Dream a Little Dream of Me

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[SIZE=11pt]The videorecording is genuine. Analysis at every level will reveal it is unedited. It depicts the cargo hold of a generic transport, heavily scarred. A few dead Outer Rim Coalition troops lie sprawled on the deck. Smoke wisps fill the air.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“Two-Onebee, are you recording?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]On camera, the field of view adjusts slightly and focuses on two dominant objects: a figure in dark armor and a Universal Energy Cage containing an unconscious blonde woman. “Yes, milady,” says the 2-1B medical droid without emotion.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]The armored figure turns toward the camera, revealing a young, scarred redhead with Sith-orange eyes. She looks a bit like Mara Merrill, but the shape of the face is wrong, as are the eyes and the skin tone and the hair and the scars and the posture and the rhythm of the voice. “Obtain the sample and administer the serum.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Servos whine and the camera approaches the energy cage. A silver-and-glasteel implement prods through a small aperture and into the blonde’s body. It retracts almost immediately, leaving a drop of blood in its wake.[/SIZE]

[member="Malika Mantis"]

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

The effect of the serum wasn't so clear, not at first, not until Shukalar began to tremble. Temperature rising, apparent in the beads of sweat on her face. They'd all taken the cure as a mark of good faith, and the serum battled with it throughout her body. Head lolled and her eyes snapped open.

Hadn't she killed that droid earlier, when she and Davin had spoken?

It took a long time for things to register, first the armoured woman, second the bodies littering the floor around her, third the pinprick wound on her arm. Lips curled back in a snarl and she slid from the bed, legs giving way beneath her. The cage was smaller than it had been earlier too.

"What..." the word was hoarse, the pain caused to speak it apparent in the grimace of her face and the rubbing of her throat. "have...you...done...to...me?" Eyes watered, face crumpled in pain as she reached for the edge of the bed to pull herself up.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[SIZE=11pt]Two-Onebee backs away from the energy cage, but continues recording faithfully. It inserts the silver-and-glasteel implement into its own body out of sight. “The sample is secure.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“Tell her,” says the redhead in dark armor, turning to face the camera. The woman is smiling. Beaming.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“Objective: determine countermeasures against infectious Yuuzhan Vong intracellular parasite. Protocol one: biopsy to assess interaction of infectious parasite with Shi’ido immune system. Experiment series one will proceed. Protocol two: experiment series two. Injection: 10 milliliters of counteragent [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Zerek Red[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt].” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]The droid is clearly struggling. Someone has, no doubt, altered its ethical modules at such an intrinsic level that its bedside manner is beyond repair.[/SIZE]

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Malika gave a slow blink, on her feet now, eyes flicking between the droid and the beaming woman.

"Kill...the...cure..?" she shook her head.


"Why?"

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Malika Mantis"]

“You didn’t think we would let barbarians play with a bioweapon that could strip us of the Force - did you?” The redhead’s voice sharpens. “Maximum resolution, Two-Onebee. The Zerek Red is working faster than expected.”

The video feed zooms in obligingly and highlights Malika’s discomfort. “Experiment series two indicates Zerek Red is effective against parasite. Subject’s average body temperature has increased two degrees.”

The redhead rummages around offscreen. “Fever? This soon? How long will she be conscious?”

“Unknown. Shi’ido physiology.”

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

"We?" Malika swayed, fingers digging into the mattress, desperate to stay standing. Realisation dawned.

"Sith." A bark of laughter and grimace of pain and her knees gave way. Her vision swam. No...no they wouldn't use her. They would not.

A fist tightened and smacked against the energy shield.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Malika Mantis"]

The redhead in the dark armor laughs and sits down, partially out of the camera’s field of view. She rests her boots on a dead ORC soldier. His head rolls away. “Two-Onebee, disposal options.”

“Fever may not be fatal.”

“Assume fatality.”

“Procure final biopsy samples. Jettison cage on solar trajectory.”

The redhead chuckles under her breath. “Sufficient?”

“Presumably. Unknown. Shi’ido physiology.”

“Shi’ido physiology won’t do much for her at the heart of a star.”

 

[Lina Djo]

A voice drifted from off screen, ice blue eyes watching the experiment with far more interest than she should have.

"Lord Velok wants an update, Lady Mendax..."

The shi'ido crashed its fist against the energy field three more times before the exertion got the better of it and it sagged forward and all fours.

"Yash'ika..."

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

At the edge of the screen, the redhead sits up a little faster than her nonchalance should allow. "Count your blessings it wasn't Lord Carnifex. I think you're just his type." She remains fixated on the infected shapeshifter. "Tell him the modified Alpha Red is killing the parasite. The subject's condition is nominal."

The medical droid blatts apologetically. "Temperature increase of an additional two degrees. Fever would be dangerous for human subject."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

"Understood." the voice off screen acknowledged

Malika recognised that voice. Recognised it as the armoured woman that had followed the Emperor of the Sith. She turned a blotchy face towards her, eyes swimming in and out of focus.

"You."

Black crept in from the edges of her vision.

"Just...kill...me..already."

The off screen voice chortled. "All in good time."

"Ni...ceta...yash'ika"

Darkness swam and engulfed her.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

A siren fires, and the redhead jolts to her feet. “Proximity alert,” she snaps. “Coalition or Mandalorians. Get to the docking collar, make sure my shuttle’s prepared.” In background noise, a plasma torch shears through hullmetal. “Two-Onebee, transmit your log to the shuttle. I don't have time to wait for you.”

“Transmission commencing. Five percent.”

The redhead spits a Kissai curse and gestures with both hands. The energy cage wobbles toward the cargo bay door.

“Twenty percent.”

The door slides open. Only an atmospheric field separates the bay from cold black and the brilliant sun.

“Forty percent. Subject appears comatose."

The cage teeters on the edge, halfway through the field.

 

[Lina Djo]

The off screen voice curses, footsteps move away.

A distinct clang, rings through the cabin, a docking arm connected.

"It's Coalition. We need to leave. Now." the voice comes from a comm unit, blaster fire and the hum of a lightsaber thrum through the air in the distance.

"Sixty percent."

"Lady Mendax, docking arm is secure."

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

"Stall them," the redhead snaps over her shoulder. She goes up to the cage, hands outstretched. It tumbles through the atmospheric field into hard vacuum. She keeps standing there. The cage, less than a quarter the size of an escape pod, accelerates into the sunlight.

"Eighty percent."

Blasterfire sounds in the background. "Your memory core and transceiver are in your cranial module, yes?"

"Accurate."

A lightsaber flares yellow and the camera angle tilts radically. When it stabilizes, its field of view is lower. It's being carried out of the cargo bay. The droid 's body, samples and all, is flying through the atmospheric field. Blasters are firing somewhere nearby.

"Ninet-"

The recording ends.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

The situation, frankly, was a mess.

One of the prisoners from Utapau had been a shapeshifter who'd refused to give its name. [member="Davin Skirata"] had been detailed to transport her somewhere secure - and he'd done so, without incident. A few hours later, some systems had gotten wiped and the unknown prisoner had disappeared.

That had been a while ago. Now the Coalition had its first hint of the prisoner's fate: a weak subspace transmission picked up by an independent freighter. The transmission had contained an encrypted videorecording. Triangulation and instinctive flight had led Jorus to the rubble of a self-destructed light freighter, orbiting too close to a random star. The place felt deeply wrong.

That feeling only deepened when he got the transmission decrypted. The Sith Lord, the redheaded young woman in dark armor, reminded him deeply of his sister Rave. But Rave had repented and died, years ago, and she'd never been this malicious. And it wasn't her anyway, not even as a clone.

To make matters worse, that independent had sold the transmission. The Mandos might have it by now, and they'd see their Mando'a-spewing shapeshifter prisoner murdered by a rogue Sith's medical experiment. The name 'Velok' stood out, and there'd been something familiar about the offscreen woman's voice. Otherwise, the video was full of dead leads.

Dead leads and lies. This wreckage hadn't been a Coalition ship, and no Coalition boarders had found it, let alone attacked it. But the experimentation had been gut-wrenchingly real... so where did reality end and a lie begin?

 

[Shia Kryze]

The now-familiar shape of a Rekr-class Dreadnaught decelerated from lightspeed, it's hull looking slightly battered, but the name 'Huntress' proud on the prow in Mando'a and Basic.

It had been a long trip - first meeting the independant freighter captain who had found the transmission and convicing him no, they were not just going to kill him, paying handsomely, in fact. Then the slow, painstaking process of subspace triangulation based on the freighters course and possible transmission sources and interference in the sequence.

Katara, Shia's sister was the best tracker in existence of course - in Shia's opinion, and she'd pin-pointed the spectrum interference to a red-dwarf type star that matched this one.

Shia settled back into the flag-throne and gestured to the captain.

"Alor'ad, secure from hyperspace. Initiate a scan of the system and deploy fighters. I am sick to death of swatting pirates."

"Oya, alor."

The not-really-a-dreadnaught-by-modern-standards, Huntress began a slow, methodical scan of the system for something, anything.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Shia Kryze"]

UNDERGROUND ATTACK SHIP D'LESSIO
NEUTRAL TERRITORY NEAR ORC
WILD SPACE

Scanning drones flitted through the debris onscreen. So far they'd found not a single clue, and Jorus continued to have a bad feeling about this. The self-destruct hadn't left much behind, certainly nothing that posed a hazard to the D'Lessio, but he only felt like this around dangerous wrecks. What had happened here, really, apart from sentient medical experimentation and the murder of a prisoner? And sure, that prisoner had nearly killed his daughter, but still. The job was the job, and finding the culprit was a lot more important than who had done what to whom.

That meant considering all possibilities, up to and including culpability of rogue elements within ORC. If he'd had no conscience holding him back, he might have done a false flag exactly like this. Turn the Mandos against the Sith, take their focus off ORC-

But then again, it looked like Sith really had been involved. They'd shown their faces on Utapau, and the recording's scenario struck Jorus as deeply plausible. The Mandalorian 'cure' was infectious, apparently. Why wouldn't someone like Velok play games looking to cure the cure?

Velok. His stomach churned again, uneasy. The Coalition had crossed the Whiphid more than once, and vice versa. Just skirmishes, but skirmishes that cost real lives. This whole thing fit his MO. But did it fit too well?

"Reversssion," said Vars. The Trandoshan scan operator snarled a curse in Huttese. "Mandaloriansss. Long range."

"Feth it all. Shields up. Adurak, hail them."

"Go."

"Mandalorian ship, this is the Outer Rim Coalition cutter D'Lessio, Captain Merrill commanding. I'm betting you know what we're investigating. Not many reasons to come out here."

 

[Shia Kryze]

"Alor'ad, contact... two contacts in close orbit to the star, one of them is inconsistent, probably wreckage."

"Alor'ad, incoming transmission from contact Uniform Alpha."

Those were not the precise words, in Mando'ade the term 'unknown contact' translated more as 'not yet a target' if directly translated, but direct literal translations were very good for expressing Mando'ade culture, very poor for communicating what was actually said.

"Mandalorian ship, this is the Outer Rim Coalition cutter D'Lessio, Captain Merrill commanding. I'm betting you know what we're investigating. Not many reasons to come out here."

Shia laughed, then coughed and nodded to the Captain.

"I guess I'll take this."

She flicked the comm open. "Captain Merill. Mando'ade Vessel Huntress, Shia Kryze commanding. I wish I could say this was a pleasure, but it's not. I assume given that you of all people are here, this is what we're both looking for?"

"Alor, should we raise shields?"

"Hah! If that's the D'Lessio, no. That's the most miss-named 'cutter' in the galaxy. Shields to pre-charge, weapons to pre-charge. Open all turret ports to show them we come in peace, do not charge weapons. Remember that time the Republic nearly killed a Mandalore when they misinterpreted our show of peace and respect?"

"Oya, and the fighters?"

"Pull them back to CAP and keep an eye out for cloaked ships as best they can, we both might get jumped by whomever did this - I would, if I wanted to really kickstart a firestorm."

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Shia Kryze"]

Jorus' mouth tightened. Of all Mandalorian warleaders, he had to run into the one who'd at least partially made sense back at Manda'yaim. But a glance at Vars Aveppar and his panel indicated that the dreadnought and it's fighters were about as non hostile as Mandos ever got.

"That's right, Captain Kryze. We got our hands on the same transmission you did. We can confirm the prisoner wasn't on a Coalition ship and the offscreen attackers weren't Coalition forces. All we know for sure is someone scooped a shapeshifter we captured at Utapau."

 

[Shia Kryze]

"Now, I believe you. Because otherwise this would be the stupidest excuse for murdering - and in this instance I do use that word advisedly - a member of the Cuir Rekr. I would ask what your evidence of those two facts is, though. While I'm at it, I would ask - na, I'm going to politely suggest we agree to a joint investigation of the wreckage. We're... at war, I guess. Although nothing has been declared, so I'll agree to all reasonable measures to protect both our vessels, with the provision that if I wanted to make this worse and I was say... the Sith Emperor, a cloaked Sith fleet would be sitting right off our bows for us to let our guard down."

Shia paused, all in, she thought.

"We're here and not... some other vessel and clan, because the Rekr want to know the facts - and because I want to know who to hunt down and kill. I'm sure they do too, for that matter. So they sent the clan of hunters, not killers. I trust that explains the message being sent?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Shia Kryze"]

"Far as I'm concerned, that's pretty much the ideal way to tackle this. My scanner drones can operate independently, so I'm pulling back ten klicks from the wreckage. I'm updating the Coalition base on Ceto. They'll go to alert but they won't send reinforcements. I've got no interest in escalating. Stealing a Mandalorian prisoner from the Coalition? Yeah, I'm betting that was done with escalation in mind."

The D'Lessio arced away from the dispersed wreck, leaving a handful of drones to probe around the larger bits of debris.

"Now here's the thing. The shapeshifter didn't give a name or a rank. You're saying she was one of the Cuir Rekr? Malika Mantis, the one Katlaydr was talking about during the aid drop?" A really, really polite way to put it. "I didn't know Clan Mantis included shifters - I don't think anyone did." He rubbed his face. "So the prisoner that got stolen and murdered - and I completely agree it's murder - was one of your four top leaders. That puts a spin on this whole affair that I don't like at all.

"So let's talk evidence. I'll send you all the data my drones have collected. We've ID'ed the ship as a generic Corellian freighter. It's not a model you'd see often in our space, and it's sure not one the Coalition uses. Can't prove a negative, so that's the best I can do. As for the boarding op on the tape, though, that one I can confirm. Anything like that would go through the sector's Judges or the Ceto base, and I'm looking at hot fresh operation logs for both. I'll redact what needs redacting and send them along. We want these people caught, Captain, and if they don't survive the experience, they brought that on themselves. Far as I'm concerned, whatever else we're investigating, it's an act of piracy - and we take that real seriously around here. Airlock seriously."