Dianna struggled to remain calm, fighting the panic that threatened to overwhelm her as she and Raezyr made their way to the control room. The big Sith was walking briskly, and it was all she could do to keep from breaking out into a run. The fear that the Republic had found them here was all to real, and she was sure that someone had been followed or tracked somehow.
Yet somewhere deep down inside, despite whatever this turned out to be, she was thankful that she had been able to get out of her discussion with the man she loved, because she wasn't sure she could give him the answers he wanted. She wasn't even sure what the answer even was yet.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality only a few moments, they arrived. She spoke before the door had even whooshed closed behind her. "Is it the Republic? Were you followed?"
Trychon was seated at the control terminal with Rhox leaning over his shoulder, looking intently at some readout on one of the display screens. The Sith slicer turned his head and spoke over his other shoulder. "Ship entered the system, and it's markings match that of the Arctic Seduction," he explained, referring to the single ship which had slipped through the Republic's grasp, escaping to hyperspace just before the Twilight Stalker had succumbed to it's wounds.
"That's Teera's ship," Dianna stated. "Why are you calling me up here for that?"
"She don't appear to have any power to her ion drive. Your Sith maintenance guy here," Rhox said, indicating Trychon with a jerk of her thumb, which was met with a brief glare from the aforementioned," managed to get the communications array up and running. We attempted to hail them on the Kingsmen's emergency comm frequency, but haven't gotten any answer."
"Something's wrong," Dianna surmised.
"Excellent deduction, Captain Obvious," Trychon said with a chuckle. His joke was met with glares all around.
Not the time, Raezyr thought to his brother, who returned a silent acknowledgement.
Trychon cleared his throat. "Uh... Di... um, you want Raez and I to go tow them in?" the older brother suggested, attempting to get past the awkward silence.
"That's probably a good idea," the pirate captain answered. "Don't try to get in, just tow them in."
The Sith brothers headed for the door simultaneously, and the women watched them go. Once gone, Rhox turned to her captain. "Everything okay, boss?" In reality, she had begun to think of the red-haired woman as much more than an employer, rather a friend, and a close one at that.
The reverse was true as well. Dianna collapsed into the chair, and looked up at her friend. "I don't know, Rhox. I just have a bad feeling about this."
"About the Seduction?"
"About everything."
------------------
As soon as the control room doors had closed behind them, Trychon asked what he'd been dying to ask in the room. "How'd the talk go?"
"Shut up, Trych," Raezyr growled.
"Whatever, man," the older Sith replied. "Just remember that I'm on your side. There's no call to snap at me."
The two were silent for a few moments, their sound of their boots contacting the durasteel walkway echoing down the corridor. Finally Raezyr spoke. "You're right. Tensions are high, but our priorities haven't wavered. Dianna is going to do whatever she needs to do. I want that to be coming with us to Den Var, but right now she's messed up, Trych. She's lost everything, including her focus on what's important. She may need a few days to clear her mind."
Trychon thought about it for a moment. "She'll come to us. It's not like she has any other options at this point, right?"
-------------------
The Jet Razor drifted closer to the other vessel as it tumbled on it's slow roll.
"Sensor readings are inconclusive, showing minimal power readings although it could be enough to sustain the life support systems, but all power to the drives is out," Trychon was saying into the comm, "and we can't see any lights in the cockpit either." He didn't need to extrapolate on what that indicated. The person on the other end of the transmission knew very well that the probability of anyone being alive was next to nil.
"And they're not answering your comm?" Rhox's voice replied over the speaker.
"No, and we've tried flashing landing lights at them in Standard Galactic Communication Patterns but there's been no reply either," Trychon said.
Rhox clicked back on. "Captain says to bring it in if you can."
"Roger that," the Sith said, then turned to his younger brother. "I'll use the tractor beam to stabilize the Seduction's roll while you suit up." The tractor beam aboard the Jet Razor was only a small one, useful for hauling in small objects or rescuing a being who's tether had snapped while outside the ship. Trychon was going to see if he could use it to alter the other ship's course enough so they could clamp on with their landing claw and piggy back the ship in.
Of course, that would mean someone had to go out there and make sure it was secure. It'd be a nightmare if the landing claw slipped and the ships came unhooked at the wrong time.
Raezyr nodded and headed toward the cargo area where they stored the space suits. It'd been a while since he'd been out on a "walk." Zero-G wasn't something he was particularly fond of, but his old Master had made him practice a lot of Zero-G sports, and he'd been good at them.
Donning an enviro-suit and going outside of a space ship was a much different prospect than playing grav-ball. Grav-ball was in a controlled environment with an arena and plenty of breathable air. A little tear in your exercise close wouldn't wouldn't kill you. Out here, there wasn't much besides some being-made materials between you and death, and beings were plenty fallible.
The big Sith shrugged into his suit, double checked the seals, and ran a self-diagnostic on the power cell and air system. All systems reported nominal, with green indicator lights showing on the forearm display readout of his suit.
After getting the "go" signal from his brother, indicating that he had indeed stabilized the trajectory of the other ship, Raezyr cycled the airlock.
The outer door opened to reveal the brilliant view of a nearby planet devoid of any life, the milky glow of the galactic disk could be seen beyond. He took it in for only a brief moment before he pushed out into the black void.
His comm inside his suit crackled to life. "I'm picking you up on sensors and I've got a visual as well," his brother's voice said into his ear.
It didn't take long for Raezyr to cross the expanse. He took his time and even tried to peek into the view ports of the cock pit, but the interior was dark and he was unable to make out any details.
Once he had guided his brother in, and secured the landing claw, he crossed back over to his own ship, happy to be back inside and not having the invisible weight of the expanse surrounding him.
They were already underway when he slid into the seat next to Trychon. "How'd it look?" his brother asked.
"I couldn't get a good look inside. Everything is dark."
"I couldn't sense any thing living on board," Trychon said flatly. His thoughts drifted back to that last night back on Hoth, to the party and the excitement, and to Teera, the owner of the Arctic Seduction. Deep inside he didn't know whether he wanted to find her inside the ship or not. Not finding her meant she had been one of the ones captured while trying to escape the King's Lair, and as far as he was concerned, death was probably preferable to that.
"Neither could I," Raezyr responded.
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