It was funny how two different sets of crumbs could lead to the same cake.
Decimahad suspected she wouldn't be alone by the end of her journey. The once and future Praetorian had had a rough go of life in the post-Sieger Ren world. Nihilism and alcoholism had made a near-lethal cocktail for the Galidraani woman. Sieger's disappearance and probable death left a void in Decima's life that she had tried to fill with alcohol and drugs, strange men and violent brawls. She would denounce as a liar anyone who guessed the truth -- that her epiphany had come about when searching for an opened bottle of Arkanian vodka during a drunken haze -- but she had come to the conclusion that if someone had two precious items, they would keep one somewhere safe and secret.
Hidden. Safe.
Rumors had circulated in the waning days of the First Order about a top-secret project called
Foundation. It had been rumored to be a combination of continuity of government and hyper-patriotic think-tank, with the top minds of the First Order sheltered... somewhere. But that had been just before the Ssi-Ruuk onslaught, and tracking down a needle in a haystack that was on fire would have been disastrous.
The breadcrumb trail began on Galidraan. Theodore Glass had come to check in on the Vitalis children. After a brief but intense
interview with Decima, Glass had confirmed that he had heard of an effort to preserve the Supreme Leader, body and essence, but that he had no knowledge of where. Under some slightly more intense questioning, he told her about a facility on Qeravert IV -- a facility so secret that even he, the principal private secretary to the Grand Moff, was not supposed to know about it. He couldn't promise that what she was looking for was there, and she would need to find the Empress of Dosuun -- whatever that was -- to gain access, but that was all he knew.
Or so he said.
Decima took him to Strallan Place, her home on Galidraan, where he would be looked after until she returned, then headed straight for Qeravert IV. The ocean world, mainly subject to torrential rains, featured one city, the underwater metropolis of Neritria. There was nothing else there, according to official records. Nothing except a derelict ocean liner that had broken free from its moorings during a storm. It had been too dangerous to try to go after it where the scales might have seen, so it had remained adrift. There was no danger of collision, only capsizing. Normally, Decima wouldn't have bothered, until she noticed the name of the vessel.
Empress of Dosuun.
Bingo.
It was a simple matter to take a submersible from Neritria to the ship. The vessel had Natasi's fingerprints all over it: old Galidraani charm married to First Order efficiency. It took several days to find her way around the ship, given its size. She started with the suites, but there was nothing to find. She searched the command deck next, but found that it was locked down, impenetrably so. If she could restore the power, that might change...
But she was not alone. She hadn't been imagining the footsteps, the shuffling. There were footprints in the dust belowdecks -- fresh ones. Decima prowled through the darkness, silent on her feet, keeping to the shadows. She reached out in the Force, sensed that there were only two sophisticated minds on board... and a few rats. But the other... well, it was shaping up to be a family affair. Decima entered the engine room a few moments after
Ariel Yvarro , still cloaked in shadows outside the range of the dim light of her datapad. A throaty chuckle escaped the Praetorian's lips, creepy in the dim darkness, and she flung the door shut with the Force. The harsh, ugly echo gave Decima some measure of satisfaction as she circled Ariel, just outside the ring of light.
"Things have reached quite a pretty pass," Decima observed softly from the darkness. She drew her lightsaber and ignited it, bathing her features and Ariel's in intense crimson light. "What brings you here -- it's Ariel, isn't it?" Decima's lips twitched into a smirk in the vivid red light; she could never keep Natasi's relations straight, but Ariel had been in the press recently as she struggled to reignite the First Order. "Odd place to find a First Order Moff."