Interlude: Watching and Waiting
Everything hurt as Tyrene limped along. It was all she could do to keep it from showing on her face.
Though her bruised and broken left arm was her most visible injury, it was far from the only one. Her armor had protected her from the brunt of the damage when Graush had thrown her into the wall, but it left her entire torso as one giant bruise in the general shape of her now-broken cuirass.
With how hard she had been thrown, she had been fortunate to get away with only a few broken ribs on her lower left side, a minor concussion, a torn lip, and a host of bruises running down her left leg.
At the very least, she had managed to get off lighter than her Master or Ortan. The former was still recovering from the surgery to have a new eye implanted while the latter had yet to regain consciousness.
Sith were taught to use pain as fuel for the Dark Side. In combat, that worked well to prolong one's ability to fight as greater pain turned into greater power. Out of combat, it was significantly less pleasant to deal with.
It was because of that that she found herself wandering the camp after the sun fell instead of resting in her tent. Though painkillers had been pumped into her system by the medic, there was still a persistent dull ache that prevented her from doing more than lightly dozing.
Tyrene paused, trying to think of the last time she had been this injured. Nearly a year, if she remembered correctly.
It had been her first training session with Darth Scriver. Fresh from the academy, she had been so full of pride and bluster…and then her Master had shown her how weak she was in comparison.
It had taken nearly a month of bacta treatments to regain full use of her limbs and stabilize her ruptured organs.
In the end, perhaps that had been a good thing. The person she had been then would not have survived the mountain…and she definitely would not have listened to the advice of an ex-slave, much less acknowledge that he knew better than she.
The Sith Apprentice grimaced as she turned that thought over in her head. Because of that, she owed a debt that had nearly forced her to attempt to lie to her Master. Knowing her own ability, or rather lack there of, to lie convincingly, it would not have ended well and could possibly have resulted in her death.
…Perhaps that pride was not nearly as beaten into submission as she had assumed. Merely transformed.
Tyrene knew her Master played politics as a consequence of his rank. Though he did not sit on the Dark Council, Darth Scriver still had rivals seeking both the secrets he jealously guarded and for his position in the Pyramid of Ancient
Knowledge. As his apprentice, such individuals were her rivals as well, as some might consider her a weak link in his power base.
But her bloodline was that of warriors and duelists, not scholars or sorcerers. Men and women who simply fought, whether it be for a Lord, for a cause, or just for the sake of fighting. It had never been their place to scheme in the shadows.
And like her ancestors, deception did not suit her…or rather, she had no talent for it, either in seeing it or in utilizing it herself. She preferred things to be blunt and to the point. So when she had met an overly-curious shadow, she had been caught off-guard and had paid for it.
Now she found herself trying to piece together this conspiracy she was flung into head-first while keeping her Master and fellow apprentice in the dark. And all of it revolved around that scarred ex-slave.
As she passed a group of off-duty soldiers, she noticed one of them had his hand on his hip, within easy reach of his blaster pistol. His gaze wasn't directly on her, but she could sense that he was watching her from the corner of his eye.
Tyrene pretended not to notice. Slipping around the corner, she peered back a few moments later. The soldier's hand was now settled in his lap.
This was the second time Aldrex had appeared from nowhere to involve himself in her Master's plans. Not only had he been well-hidden this time, he had a network of support in the form of at least one other acolyte and an entire platoon of soldiers. All of which were willing to cover for him.
If it hadn't been for his distinctive weapon, she likely would never have spotted him. And if his offhand claim to have killed a Sith Lord before was to be believed…
A cold evening breeze played across her bare arms. Though she was only dressed in a thin sleeveless tunic and pants, she barely noticed it. She had been stationed on Hoth before. Compared to that, Korriban was nothing.
Tyrene wasn't scared of Aldrex, per say…rather, she was wary of his motives. He was far more dangerous than a mere acolyte. Ifhe was one, of which she was not entirely convinced.
She paused…and blinked as a thought struck her.
This had been her second meeting with him. The first had been beneath the mountain, far away from the other apprentices. And far away from Darth Scriver's view. Had he been looking for her? To probe her mind to see if she could be subverted against her Master?
After a moment of reflection about the time leading up to the battle in the tomb and afterwards, she came to a realization. He had succeeded, at least in part. While she wasn't about to attempt to murder her Master on the ex-slave's word, she had acted against Darth Scriver's orders…because she had been convinced that she owed Aldrex a favor.
Hadn't she just been contemplating how her Master's enemies might try to get to him through her?
Tyrene now had mixed feelings on the matter. Part of her wanted to be impressed at how he so deftly manipulated her that she hadn't noticed until now. The rest wanted to be infuriated at beingmanipulated.
The Sith Apprentice stopped and stared into the night sky as she replayed every moment she had spent in the ex-slave's company. To her chagrin, she couldn't remember ever sensing as though he had lied or attempted to twist the truth in any of their conversations. In fact, he had been remarkably forthright and honest, if irreverent.
Aldrex had pushed at her insecurities as one of Scriver's apprentices, causing her to question her Master's motives rather than those of the man that had been in front of her.
Grudging respect and rage warred in Tyrene's mind as she contemplated her next course of action. However, rather than pick one or the other, she soon decided that she needed more information. And there was exactly one person in the vicinity who might have it.
Though she was no assassin, Tyrene did know how to go unseen when she wished. She quietly crept between tents as she made her way to the medic's quarters, taking advantage of both the darkness and the red hue of the sand beneath her feet.
To her surprise, she found Lieutenant Maklan was neither sleeping nor was he alone. Though the tent flaps were closed, she could sense the presence of five other soldiers, two women and three men, all gathered near the center of the tent. Two more stood outside on guard.
The apprentice weighed her options. She could wait until Maklan was alone again to speak with him…but this late-night meeting, likely between the officers of the platoon, had her curious. As the only conscious Sith in camp, she was ostenably in charge and she hadn't been informed of it. It was possible that they were discussing something they didn't want their superiors to know about.
It was an easy decision.
With the sound of the sentries occasionally firing at the tu'kata packs that had continued to rush the camp, any noise she might have made was covered up as she moved to position herself at the rear of the tent.
For a few moments, she listened. Only…she didn't hear anyone speaking. She didn't hear the buzz of a scrambling field and she could hear the sound of armored bodies shifting as the occupants moved.
Tyrene quickly realized why.
'They're speaking through their helmet comms.' She thought, both impressed by effectiveness of the simple method and frustrated that she had been foiled so easily.
The Force gave a warning just before the whine of several blasters powering up reached her ears.
"Come on out. You pinged on our motion sensors a minute ago." Maklan's voice, given an electronic edge by his helmet's voice filter, called out.
The young Sith considered it fortunate that her red skin hid the flush of embarrassment that came from that statement, despite the fact that no one could see it. She had not spent much time around soldiers before and hadn't considered what equipment they typically carried beyond their armor and blasters. She was now kicking herself for her ignorance of something so simple.
Any other day, Tyrene wouldn't have considered six men -no, eightmen, she corrected herself as she remembered the two out front- armed with blasters as much of a threat. However, that was when she was at full strength.
Right now, she was down an arm, not entirely steady on her feet, and swimming in painkillers. Killing them with the Force was always an option…
But then, this might be a way to get what she wanted. She knew that the lieutenant at least had seen her speaking with Aldrex before, so it was possible that the soldiers would see her as an ally of their master and would be more cooperative.
Using her good arm, she slowly drew back the tent flap and stepped inside. As she expected, the six soldiers held blasters pointed in her general direction. As her face was brought into the light, they faltered for a moment, but held steady.
Behind their helmets, Tyrene could feel their eyes dart towards the one in the middle. That must be Maklan, then.
He didn't move, but something passed between him and the others as they all lowered their weapons. Maklan himself pulled his helmet off and set it on the table, though the others did not follow suit.
Smart. She wasn't trusted, so they would keep their faces hidden. It wouldn't help, however. She now had a sense of who they were and could pick them out of a crowd.
"So, milord. How can we be of service tonight?"
Tyrene allowed her gaze to pan over the others before she answered, "Something has happened to our…ally."
It wasn't a question so much as a statement.
She could feel it in the Force through the soldiers. They were…not worried…but concerned. And what could concern them enough to meet in secret other than something happening to their master?
Maklan, despite his face showing, was ironically the most difficult to read. The man was almost like a wall mentally. But the others had no such defenses and were practically broadcasting it.
The edges of the soldier's lips turned down slightly. Tyrene's moved in the opposite direction.
Finally, a sigh left his lips, "Yeah."
He tapped a few buttons on the table before him, activating the projector in the center. As it hummed to life, it projected another soldier. He, and it was a man, was dressed in slightly different armor. Possibly another platoon?
Interesting.
"She's clear." Maklan grunted.
Notably, the soldier on the other end of the call didn't remove his helmet. She was cleared…but not that much.
'My, these soldiers are cagey…' She observed mentally, not allowing it to show on her face, "So, is someone going to tell me what happened?"
"Aldrex has gone missing." The helmeted soldier reported shortly.
Tyrene raised an eye-ridge, "How long?"
"Yesterday afternoon. I didn't hear about it until his…alien friend came to my office and dragged me out. I've had some men looking into it since then."
Maklan picked up the report from there, "They found traces of a gas weapon deployed in his quarters. The door was blown off from the inside, so he didn't go without a fight."
"He isn't dead, is he?" She asked. It would be vastly disappointing to find out he'd been killed so soon.
The soldier shook his head, "No. It was an anesthetic gas. Whoever it was was trying to take him alive."
The man in the holocomm paused and reached for something out of sight. He examined it for a moment before speaking, "I can confirm that. One of my men just handed me a security recording of a special forces soldier carrying him onto a shuttle."
Tyrene kept her face very, very still as she processed that statement. While Aldrex had been attacked on academy grounds, the attacker had apparently just…walked out with his target. That implied that it had been sanctioned.
"Where is Aldrex's alien friend?" She asked after a moment.
"Right now?" The helmeted soldier inquired himself before shrugging, "I'm not sure. After he came to get me, he tore his way through the training hall to interrogate some acolytes. When they didn't have anything, he didn't have much time to do more than hide. I haven't been able to find him, but he does have his comm with him if we need to get in touch."
The other soldiers in the tent shuffled awkwardly as the conversation paused. One of them, a woman, piped up, "So what's the plan now, sir?"
Maklan leaned on the table and glanced around the room, "…We'll give it a week. He could just be on a trial. But if he doesn't come back after that, we might have to start considering other options."
As his eyes settled onto her, Tyrene could feel the gaze of the others follow.