Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1815706" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 13: Similar HistoriesAkan didn’t speak anymore after that, and upon arriving on the Claw, he’d quickly left without even a word to Ansion. The Verpine greeted Jen with what was most likely his species’ equivalent of a smile, motioning towards the turbolift on the other end of the hangar, “If you wouldn’t mind coming this way...I wasn’t planning on any kind of debriefing, but I didn’t plan on being shot at. I assume you don’t mind me asking questions?”    Jen smiled and started towards the turbolift. It felt good to be out of the cramped cockpit of that Y-Wing, “Of course not.”    She gave one last glance back to Shadow, who was now in her humanoid form and pulling the unconscious Imperial Officer out of the cargo hold. Jen noticed that Shadow seemed to take a strange delight in the thud sound that the Officer made when he slammed into the deck below. Then, for a short moment, she looked off towards the far end towards the turbolift that Akan had left towards. Part of her wanted to talk with him more...but the way he sounded was enough to show it wasn’t a good idea.    Her attention soon turned back towards the moment at hand, and did her best to run through some old tension relief techniques she’d learned while younger. Before she knew it, Ansion had led her into the large meeting room of the ship, and it was strange how empty it looked with only two people in it.     The Verpine motioned to a chair and then to a set of drinks on the table, “Have a seat and a drink. Its not the best stuff in the galaxy, but we get a hold of what we can.”    “Thank you,” Jen nodded and took a glass, tasting the liquid carefully. It was strong...very strong. Probably some kind of Corellian Ale. Of course, the other scientists back at the facility kept things much more dangerous than that, so it didn’t phase her much.    Ansion had a seat across from her at the table and stretched just slightly, his long slender limbs moving awkwardly with the motion, “First, I’ll tell you why we appeared at such an out of the way planet as Endor. The New Republic contacted me a few standard days ago. They said that one of their small, but important science facilities had essentially disappeared. Comms didn’t only not reply, but nothing could be sent in to be recieved. Transmitters on devices shut down...etc etc. Apparently, the High Command was worried that the research you were doing would fall into Imperial hands. They didn’t say it directly, but I’ve worked with people long enough to learn to tell things like that. It took prying and lowering of my price, but I managed to get the information on what it was you were doing down there...” he paused a moment to give her a long look, “Now what I want to know from you is fairly simple. You may not even know it. But how is it that the Empire found out about your genetic work?”    Jen wasn’t very surprised that Ansion knew what they had been doing on the planet. He had said himself that he’d had to work to get it, and he was right about that. For the New Republic to give information to a mercenary, they must have trusted him. She then thought about his question, and shrugged, “I don’t know. The obvious answer is a spy...or someone in the facility itself. But I don’t know. My job isn’t to deal with things like that.”    “Well, we didn’t exactly expect our job to end up like it did,” Ansion said a bit cryptically, but he still had a generally positive tone, “We’re currently on our way to Coruscant. There we’ll drop you off and have a quick meeting with some of the higher ups...I think we’re entitled to some details on this one.”    Nodding, Jen smiled and said, “May I ask you a question...?”    “About Akan, I assume?” he was good. Of course, dealing with people as much as he did probably made that a necessity.     She nodded and sat back in the chair some, “You know about his...past yes?”    “I know a little,” the Verpine said, nodding slowly, “I found him when he was about eighteen. He’d been working with New Republic Spec Force on a joint operation with us. It was an search and destroy mission inside an Imperial base out on Duros. It was a disaster. We freed an Imperial prisoner who ended up being an Officer during the Civil War who’d been put there by some power hungry Moff after the Emperor was killed. The Officer thanked us by killing three of us...Akan tried to deal with him, but had as little luck as the rest of us. Somehow we got away...but that boy was never the same. He didn’t even remember his name after that...” Ansion shrugged, “I felt bad about it, and took him in. I managed to learn a lot from him in small bits. Things he claimed were dreams...too detailed, however. I’ve been looking for a way to help him out for a long while...it finally presented itself a couple of days ago.”    Jen thought on this, and then raised an eyebrow, “You’re talking about that...Shadow creature?”    “The New Republic Intelligence should get you on their side,” Ansion grinned as best a Verpine could, “Yes. She’s much like him. Except she found us. There’s something buried within her, too. Her old friend, a smuggler named Max. He used to work with us so I knew of her. After he died, I tracked her down and asked her to join up with us. She obviously had no where else to go, and joined up with us. Akan and Shadow...its strange, but they’ve got very similar histories. I’m hoping they’ll work out their pasts so that they aren’t such a danger to everyone else.”    “But Shadow didn’t seem very...” Jen trailed off, thinking about it and realizing how dangerous the idea of being able to change one’s form could be. Slowly, she nodded and looked down at the table, “I’ll gladly help if I can. I owe you that much.”</blockquote>

Verification