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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2915015" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 350“I’m sorry, Alrax, but we don’t have the same connections we used to,” Kalrin said quietly, shaking his head and obviously trying not to stare at Tobias, who was in the center of the room, laying down, and still unconscious.    Marix, who was sitting next to Toby with a hand rested on his shoulder, looked across the room where the two Twi’leks watched them. She couldn’t help a sigh, “You have to know someone.”    It was Kalrin’s wife, Ereth’la, who was currently closing up the medkit that had been used, who spoke up this time, “After Cora died a few years back we have...been much more isolated from the rest of the galaxy. He was always the one with the contacts. I should have thought you knew that.”    Marix did know that. Cora had been Ereth’la’s younger brother, from what she remembered. He’d been a smuggler and, like most that took up such a profession, was both very cocky and a little too ready to jump into a fight. Alright, so those were more symptoms of being young than being a smuggler, but it was surprising how well the two went together time and time again. It was really no surprise to learn he’d been killed, as he had a habit of picking fights where he couldn’t win them, and also didn’t exactly make the best of friends with the many contacts he made.    Nodding, Marix looked between the two Twi’leks, “And I know the two of you wouldn’t exactly have had a visitor like you just had if you’d gotten rid of all of those contacts. There has to be someone you can point me in the direction of.”    “That...man, had nothing to do with anyone we know,” Kalrin cut in a little too quickly, before changing his tone and trying to hide the sudden jump in by saying, “But I think I do know one or two people that could help you.”    But it was too late to jump away from what he’d first said. Marix latched onto it, knowing there was much more there, especially considering that she hadn’t been able to feel the attacker in the Force at all. There wasn’t even a hole as if he was a somewhat strong Force-user who wasn’t very good at hiding himself...instead, there was just nothing. It was like blank air, and if Marix had no other senses beyond the Force, it would have been impossible to know he had even been there.    “Who was he?” Marix’s voice was razor-edged and her eyes narrowed before looking to both of the Twi’leks. They would, no doubt, attempt to hide the answers, considering Kalrin’s quick change away from it already. She was going to do her best to stop any avoiding of the subject and get straight to the point.    There was a silence that fell over the small room, as Kalrin and Ereth’la exchanged a quick glance. Marix caught sight of their head tails twitching, and she knew right there that they were communicating quickly. Despite spending some time in a Twi’lek form here and there, and a good deal of knowledge of many different languages, the intricacies of the Twi’lek’s lekku communication was something that Marix had never been able to learn.    Thankfully, they did not take long, and soon both turned to face her again. It took another minute, however, before Kalrin reached up to rub his forehead and spoke quietly, “I do not know who he was...but he came looking for information. He was asking about...strange things. He wanted to know how often supply ships came and went, and though he specified our own ships, I know very well that he meant all of them.”    “He also asked about the Holonet,” Ereth’la added, shaking her red-orange head and giving Marix a very pointed look, “We told him nothing.”    “...which was why he was pulling a disrupter on you,” Marix finished the unsaid thoughts and nodded to herself. She could feel they were telling the truth, though it was a bit forced. When one was in the business of selling information more than selling physical objects, it was hard to give away any information, no matter how important or how small it may have been.    So they didn’t know anything else...but Marix knew there was something else there. It was something she was going to have to look into on her own, and that was definitely not something to mention to these Twi’leks. So, she quickly moved back to the important point and why she’d tracked them down in the first place, “So about those contacts you can give me.”    “You say you wanted ships, yes?” Kalrin asked, then waited for her nod before glancing to Ereth’la and going on, “We know a Rodian that could probably help you. I believe he is currently operating out of a small station near the Coreward edge of the Cron Drift. It would likely take little to find the station there, as the area is fairly empty.”    The Cron Drift. A place where, thousands of years ago, a series of stars went supernova and wiped out all the life in the entire sector that was nearby. The planets had remained, generally, uninhabitable, but that didn’t stop many from using the gaseous nature of the area as a good cover for multiple illegal activities. It made sense. And while it was a difficult area to navigate, Loki was a much better ship for that kind of instinctive piloting than any ship that Marix could think of. Besides, it would get the ship a little excitement again, after so many years of sitting around and flying here to there without any trouble at all.    “Will your...s...” Ereth’la stopped, bit her lip, then tried again, “Will he be alright?”    She had cut herself off for a reason. It was due to the sharp look that Marix had given her for what she’d nearly said. Not that Marix didn’t consider Tobias to be her son as much as Jyren did, but due to the fact that it was both something that didn’t need to be spoken, and because Marix felt that it was just another piece of information that she did not wish these two to know too much of.    “He will be fine,” Marix said flatly, part of her suddenly not liking the choice she had made to come and find these two for information. She was also starting to push Tobias through the Force, trying to get him up faster so that they could leave. She wasn’t about to walk the streets of Ord Mantell carrying the kid. That was asking for trouble.    And so they would have to wait. It wasn’t long, however, before Marix decided it would be a good idea to have another look at the attacker in the other room. While the two Twi’leks went about cleaning up the smashed things that were the result of the fight in the main room of the building, Marix dragged the corpse back to the same room where Toby lay. Dragged because this massive human was far too heavy for Marix to even attempt carrying in her own human form, and she wasn’t about to use the Force in plain sight of the two Twi’leks.    As she knelt down next to the corpse and looked it over, she couldn’t help but keep having to remind herself that this body was, in fact, right there. Even a dead body should have some slight resonance in the Force. But this had nothing. The Force told her she was just looking at empty air and the ground below it. But her eyes, hands, and even ears, told her a much different story...this was not a confusion she was used to, and not something she liked one bit.    Marix found nothing right away, though she did note that the clothes he wore seemed almost too tight to the body. It reminded her of a morphsuit, actually, but with more shape and changes in form rather than the single, form fitting body suit. And this thought made her hands run along the corpse, looking for who knew what but...something. And then she found something.    A point...near the back of the skull. It felt..rougher than skin should have, if that made any sense. And, instinctively, she put pressure on it to get a better feel of the spot. The second Marix did that, the man’s...face began to peel away down the middle. It was sickening at first, as the entire face split down the middle and folded away all the way down the body, revealing an entirely different creature within. This was not a human. This was humanoid, yes...but with deep grey skin, tattoos covering every inch of skin in intricate patterns, and...scars. Scars, amputations, and other horrid looking disfigurements that covered the entire body.    And right away, Marix knew what she was looking at. There was no other possibility.    A Yuuzhan Vong.    With a human suit.</blockquote>

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