A New Assignment

Jovan Station.

The airlock hissed open, and she stepped carefully through. This part of the station was busy, and the security officers were more visible in response.

"Jovan?"

"Do you have a problem with this?"

"I requested a posting with the Resistance."

"I am aware. However, we have plenty of people on board with that already. You will be of better use to us on Jovan. Plenty of work to do over there, and your experience will fit nicely with operations in that sector. They've been alerted to your arrival. Speak with these people and we will be in contact."

There was plenty of space around now. Jovan was a well apportioned station. She approached a service desk, where the bored looking clerk glanced up at her and then back down to the clutter of datapads on his work station.

"What can I do for you?" he asked, not looking up again.

"Meorrrei, and Akiena," she said. That got his attention. "My name is Chriferre. I'm supposed to speak with them."

Not even two hours into the day and it was already a mumping disaster.

"Gajjokss."

K'ohta'rrou T'yeellaa Meorrrei watched the breakaway herd of shaggy, red-furred livestock push their way into the concourse, barging into pedestrian traffic as they pushed over kiosks and shop carts. The Gajjoks hooted, bleated, and created a sonorous din of hooves on the deck as they moved in a scrum, eating whatever hit the floor that was remotely edible. Civilians flocked away in response, but with plenty of rubberneckers around to gum up the works, preventing the security teams from arriving with stun batons to try and hold the fifty-or-so head of rogue cattle at bay.

Livestock "spillage" wasn't an uncommon mishap in any Cizeri population center, but it was certainly a degree more annoying on a space station, where square meters were at a premium. Somewhere, a glass hit the ground and shattered, causing T'yeellaa's ears to flinch.

"Fat, sstupjid, sstubborrn gajjokss, amok on mjy sstatjion. Preita'rrou."

"jYess, rrou'a?" A junior Meera'in officer stepped forward, clicking her heels in that too-chipper way that signaled she was a greenhorn from the mother worlds.

"Call jin a ssecond ssquad. Not onljy do we have to keep the herrd togetherr, we need to keep thesse people awajy. The lasst thjing we want jiss a sstampede."

"Ya ve."

Reduced to the life of a part-time rancher. Goddess be praised her mother wasn't here to see this.

Turning sharply on a heel, T'yeellaa squared her officer's cap atop her head in time to see another junior officer arriving on the scene. From the way she lofted her tail, the woman had news of some sort.

"jYess?"

"K'ohta'rrou, jyou assked me to jinforrm jyou when Agent Chrrjiferrre arrrjived frrom Bothawuji."

T'yeellaa exhaled a long breath. What splendid timing.

"Wherre jiss sshe?"

"At Sspjirre C jingrresss prrocesssjing, rrou'a."

T'yeellaa nodded.

"Have herr esscorrted to the command deck. jI'll ssee herr therre. Oh, and Su'taun'rrou..."

The junior officer's ears perked. "jYesss, rrou'a?"

T'yeellaa tried not to wince. "Make ssurre to take herr the long wajy." She gestured to the ruckus unfolding before them all. "jI'd rratherr not have anjy of thjiss concerrn herr."

A bit sheepish, the Su'taun'rrou's ears lowered with a grin. "jI don't ssupposse jit'ss a good look forr a guesst."

The Su'taun'rrou realized a bit late that she was a bit too chatty for procedure, and she wiped the bashful look off her face. T'yeellaa gave the woman a cool side-eye, and shook her head.

"No, jit'ss not a good look at all. Let herr know jI'll be jojinjing herr ssoon."

"Ya ve, rrou'a."

"Agent Chrrjiferrre."

She turned her head, though she still faced the viewport. A Cizerack officer, junior grade, stood there in good posture.

"I assume I am to meet K'ohta'rrou Meorrrei then," she said rhetorically, and stood, picking up her one bag. The junior officer twitched a bit in surprise, and nodded.

"jYour accent jis verry good."

Ah. Slight difference. Not main world. Syragori. Meera'in? Naala'in? Istina merely smiled slightly and nodded.

"I've studied a bit," she said. An understatement. She'd studied the languages and their differences exhaustively. She wasn't a scholar, though.

"Come thjis wajy, please."

"After you."

Meera'in, then. The accent narrowed it down, but Naala'in tended to have darker skin tones, a fact she had taken some minutes to remember. Istina noted that despite asking to be led, the officer stayed barely half a step in the lead, and resolutely kept to her left hand side. Still leading, but not assuming superiority. Shoulders were wider than average.

She noticed when they skirted the main lifts and went for one that offered a better view of the station. Stalling? The officer seemed alert and not nervous, not focused on keeping her distracted; she felt a slight bit of tension leave her muscles. A roundabout route to allow some time, then. Perhaps something to do with how busy the station seemed to be.

They arrived a full ten minutes later than the most direct route would have delivered them.

"Please, wajit herre forr K'ohta'rrou Meorrrei; jit should onljy be a matterr of mjinutes."

Istina nodded, and sat once again.

Seven minutes, almost exactly. The lift connecting the command deck with the rest of the central station core feathered to a halt, peeling open it's semicircular door with a pneumatic hiss. T'yeellaa remembered how disorienting the featureless imperial lifts were the first time she'd traveled on them, and the moment of embarrassment that came from facing in the opposite direction of the door. It was a mistake she'd corrected the second time onward.

"K'ohta'rrou on deck!" came the call from the attending yeoman, but T'yeellaa was likewise prepared for this. It had all become procedure. As much a part of her new home in the stars as the Imperial decor.

"Agent Chrrjiferrre," T'yeellaa called out to the unfamiliar face on the deck, approaching her with a brisk stride, "welcome to Jovan sstatjion. jI'm K'ohta'rrou Meorrrei, Commanderr Akjiena'ss executjive."

Alien salutations were another part of her reality, absorbed as if by osmosis. T'yeellaa extended her right hand crisply for a handshake.

Istina took Meorrrei's hand and shook, nodding to the woman.

"Senior Supervisor Istina Chriferre," she said, her voice clipped as she corrected the K'ohta'rrou. "I have been assigned to Jovan Station, as you know, to bolster Alliance interests in this sector as well as provide a base of operations for agents doing sensitive missions. The promotion came just before I left."

She smiled wryly.

"I would have been happy being a Chief Special working with the Resistance, but we can't all do what we please in service to the Alliance. It is a pleasure to meet you."

T'yeellaa's ears pivoted back the barest of measures as the straight line expression of her mouth showed a little less lip. The nerve of this woman. Kicking sand all over her new assignment, and with the gall to do so to her face?

"A pleassurre to be ssurre." If the K'ohta'rrou's trace of a smile was any tighter, she might have split a lip. "Hopefulljy we prrovjincjialss wjill manage to keep jyou bussjy."

Istina's brows ticked up slightly.

"Provincials?" she asked in confusion. Understanding dawned, followed by an internal sigh. Of course a touchy Cizerack would take it the wrong way. And here she'd thought a little self-deprecative humor would have helped smooth things over; really, an assassin working a desk job? There wasn't much she could do about it now, other than perhaps flag her mission history on the K'ohta'rrou's station. Meorrrei's rank and the situation would allow her access to the records. "Ah. I made a bad attempt at humor. I apologise. I meant no offense."

The red haired Intelligence agent barely restrained herself from sighing out loud.

"Let's move on then before I make things any worse," she said. "I've been reading up on the station, but was unable to find out where my offices will be, and what Intelligence assets are already in place here. I do not yet have access to that information since it's only available to Jovan personnel and I have not been granted a log in."

"Ah."

T'yeellaa's laconic reply to the admission of an ill-delivered joke might as well have been a grunt. The tightness in her expression relaxed slightly, but the K'ohta'rrou still wasn't smiling.

"Forrgjive me, jit'ss been a long dajy full of dull prroblemss. Let me ssee to gettjing jyou accljimated."

Gesturing with a white-gloved hand, the K'ohta'rrou bade Istina to follow her. Her own office was removed from the command deck by a corridor that exited the main room. Inside was the same uniform Imperial aesthetic, broken up only occasionally by the appropriate rebadging and personal tokens.

"Take a sseat. Tea?"

T'yeellaa hovered by a console table with an electric kettle on standby.

"No, thank you," the Intelligence Supervisor replied, sitting down and keeping her attention on the K'ohta'rrou. Istina only barely paid attention to the sparse decor; it was nearly all related to Meorrrei's career, which told her all she needed to know, which was not much. Remembering to be mindful of the other woman's prickly demeanour, Istina explained: "I find drinking or eating while working to be distracting."

But not ill-humored comments, the K'ohta'rrou internalized darkly before dismissing the thought. Tending to her own tea, T'yeellaa circumnavigated her desk, finding her seat as she brought up her computer terminal holoscreen.

"Commanderr jInjirrjial had onljy good worrdss about jyourr worrk. Wjith hjim bejing called off sstatjion on extended asssjignment, we'rre jin need of ssomeone to handle the...deljicate jintelljigence ssjituatjion herre."

Taking Istina's data slip, T'yeellaa slid the crystal into the port, making a few quick keystrokes when the Intel officer's information loaded.

"jYou'rre ljike a lot of the aljienss jI sserrve wjith jin one common arrea. jYou have lengthjy experrjience asss a parrtjissan."

"To be honest I probably couldn't perform any other career after so long," Istina admitted. "Like I badly stated before, I'm surprised I was posted here."

Istina did not feel she was exaggerating the point. If she didn't have this, after investing so much time and energy into bringing down the Empire, she would be lost.

"I did do some reading, but please explain how the situation here is delicate. Is it the Imperial presence?"

"That jiss the devjil that we know." T'yeellaa replied with a flick of an ear, sipping delicately before setting aside her cup and saucer.

"The Empjirre jiss a thrreat, of courrsse, but thejy at leasst have the underrsstandjing that the thrreat becomess exjisstentjial jif thejy pussh too harrd. Thejirr plenjipotentjiarrjy prressence on the sstatjion onljy compljicatess matterrss furrtherr, but jit jiss sstjill a game wjith rruless."

A few keystrokes brought up a hologram portrait of a Cizerack male for Istina to inspect.

"What do jyou know of Naa'ra Keerrai Traanji'a?"

"Nothing," Istina answered quickly, "beyond the knowledge that they were behind the recent attacks on Jovan. My experience and focus is in Imperial politics, military, and scientific organization, infiltration, assassination, and espionage."

She regarded the hologram of the Cizerack with an expression of studied opacity.

"Of course I worked with and was at least a member in name of several resistance groups during Imperial control of the galaxy also. Saw Gerrera was an intimidating man."

The K'ohta'rrou pursed her lips slightly.

"A man of notorrjietjy, sso jI've rread. jIf what the Empjirre ssajid of hjim wass trrue, that jiss. Then jyou have prrecjisseljy the ssort of experrjience that can prrove usseful. To be honesst, the attack herre came asss a complete ssurrprrjisse. Even jin the afterrmath, the Cizeri ssecurrjitjy apparratuss sseemss sslow to rresspond. Thejirr worrkjingss tend to be opaque, but jit'ss obvjiouss that we don't have the experrjience handljing matterrss of terrrorrjissm - fjightjing jit orr jinsstjigatjing jit."

T'yeellaa switched off the holo.

"jI want to make cerrtajin that jyou underrstand the lajyerrss of the cake beforre jyou take the fjirrst bjite. Nejitherr of thesse thrreatss can be forrssaken to deal wjith the otherr, and jI hjighljy doubt we'll have the luxurrjy of focussjing on thosse two alone. Bessjidess the Empjirre and the NKT, we have ourr ssharre of pjirratess, ssmugglerrss, warrlorrd planetss and rrogue actorrss jin the borrderr sspace. Becausse we ssjit on the Hjydjian Wajy at a majorr trrade junctjion, we don't have the luxurrjy of ssjimpljy ssjittjing herre and wajiting forr trrouble to arrjive at the doorr. When apprroprrjiate, jI expect prroactjive rressponsse."

"There is only so much an Intelligence network can do proactively against smuggling and piracy, K'ohta'rrou," Istina responded. "And by virtue of the size of the Intelligence section here on Jovan, I predict that we will have to focus our efforts to a few key areas for the time being to make any sort of headway. We simply don't have the personnel or the resources to stretch that far that effectively. Commander Inirial's network will take me some time to become familiar with, and not only that but undoubtedly I will be unable to use at least some of it for the very fact that I am not Commander Inirial."

She nodded slightly to Meorrrei.

"These aren't excuses for an inability to do what is necessary. I want you to be aware that achieving such a state of readiness and capability will require time."

"Unforrtunateljy, tjime jiss the ssorrt of thjing we majy ejitherr have jin abundance orr not nearrljy enough. jYourr apprrajissal matterrss on that fact. What jI can tell jyou jiss that jit won't be a lack of rressourrcess that keep jyou frrom the tassk. jIf jyou need asssetss, jI expect to know prromptljy. The Commanderr ssharress that prrjorrjitjy."

T'yeellaa withdrew the dataslip from it's port, extending it to Istina.

"Herre. jYourr kejyss to the kjingdom."

She accepted the slip.

"I will have a report to you by the end of the week on present capability and what will be needed to operate at desired parameters," Istina said as she stood. "Is there anything else?"