Private Folie a Deux

[Malicar]

Sector 5
Vinah City
Annaj
Airspeeders sailed by, bustling to get to their next destination. Massive skyscrapers riddled the city proper, reaching far past the night fog. When nightfall took Vinah City, it was not unlike Nar Shaddaa—but Vinah City was much cleaner…at least appeared that way. At first glance, one would have never guessed that Annaj was within the Eternal Empire. In fact, it was a stark departure from the feel of any other planet within the grasp of the Empire. However, Darth Tacitus took a leap of faith and decided to use Annaj as something of an anomaly within the Empire—a planet built on trade and commerce…not built on political doctrine. It was for this reason that Malicar was chosen to ensure this happened in the proper manner. Well, Broka the Hutt was involved as well, but Hutt was tending to affairs in Hutt Space, which left the shipping mogul to his own devices in running Annaj.

But this was not a new experience for Malicar Raith. When he took over Black Sun years ago, he had purview over many planets, ruling them through puppet governments controlled by Black Sun. In many ways, the governance of Annaj was not so different. Under the guise of a “Council”, Malicar invited the most powerful corporations to join a Corporate Council of Annaj. The CEOs and owners of these Annaj-based companies only received an invitation after Malicar made deals with each and every one of them, effectively stacking the deck in his favor. As the Chairman of the Corporate Council of Annaj, Malicar was able to effectively dictate policy for the planet of commerce.

The arrangement between Darth Tacitus and Malicar (also Broka) was fairly straightforward—Malicar could run the Corporate Council how he pleased as long as the prerequisite taxes were paid and Eternal Empire Outposts were allowed to be placed on Annaj. Malicar and Broka agreed to these terms and since that time, Annaj has been a bastion of prosperity, commerce, and a known trade hub in the Unknown Regions.

It had been a few weeks since the Eternal Empire conducted their massive operation against the Sith Empire. Malicar had many decisions facing him that would change the course of his life. The Sabosen heir situation was one that was not far from his mind, but the other was the revelation of a prominent Eclipse Rebel that came in the form of Vidalu Na’an. What the shipping tycoon did with this information would set him down a road that would bring about future precarious situations, to be sure. For the moment, he would occupy himself with his work and worry about such things later.

Sector 5 was the industrial section of Vinah City. While there were heavy industries and factories in this sector, it was also home to the many offices of the large companies on Annaj. While the Financial District was the face of Vinah City, Sector 5 was the brains of the commerce that occurred on the planet. Malicar was here to one of the newer members of the Corporate Council that did not seem to understand commitments that he made. So it was that the Chiss decided to help him remember, flanked by a quartet of Interstellar Security Group mercenaries.

Just like old times…

While he usually did not participate in such actions personally much anymore, Malicar needed his mind cleared, so this was the perfect distraction…

Vidalu Na'an

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

A distraction. Ye gods, Na'an would give everything she owned for a distraction. She padded behind the Minister of Imports with a now-long-practiced look of boredom as they exited the Vinah City spaceport, tugging at the back of her uniform with a furtive hand. The uniform wasn't the typical cut, but a strange compromise between harsh lmperial lines and the Empress' own...softer sensibilities. The result was a sleek profile that left her arms bare to the shoulder and provided no room for the sheath she normally kept hidden at her back, leaving her feeling naked, vulnerable. At least the bottom half only mimicked a skirt, while still leaving her the relative safety of pants.

But still. She had been given guard duty for the Minister during his visit to Annaj, a world that claimed to retain its independence but the Empire considered little more than a vassal world. Presumably, her being marked by the uniform as the Empress' possession was part of why she had been offered the post, allowing the visit to borrow a certain pretense of genteel civility. That pretense, after all, seemed to be core to relations between the Empire and Annaj. Na'an had read reports of the purges Tacitus had made to Annaj's cities when she was debriefed after Endor, purges that claimed to grind the corporate planet's criminal element down to nothing. Grateful for such 'justice', the world had made a deal with the Empire, who had then left Annaj to the control of what cartels they saw as being under their control.

Cartels like the Interstellar Shipping Group, led by one Vesnam'alica'raith. Malicar .

And it was Malicar that the Minister of Imports was on Annaj to deal with today. The Minister, a gaunt, hook-nosed Muun by the name of Yeusseph Beyali, was little more than a bureaucrat. He was a pencil-pushing number-cruncher none of the military elites of Kalidan seemed to respect in the slightest, but no one could deny that his ability as a number-cruncher came in handy when dealing with Annaj businesses. The man could sniff out dirty dealings with an accuracy that made his lack of Force sensitivity positively shocking, and was assured enough of his own superior mind to follow through on his findings immediately. That was why the Minister needed a personal guard at all, despite his low status; without one, he would have gotten himself killed cycles ago.

So here Na'an was. Guarding the Minister, listening to him hemming and hawing over a datapad in the most nasal voice she'd ever heard, picking absently at the back of her tight-fitting uniform and getting increasingly lost in her own thoughts. They would be meeting with Malicar in less than an hour, after all, and meeting with Malicar was the entire reason she had accepted this post.
The Chiss knew far, far too much about her for his invitation at a conversation to be left on the table anymore. He knew about her eye, or at least he thought he did. He knew what she was capable of--at least, had been capable of back when she'd been living on Dantooine. And after their encounter during the Sith Empire's invasion, he knew about her ties to the Eclipse.

He could not be left alone. But, she thought grimly as they approached the entrance to Interstellar shipping, this conversation didn't have to happen solely on his terms. He always seemed to trip himself up when he wasn't expecting to see her...say, as part of the delegation for the Minister of Imports.

They stopped short in the foyer, the Minister still mumbling into the datapad as if he barely noticed that they had arrived at their destination. Na'an sighed, and waved over the receptionist.
"If you don't mind," she said with the conspiratorial tone working girls seemed to reserve solely for each other, "This is Minister Beyali, here on orders from the Eternal Emperor. Could you let your employer know we have arrived? He's not going to look up from that thing any time soon."

 

[SciFiHombre]

WRONG ACCOUNT

 

[Malicar]

Interstellar Shipping Headquarters
Sector 5 - Vinah City
Planet of Annaj
The human receptionist flashed a knowing smile to Na’an and nodded indicating she would oblige the request. Her deft fingers tapped across her chronometer and she waited. Moments later, she whispered to Na’an, “You and you ‘dedicated’ companion are free to take turbolift 4. It will take you to the 22nd floor—he is waiting for you there."

As if on cue, a chime sounded from one of the twelve turbolifts as the doors slid open. The turbolift doors closed and the pair streaked skyward a dizzying pace. Eventually, the turbolift reached its destination and the doors slid open once again. After exiting the lift, Vidalu Na'an and Minister Beyali could see a duraglass barrier separating the landing area of the turbolifts and a massive conference room. A scenic view could be seen across the conference room, presenting the skyline of downtown Vinah City a mere mile away. A pair of Interstellar Shipping Security Group sentries were posted outside the doors to the conference room, each armed with blaster carbines. Inside the conference room, Malicar was speaking to a diminutive, Chiss female in a white, short dress. Her dark hair was cropped short and she tapped away on the datapad in her hands.

One of the ISSG security guards, pressed a button against the wall and the doors to the conference room opened. Malicar and the Chiss female turned. Both of their eyes taking measure of their guests. Vidalu could see that Malicar paused abnormally long as he stared at her. Neither the Chiss or the Minister seemed to notice that Malicar was quite surprised by the Minister’s escort...

Recovering quickly, his voice took on the measured, jovial tone that it usually did, “Welcome guests! I am Malicar Raith and this is one of my associates in trade relations, Anilda. Please, have a seat. Can I get you something to drink, eat?”

Looking at the Muun, he inquired, “Who is your guest, Minister Beyali?”

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Minister Beyali looked up from his datapad only once he and his guard reached the top of the turbolift. He was, after all, a very busy Muun, and being up-to-date on the most recent import numbers for this meeting was key to making sure he was not wasting a second of his very important time. He barely acknowledge the armed personnel outside the conference room, reserving a damp handshake only for the well-dressed Chiss he was here to meet. "A drink would be delightful, thank you," he drawled. "Although you don't need to worry about my...ahem, 'companion'."

For the first time he turned to look at the woman who had been following him. She smiled wanly at the Minister before he turned away, waving a hand dismissively. "She's only a bodyguard. On loan from the Eternal Empress herself, if you can believe it," he continued, making no secret of the pride this gave him. To be provided with part of the Empress' personal property--him, the Minister of Imports! "As you can see, Kalidan cares very deeply about my safety on a planet such as this. Annaj is a primary trade hub within the Empire, but..."

He covered his long nose with a small, self-important cough. "The need for the Emperor's intervention still lingers in recent memory. Hence our need to check the records from time to time. Shall we?"

****​

Na'an lingered near the conference room door as the Muun took Malicar's arm, the same bland expression on her face. Ostensibly, it was now her job to make sure that the meeting that was about to occur would not be interrupted, either by other employees or potential murderers.
Underneath, however...It was a good thing that in her time on Kalidan, she'd at least learned to suppress her expressions somewhat, if not totally wipe them from her face. If she had not, she would have laughed out loud the moment she'd seen the look on Malicar's face. The Chiss looked like he'd been slapped the minute she'd walked in his door. It was an expression she saw so rarely, particularly when she was living among beings so completely dedicated to maintaining the image of perfect composure and absolute control.

She had to admit, there was something refreshing about a person who was this easy to provoke. It beat being surrounded on all sides by the emotionally constipated.

As he and Minister Beyali took their seats for the meeting, Na'an maintained her post by the door, one large silvery eye fixed on Malicar. The next time his gaze met hers, she let her own mask slip for only a moment. If he was as smart as people claimed, the tiniest half-smile--barely a quirking of the mouth--would be all he would need to realize that Vidalu Na'an knew exactly what she was doing here.

Malicar​

 

[Malicar]

Conference Room Lima
Interstellar Shipping Headquarters
Sector 5 - Vinah City
Planet of Annaj

“Of course! Records are the life blood of bureaucracy…we certainly want them to be in order for the Emperor”

The Muun looked up trying to judge if the Chiss was truly passionate about such things or if there was an air of sarcasm. Malicar met the man with a small smile and went on explaining the trade agreement as it was negotiated. It was a tedious process. Anilda slowly begin taking over when the details of the contract were so far down in the weeds, it was minutia that seemed to have no bearing at all. However, the Muun and the female Chiss pointed and counterpointed the meaning of small phrases and clauses for some time. Malicar chimed in when an issue needed amending, but for the most part the trade agreement seemed to be in order. Of course, Minister Beyali made sure to ensure the verbiage for taxes owed to the Eternal Empire were well clarified. Malicar looked up and met the eyes of Vidalu from time to time, indeed understanding this "fortuitous" visit.

This went on for some time. After an hour of pouring through the document and it seemed there may be hours more, Malicar looked up and met Vidalu’s eyes as he said, “Minister Beyali...”

Looking down at his chronometer, his glowing eyes shifted back over to the Minister and he began, “I am going to escort your bodyguard down to the communications suite down the hall. There is a communique requesting her presence from Kalidan, proper.”

Minister Beyali looked up with some concern, but Malicar smoothed over his lie and waved off his look of consternation, “Fear not, my security detail is more than adequate to watch over you and Anilda. We will be back in short order.”

Looking over to Vidalu Na'an , the shipping mogul capped off the lie with, “I will not keep you from your charge long. But I am afraid when Kalidan calls, we must answer…”

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Na'an raised a single eyebrow at that. "Naturally. Minister?"

But the Minister had already hunched back over the records, pulling the female Chiss down with him to jab at some arbitrary number or another. Aside from a vague wave and a "Yes, yes, do as you must," he was deep enough in his work to barely notice when Na'an replaced herself with another guard and followed Malicar out the door.
As they walked down the hall, Na'an found her eye drawn to the floor passing beneath her feet. Her shoes clicked against the smooth, shiny marble in such a satisfying way, which was probably the point of using such an expensive material. And the wall was so wide, nothing more than a broad tunnel of polished stone and polished glass, that it must be insanely difficult to keep clean. The rich of any planet always seemed to have such tastes, didn't they...even the people Kalidan only ever insisted on using the best for their best. It served as a way of dominating anyone else who dared to enter their space, without having to actually do anything.

Maybe that was why such wealth usually made Na'an uncomfortable--because it spoke too loudly of the violence needed to acquire it, and the type of people who held it so easily.

Although that buffer didn't seem to be working for Malicar today. She snuck a peek upwards at the Chiss, noting the tight set of his jaw, the press of his mouth so tight his lips seemed to vanish into it. Whatever he was thinking, he wasn't as calm about it as he was putting on.

"I hope the lies you tell the Emperor are better than that," she finally said. "You're lucky the Minister stops listening the minute you put a spreadsheet in his hands, or he would have noticed no one actually sent a message to your watch."

Malicar ​

 

[Malicar]

Conference Room Sierra
Interstellar Shipping Headquarters
Sector 5 - Vinah City
Planet of Annaj
The Minister barely looked up as Malicar and Vidalu exited the conference room. The pair made their way down the hallway. He could feel her eyes on him. She broke the silence after they were a safe distance.

"I hope the lies you tell the Emperor are better than that. You're lucky the Minister stops listening the minute you put a spreadsheet in his hands, or he would have noticed no one actually sent a message to your watch."

Malicar chuckled, “My dear Vidalu, understand that no false words that come out of my mouth will be unsubstantiated. There will indeed be a message sent from Kalidan. It will indeed request someone’s presence, but unfortunately the names will be mixed up…”

As he continued to walk and talk towards the end of the corridor, he was typing away on his chronometer, “In fact, I am having my communications center send a message to Kalidan to report that Annaj is having some translation issues on our end. All of our communiques from Kalidan will be garbled and nonsensical. There will be mixed messages all day today. Of course, it will be fixed in short order. We are efficient like that….it is our reality to make.”

Seemingly done typing on his chronometer, Malicar and Vidalu reached the end of the corridor. After a scan of Malicar’s eye, hand, voice, and a pin code, the door quickly slide up, revealing the corner conference room that had a majestic view of Annaj from two of the four corners.

“Can I pour you a drink?”

No matter her answer, he began pouring two glasses of wine. He took one in his hand and placed the other on the conference table next to her.

“Your presence here is…unforeseen. However, it was inevitable considering our last encounter.”

After taking a sip of his wine, he stated, “You have questions about my…’allegiance’, understandably. You wish to know what I intend to do with this newfound knowledge of your political leanings. If I had intended to give a nice present to Darth Tacitus with a spy and a traitor, I am quite sure that would have been done by now…”

Pause.

“Ask your questions…I suspect you have some having made this trip.”

Vidalu Na'an​

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Na'an did not pick up the wine at first. She merely kept her good eye fixed on Malicar--first on his hands as he poured himself a glass, then on his eyes. His eyes weren't like hers, which she knew gave away every feeling she had if she wasn't being careful. His, on the other hand, were the hardest part of his face to read. They glowed slightly in the half-lit conference room in that unsettling way some Chiss eyes had; she wondered if he depended on that as a sort of distraction, to keep people's attention away from all his other tells.

"I don't think you like that I took you by surprise," she said, tapping the rim of the glass with a fingernail and listening to it chime. "But considering that you keep cropping up everywhere, I think it's only fair. I want to know what you want, Malicar."

Malicar ​

 

[Malicar]

Conference Room Sierra
Interstellar Shipping Headquarters
Sector 5 - Vinah City
Planet of Annaj
"I don't think you like that I took you by surprise. But considering that you keep cropping up everywhere, I think it's only fair. I want to know what you want, Malicar."

The chiss smirked at Vidalu as his glowing eyes looked over at her deviously and quipped, "Now isn't that a loaded question. Right this moment? In the next few months? In the next few years?"

Pause.

Taking another small sip of his wine, he seemed to savor the vintage before responding, "I have no desire to turn you in or give you up to the Eternal Empire. They are simply a client. A big one, but a client nonetheless. Besides, we have history, after all."

He smiled and continued, "The Eclipse Rebellion cause is your own, but there could be opportunity for both of our organizations within a small partnership. But I should circle back to your presence here. What is it you want?"

Vidalu Na'an​

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

"What I want?"

Na'an crossed her arms over her chest. Behind Malicar, the sun was setting over the steel and glass of the city skyline; it painted the inside of the conference room in shades of orange and red and gold, the shadows of the window struts black against the light like prison bars. She fixed her eye on the fiery sky behind Malicar, as it turned him into a purplish silhouette.
"I want to know I'm safe," she said slowly. "Me and the people important to me. And there's nowhere safe left."

As she continued, she felt her grip on herself tighten, her own fingernails digging into the flesh of her forearms. She looked down at them in mild surprise, noting the dark half-moons they left in skin made tawny by the sun. "The Unknown Regions is the kind of place where even saying the wrong words gets your planet burned to the ground," she said, hating the frustration she couldn't keep from her voice. There wasn't a point in hiding her motives at this point--it wasn't like hiding them would give her any more of an upper hand than she already had--but showing this weakness...
"And I'm...I'm trying to help, but there's only so much I can do. I'm...I'm not a miracle worker. And even with--even with the Voice, it's all uphill in a place where nobody does anything for anyone. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, one of the Emperor's pets is sniffing around, knowing things about me even the Empress hasn't bothered to learn, enough to get me shoved on a spike outside the walls of Kalidan. Why in the world would I believe him when he promises he won't?"

Her eye suddenly turned back towards Malicar, sharp and bright. "What's he get out of keeping me like some dirty little secret, huh? What benefit is there in double-crossing the Empire for, what, maybe some business deals with a rebellion desperate for resources? I've known men like you before, Malicar. I've been ruined by men like you before. And men like you aren't nice to girls like me unless I have something they want."

Malicar ​