Open Orbit

[Dav Man'Sell]

[The Villainy]

The swirl of infinity collapsed into star streaks, the streaks into pinpoints, and the dusty red sphere of Rhommamool twisted into view before them. Off beyond Rhommamool's curve, the tiny blue sphere of Osarian hung against the black. And somewhere in it's orbit, a formation of ships flying the flag of the Galactic Alliance watched over the Osarian system and the surrounding sectors.

"Pilot, have we been detected?"

The pilot looked up from his displays, first at a panel to his left, and then to his right to meet her gaze.

"No, Praefectus. The cloaking generator is functioning perfectly."

Maarina nodded. She had doubted nothing less. They had recovered the craft from a completely undiscovered hidden chamber in the base of Mount Tantiss on Wayland, an added, unexpected benefit of an expedition to recover a very different prize from the one-time Emperor's vast archives. She had been told by those with the power to sense such things that the craft brimmed with the Dark Side of the Force. Though she could not confirm that for herself, she had thoroughly examined the craft, and found it to be an engineering masterpiece that had survived it's great many years in storage with no apparent degradation to its systems.

Selecting it as her own personal shuttle for when she had missions such as this to undertake had only made sense.

"Good. Lay in a course for Redhaven. I will be on the lower deck."

Maarina turned without saying anything further, stepped from the dim, red-lit cockpit, and ducked into the lift, which whisked her down to the lower level in the blink of an eye. She marched across to the small work desk she'd had installed, and slipped into her seat. She reached out, and took the datapad, and cast one more gaze over the information there. It was carefully, meticulously selective, and on this, her forth viewing of this latest draft, she still found no information there which she deemed it imprudent to share with those they were here to meet.

She scrolled to the top, and studied the holograph again, and for just a moment, she felt a small pang of pity for the young woman. A keen, intelligent mind. A pretty face, too. The teenager had vast potential, so all of her school reports said, and the psychoanalysis indicated that the girl had the potential to be every bit as shrewd and successful as her uncle. But all of that was likely to come to an end now, and it was rather a shame.

Yes, Maarina pitied her, if just the slightest bit. But that wouldn't save Ella Lorrimer from what was to come.