Looks Can Be Deceiving

'Heh, suckers,' Qiv thought to himself as the crate was loaded onto the transport, an unseen grin on his face. However, he sobered quickly, 'Though I gotta wonder who the real sucker was here.'

Aldrex had been as good as his word and his soldier buddies had arranged to smuggle him off planet on the next outgoing supply ship. They were even courteous enough to include airholes, which let a little bit of light in from the cargo hold. He had to admit, he was still somewhat surprised despite what he knew about the man.

Being pleasant to the hired help was one thing. Keeping your word to a rival was another, especially when they had tried to kill you.

Well, "try" was a strong word. He hadn't done anything to change the droid's coding other than to send it to the other acolyte…but he had known that it would have a cascading effect on the droid's behavior core. Any tampering would trigger programming to twist orders given to it.

He'd simply told the droid to deliver a message. And as Aldrex said, it had.

One didn't live on Nal Hutta long without being able to spot power games from a click away and knowing one's place in them. Qiv knew that he'd never really been serious competition for either Aldrex or Olia in a direct fight, just another piece on their dejarik boards to be moved or sacrificed. If he was going to be a pawn, he preferred to be a living one.

'The Weaver casts his web wide. Will you be caught in the strands? Or will you fly free?'

Crazy old bat. A few mumbled words and a locket were all he got after crawling through a monster infested cave to grab a damn skull, nearly pissing his pants every time a shyrack shifted slightly. Then there was the whole thing with the giant frakk-off k'lor'slug and the blood pool.

Still, he barely knew anything about the Force, so he'd taken her "prophecy" seriously just in case before quietly swearing to never do something that stupid again. And it wasn't hard to figure out who the "Weaver" was. Olia's little nickname for him was appropriate, after all.

Despite the warning, he made one last hurrah. One last chance at power among the Sith. If the assassin droid had managed to kill Aldrex, he might have stayed and taken his chances against Olia. Since it didn't, he was going to burn sky until he saw lines.

And to be fair, it likely would have worked if the Wookiee hadn't been there to get the droid off him. There was the rub. Aldrex had lucked out with recruiting the fuzzball, but it was also the reason he had chosen the scarred man over his rival.

Olia collected pets. Aldrex cultivated assets.

The former would punish a pet that bit her, no matter how valuable. She was more interested in the mystical than the mundane. Also, the way she strutted around reminded him of a Zeltron after a boob job.

The latter would listen if something tantalizing enough was offered. Like, say, a personal spy network.

That said, it was still an immense risk, given what he did to Renning for "punishing" him for failure. But with careful wording, the scenario was framed as an accident or a momentary slip up without a single lie. But what had been interesting was Aldrex's sudden fascination with his little talent, which had chased away all thoughts on the attempted assassination.

It was a welcome distraction and Qiv had been all-too-happy to copy down everything he knew about it to make sure the other acolyte's attention didn't stray back to his midnight visitor.

"Mechu Deru, huh?" Qiv muttered to the darkness. If he ever got the chance, he'd have to look it up and see if there was anything more to it than piecing machines together. There had to be some scraps somewhere that weren't hidden away in a Jedi or Sith temple.

Footsteps approached his crate and the Nautolan sucked in a breath, suppressing his Force Presence as much as he could. While he would readily admit, and had, that his combative talents were…lacking, he was really damn good at hiding. If he hadn't been, either Olia or Aldrex would have found him in the first month.

That said, it had somehow gotten easier since Ragate gave him that locket. As he waited, his fingers numbly touched the locket, still hanging around his neck.

Whoever was outside paused for a moment next to his crate, close enough that he could hear the noises coming from a datapad.

"Is there something wrong, milord?" The reedy voice of the dock officer asked.

Ice ran down Qiv's spine. Milord? MILORD?!

'Oh poodoo,' He thought weakly. This was it. This was how he was going to die. Stuck in a box.

"Where is this crate headed? And what are its contents?" The returning voice was deep, with a rasp that sent more chills across his skin.

The unseen dock officer hummed as he sifted through the manifest. Qiv started sweating as the silence carried on, "It appears to be…research material. A beast captured out in the desert. It's being sent to the Sphere of Biotic Science compound on Dromund Kaas for study. It will be making a stop-over on Vaiken Station to be loaded onto another transport."

"Curious," the other slowly muttered.

Qiv's heart stopped as a blazing red eye peered in through one of airholes. Seconds turned into eternity at it stared him in the face.

He knew. He knew. Heknewheknewheknewheknewohstarshewasgonnadi-

"Milord?"

Finally, the Eye turned away. Its owner hummed in thought for a moment, "It's nothing. Carry on, Lieutenant."

As one set of footsteps walked away, Qiv finally dared to move. Wiping a hand down his face, he released the air he had been holding in a quiet shuddering breath. His whole body trembled as everything caught up with him.

After a few moments, the dock officer left as well.

Once he'd started to calm down, Qiv took out his datapad. He'd disabled the GPS tracker implanted in the device and it was going to be a long flight to Vaiken Station. He was going to need to plan carefully if he was going to avoid more incidents like this one.

'Forget just hiding deep, I'm gonna need to dig all the way to Nar Shaddaa's core at this rate,' He reflected bitterly.

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