One Loose Thread

Katriel was waiting in line for the replicator when a violent shove from behind sent her tumbling straight into the civilian, human male in front of her.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" "Watch it!"

To his credit, he was able to correct his momentum before he collided with the next passenger before him, but both of them had dropped some belongings in the scuffle. Katriel knelt to collect her PADD and her eyes fell on the gas mask with no minor amount of confusion. But she was careful to school her expression as she handed the strange item off to the man.

"Are you a miner?" Katriel couldn't help but ask, as he took the mask from her with some haste and stuffed it back into some recess of his coat.

"... Yes," he replied, at long length. “Sulfur mining, near Imaga. Hazardous work,” he nodded.

Lie. Katriel's empathic sense immediately caught the deception and she took care to avert her face a little, to forestall the possibility of him seeing her eyes. But the stranger merely grunted and turned forward again, neatly negating the need for further small talk.

Katriel pretended to focus on her PADD, but her close proximity to her intended target made his current thoughts easy to read. He was a hired mercenary, not a miner at all. His small outfit was planning to take the ship, by administering a sleeping gas through the ventilation system. Then they planned to fly the ship to --...

The counselor bit back a sound of frustration as the mercenary started thinking of his stomach and what he was planning on ordering, rather than the job he was hired to do. She briefly imagined striking up conversation again, but if the mercenary recognized her heritage and considered that in conjunction to the Casperia uniform she was wearing, it was entirely too possible that he'd come to the conclusion that Katriel was a threat to his group's plans.

No point in raising his hackles.

So Katriel retreated from the line, took up a seat at a table nearby and vigilantly listened to every inane thought that crossed the mercenary's mind. By the time he left the dining lounge, Katriel had only learned two more things of pertinence: that there were at least three other hostiles on board, and that the man who hired them was an agent of the Orion Syndicate.

Katriel watched the mercenary's exit with some misgiving, but again, the risk of being determined a threat if he caught her following him seemed too great. She understood the basics of what was being plotted now. But how to stop it?

Her gaze flickered rapidly over the passengers gathered in the dining lounge before landing on the general use terminal in the corner. She stared at it for a heartbeat or two longer before coming to her feet and walking towards it with forced nonchalance.

---

((kinda continues here))
1 Like