CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Viira could not believe the day she was having.
There she was, holding one of the male prisoners — she thought his name was Poe or something — by his shirt collar, ready to pound his face into mush, when she had gotten the order, straight from the mouth of the pirate queen herself.
“Let them go. All of them.”
She felt her eyes practically bug out, almost threatening to pop out of her skull entirely. She looked around to see the other pirates, all dealing with a male escapee of their own, sharing her expression of confusion, confirming that she wasn’t going crazy.
Though she probably couldn’t say the same for Her Serene Highness….
Never one to disobey an order from her Queen, regardless of how she felt about it (as one of Kestora’s top lieutenants, she had to make example to the rest of the crew), Viira let go of Poe then and there, though she continued to glare at the human and he at her. After a few seconds, the others had done the same, though the tension in the air was still thick enough to cut with a vibroblade.
Keeping her eyes on the man, Viira responded to her comlink. “What’s going on, Your Highness? Has something happened?”
“Yes. Some… I don’t know how to explain it. Someone has taken control of my security droids. The four I’ve had here have been dealt with, but I know there are still more on the ship. There’s also a whole group of droids terrorizing people outside, all being controlled — remotely, I guess — by the same person.”
“I can have Drozza try and shut down the droids we have here on the ship,” Viira said. “Do you want us to deal with the ones outside then?”
“Yes,” Kestora replied. “The more the merrier.”
“Merrier. Right.” The Twi’lek held back an exasperated sigh. “It shall be done, Your Highness.”
“Glad to hear it.” With those words, the call went dead. Viira then returned the comlink to her belt before returning her attention to Poe and the other escapees, her face twisting into a scowl.
“You heard her,” she called out to both her crewmates and the escapees. “We’ve got a droid infestation to take care of. Let’s move!”
As the pirates began to mobilize, Poe walked over to Viira. He looked as if he was about to grab her arm but thought better of it when he met her icy glare. Clearing his throat, he put on a phony grin.
“After this is done, tell your Queen that I send her all my love.”
“Go frag yourself,” Viira spat before storming off.
* * *
The destruction of the Dowager’s ship had shaken the earth, though not as much as it had shaken Valrisa. She stood there, leaning against the wall of the turbolift carrying her, Toah, Han, and Kestora down to the bottom of the First Light, as she tried to process what had just happened.
She was dead. Valrisa could feel it, despite having rarely tuned herself with the Force since she had left the Jedi. The Dowager Sareth, her mother, was dead.
She felt like she should have been pleased with this development, after all of the torment that woman had put her through.
Instead, she felt anything but.
The turbolift soon came to a stop and its doors open, but she still felt as if the room was moving. While Han was the first one to step out, both Toah and Kestora lingered behind, looking back at her with concern.
“Is everything all right?” Toah calmly asked.
Valrisa did not answer him. She could barely hear him over the ringing in her ears.
“Go on ahead,” Kestora murmured to him. “I’ll look after her.”
Toah stared at the pirate queen for a moment, his expression a questioning one, before going after Han. Kestora then stepped over to Valrisa and carefully laid a hand on her shoulder.
“If you need a moment to rest,” she started to say.
“Did you do this?” Valrisa cut her off, breathing heavily. “Did you kill her?”
Kestora hesitated. “I had my crew plant a bomb on her ship once she had landed, yes.”
“Why? Why would you….”
“Deprive you of the chance to find closure?” Kestora finished for her. “Because I don’t think you would have ever found that closure. Not with someone like her. The only closure you would have found would have been when she inevitably killed you, if she had her way.”
Valrisa continued to stare at her, her throat tight with emotion. “But why?” she croaked. “Why did you of all people do it? What business did you even have with her?”
Kestora sighed. “I realize I still have a lot to explain,” she said quietly. “But it will have to wait. Think you can still manage in a fight?”
Valrisa closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath. Without even thinking about it, she called upon the Force to steady herself, calming her nerves as best she could.
“Yeah,” she finally breathed out. “I think I can.”
“Good,” Kestora said. “Because we’ve got a lot of droids to shut down.”
“I’ll be honest,” Valrisa muttered as she followed the pirate queen out of the First Light. “I’ve never liked droids much.”
* * *
Today’s business venture was not going the way Sal Tyrius had hoped it would.
Everything had gone off script; from Kylo Ren’s behavior to Queen Kestora’s arrival. Now he had lost the heirloom and Queen Kestora was… doing whatever it was she was doing. Apparently the prisoners had all been let out so that they could help shut off a bunch of rogue droids that had gone haywire in the streets of Worlport. Tyrius wasn’t sure what that was all about, nor did he care.
As he stood in the doorway to the quarters Kestora had given him and Lunara (at least she had the decency to treat them as guests rather than prisoners), the Curator watched as a bunch of pirates ran past him, never stopping to so much as ask the Arkanians how they were doing or tell them what was going on. While the queen may have had some decency, her crew’s manners certainly left a lot to be desired.
After he failed to get the attention of a passing Falleen pirate, Tyrius huffed and turned on his heel to face Lunara, crossing his arms.
“I get the impression we are no longer welcome here.”
Lunara stared back at him stoically, her cybernetic eye rotating in its socket. “What do you suggest we do?”
“I suppose we might as well leave. It’s not as if anyone’s going to notice our absence.”
“Then by all means, Curator, lead the way.”
“I think I will.” Straightening the lapels of his suit, Tyrius turned around sharply and stepped out into the hall, with Lunara following close behind. He had taken no more than a couple of steps when a white-armored figure stepped from around the corner, carrying a large blaster.
All three stopped dead in their tracks. Tyrius stared at Kadar, and Kadar stared at Tyrius.
The Arkanian cleared his throat. “Hello, Kadar. Any idea what—”
The Mandalorian raised his blaster and fired, hitting the Curator square in the chest. Tyrius crumpled to the floor, unmoving. Lunara remained where she stood, unfazed by what had just transpired in front of her.
“Don’t worry,” Kadar grunted as he walked past her. “I’m sure he can recover from that.”
The Arkanian woman said nothing, watching Kadar as he headed down the hallway. Once he was gone, she spared a glance at Tyrius’ dead body before walking away from it, leaving it behind for someone else to take care of.
* * *
“Fulcrum to Wraith Leader. What’s your status?”
“Got good news and bad news, Fulcrum,” Piggy said over Iella’s comm. “Which do you want to hear first?”
Iella grimaced as she and the rest of her team rushed their way through the streets of Worlport. She could already hear what sounded like blaster fire being exchanged.
“I’m pretty sure I can guess what the bad news is,” she said. “So give me the good news.”
“We’ve found Wedge and the others. They’re helping us deal with some rogue droids.”
“Let me guess: That’s the bad news.”
“Pretty much.”
“Right. Well, we should be closing in on your guys’ position right about now. I can already hear the chaos from here. Where exactly are you?”
Over the comm, Iella heard Piggy shoot at something with his blaster before answering her. “We’re just off Merchant’s Square, down Savrip Row. You can’t miss us, honestly.”
“We’ll meet up with you shortly then.”
After ending the call, Iella beckoned the rest of her team to follow her as they navigated their way through Worlport’s frantic streets. In time, they reached the street where Piggy, Jagged and the others were, firing at a small crowd of battle droids that were slowly making their way towards them. While Iella, Wallen, and the Wraiths took cover, the shape-shifters Shadow and Xemer morphed into a pair of nexus and lunged at the droids, tearing at the mechanical soldiers with their claws.
Crouched beside Jagged, Iella sneaked in a few shots at the droids before glancing at the young man. “I was told my husband was here.”
“He is,” Jagged replied, getting in a few shots of his own. “He and the others are tackling them from behind, diverting their attention. Though there are apparently a few more droids coming from the pirate ship they were being held in.”
“Fantastic,” Iella muttered, blasting off the head of a battle droid that had been about to make its way to Myri. “Things can never be easy for us, can they?”
Jagged simply shook his head as he continued to fire his weapon.
* * *
“Come on, Ramun! Can’t you shut them down?”
“I’m trying to!” Ramun snapped, tapping furiously at a control panel that was wired to the droids’ brains. “But I’ve already rerouted the controls to Rothgar. He’s the only one who can shut them down, and whoever is behind this has already taken over him.”
Nema chewed on her fingernails, glancing furtively out the shop’s window where all hell was breaking loose. “Is there anyway to, like, shut him down?”
“Not that I know of. I wouldn’t have ever wanted a way to shut him down anyway; doesn’t really seem ethical, especially when it’s one of my own employees.”
“No, no, I get that,” Nema said. “But I’m just saying… with the way things are going… if they take him out, then it’s all over.”
Ramun rolled his hands into fists, pounding at the control panel. He knew he shouldn’t be too mad at the girl for saying that. She was scared, after all, and he didn’t believe she ever really got along with Rothgar. Even so, if there was even the slightest chance of solving all of this without killing Rothgar, then he refused to go down that particular route.
“There has to be another way,” he muttered. “Maybe we could slice our way into the computer matrix… but I’m no slicer, and I don’t think you are.”
Nema shook her head. “Maybe that Finn guy could help. Or maybe—”
Suddenly, the door to the shop burst open and a woman with bright red hair ran inside, clutching a blaster rifle against her chest.
“I don’t suppose you guys have any spare blasters?” she asked. “Mine’s jammed.”
Ramun shook his head. “’Fraid not, kid. We’re a repair shop, not an armory.”
The woman nodded in understanding, only for her green eyes to then drift to the control panel Ramun was at. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you guys doing?”
“Trying to shut down the droids from the computer I had them wired to,” Ramun grunted. “I rewired it to my friend Rothgar so that he could rescue my friend, but… well, you’ve seen and heard how that’s turned out.”
“Are you a slicer by any chance?” Nema asked the woman.
“As a matter of fact, I am,” the woman said. “All of us Wraiths have some slicing skills — it’s part of the job description. Though Thaymes was our go-to guy for slicing until he….”
Her words trailed off, a cloud falling over her face. She then shook her head before setting aside her weapon. “Never mind. Let me have a look at it.”
Not seeing the point in arguing, Ramun stepped aside and let the woman approach the control panel. She crouched down and brought out a set of tools; one of them was a cylinder-shaped device which she plugged into the computer.
“My name’s Myri, by the way,” she said to them as she got to work.
“Ramun,” the Duros replied. He gestured to his Twi’lek assistant. “This is Nema.”
“Nice to meet you, Ramun and Nema.” Myri bit her lip as she continued to work. Ramun knew very little about slicing, so he had no idea if she was making any progress or not. It wasn’t until the computer started spitting out sparks that he was able to draw a conclusion.
“Blast it!” Myri cursed, tearing out the cylinder she had plugged in. “It just wiped itself clean. Whoever’s managed to hack into it really knows what he’s doing.”
Ramun frowned. “So you can’t get into it and shut the droids down?”
Myri shook her head. “I’m afraid not. If Thaymes was here, he might have been able to, but…” She cleared her throat. “He’s not here.”
He had no idea who this Thaymes person was, though he could tell it was someone whom Myri had been close to. Deciding it best not to press the matter, he instead asked, “Is there anything else you — or your friends perhaps — can try? Because the only other option I know of is to kill Rothgar, and I know I don’t want to do that.”
Myri’s eyebrows furrowed together, no doubt racking her own brain for alternative options. Before she had a chance to vocalize any, if she was even about to, the door suddenly burst open again and a young woman with blond hair stepped into the shop.
“Myri? Is everything all right here?”
“I’m fine, Jezzie. I was just trying to slice into this computer, see if I could shut down the droids. It didn’t work though.”
“Well, I don’t think it would make much of a difference,” the blond woman said bitterly. “We have bigger things to worry about besides those droids.”
Myri frowned at her. “I’m afraid to even ask.”
“It’s that black ship. The one that blew up Thaymes. It’s here.”
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