Then she noticed that her diminutive companion shuddered.
"What is it?" She asked him.
"Nothing. At least, I think so. I had a... daydream. Imagined myself turning a corner and getting caught in a flamethrower blast. It was very vivid."
"Daydream?" She gasped. "Are you sure it's not some Force thing?"
"Yeah, I've had a few now and my masters insist that even they don't get Force visions. I just have an overactive imagination, I guess. Still adjusting to the galaxy outside my old home, I suppose."
She was about to ask him more questions, but was interrupted by the doors opening. As they opened her heart sank, and she realized that their inside information had been correct. This was a bad day to choose for their mission. She took two steps in, to allow the doors to shut behind her.
The area they were in now was obviously the grand audience chamber for Sootoo, but it was filled from wall to wall with aliens in ways she couldn't have expected. Their source had told them that some event was coming up, but it was unclear what. Dianna sweared under her breath and looked to Mannix, who had followed her out of the turbo-lift and was clutching his case as close as he could now.
"Life-day celebration. I should have known." She sighed, as she looked around wondering how this would affect their plans. With this many aliens crowded in the middle of the area, things could get ugly real quick. She couldn't come up with any decent ideas, so she tried to push the second thoughts out of her mind.
"Trident to Ice-Queen. What's a Life-day celebration?" Trychon's voice came through her mini-com.
"It's a fairly common holiday of sorts especially among aliens. It involves gatherings of family and friends. Clearly there are a lot of people who would like Sootoo to consider them one of the two."
She reminded them to keep the chatter down and began to navigate her way through the crowd, hoping that Mannix would keep close. She had to turn back a number of times to be sure though.
"Ho, Ho, Ho..." As she neared the other side of the chamber, a deep laughter rang out, though not as deep as most hutts she'd dealt with.
What followed was a long rambling of Huttese, which Dianna always wished she'd taken the time to pick up on, given the rumors of bad translators.
The droid standing next to Sootoo spoke when its master was finished. "The honorable madam Sootoo welcomes Ms. Kingsdoom and wishes to thank her for bringing the most welcome of Life-day gifts."
She bowed ever so slightly, enough to give respect, but not enough to take her eyes off the lowly crime-lord. "While we have never dealt directly with your organization, we have always respected Hutt space and have enjoyed good relations. We appreciate the opportunity you have provided us to allow this to continue."
She was hoping that her audience with Sootoo would be more private, so she could try to squeeze out any information that may have let her know if the hutt had been given any inside information by a traitor, rather than figuring it out on her own. With the circumstances though, she was forced to let that hope die.
The droid was beginning to translate for her again when she was distracted by conversation over the comm.
"Trident to Sun Ray. I'm sorry I didn't get you any presents for Life-day..."
"Not now, Trident."
"I have a joke I think would be appropriate though. A naked Correlian blonde walks into a bar with a shaved solarian lizard under one arm, and a two-foot nerf sausage under the other. The bartender says, I guess you won't be needing a drink. The naked lady says..."
Just then Dianna's eyes darted to the right, as there was a crash that could barely be heard over the ruckus in the room, and Trychon and Raezyr came barreling through the ceiling only 3 meters from where she was standing.
The noise died down quickly and Dianna saw looks of confusion around the room as the two Sith got up and dusted themselves off. She prepared herself to react, as it wasn't going to be long before the Hutt ordered them all dead.
Trychon bent over and picked something up off the floor. "Forgot my datapad."
Raezyr looked around the room. "Hey... this isn't where I parked my speeder!"
As Dianna suspected, Sootoo began to bark out commands, and various of her henchmen slowly began to put their hands on their holsters, waiting for further orders.
The translator droid yelled as much as a droid was able. "The honorable Sootoo demands to know the meaning of this betrayal!"
Trychon looked at the droid and then to Dianna. "Well... there goes the element of surprise..."
Then with a slight glance that she'd come to recognize as a short command through their Force connection, the brothers acted simultaneously. They reached into their cloaks and pulled out an assortment of small explosives and what looked like smoke charges.
Tossing them into the air, Raezyr yelled "Surprise, Hutt-face!"
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