Nomi and Vesper 2

It's the final day of transit from Ord Mantell to Nar Shaddaa after Nomi has had a little bit of time to sort through her feelings and everyone has healed as much as they are going to.

Nomi shows up in the cargo hold midmorning, when no one else has any reason to be there and she stands in the middle with her eyes closed and whispers "Vesper? Can you do something for me?"

"What do you need, Nomi?"

Vesper's voice comes from a high shelf in a dark part of the cargo hold. There is a soft light there that wasn't there a moment before, visible through a crack between boxes - like the glow of a datapad on a dim setting. He still sounds exhausted, somehow - eager for a chance to lend a hand, as always, but not fully present this time. It's slightly reminiscent of how he was acting shortly before the confrontation with the Mirror.

Nomi wasn't there just before the conflict with the Mirror, but she certainly recognizes that Vesper is not his usual self and she doesn't blame him.

"Two things actually," she says as she turns toward his light. She takes a step closer and keeps her voice quiet. "I don't have the contacts I used to... To be honest, I don't have any now that..." She doesn't finish that thought. "But I need to know what this First Sister thing means. If you have any contacts I am hoping you can ask around. Find out what an Imperial Sister is versus a Night Sister.

"Second, as soon as we are able, we need to warn Master Zernvik on Zoph. We..." she sighs, looks embarrassed and sad. "We told Lilikai about Zoph. That there's a vergence, that Zernvik is alive, that you guys became Knights there. Not about the others there, but enough. They need to be warned and I am hoping you can do that."

She pauses for a beat, then adds, "I guess there's a thing three. I was wondering if you'd let me hug you." This last even quieter.

"Master Zernvik already knows." Vesper says it as he drops from a shelf directly behind Nomi. The light from behind the boxes never moved. He shrugs. "Were I in his position, I'd probably take as many kyber crystals as I could and find a new place to hide. Zoph is almost certainly compromised. He held a Jedi Master at bay from his cave, but planetary bombardment by an Imperial star destroyer and a ground assault by walkers full of Clone Troopers - to say nothing of an unknown number of Sith and fallen Jedi? I wouldn't take my chances, and I wouldn't be surprised if Master Zernvik reached the same conclusion. It's his call to make, though. He's the agent on the ground."

Nomi jumps when Vesper appears. "Some day, when I am expecting you from behind, you are just going to walk into plain sight and throw me all off again," she accuses.

Vesper looks Nomi in the eyes, unblinking and deadly serious. "In our situation, it was our call to make. And we made it knowing full well the risks. Maybe you were onto something hinting that Master Lilikai is engaged in a deep infiltration mission that has grown...rather dark. If that's the case, maybe she keeps our secrets, or maybe she sacrifices us to worm her way deeper into our enemies' counsels. I could never do what it takes to be a sleeper agent, but I respect the sacrifices you make. I won't lecture you about espionage again. You clearly know your business better than I do."

"Speaking from my limited professional understanding, here are my thoughts: First, we can't go back to Zoph. We'll need to find something else to do with Jellybean's sister. Second, we can't assume the "one master and one apprentice" wisdom about the Sith still holds. We will meet more fallen and turned Jedi, more Sith, and more Force users who fall to the temptations of the Dark Side. We must be ready for that. Third, either we need to become more self-sufficient or we need to build new networks of allies very quickly - probably both. I'm sure you've already reached the same conclusion. Brawln seems to have, and I suspect Vic has been talking to someone on the side, too."

"I'll see what I can find out about this First Sister from my contacts. It probably won't be much. My network's expertise doesn't really run in that direction."

"I'm not opposed to a hug under the circumstances. We all have emotional needs we can't meet without the support of others. No scratching me behind the ears, though."

Nomi licks her lips before she responds, "There might be a place that Zernvik and the others can go. We just have to make sure first before telling them to come. Once we get to Nar Shaddaa, I will be able to tell if it is a safe place or not. I wouldn't trust Lilikai to keep the secret of Zoph. Other ones that she thinks will keep Somi and I safe, yes, most likely she will keep those to herself, but we're not on Zoph, so she has every reason to use that information to her advantage.  When did you tell Master Zernvik?"

Nomi gathers Vesper into a hug and says quietly, "you more than anyone understand why I lied, but I am sorry all the same and I hope that it has not soured our friendship."

"Why would it? Orange tabby stereotype or no, it's not like I haven't kept secrets from you or the others. I voluntarily worked for a Jedi Master I at least strongly suspected of having fallen to the Dark Side. I had my reasons, but so did Master Lilikai. This espionage stuff isn't easy."

"As to Master Zernvik, it takes nearly a minute for a droid astrogator to plot a hyperspace course to a destination it already has in its history, and the datapad was already right there in my hand. It wasn't a full report, but a quick 'Lilikai compromised by Empire, knows everything about you, Zoph, artifact' didn't take long to write."

Nomi releases him and steps back with a shrug and a facial expression that indicates it was just some silly thing she had thought about.

"I'm glad you had the presence of mind to send that message. I was too preoccupied with figuring out where we could go that we could hide and Lilikai wouldn't know about it and making sure Somi wasn't dying."

"You're ship's captain, Nomi. That's a lot of responsibility. This was something small that I knew I could help with. I don't have many of those when we're shipside - mostly just cleaning up. It's not like there's much need for sneaking around, and I can't access the HoloNet while we're in hyperspace, so my entertainment options are limited, too."

Nomi smirks and rubs the back of her neck. "With the debacle that was this last mission, I'm afraid the crew may oust me." She shrugs. "Then again, no one else seems to want to do rounds except Vic, so maybe not."

"Look, if you ever get too bored, I'm up for a game of Dejarik, or some music making, or cooking. I even do a little light saber dueling... Though I don't think I'd provide a lot of challenge, at least it's exercise. And I also have some Orange Wookiee brew you haven't had a chance to try and some Wroshyr candies. You just let me know if you get bored of laundry. Oh, and those lounge pants you made me with the flowers? They are the best."

"I could do those things if you need the company. My problem isn't boredom. It's filling my time productively. Just look at Vic. That man is always building something. He has so many projects that he's taken on himself or has had someone ask him to help him with, we could travel from one side of the galaxy to the other and he'd still have stuff he still needed to do when we got there. I only wish I could be so useful shipside."

"Speaking of Vic, while I was pulling files from Iscander's shuttle using Vic's data breaker, I noticed he had it set to auto-slurp-all. It's a default setting; Zernvik mentioned it back when we were on Coruscant. I don't know what all Vic's been plugging it into, but it has a huge number of files in a single directory. I can see why he's been having so many problems getting it to do what he wants. It was using nearly all its resources to grab as much information as possible on any connection it established, which left precious few for slicing systems or counter-slicing. Anyway, I adjusted it to an actually sane setting, so it should be a lot more useful to him now. I also, uh, borrowed it for a bit and moved some of the files to the datapad I picked up at the Citadel. I'm currently sorting through them. Light reading material it is not, but maybe I'll find something useful to us in the junk pile, even if it's just something we can sell."

Nomi nods in understanding. "Having projects ship-side is not a measure of your individual worth to this crew, but I understand the sentiment." She perks up at the mention of auto-slurped files. "I would love to know about anything useful you find in all of that downloaded data. You checked that the datapad from the Citadel doesn't have any backdoor codes or auto broadcast whereabouts or anything like that, right?"

"I did, and there's no program running to do that. It would probably be good to let Vic check it before we arrive, though. I'm much better with software than with hardware, and all the trackers we've encountered previously have been hardware-based. Unless you want to check it out? I'm not sure how deep your mechanic cover was."

Nomi gives Vesper a look that communicates many things, the main one self mockery. "You'd think, after 5 years of pretending I would pick up more than the basics I need to LOOK like I know something. I never needed to actually know it though. Computers and machines are outside of my purview. It was kind, or maybe polite, of Vic to never call me out on why I have so little skill. I'd be happy to ask him if you don't want to interrupt."

Vesper responds. "Or possibly he's as good at reading people as he is at deceiving them. He notices when people are great at something, not so much when they aren't, I guess. Like, he knows exactly how good he is at mechanics and computers and such, but rather than letting it make him insufferable and impatient with anyone who can't live up to his brilliance, he sort of gives us the benefit of the doubt and assumes we're doing our best. We just don't share all his advantages. It would be like Efnir being surprised that the rest of us don't move objects with our minds or Brawln finding it suspicious that the rest of us go down in a heap from blows that he'd just shrug off. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not convinced that Vic could pretend not to notice our comparatively inferior intellects just to be kind or polite - not because he's cruel or impolite but because he's such a terrible liar."

"It's my datapad, so I should be the one to ask him."

Nomi shrugs and nods. "No you are right. He is kind and patient but not the most amazingly perceptive and he hasn't a deceptive bone in his long, slender body. My favorite part is his awe at observing or learning something new. Suit yourself, just have him look at it before we come out of Hyperspace, please."

"I will, Nomi."

There is a loud ding from the direction of the glow - like a program finishing an automated task - and in the moment of distraction that follows, Vesper steps into a shadow and vanishes. Several seconds later, the crack through which the light had been shining narrows and closes, leaving that part of the cargo bay in darkness once more.