, that information would have made its way to the ubiquitous Republic agents long ago. Apart from cutting Votrad's crime rate for the next decade, Nevya doubted they had accomplished anything but confirming what they had all suspected—Darth Alecto was not here.

They funneled back to Votrad Independent Downport one by one, and when they were all assembled Nevya faced six variations of the same emotionless stare.

"If she meant to return to Sith space, she could have continued down the Perlemian with us," Nevya began. "Instead, she left us here and remained with the Scourge. If she isn't here…?"

None of them ventured opinions, and after a moment Nevya barked, "Think! You've all been doing it while we've been here, what have you concluded?"

They studied one another uncertainly, but for once Nevya felt confident it was not their disquiet with her leadership. None of them had passed beyond the second level of the Abattoir; Nevya suspected it had helped inspire their awe of and receptiveness to Darth Alecto, but also made them consider speculation about her motives one step removed from heresy. Under Nevya's darkening glare, though, Zarrke finally said, "She summoned our team to the Unquenchable Fire to collect the Scourge for her for the Anaxes operation—she knew our ship was still aboard."

"Anzat is farther along the Perlemian," Dekkia added. "She could have taken you to Saleej's flagship—"

"Darth Saleej," Nevya corrected. Apart from her awe of the man himself, she knew Darth Alecto would insist on the courtesy, and a slip of the tongue before a Sith Lord could cause problems.

"Yes, Lady Khiyali," Dekkia answered, bowing her head. "It would have been easier to take you back to the Unquenchable Fire and let you return to Anzat from there."

"The only reason to stop was if she didn't intend to go farther on the Perlemian," Rosyit concluded. "And the only reason to stop on Brentaal was if she meant to take the Hydian."

"No one in the spaceport remembers the Scourge or our master," Rhyna ventured.

"I doubt they remember my team or the Coriolis we stole, either," Nevya quipped. "We are shadows, and our master is a ghost—if they remember us, we fail."

"But it leaves us with nothing but speculation," Voshkis observed.

"So speculate."

"She had some other assignment from Sal—from Darth Saleej," Dekkia caught herself. "Something she was supposed to do if the Chancellor died, but she wasn't supposed to tell us."

Nevya thought the idea had some merit, but Zarrke shook his head. "There hasn't been anything conspicuous, and they wouldn't waste her skills on something any Sith assassin could do. Especially now."

"And we know they're looking for her," Rhyna said.

"We know Rogu is looking for her," Dekkia countered.

"No, my mark today said the Sith are offering information on her too," Nevya confessed, frowning.

"Mine as well."

"Mine two days ago said the same thing."

"So she's not on a Sith assignment." Nevya looked at them all. "What, then?"

They began to offer other ideas, each more far-fetched than the last, ranging from Darth Alecto returning to Anaxes to kill some high-priority target who went to investigate, to Darth Alecto taking the Hydian nearly to its end to visit her homeworld of Mirial. The only common thread was amazement at their master's ability to evade the innumerable beings searching for her. Nevya thought quickly, then raised her hands for silence.

"The Republic and the Sith are looking for her, which means she isn't at any of their strongholds. Keshthel says he found one of Aresh's spies on Corsin," she confided. "Before she died, she told Keshthel that Aresh is looking for our master too."

"A handful of Vanguardians went to Anaxes and from what I hear, none of them left," Zarrke snickered. "I'll just bet he is."

His support was valuable enough that Nevya did not call him on the interruption. "Our master is no fool—she wouldn't go where her enemies are strong without backup. And that includes Lady Gasald." Nevya hoped it was true; at the least, her audience seemed receptive. "We'll split up—search the shadowports on the Hydian between Corsin and Denon. Someone, somewhere, must know something.  Go in pairs."

"There are seven of us," Voshkis pointed out.

"I'll go alone," Nevya said, but she could see at once how little most of them thought of this.

"We're all brethren, aren't we?" Dekkia argued. "We should all split up, cover more space."

"And if we run into Jedi?" Nevya countered, privately thinking or Sith we can afford to dispose of? "This isn't a time for taking risks."

"Leaving our master exposed in Republic territory is taking a risk," Rhyna snapped. "We're all willing to take the risk for her!"

"It's been almost a month since Anaxes, Lady Khiyali," said Rosyit. "Seconds count."

She considered them, regarding each in turn, and saw the same resolution in all their eyes. She knew how Azeroth would have handled brethren—and junior brethren at that—who had the temerity to greet his commands with anything but immediate obedience, but she had sworn to herself to be a different kind of second. And she knew these few were some of the only ones she could count on absolutely in their master's continuing absence—the few for whom there was no question that Darth Alecto was their master, not merely Nevya's. She could not afford to ostracize them now.

"Fair points, brethren," she forced herself to say. "We divide up, then. Stow away aboard ships, or kill their crews and take them if you must.  Search the shadowports on the Hydian from Corsin to Denon—remain subtle if you can, kill if you have to, but find Darth Alecto."

Soon, Master, she thought to herself as they began divvying up planets. We are coming.