Skaovis part 6

The guard led Tris to some large ornate doors. "Lady Minta is waiting for you inside." He told him, gesturing to the doors, before standing stiffly at attention. Tris could feel all sorts of emotions coming from the guard but he wasted no time reading the man's thoughts. He leaned a hand on the heavy ornate durasteel door and pushed it open. The door gave a creak as he stepped through. The rooms on the other side were warmly decorated. The walls seemed to be obsidian black with gold plating in intricate ivy patterns much like the suite that they had been given, lavish curtains hung before large windows that overlooked the courtyard, and large pillows were strewn upon various couches as well as the bed. A fire pit in the middle and bathed the room in a soft glow. "Do you like it?" A voice came from beside him. Tris turned around, looking slightly startled. Minta was leaning against one of the ornate pillars dressed in very revealing clothing. The robes she wore were near translucent.

"I....... like it." He told her, looking away quickly. This caused the woman to smile slightly.

"So tell me. What brings an explorer like you all the way to my little region?" She asked as she gave him a sultry look. "Most men that come here are hardly as chivalrous as you."

"I wouldn't call myself chivalrous." He muttered and then quickly said. "Coming here was entirely by accident. Had a bit of engine trouble."

"Well I'm certainly glad that you were there today." She stated and then beckoned him to follow. "Come I would like to show you something."

They exited the rooms and the guard who had led him there tried to look anywhere but the pair. "This place is certainly big." He stated as they walked passed large windows overlooking a nearby lake. "Did you built this all yourself?"

"Goodness no. This palace belonged to my late husband."

C473 really wanted to ask which husband but bit his tongue. Instead he said "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Minta told him. "He was nothing more than a wealthy criminal. I took great pleasure in disposing of him." He sensed that there was more to the story but Minta went onto say "I hope that isn't a problem."

"Why would it be?" Tris now asked.

"Good, because I'm starting to like you Tris. You intrigue me." Minta now revealed, but he already knew that. Playing his part he asked "But you hardly know me."

"It's just a feeling." Minta mumbled. "I can't put my finger on it but you seem like an intriguing man, it's like you're teetering on a precipice and I wish to uncover all your secrets. Would you consider staying?" He raised a brow and momentarily wondered if this woman was Force-sensitive or not. He bit his lower lip and Minta thought that he was contemplating her offer. "Come" She said without preamble as they resumed their journey. Minta led him to an even larger door. This one accompanied by numerous security measures as well as several guards.

"What is this place?" He asked as they stepped inside. The inside of the room was lit up and filled with various shelves and pedestals holding all kinds of objects.

"I call this the vault." Minta stated. "I consider myself a collector of interesting and ancient artifacts. Many of these are priceless." She said while gesturing to some stone slab that had a language he couldn't understand carved upon it. She leaned close to Tris. "As a reward for you saving my life I will let you chose an artifact from here."

"You're serious?" He asked.

"I am. You may do with it what you want. If you sell it you will be set for life. Unless you want your weight in precious metals instead? My laborers have extracted numerous gemstones from the mines." She stated. "But I do hope you give my proposal some thought as well. It would be a shame if you left without us getting to know each other........... Better."

Tris might not always know when someone was flirting with him but that was just too blatant. Her thoughts were practically screaming at him. One of them was a fantasy about him being draped in finery and gems while laying on her bed. She leaned close to him and caressed his arm, the silky material of her near translucent robes brushing against his hand. Something however caught his eye. On a corner shelf sat two glittering hilts. "What are those?" He asked suddenly feeling a sort of Force pull to the hilts. They were white sword hilts decked with glimmering lines of what seemed to be gold. Tris took a step towards the shelf, he felt a Force signature but it was very weak.

"Those?" Minta asked as she watched him pick up the hilts. "I have no idea. I got them off a passing trader who assured me he acquired them from some warrior from the past. Do you really want those? One of the hilts is damaged and they have no blade. It is most probably the item of lowest value in here."

Tris heard Minta but he was just staring at the hilts. What were the odds that he'd find something like these here. He turned back to Minta with the hilts in his hands. "These seem to be fine lady Minta." She still looked unsure but nodded and he quickly scanned her thoughts. It seemed she had never seen a lightsaber before. 'More fool her.' He thought as they departed the vault with Minta on his arm once more.

Once C473 returned to the suite he found Navida resting on the couch with the Lothcat on her lap and C1 cursing next to her. "What did I miss?" He asked as he closed the door.

"Oh C1 was just enlightening me on your piloting skills." Navida smirked as Tris directed a scowl at the droid. "How was your meeting with that maneater?"

"It's like you suspected." He replied. "She tried to come onto me in her chambers and then I received a tour of her palace, which included some vault." He held up the hilts to show the woman. "I got these from there."

"What are they?" Navida asked as she looked at the hilts curiously.

"I'd say they're Electrum lightsabers. A bit damaged but they can be repaired."

"What are Electrum lightsabers?" Navida now sat up. "I don't think I've ever seen one before."

"Neither had Minta. She thought these were worthless." He replied.

"Well can you blame her? Not many people in the unknown regions know what the Jedi or Sith were." Navida shrugged. "It's safe to say that they've never seen a lightsaber either or they might think them merely a myth."

"We also need to act now." He stated.

"But dinner is in just under an hour."

"Exactly, and she wants us to meet her daughter." He grumbled.

"That would be bad." Navida muttered as she got up. C1 with the Lothcat on its head also started following. "Loha can hold a grudge. She'll most likely expose you."

"Which is why we are going to find that brother of yours now and then hightail it out of here." Tris stated as he clipped the hilts to his belt. "I plucked the general layout of the palace from the guards. Minta likes to keep her men in a large room on the floor above." He told her. "It would be the most likely place for your brother to be."

"And how do we get there?" Navida asked as the group stood by the door. "You said that there were guards in the hallway and I doubt going out the window would be a good idea." She hesitantly looked at the large windows and the very narrow ledge.

"I'll Force cloak us. The guards won't notice that we have left." He stated and beckoned them all closer.

"And what if they do notice us?" Navida whispered as she held her blaster to her chest while they started creeping out the room. She got an unemotional look from her partner "Right, you'll kill them." She murmured as they snuck along. Surprisingly the whole sneaking through a tyrant's palace was anti-climatic as, true to his words, the guards didn't even notice them. They made it up to the floor above when Tris gave the sign to stop. "Kriff!" Navida heard him utter.

"What's wrong?" She asked in a low voice.

"This floor is guarded by droidekas." She looked to where he was pointing and saw four balls just sitting idly around the corridor.

"Can they really be so bad?" Navida murmured. "Aren't they old droids from the Clone wars?"

"It's not like I can't take them. It's just that they are extremely annoying." Tris grumbled. "They were designed to exterminate their targets with extreme prejudice and they have a damn shield generator. Blasters won't work on them."

"But you can disable them?"

"Yes but to do that I'll need to drop the Force cloak." He told her. C1 let out a bit of a distressed warble. "Go hide behind that pillar." He indicated, gesturing to a large black pillar decorated with gold. The Force cloak was dropped as soon as Navida, C1 and the Lothcat were safely behind the pillar. Tris, standing out in the open, immediately attracted the attention of the four droidekas. They rolled next to each other into a line and unfurled, training their twin blaster cannons on their target and engaging their shields.

C1 let out a high-pitched chirp that indicated that either indicated distress or worry at all the guns trained on the clone. The droidekas were about to fire when they were pushed into the nearby wall. Tris's outstretched hand keeping them pinned even as their shields minimized the impact damage.

"What now? You can't keep them like that forever." She quietly asked as she saw that the wall had more damage than any of the four droids.

"Those shields might be a major annoyance but that doesn't make them invincible." Tris explained as he focused the Force to crush the droids within their shields. Soon all that was left of the droids was a crushed mess of metal and flickering shields.

C1 actually rushed towards C473 and bumped into his legs while letting out a series of beeps and chirps. Navida stopped to listen and then had to blush slightly at what the droid was saying. "Is he always so expressive?"

"Only when in mother hen mode or while cussing. I didn't know he could combine the two." He answered as the Lothcat that was hanging onto the wildly spinning head of the droid climbed up on his shoulders and wrapped himself around C473's neck again. "Let's go. We haven't much time. Dinner should be starting soon."

"Right" Navida said as they approached the large doors. She let out a shaky breath. "Finally, after all this time......... I'll see my brother again." She proceeded to push the doors open. The room was nothing like they expected. It was big, had high-vaulted ceilings and even a fountain in the middle. Around the room several men, not all of them human, were lounging in various skimpy clothing.

"Are they drugged?" Navida asked as she waved her hand in front of the face of one of the men, getting no reaction.

"Seems like it. Which one is your brother?" Was asked. Navida looked around. There were two Twi'lek males lying on some pillows but on further inspection they did not turn out to be her brother. "I....... I don't see him." She admitted with a look of worry in her eyes.

"Well I'm sorry but we are out of time as it is. We need to get out of this place fast."

"Maybe he's somewhere else in the palace!" Navida uttered desperately. "Please, he has to be here!"

"Navida we are out of time." Tris told her as C1 agreed.

"But we are so close!" She tried to reason. "I know he was brought here." Tris however grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the exit. "PLEASE!!!" She pleaded again.

Tris turned back to the desperate Twi'lek. "If we don't get out of here then you won't have a life to keep on searching." He hissed.

"As amusing as your squabble is, neither one of you is getting out of here alive." A voice said. Both turned towards the large doors to see Minta and a contingent of guards train their weapons on them.

"You knew we were here." Tris muttered as his eyes narrowed.

"Of course. I have all the rooms bugged and I knew where you went when my droidekas were destroyed." Minta stated nonchalantly. "You can't trust anyone these days. Although you did surprise me with your little tricks."

"You know I could snap your neck quite easily." He threatened.

"You do that and my guards will put lots of holes in you and your companions." Minta replied not looking the slightest bit bothered.

"You're gonna kill us either way." Tris stated.

"True" Minta muttered as she flicked a stray lock of hair out of her face. "And I do so regrettably, really." She looked at Tris in particular as she spoke "I'm a collector of interesting things. Your different colored eyes are quite unique and you would have fitted so well in my collection. Your abilities make you even more valuable." She smirked. "I could have given you a cushy life but alas you decided to deceive me."

"You're sick!" Navida muttered. "What did you do to my brother Lasco."

"Your brother......." Minta thought for a moment. "Ah, a green-skinned Twi'lek? Oh I remember."

"So he is here." She stated.

"Well not anymore." Minta shrugged. "I'm afraid I had to kill him."

"WHAT!"

"Quite recently too." She smirked as she watched Navida who had a look of shock and pure hatred on her face. "He did try to put a blade through my back."

"Allow me to kriffing finish what he started then." She snarled at Minta.

"I'm afraid not." Minta smirked as she gave a sign to her guards to fire. Navida closed her eyes as the familiar sounds of blaster fire erupted. She however opened them slightly when no painful death came. She gasped at what she saw and she wasn't the only one. The guards and Minta had equal looks of shock and awe on their faces. There in the middle of the room, several red blaster bolts that had been directed at them stood frozen in mid-air. She turned sharply to Tris who had a look of deep concentration on his face.

"I didn't know you could do that." She whispered in awe.

"Me neither." Tris stated as he concentrated on the bolts. "Get ready to run." He deflected the blaster bolts back at their shooters just as he said that. Bolts hit the men and Minta square in the chest, their opponents falling onto the floor, dead. Tris tugged on Navida's arm. "Come on. We have a transport to catch!"

-----------------To be continued---------------