Tarakus Deadmerit: Holding the Right Cards/CH. 2

CHAPTER 2 Slokana, Tristchana

Tarakus, sporting a large, flowing black robe walked to the gates of the Royal Palace. He typed a code into the access panel. When the gates opened, they revealed Harlan, wearing similar robes. They walked in together. As soon as they entered the Palace lobby, the two threw their robes onto a robe rack. "Ok, let me get this straight. You want me to be a reinforcing backup to coax Dalaa out of office?" "That's right. I do.  And the sooner, the better." "I'm not sure it'll work. In less than a year, Dalaa may have to deal with us anyway.  The galaxies are bound to collide within the year." Harlan replied, adjusting his blue tunic. Tarakus could sense the tension in Harlan. "Look, I'm not looking forward to it either, ok? I'm just as nervous as you.  But there's not much that we can do about it, is there?" Harlan looked over at Tarakus and nodded his head. "You're probably right about that." "I have other news, Harlan. I sent Piastall and Mirandall on a mission, and their findings are very disturbing.  They've discovered one of Moorshavin's 10Zat Floors." Harlan stopped walking altogether. He spun to face Tarakus, realizing that he probably looked really pale. "What's the matter, Harlan?" Tarakus asked, getting a feeling that what he said, spooked Harlan. "That's not good. It means that Moorshavin may start up with his tortures again.  Have they discovered anything else?" Tarakus shook his head. "So far, that's all they found. I should be getting a report at the end of the day, from them.  In the meantime, we'll have to wait and see what Moorshavin's plotting." "Yes. Speaking of which, lately, Imperial Intelligence and DMC scout teams are reporting that Moorshavin is gearing up for another war.  We don't exactly know when this war is going to take place, but we'll know when he declares it." Tarakus nodded, thinking more about the disturbing discovery of the generator on Tildara.

- - - - - - Abandoned WSIR complex, Tildara

Mirandall dusted off an unused console, looking at the buttons on it. "Master, I don't like what I'm seeing here." He said, looking at Piastall, who was at another computer console, looking at interesting log data. "I don't like what I'm seeing either. Moorshavin kept this completely secret from everyone.  I'm looking at this log data, and the last entry from when this thing was used, was about seven years ago." Mirandall got up from his seat, and walked over to Piastall. "I still don't like it. It's worse than Complex 63." Piastall chuckled a little, and said, "It's nothing like Complex 63. That place was rigged with turbolaser turrets that would fire at anything that came out of the Bot Temple." Complex 63, one of the better known installations of the Dragon Mercenary Co-op, was the oldest installation, and was regarded as the spot where DMC was established. Rigged on the second floor to enforce an old policy of the Bot Temple, were several turbolaser turrets that did the job of keeping Force-users out of the complex for 40 years, and had recently been inspected by Tarakus and a few of his best investigators. Mirandall shuddered at the mention of the Bot Temple. "I still get chills over that dang thing." "Me too. This is probably worse that Complex 63, but not as bad as the Edge Outpost." "You're probably right about that." Mirandall said, scanning the data closely. He noticed something out of place in one of the entries. "Look at this. It says that one of the last victims executed in the 12-year Purge, Elbar Droska, was executed here." "Elbar Droska was executed in the Edge Outpost. We were both there to witness it.  So, why is this computer saying that Droska was executed here?"