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By Root 306 0

Adepts. The ancient game of strategy and tactics, played on a simple hologrammic board with a dozen pieces on each side, was an intellectual pursuit that required an excellent memory, and years of practice, to achieve mastery. Kaird himself was passing familiar with the game, but had never been able to give it the time necessary to reach the level of Adept. That there were two such on a planet like Drongar was most unusual, and so, naturally, they would have found each other.

A ship’s pilot and a kitchen worker, both of them Strag Adepts. Just went to show you that the galaxy was a strange place—a fact of which Kaird had long been aware.

He moved across the compound, staying well back from the Twi’lek as he shadowed her. If she noticed him, likely she would not think much of one of The Silent out taking an evening stroll, but best not to take chances.

A warm breeze, heralding the coming rain, barely stirred the humidity, adding a small bit of freshness to the fetid air. He had already checked out the communal living quarters in which the Twi’lek lived—much too crowded for his uses, and always somebody around. But Vorra and Bogan had no doubt found places where they could be alone, since constant noise and motion were distractions that Strag players preferred to avoid. Not that they couldn’t tune such things out—an Adept, it was said, could plan four moves ahead in the middle of a Piluvian salamander-storm—they just would rather not. So Kaird was confident that, sooner or later, the Twi’lek and the human would seek out a place where they could be together without other company, and that place would be a potential contact point for Kaird.

He had no interest in Vorra, save as a conduit to Bogan. Bogan, who, on the days when he was on standby for ferrying Admiral Kersos about, would have the new security codes for the admiral’s ship. Kaird would learn when that was, and then it was just a matter of how and when to gather what he needed…

Ord Vorra stopped at the stores kiosk. Kaird drifted into the deep shadow of one of the industrial recyclers across the lane from the supply building and became effectively invisible.

The wind picked up, and the smell of the coming rain grew heavier. Kaird waited and sweated. The dome would not slow the rain coming, nor the evaporating puddles from leaving. When force-shields and -domes were first experimented with, ages ago, such things had not always been taken into consideration, and the result had often caused much discomfort—and worse—for the residents. A force-dome that filled with greenhouse gases that could not escape, allowing water vapor to condense on the inner aspect and causing thick fog or more rain— not to mention a sudden lack of breathable air—these were all bad things. And so the newly repaired dome had been set to pretty much the same environmental parameters as it had before the “winter glitch,” as it was now referred to. Which meant they were back to weather that would steam the hide off a dewback.

The new admiral had apparently inherited the old admiral’s personal vessel, or at least the use of it. Kaird approved of this. The vessel in question was a modified Surronian assault ship, a sleek craft powered by a quad cluster of A2- and A2.50-grade engines. It was fast in atmosphere, according to what Kaird had learned— comparable to a Naboo N-1 starfighter—but, more importantly, it was fast to lightspeed, also. Not to mention being armed with fire-linked ion and laser cannons, and, while less than thirty meters in length, sufficiently fueled and comfortable for a long flight, with more than enough range to get him off this mudball and back to Black Sun’s headquarters on Coruscant.

Once he was there, and his business was done, it was his intention to somehow keep the ship and use it to get back to his real home.

Back to the snow-dusted mountains of Nedij…

The Twi’lek emerged from the store, carrying a small package. She was not unattractive, if one’s desires ran to featherless bipeds, though she was much too heavy for Kaird’s taste. Nediji females were hollow-boned